I Don’t Know What To Write About? What Should I Do? An SEO/GEOs Guide for Content Strategy

So, you’re eager to create some content for SEO/GEO purposes, but you’re not sure what topic to focus on? That’s not an unusual problem.

In the olden days of SEO, the answer was pretty simple: do some keyword research.

That can still work today, as can finding alternatives to keyword research.

However, I think there’s a better way; a way that leads you to creating more original, helpful, and people-first (yet agent-ready) content.

I’m talking about brainstorming the old-fashioned way, as well as using your expertise, perspective, and whatever original data sources are at your disposal.

First things first … the content you create should align with your audience’s needs (search intent) and overlap with your area of expertise.

Following this logic is the first way to come up with new topics to create content for.

If the topic isn’t relevant to the goals along the buyer’s journey of your target audience, it’s unlikely to have much business value for you.

Meanwhile, if you don’t have the knowledge to say anything unique and original about the topic, you’ll likely end up with commodity content, which is the opposite of what search engines and AI assistants aim to reward.

To get started, map out the buyer’s journeys of your target personas. What steps would they take, questions would they ask, or needs would they try to fulfill? And which of those are you qualified to speak about? That alone will help you narrow down your content ideation to a list of topics that have actual potential to grow your brand awareness or even earn conversions.

If you’re still stuck, turn to original data sources.

Search engines and AI assistants often love original research and perspectives, especially when they’re relevant to the queries or prompts users are searching. This is because unique information has value, and the visibility from that benefits the brand who shares it.

Sources of original data can be all around you, from your customer call transcripts to the tools you use. (For example, I once wrote an article about query fanout behavior based on my tracked prompts.) You can even use an AI assistant to brainstorm creative ways to present that data to your audience.

Having said all of that, if you’re still not coming up with any topics to create content for, try the following:

1. Look for relevant or even common questions no one is answering very well.

Do some searches for queries or prompts you think your audience might research and check the sources. Where do they fall short? Could you improve upon them with your own version?

The downside of this approach is you’re competing in a crowded topical space, but the upside is you already know it’s likely a relevant topic with notable search volume and potential business value for you.

2. Turn everyday professional experiences into content.

Think about the problems you encountered at work this week. Did you learn anything while solving them? Your audience may be curious to learn alongside you through a case study.

The downside of this type of content is it can be quite niche, but that’s also the positive side: very few other brands are likely to have similar content to your case study. Plus, case studies are a great way to highlight your expertise and experience.

3. Challenge assumptions and conventional wisdom.

Search engines and AI assistants tend to learn the consensus view on a topic, so you don’t want to come flat out and say, “the sky is green,” as that’s unlikely to get you very far.

Having said that, what you can do is explain the common assumption in your industry and then lend your perspective to it, either reinforcing it with your viewpoint or contradicting aspects of it based on your own experience.

Just remember to stay true with this type of content; the world doesn’t need any more “shock value” pieces.

4. Update your existing content or find new content ideas in your performance data.

Check your analytics to find articles that are getting impressions but not ranking in the top positions, or pages that your log files say are commonly crawled by AI bots but not often cited, as these can be optimization opportunities.

You can get just as much, if not more, value for your business by keeping your top-performing content fresh as you can creating new pieces.

That said, while you’re looking at the query data for existing content, you may discover queries that the content doesn’t address directly. Those can be opportunities for new content topics and can help contribute to your topical authority in that area, especially with internal linking.

Here’s an example of how to select a topic:

Let’s say we know our audience might ask, “Why isn’t my content appearing in AI-generated answers?”

We can then lean on our personal/professional observations, like how we may have seen pages receive AI bot visits without appearing in answers for tracked prompts.

That can lead us to develop an original content topic, such as “What AI Crawler Activity Can and Can’t Tell Us About AI Search Visibility.”

Such a topic aligns with the buyer’s journey of our target audience and overlaps with our professional expertise.

Once you have your topics picked out, prioritize them.

Strategize which topics should come first based on audience relevance and business alignment.

To take it a step further, ask which topics involve original contributions, have demand signals, offer competitive differentiation, or are the most feasible for you.

Especially if you’re building a content calendar, you’ll want to prioritize the topics so you’re not spending early or high effort on topics with, for example, the least business alignment.

Lastly, remember that it’s not about creating content for the sake of it; it’s about creating value for users and the web.

Having something worthwhile to say is more important than publishing frequency. (You’d be surprised how many sites can improve their visibility by deleting or merging low-value content that was created at scale.)

Also, there can be just as much, if not more, value in updating existing content than creating new content.

But if you are determined to create new content, follow the basic principle that the topics you choose align with your target audience’s buyer’s journey and overlap with your expertise. Just having that alone will help ensure you create content with business value.

Outro

A good question to ask yourself before creating content is: if AI assistants can reproduce widely available knowledge, what can your brand contribute that is new?

I mentioned keyword research in the beginning. The reason I’m not hot about it is because it’s the same data other creators are often working from as well. This typically leads everyone to search the top results for their chosen query and summarize from the same sources, creating similar content. Incorporating fanout queries is one way to introduce more diversity, given their probabilistic nature, but I still like the old-school tactic of brainstorming for yourself.

If you want guidance with your SEO/GEO strategies (including creating content), feel free to contact me. I’m an independent consultant helping brands and agencies.

Until next time, enjoy the vibes:

Thanks for reading. Happy optimizing!

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