How to Create Google-Optimized Content with Ryo Chiba, Ep #74

Among startup founders, Ryo Chiba’s story is unique. He wasn’t a prodigy, nor did he develop a world-changing technology in his garage. His first coding class was in college, and he found himself working on technical and creative challenges. Over time, his work grew to become a marketing technology app called TINT. The company grew to 40 full-time employees, millions in annual revenue, and 1000+ customers in 172 countries.

Ryo’s expertise is in understanding Google, how traffic translates into website visits, and how to optimize content to attract Google’s attention (and therefore land high in search results). Now he’s working on a new project called TOPIC, which The Content Callout team has been experimenting with within our quest to find the best tools for our content creation efforts. Listen to learn what’s needed to write a great blog, how AI can help with content generation, content creators’ common mistakes and how to create Google-optimized content.

Outline of This Episode

• [1:24] Ryo’s three rapid-fire tips for those starting out
• [3:35] What is needed to write a good blog?
• [6:30] The advances in AI and how it can help create great content
• [10:02] Common mistakes in Google-optimized content creation
• [14:40] The next move for Topic: Detailed outline to full-blown articles

How to get your content marketing off the ground

If you are a startup or new to the world of content marketing, you can do things to gain traction quickly and other things that won’t help you at all. You must understand the difference and figure out how to execute what matters. Ryo says the priority for every business seeking to leverage content marketing is to increase your “content velocity.” This means you need to publish great content more often. It’s the only way to get off the ground, gain feedback, and make changes to optimize your efforts.

How do you do that? You have to delegate. As a founder, you can’t be the one creating every blog post, whitepaper, or downloadable. But HOW you delegate is vitally important. Ryo says you need to give those you delegate to the resources they need to do the job well. He suggests highly detailed outlines and briefs that provide the skeleton your writers will flesh out. He believes that the more valuable information you give them at the outset, the better they will do.

Finally, train them to write for people, not for Google. Focus on the reader more because user engagement signals are what Google measures these days. When Google “believes” the content adds value to readers, it ranks that content higher. Ryo shares so much valuable information in this conversation—so make sure you have a listen!

What is needed to write a good blog?

Contrary to popular belief, blog posts are still a valid and effective way to visit those looking for your niche or topics. But Google works differently than it used to, relying more on searcher intent and actions than keywords and page structure. Ryo says it’s for that reason that you need to check Google SERP to discover what your audience is searching for. Research the results page and analyze the top results. You should discern basic searcher intent from the information you find there.

The outcome is that you produce great content that searchers want. And don’t forget to look at regionalized versions of your SERPs. You may find niche content for your geographic region that other companies overlook.

Common mistakes when it comes to Google-optimized content creation

When asked about the most common SEO mistakes creators are making these days, Ryo answers without hesitation: It’s failing to listen to your audience. He points this out based on the means Google uses to rank posts in 2022 — searcher intent and page value. If you can find out what your audience is searching for, you can create exactly what they want and need.

Don’t miss this conversation. Ryo’s insights are uncommon and right on target.

Resources & People Mentioned

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