Making SEO Content Stand Out W/Storytelling

Summary

Voices of Search Podcast: Making SEO Content Stand Out with Storytelling

Episode Title: Making SEO Content Stand Out W/Storytelling
Host: Jordan Cooney
Guest: Jessica Mehring, CEO of Horizon Peak Consulting
Release Date: February 26, 2025

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Introduction

In the latest episode of the Voices of Search podcast, host Jordan Cooney delves into the intricate relationship between storytelling and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with special guest Jessica Mehring, the CEO of Horizon Peak Consulting. The conversation centers around how incorporating storytelling into SEO strategies can transform content from mundane to impactful, ensuring it resonates with audiences in an increasingly automated digital landscape.

Guest Background

Jessica Mehring brings over two decades of experience in copywriting and content strategy within the technology sector. As the CEO of Horizon Peak Consulting for the past 11 years, she has specialized in assisting technology companies—from venture-backed startups to global enterprises—in crafting human-centric editorial content and campaign copy. Her extensive background positions her as a thought leader in creating content that not only performs well in search rankings but also engages and converts.

Quote:
Jessica Mehring [01:43]: "We have been helping technology companies from venture-backed startups all the way up to global enterprises create more human and high performing editorial content and campaign copy."

Human-Centric Content in the Age of AI

The discussion kicks off with the evolution of content creation approaches. Jessica emphasizes the significance of a "human before algorithm" strategy, especially in the era of generative AI, which has led to a surge in AI-generated content. She highlights the growing challenge of maintaining quality over quantity as automation makes it easier to produce vast amounts of content without the necessary strategic thinking.

Quote:
Jessica Mehring [02:44]: "I feel like that is more important now than it has ever been with the rise of generative AI."

Storytelling vs. Algorithmic Content

Jordan raises a critical point about the homogenization of content due to reliance on AI and templated approaches. He questions how SEO professionals can infuse genuine storytelling into their content, moving beyond mere algorithmic compliance to create unique and engaging narratives.

Quote:
Jordan Cooney [04:35]: "If everybody uses some AI or some cookie cutter template to build content, well, then everyone's content is going to sound the same."

Narrative and Story Elements

Jessica distinguishes between "narrative" and "story," explaining that narrative encompasses the purpose, structure, and the key elements like the hero, goal, and obstacles. Story, on the other hand, refers to the sequence of events that lead to a resolution. She argues that focusing on narrative is crucial for creating content that stands out and performs well in SEO.

Quote:
Jessica Mehring [05:57]: "Storytelling can really be broken up into two elements, narrative and story."

The Importance of Listening to the Audience

A central theme of the episode is the necessity of understanding and listening to the audience. Jessica underscores that effective content starts with knowing the audience on a personal level—understanding their problems, language, and the way they seek solutions. This foundational knowledge ensures that the content created is relevant and resonates deeply with readers.

Quote:
Jessica Mehring [08:47]: "Communication has two components, transmission and reception. Speaking or writing being transmission, reception being listening."

Creating a Narrative Plan

To ensure content stands out, Jessica introduces the concept of a Narrative Plan—a strategic step that involves immersing oneself in the audience's mindset and mapping out the narrative to guide content creation. This plan includes understanding where the audience is, their mindset, and what they need to hear to change their behavior or take action.

Quote:
Jessica Mehring [11:20]: "We start there with the audience and we map out just a one paragraph narrative that we are going to use to guide our writing with this content."

User Experience and Theory of Planned Behavior

Jordan and Jessica explore the Theory of Planned Behavior, which posits that changing behavior requires addressing attitudes, normative beliefs, and perceived control. Jessica explains that beyond providing information, content must engage readers emotionally and psychologically to drive meaningful actions and conversions.

Quote:
Jessica Mehring [14:35]: "The theory of planned behavior posits that humans need more than sheer information in order to change behavior, attitude, what we believe about the world."

Common Pitfalls and Best Practices

The conversation shifts to common mistakes SEOs and content creators make when integrating storytelling into their strategies. Jessica points out that starting with keywords rather than the audience is a prevalent error. She advocates for an audience-first approach, where understanding and connecting with the reader take precedence over keyword placement.

Quote:
Jessica Mehring [16:45]: "We need to think audience first. What does the audience need to hear? Then topic. Then after you've written your first draft... then think about keywords."

Checklist for Leveraging Storytelling in SEO:

1. Audience First: Prioritize understanding your audience's needs, language, and challenges.
2. Narrative Planning: Develop a clear narrative that outlines the purpose and desired outcome of your content.
3. Human Connection: Focus on creating content that fosters genuine connections rather than merely inserting keywords.
4. Engage Beyond Information: Address attitudes, normative beliefs, and perceived control to influence behavior.
5. Optimize Post-Creation: Incorporate keywords organically after establishing the narrative and ensuring audience relevance.

Closing Remarks

As the episode wraps up, Jordan previews the next installment where he and Jessica will discuss achieving SEO goals. Listeners are encouraged to connect with Jessica through LinkedIn or visit Horizon Peak Consulting’s website for more insights. The episode concludes with a reminder to subscribe for daily SEO and content marketing insights.

Quote:
Jordan Cooney [18:37]: "It’s about creating human connection. It’s not just about making sure the keywords are on the page."

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Key Takeaways

• Human-Centric Approach: Prioritize understanding and connecting with your audience over purely algorithm-driven content creation.
• Storytelling is Essential: Incorporate narrative elements to make content engaging and distinguishable in a sea of AI-generated material.
• Listen to Your Audience: Effective communication involves both transmitting your message and actively listening to your audience's needs and language.
• Strategic Planning: Develop a Narrative Plan to guide content creation, ensuring it aligns with audience expectations and SEO objectives.
• Avoid Common Pitfalls: Shift from a keyword-first mindset to an audience-first approach to create more meaningful and effective content.

By integrating storytelling into SEO strategies, marketers can create content that not only ranks well but also deeply engages and converts their target audience. This episode of Voices of Search underscores the timeless value of human connection in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing.

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice then visit iheareverything.com welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast. A member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network, ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts. Sit back, relax, and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search podcast, Jordan Cooney.

[Jordan Cooney]

Hello marketers and SEOs. My name is Jordan Cooney from Pre Visible and this week we're going to discuss storytelling and SEO growth. Joining me today is Jessica Mehring who is the CEO of Horizon Peak Consulting, who specializes in helping technology companies create human content and campaigns to maximize conversation. Today, Jessica and I are going to discuss making SEO content stand out with storytelling. Okay, here's my conversation with Jessica, the CEO of Horizon Peak Consulting. Jessica, welcome to the show.

[Jessica Mehring]

Thank you so much for having me. I've been looking forward to this conversation.

[Jordan Cooney]

Absolutely. So let's start with a little bit of background. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us a little bit about Horizon P Consulting and what you all do in the SEO content space.

[Jessica Mehring]

Yeah, sure. So Horizon Peak has been around for over 10 years now. Oh my gosh, it's 11 years. It's 11 years now. I just realized.

[Jordan Cooney]

That's awesome.

[Jessica Mehring]

Yeah, that's a big number. I have been a copywriter and content strategist in the technology industry for my whole career, over 20 years and left corporate 11 years ago to really give all of my focus to Horizon Peak Consulting. And we have been doing just that for the last 11 years. We have been helping technology companies from venture backed startups all the way up to global enterprises create more human and high performing editorial content and campaign copy.

[Jordan Cooney]

Awesome. And when you take an approach to content. Let's just talk about this a little bit. The approach to content creation has really changed quite a bit over the last, say two years. Tell us a little bit about what you mean by that human centric content and why that's important in our current world.

[Jessica Mehring]

Yeah, absolutely. We have always had humans before algorithm approach to content. Long before that was the thing. That was our approach and it has always been our focus. But I feel like it is more important now than it has ever been with the rise of generative AI. Of course, we've all come face to face with how AI is affecting the world of SEO and copywriting and content marketing and really creating this tsunami of AI generated content. And I feel like that was already beginning to happen before AI hit the scene. This focus on quantity over quality, algorithm over humans, it just got exacerbated in the last two years. It got exacerbated because it got a lot easier to just produce that quantity without the strategic thinking that has to go into putting humans first in your content. And when I talk about putting humans first in your content, I mean literally starting with your audience and knowing who they are on a human level, on a personal level, what is keeping them up at night, how are they describing their problems, and importantly, how are they describing their process for finding a solution to those problems? A lot of businesses are so quick to put out content and so quick to create campaigns without doing that upfront work of having the conversations with the audience and really hearing how they are describing their problems and their journeys.

[Jordan Cooney]

No question. I think that's a great segue to our conversation today, because I think that's what automation has created is this lack of a real story. Right. If everybody uses some AI or some cookie cutter template to build content, well, then everyone's content is going to sound the same. Right. And I'm curious to get your perspective on what it really means to make SEO content with a storytelling lens. You know, I hear from a lot of SEOs, and they're usually already programmatically thinking about what the approach is. Right. What is the rule for this? How do you build X, Y and Z? How do you. How do you create a product description and do it as quickly as possible? Or how do you write a guide and do it as seamless as you can? And I get a sense that that. That really misses out on the opportunity to tell a genuine story. And I'd love to hear your point of view on that.

[Jessica Mehring]

Yeah. I have so much to say on this. I have so much to say. And I want you to, like, don't let me forget. I want to circle back to your. Your first point there, which is how so much content and copy is sounding the same. Because this is a big part of my graduate studies. I'm actually just about to hold my master's degree in my hands in about five weeks?

[Jordan Cooney]

Wow, Congratulations. That's super exciting.

[Jessica Mehring]

Thank you.

[Jordan Cooney]

Yeah.

[Jessica Mehring]

Master's degree in communication. It's been a journey, and a lot of my studies have revolved around this. So don't let me forget to circle back to that. If I go too far down the storytelling rabbit hole, which I can do. When we talk about storytelling and connecting with the audience, it really comes down to looking through a narrative lens. We can go all the way back to our caveman days as human beings. Storytelling is how we have always communicated human to human. That has not changed. Even with automation and generative AI, we still communicate human to human through storytelling. And narrative is one piece of the storytelling puzzle. Storytelling can really be broken up into two elements, narrative and story. Narrative is the piece that I think a lot of businesses miss when they're in that hurry to produce quantity, and that is purpose, the presentation, how it's going to be structured, and then the who, the what and the how of the content that you're creating. The hero, the goal and the obstacles. This is the narrative. And then story is the other part of storytelling, and that is your beginning, middle and end. It's the sequence of events leading to the resolution, culminating in the solution to a problem. But it's this narrative piece that I think if we can get back to, if we can start focusing on again in the world of content creation, we can have an outsized impact on how all of our strategies perform, SEO included.

[Jordan Cooney]

When you think about that human component, that this is something that's been a tradition of ours as humanity since the beginning of time, I'm wondering how we position ourselves in that today, where so much has changed in the last 20 to 30 years in terms of how we communicate stories. I'm not just talking about the introduction of, say, the telephone and then that becoming a mobile device, and then that becoming how we communicate in social networks or what we do today to buy products through the Internet, but even now, more importantly, where answers have some tendency to be immediate, and a story requires there to be substance, to be there, to be background and information included in that. How are we as not only humans, but content contributors, content creators, marketers, thinking about that background and its importance in the ecosystems that we work in?

[Jessica Mehring]

Are we thinking about that enough? That is the question. I feel like that has really been lost in so many ways. And if we can just take a step back. Communication has two components, transmission and reception. Speaking or writing being transmission, reception being listening. Listening and telling. Those are two components of communication. We focus so much on the telling, we forget that listening is part of communication as well. And when we're not listening, we're not actually in conversation with our audience. So I think it all comes back to bringing listening back to the forefront. That has to do with, again, getting to know your audience and really talking to them and understanding Their problems, how they are describing their problems. This is so key. I actually use conversion copywriting in a lot of what I do. And the first thing you do as a conversion copywriter is talk to the audience, research the audience, get to know the audience and learn their language so you can use their language in the copy so they see themselves on the page. That is a lot of listening. And we're so in a rush to produce and we're so in a rush to transmit that we don't take that moment to listen to what the audience is saying that they need. And then that's where we come in as storytellers or content creators, when we understand who we're speaking to, that's our starting point, that's our beginning of the story, that's our entry point into conversation with them, where they're at.

[Jordan Cooney]

And when it comes to the connection to SEO here, I think that a big part of that pace that we're working towards is because there's this demand on traffic, and traffic leads to conversions. And so the faster we get this up, the more likely we are to be successful. And that pressure, that demand creates this, I think, missed opportunity for us to tell the best possible story. And so for our episode, we want to really talk about what makes things stand out. What in storytelling helps our websites and our experiences truly stand out. And in your experience, what are some of the steps, what are some of the processes that, that we should be thinking about to help us get to that place where our content is standing out and performing?

[Jessica Mehring]

You know, one of the steps that I take with my client, with my clientele, may answer that question. I do what's called a narrative plan. For most of the editorial content and a lot of the campaign copy that I and my firm produce, we do what's called a narrative plan, which is this. It's just a step up front where we are again, getting to know the audience, really getting in their heads, understanding their language, their vocabulary, and then thinking about, thinking through, okay, what does this audience need to hear in order to do, believe or feel something by the end of this content? So we start there with the audience and we map out just a one paragraph narrative that we are going to use to guide our writing with this content. It can be three, four sentences, but it's addressing. This is where the audience is, this is their mindset. This is where we are coming in and meeting them. This is what they need to hear in order to, you know, change their behavior or take an action or shift a mindset. And then this is where we need to take them in order to take that next step. So when you're thinking about SEO content and traffic leading to conversions, I wonder how much of that is true anymore. Certainly, SEO affects traffic. This is why SEO exists to get traffic to a website. Right. And it still very much does that. But then once the visitor is on the website, if they're not getting what they need on that page, what do they do? They bounce. They don't take that next action. And it's that next action that leads to true conversion, real revenue. So when we're thinking from an SEO standpoint, you get somebody to the page. Now the page has to do its job. The visitor has to feel like they are in the right place, they are understood, and there's something that hooks them right off the bat that makes them say, oh, okay, there's something here for me, and that's where that narrative really does its job, is we're connecting on that human level. And if you're using my process, it's using their own language so they see themselves on the page and really taking them by the hand to that next step they need to take to solve their problem.

[Jordan Cooney]

You touched on something there that I think is really interesting. And when I. When we talk to content experts and dive deeper beyond the words and texts that are written, the big question that always comes up is the experience. What's the whole experience that. That user, reader, consumer, buyer, potential prospect, whatever you want to label that individual behind the screen as, like, what are they going through? What are they going through to truly consume the story? And when you think about the experience, what aspects of that help connect to a story for it to really stand out?

[Jessica Mehring]

Yeah, I think we need to look at something. It's a theory called the Theory of Planned Behavior. I just refreshed my memory on this recently. It's very top of mind for me. So a lot of content is strictly informational. It is there to answer a specific question. That's all well and good. That's not enough to keep today's audience on the page and taking action a lot of the time. The theory of planned behavior posits that humans need more than sheer information in order to change behavior, attitude, what we believe about the world, what we believe about what we're reading, consuming normative beliefs. And that would be what we think other people expect of us. And then control. How much control do we really feel that we have over this situation? Those three elements need to be addressed in order to change behavior. So if we simply go beyond information. And we start talking through attitude, normative beliefs, and how much control that visitor has to solve their problem. Then we start to really engage.

[Jordan Cooney]

That's super powerful. I think that's the interesting connection between great content, great experience, and delivering an outcome to the person behind that keyboard that really resonates and drives not just the action, but. But the value that they're looking for, not only in the story, but also in the whole experience that comes with it. I want to close this episode out with a really interesting question that will likely segue into our next topic around SEO growth goals. But what are some of the most common pitfalls that SEOs and content writers should avoid and prevent themselves from falling into when it comes to incorporating a true storytelling approach to content?

[Jessica Mehring]

I think when we're talking about SEO, a lot of content creators think keyword first. So you get the list of keywords, and then you figure out, okay, how do I write around these keywords? And we need to flip that. We need to think audience first. What does the audience need to hear? Then topic. Then after you've written your first draft, hopefully with that narrative plan up front so you know exactly what the purpose is, what the audience needs to do, feel, and believe by the end of it. Who's the hero? What's their goal? What are the obstacles in the way? And then only then do you look at your keywords and think, okay, how can I organically work these in?

[Jordan Cooney]

So real quick, Jessica, with respect to these areas to avoid what, what's a quick little checklist here for our listeners, our SEOs, and our content writers to take home with in terms of how to leverage storytelling?

[Jessica Mehring]

Yeah. So when it comes to SEO, it's not just keyword first that we need to think first in narrative. That is the purpose, the audience, how it's structured, and the whole. The why, the how, the hero, the goal, and the obstacle. Really thinking about the narrative that you're creating on the page, and then if you're going off of a creative brief, there's a little bit of a shift in mindset that needs to happen. It's about creating human connection. It's not just about making sure the keywords are on the page. That, of course, is important. But thinking first in human connection, how can I really connect with the person who is reading this page right now? What is it that they need, and how do we get them there?

[Jordan Cooney]

Okay, that wraps up this episode of the Voices Search podcast. Thank you to Jessica Mehring, CEO of Horizon Peak Consulting, for joining us in part two of this interview, which we'll publish tomorrow, Jessica and I are going to discuss achieving your SEO goals. If you can't wait until our next episode and would like to learn more about Jessica, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in our show notes. Or you can visit her company website, horizonpeakconsulting.com okay, thanks to Jordan Cooney, the.

[Podcast Announcer]

Founder of Pre Visible. If you'd like to get in touch with Jordan, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes. You can contact him on Twitter. His handle is J.T. cooney. That's J T K O E N E. Or you can visit his company's website, which is Previsible IO that's P R E V I S I B L E I O Just one more link in our show notes I'd like to tell you about. If you didn't have a chance to take notes while you were listening to this podcast, head over to voicesofsearch.com where we have summaries of all of our episodes and contact information for our guests. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and you can even send us your topic suggestions or your marketing questions, which we'll answer live on our show. Of course, you can always reach out on social media. Our handle is voicesofsearch on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or you can contact me directly. My handle is benjschab. B E N J S H A B and if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of SEO and content marketing insights in your podcast feed, we're going to publish an episode every day during the work week. So hit that subscribe button in your podcast app and we'll be back in your feed tomorrow morning. All right, that's it for today. But until next time, remember, the answers are always in the data.