Think about it: When was the last time you clicked through on a blog post that was over a year old? #1: Create Your Tentpole(s) The tentpole content is the big asset that the rest of your strategy will be supporting. What will make your content into a tentpole instead of a blog post are a few distinguishing features: A tentpole should be between 1500 and 3000 words. Your tentpole will cover multiple aspects of your topic, divided into 250-300 word sections, each section based on long-tail keywords. Your tentpole will not live on your blog. If you have multiple topics that you can cover in depth and at length, create a pole for each one. #2: Create Your Stakes Your “stakes” are blog posts that will connect to the tentpole, driving traffic to it from your blog and boosting the blog’s SEO as well. There are several ways to create a supporting stake: Take one 200-300 word section and expand it with supplemental material to 750 words or so, as the content requires Cover a related topic that naturally links to your tentpole Create an announcement post for the tentpole launch Do an influencer roundup on a topic related to your tentpole Each stake should have a CTA to the tentpole. As you develop more tentpoles, look for opportunities to link them together. Come All!” Support your tentpole launch with all the amplifying force you have: Use stats or quotes to make social media ads Publish excerpts (or one of your stakes in its entirety) on sites like LinkedIn and Medium Encourage influencer amplification Seek out guest posting opportunities These promotional efforts will build on your tentpole’s native SEO value, giving it some momentum that will help build external links and bring in organic results.
For over a decade now, the fundamental unit of content marketing has been the blog post. Your post may be a block of text, an infographic, or a listicle about memes, but the underlying structure is the same. A regular cadence of posts to the company blog is the foundation of most content marketing strategies.
The problem is, each individual blog post has only a small window of effectiveness for SEO. A post might go viral, get hundreds of shares, and then sit in your archives for eternity. Identifying and promoting evergreen content can get more mileage out of a good post. But by nature and design, these posts aren’t built to be an enduring SEO resource. Think about it: When was the last time you clicked through on a blog post that was over a year old?
That’s not to say you should stop blogging altogether, of course. Blogs generate subscribers, help promote gated assets, contribute to thought leadership—all worthwhile goals for content marketers. But as SEO continues to evolve, it’s time for new models of SEO-driven content.
At TopRank Marketing, we’ve been working on a new way to integrate SEO and content to build longer-lasting, more valuable resources. Essentially, it’s reverse-engineering evergreen content, purposefully building well-supported “tentpole” content with SEO baked in.
Here’s how to design a content strategy I’m calling the “Big Top” model.
#1: Create Your Tentpole(s)
The tentpole content is the big asset that the rest of your strategy will be supporting. It should be a comprehensive take on a single topic relevant to your business and your audience, one with plenty of opportunities to crosslink with supporting content.
Research topics and keywords for your tentpole the way you would any best answer content: listen to customers, evaluate competing content, and use tools like Bloomberry and UberSuggest.
What will make your content into a tentpole instead of a blog post are a few distinguishing features:
- A tentpole should be between 1500 and 3000 words.
- Your tentpole will cover multiple aspects of your topic, divided into 250-300 word sections, each section based on long-tail keywords.
- This last one is key. Your tentpole will not live on your blog. It should have a…
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