6 Strategies to Generate SEO-Focused Topic Ideas for Blogs

Blogging and content creation is an important aspect of SEO, but often it can be difficult to come up with topics to write about. We’ve compiled a few different ways to spark creativity and generate strong blog topics based on strategic keyword review.

1. Review your keyword portfolio

Your website’s existing keyword portfolio can be a great place for inspiration and new content ideas. Review the keywords you’re currently ranking for—especially striking distance keywords in positions 11-20.

Look for keywords with a decent search volume and check to see what URLs they are tied to. If the URL doesn’t appropriately address the keyword, there is an opportunity to create new content that will.

2. Check industry and Google trends

If a news story, product, or other event is currently trending, there’s an opportunity to create content around relevant keywords to take advantage of the spike in search volume. Keeping a pulse on current events and trends is important to get on the ground floor. The key is to move quickly with keyword research and be ahead of the curve before there is an oversaturation of similar content and a decrease in search volume.

3. Reviewing old blog posts

Historic blog content can be a gold mine for coming up with new blog topic ideas. Review strong-performing posts and check if there are any unanswered questions or opportunities for expanding on certain content in a new post. The goal is to answer your users’ questions, so ask yourself if there is anything that could use its own breakout post.

4. Looking at competitor blogs

As they say, imitation is a form of flattery. Looking at competitors with strong blog content can be another opportunity to come up with topics you may have missed. Stealing content is never a good idea, but review competitor blog content and think of how you could make it better. Look to see if there are unanswered questions or areas where you can create better or more detailed content.

5. Perform a content gap analysis

A content gap analysis is a review of competitor sites versus your own and identifying keywords they rank for that your site does not. Not every keyword may be relevant to your site, but the content gap analysis gives insight into areas where your domain is missing out on the conversation. Look for keywords that would be good topics for blog content creation.

6.  Review answer box opportunities

Answer box opportunities are any keywords where one of your URLs is close to winning an answer box on the Google SERP but currently isn’t. Look at keywords in positions 1-20 that might be opportunities for new content.

Generating content from an SEO perspective will help your content reach the right people. Keep in mind, as you set out to create new content, it’s important to make sure your copy is well written and captures your reader’s search intent. And finally, try to write about something you’re interested in, too!

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Interested in more tips about generating content? Take a look at our three tips on how to develop your voice for content writing!

If content and SEO are your jam but you’re having a little trouble and need some guidance, contact us—we’re the experts.