The Right Way To Set Up SEO Growth Loops
One of the most effective strategies for SEO content optimization and SEO experimentation is to create growth content loops.
Sometimes these are referred to as content funnels, but personally, I like the loop framework better because it treats users less transactionally and demands a better constructed experience from the architects.
All SEOs know about different stages of the funnel/loop and how different content performs and those different stages, but a common error I see is that the content doesn’t lead users on a full experience.
If a user lands on your top of loop article, the article is generally geared towards a wider audience to get more traffic. But what happens next? The user consumes the content and bounces.
A good content loop structure does things differently, it’s a little more white glove.
A user arrives at your top of funnel content, consumes it, and is then prompted to take a natural action, which does one of the following things:
Enables the user to reinvest the output of their action into a new input (loop) and moves them into the middle of growth loop.
Enables the user to reinvest the output of their action into a new input (loop) and offers to keep them at the top of growth loop.
Enables the user to reinvest the output of their action into a new input (loop) and take a conversion action (purchase, subscribe, free trial, etc.)
When you do your keyword and topic research and you’re planning your content, make sure to include options to do all 3 of those actions, but make sure those actions are the right next step.
Let’s see some examples of this in action:
This page on Hubspot serves as a great example:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-cover-letter-examples
Ahrefs estimates that this page gets around 300k monthly organic views, so plenty of traffic and definitely a top of loop article.
Right of the bat and above the fold Hubspot is offering a few very specific CTAs and their design language tells us their priority.
The action Hubspot considers most important is for you to download their template. This makes sense because Hubspot has a very strong prospecting lifecycle flow, so them capturing some early info from you is extremely valuable to getting you to convert down the road. Hubspot knows this article is probably not the reason you purchase their product, but they understand the role this article plays in their macro growth loop.
They’re also offering a secondary CTA in the top right corner to convert and pay right now. It’s not likely that you will, but they want to 1. Give you the option and 2. Track the levels of engagement with different CTAs on different posts at different stages of the growth loop.
Throughout the rest of the article the primary and prominently placed CTA is “Download our template” aka “Give us your email”.
There’s a whole other post worth writing about what Hubspot does with your email and spoiler, they aren’t just handing you to sales, but we’ll save that for another day.
Throughout the rest of the content there are some cleverly placed internal links along with all encompassing content on this topic, well written and very actionable.
Only once you’ve reached the bottom of the article, as a highly engaged reader would, do they offer you more content. These pieces are not just “read other blog content” but these articles are cleverly crafted to be a natural next step for you once you’ve read this post about cover letters.
Maybe you want some more specific advice after downloading a template. These articles will help you get there.
Hubspot has cleverly constructed their growth loop in a way that works for them, and that is driving users to download some useful thing and giving their email where the lifecycle prospecting can start to nurture.
My last example lies on the product landing page for Apple’s newest Apple Watch.
Apple is offering 3 options, that just happen to line up with what I suggested earlier and align very well to clever growth loops.
The first, and primary CTA is to convert, buy the product now.
The second CTA is to move to the middle of the loop where you can learn more about the product details.
The final CTA is an alternative top of loop option where you can invest very little (video) and still potentially reinvest the output of your action into another input later in the journey.
The moral of the story is this, when you are creating content don’t just think and focus on keywords and traffic, focus on the user journey and the micro and macro growth loops.
Ask yourself the following questions:
When a user lands on this page, what is their expectation?
How can we match or exceed their expectation?
If a user is highly engaged and wants more, what is the natural next step that will allow them to reinvest the output of their action into the next micro growth loop?
Build better content loops, ditch the funnels. Loops focus on reinvesting outputs into inputs on the next micro loop.
Check out this article on reforge for more info on growth loops.