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Good morning, spring chickens.

Speaking of spring... it has definitely sprung, at least in central Indiana.

And I'm here for the 65° days and extra sunshine. I hope you're seeing warmer, brighter days, too.

Today's note is a Q&A with a fellow digital ag content professional -- Tanner Reed of AgSEO & AgSocial.

Tanner and I crossed paths during the growth of Magnetic Ag and I've always been impressed with his breadth of knowledge when it comes to optimizing content for SEO, specifically for ag-based groups.

Today, we partner together to bring companies fully-optimized content strategies that capture SEO traffic and grow audiences.

*If this type of work is on your radar, simply shoot me a note (travis@imagine-content.com) and we can chat.

See the whole Q&A below!

Today's estimated read time: 3.4 minutes

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Three Question's with AgSEO's Tanner Reed

1. Are there any common missed SEO opportunities you see for agriculture companies?

The most common missed opportunity is not having a content strategy. The second most common is having a vague content strategy.

This leads organizations to create content for the sake of creating content. You see this on websites that are full of content with no cohesive purpose.

Before publishing content, you should answer a few key questions:

• Who is this for?
• Are my customers actively searching for what we’re publishing?
• Where are they in the buyer journey?

In 'SEO speak,' we call this keyword research and search intent. Understanding user search intent allows marketers to optimize their content around topics and products that their target market is actively searching for.

If you’re already publishing content, the good news is that you can leverage your current site data in Google Search Console to see what topics your audience wants you to cover. Most established sites receive impressions but no clicks on certain relevant topics.

This means Google is ranking your site but your content doesn’t satisfy the user intent of that keyword/query. Look into tweaking current content for those terms or publishing new content optimized for those terms.

The third most common missed opportunity has to do with not having Google Search Console or Google Analytics installed at all.

What gets measured gets managed...

2. How do you see SEO for ag companies changing in the future?

AI will further commoditize certain types of content. The flip side of that coin is that content that showcases real human expertise will become even more valuable.

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This isn't to say that AI should be ignored. I think AI will become a tool that saavy organizations use to aid the production side of content (think content briefs, standard operating procedures, research, etc).
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We may also see the rise of "AI Prompt Engineer" type roles popup in many organizations.
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Meanwhile, from a search perspective, the value of content showcasing real world experience will continue to grow. Organizations that merge video with their SEO strategy will come out on top. This isn't exactly new but I do see more ag companies investing in this in the future.

3. Let's say an ag company is new to SEO. What are some solid first steps to understanding its potential for their corner of the industry?

For an established brand, leverage your existing website data to understand how your customers are currently finding you online.

Some examples:

• Check keyword volume and trend data to gauge demand and understand if SEO/content is worth the investment.
• Look for keywords that you rank at the bottom of page 1 or on page 2. Start there and optimize those pages for the quickest bang for your buck.

SEO for a brand new site looks very different from SEO for an established site. If you're starting from scratch, you'll want to rely on competitor data to gauge the viability of an SEO campaign. For this you'll need to use 3rd party tools AHrefs or SEMrush.

Another tactic: Plug in your competitors URL to those tools. What do they rank for? What keywords are they bidding on?

Use those terms as seed phrases for your new site and content strategy. From there, you can build out a content calendar that lists topics, keyword search volume, user intent, etc.

You'll never lack for content ideas. Even better, you'll know exactly why you publish what you publish.

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