Does The Holy Grail for Content Marketing Exist Yet? – CognitiveSEO Review

What is the “holy grail” for Content Marketing? The answer is:  The ability to predictably say that if you target a keyword with a specific criteria, and produce an article that meets certain specifications, you will be “guaranteed” to rank in the top 10 of Google.  

Today we look at how CognitiveSEO can help in this quest!

The “Holy Grail” of Content Marketing might be a long shot, but we are always using our unique position of publishing A LOT of quality articles on great sites with Content Refined to try and come closer to understanding the variables that will rank your content with certainty on search engines. With the sheer number of articles published, along with access to data science talent, we were able to perform a multivariable regression analysis that we think it is worth pursuing.

In this article, we are going to talk about the results from one specific tool that can provide more metrics about both the keyword and content quality compared to almost any other tool on the market. 

CognitiveSEO provides an amazing array of metrics for data driven content marketers to dig into and analyze against the performance of their content. Where you would need data from several different tools such a SEMRush, MarketMuse and Ahrefs etc., CognitiveSEO consolidates a lot of that functionality into one super awesome tool. A great solution for those who have too many ongoing SAAS subscriptions already (I’ve been so guilty of this). 

So by using just CognitiveSEO, what are the metrics that would “guarantee” a ranking in the top 10? Come on a stats adventure with us.

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY
GIF – Indiana Jones

Stats Disclaimer – Before we get dig too deeply into these numbers, it’s important that we share what some of the statistical performance was for these. 

The Keyword Monthly Volume, Content Performance, Article Word Count and URL Character length are the most valuable variables to analyze. Analyzing  50+ regression scenarios,12.42% r square is the best regression result available using a majority of only CognitiveSEO’s Variables. The best single regression variable, content performance, achieved an r squared value of 4.4%. In most successful multi regression analysis, a variable ” anchor” is needed to drive line of best fit. This seems to be missing as the most successful single regression variable only has 4.4% correlation to google rankings, making it hard to fit the rest of the data to variable with little fit. Actionable insights are still achieved and are explained below. 

Actionable Insights: 

If you are trying to create content that will predictably rank on google, according to CognitiveSEO, you want to follow these guidelines. 

Metrics: 

Minimum Conditions:

  • Keyword difficulty should be at least 17
  • Content performance score should be at least  51
  • The readability score should be at least 47
  • Minimum article length should be 250 words

Ideal Conditions: 

  • Keyword difficulty should be at least 17
  • Content performance score should be at least 85
  • The readability score should be at least 65
  • Minimum article length should be 1400 words

I checked to see if one of my best ranking pages met this criteria, and check out my findings below! 

My article “How to Build a PBN” is a great example of this. This article does really well–it has 10 keywords ranking in the top 3 spots on Google and it has been picked up for Google’s featured snippet for this article. 

In this case all of the “Ideal” Criteria were met!

  • Keyword difficulty should be at least 17
    • For my Keyword it was 37
  • Content performance score should be at least 85
    • Our content performance score was 97
  • The readability score should be at least 65
    • Ours was 75
  • Minimum article length should be 1400 words
    • We went big with this one and it was 14,743 words long! 

Conclusion: 

So what does this mean? Have we “cracked the code” of content marketing? According to this data analysis (which has pulled on hundreds of articles written by Content Refined) we are able to predict that if the ideal conditions of an article are met, you should be able to rank in the top 10 of Google. We’ve given you the Holy Grail–so give CognitiveSEO a try for yourself and really step up your game in the world of content marketing.

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How to Promote your Service with Affiliates–The Right Way

This post is to serve a couple purposes… 

  • First: I hope to show that if you have a valuable service this is a way to get people on board to help promote it. 
  • Second: This is where I am going to send people who reach out with messages like, “Hey you don’t know me, but promote my course/app/service so I can make lots of money”. It can be mildly frustrating when we receive these messages. 

At the bottom of this post we will share some resources on how you can achieve similar results in terms of impressive traffic increase that Doug Cunnington achieved to his sites.

End Result:

The end result of this effort was…

  1. 12.83% increase in page views to the upgraded articles (in 4 weeks)
  2. Doug’s niche site’s organic traffic is now at an all time high (see image below)
  3. A great article explaining the strategy that resulted in that traffic increase
  4. $8,388.00 in sales from 7 new customers for Content Refined

Strategy Overview:

At ContentRefined Maddie and her team developed a process called the Pareto Upgrade where they identify the content to upgrade that will have the biggest impact and be able to predictably show an increase in traffic quickly.

Doug Cunnington is a contact in the space who runs a site called NicheSiteProject

During a conversation with him we were comparing notes on what was working now with his sites and what we were learning from all the data analysis ContentRefined does. From that discussion an idea was born to take one of his sites, identify and complete several upgrades and share the results.

Based on those results, we completed an interview and case study post at Doug’s site you can see here.

The results of a value first approach was a win for Doug’s site, win for his audience and a win for ContentRefined. This is an example of the type of affiliate relationship of ‘value first’ that we prefer to do.

The business benefit to ContentRefined was significant with over $8k in sales and 7 well-qualified new customers we will be able to help! 

Results:

Doug Cunnington’s Case Study

Results for Content Refined: $8,388.00 and 7 new customers

Doug Cunnington made $838.80 in Affiliate Earnings

5 Key Lessons Re-Learned:

  1. Always seek to add value first. 
  2. Give away all the information of a strategy so anyone can execute it themselves.
  3. Reaching a new audience is most efficiently done working with someone who already has an audience.
  4. The people who see the largest benefit of Content Refined’s offering are profitable niche site owners.
  5. Content Upgrades continue to blow me away with how fast they work, how well they work and how consistently they drive an increase in traffic.

Want Similar Increase in Traffic As Doug Achieved?

  1. Do it yourself – Here is a detailed step by step guide – Pareto Upgrade Strategy
  2. Have the experts at Content Refined do it for you – contact ContentRefined

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Boring is Sexy – Business Model Analysis

I have occasionally had posts on here over the years that reflect my evolving thinking on business and business strategy.

Today’s post I want to reflect on what I have learned over the last 2 years, as I shifted much of my focus to adbank and blade – then came back to do a deep assessment on the health of the other businesses.

This was a unique opportunity for me because I got to come back to some parts of the business with what felt like cold eyes- and really review what was working and what was not working. What businesses stood the test of time, what businesses improved and which ones got their asses kicked!

What businesses Struggled, which were Stable & which Thrived?

Struggled

  • Portfolio of sites – minimal/no management and most struggled
  • My personal site (AuthorityWebsiteIncome) – Not posting for 6 months doesn’t help!
  • FBA Business without a manager

Stable

  • Boring SAAS business – LE has continued to be stable with 0 effort in years
  • Some very evergreen hyper niche content sites were stable
  • Evergreen ecommerce business with minimal management
  • LightningRank.com – Kelley was able to keep this business stable

Thrived

  • Content Refined – With Madeleine as the manager in place and properly incentivized -Content Refined continued to thrive
  • BrandBuilders – Manager in place properly incentivized to grow the business
  • FBA Business with a Manager

What is the key Takeaway – Boring is Sexy!

The only projects that survived/thrived were ones that had a manager in place or were boring/evergreen businesses (either SAAS or content).

What does this mean for the future of my online businesses. Here is how this review impacts my plans moving forward by business type…

  • Content Sites – Boring evergreen niches or divest other sites that require more active management
  • SAAS Portfolio – Focus area for growth with proper management in place from the start
  • Productized Services – If the manager is well aligned and the customer acquisition channels are diversified this model can be very stable.
  • AuthorityWebsiteIncome – There is a need for my increased involvement – which is great as I really enjoy it!

The key takeaway is that boring is sexy when it comes to long term stable success!

This is not a unique insight and one that is supported by the most successful conglomerates for many decades.

For example…

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway does not need a lot of introduction. Many people know the basics of how Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger applying a relatively unchanged set of investing principales from Omaha have outperformed pretty much everyone over the last 50+ years and grown it into a monster with them becoming 2 of the wealthiest people alive.

I have long been a fan of everything Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffet, I highly recommend reading The Snowball, Warren Buffet and the Interpretation of Financial Statements and Berkshire Beyond Buffet along with his annual shareholder letters.

The key takeaways we can apply to online businesses is a focus on

  • Decentralized great management with minimal overhead at main office
  • Focus on the very long term
  • Don’t be afraid to go against the crowd

Constellation Software

Constellation Software is a relatively unknown Canadian company that doesn’t make a lot of noise but has achieved phenomenal results (over 1 decade of stable 30% annualized return on invested capital). They focus on boring low churn B2B SAAS businesses.  To get a real sense of the business I recommend the 10 years of president letters (here). The CEO and CFO did a deep dive looking at the high performing conglomerates and shared the insights in the 2016 and 2017 letters which were very telling.

Key Traits:

  • Decentralized management
  • Focus on cost and a few key metrics for operating units (CEO is 6’4” and flies coach)
  • Capital allocation rigor bordering on fanaticism – not being afraid to walk away from deals that don’t meet their hurdles and not bending those hurdles for years!

3G Capital

The 3G Way, Dream Big and True Power (tougher to get through) all provide a great insight into the management system and culture behind 3G Capital.

Key Traits:

  • Fanatical focus on costs (CEO is on the road 200+ days a year and flies coach)
  • More centralized than constellation or Berkshire
  • Meritocracy with A LOT of responsibility placed on managers

Another similar company to these above many haven’t heard of is ESW Capital (great story in Forbes here) who share many of the same traits but is arguably the most centralized out of the list.

What do all these high performing companies have in common…

  • Fanatical focus on controlling/cutting costs but with above market compensation to top performers
  • Disciplined focus on a set of key metrics, the metrics are not always the same
  • Mostly decentralized with much responsibility to the business managers

Hopefully this honest assessment of what businesses struggled, which were able to stay stable and which ones thrived is useful. The similarity of the traits the businesses that thrived shared with the example companies is very telling.

I look forward to continued sharing on what is working and not working across all my projects.

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Summer Content Plan Failure and How to Fix!

My content’s predictable summer crash and how I’m overcoming it this year.

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3 Actionable Steps to Take Today to Improve Your Content Plan

Takeaways from some research on content audits. Looking at your website and your competition’s content to assess what articles you need to be building out for your niche.

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