- Creating successful
SEO content isn't hard if you follow a proven formula. That's what I'm going to show you today. I use the HVC formula for every single SEO content asset I create. It's so powerful that you'll never look at your SEO content the
same after I show you. But before we jump in, please
like this video right now and leave a comment below saying, I'm ready, letting me
know that you're ready to learn this formula that
I've never shared publicly. (upbeat music) So the first step of this process is to find a qualified keyword. And I have several videos that can help you find the right keywords on my channel, but the best way to find keywords quickly is to analyze your competitors. So you can use paid tools
like Ahrefs or SEMrush, or you can use a free tool like Neil Patel's backlink
analyzer to find these ideas. So now let me show you the
first stage of the HVC formula. So the first part of this
formula is what I call the hook. Your SEO content success
is largely dependent on whether or not people
actually consume your content. Google's algorithm analyzes user behavior to determine the quality of your content. For example, if your SEO content
asset hits the first page, Google is going to measure your organic CTR for your results. If it's low relative to the competitors and for the position that you're in, your rankings might decline. But let's say your CTR's average, but a high percentage of people
are hitting the back button on their browser and returning back to Google Search results. This is known as Pogo sticking
and there's some evidence that it can negatively
impact your pages performance because it's an indication
that the searcher wasn't satisfied with
the result and therefore had to return to the SERPs
for more information. Now, there are many reasons why a searcher may behave this way, but one of the biggest factors
impacting their behavior is your headline. So when I say hook, I'm referring to two
elements in your SEO content. The first is your headline. Did you know that 80% of internet users don't read past the headline? That's why it's absolutely fundamental that you use the right
words in your headlines. Think of your headline as your one shot at persuading a user to read
the rest of your content. ♪ I am not throwing away my shot ♪ ♪ I am not throwing away my shot ♪ - Your headline is your
USP for your content. Fortunately, you don't
need to be Frank Kern to create persuasive headlines. You just need to follow
some proven frameworks. So here's several headline frameworks you can use to hook your
users into your content. The first is what I call
the guinea pig method. So the guinea pig method is
essentially using your own money or time or resources to create
a unique piece of content. We spent $1 million on
link building services between me and Chris
and a few other people, and we did it to try to find out what the best link building services were. So we essentially were the
guinea pig for this experiment. And so if you can think of any way where you can become the
guinea pig in your industry, it becomes very attractive and it becomes very
unique because in reality, no one is gonna be able
to emulate something that you've actually done
that's unique in some way. Of course they could spend
the same amount of money, but in reality, whoever
comes up with the idea first is always going to get the most leverage and the most momentum. So, this is a really,
really exciting method that I love to use and it doesn't just
work with blog content. You can actually also do it
with YouTube content as well. So if you look at MrBeast, he is a perfect example
of someone that uses what I call the guinea
pig method all the time. The second type of hook, you
can use are ultimate guides. So you're probably sick of
hearing about ultimate guides at this point, but the truth is they work. And so here's a really
good example from EasyBib and they created a huge guide on citing and writing in APA format. Now, it isn't the most exciting piece of content you'll ever see, but it certainly satisfies the intent for their target keyword
and it gives the user the information that they
actually need to succeed for whatever problem they're
trying to solve here. And so then as you can see, this piece of content has
attracted a ton of links and it is performing extremely
well for its target keywords. And so that is because
it has a decent hook, which explains exactly
what the user is going to get when they read it and then also, the content itself is
actually really, really good and well-written, well-organized,
it has unique graphics. So there are plenty of
good reasons why this piece of content has attracted links. And ultimately because of
the links that it's gotten, it's really driven a lot
of organic search traffic. The third hook is name-dropping. So the name-dropping
method is very simple. You're just going to use a well-known name in whatever industry you're going after as leverage in your headline. So of course, pretty much
everyone knows what Netflix is. And so what Vulture is doing here is they're using Netflix's
name to drive engagement and drive interests. So, you can tell that, you know, this is using actually a combination of the few other frameworks
I'll be showing you 'cause it's a list post, but they are using Netflix as a name-drop. And so this is a really
powerful way to drive interest. And so you can tell as you
scroll down through this, I'm not gonna do a deep analysis, but it's a good piece of content, not anything extraordinary, but
look at how it's performing. It already has 119 referring domains and it's traffic is absolutely ridiculous. So it's because this piece
of content likely generates a lot of user engagement. It's of course getting links
and it's probably getting a lot of traction on social media too. So it's really got a lot of
positive signals going for it, but really the catalyst for all of this is the fact that they name-dropped and they used a name that
a lot of people know. The fourth hook are lists. So it's no secret that list
posts are incredibly effective for getting users to
engage with their content and getting them to read your content. But what I really love
about this example is that it's actually leveraging the principles I've already explained. So of course it's a
list post in six steps, but it's also the using
the guinea pig method because it is a case-study
like piece of content and it's also using the
name-dropping method by using Craigslist. So it's combining these three together. And what you'll notice with this headline and the previous ones and the ones that I'm about to show you, they're really using all these methods in combination to create
powerful headlines. And so as you can tell, this post hasn't generated a ton of links, but it is already performing really well from an organic search stamp. The fifth hook are versus posts. So the next type of headline that attracts a lot of interest and
engagement are versus posts. And so everyone wants to see battles, everyone wants to see big
timers against each other. And so that's always an exciting topic. So you can leverage this
particular principle in pretty much any industry. And so as you can tell in this example, this was a really huge geld, Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor. Everyone was talking about this. But as you can tell, this particular headline framework works really, really well. And you can tell from the
signals itself, 26 million views. And if we look at actually
the link signals as well, we have 317 referring domains
and then look at the traffic. It's honestly just ridiculous. So that's because these types
of posts work really well. But also keep in mind just doing versus on its own isn't going to work. You need to also use
the name-dropping method by leveraging powerful names or industry authorities
all in one headline. The sixth hook is a question. Now, question headlines do really well because of what I explained
earlier in this video, which is, it creates
open loops in your mind. So naturally as humans,
whenever a question is asked, we need to find the answer
to whatever that question is. So whenever you just leave
an open loop like that, the user's naturally going
to want to figure out an answer to whatever question you asked. Even if it's not a particularly
important question, they still need to close
that loop in their mind. And so that's why question
headlines work really well. So you can tell from this
one that it's gonna drive, and of course BuzzFeed is
really, really good at headlines. So as a side note, you should analyze what they're doing 'cause they do things really well. But you can tell it has 281 comments, it likely has a lot of social shares. But let's look at its link profile. It has 57 referring domains, which isn't anything super exciting, but it's organic search
traffic is pretty decent. It looks like it's falling a little bit. But the point here is that this type of headline works really, really well. So you should definitely take advantage of question-like headlines
from time to time but definitely don't overuse it. And the seventh hook is what
I like to call the why hook. So any type of headline
that uses why in it can be very effective because
whenever you use the word why, it's an implication that you have an opinion about something. And so you can tell from this headline why the Web 3.0 matters and
you should know about it. And so what the author is doing is saying, Hey, this is really, really important. So you need to figure it out. And of course this is the author's opinion because only you can
decide what matters to you, but what it does is it sparks
a little bit of controversy in your mind and it makes you wanna figure out why it actually matters. And so you can tell that this post has done really, really well. There's 486 referring domains
and it has some solids, organic search traffic as well. So I definitely recommend using this type of headline as well from time to time. And then there's one bonus and that stacking all
of these hooks into one. So now I want to show you one headline where it's actually leveraging all the principles that we discussed. So I don't care about Michael Moore, I don't care about Donald Trump. I literally don't care
about politics at all. I think it's a huge
waste of time and effort to get all riled up about that stuff. But this headline, if we just remove all
political bias from it is actually a really good headline. This is a really good angle. So, five reasons why, so
he's using the why principle five, he's using the list principle, he's also using Trump will win. So Trump of course is a well-known name. I think pretty much everyone in the world knows who Donald Trump is. And then also Michael Moore,
who's also very well-known. So it's a double whammy here. And so this is just a
really powerful headline and you know that this
is gonna drive a lot of controversy for whatever side is either happy about
it or angry about it. But this is a very, very powerful headline and a very powerful
positioning to be putting. And even the image itself,
like if you're a Democrat, this image may infuriate you. If you're Republican, it may excite you. So it's just a very powerful
execution of content and so Michael Moore knows how to get people fired up about things. That's really what he specializes in. So definitely model things like this. And then if we look at the performance, it has over 2000 referring
domains and it's ranking for over 17,000 organic keywords, and so it is doing extremely well. And the biggest catalyst
for this performance is going to be the headline
because that's gonna be what drives that interest in an engagement and whatever controversy
this may cause as well. So now that you know some
powerful headline frameworks, it's time to take action. I always write at least
10 possible headlines for every single SEO
content asset I create. Then I run those headlines through AM Institutes
Headline Analyzer tool. You can eliminate most of your
ideas with this tool alone, but that said, don't live
and die by this tool. It's supplemental to your efforts, but it isn't always right. The good news about creating headlines for SEO content is that it isn't final. You can test your headlines
and iterate on them. For example, if a pages
organic CTR is low, then you can modify the
headline and see if it improves. I recommend using Google Search Console and heat map technology
like Hotjar to analyze and test your headlines. So as I mentioned before, your is just the first
piece of the hook equation. The second part is your intro. It's important that your
primary keywords show up in the first couple
sentences of your intro, but all other space
should be used to persuade the reader to consume
the rest of your content. So here are a few frameworks to use. Number one is what I like to
call the strong statement. So one technique you'll
see that I use quite often is the strong statements. So if you go to any of my blog posts, you'll see that I often
will just make a statement to start this blog post. So for example, I say backlinks are the nitrous of every successful SEO campaign. So my goal there is to make a very clear argument
right out of the gate. And I'm basically saying that
you need to get backlinks and they're super important if you wanna get better SEO results. And so if you were someone
that agreed with that, you would want to continue reading because it will confirm your position, which is also known as confirmation bias. But if you're someone who
doesn't agree with that, you're also gonna wanna
read 'cause you're going to see if any of the
information there is going to conflict with your
current belief system. So that is why making strong statements are so powerful 'cause
you're hitting both sides of the opinion scale. Number two is to use questions and data. So just like in your headlines, another method I'd love to use is just to simply ask a question
right out of the gate. And so the question here is what's the fastest way to learn SEO? Well, if someone lands on
this page after searching SEO, they likely have that
question in their mind. So I'm just confirming that
they're on the right page. And then I add this part where I say I asked 130 real
SEO experts to find out. So I added a number or a piece of data to make this more interesting and unique. Now just remember when
you're asking a question, you're creating an open
loop and that incentivizes the user to want to actually consume the content because they
wanna get that loop closed. The third method is to leverage an authority within your industry. And one other method, which I've used in some other industries, but I can't obviously show those websites. So I just wanted to give you an example of what that's like is leveraging
someone else's authority to make a point for yourself. So as you can tell right
here in this example, I just say according to Rand Fishkin, who, if you don't know who he is, he was the former founder and CEO of Moz. SEO is only going to get harder. And so what I'm doing is I'm
leveraging someone's name, I'm name-dropping like we
did in the headlines earlier. And then I'm making a strong statement and then I say, here's why. So this essentially is combining all of the other elements
I've explained into one. I'm name-dropping, I'm doing a strong statement
and I'm creating an open loop. And the fourth method is to use stories. Now one other method that can be really, really powerful is
to inject a relevant story. So as you can tell from this post, I talk about PBN generally here, but then I immediately get into a story about how I used to use PBNs. And what I'm doing is I'm building rapport with the user and I'm helping relate to them and their situation and stories are absolutely
the best way to persuade. And so if you have a
story that is relevant to your primary keyword, you should definitely take
advantage of it and use it and craft it in a way that's gonna make your content far more engaging, especially in the beginning of the content in the introduction section. Now the key to nailing
your intro is to create as many open loops as possible. For example, if you rewind this video, you'll see that I injected
a simple open loop. Watch this clip. (distorting) So when I say hook, I'm referring to two
elements in your SEO content. The first is your headline. Did you know that 80% of internet users don't read past the headline? (distorting) Did you catch the open loop? Well I told you that they're going to be two elements of the hook, but I only told you about the first one. Use these types of open loops in all of the content you create online. Now you understand how to craft the perfect hook for your content. And if you're still
watching this awesome job because I'm going to show you the V portion of this equation. But before I do write me a
comment below saying finisher because you're going to finish the rest of the video and learn the rest of this powerful content-creation formula. So the next part of the
HVC formula is value. This is the most complex
part of the process, but there is really only
one high-level strategy that you need to understand. Your goal with all of your SEO content should be to create something different than what currently exists. Don't try to be better. Focus on finding a unique
angle for the target keyword and then create something awesome. Trust me, this is much
easier and more effective. It's always better to be first
by creating something unique. You also have to understand
that how your SEO content is perceived is influenced by your brand's authority
and social proof. That's why you should always
have your content written by a subject-matter expert and you incorporate
elements of social proof. For example, if the
post has a decent amount of social shares, you
should show the number. If you have some unique data that validates any of the points
you're making, then use it. If you can get an authoritative
figure to contribute a small quote for your content, do it. Also, you need to work to drive
engagement on your content. This will push the social
proof element even more. Which brings me to the last
part of the HVC formula. The last part of the HVC formula
is CTA or call to action, and I know this is really an
acronym within an acronym, but bear with me. So every piece of SEO content you create should have
at least one primary CTA. Now what type of CTA
you use will depend on the nature of the content. For example, if you're targeting an informational
top-of-the-funnel keyword, the CTA should either be a
call to share the content, engage with the content, or to subscribe for a free lead magnet. It almost never makes sense to try to sell a reader on an
informational type of asset. The other important part of this process is to add CTAs throughout
your SEO content. Don't just drop one at the end because most people
won't make it that far. You should have micro CTAs
throughout your content. Like in this video, I've asked you a few times to leave a comment and like the video. So if you haven't done
that already, please do. Don't be scared to ask someone
to engage with your content. So that's all you need to
know about the HVC formula. Memorize this formula and think about it every
single time you create a new piece of content. If you enjoyed this
video, please like it now and comment below with what HVC stands for and then tell me what you think about it. Thank you so much for watching and please subscribe because I have some really cool content coming out soon. I'll see you soon and thank
you so much for watching.
