Streamlining blog roundups and skyscraper posts

Within the outdated days, people needed to determine sources, summarize the work and seek for frequent that means. As we speak, robots do the heavy lifting and also you, the human, are left to do the artistic work of prompting and deciphering the output for the remainder of us.

My tagline for the foreseeable future is:

“I’m human. I’m useful. A few of that is AI, and that’s OK.”

This text explores how one can leverage AI instruments to streamline the method of making weblog roundups and skyscraper posts – two efficient content material codecs that, completed effectively, can earn distinguished positions in search outcomes pages and drive visitors.

We’ll additionally dive into:

• The idea of the “AI sandwich” which mixes human experience with the facility of AI to supply reliable, useful content material. 
• A variety of AI instruments particularly designed for content material creation, picture technology and video manufacturing to include into your workflow.

What are weblog roundups and skyscraper posts?

Merely put, a roundup article is a weblog submit or article that features a number of different sources to kind the article’s content material. The contributing content material is often on a hard and fast theme or matter.

Historically, the roundup submit could also be constructed on direct contributions from business specialists or could also be made up of content material repurposed from current articles.

LinkedIn has gone as far as to institutionalize this by Collaborative articles.

LinkedIn selectively invitations specialists to contribute to their articles primarily based on their skilled background, talent proficiency and engagement on the platform.

From a person perspective, a roundup weblog submit brings collectively a number of professional views of a subject.

From an web optimization or advertising and marketing perspective, roundup posts align the writer with each the subject of the article and the contributors.

In the meantime, the “skyscraper approach” was popularized by Brian Dean at Backlinko. The steps concerned are:

• Step 1: Discover link-worthy content material.
• Step 2: Make one thing even higher.
• Step 3: Attain out to the correct folks.

Dean approaches the skyscraper as a hyperlink constructing approach.

In my preliminary method, I acquired suggestions that what I used to be doing was extra of a “roundup.” And that’s OK, too. Whether or not it’s a roundup, a skyscraper, or a overview, the true worth is that you’re studying from the pages, successful your SERP and repurposing content material to enhance upon them.

As search engines like google and yahoo transfer from lexical to semantic search, the skyscraper approach turns into as a lot about together with identified entities as its linkworthiness.

If effectively executed, the skyscraper contains a number of chunks, often known as passages and, should you’re Cindy Krum, “fraggles.” Passages are notably essential in Google’s SGE and wealthy snippets as they’re typically the a part of the web page included within the wealthy outcomes.

This podcast episode with Michael King of iPullRank and Martha van Berkel of Schema App gives an awesome clarification of semantic search, the data graph and their potential implications for SGE.

Repurposing content material with AI could make the workflow for weblog roundups and skyscraper posts way more environment friendly.

Dig deeper: Using generative AI to improve existing content: Top tips + sample prompts

AI sandwich: The method of constructing useful content material with AI and human enter

There are issues that utilizing AI instruments will result in content material being deemed “unhelpful.” To help the standard pointers and their human raters, one of the best use of AI instruments could also be an “AI sandwich” the place: 

• People write prompts.
• AI does its factor.
• Then people edit and fact-check.

If we need to produce useful, reliable content material, the output of the AI content material technology instruments will must be like a equipment of components on the shelf that collectively make the entire.

Under is a course of for repurposing content material with AI:

• Step 1: Establish the content material you need to reference.
  • Who ranks? That is the place a instrument like Surfer web optimization turns out to be useful.
• Step 2: Have the instruments summarize the reference articles.
  • Do it one after the other in ChatGPT, Gemini, and so forth., or do it in bulk in ZimmWriter.
• Step 3: Assemble the summaries into one major doc.
  • For those who’re somewhat techy, you are able to do this with an automation instrument like Zapier or Make.com.
• Step 4: Analyze the first doc for learnings, akin to:
  • Widespread methods and methods.
  • Most cited X or Y.
  • Uncommon or stunning matters.
• Step 5: Assemble the collected works.
  • For a Skyscraper submit, it’s possible you’ll not want to give a verbose attribution. As an alternative, your evaluation ought to give a transparent understanding of what the successful components is. As soon as you realize what it’s essential to come “excessive” of the competitors, your summaries and evaluation will assist you to create a novel article to win the SERP.
  • The roundup is completely different in a single crucial means: you might be giving credit score to the supply articles. That is arguably cleaner from an moral perspective and you continue to get what you want, which is a big piece of content material worthy of successful in search.

By sampling, summarizing and, in some instances, repurposing already rating content material, you might be more likely to cowl each lexical and semantic search issues for a given matter.

In different phrases, in case your reference articles are within the prime 20 search positions and, by your analysis and processing, you embrace a sufficiency of key phrases and entities, you usually tend to rank effectively in search.

Weblog posts, movies or social media posts?

Brief reply: sure. All the above.

When you’ve created your written content material and it seems like a match on your audience, you can begin to consider content material distribution.

While you repurpose current content material, it’s possible you’ll give an outdated weblog submit new life. And that life can get prolonged.

Every supply can present a number of items. You’ll be able to create weblog content material, visible content material with picture technology packages and podcast episodes – as both video or audio.

The identical matter doesn’t have for use in the identical format. When you’ve got high-quality content material, a brand new submit can attain new audiences, spreading the attain of your advertising and marketing efforts.

Social media platforms are an awesome place to broadcast your repurposed content material. Every content material piece could be a number of posts.

Your unique submit can change into, with AI serving to out, a visitor submit, an Instagram submit or a LinkedIn submit. Any of your social media channels are an awesome alternative to reuse the identical content material to succeed in a brand new viewers.

With the expense of content material manufacturing, it is sensible to utilize a number of channels and new codecs to focus on audiences, whether or not new or current.

Is that this black hat (or grey)?

Within the phrases of Don Draper, “I’m not right here to inform you about Jesus. You already find out about Jesus. Both he lives in your coronary heart or he doesn’t.”

In different phrases, spam is within the eye of the beholder.

Significantly, although, I desire the roundup format as a result of it naturally helps attribution. I overtly hyperlink the unique sources. After I use these methods for content material recycling, I give attribution. 

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Repurposing content material: Actual-world examples and concepts

My weblog submit titled “web optimization Skyscraper Methodology + ChatGPT Information Mining = Profitable the SERP” ranks on Web page 1 – infinite scroll however – for:

• “search engine optimization skyscraper chatgpt” straightforward
• “search engine optimization skyscraper technique” more durable
• “search engine optimization skyscraper approach” hardest

(In essence, I’m utilizing this system to rank for this system in a weblog submit the place I describe the approach.)

The truth that we will rank amongst some very authoritative websites actually proves the validity of the approach.

For those who maintain taking place the web page, you’ll discover not less than 4 extra references to the article.

Different content material sorts to repurpose embrace:

• Outdated weblog posts.
• Evergreen content material.
• Lengthy-form content material.
• Completely different platforms for high-performing content material.
• To-do lists.
• A number of content material items from one supply.

It’s essential to look past simply textual content in your content material creation course of. Your viewers just isn’t all the identical. Utilizing a number of content material codecs lets you meet your customers the place they’re most comfy.

Taking these long-form weblog posts and rendering them as movies or including a video explainer to visitor posts could make them way more accessible and probably enhance engagement.

Under are some AI-powered instruments to take a look at.

Pure AI textual content instruments, GPT interfaces

ChatGPT

For ideation, outlining and small-batch content material creation, ChatGPT nonetheless reigns supreme for me. 

Additionally, OpenAI was one of many first to make an simply out there API for each textual content and picture technology. As such, it’s built-in into different instruments I exploit commonly.

And because the mainstream chief on this space, ChatGPT was the primary to develop a plugin ecosystem that’s broadly adopted, together with the super-tool AIPRM.

Additionally, ChatGPT is built-in with Bing. The Bing integration could be very helpful. You’ll be able to go straight from making a DALL-E 3 (one other OpenAI challenge) picture into Microsoft Designer, the place you’ll be able to manipulate it additional.

Claude.ai

A product of Anthropic, Claude is a chat interface just like ChatGPT. I initially began utilizing it as a result of it had a bigger context (the variety of characters one can course of) than ChatGPT.

It’s additionally good for importing information and processing them. As an illustration, I’ve uploaded the output of Screaming Frog to have Claude advocate manage a web site’s price of content material primarily based on URL and web page title.

Gemini (previously Bard)

Gemini is Google’s GPT, and it’s distinctive in its potential to interface with different Google merchandise. You’ll be able to question your electronic mail, Docs and different Google properties like Google Flights.

Dig deeper: ChatGPT vs. Google Bard vs. Bing Chat vs. Claude: Which generative AI solution is best?

AI web optimization instruments

Surfer web optimization

Surfer web optimization is an web optimization instrument that analyzes top-ranking content material and supplies data-driven ideas that can assist you write and optimize your individual content material for increased search engine rating. It covers key phrase analysis, on-page optimization and content material creation.

Extra just lately, Surfer has added an entire AI author, which contains the evaluation of its foremost web optimization instrument to information an AI author. The output of this instrument is fairly complete and, in my expertise, can rank effectively proper out of the field.

ZimmWriter

Desire a one-click weblog submit from only a key phrase? ZimmWriter.

Need 1,000 spinoff articles primarily based on current content material? ZimmWriter – sure, actually, 1,000!

Desire a product overview roundup primarily based on current product listings? ZimmWriter.

Desire a topical authority map which you could then routinely write all of the content material for after which add to WordPress scheduled out into the longer term, with photos from Pexels, DALL-E or Steady Diffusion? ZimmWriter.

If it’s essential to actually create content material at scale, ZimmWriter is peerless.

Honorable point out: Content material at Scale

I don’t use Content material at Scale commonly, however it’s good.

If you’d like an entire article primarily based on a single key phrase or extra advanced inputs, Content material at Scale does a superb job. Not like many instruments that use a single mannequin (e.g., OpenAI), Content material at Scale makes use of a number of fashions and creates human-like content material.

Along with the content material high quality, it contains a number of content material options that save time within the deployment course of, like a desk of contents, quote callouts and others.

AI picture creation instruments

DALL-E

DALL-E 3 is now built-in into ChatGPT 4 and is fairly good. From a pure language immediate, you will get high-quality photos. And, in its final launch, DALL-E now renders textual content acceptably.

It generally takes a couple of tries, and within the worst case, it’s a must to take the picture into an editor to wash up stray characters, however the direct output is wonderful.

Once more, as talked about above, one other cool use case for DALL-E is within the Bing/ChatGPT/Microsoft Designer workflow.

Midjourney

Midjourney has most of the attributes of DALL-E however has one huge disadvantage. You need to use it inside a Discord chat. It’s my understanding that they’re engaged on this.

Midjourney is a bit more versatile in which you could give it further directives that aren’t as clear in DALL-E. As an illustration, you’ll be able to specify side ratios, “lens” kind and publicity.

For those who just like the chat interface, although, DALL-E is extra intuitive.

Steady Diffusion

An early entrant to the picture technology AI (2022), Steady Diffusion is a really wealthy instrument.

Along with the attributes of DALL-E and Midjourney, Steady Diffusion can manipulate current photos and create video and 3D property.

AI video creation instruments

Steve.AI

Steve.ai was the unique video instrument we used. It contains inventory live-action and animated movies assembled primarily based on a script – along with the video component. AI can generate that script from an current piece of content material.

Steve.AI also can create talking-head and generative movies – the place your prompts render the frames. Once we first used it a yr or so in the past, it wasn’t as far alongside as it’s now and it’s price one other look.

Wave.video

Wave.video is my present go-to. It builds a script from content material if wanted and makes use of nonetheless and video inventory artwork.

What makes Wave.video a more sensible choice for me at present is the value level. You’ll be able to create as many movies as you want for a comparatively low value.

For slideshow movies that you simply’re going to deploy to YouTube and your web site, I discover Wave.video intuitive. You may as well render your individual photos in one of many picture instruments above to incorporate within the video slideshow.

Each Steve.AI and Wave.video let you choose voice-over voices that can learn your script. I imagine Steve has extra and as with all AI voiceover, one needs to be acutely aware of how mechanical they sound.

D-iD

This instrument’s differentiator is which you could pattern an individual’s picture and voice, permitting you to make use of them as an avatar.

You’ll be able to then use that avatar as an overlay on different movies, however live-action and AI-generated. That is nice for explainer movies, displays and coaching. 

In my expertise, the avatars are a bit wood, however I’m positive that can change with time. An analogous product I realized about at Pubcon Austin is elai.io.

Subsequent-level content material repurposing with AI

For those who imagine the websites on the prime of Google are a clue to what the algorithms discover related, then beginning with these as your enter is a good suggestion.

Taking that a step additional, you may make even higher semantic connections for the algorithm while you herald some AI-enabled web optimization instruments.