Content creation and promotion is a big part of a good SEO strategy. Every once and awhile we can all come up with great content ideas off the cuff, but what if you need to consistently create content that gains traction, earns links, and attracts customers?
Wouldn't it be great if there was a tool that gave you an insight into the topics and types of content that your audience wanted to consume? There is one, it's called Buzzsumo. Today we are going to take a look at how you can instantly come up with content ideas for any industry in just a couple of minutes with Buzzsumo, let's get to it.
The most shared tab under content research on Buzzsumo allows you to see what content pieces covering your topic are the most shared, over times ranging from the past day to the past year.
As you can see below, this view shows you which social platforms the content was shared on, if you click on view backlinks or view sharers, you will be able to see who mentioned or linked to the content, a great way to start building your outreach list. But, before you start cranking out your masterpiece, let's use some of the other tools to get a better idea of what content we should be creating.
Under the content analysis tab you will find a ton of great information but, my favorite place to start is with the Average Shares By Content Type.
As you can see, this allows you to gain instant insight into what types of content performing best for your topic, the list post is still one of the most popular types of content in many niches, including SEO link building. Video on the other hand is the least popular type of content for this topic.
Are your readers looking for short and easily digestible content or are they fellow professionals looking for in-depth analysis and training materials? The Average Shares by Content Length section allows you to find out in a glance.
As you can see above, longer posts where shared more often with a noticeable drop-off in content under 2,000 words. This gives you a pretty clear idea that your link building content needs to be in depth if you want it to be shared and engaged with.
By now we know that creating a list type post ranging from 3000-10,000 words is going to get us noticed, but what specifically should we cover?
Why creativity is going to take you a long way, let it be guided by data about what people are interested in. This section of Buzzsumo offers suggestions for specific topics that are well received for your industry. In the example above you can see "experts" is one of the popular topics. With this, we now know that a roundup list of link building experts ranging from 3,000-10,000 words would be a great piece of content to put together.
In this case, an ideal piece of content involves gathering information from experts in the field of our topic.
Using the Influencer search tool in Buzzsumo we can quickly create a massive list of expert on our topic to reach out to, in this case, the tool found 31 pages of influencers on the topic of SEO link building. If you are not creating a roundup style article, you can still use this page to build your initial list of who you should share the content with via social channels or email.
Next time you are struggling to come up with topics to write about in your industry just use the simple steps outlined above and you will have some solid ideas in just a few minutes.
Over to you...
How many of you are using Buzzsumo to aid in content creation?
Author Bio
Travis Bliffen is the founder of , a Web design and marketing firm located in Marion, IL. Travis and his team are equipped to handle any size SEO project and have helped numerous businesses to date build a rock solid online presence. When you are ready for more leads and sales, it is time to get #stellarized. Connect on Facebook or Twitter @theseoproz