SEO services
SEO Content Strategy That Starts by Deciding What Not to Publish
Most content plans are a calendar with a posting target. Mine start from the query clusters your buyers search, decide which ones a page on your site can win and convert, and say plainly what should be merged, rewritten or deleted before anything new gets written.
- years in SEO
- 6+
- client websites worked on
- 60+
- person doing the work
- 1
SEO content strategy: why publishing more is the costliest way to stand still
An SEO content strategy decides which search topics deserve a page on your site, what each page must contain to win, and what happens to the content you already have. The sites I audit rarely lack content. They have too much of the wrong kind: hundreds of blog posts, a small share of which get any search traffic and fewer still ever lead to an enquiry. Posts written to hit a monthly quota, on topics picked because a tool showed volume, with nowhere for the reader to go next.
Search engines judge sites as a whole as well as page by page, so a large body of thin or outdated content can weigh on the pages you care about. Readers notice too. A clinic blog with medical claims nobody has checked in years, or an accountancy site whose tax guides still quote last year's thresholds, damages trust faster than having no blog at all.
This work picks up from a finished cluster map; how that map gets built - pulling queries, grouping them, scoring them - is covered under keyword research. A page that ranks and converts nobody is a cost, not an asset, so the strategy is judged on what each piece moves readers towards. It suits teams with a writer, an in-house marketer or an agency ready to produce, who need direction on what to write and in what order.
Key takeaways
- Content strategy starts from query clusters and intent, not a publishing frequency. Covering the right clusters beats producing more posts.
- Each funnel stage maps to a search intent, and each intent needs its own content type with its own next step for the reader.
- In YMYL sectors - legal, health, finance, insurance - content needs a named, qualified author or reviewer and a review date, or it should not go live.
- The engagement hands your writers briefs and an editorial plan with owners and dates, plus a decision for every existing URL: keep, improve, merge or remove.
- Pruning, merging and rewriting what you already have is often a faster win than publishing new pages.
What's included in my SEO content strategy work
Six deliverables your writers or editor can act on without me in the room, usually starting with the inventory and the cluster model.
A content inventory with a keep, improve, merge or remove call per URL
Before anything new is planned, every existing URL gets a decision based on its traffic, its links and the cluster it serves. Pages sitting on page two or three for a valuable cluster are usually the quickest win on the whole site, so they go to the top of the list, and pages quoting outdated prices or rules are fixed before new pieces are commissioned.
- Keep: pages that rank, earn relevant clicks and match a mapped cluster
- Improve: page-two and page-three pages for clusters worth winning
- Merge: pages competing for one cluster, folded into the strongest URL
- Remove or noindex: thin, syndicated or off-topic posts with no traffic or links
- Redirects for removed URLs with backlinks, to the closest relevant page
Topic clusters and an internal linking model that feeds your money pages
From the cluster map I choose which topics deserve a page, which page leads each cluster, and how supporting guides pass readers and authority up to the service, category or product page that converts. Each cluster is weighed on intent, value, how beatable the current results are and whether you have the expertise to say something better.
- A lead page and supporting pages named for each cluster
- Link paths from guides up to service, category and product pages
- Clusters not worth chasing, with the reason written down
- Clusters a competitor owns where you have no page at all
Content briefs your writers can draft from without guessing
Every new or rewritten page gets a proper brief rather than a title and a target keyword. It sets the angle, a question-led outline, the entities and sources to cover, the internal links in and out, and the step the reader is offered next: a related guide at the problem stage, a cost or comparison page at the solution stage, a consultation or quote near the decision.
- Angle and the search intent it answers
- Question-led H2 and H3 outline
- Entities, terms and sources to cover
- Internal links in and out, with suggested anchors
- The reader's next step, sized to their stage
Author and reviewer rules for legal, health, finance and insurance topics
In YMYL sectors a page should not go live without a named, qualified author or reviewer, visible credentials and a review date. I set out who drafts, who reviews and who signs off for each content type, then size the plan to the review time your practitioners can realistically give, because rushed sign-off is where regulated content goes wrong.
- Named author and reviewer for each content type
- Credentials and review dates shown on the page
- Interview-led drafting when practitioners cannot write
- Claims and advertising rules flagged for your compliance lead
Content types that still earn clicks when AI answers the easy questions
AI Overviews and answer engines now absorb many simple definitional queries, so the plan moves budget towards pieces a summary cannot replace. Being cited inside those answers is its own discipline, covered under AI search optimisation; here the question is which pieces still deserve a writer's time.
- First-hand experience from real jobs, cases or projects
- Local and jurisdiction detail that general answers get wrong
- Decision and comparison content rather than definitions
- Original data, calculators, checklists and specification tables
- Pieces close to a purchase, where the reader still needs a provider
A rolling editorial calendar plus a refresh schedule for time-sensitive pages
The calendar follows cluster priority, not a posting frequency, and every line carries an owner, a reviewer and a due date. Pages that depend on tax years, prices, regulations or product ranges get their own refresh dates, so they are updated when the facts change rather than after traffic has already dropped.
- A shared sheet with owner, reviewer and due date per piece
- Refresh dates for deadline, price and rule-driven pages
- Reporting on enquiries and next-step clicks, not sessions alone
Experience
SEO Content Strategy from someone who has done it many times
You work with me from the first call to the last report. No account managers, no hand-offs to a junior team.
Book a free call- years in SEO
- 6+
- client websites worked on
- 60+
- documented case studies
- 35
Content Strategy by industry
The method stays the same. The queries, the competitors and what a lead looks like do not.
Content Strategy for lawyers
Practice-area clusters built around the stages of a matter, written for one jurisdiction at a time and signed by a named lawyer, so guides lead readers towards the practice page that handles their situation.
Read moreContent Strategy for healthcare
Condition and treatment clusters with clinician review, visible review dates and references, written within the advertising rules for treatments and medicines that apply in your market.
Read moreContent Strategy for home services
Problem diagnosis, cost guides and seasonal maintenance content tied to bookable job pages, with local permit and regulation detail that a national publisher cannot match.
Read moreContent Strategy for accountants
Client-type and deadline content refreshed every tax year and rule change, replacing syndicated newsletters with guides that show the firm understands contractors, landlords or online sellers specifically.
Read moreContent Strategy for insurance agencies
Coverage explainers by line of business, claims guides and risk content written within financial promotion and state advertising rules, saying more than the carrier's own policy summary ever will.
Read moreContent Strategy for architects
Project journey content on planning, costs, timelines and process, with case studies told as narratives that show how a project moved from brief to completion.
Read moreContent Strategy for e-commerce
Buying guides, comparisons and care content linked tightly to categories, plus category copy that helps a shopper choose between products rather than repeating the category name.
Read moreContent Strategy for B2B
Problem, solution, specification and alternatives content for each member of the buying committee, kept ungated where it needs to rank and connected to the pages where sales conversations start.
Read moreFunnel stage, search intent and the content that fits
Each stage of the buying journey shows up as a search intent. The content type and the next step change with it. The example queries deliberately cross industries.
| Stage | Intent | Example queries | Content that works | Next step offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Problem aware | Informational | "why is my boiler losing pressure"; "do I need to register for VAT"; "what causes knee pain when running" | Diagnostic guides, explainers, checklists written or reviewed by a practitioner | Related guide, simple tool or checklist, soft link to the matching service |
| Solution aware | Informational to commercial | "loft conversion vs extension"; "term vs whole life insurance"; "ERP for small manufacturers" | Comparison guides, decision frameworks, cost guides | Service or category page that sells the option they lean towards |
| Choosing a provider or product | Commercial investigation | "best family law firm in Bristol"; "Xero accountant for contractors"; "best standing desk for tall people" | Service pages with proof, buyer's guides, honest comparisons and case studies | Consultation, quote request or shortlist |
| Ready to act | Transactional | "book physio appointment"; "commercial roof repair quote"; "buy oak dining table" | Service, location, product and category pages - content supports them rather than replaces them | Call, book, buy or request a quote |
| Existing customer | Navigational | "[brand] client portal"; "[brand] returns"; "[brand] claims number" | Help, support and account pages that are easy to find | Self-service, plus a route to upsell or refer |
How content strategy changes by industry
The cluster method stays the same; the topics, the review process and the typical failure do not.
| Industry | What changes in the content plan | The trap most sites fall into |
|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | Clusters by practice area and stage of matter, written for one jurisdiction at a time, with a named lawyer as author or reviewer. | A legal news blog that comments on cases and law changes nobody searches for, with no route to a practice page. |
| Healthcare | Condition and treatment clusters with clinician review, review dates and references; advertising rules on treatments and medicines shape what can be said. | Health content published without clinical review and never updated, which is a trust problem for both patients and search engines. |
| Home services | Problem diagnosis, cost guides, seasonal maintenance and local regulations such as permits or building control, tied to job-type pages. | Generic tips posts that could be on any trade's site anywhere, with nothing local and no link to a bookable job. |
| Accountants | Deadline-driven and client-type clusters that must be refreshed every tax year, budget or rule change, plus software-specific guides. | Syndicated newsletter articles shared with many other firms, or guides quoting thresholds that are a year out of date. |
| Insurance agencies | Coverage explainers by line of business and audience, claims guides and risk content, written within financial promotion and state advertising rules. | Coverage pages that paraphrase carrier policy wording, saying nothing a buyer cannot read on the carrier's own site. |
| Architects | Project journey content: planning, costs, timelines and process, with case studies told as narratives rather than galleries. | News of awards and design philosophy essays that potential clients never search for. |
| E-commerce | Buying guides, comparisons, sizing and care content linked tightly to categories and products, plus category page copy itself. | A blog run separately from the shop, with posts that never link to the categories they should be feeding. |
| B2B | Problem, solution and specification content written for each member of a buying committee, plus alternatives and integration pages. | Gating every useful asset behind a form, so search engines and early-stage buyers see nothing worth ranking or reading. |
Free review
Get a free SEO Content Strategy review
Send me your site. Before the call I look at your rankings and pages, then tell you what I would fix first and what it is likely worth.
A few rows from a content plan
Every existing URL and proposed page gets a line like these in the shared plan; this sample mixes sectors.
| Page or cluster | Decision | Why | Who and when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three posts on "how much does a loft conversion cost" | Merge into one cost guide, redirect the other two | All three compete for one cluster and none reaches page one | In-house writer, first month |
| Guide to filing deadlines for sole traders | Rewrite and add a review date | Ranks well but quotes figures from a previous tax year | Partner review, before the next deadline season |
| Comparison of two policy types for landlords | New page | Clear commercial cluster with no page on the site | Agency writer from a broker interview, second month |
| Company news posts from several years ago | Noindex or remove | No traffic, no links, no query cluster | Editor, first month |
From cluster to published page
The process I use for every content piece, with the review stage scaled to how regulated the topic is.
- 1
Choose the cluster
From the prioritised map: intent, value, competition and whether you have the expertise to beat what ranks today.
- 2
Write the brief
Built from the brief template in the tabs above, so every writer starts from the same angle, outline and link plan.
- 3
Draft with a practitioner
A subject expert writes, or is interviewed and reviewed. In legal, health, financial and insurance topics a named, qualified reviewer signs off before publication.
- 4
Publish into the cluster
Linked from and to its hub and sibling pages, with author and reviewer details visible and a review date where the topic changes.
- 5
Review on a schedule
Performance checked after indexing, and time-sensitive content refreshed when rules, prices or products change - not only when traffic drops.
A posting schedule versus a content plan
Both end in a calendar. Only one of them tells your writers why each piece exists.
The usual monthly retainer
- A fixed number of posts every month, whatever the site needs
- Topics chosen from tool volume or seasonal news
- Existing pages left untouched while new ones pile up
- Briefs that are a title and a target keyword
- Success reported as posts published and sessions
What I hand your team
- A decision for every existing URL before anything new is written
- Clusters chosen for intent and value, not tool volume
- Briefs a writer can draft from without a follow-up call
- Owners, reviewers and dates on every line of the calendar
- Success judged on enquiries and next-step clicks
How content strategy connects to the rest
Content only ranks if the templates are right and the pages can be crawled, so the plan runs alongside on-page SEO and technical SEO. The guides and data pieces with genuine citation value become the assets that link building promotes, and that wider off-page SEO work turns into mentions. For the full picture by sector, start at SEO services.
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SEO Content Strategy FAQs
What does an SEO content strategy engagement include?
An inventory of your existing content with a decision for each URL, a cluster and internal linking model, briefs for new and rewritten pages, an editorial calendar with owners and review dates, and a refresh schedule for time-sensitive topics. I can also edit drafts and review published pages, but writing at volume usually stays with your team or agency.
What is the difference between a content strategy and a content calendar?
A calendar says what gets published when. A strategy decides what is worth publishing at all, which existing pages to keep, merge or remove, how content links to the pages that convert, and how success is measured. The calendar is one output of the strategy, driven by cluster priority rather than a posting frequency.
How much content do we need to publish each month?
There is no right number. A small professional firm may need a handful of strong guides a quarter plus improvements to existing pages. A large store may need category copy and buying guides at scale. I size the plan to the clusters worth winning and to how much expert review time you can realistically give, because rushing review is how YMYL content goes wrong.
Should we use AI to write our content?
AI tools can help with research, outlines and first drafts, but the content that holds up adds first-hand experience, accurate local detail and expert judgement that a model cannot supply. In legal, health, financial and insurance topics a qualified person must review and stand behind every page. I judge content on whether it helps the reader, not on how it was drafted.
Is it safe to delete old blog posts?
Usually, if it is done carefully. Posts with no traffic, no links and no relevant cluster can be removed or noindexed. Posts with backlinks should be redirected to the closest relevant page. Posts competing with a stronger page should be merged into it. I check each URL's traffic and link data before recommending removal.
How do AI Overviews change content strategy?
They reduce the value of content that only defines or summarises, because the answer often appears in the results page. Content that carries experience, local or jurisdiction detail, original data, tools or a decision the reader must make still earns clicks and citations. I weight clusters towards those types and structure pages so they are easy to quote accurately.
Who should write content in regulated industries?
Either the practitioner, or a skilled writer working from an interview with the practitioner, followed by the practitioner's review. The author or reviewer should be named on the page with relevant credentials. Your compliance lead or regulator's guidance should also be checked for advertising rules on claims, outcomes and testimonials before publication.
Find out what an SEO content strategy would keep, cut and commission
Send me your site and the services or products that matter most. On a free 30-minute call I will show you which content clusters you own, which you are missing, and which existing pages I would merge or rewrite first.