Repurposing Content with the CAPER Methodology
Clichés may tend to mask the ugly, complicated state of affairs, but there is usually some aspect of truth behind them. The idea that ‘content is king’ has become the mantra of many white hat search agencies, and the belief that creating great content is the key to having a well-performing website is widely held. This content can include anything from sales copy, editorial content, videos, images and even audio.
Getting content right can be hard, time-consuming work, but there are some crafty of ways of creating new content more easily. At SiteVisibility we use the CAPER methodology to help us repurpose content for SEO.
C is for Content
The CAPER methodology helps us to plan and repurpose content. It’s particularly useful for websites which already have lots of great content available. This could mean editing or rewriting content, images, video and audio as well as bringing different media together or curating content.
A is for Audience
Content isn’t just about filling space and getting seen by a search engine, it’s about being read, watched or listened to, so it’s important to identify the intended audience at an early stage, as this can help you make decisions along the way more easily, and means the content is more likely to be read, watched and listened to as well as shared, liked, re-posted and linked to.
Identifying new audiences for existing content can also be a good way of repackaging it. Different audiences will have different priorities, interests, knowledge and perspective, so re-crafting it for a new audience can be as good as creating something from scratch.
P is for Platform
One of the best ways of re-purposing content is to move it onto a different platform. Your blog posts might be performing well, but you could tap into a whole new audience by turning it into a video, podcast, slideshow or infographic.
Make the most of your content. Writing transcriptions of video, for example. It’s hard to optimise video, especially on YouTube. Google is poor at understanding the content of a video, hence all the tagging, so transcriptions help that type of content to be visible.
If you already have lots of great onsite copy, then consider packaging some of that into a PDF, creating a whitepaper or guide. Professionals and academics are more likely to search for and engage with PDFs, so keep this in mind when you write the content. PDFs can rank well in the SERPs.
Powerpoint presentations can be uploaded to Slideshare and then promoted, shared, bookmarked and embedded. Infographics are another great way of creating something new from something old. Sometimes the platform is the most interesting thing about a piece of content, for example the jobseeker who made a comic strip CV.
E is for Engage
After identifying an audience, it's important to ensure the content is engaging. Look at relevant news feeds or blogs, get a feel for what the audience is talking about and ensure that your content will interest them. We want content to be shared, re-posted, referenced and linked to. People are used to putting calls to action at the end of written content, but this should be applied to all types of content. Send audiences to a website, encourage them to share and re-post, or to review the content.
R is for Repeat
It’s never too late to re-purpose some content. Look for a new angle, identify a new audience or translate it onto a different platform. Make sure your content is targeted and engaging.
Guest post by:Alan Cairns is an SEO Copywriter and Content Strategist at SiteVisibility, a Brighton-based SEO Agency.
Style content as per audience
Good points! Content is created for the audience and how then responds to it is of utmost importance. Thus, it's important to know what your audience preferences and interests are.
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