User-Centric Content Strategy

If you want to future-proof your SEO, do this: ✅ Focus like crazy on your ICP. Develop content that truly resonates with them. (Stop publishing content solely for the sake of traffic.) ✅ Speak to your ICP’s frustrations and pain points. Help them overcome problems and achieve their objectives. ✅ Align your content with user intent. Prioritize contextual relevance. ✅ Build your brand just as much as you build content. (SEO & PR are like peanut butter & jelly!) To that point, don’t forget about the many off-site opportunities to engage with your community and be seen. Stronger B2B brands are the ones that more often get included in buyer shortlists. ✅ Be mindful of how search is evolving. Reverse engineer what's happening on AI answer engines today. Develop a Reddit strategy if appropriate. Tomorrow, there will likely be something new. Keep an eye on the way your audience is looking for answers, and take action accordingly. ✅ Make sure your content is of exceptional quality. (As I always say, you cannot optimize mediocrity.) ✅ Figure out how your content is going to cut through all the noise. Be creative. Be different. ✅ Share unique research and data. ✅ Create expert- and experience-driven content. ✅ Include customer and audience voices in your content. ✅ Create product-led content that truly solves a problem. ✅ Take care that your content looks good. Content design is important, as it deepens user engagement, increases backlinks, and drives conversions. ✅ Make your content ridiculously easy to consume. Include takeaways, FAQs, lists, etc. ✅ Include value-added opportunities for the reader in your content. Where can they learn more? Where can they see this in action? What other contextually-relevant resources can you guide them to? Etc.? ✅ Continually refresh your content. Keep it current and useful. Let’s Destroy Mediocre Marketing!

Your customers' search intent—not keywords—should drive your content strategy and CTA messaging. Misalignment frustrates your customers and wastes marketing dollars. As Google evolves toward AI-driven search, understanding and targeting user intent is critical to maintaining visibility and relevance. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼: Start with clear, actionable search intents (phrases beginning with verbs, e.g., "compare travel rewards cards"). • Keywords: Select keywords matching intent. • Content format: Choose formats (comparison guides, interactive tools) aligned with intent. • CTA messaging: Craft CTAs aligned with intent ("Compare Cards," not "Sign Up Now"). Aligning content and CTAs to intent reduces friction, improves engagement metrics, and increases conversions, helping you prove the ROI of your SEO. 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Intent-driven content and CTAs help you confidently prove content marketing effectiveness, overcoming skepticism and securing buy-in from the C-suite.

In a world where AI recommends solutions based on detailed user prompts, it’s more important than ever to map your content to real pain points. So instead of starting with a keyword tool, we start with customer pain points. We ask: 👉 What problems are people actively trying to solve? 👉 What do they say on sales calls? 👉 What objections come up before buying? We dig through: transcripts, support emails, call notes and extract the real language people use when they’re stuck. Then, we reverse-engineer keywords from there. Not by guessing. By mapping real pain points to search queries. We avoid broad, high-level terms like: ❌ “content marketing” ❌ “inbound marketing” ❌ “SEO strategy” Instead, we look for high-intent keywords that address specific pain points, such as: ✅ “how to get leads from content marketing” ✅ “how to measure conversions from SEO” ✅ “how to write content for advanced audiences” These kind of topics are more representative of challenges our clients are trying to solve. When prospects are searching for how to solve these kind of problems, we’re the ones sharing how to solve them. They read our content, then reach out to us. Many businesses focus on high-level topics instead of focusing on the specifics of the problems their customers are trying to solve. The approach we take is what separates content that drives leads from content that only drives page views. 🔗 Want to see how to apply this strategy step by step? Read the full article — link in the comments.

Let’s say you’re a marketer hoping to win traffic from anyone searching for the "Best Beatles Songs." In the past, your SEO strategy would be to target keywords, and create content with corresponding headlines. i.e. “Must-Listen Beatles Songs” But now you need a different game plan. As we see more and more AI-powered engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT enter the market, the way we find information is becoming drastically different. These companies are making rev-share deals with major publishers to ensure their models have current, fresh information that’s accurate, comprehensive and forward thinking. To win an AI-enhanced search, your content should address the question: why are people searching for Beatles’ songs in the first place? You need to consider broader context and user intent. For example, are users discovering The Beatles for the first time and looking for an introduction to their catalog, or are they superfans wanting deeper insights into the music’s impact on culture? Offer value that goes beyond listing songs—provide historical context, trivia, or playlists curated for different moods or occasions. Focus on interactive or multimedia content, such as videos, audio clips, or even AI-generated playlists to create a richer, more engaging user experience. Show the search engine that your content satisfies not just the initial question, but also the deeper exploration the user might engage in. By doing this, you position yourself to build a trusted relationship with users.

Users aren't clicking anymore: NN/g released a research showing how AI overviews steal 40% of website clicks. People who see AI summaries rarely visit the original source. Your beautifully designed landing pages are starting to be bypassed entirely. Research reveals that: Search habits formed over decades are changing in months AI overviews answer questions without clicks Even AI beginners get hooked after one good experience Traditional search + AI chat work in tandem now Familiarity drives tool choice (ChatGPT, Gemini win) Some teams are already adapting their content architecture – instead of optimizing for clicks, they're optimizing for AI discovery. How to make the shift: Structure content for AI parsing: ⇢ Write in clear question-answer formats ⇢ Use semantic headings (H1, H2, H3) religiously ⇢ Add schema markup for better context ⇢ Create FAQ sections that directly answer user queries ⇢ Break complex concepts into digestible chunks Create conversation-friendly formats: ⇢ Write like you're explaining to a friend ⇢ Use active voice and simple sentences ⇢ Include examples and analogies ⇢ Structure as "If this, then that" logic ⇢ Add comparison tables and step-by-step processes Design for hybrid search behaviors: ⇢ Create content hubs that answer related questions in one place ⇢ Build internal linking that mirrors user thought patterns ⇢ Design for snippet optimization (lists, bullets, numbered steps) ⇢ Add contextual definitions for technical terms ⇢ Create multiple entry points for the same information Advanced moves: ⇢ Test your content in ChatGPT/Claude - does it surface correctly? ⇢ Monitor which snippets get pulled into AI overviews ⇢ Create content specifically for AI training (comprehensive, authoritative) ⇢ Build semantic content clusters around user jobs-to-be-done The companies that figure this out first will dominate discoverability in the AI age. The rest will watch their organic traffic disappear. Your move. P.S. Screenshot this for your next content strategy session

Struggling to get results from your content? Many marketers waste resources on multiple channels. Remember: Marketing is not about the channels. It's about understanding your audience! Here's how to make the shift: 1. Prioritize Your Audience: The audience is the key to success, not the channel. Example: Instead of just posting on every social media platform, identify where your audience spends their time. 2. Create Relevant Content: Develop content that caters to their needs and interests. Example: If your audience is interested in DIY projects, create how-to videos or guides that resonate with them. 3. Analyze Behavior: Use data to understand their preferences. Example: Check which blog posts get the most views and engagement, and create more content around those topics. 4. Nurture Relationships: Focus on delivering value and building connections. Example: Engage with your audience by responding to comments and asking for feedback on your content. 5. Use Channels as Tools: Remember, channels are just tools for reaching your audience. Example: Use email marketing to share exclusive content with your most engaged followers. Stop wasting resources on channels that aren't working. Shift your focus to your audience, and watch your marketing efforts flourish! By putting your audience first, you’ll improve engagement and drive conversions. What are your audience-centric marketing tips? Share in the comments! 👇

Being more user-centric doesn’t mean you say “we care about our customers”. Being user-centric means you have systems in place to make sure nobody ever neglects their customers. If I'm trying to help a team become more user-centric, I invest in: * Make it easy to schedule weekly user interviews * A feed integrated directly with customer feedback channels. * A place to categorize, search, and store user interviews and user insight reports * A way to track and follow-up with customers who asked for certain features to both conduct further research with them and tell them if it was built These systems make it easy to talk to customers and incorporate their voices in everything we build. That helps us build the right thing the first time around. I’ll toss some other articles and resources into the comments if you want to dive in more. What are some of your favorite methods to bring you closer to your customers? 

🤔 Imagine this: - You’re working on a website, - Analyzing every keyword, - Obsessing over rankings, and watching the algorithm updates like a hawk. You’re doing everything “right” to make Google happy, yet… something feels off. 🤥 You’re not seeing the growth you expected. 🚀 Here’s the hard truth: - Chasing algorithms is like aiming at a moving target. - Google changes, trends shift, and what worked last year may not work tomorrow. But there’s one thing that never changes – the user. When you design your website with users in mind, you’re no longer reacting to algorithm updates. You’re focused on delivering real answers, addressing real needs, and providing real value. And that’s the core of sustainable SEO. When users land on your site, they should feel like they’ve found exactly what they’re looking for. If they leave satisfied, Google notices. Fulfill the query. Terminate their search. So, here’s the best SEO advice I can offer: Optimize for users, not the algorithm. Let fulfilling the query be your ultimate goal. Because, at the end of the day, happy users bring lasting SEO success. #SEO #UserExperience #DigitalMarketing #ContentStrategy #SEOTips #dineshkatyare