We all know by now that not just any old content is going to help us rank in competitive SERPs. We often hear people talking about how it takes "good, unique content." That's the wrong bar. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about where we should be aiming, and how to get there.
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard. Click on it to open a high resolution image in a new tab!
Video transcription
Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat about something that I really have a problem with in the SEO world, and that is the phrase "good, unique content." I'll tell you why this troubles me so much. It's because I get so many emails, I hear so many times at conferences and events with people I meet, with folks I talk to in the industry saying, "Hey, we created some good, unique content, but we don't seem to be performing well in search." My answer back to that is always that is not the bar for entry into SEO. That is not the bar for ranking.
The content quality scale
So I made this content quality scale to help illustrate what I'm talking about here. You can see that it starts all the way up at 10x, and down here I've got Panda Invasion. So quality, like Google Panda is coming for your site, it's going to knock you out of the rankings. It's going to penalize you, like your content is thin and largely useless.
Then you go up a little bit, and it's like, well four out of five searchers find it pretty bad. They clicked the Back button. Maybe one out of five is thinking, "Well, this is all right. This solves my most basic problems."
Then you get one level higher than that, and you have good, unique content, which I think many folks think of as where they need to get to. It's essentially, hey, it's useful enough. It answers the searcher's query. It's unique from any other content on the Web. If you read it, you wouldn't vomit. It's good enough, right? Good, unique content.
Problem is almost everyone can get here. They really can. It's not a high bar, a high barrier to entry to say you need good, unique content. In fact, it can scale. So what I see lots of folks doing is they look at a search result or a set of search results in their industry. Say you're in travel and vacations, and you look at these different countries and you're going to look at the hotels or recommendations in those countries and then see all the articles there. You go, "Yeah, you know what, I think we could do something as good as what's up there or almost." Well, okay, that puts you in the range. That's good, unique content.
But in my opinion, the minimum bar today for modern SEO is a step higher, and that is as good as the best in the search results on the search results page. If you can't consistently say, "We're the best result that a searcher could find in the search results," well then, guess what? You're not going to have an opportunity to rank. It's much, much harder to get into those top 10 positions, page 1, page 2 positions than it was in the past because there are so many ranking signals that so many of these websites have already built up over the last 5, 10, 15 years that you need to go above and beyond.
Really, where I want folks to go and where I always expect content from Moz to go is here, and that is 10x, 10 times better than anything I can find in the search results today. If I don't think I can do that, then I'm not going to try and rank for those keywords. I'm just not going to pursue it. I'm going to pursue content in areas where I believe I can create something 10 times better than the best result out there.
What changed?
Why is this? What changed? Well, a bunch of things actually.
- User experience became a much bigger element in the ranking algorithms, and that's direct influences, things that we've talked about here on Whiteboard Friday before like pogo-sticking, and lots of indirect ones like the links that you earn based on the user experience that you provide and Google rendering pages, Google caring about load speed and device rendering, mobile friendliness, all these kinds of things.
- Earning links overtook link building. It used to be you put out a page and you built a bunch of links to it. Now that doesn't so much work anymore because Google is very picky about the links that it's going to consider. If you can't earn links naturally, not only can you not get links fast enough and not get good ones, but you also are probably earning links that Google doesn't even want to count or may even penalize you for. It's nearly impossible to earn links with just good, unique content. If there's something better out there on page one of the search results, why would they even bother to link to you? Someone's going to do a search, and they're going to find something else to link to, something better.
- Third, the rise of content marketing over the last five, six years has meant that there's just a lot more competition. This field is a lot more crowded than it used to be, with many people trying to get to a higher and higher quality bar.
- Finally, as a result of many of these things, user expectations have gone crazy. Users expect pages to load insanely fast, even on mobile devices, even when their connection's slow. They expect it to look great. They expect to be provided with an answer almost instantaneously. The quality of results that Google has delivered and the quality of experience that sites like Facebook, which everyone is familiar with, are delivering means that our brains have rewired themselves to expect very fast, very high quality results consistently.
How do we create "10x" content?
So, because of all these changes, we need a process. We need a process to choose, to figure out how we can get to 10x content, not good, unique content, 10x content. A process that I often like to use -- this probably is not the only one, but you're welcome to use it if you find it valuable -- is to go, "All right, you know what? I'm going to perform some of these search queries."
By the way, I would probably perform the search query in two places. One is in Google and their search results, and the other is actually in BuzzSumo, which I think is a great tool for this, where I can see the content that has been most shared. So if you haven't already, check out BuzzSumo.com.
I might search for something like Costa Rica ecolodges, which I might be considering a Costa Rica vacation at some point in the future. I look at these top ranking results, probably the whole top 10 as well as the most shared content on social media.
Then I'm going to ask myself these questions;
- What questions are being asked and answered by these search results?
- What sort of user experience is provided? I look at this in terms of speed, in terms of mobile friendliness, in terms of rendering, in terms of layout and design quality, in terms of what's required from the user to be able to get the information? Is it all right there, or do I need to click? Am I having trouble finding things?
- What's the detail and thoroughness of the information that's actually provided? Is it lacking? Is it great?
- What about use of visuals? Visual content can often take best in class all the way up to 10x if it's done right. So I might check out the use of visuals.
- The quality of the writing.
- I'm going to look at information and data elements. Where are they pulling from? What are their sources? What's the quality of that stuff? What types of information is there? What types of information is missing?
In fact, I like to ask, "What's missing?" a lot.
From this, I can determine like, hey, here are the strengths and weaknesses of who's getting all of the social shares and who's ranking well, and here's the delta between me and them today. This is the way that I can be 10 times better than the best results in there.
If you use this process or a process like this and you do this type of content auditing and you achieve this level of content quality, you have a real shot at rankings. One of the secret reasons for that is that the effort axis that I have here, like I go to Fiverr, I get Panda invasion. I make the intern write it. This is going to take a weekend to build versus there's no way to scale this content.
This is a super power. When your competitors or other folks in the field look and say, "Hey, there's no way that we can scale content quality like this. It's just too much effort. We can't keep producing it at this level," well, now you have a competitive advantage. You have something that puts you in a category by yourself and that's very hard for competitors to catch up to. It's a huge advantage in search, in social, on the Web as a whole.
All right everyone, hope you've enjoyed this edition of Whiteboard Friday, and we'll see you again next week. Take care.
Another thought-provoking WBF Rand,
Every client we work with has different customer wants, desires and needs to fulfil.
Some are driven by cost, others by fear, some by gain and others by quality. Some target markets are predominantly young (18-30), whereas others are mid 30's to 50's. Some are cash-rich, others are time-rich and many more are cash or time poor. Some are well-educated, others have basic education and a few are, what I would call, "boffins". Some use the web via desktop in the evening most days, whereas others live and breath by their mobiles any given time of the day.
Every online searcher is different. What seems to be a pigs-ear of a website to marketers (we're biased, right?) can contain the best answers to a searchers query, bar none. On the other hand, the best piece of "content" we've ever seen (more bias again), might make someone think "forget all that jargon and wizzy stuff, I just want to know x".
What I'm getting at is that the measure of quality contained within "content" is in the eye of the searcher, regardless of what the owner of that website thinks.
The content Moz produces has to be at the top end because of who you service and market to, but we're a fickle bunch and the standard of content produced is what your audience demands. You're marketers selling mostly to marketers, right?
But sometimes, as marketers, we're so close to the elephant, all we can see is grey. I often have to snap myself out of the "marketing bubble" and remind myself that my clients are not marketers, but businesses who want to attract searchers to their own unique and diverse products and services.
This means that every time we work with a new client, due diligence must be performed in researching their customers' needs / wants / fears / challenges etc, as ultimately, the right content presented in the right way (however small or large) is paramount to helping them achieve their goals and objectives. IMO content for content's sake is a slippery road to mediocre UX and less conversions (because it shows).
Here's the interesting bit: their clients might be put off by long words, complex images and "thought leadership" when all they want is a simple answer to "x".
How many marketers create 10x content for a audience that doesn't want it, doesn't need it and clicks on the large "X" at the top right of the web page when they see it? My bet is more than anyone here could ever imagine.
I'm not knocking 10x content at all. I'm saying there is a need for exceptional content, but only when required. Sometimes, "simple and basic" beats 10x content hands down, both on amplification levels and conversions, because it's exactly what's needed by that audience.
Some examples of content mismatch to drive home my point:
Each of the above types of content would be super-useful and classed as 10x if they were used in the right context and environment, to help users who relate to them, take action.
So as marketers, we need to get 10x better at matching the right content to the right audience, based on how that audience relates to, understands, reads, deciphers and acts on that information.
Content marketing and strategy are areas where one size (or type) doesn't fit all - and is often the reason why many see production in the 5 or 6 figure bracket, when in reality, providing what their audience needs, in the way they need it, may cost 10x less.
Those are all excellent points Tony, but they might miss my broader intent of "10X Content." When I say that, I don't mean 10X as long or as big, or even 10X as much information. I mean 10X more valuable than anything else in the SERPs. I mean content that does 10X better a job of serving the searcher's intent and helping them accomplish their goals. You're absolutely right that it could vary from searcher to searcher, and that targeting the group you want to be in front of is important, but I don't want to bog anyone down in the idea of length/size/amount being correlated with quality. Often it's not.
Rand, sorry to beat this proverbial dead horse, but can you please elaborate the concept of "10x Content"? How does the content become more valuable in Google? What makes content move-up/stand-out in Google ranking? Considering that majority of searches are still performed using Key Words vs. Key Word Phrases.
This is truly a remarkable post Tony. I think this can be a good example of Rand's 10x content, and on the other hand, this can be also a good example of your "content is in the eye of the searcher, regardless of what the owner of that website thinks," because you got my attention as a marketer as well. This is a really good read and I'm thankful that I was able to read your post.
Thanks for your kind words Mark. I'm really glad you found my comment useful.
The key is to find out what your (or your clients) audience needs that hasn't yet been thought of yet and if it has been, do it 10x better / simpler / easier to understand / more interactive / clearer etc.
As marketers, our biggest asset is opportunity thinking, so with insight from the client and their audience, gone are the days of producing week or needless content. The more we make it easier for web visitors to think and decide, the better :)
Great post Tony, thanks for sharing. The funny thing is that you and Rand are exactly on the same level if you ask me. Truly remarkable content is different for every subject, market and audience.
Thanks pimarketing, real glad you found it interesting. Indeed it is and what we marketers think is remarkable must be so in the eye of the visitor. Sometimes simple things are what is needed and to the visitor, because it's more simple to understand that anything else they've found online, they class it remarkably simple :)
That's best thing when you get the comment more descriptive than the post.... Everything is helpful here.. And here is I can say "There is no way to scale"
It seems that raising the bar, whilst a good thing, is going to put it out of reach for many SME's in my opinion, many just don't have the resources to spend a weekend or more (or invest enough to get their agency to do it).
For many small companies good, unique content does the job (depending on your definition of good, I mean whatever happened to the term "awesome" content?).
I'd consider 10x content is going to be out of reach for many small businesses, we don't all have the luxury of helping clients with £10000 per month budgets who can let us invest 100 hours into 10x content production.
My take for SME's is that if their content is useful, informative/entertaining and MEMORABLE then that should be achievable within their tight budgets...
Hi Darren,
10x quality content (to use the Rand's definition) not necessarily is "expensive content" or "content-that-needs-100-hours-to-be-produced".
This is especially true in case of B2B and many niche industries, not obviously in case of very competitive mainstream B2C industries, which since the very beginning worked on "content" (Rand cited Travel, but I'd add Fashion... but not, for instance, Cars, where mediocrity reigns even between big brands).
For instance, it is almost mathematical to see how small businesses in B2B industries already have Top Notch Content. Simply they have in the wrong format (PDF, if not on real paper catalogues or guides).
That's why, IMHO, when auditing and designing a strategy for a client it is fundamental to do a content inventory, apart doing the content audit suggested in the WBF. And the content inventory should be extended to all the "content" produced by client.
Said that, content is not just white paper, infographics or long-forms. Content is everything, the same web site. Sometimes a well executed re-design which enhance the values of the brand and really answers the discovered needs of its audience can do miracles in terms of user (and search) experience.
This is a very important insight. Many businesses have an incredible amount of resource locked away in formats that don't necessarily promote online authority. White papers, brochures and case studies often end up in archives, PDFs, people's heads, on paper, you name it. Basically everywhere except prominently on the website.
A proper content strategy should always take a deep dive into the current inventory. There's so many gains to be made by simply re-purposing and retouching existing materials.
On the contrary, I think "10X" content is often out of reach of many big businesses and big brands who don't have the passion, the ROI calculation, the willingness, or the staff to invest. When I look at amazing, 10X content, I don't just see it dominated by big businesses - I see many small, passionate organizations, individuals, and companies that have done remarkable work to stand out in their fields.
Some examples:
Don't count out small businesses, individual bloggers, and independent operators - they can do incredible things.
Darren, I understand your point, however, do you think it's possible the mindset of "I can't compete" keeps a company small? What if you created a few key 10x pieces of content each year (think the 80/20 rule) and then filled that in with what you refer to as good or awesome to maintain consistency (as in your weekly blog articles)? The magic of content comes with daily habit of writing/creating, research, and editing. You won't hit it out of the park every single time, but you can hit the 10x mark enough to make an impact.
I'm always amazed at what can be accomplished when you have a definite purpose in mind - I've seen schools opened (which normally requires $100K) for less than $25K and grow to multi-million dollar budgets, serve 2000 students, and employ 200 people. What if they failed to open because they didn't have 'enough' money or couldn't compete with the already established, larger schools?
I've experienced a key piece of 10x content adding more to the bottom line then 50 average pieces. When management has the right information about what the extra investment for creating a 10x piece of content can return over a lifetime, they may be more agreeable to it. Content has a longer shelf life than advertising and when you present a solid case for how that content can be used to promote the business, and measure the results, perhaps they will make the investment. In the meantime - strive to raise your own personal bar...create a case study.
My opinion for SMEs (including me), to lack of funds, their creativity and their ability to generate the best content will be it most important for the success of your internet business.
When I talk about SEO as Search Experience Optimization (and I'm doing that since many years), I underline the importance quality has for SEO, because the better is the quality of the "product" we promote via Search, the better will be the resonance of that same "product" among our audience, which will bring as consequences all the positive signals we are looking for also for achieving a stronger visibility.
I say "product" and not "content", because I consider that there is a too strong bias about it, in the sense that people (and SEOs) consider content as synonym of "written content", when it should be quite clear that on the web content is everything: the same web site is content, its features.
The problem I see, then, is that SEOs also have a sort of idiosyncratic attitude toward content, which consists in not being able to stop thinking about how many links it will help earning and how much it is "optimized". That idiosyncrasy is what make that a vast part of the content generated by SEOs is usually "meh".
Search Experience Optimization in relation to content means
In this sense, SEO could be seen as that discipline that mediate between content strategy and content marketing, being very clear that it is not any of both.
I don't think that creating content is a duty of SEO itself, but yes making that content the more visible and discoverable, and inform content creators about how much it is really consistent with our common audience needs, and that's because - since the beginning of SEO - (hopefully) we are the ones who know how to better understand data related to an audience.
If SEOs start believing they are Content Marketers... then the Search Experience quality bar is doomed to mediocrity.
(Comment written by an SEO, just to avoid misunderstandings)
Agreed - content is only one part of the bigger SEO puzzle, and simply creating 10X content won't be enough if you don't also add technical SEO elements, keyword targeting, intelligent use of markup, amplification, etc.
As for content creation - I don't want to try and speak to who or where it should always fall in an organization, because I think that's malleable. Sometimes there's separate content creators, sometimes it is the SEO team, sometimes it's outsourced, sometimes its founders or staff members from all over the company. Any or all of those can work just fine.
Hey Rand,
What do you mean by amplification?
Also do you have a guide for schema markup? I find the offical guide (schema.org) a bit...bleh
Thanks!
Sam
Awesome Whiteboard Friday, Rand. Thanks!
Absolutely agree that "good, unique content' is not enough. As a marketer, I really understand an urgent need in something that is 10x better than you can find on SERPs, because during my researches I keep stumbling at "good, unique content" which is, you know, pretty mediocre.
And when I see that a piece of content is really so great that it just kills the similar stuff, I'm almost crying with happiness.
P.S. One more thing I'd like to say is that the phrase "good, unique content" itself is so... cliched. It makes me sick every single time.
Thanks again, Rand, and have a great weekend.
Rand,
Great whiteboard Friday, as usual, but I feel like you left out a major issue with developing 10X content: risk.
While its true you may have a better chance of getting links and ranking for your target keyword by developing content like this, there's still no guarantee of success.
Let's say you manage to secure the budget (whether its time or money) to build a 10X piece of content. You put in the research, you find the gaps in the market, you bring in an excellent designer, you bring in a great writer, all of you spend a ton of time on it, and then it falls flat. What happens then?
You've now invested a lot of company money into this piece of content but the return isn't there. Maybe you misjudged the search intent, maybe the keyword wasn't actually as great at lead generation/conversion as you thought, or maybe something happens completely out of your control and you just can't break into the top 10 spots to get that target search traffic. It happens pretty often in SEO.
I think one of the biggest hurdles to building unscalable content is that the stakes are much higher for each individual page you publish. If I produce "good, unique content" it costs less in the short term so its easier to target a lot of different ideas/topics/keywords at one time. I can try more things, see what works, and pivot if necessary.
If you're building "good, unique content" the failures don't hurt as much and the wins aren't as great but you can still achieve long term traffic growth, prove ROI, and continue getting funded. If I'm a company new to SEO and I buy into 10X content creation, invest half of my marketing budget into one piece of content and then have it blow up in my face, the company will be much less likely to fund future content pieces and may even get out of SEO all together in favor of less risky practices.
Its like playing the stock market. Do you bet really big on one stock and hope it doesn't tank or do you diversify your assets and play it safe for the long term?
Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% with you on creating great content but this idea of risk is a constant uphill battle with clients and on my own sites, especially when they're not staffed with journalists/designers/artists who already understand that not every piece of art will work but you should go ahead and try anyway.
I think its one of the greatest challenges to succeeding in SEO today, the increased effort it takes to produce a page eventually creates so much risk that its not worth playing the game.
Would love to get your thoughts on dealing with that aspect.
Hi rand i have a question. How dose search engine understand the quality of the article accept organic text, images etc. What is think is the Bounce rate of the page gives the signal to the search engine that the content has a good quality. Is there any way else that search engine figured out the quality.
I am so curious about it.
This is bang on the money Rand, we've been developing what we call 'interactive content' for our clients to great effect. This type of content is innovative, informative, interactive (clue's in the name) and sharable as a result. We build the content onto a brand's domain, rather than third party sites so they get all the benefits that come from great content - earned links, brand citations, brand engagement, social shares etc. We blend great writing with informative data, different mediums (video, soundbites, beautiful imagery) slick coding and graphics that offer a wow factor.
The most difficult hurdle is often not creating something awesome, unique, memorable and what you rightly refer to as '10x content'. It's selling it to clients; convincing them that this is the best route for them. When we hear 'so this is a sales tool, right?' we die a little inside.
Great whiteboard Friday Rand, I hope many watch this one closely as it really is the way forward.
Cheers,
James
Yup - I hear you. Content isn't a sales tool - it's a marketing/sales/branding/perception/trust/recruiting/etc tool (at least when done right).
Ditto this comment. For instance instead of posting a bunch of mediocre blog articles or random infographics for a car hire client we helped them acquire and modify a previously built "fuel cost estimator" piece of interactive content. If successful this will keep giving back for months / years to come.
We have started experimenting with "interactive content acquisition" -- sometimes someone has already built a piece of interactive content, and it's the only one out there in your niche / geographical area. Instead of competing with it, just buy it, modify it and brand it your own :)
Fascinating how content "markets" have not yet evolved. You can't go buying and selling already established blog articles or infographics, but you can for tools.
Great video. Inspiring. Watched it twice.
"Do what others are either unable or unwilling to do."
The horizontal axis on that graph was great!
Rand
Simple but one of the best WBF's for a while. The pursuit of excellence takes time and considerable effort. Thankyou and you have effectively provided a template to work from. Thanks again
Absolutely love it - great inspiration! I just started a new website about a week and a half ago. I'm the impatient type who wants rankings in 15 seconds, but as an SEO I know it doesn't work like that. I've been trying to post a good, quality post at least every other day on relevant topics. I've slowly been starting link outreach and relationship building. And today checking a few keywords-- I'm ranking! Mind you I'm in the 30's-80's, but for a week and a half of work that's not bad!
I'm definitely going to keep looking at competitors and crushing them with better content.
Look. I'm going to create the best content, ok? I love content and I have the best content. No one has better content than I do. My 4th grade writing teacher - and let me tell you, she was the best and smartest writing teacher in the country at the time - my 4th grade writing teacher said to me that I am the best content creator she's ever seen. The best. So if you want me to write content, let me tell you I can write the best content you'll ever search for. Content 10x better than any content out there. That's no problem. I will do it. I will. And I will do it better than any has ever done it before, ok?
Nicely done :-)
Hi Rand
this is very brief and helpful for all SEO and Content marketing is now clear concept for best way to good content , i more think you are expert professional and also good actor.
It seems to be more and more of "the content os the king, do the best contents" but Rand and Moz are right.
The only way is this, and not only mega good content, also a mega good snippet In the serp.
Kind regards from Spain.
Totally agree with Rand! I now have to go back, check who is ranking for my target keywords and write content 20x better than them. Tough competition out there!
Hi Rand,
I think answering your question "What's missing" is one of the key ways to produce "10x" content.
For example, when I write a company blog, I research all of the available high ranking content. Rarely does any one piece contain everything on a subject. By making sure your new content contains a "Best of..." compilation of the key points in other content, you are already ahead of everything that is already ranking.
Now, add to that your own original ideas and you end up with some pretty awesome content. Some of our best ranking evergreen content was written this way. It's simple and it works.
I might add that it's even better when you do this kind of research and find nothing or virtually nothing. This provides the opportunity to not only be unique but also have an "exclusive" hold on that particular search topic.
Finally, of course, don't forget your keyword research on the topic. Make sure that they are appropriately used, especially in the title, URL and H1.
Using nothing more than this we went from 0 to 465,000 annual visitors to our blog in only 2 years. And that's with just under 150 blog posts, so focusing on quality, not quantity.
One last point, refreshing evergreen content is also important. Using the same principles, have a read of everything that was published after your content and look to see if you missed anything. Almost inevitably there will be something that needs to be added to remain "Best of...".
Cool, Thanks
I just saw this Whiteboard Friday. It was incredibly helpful. I love that you actually wrote out a process that is applicable. Often times, and for good reason (I guess), a lot of the SEO wisdom I read is vague. This was very specific. Thanks so much!
Would be great if you provided proof. Right now, it's only an opinion. Why not show us first hand using the eco-lodge example, you had illustrated?
Thanks Rand, this is ten times better than anything else I have read on this subject.
This with the creation of the 10x content reminds me a bit of the 10x Rule from Grand Cardone (which is a brilliant "think positive self motivation book" that I am just reading at the moment).
hello, I find it very interesting to see content buzzsumo would be great if for other languages also were free but is not. a greeting
I agree on the 10X content philosophy. Whatever you do it has to be so much better, than what else is out there (or potentially will be out there).
My best results I have gotten from converting existing data into interactive visualizations. To give you an example: For our latest project we spent +100 hours on initial research, data collection, visualization ideas and final production plus hours of outreach following the publishing. Yes, you can still provide the same info in a spreadsheet using 10 hours of your precious time, but why not give users a WAUW experience while getting valuable info at the same time....
I got this post from today's WBF and find it very helpful to deeply understand 10X content.
Great WBF Rand! To add to the points you made, if you can create 10x content it is going to be valuable for months (potentially years!) to come. For me, finding the right content can take weeks and months to create but the long term benefits are there for all to see if you can get it right.
Another Excellent White Board Friday lesson, Thanks Rand
I agree Rend adding to the points you have highlighted I think the user experience may also vary most of the time. But if the content is loud enough to catch the attention then i believe its 10x. As its make user to read it and share with others.
Hey Rand, bit late on this one but it makes perfect sense. After all, not only has the market become very saturated (in terms of content marketing) but also the number 1 aim in SEO is to be number 1. Therefore, if you can't beat number 1 in terms of quality then you will never get there - plus the likelihood is that those in important positions on page 1 are there or there abouts so beating them will also be tricky. There is no doubt that it takes a lot of effort!
Rand, who in the company would you recommend create this 10X content. Is the skill set needed considered an SEO skill, marketing skill, owner level or do you need to hire an english major that is good at writing.
This is how I understand about contents should be laid out following user interest.
10X contents generation simply means utilizing 10 directions concept or simply you can divide a pizza in 10 slices where each slice of information is describing a distinguished aspect of a relative theory against a search term which is targeted to appear in SERPs. In more simple ways, bullet contents serve better than lethargic and oversized information piece that user simply ignores (feels tired to even start reading already in mind that when this would end up) or steps away and presses back button on browser to fall again on SERPs to look for better concise information in some quotes, info graphics or bullets that simply deliver quick idea for consumer about touchy things and making mind on start reasoning for on further pages on same website (user engagements)
Actually our times user, reader over internet is now much intellectual and that's search engines too.
So people want things and contents in grades, précised definitions and over view type descriptions while most of routine writers adopt descriptive ways which freak-out readers
1- they ignore the information when know it would take them lot of time to get through
2-People on mobile browsing also feel tired to keep their cell screen lit up and consuming battery for nothing, if they find info interesting even they pend the topic to read on desktop...once off the sight...off the mind too.
So 10X is basically a concept to drop idea in bullets and then let user decide to go further with reasoning, if you have intellectually linked your pages...user would prefer to go on once you earned his/her time to hold with first click drop on 10X content page.
What is 10X content generation?
It is rather an analytical approach for writers to define things in all those key points which user is looking for and it is easily indicative through user's search terms or search quires.
Suppose for a travel deal, how we would care 10X content writing.
1- Best reason to be there in terms of weather, atmosphere (in specific month and resort deals)
2- Money and Finances
3- Security and safety
4- Comparison of few same type deals and resorts
5-Transportations and mobility
6- Communications (language barriers) and telecommunications etc.
7- Food & beverages
8- Entertainment and hang outs etc.
9- Sports, games, indoor activities and outdoor thrills and expeditions etc.
10- in last point, writer would analyze top 10 SERPs for competitive analysis of websites against a search terms assigned him to write about, he will look into 10 websites and would find what is missing that he can include with.
Well put, Rand.
I also like Topsy as an alternative to AppSumo.
Great Whiteboard friday as usual
Great article, I've never used Buzzsumo.com before. It will definitely be very helpful in the future.
Thank you!
Great WBF as always, there is no doubt that the on-page content has gotten amazing value after the Panda debacle. I personally think that the audience is more inclined towards the visual appeal and juiciness of the post rather than the in-depth details. I have worked quite a bit on my fiance's blog with infographics and I was amazed to see the audience response and the conversion rate of my email outreach and I can say that earning links got easier as visual elements took over the traditional plain text.
Question for you Rand, what do you recommend in order to improve the usability of these 10x posts? For example, I'm working on creating exhaustive 10x content including videos, images, diagrams etc but I'm concerned that none of this content is above the fold on the page. Will people who land on the page simply leave before they get to all the great stuff I'm writing? Should I think about creating some kind of Table of Contents at the top of posts so that users can navigate within them? This would obviously require adding in-page links and text anchors. I'm happy for people to skip to the best and most useful content within a post but just worried this is going to negatively affect my rankings. Any thoughts on this? Thanks again for the great video.
I'm sorry Rand, but I disagree. There is no direct relationship between creating brilliant content and rankings. That's just total nonsense.
Tell you what, I take back my previous comment. Im going to smash out as much 10X content as I can and report back in a month or so.
See what happens.
so many content are available on the web on same topic, i think we don't need to be unique, we need to provide content what user like. if users loves your content than your site will surely perform better on SERP.
Very good. It seems brain dead simple when you present it, but it's amazing the number of people with "good enough" content that think it will somehow go viral.
This is one of the best way I've heard this very important point being elaborated, thanks!
This is aboslutely brilliant. Thank you.
This is 10X better than other results I got from searching on "whiteboard friday" ;-)
Thank you for your advices
"Hey, there's no way that we can scale content quality like this. It's just too much effort. " ---> This is a gem of an advice. The only problem is that it is so incredibly hard to do. And once you do, there will always be that outlier site who is willing to bet the farm and do that extra post.
This WBF just made me smile, ear to ear. Compounding my beliefs and inspiring me.
Great video, very helpful and direct! I had asked a question on the forums and someone kindly directed me towards this video, which I will be forwarding to other folks in need! Many thanks and rad mustache
We love Moz, we love Whiteboard Friday and all of the advice.The thing is, I work at a really small company. A lot of the tools mentioned, including Moz Pro itself are prohibitively expensive. I understand everybody needs to make a buck, but there have to be some high quality and useful tools that are free out there. Maybe Whiteboard Friday can feature advice gleaned from and gathered with a website or tool that is free.
Hi Rand Fishkin,
Could you please give us an example of two differents contents?
Could be a content of products in a e-commerce, would be awesome.
I just thought I should say I love how Rand's shirt is matchy matchy with the colored markers he used on the whiteboard. #OT #delayedreaction
Interesting theory, but I fear it ignores the obvious: For any given keyword search term, several pages will come at the top of the SERPs, they will all feature nearly identical titles and even identical content, and the only thing that will differentiate their relative position is the quantity and strength of their backlinks.
Great Post. This is another example highlighting the skills required to do SEO these days. Creating 10X content involves lots of disciplines (strategical, analytical, creative, technical etc etc). So far removed from earlier tactics of SEO (which i don't even like thinking about). I do believe that this is the way it should be because rewards should be earned by real, clever, hard work. Will it prevent the small players for hitting the heights in the SERPs?....I am not convinced that benefits searchers therefore I don't think that will be the case.
thnak you rand!
Great informative post. as usuall you done a great handwork Lots of new thing in this video.
So, duplicate content is ok? Google panda upadate not completely efeecting on duplicate content?
Another great WBF! Really useful stuff Rand.
Thank you!
I will now go ahead and reshare this good, unique content.
Great post, Rand.
I posted an article on my blog yesterday which I think actually hit all your 10x points.
It's actually a very detailed tutorial to starting a podcast. When I was researching the subject I kept jumping from one guide to another because all these tutorials were missing something. I finally decided to create a complete, very detailed and easy to follow guide. People are loving it so far, however I am not sure It'll ever make it to Google's first page.
I am competing against WikiHow, Entrepreneur, Apple... and although I am sure my content is way better than their content, they're still high authority brands and I am just a small fish in the sea.
This is the crux of the problem, isn't it? I'm in the same situation, having to compete against Amazon, Walmart, WebMD, etc., etc. Great 10x content will always lose to domains that are entrenched in the SERPs. I think the only hope is to take that 10x content and syndicate it via email newsletters, Twitter, Facebook, etc., etc. Hopefully the 10x material is good enough that it will be actively shared. SERP success is a byproduct of this.
Share a link? I'll be happy to help promote it if its as good as you say :)
Yep Good Content is always win. as you had said on the video going to check my competitors. More over going to write a Best and Unique content to my Post.
I keep this on mind to upcoming posts too. we won't give a chance to beat our content by the competitors content.
Kind Regards
Great Article Rand, The video was quite explanatory and the articles in general, but if the content is loud enough to catch the attention then i believe that it will take your blog very far because content is the key to any successful website.
Good Content Only Decides How Could We are in SERP. Yep that is the thing always am focusing.
Thanks for the Post.
Another great WBF rand on a topic that doesn't really get covered much. Love the way you compared the different levels of content like fiver, let the inter write it, would take a week end, doesnt make you vomit etc. Thanks
Happy Friday! This was great Rand... i loved the quick recap of how the industry has changed so much over past 10 years. We need to building "The Best, Engaging & Unique Content". How dare they say SEO is dead LOL
Rand, you are totally awesome in putting your point across. "If you read it, you wouldn't vomit" = good, unique content, has got to be the most memorable formula ever.
The way you related 10x content to the pay-off is pure genius. Thanks a bunch.
Many people things they are creating good content, but in fact they are spending their time. Good results require time. It's better to invest 10h writting a single 10x content that 1h whritting 10.
I completely agree. It's simple, really. Good is no longer good enough, if you can't be great, awesome and super fireworks explosion cool, then you just won't stand out enough to make it to the top. It's like in sports, no one remembers who won silver/bronze, we remember winners. And we share winners.
Another fantastic WBF Rand and thanks for covering this "Unique Content" case.
Yesterday, Sir Bill Slawski wrote a post about "Long Click" and the Google patent about its implications. I think if we create an "AUTHENTIC" not "UNIQUE" content, we surely can fall in the good books of that patent, can't we?
The problem that I see in this regard especially for SMBs, is the investment on creating this "10X" content. They can't afford to hire experts on the particular field or go to sites like Scripted.com to get the experts.
Your thoughts?
Umar
It also has to be useful information.
Great Post Rand!
Sometimes the answer is right in front of your face but it takes someone else to point it out! I look at websites designs every day and the first thing I think 'what aren't they doing' why I hadn't though of that for content - :$ To busy stuck in the mind set - does this solve a problem......
Im sleepless but no mater what time is it. I going to apply some of the tacts on some of the projects im working upon now days. Thanks Rand..
Now, this is awesome content: Succinct, valuable, unique and insightful. Definetely sharing :)
As someone who is just breaking into the SEO space I have to say that creating 10x content feels pretty daunting. Competing with the Brian Deans, Brian Clarks, and Neil Patels, of the world seems like too big of a task for someone trying to build authority. It sounds like what Rand is saying is that creating "Good, unique content" is easily possible by anyone with some research and a style manual. What readers are getting used to now is content written by people who can offer not just a well written summary but also another level, which is insight.
So I am wondering if, along with auditing the competition's content, you also need to narrow the focus of your writing to the point where you can offer insight. For those just starting that might mean narrowing down quite a bit. However, it seems like to create true 10x content narrow insight is better than broad summarization. Hopefully once you gain some authority and have some 10x content in your pocket you can level up your content focus.
Good Whiteboard Friday, Rand! As someone who strives to produce quality, I appreciate the criticism of Fiverr - has anyone ever gotten any real value from that site?
As always, thanks Rand.
Good recommend on that Buzz Sumo sight. Had never heard of it before. One thing I would like to see some kind of analysis done on is creating that 10x content you are talking about vs. the traffic it generates vs. how log it takes to create that quality content. Kind of a "What is 10x content worth?" type analysis.
i am agree with tony. If you covens any people for any kind of services or products than good quality content is needed. or other way to create a good video for that services or product. content is always neededif you shre posts ,infographics or video.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful information with us.
Awesome tutorial. But I believe SEO is dead if not dying. Just look at the amount of effort that needs to go into SEO today. On page/ Off page factors/ Authority and so on. Search engines like Google make money from ads, and they are making it extremely hard for most businesses to compete for organic search. I've been in the business for years and for most of the time only focused on SEO. Now, it's more cost-effective doing paid ads (google, facebook, retargeting, FB custom audience). But this isn't by accident, but intentionally designed. Google does not make any money from organic search. So, you have to weigh the benefits of paid/organic. Do I throw all of my time/money/energy into seo and hope I get ranked. Or do I put my energy into split testing my sales funnel and get instant results with paid ads? Now, I firmly believe in the latter. It's instant, testable, and more cost-effective.
Good stuff. I don't create (or outsource) one piece of content without first checking in with Buzzsumo.com. Great tool!
Hi Rand, thanks for posting this. The biggest takeaway for me from this was looking at the existing results in Google and deciding whether I can make something ten times better. That's a great way of looking at things. If I can't enhance the web with my content then what's the point and why would other people talk about and link to it?
Two thoughts:
1. 10X(er) -- great by choice (Jim Collins) reference? (If so -- awesome)
2. I agree with the sentiment behind "not scalable", but this does directly contradict the recent presso by Dr Pete in Mozcon (How to Never Run Out of Great Ideas) where he speaks about ways to make great content scalable (your "will it blend" type of stuff). Perhaps a further proviso or nuance is required to refine this point. Scalability of itself does not imply content is of poor quality. Whiteboard Friday itself is highly scalable.
Just an added note, although I completely agree with the necessity of speed for optimal user experience, it doesn't seem to be all the buzz it once was. John Mueller talked about this in a Google hangout he did back in April.
Just to back what Rand was saying on link building vs. link earning, John Mueller also makes a point of telling people to avoid link building! That can be seen in this Google hangout. I'm sure Rand will be talking about this in his upcoming webinar :)
Special thanks and shout out to seroundtable for the above info :)
This reminds me of networking meetups. 100 people go. 70 sit on the sidelines doing nothing and wondering why the event failed for them. "Well, I WENT!" That's not the barrier to connecting.
Another 20 connect with those at their table, a few friends of friends and awkward "here's my card, call me if you ever need anything" exchanges.
The last 10 ask about your business, create a real conversation, build value for what they do and explain it in a way that isn't salesy but says "oh, I probably need that. I'm glad you came to this."
Those 70 people think "networking doesn't work" like so many people think "content marketing doesn't get you rankings." Sure, well ... before you say that can you at least ... I dunno ... TRY?
This makes sense. I've seen lots of people think that just by getting articles written (creating good content) that they will get good results in search, however there are so many people working this 'strategy' now specifically for SEO reasons that in many occasions user experience suffers. The goal here is to concentrate on publishing super good, engaging content that established your site as THE authority site in your niche, and promotes sticky eyeballs to stay on your site rather than click away/bounce when they can't see immediately the answer to what they are looking for.
Content is important but I can give you example after example of crap thin content outranking 10x content, especially in the "adult" niche.
This still happens in a lot of industries, one of my clients has a very similar problem. It seems that Googles content reading skills are better in certain industries than others making it very difficult to judge.
Yet another great post from you Rand. Thank you. Content should be written for the users first and should aim to address or solve their issues. Uniqueness comes in to picture when we think about search engines and ranking high in them. From an SEO standpoint, coming up with unique and authentic content definitely gives us an edge over others with rehashed or scraped content. Having that said, putting all the efforts only to make the content unique and authentic can sometimes hit the overall quality of the content itself as well as the user experience.
I tried something different recently and got amazing results in Google. Wanted to add some content to one of my existing websites. Wanted to address an issue related to Digital Marketing. So rather going the old or conventional way of getting the content written around the target term(s), I came up with an infographic in the form of a story depicting the issue and two ways to address it, just transcripted the infographic to text, added few relevant images to the text and published it. Made sure to put all the on-page in place like, title, description, alt text and titles for images, and heading tags. The page has been performing phenomenally well and surpassed all my expectations from an SEO standpoint.
So to conclude, I would say, we should look for some creative ways to make our content highly useful to the visitor and should serve his/her purpose of visit. Content should be definitely unique and authentic but not at the cost of its quality and user experience. We should also leave no stone unturned to make the content sticky there by making the user hanging around for a while.
Great post...When you are posting unique content that benefits for our website & also good for seo...thanks for sharing & Keep posting.
I dont understand tehnik seo, please help me :(
Hi there! You can get started learning about SEO in the Beginner's Guide to SEO. Our Q&A forum will be a better place to ask questions, too. :)