5-step framework will help you scale your content operations as well as SEO.

Don’t lie.

Show of hands.

How many times have these words been uttered in the past year?

• “I don’t know any good writers.”
• “No one can create content like me.”
• “Content marketing / SEO doesn’t work in our niche.”
• “That agency doesn’t get our unique POV.”
• “I cannot publish more than X articles/mo with quality dropping.”

Most likely all of them at once. Amiright?

No one is pointing fingers. They all have been used by me.

Here’s what you should know about these cliches.

They’re excuses. They’re all excuses.

We tell ourselves lies and excuses simultaneously

• We need to puff up our egos.
• Do not spend the time learning how to build systems and processes, and instead delegate.

Here are the reasons you can be your worst enemy when it involves SEO and scaling content creation. And how you can fix it so you can get back on track quickly.

Your worst enemy in SEO is you. Here’s how to fix it.

Sometimes, the truth can hurt.

When it comes to content operations, the sooner you can recognize that you are the problem, and the faster you’ll be able to crush your next revenue target.

Many companies fail to scale due to a lack of content operational systems that support the creativity.

Too many teams believe that luck will bring them the perfect unicorn writer, marketer, or [insert role here] who will solve all their problems.

The ones who just get it.

It’s not like you ever thought about what “it” was, how to document it, or how specifically to recruit and train people for “it”, so “it” happens 24/7, 365.

It is hard to diagnose this problem if you haven’t seen it before. Here are some clues you can look for:

• You regularly hit your own “glass ceilings”. Quality drops like a rock whenever you increase quantity or volume.
• Because it doesn’t sound right or isn’t as good as possible, your editors will rewrite everything you write.
• It takes too much time for senior and expensive people to review writers, which causes constant problems in finding new writers. Instead of only hiring the top 1%, you have to hire the top 10% of candidates and weed out the rest.
• Because each person would be describing subjective elements such as voice or tone in a completely different way, your team members may give contradicting feedback to you.
• Because they must correct basic image formatting and update primary sources, editors can spend hours editing one piece. This means that their weekly output is often only a fraction of what it should be.

Do any of these sound familiar?

It should.

The biggest problem with this is that they can sabotage your SEO success, killing output, speed, and maiming the morale.

But don’t stress.

These issues have been occurring over the past decade, and we’ve made the same mistakes countless times. We now have a framework that can optimize operations.

This is an overview graphic. Then we’ll get into detail about each section.

1. Role specialization

Great writers are terrible editors and bad content managers.

Why?

The best writers are able to express the same thing multiple ways because they have the ability to ingeniously say it.

Editors should do the opposite and strive for consistency and uniformity.

Managers are what keep the two big-picture and daily goals of the three aligned.

Also, it means that there are many different skill sets that can be forced into one person by too many teams.

It’s the Michael Scott issue. Amazing paper salesman. Funny TV character. Terrible regional manager.

The military is the most unlikely of all places.

Even professional kitchens were influenced by the brigade management system.

It allows you to make hundreds of different items in a matter of minutes. This makes it possible for all your food to be prepared simultaneously.

The content teams should be organized in the exact same way.

This begins with seperating your editors, writers, and managers.

As you gain in stature and resources, you can continue to specialize to master every small part of the larger content operation machine. It’s like a huge factory assembly line.

A well-defined workflow would be a great help.

• Strategists focus on strategy.
• Planners plan.
• Writers write.
• Editors edit.
• Coordinate with the producers.

As you grow, you can add designers, video editors, and distribution specialists.

2. Checklists for content quality

This should not be a trick question but it is often:

What would you consider “good content”?

Everyone speaks of the importance and value of good content. It is a concept that can be defined differently by different people.

Ask 10 people within your company and you’ll get 10 answers.

That answer is not good enough, as you can see.

Sorry for being blunt. The odds of landing safely are higher if you don’t have radar to guide you.

Documenting a quality checklist is the minimum requirement. It’s not tomorrow or next week.

It should also include the overall structure and details of each section, from word counts to source preferences, to image criteria.

You’ll be able to work faster if you have a more detailed starting point.

• For writers to train.
• Editing time can be reduced.
• Boost ROI (better results with less investment).

The second lesson is to tell.

Your acceptable angles are a great example.

Make sure to be specific. List the things you love and don’t like.

Because it brings everyone together, we’re talking OCD levels in organization.

Your life will be easier if everyone is on the same page.

It is almost automatic to fire and hire. Everyone is aware of the expectations and aligned. There are no dumb questions or stupid arguments.

You never know. You might even get your weekends back to yourself!

These trickle-down effects can be magical.

Senior editors provide a one-hour guideline.

They should not spend more than an hour editing articles. If they do, it is a sign that the writer has made a mistake. The problems should be reported and sent back.

We can then review the time of editors across multiple pieces (or clients, or writers) and spot operational problems at a moment’s notice.

Editors who spend too much time editing could be entitled to a raise. However, editors who spend too much time editing may not get the pay rise they deserve.

3. Templates, briefs, and outlines that are standardized

Sorry to break the news. However, no SEO or content manager can guarantee the results you want.

Rankings, traffic and leads are all lagging indicators. These indicators are often generated after years of hard work.

This means that we should instead pay attention to the most important indicators.

Exhibit A. What topic should you write?

The answer is what people already search for!

An analysis of search intent can help you determine what people are looking for when they type in a query. These answers are available from Google, which is a good thing.

Start with people Also, ask questions after you type in a question:

Next, search for Related Searches at bottom of SERP to find out how the recommendations may line up to form sections with each piece’s body.

When you do this often across many, if not hundreds of queries within your space, you’ll notice patterns.

Check out, for example, the Table of Contents in these Investopedia articles on compound interest or promissory note.

It’s almost the same structure!

You now have your first content template.

These article structures are consistent and can be used for multiple queries (think “what is …”-style query that could apply across multiple topics or verticals”).

It also allows you to standardize article structures across hundreds of thousands.

If you had 1000 topics to write content on in the next year, these could be broken down into 10 groups of 100.

Each of the 10 groups might have a different template (so 10 templates).

You’ll eventually standardize your content briefs. These will be the backbone for your writers’ outline because they feed them everything, from subheads to keywords to word counts.

Imagine that we are about to write an article about “content planning.”

This will help you to pull together your content brief by referencing all these points of information.

• People also ask questions.
• Similar Searches
• You can read some of the most popular content that is already ranking.
• Content graders can provide semantic keywords.
• More.

Your writers will love standardizing content planning. They won’t have to stare at a blank screen trying to conjure some fluff.

Because they are experts in the design and layout of content, editors will be delighted with you.

You’ll be loved by your SEOs and marketers because you are balancing the difficult task of producing quality content that ranks well.

Your bosses, clients, or anyone else paying the bill will love your work because the product you originally planned is exactly what it will look like at the end.

Your ultimate success is almost certain if you do this consistently for months and years.

It is just a matter how quickly Google rewards your hard work.

4. Guidelines and sources

Shades of gray can only be used in cheesy romance novels or worse movies.

They are not interested in high-performing content machines.

Consider your voice and tone preference. Ask 10 people again and you’ll get ten answers.

Here’s a simple tip. Sometimes it’s easier to see what you don’t like than what you like.

Consider the following sentence:

It’s fine. It’s not great. It’s a bit boring and generic. It’s fine.

Now, change the sentence as follows:

This company is the latest in a long list to be taken over by Endurance International Group (EIG), a huge hosting conglomerate. Or, it’s known as “Where Good Web Hosts Go To Die”.

Are you sure? Probably.

It might be liked by some, but not all. Its vivid language (“gobbled-up”) and power words (“Go to Die”) are great for branding a conversational or humorous brand. However, it might not be suitable for a formal medical brand.

Mailchimp’s detailed documentation is a good example of how to model.

You’ll need to create guides that cover everything, from terminology to vocabulary.

These are words, phrases, or expressions your brand uses that are unique to your industry perspective and that you believe would be more effective than direct or indirect competition.

For instance, do you prefer:

• “Profile picture” or an “avatar?”
• Are you looking for “Example” and “Use case”?
• Do you want to click or press?

It doesn’t really matter which one you choose. It doesn’t matter which one you choose.

These supporting documents should clarify all intangible and unwritten principles that your team practices, even if they don’t know it.

Last, but not least, create a list that your writers can use and a list they should NOT refer to (because they have published incorrect, misleading, confusing or inconsistent information).

You can quickly stamp out any unwritten or intangible items one-by-one, day-after-day, just like a big game Whack-a-Mole. Pretty soon, all shades of grey are left to be replaced by the questionable kinky ones that you have in your spare time.

5. Parallel and batch processes

Let’s get to the end.

Professional kitchens can serve multiple dishes at once using the brigade system. They can also deliver them all to one table at once, each dish cooked to perfection.

They can do more using parallel and batch processes.

Imagine a line cook on the grill. Imagine a line cook at the grill, preparing five different steak cuts for five different tables. They may be using five different cooking times and five different temperatures.

Sounds exhausting, right?

They are so exhausted that they cannot simultaneously prepare pastries and salads. This is the role specialization described in step 1.

Imagine 10 people working in the kitchen at once.

This is how content operations work. You might have one team (writers and editors, SEOs, designers etc.). One team might be working on a content project, while another team (writers editors, SEOs and designers) is also involved. Working on another.

This is the role of the leader

chaos

Choreography is a team sport. You need to ensure that you have the right people and the right systems in place so that quality and output are high.

Instead of micromanaging, meddling, or trying to control every detail, you can now look back from a high position and monitor the process while making subtle adjustments at key stages.

Five key steps to scale content creation and SEO

The content is subjective at the end.

You might like short, snappy, snarky sentences. Your boss may prefer something more formal and factual.

It doesn’t really matter.

It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you and all your coworkers are on the same page.

This seemingly easy but often overlooked point can cause content problems daily and negatively impact your SEO results long-term.

The following five steps will help you optimize your content operations:

• Specify roles in your larger production workflow
• Solidifying quality standards, and examples to illustrate each point
• Production should be standardised from the initial idea through to the final product.
• To clarify intangibles, documentation of supporting guidelines and sources
• It is possible to implement parallel and batch processes so that everyone knows what to do at any given moment.

It’s not always fun or easy. It will take some time to get used to it.

It’s the only way to overcome your own self-imposed limitations and achieve the long-term success that you desire.

Search Engine Land first published the post A 5-step Framework to Scale Your Content Operations and SEO.