Into the Great Unknown - MozCon

In this deck that I delivered at MozCon on July 11, 2022 I took the audience on a three pronged deep dive into topic clustering, innovation work at https://branch.tools / SEO toolbuilding and how to get ahead working in digital.

I shared all kinds of free SEO tools that I built, as well as a cool observablehq tool to look at the output of a set of topic clusters that I built with a combination of Google Trends, Google Sheets, DataForSEO, Semrush API and Google Cloud Functions.

Transcript

1. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
2. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools You gotta earn it.
3. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools GSC (inside out)
4. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools We’d only solved some of the problems.
5. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools GSC (inside out) ??? (Outside in)
6. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Building content is hard.
7. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Especially when there’s no data.
8. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Topics keyword Vs
9. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools a topic = a subject. It’s the thing you’re writing about.
10. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools a keyword = an important word used while talking about a subject.
11. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Keyword Research isn’t the answer.
12. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Resources https://bit.ly/MozCon2022
13. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Here’s our process.
14. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. 2. 3. 4. Client Goals Gather Data Analyze Data Choose Topics
15. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Who is your ideal customer?
16. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools What services do you offer?
17. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools What is most profitable?
18. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools What is a conversion worth?
19. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools How do you make money?
20. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools When do you make your money?
21. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Where do you make your money?
22. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools What questions are tied to conversions?
23. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools What is your sales process?
24. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools How can content support the sales process?
25. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. 2. 3. 4. Client Goals Gather Data Analyze Data Create Topics
26. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools We don’t know what Google knows, we only know what they show us!
27. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Google shows us relationships in a few places.
28. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Knowledge Graph Search API, the SERPs, autocomplete, KWP data & Google Trends.
29. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
30. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
31. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
32. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
33. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Wikipedia
34. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Wikipedia makes up over 67% of the sources for tracked Knowledge Panels. - Kalicube Pro.
35. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
36. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
37. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Related Topics!
38. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools SERPs
39. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Get Related searches + People also ask
40. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Autocomplete
41. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools What is it?
42. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
43. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
44. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Google Trends
45. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query
46. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query 2. Edit geo region to state.
47. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query 2. Edit geo region to state. 3. Download Related topics + Related queries CSVs
48. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query 2. Edit geo region to state. 3. Download Related topics + Related queries CSVs 4. Add the terms to our Google Sheet.
49. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools That would never scale
50. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools You can get the data with APIs.
51. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
52. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Related Queries from Google Trends.
53. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Steps - Get Data
54. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Steps - Get data - Remove irrelevant terms
55. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Steps - Get data - Remove irrelevant terms - Enrich with keyword metrics (via API)
56. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Steps - Get data - Remove irrelevant terms - Enrich with keyword metrics (via API) - Get More Data
57. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Human curation at each step is key.
58. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Bicycle
59. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 22 Search Terms
60. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools After 2 cycles it’s getting useful.
61. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 139 Search Terms
62. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 974 Search Terms
63. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Within 15 minutes you can build something extraordinary.
64. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 4K+ Terms
65. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Pump your brakes.
66. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 4k search terms = messy messy data viz.
67. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. 2. 3. 4. Client Goals Gather Data Analyze Data Create Topics
68. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Force Directed Tree STILL NOT THERE!
69. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Circle Packing CLOSER
70. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Sunburst
71. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Could this help get buy in?
72. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Most SEOs would probably prefer this.
73. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
74. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Clustering Methods
75. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Manually works, but = many hours poring over spreadsheets.
76. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Google Keyword Planner
77. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools A great idea from Nico Brooks
78. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query
79. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query 2. Look at data
80. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query 2. Look at data 3. Add keyword ideas as ad groups
81. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query 2. Look at data 3. Add keyword ideas as ad groups 4. Download campaign
82. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. Enter query 2. Look at data 3. Add keyword ideas as ad groups 4. Download campaign 5. Use it to guide SEO topics.
83. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools SERP Similarity The current tooling gold standard.
84. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Use machine learning to compare search results to cluster search terms into groups or clusters.
85. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Engineering Challenges ARE SIGNIFICANT.
86. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Lee Foot’s Colab
87. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Feed it your CSV + it outputs them into useful clusters.
88. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Elias Dabbas @eliasdabbas creator of advertoolz library
89. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Using Regular expressions, we can build a pretty useful customized classifier.
90. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
91. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Find your way to explore the data that works for you!
92. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools For me, easy analysis = Google Data Studio
93. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
94. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Clusters + their queries
95. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Intent (via API)
96. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Sub-Intent (via custom classifier)
97. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools GSC Trends
98. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Compare your search terms to GSC to find content gaps
99. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools GSC Trends
100. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools This analysis was a piece of cake in count.co
101. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools GSC Trends
102. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools
103. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools thanks to @jroakes for the framing. Position Bucketing (via GSC)
104. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools 1. 2. 3. 4. Client Goals Gather Data Analyze Data Create Topics
105. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Target topics that: - align to client goals
106. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Target topics that: - align to client goals - have high search volume
107. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Target topics that: - align to client goals - have high search volume - have conversion intent
108. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Target topics that: - align to client goals - have high search volume - have conversion intent - and we can rank for.
109. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Target topics that: - align to client goals - have high search volume - have conversion intent - and we can rank for.
110. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Build internal links to match the related queries we found in Trends.
111. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools What’s Next?
112. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Build content briefs
113. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Publish content
114. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Use GSC data to optimize
115. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools You gotta earn it.
116. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools You gotta earn it.
117. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Resources https://bit.ly/MozCon2022
118. noahlearner #MozCon branch.tools Stay in touch! noah@twooctobers.com linkedin.com/in/noahlearner/ @noahlearner @thekraken