How to Develop an SEO Content Strategy (with examples)

Marcie Lord provides example SEO content strategies for 5 industries: healthcare, domestic services, tech, legal & manufacturing. See her examples to learn how to create your own strategy.

I love developing content strategies, and my work has gotten great results. I love developing them because it’s one of the most creative tasks I do as an SEO; it is also one of the most important tasks I do as an SEO. If you want strong search rankings, you need a content strategy with the right topics that props up your service, product, and pillar pages, and targets lucrative keywords.

The idea of creating an SEO content strategy sounds daunting, and many of the articles I’ve seen on this subject will put you into a coma. So I’m going to show you how to create an SEO content strategy by giving you examples for five industries – healthcare, domestic services, tech, legal, and manufacturing. If they apply, feel free to use these ideas for your own site; if they don’t, then hopefully this exercise provides the guidance you need to develop your own SEO content strategy.

Desert Sun Physical Therapy’s One-Month SEO Content Strategy (4 articles)

Article #1 – “How Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy Helps with Labor”

This is a great topic because A) there isn’t much content that speaks specifically to chiropractic care helping with labor, giving the practice a good shot at ranking well and B) it can be linked to the pregnancy chiropractic care page, helping boost that page in search results.

Article #2 – “Kinesio Taping to Prep for the Run FORE Cancer Race”

The Run FORE Cancer event is an 8k and 5K race in Scottsdale, AZ at the end of September. This post can talk about how Kinesio taping will help prepare participating runners who deal with running pain. This is a good topic because the practice can A) use the post to directly promote its services, B) get local targeting on the site, and C) boost their Kinesio taping service page by linking to it from this post.

Article #3 – “The Top 5 Stretches to Do After a Car Accident”

This is a great topic because it relates to their car accident care service and can be used to boost that service page; also, other results ranking for this query are from low-domain authority sites, meaning Desert Sun Physical Therapy has a good chance at ranking well with this post (if it’s well-written and optimized). Bonus points if they add a video.

Article #4 – Local Client Profile

“Bess Heywood, a retired teacher living in Windsong, AZ, started coming to Desert Sun Physical Therapy when her back pain got so bad, she could hardly walk…after a few months of twice-weekly appointments with Dr. McDonnough, Bess was able to walk without pain and get back to gardening, racquetball, and kneeling at the altar of Satan.”

Maybe leave out the part about worshipping the devil, but you get the picture.

Maids to the Rescue’s One-Month SEO Content Strategy (4 articles)

Article #1 – “5 Reasons to Hire a Cleaning Service for your Steelers Watch Party”

The Steelers are Pittsburgh’s football team, so this will make for good local targeting. Listicles are always easy to write and read, and the topic makes a lot of sense – why worry about cleaning when you must make 200 perogies?

Article #2 – “How to know if your cleaning service scammed you”

This is a good topic for many reasons. First, it’s interesting – if you divulge the secrets of the scam artist cleaning services (“check under rugs to see if piles of dust were swept underneath”), people will want to read about it. Second, this post can be linked to either the residential maintenance or deep clean service pages, helping to boost them.

Article #3 – “Maids to the Rescue Special Vacuum Technique: Watch it in Action”

A fun video post that shows Maids to the Rescue’s specialized vacuum technique. Sure, maybe people will steal their secret weapon, but that’s not who they are trying to sell – they’re selling to people who want Maids to the Rescue to use these vacuum skills on their carpets. This post also provides opportunities for internal linking.

Article #4 – Local Client Profile

“Evan Braunstein, a lawyer with multiple rental properties throughout Pittsburgh, contacted Maids to the Rescue when he needed to rent out a spacious two-bedroom apartment in Shadyside. The previous tenant was a smoker with cats, so a deep dive clean was necessary…”

DineTime’s One-Month SEO Content Strategy (4 articles)

Article #1 – Restaurant Owner Survey Results

This post will require preparation before the copywriting can start, but it will be based on results of a survey DineTime promoted to restaurant owners. Results reported will be for multiple-choice questions like:

• What is your biggest pain point as a restaurant owner?
• What is your biggest pain point with online ordering applications?
• Do you feel your state mishandled shutdowns and their impact on the service industry when the pandemic hit?
• How do you feel about COVID checks on indoor diners?
• What piece of legislation would you like passed to benefit your restaurant?
• Do you think online ordering vendors take too much of a cut from online sales?

The point is to create a well-rounded survey that isn’t just about technology for restaurants and will be of interest to restaurant owners everywhere.

Article #2 – “The Top 5 Mexican Dishes that Travel Well”

Mexican cuisine is one of the most popular for restaurants in the United States, so this is a good niche to target. Ideally, the author adding their byline to this post will be one with a background in restaurant work or Mexican food (like a chef). The post can also be used for internal linking, helping to boost the web page that features DineTime’s online ordering application.

Article #3 – “How to Make Your Restaurant More Profitable”

This query – “how to make your restaurant more profitable” – gets 20 searches a month, so this could be a good longtail keyword to target. The results ranking for this query are from mostly low domain authority sites, and the ranking content is not that great. The goal of this article is to write 5 specific tips that will help any restaurant become more profitable. “Deliver excellent customer service” is cliched and overused; “reduce overhead by closing down on days that don’t bring in XX% of weekly revenue” is a tip that, if backed-up by numbers, would be interesting for restaurant owners to read.

Article #4 – Client Profile

You probably get the gist of what a client profile should entail. Client profiles can be powerful content because they are fun to read (if well-written) and can be leveraged for internal linking.

Zuckerman Law’s One-Month SEO Content Strategy (4 articles)

Article #1 – “How a Super Speeder Ticket in Georgia Can Impact You”

Georgia is one of the few states that has a super speeder law and the query “super speeder ticket Georgia” gets 880 searches a month! It also has relatively low keyword difficulty and low competition. A well-written article could rank on the first search result page and serve as a linkable asset.

Article #2 – “The Top 5 Traffic Violations Committed by Atlantans – and Our Theories for Why”

This post could be based on public records or Zuckerman Law’s internal data. What will make the post interesting is the theories. If speeding tickets are one of the top 5 infractions, maybe it was because most happened on one stretch of roadway with speed traps; if speeding tickets are up by a significant percentage than they were before the pandemic, maybe it’s because people forgot how to abide by the speed limit. This post will lend itself to good internal linking and local targeting, and will be a lot of fun to read if well-written.

Article #3 – “What to Do if You Get a DUI on a Bike in Atlanta”

Another long-tail keyword that, in my online research, I did not find an answer to. This means Zuckerman Law has a good shot at ranking on the first SERP.
This will be a guide on what one should do if they are stopped by the police while driving a bike under the influence. It will be a great post to rank on its own, but can also be good for internal linking and local targeting.

Article #4 – “The Latest Happenings at the Fulton County Courts”

A simple summary of the latest happenings at the Fulton County courthouse (Fulton County is where Atlanta is). New and outgoing judges, the courthouse’s developments on COVID safety, surprising outcomes in traffic cases, and even updates in Georgia traffic ticket law could all be included in this article. A post of this type could be released once a quarter and would lend itself to local targeting and internal linking.

Temple Daylighting Technologies’ One-Month SEO Content Strategy (4 articles)

Article #1 – “Case Study: How the NYC MTA Leveraged Temple’s Glass Block System”

This case study will focus on how the NYC MTA used Temple’s glass block system in 4 of its Brooklyn subway stations. It will discuss why it was chosen (graffiti resistant, break resistant) and describe the installation process. This post will be good for internal linking and propping up the glass block product page.

Article #2 – “How daylighting systems can reduce electrical costs”

This post will focus on how daylighting is more than a façade; translucent walls can also actively reduce overhead costs. Included in this post could be financials from a client, demonstrating the drop in electricity usage from days before the translucent wall was in use. This post will make for good internal linking.

Article #3 – “The Top 5 Benefits of Daylighting Systems”

Daylighting systems have shown to have proven benefits: they reduce electrical costs, reduce demands on the HVAC system, decrease absenteeism, increase productivity, and correlate with shorter recovery times for hospitalized patients. The 5 benefits can be used to create a post that can be used for internal linking and show customers the value of choosing a daylighting system in their next design.

Article #4 – “From the Temple Portfolio: The Skoka Conservatory”

The Skoka Conservatory is a fake place, but this content idea can be extrapolated for any manufacturer working with architectural systems – a post that features beautiful photography of a build featuring your systems, and a couple of paragraphs about the project. A portfolio post is different from a case study because it doesn’t necessarily have to provide solutions or a description of the process. This post will be great for internal linking and provide eye candy if you have good photos.

Digital Dynamo provides affordable SEO services to small and medium-sized businesses. If you would like to learn more about how we can help with your SEO content strategy, please contact us.