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My content workflow that’s ranking us on page 1 for 30+ keywords in 6 months
Posted by on February 24, 2026 at 12:06 pmI run SEO for a B2B SaaS in the HR space. Small team, just me and one writer. When I started 8 months ago we were ranking for basically nothing. 6 months later we're on page 1 for 34 keywords, 12 of which are in the top 3. Nothing groundbreaking, just consistent execution.
Research and planning:
– Ahrefs for keyword research and competitor content gaps. I run a content gap analysis against our top 3 competitors monthly.
– Search Console for identifying existing pages that are close to page 1 and just need optimization.
– I build topical clusters around our core product categories. Each cluster has a pillar page and 5-8 supporting articles.Content creation process:
Here's where my workflow is a little different. When I'm doing competitor research or reading industry reports, I talk through my content angles and observations into Willow Voice. Stuff like: competitor X wrote about this topic but they completely ignored the integration angle, we should cover that. Or: this keyword has decent volume but the SERP is all listicles, we can win with a data-driven piece instead. The transcripts become the raw material for my content briefs, which means the briefs are grounded in actual competitive analysis instead of me guessing what to write about.Briefs:
Every article gets a detailed brief. Target keyword, secondary keywords, search intent, outline with H2s and H3s, competitor URLs to reference, and a word count target based on what's ranking. My writer told me my briefs are the most detailed she's gotten, and I think it's because the research observations make them more specific.Technical:
– Ran a full technical audit when I started. Fixed crawl errors, cleaned up redirect chains, added schema markup, improved Core Web Vitals.
– Internal linking strategy. Every new article links to 3-5 existing pieces and I update old pieces to link to new ones.What's not working:
Link building. I've tried guest posting outreach and it's been painfully slow. Our DR is still low and it's holding back some of our higher-competition keywords. Open to suggestions here.What's your content workflow looking like? Curious what other in-house SEOs are doing with small teams.
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1 Reply
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What kind of outreach are you doing?
If you’re simply asking to guest post on their site, it’s not surprising it isn’t working. It’s not 2016 anymore.
You either have to pay for it or give them something valuable in exchange for a backlink.
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This is a good workflow. I might integrate some of what you do into mine
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Thanks for the great write up! I’m definitely adopting some of your suggested methods. Additionally, do you have an example of an article that you can share? I love seeing actual examples to learn from.
Cheers!
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> Every article gets a detailed brief. Target keyword, secondary keywords, search intent, outline with H2s and H3s, competitor URLs to reference, and a word count target based on what’s ranking. My writer told me my briefs are the most detailed she’s gotten, and I think it’s because the research observations make them more specific.
Please fill the gap here – how is this part being produced? just based on competitor page analysis? Or are you adding something into the mix.
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Interested in link exchange?
I got a blog about HR & EOR/PEO -
Have you been getting links to your content or has that not mattered?
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