Content marketing for startups: what to write first

Content marketing for startups works best when you write first for people who are close to buying. Start with alternatives pages, comparisons, use-case pages and how-tos that use your product. Take topics from what competitors already rank for and what people ask. Publish one or two good posts a week and share each one.

Broad "what is X" posts can wait. They compete with big, old sites and rarely bring buyers early on.

What to write first: bottom-of-funnel content

Bottom of the funnel means the reader is choosing a tool now. These pages get less traffic, but that traffic is far more likely to sign up.

Write them in roughly this order:

1. "[Competitor] alternatives" pages for the tools buyers compare you with.
2. "[Your product] vs [competitor]" pages with an honest comparison table.
3. Use-case pages, one per job your product does well, like "invoicing for design agencies".
4. How-tos tied to your product, where the steps use what you built. "How to send automatic invoice reminders" fits an invoicing tool.

Keep comparisons accurate and say where a rival is the better pick. The SaaS SEO guide has more on comparison and use-case pages.

Find content topics in what competitors rank for

Your competitors have already tested which topics bring search traffic. Start from their results.

Run your closest rival through Competitor Keywords. It shows the Google keywords that site ranks for, with search volume, difficulty and cost per click, sorted into blog topics and keywords worth bidding on. Then run Keyword Gap to see what they rank for on Google's first two pages that you do not.

Volume and difficulty are estimates. Pick topics that match what you sell, even when the volume looks small. A narrow search often brings a better buyer than a big vague one.

Find the questions your buyers ask

Questions make good headings and good posts.

• Question Finder shows the questions Google shows for a topic and which ones your page leaves unanswered.
• AI Question Finder shows the questions people ask Google AI Overviews or ChatGPT about a topic, with the start of the answer and the sources it lists. It covers one platform per run.

Group related questions into one strong post instead of a thin post for each. Topic clusters explains how to link those posts together.

Write answer-first so search and AI can quote it

Put the answer in the first two or three sentences of the post and of each section. Add the detail, steps and examples after that. Search snippets and AI answers tend to pull short, direct passages, and readers skim the same way.

Citability Analyzer reviews each section of a page for a clear answer up front, context and evidence. It is an editorial aid. It does not predict whether you will get cited. See how to write citable content for examples.

Show who wrote it

Readers want to know who is behind the advice before they act on it. Put a byline on every post. Link it to an author page that shows real experience. Make your About and Contact pages easy to find.

Author & E-E-A-T Checker checks a page for a visible byline, author markup, an author page, a publisher, and About and Contact links.

Keep dates honest and update old posts

Old posts with wrong prices or outdated screenshots cost you trust. Review your best posts every few months.

When you change a post in a real way, change its updated date. Do not bump the date when nothing changed. Content Freshness Checker finds missing or conflicting date signals on a page, such as a visible date that disagrees with the one in the markup.

Distribute every post

A new site gets little search traffic for months, so you have to bring the first readers yourself.

For every post:

• Send it to your newsletter or customer list.
• Share it where your buyers already talk, like a subreddit, a Slack group or a forum. Answer the question there and link only if it helps.
• Post a short version on LinkedIn or X with the main point in the post itself.
• Link to it from related pages on your own site.

How often a startup should publish

One or two good posts a week beats a daily stream of thin ones. A post that fully answers a buyer's question keeps working for years. Ten rushed posts often do nothing at all.

If you only have time for one thing this week, write the comparison page before the blog post. For the wider plan, see how to get your first 1,000 users.

Tools to plan and check your content

Start with Competitor Keywords on your closest rival, for 35 credits, to get topics that already bring search traffic. After you publish, run the page through Citability Analyzer for 5 credits and Author & E-E-A-T Checker for 8 credits. Run Content Freshness Checker on old posts when you update them.