content-planning

Content planning

When deciding what to write, before writing it:

• Start from why someone buys, not from a keyword list. A topic earns a place if it either answers a question a buyer actually has or shows the product doing the thing they're stuck on. Volume without either is traffic that never converts.
• Know which kind of piece you're writing. Searchable content answers a query someone typed and lives or dies on being findable: it needs the question in the title, a direct answer near the top, and durable structure. Shareable content earns attention on its own: an opinion, original data, a story with a specific outcome. Optimizing one as though it were the other produces a piece that does neither.
• Match the piece to where the reader is:
  • Unaware of the problem: symptoms, not solutions. Name the thing they're experiencing.
  • Comparing approaches: how the options actually differ, including where yours is the wrong choice.
  • Comparing products: specifics. Pricing, migration, limits, what breaks.
  • Already sold: implementation, onboarding, getting to value.
• Group topics rather than listing them. Pick a few pillars the team wants to be known for, then write clusters of related pieces under each that link to one another. Ten pieces on three pillars beats thirty scattered ones, because the cluster compounds and the scatter doesn't.
• Check a topic isn't already covered before adding it. Two pieces answering the same question split the traffic and neither wins; strengthening the existing piece usually beats writing a second.
• Prioritize honestly. The best next piece is the one with real demand, a clear tie to the product, and evidence you can actually get. When you're missing the evidence, either go find it or pick a different topic.

Read references/buyer-stage-topics.md for questions to mine at each stage and where to find them.