At a time when anybody can create content material, the true problem—and alternative—is in saying one thing new.
I feel content material curation may help with that.
Curation is all about discovering undiscovered tales and repackaging concepts in methods your viewers actually reply to.
On this article, you’ll be taught why content material curation is nice for development, and how you can expertise scout high quality underground or left-field content material.
Gathering and sharing content material is a well-liked social media tactic, however content material curation extends to mediums and channels far past social.
Let’s check out some examples:
| Instance | Sort | What’s it? |
|---|---|---|
| The Pudding | Article | A knowledge journalism publication that curates a variety of wealthy media (e.g. social feedback, headline snippets, literature opinions) to inform compelling visible tales – like this one. |
| Ahrefs’ digest | E-newsletter | Our Senior Content material Advertising and marketing Supervisor, Si Quan Ong (SQ), curates key search engine optimization/advertising information, accompanied by snappy annotations. |
| Close to Media Memo | Podcast | Conversations on the intersection of search, social, and commerce. Hosts curate and talk about the newest {industry} content material. |
| KFC’s “Bucket Bangers” Spotify Playlist | Playlist | A playlist curated by KFC as a part of a PR marketing campaign, containing 46 tracks that title drop the model. |
| Marketing campaign Inspiration | Picture carousel | This LinkedIn web page curates visible examples of current PR campaigns to encourage entrepreneurs. |
Newsletters, specifically, have grow to be the go-to platform for curation, since they’re pretty low cost to run and simple to set up.
The numbers again this up. A fast take a look at Website Explorer reveals e-newsletter platform Substack experiencing a 373% leap in natural site visitors from September fifth, 2023 to September fifth, 2024.
You possibly can see some nice examples of curated search engine optimization newsletters right here: I Subscribed to 72 search engine optimization Newsletters. Right here Are My 11 Favorites.
Now about content material curation in all its kinds and guises, let me let you know what’s so nice about it…
From saving cash, to constructing site visitors, and cementing your authority, content material curation comes with loads of advantages.
1. Content material curation saves time and cash
At Ahrefs, we comply with The Pareto Precept: the concept that 80% of the reward comes from 20% of the hassle.
If you wish to enhance your effort:reward ratio, curation is a good possibility.
I requested SQ about the advantages of content material curation, and he had this to say:
“One profit is that I don’t have to jot down an essay from scratch every week (which is what most newsletters are).”
Whereas content material curation has the potential to save lots of you time, assets, and cash, I do need to add two essential caveats:
- Curating area of interest, underground content material examples can nonetheless take time – particularly whenever you’re first discovering your sources.
- In case you’re doing deep-dive investigations into these examples, you might spend simply as lengthy curating as you’d creating.
2. Curation helps you construct hyperlinks, site visitors, and engagement
Advertising and marketing Examples is a goldmine of curated advertising snippets.
Founder, Harry Dry, doesn’t simply collect content material — he dissects real-world advertising copy, title drops the creator, and breaks down their profitable formulation, making it straightforward for readers to duplicate that success.
Consequently, his web site has earned pretty constant hyperlinks and site visitors over time, rising organically by 88% within the final two years.
Curating content material is an instance of what I name “consciousness you ready earlier”. Your possibilities of driving traction are vastly improved whenever you crowdsource concepts.
Not solely do your viewers devour your curated content material, they publicize it to their very own community by way of social posts or reciprocal hyperlinks after they get featured.
Some consult with this as “ego bait”. Clearly there’s a component of flattery concerned, however in my expertise, the highest curators prioritize content material that genuinely helped or impressed them, slightly than chasing massive names with the widest attain.
3. Curating content material is nice for EEAT
Few folks have direct expertise with each matter they’ve ever written about.
However, since 2022, first-hand expertise has grow to be a prerequisite for rating in Google.
Curating others’ lived experiences and information in your content material is a robust method to construct your EEAT and enhance your rankings.
4. You grow to be credible by affiliation
We are likely to categorize folks in accordance with their social group memberships – this is called social categorization.
In case you’re usually associating your self with revered thought leaders, your viewers is extra prone to group you with them, and maintain you in greater regard consequently.
Mixing in your personal content material and opinion is essential for constructing credibility, however watch out to not overdo the self-promotion.
Again to SQ:
“I don’t have a tendency to incorporate all the weblog posts we publish on our weblog.“
5. You get nearer to your prospects and neighborhood
While you curate, you devour content material holistically –like your prospects– and cease being so introspective.
In case you’re solely consuming content material out of your model or model “buddies”, there’s a restrict to the worth you may convey to your viewers.
Content material curators flip to their neighborhood to supply content material, so curating bridges the hole in two methods: by serving to them devour like their prospects, and by giving them a cause to join.
6. While you curate, your content material will get higher
To create is to curate. All concepts are formed and borrowed from someplace – that’s how information is acquired.
If I don’t curate, I have a tendency to search out my very own content material stagnates.
Curation introduces me to new concepts, jogs my memory of the issues I’ve forgotten, permits me to construct deeper, extra knowledgeable arguments, and finally helps me produce higher content material – with much more in the way in which of data acquire.
As an example, this weblog began out as a easy record of content material curation advantages, thunk up by yours really.
However as I got here throughout cool examples of novel content material curation, it advanced right into a extra complete (and hopefully, extra attention-grabbing) information.
“One other advantage of content material curation is that I get to maintain abreast of something new in search engine optimization and advertising, which informs my very own work”
7. You construct your private “model”
Curation offers you the prospect to platform your personal experience and assert your self as a thought chief.
Check out the search quantity for probably the most prolific curators in search engine optimization: Aleyda Solis.
Aleyda curates search engine optimization information and insights throughout her e-newsletter, SEOFOMO, her podcast, Crawling Mondays, her owned social media channels, and {industry} talks.
Consequently, her title now drives ~600 month-to-month natural searches, in accordance with Website Explorer.
And over 19K “in content material” mentions, in accordance with Content material Explorer.
Curation is about piecing collectively unrelated content material to disclose new concepts and data.
You’re giving another person’s content material one other shot at engagement – generally after a “failure” to launch.
“The identical core data might be made roughly precious by altering its format. Nice concepts are generally locked away in locations that render them inaccessible to folks that will profit from them.”
Listed below are 9 methods you may “expertise scout” novel content material, and carve out your personal curation USP.
1. Take note of lesser-known voices
In each {industry} there are sources that audiences defer to for data and concepts.
Look past them.
Scout for “rising stars” and underground sources to provide your curation exclusivity.
Mark Williams-Prepare dinner, Director at Candour and Founding father of AlsoAsked, does simply this when curating his e-newsletter: Core Updates.
“I’ve made a aware effort not simply to comply with the ‘massive names’, as there are some really wonderful SEOs which might be very quiet on social media. I’d at all times suggest following somebody if you happen to see them placing out stable recommendation, even if you happen to’ve by no means heard of them. I’ve made some good buddies and wonderful connections that approach!”
That is most likely one thing you’ll should do manually at first.
I attempt to pay shut consideration to folks leaving savvy feedback on social media posts and {industry} communities.
2. Construct an X record of “ones to watch”
When you’ve discovered the correct “ones to observe”, you can begin constructing an inventory to refer again to at any time when it’s time to curate.
SQ makes use of X lists and subscribes to others’ Substacks:
“I’ve my very own Twitter record of entrepreneurs (getting poorer today sadly) and comply with different folks’s substacks/newsletters and see if there are any hyperlinks they suggest.”
3. Mine area of interest and atypical sources of data
Nicole DeLeon, Ed Zitron, Marie Haynes and different tech curators lately mined Google’s DoJ trial documentation to analyze “buried” data on how the search engine ranks content material.
Search Engine Roundtable founder, Barry Schwartz, is at all times extracting content material from Google rep social feedback, Google developer docs, and Google’s Workplace Hours video sequence to curate hot-off-the-press information.
Techemails mines leaked tech firm emails from courtroom filings and curates them throughout social media and their web site (p.s. they’re preeetty eye-opening).
Discovering and teasing out obscure data is a good ability to have in relation to content material curation.
Listed below are some extra methods you are able to do that:
- Monitor updates in firm documentation (e.g. model Ts & Cs, Google Developer Docs, Anthropic Launch Notes)
- Mine Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) request databases
- Monitor authorities information by way of truth discovering our bodies (e.g. Certainly curates content material from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to tell content material of their Hiring Lab)
- Examine public datasets launched by analysis establishments (e.g. Harvard Dataverse)
- Mine “hidden” or ephemeral content material (e.g. podcasts, webinars, {industry} talks, seminars and so on.) to curate quotes and promote comparatively unheard data
- Monitor public bulletins and press releases from organizations
4. Monitor down new and trending content material
Be the primary to interrupt and curate information in your {industry}. Begin by looking for industry-specific key phrases in Content material Explorer.
Then add filters to ensure you’re seeing the freshest and highest high quality content material.
In my expertise, I discover that:
- Including a minimal Referring Area of “30”
- Including a minimal phrase rely of “300”
- Sorting by “Date: latest first”
…reveals me the latest and finest search engine optimization associated content material, however you must mess around till you discover what works in your {industry}.
Tip
In the case of filtering, don’t get too prescriptive about it – bear in mind, you need to discover novel content material that often flies below the radar, so keep away from being overly strict with minimal thresholds.
This subsequent half is absolutely essential. When you’re completely satisfied along with your configuration, hit “Save filters” in an effort to repeat this evaluation for the following instalment of your e-newsletter, podcast, social publish, article, or no matter else you is perhaps curating.
With the Content material Explorer, you’re looking for situations of a key phrase within the title, content material, URL or all the above.
However related content material received’t at all times include the precise key phrases or subjects you’re looking for.
Through which case, strive looking for key phrases within the anchor textual content linking to that content material.
There’s a preconfigured seek for this in Ahrefs’ Net Explorer. Simply hit the “examples” tab, and choose “Most quoted newly revealed pages about ChatGPT”:
This may load a full report of the most linked to pages concerning the matter “ChatGPT” during the last week. Then all you have to do is replace the report along with your chosen matter, and modify any filters.
And hit “Save report”.
One other tip for breaking information was lately disclosed by search engine optimization skilled and founding father of search engine optimization weblog Detailed, Glen Allsopp, on the Ahrefs Podcast (it’s an ideal episode – I extremely suggest a full pay attention!)
He spoke a couple of method that he refers to because the “iPhone Hyperlink Constructing” methodology.
“The rationale I name it this, as a result of it doesn’t matter who you might be, it doesn’t matter how outdated your web site is, it doesn’t matter how lengthy you’ve been round. When you’ve got a photograph of the iPhone 16 earlier than anybody else and you set that on [your site], the entire tech world goes to speak about it, proper? You’re going to get hyperlinks from each tech web site on the planet. Doesn’t matter that [your site] has nothing to do with tech and devices. You’ve received the primary iPhone hyperlink. Individuals are going to speak about it. So I consult with it because the iPhone hyperlink constructing.“
To hold out “iPhone hyperlink constructing”, Glen units up an alert utilizing Visible Ping. This sends him a notification as quickly as there’s an replace on one of many webpages he’s monitoring. If one thing new or attention-grabbing has modified, he’ll work this into his subsequent piece of content material.
5. Ask your community
Turning to your social community for examples of current content material is a good way to curate.
Right here’s Chris Haines, Ahrefs’ Senior search engine optimization Specialist, doing simply this on LinkedIn…
And right here I’m posting in Girls In Tech search engine optimization (my #1 neighborhood) for contributions to my article: So You’ve Been Requested To Humanize AI Content material
Usually, Slack communities will dedicate a channel to self-promotion. That is one other useful method to discover new content material to curate.
“Within the Girls in Tech search engine optimization Slack group, we’ve a hashtag channel (#wts-amplify-me) that serves as an area for members to advertise their work, and it’s healthful to see a lot of our members use it to spotlight the work of others! This channel helps me curate content material for our weekly WTSNewsletter. As e-newsletter creators, we’re answerable for amplifying numerous voices, which was the driving pressure behind beginning WTSNewsletter. The dearth of range in {industry} newsletters motivated me to create our very personal weekly e-newsletter that showcases the good work of underrepresented people.”
Neighborhood content material sourcing doesn’t start and finish with LinkedIn or Slack. Try different pockets of the web, together with area of interest boards, Subreddits, Fb teams, and Mastodon situations.
6. Bookmark the whole lot
A few of my finest articles have been impressed by the posts I’ve bookmarked.
Listed below are my high suggestions for bookmarking curated content material:
Use net highlighters
Use a net highlighter plugin to bookmark attention-grabbing content material for future curation.
Set up examples in a be aware taking app
Use a be aware taking app like Notion or Obsidian to arrange your content material examples.
Bookmark your saved social media content material
You’ll undoubtedly have banked some nice content material on social media through the years, however navigating again to these archives could be a little bit of a faff.
I bookmark mine to my browser so I can simply soar again in (e.g. LinkedIn “Saved”, X bookmarks, X superior searches, TikTok saved, Instagram saved and so on.)
7. Arrange creator notifications
Observe creators and journalists that encourage you. Subscribe to their channel, activate notification bells on LinkedIn and X, and arrange RSS feeds to get alerted at any time when they push out new content material.
Tip
While you’re looking for new content material within the Content material Explorer, take a look at the Authors tab for concepts on which thought leaders to comply with in your {industry}.
8. Arrange key phrase alerts
Get notified as quickly as on-topic content material is revealed, with Ahrefs “Point out” alerts.
9. Use AI to extract and annotate content material
AI broadly summarizes outdated content material, and has a behavior of forgoing (or fully fabricating) references. In different phrases, it’s fairly horrible for curating distinctive content material.
As an alternative, use it to extract, summarize, and examine the content material you’ve selectively curated.
Extract nuggets from “hidden” content material
I used AI to extract quotes and insights from webinars, interviews, and YouTube movies. The publish I wrote for SpinSucks was impressed by content material mined from interview transcripts and bookmarked social media content material, utilizing Claude AI.
Reverse-engineer profitable content material formulation
I fed ChatGPT examples of top-performing blogs to grasp patterns of success, and inform my opinion of what “good” content material appears to be like like, whereas updating the publish: 6 Easy Weblog Submit Templates (Obtain & Edit Alongside.
We’ve lined quite a lot of floor, however there are a number of further particulars price mentioning earlier than you soar into curation.
Ensure you have a transparent theme
Curation isn’t nearly sourcing and presenting probably the most distinctive content material you may discover.
Worth additionally comes from fastidiously deciding on content material that matches a central idea or theme.
“[Content curation] helps construct my style, which in my view, is the toughest a part of curation, as a result of most individuals don’t appear to grasp the idea of “curation”, i.e. selecting the right, or what suits a theme. They simply appear to shoehorn each article on the web.”
Construct your exclude record
Be discerning concerning the content material you create. Set out guidelines as to the content material or folks you’ll/received’t embrace, utilizing your model tips for inspiration.
Repurpose your information
Content material curation is often cheaper and simpler to provide, however don’t deal with it as a “one and executed” exercise. Repurpose the stuff you be taught each internally and externally.
“We truly use the information – that Jack (Chambers-Ward) and I curate for the Core Updates e-newsletter – internally at Candour throughout certainly one of our weekly conferences after we are discussing modifications within the {industry}. So it’s been a useful activity to verify the company is at all times as much as date!”
Last ideas
Content material curation isn’t a “set it and overlook it” tactic. It’s an ongoing course of that calls for an inexpensive quantity of effort, however the payoff is price it. That’s as a result of:
- It’s a site visitors magnet: Curated content material can outperform authentic content material by way of natural site visitors, since you’re cherry-picking the very best concepts.
- It builds your E-E-A-T: By sharing precious experiences, you’re signaling to customers and engines like google that your stuff. This could enhance your rankings throughout the board.
- It’s a networking alternative: While you share others’ content material, they discover. We’ve constructed relationships with {industry} giants just by that includes their work on our weblog or weekly digest.
Nice curation is about including worth. You possibly can simply reshare content material verbatim, however you’re lacking out on a precious alternative so as to add your personal perception, and clarify why the content material you’ve painstakingly curated issues to your viewers.
In a world the place 70 million weblog posts are revealed each month, expert curators stand out. They don’t simply share content material – they construct communities, spark discussions, and grow to be go-to assets of their niches.
In case you’re giving content material curation a strive, experiment with totally different codecs and observe what resonates (our Content material Explorer may help with that too), then watch your affect develop.
