Content Marketing 101: How to Discover Your Niche

Several years ago, Rand Fishkin posted a video that called for a new wave of content--10x content, as he called it: "Content that is 10 times better than the best...search results for a given keyword phrase or topic."

The video, "Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die," was part of Fishkin's WhiteBoard Friday series, a sort of weekly digest for SEO professionals.

Since the publication of the video, the term 10x content has become a buzzword for trendy SEO-types, what Sujan Patel, writing for Forbes, calls "a staple term used to define stand-out content within a certain industry or vertical."

Creating "good, unique content" is not enough to rank. For new or smaller to medium-sized websites to rank, Fishkin believes, content writers must study the current top results.

"What questions are being asked and answered by these search results?" Fishkin asks. "What sort of user experience is provided?"

Fishkin's video is helpful but not necessarily prescriptive. Answering these questions will give you an idea of why a piece of content is successful (or not), but it might not help you create great content.

Patel spends a great deal of space on "identifying 10x content" as well as rehashing Fishkin's "criteria for 10x content," but when he turns to actually "building" 10x content, he admits, "This is the time to start reinventing the wheel."

If that sounds daunting to you, you're not alone. Content is the hardest part of SEO. It's important to note, though, that both Fishkin's and Patel's advice is not necessarily creative but technical. When Patel writes, "with so many businesses taking on the role of publisher, you need to expand into something more akin to an artist," it's clear he's not speaking from experience.

"That means incorporating more visuals with your data," he writes, "more interaction, and more engagement."

So more visuals with your data? Is that really what it means to reinvent the wheel--to be an artist?

Discover Your Niche

Is creating excellent, outstanding, 10x, or whatever you want to call it, content enough for a new or small or medium-sized website to compete in the rankings? This is the question Adam Stetzer asked on Search Engine Watch several years ago, and his answer was definitive:

"The Google mantra: 'Create great content and it will earn links,' works for big business, but not for small ones."

Read: "Come on, Google. Let the Little Guy Earn a Link"

Stetzer focuses his discussion on high-quality, relevant links, which work as editorial votes, and are supposed to boost a website's ranking. The problem, Stetzer asserts, is that "small businesses are not going to get links just by virtue of having good content."

This assertion is in contrast to Fishkin's claim about 10x content: "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."

Not really, Stetzer believes: "Google policies are seemingly oblivious to this reality: without links, small businesses get no traffic and without traffic, they get no links."

In our view, both are right (and wrong). We happen to agree with Fishkin's assertion that outstanding content can boost rankings and attract traffic. But Fishkin himself makes a critical point that Stetzer overlooks:

"Really, where I want folks to go is..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."

And this is a reality of a small business, which by nature is not trying to compete with a large business.

A small bookseller, for example, will not try to compete head-to-head with, say, Amazon, the behemoth of online book sales. But a smaller bookseller, like Powell's Books, which originated as a neighborhood bookseller in Portland, Oregon, can undoubtedly discover success.

Powell's ingenious way of marketing itself is "The World's Neighborhood Bookseller."

If you Google "buy books," Powell's is not even on the first page. Yet Powell's has earned a durable success with unique branding--and, ironically, by selling its books on Amazon.

Like many of the best small online businesses, Powell's success reveals an essential truth of online marketing: to compete, you must discover your niche.

Stetzer's assertion then is not entirely true. He seems to imply that a smaller bookstore like Powell's should be able to compete with Amazon. He begins with an ideal scenario:

"Some would say that the Internet is the great equalizer, that every business, large and small, has an equal shot at page one rankings and with that, web traffic, leads, sales, and growth."

But this is not true. And that's OK. Another truth of online marketing: to compete, you must evolve. For a new or smaller business, this means answering the questions that have not yet been answered.

Two Questions to Discover Your Niche

It's hard to create genuinely inventive content. It's hard even to begin writing. We simplify the process to two questions. Before beginning a piece of content, ask yourself:

1. "What question am I answering?"

2. "What am I adding to the conversation?"

Be unique--and specific about your offering. By paying attention to the unique specificity of your product or service, you can dramatically improve your visibility on Google.

What question(s) does your product or service answer? Once you've answered these questions (for yourself), compose your answers, ideally adding something new to the conversation.

Content Marketing with SEO Sparta

If you're looking for an SEO company that understands how to compete with inventive content, call SEO Sparta at our Bucks County, PA, offices: 215-900-9398.

SEO Sparta combines traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--with an emphasis on natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

Contact us