Collecting Data for Building Link-Worthy Content – Group Project

Collecting valuable information is an essential step in creating link-worthy content. Here are some ideas about how to do that.

Video Transcript

David: Okay. We are working on a project, a group project together, where we are trying to build something that we consider link-worthy. Another way of calling this is a link magnet. This would be something that goes on our website that is so valuable and wonderful that other websites will build links to our site for us. We know that part of the reason SEO works is not just that we do the right keyword research or put the right words on the page but also that other websites link to us. And so, link building is a hard part of SEO. But sometimes, we can build something so great on our website that we can attract links without necessarily going out and building them. And so we wrote this Building Link Worthy content process on Curious Ants. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about how to find our content idea. For instance, my content idea was the cost of doing business online. So, what I did a few years ago is I did a series of interviews and calculated some numbers that, you know, show how much it costs to even run an online business. So, what I’m going to do as part of my link-worthy project is modify this to be more focused on web designers and developers to make sure they are pricing their projects competitively. But I’m also going to do a new survey and get new data because we all know prices have gone up pretty significantly in the last couple of years. So that’s what I’m going to do. And I know everyone else has kind of come up. So, would one of the rest of you suggest what idea you’re going to be pursuing for this link-worthy content? I’m going to call out some people because you had some great ideas. We had some great ideas last time.

Janel: All right, well, the one that I’m going to do is explore Google Fonts and their usage, what makes good font pairings, and why some other font pairings are poor choices. I did find some Google Analytics I have to convert. I have to OCR the content because there’s so much data on it, and I can look at it from an all-time user’s perspective or just in the last year. So that was some really nice data that I found.

David: Great, great.

Janel: Some infographic-type things that would hopefully be shareable.

David: Yeah, yeah. Awesome, awesome. What were the other ideas?

Stephanie: I was going to use the Google trends data that shows searches for how do you turn off Meta AI search had increased by 1800 percent in the last 90 days and get my network’s feedback on where they thought Meta went so wrong with this new feature that that many people would want to search for that term.

David: Yeah. Great, great. Tricia, what was yours?

Tricia: I haven’t picked it yet.

David: I thought you did.

Tricia: We were talking about one, but I’m not sure.

David: Go ahead and tell us what that one was. Refresh our memory.

Tricia: So, let’s see, the specific case that came up was basically an API where people had connected it to their Google Business Profile and had gotten every business that was connected through that API suspended.

David: Okay. Yeah.

Tricia: And that wasn’t the full topic. It was kind of related to that. That was the result of it. And so, I’m not sure because thinking back on it, we were saying that we needed to be able to… I’m trying to think what the part of the process was…

David: I think it was the effect of things that get your Google Business Profile banned.

Tricia: Yeah.

David: That seemed like a good idea, as well as how to prevent it. Something to that effect. Was that it?

Tricia: That sounds good, but I don’t think that was it. But actually, I like that.

David: Because this would be an example.

Tricia: I would say suspended instead of banned because there is a difference. And if you get banned, you definitely don’t want that.

David: Okay.

Tricia: Because, as you said, when we pick it, we have to also be aware of collecting the information and then…

Janel: Yeah. Like trying to find stats on information. I’m just going directly to Google, but like in David’s example, he had a survey.

Tricia: Yeah, yeah, like that part of it.

Janel: What data can you collect for that? I don’t know. I mean, does Google share stats on that?

Tricia: Yeah, that’s the thing. It might be a little tough. I mean, I can say these are what I see from businesses coming to me.

David: Yeah. Okay.

Tricia: I think that would be the most wrong thing that I’ve seen.

David: Yeah. And Onawa, you had an idea, too.

Onawa: I feel like all my ideas were like blog posts. So, I came up with like a dozen blog posts rather than anything that maybe was really worthy of it. So, one I just thought of, as somebody said it, was actually just going through and interviewing the clients and seeing how they were attained because I doubt in 40 years, she’s actually done that. But really, everything that I think of ends up sounding like a blog post that is more than actually link-bait-worthy.

David: So, yeah. I don’t think you should diminish yourself or your idea that quickly because, remember, the worst-case scenario is we have a really good blog post on our website. Right? If we get trapped with no links, we still have something that’s unique and good. But sometimes, these things that don’t have a lot of flash can be very successful. And the other side of it is, what does success mean? Is it only successful if you get 1000 links to our website? I don’t think most of our websites could handle a thousand backlinks. Right? If we got two or three, that could be very successful. And if I recall, the business that you’re working with is a very small business.

Onawa: Right.

David: Right. So, success doesn’t necessarily have to be to go viral. It could mean going viral in the small community in which they find themselves, which may not be large, but still, the fact that you wrote a better-than-average blog post, pulling data and making it unique still could be really worthwhile. Right? It doesn’t have to be something that ends up on Buzzfeed next week or whatever to be valuable. Right?

Janel: I mean, having like a dozen new blog post ideas is really good. I mean, like for this post, I’m going to have to build a blog. So, really, that’s just value there for me. I don’t have one. So, in order to go through this process, I find that it’s going to be valuable for me regardless of whether or not anything happens because of that.

David: Yeah. And that’s a great point. While we’re focusing on link-worthy content or a link-bait piece, we’re going to come up with other ideas. Save them.

Onawa: Yeah, definitely. I think I have some good ideas.

David: Right. Save them. Somewhere on my Trello board, I have a dedicated column to Someday. And when I’m at a loss of what the heck I want to do because I just don’t know, I go that Someday list, and it’s like, that’s a great idea, and I’ll find the inspiration that I need. And so, that’s another value of this. It gets the creative juices flowing, and you can come up with stuff. And so, when I’m second-guessing myself, and I get that, I’d still say go for it even if you’re second-guessing yourself because, again, the worst thing is you have a really good blog post.

Onawa: Yeah.

David: And that’s still something worthwhile.

Onawa: Yeah, it’s definitely going to be worthwhile because I don’t think I’ve posted on this since 2020. So, anything’s going to be better than what I have. I do have some good ideas, but I don’t know how broadly popular they would be.

David: Yeah. So, in other words, today and the last couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about finding a content idea, and that’s great. Today, I want to start to talk about step two, which is collecting information. So, we know that we have five steps in this process, but we all have to consider all of them at the same time. Right? We have to think not only of an idea but also of a way that we can include a lot of information. We need to figure out how we’re going to produce it. We need to figure out where we’re going to publish it. Right? Because I think with one of us at least, it was like, maybe we don’t publish… I think it was Janel who didn’t have a blog on your website. Right? So, you’re going to have to publish it somewhere else. Right?

Janel: I’m going to create a blog.

David: That’s okay; it’s like the cobbler’s kids have no shoes. We all get that. No one’s judging. So, we’re thinking about everything at the same time. But at the same time, we need a little focus. So, here are some ideas I’d like you to consider of where you’re going to get information for your link bait piece. So, I really like the idea of doing a survey. I think surveys could be great. What I’m going to do is survey my email list. I’m going to put a couple of links on my social media page to get some other people. I’m just going to create a Google form, right? I don’t have to pay for survey monkey, right? Do Google form for free. I’m going to ask some partners. I’m a part of a couple of different Mastermind groups. I’m going to ask some people there. If I get two or three people answering questions, that’s super, right? Reddit, within reason, is a great place to get some information. There is a web dev subreddit. I’m going to contact the moderators at the web dev subreddit and ask them if they will be willing to publish my survey to collect answers. They may say no. Then, I wouldn’t do it because I don’t want to get banned from the subreddit. Right? Because they will. Now, if your topic is a little bit broader, which actually has several advantages, you could potentially submit things to sample size, which is a subreddit for people who actually want to take the time to answer your questionnaire. I’ve gotten thousands of answers from this subreddit before. Another source besides surveys is, let’s say, you have an original source for information. Team up with them or find industry partners and experts. So, for instance, Onawa, you had talked about the relationships you have in that community. Ask them for their thoughts. And sometimes, it’s not about collecting data like a survey. Sometimes, it’s about reaching out and just getting thoughts and comments. Right? So, I think that’s one of the things Stephanie was thinking about, right? Reaching out to some of her fellow social media experts and getting thoughts and anecdotes to add to the post. It would be great if you could combine all of them and have a survey, then have your partners comment on the results of the survey. Right? Maybe your partners, because they’re helping you develop the survey, have some ego reason to share the survey a little further than your network. But again, it doesn’t even have to be a survey. It could be like, Janel, you’re pulling some data from font usage data objectively, right?

Janel: Yeah. But then I can ask the admin bar if I can do a survey there or just put out a post and get comments, and I can use this as quotes or something. Or it may spur on some other ideas that I could use for the article itself.

David: Yes, yes.

Janel: Like stuff that they hate, right? What are the worst font combinations ever? Or something like that.

David: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Janel: Anecdotal, like stories.

David: Yeah. So, if we just do an anonymous survey and we never get to connect to those people before, we’ll get some good data, but again, we’re not going to collect data, and that’s the end of the story. We need to think about this in terms of what we’re producing. Are we producing a blog post, an infographic, a video, or something? How are we going to promote it? If we’re asking some people about their opinions, when we come back to them and say, hey, Tricia, thank you for contributing to our survey of local business experts. What is Tricia going to do when her name is included in the list of Google My Business experts?

Tricia: I’m going to send it out to everybody.

David: Share the heck out of that thing. Right? I say this because Tricia is often included in a very credible survey annually for local business experts, and she’s asked because she knows what she’s doing. So please don’t take this as diminishing you in any way, Tricia, but they’re asking you because they want you to promote it. And that’s one of the things that’s really important with this whole concept. Sometimes, things go viral randomly, but most of the time, there’s a strategy behind it, and that’s what we’re trying to get into here. Right? So, what are your initial thoughts about how you are going to collect your information? Okay. I’m going to recreate a survey. I have to think about where I’m going to share this survey to get as much information as I can. And then I’m going to think of some experts, not just web developers, but like Nathan Ingram, who’s a business coach. Right? People like to lend some insight into this. Another person I really think does a really great job as a businessperson is Melanie Adcock. Right? She’s really smart in the way she’s built her business, and I’d like her to give me some voice to weigh in on some of the thoughts of the survey. So that is where I’m going to get stuff. In my case, the content produced will be an updated blog post. But that’s what I want you all to do by next week. Where are you going to get your information? You don’t have to do it by next week. Just think about where, and then we’re going to talk about and help improve each other’s ideas for getting the information we need, whether it’s data from a survey, anecdotal, or whatever. But the wider you cast, the better it’s going to be to promote. So, if I do a survey, one of the things I’m going to have in the survey is if you’d like to hear the answer to the survey, give me your email, and I’ll send it to you. Right? And so now I’ve got a bunch of strangers who I don’t necessarily know potentially promoting the content. It’s not just dependent upon my work. But anyway, can we do that by next week?

Janel: All right.