Every year we dive into Series A startup blogs for a quick overview of what they are (and aren’t) doing with their blogs.
While 2024 is shaping up to be the “Year of the Blog,” it turned out that in 2023, many early-ish stage B2B companies weren’t focusing on customer-facing content…yet.
However, those who were prioritizing their blogs were successfully stealing voice share from the competition.
We wanted to see how they did it.
What do their top-performing blog posts look like, and what can that tell us about how to structure our blog posts? In this post, we break down the top trafficked Series A of 2023’s top trafficked blog post.
Jasper.AI’s 2023 Trajectory
Last year, we noted Jasper was blowing away the competition. Jasper’s content marketing was so successful that we actually pulled them out of our Series A blog analysis because they suggested that the average B2B Series A blog was performing way better than it actually was.
The generative AI brand logged roughly 800,000 website visitors per month while the average Series A brand averaged just 19,167.
Well, that was last year.
In the intervening months, Jasper fell victim to the September 2023 Helpful Content Update (HCU).
Their traffic tumbled in September 2023, losing about 25K monthly views from September until December (though take note that traffic always stayed above August 2023 levels). Luckily for Jasper, that setback wasn’t the end of the story. Traffic stabilized in early 2024, and we thought we’d take some lessons from their top post (for traffic) today: 15 Personal Bio Examples that are Fun, Creative, and Get the Job Done.
That post is doing something right, even post-HCU in a site experiencing some hiccups.
So let’s break it down. Here are some notable best practices we’re seeing help this blog rank:
User-Friendly Navigation
A Table-of-Contents in Jasper’s sidebar helps readers navigate longer content. If a table of contents helps your reader parse longer content, it’s good for SEO and invites readers to spend more time on your article. In this article specifically, users can easily skip the info sections and get right to the creative heart of the article.
Don’t like the idea of a table of contents? Link to key sections in your introduction so readers can control their own experience for a better user experience.
Long Content
At 3,184 words, this article is a chunk.
In B2B, long content is still outperforming short content. While B2C blogs are seeing word counts on top posts fall for the first time in Google’s history, B2B still thrives on lengthy guides and playbooks.
Just make sure readers can quickly access the sections they need without wading through your encyclopedia.
Blogs are 77% longer than in 2013, and B2B blogs are even longer — they average 160 more words than their B2C counterparts. There’s a reason. Longer posts are associated with bigger results.
An Introduction with a Clear Copywriting Formula
The introduction uses a tried-and-true “problem-agitate-solution” copywriting formula to engage readers and lengthen the time they spend on the page (which boosts their SEO standing). Here’s how they do it:
- It starts with a hook: Here’s the “problem” — “Personal bios can be hard to write.” It’s not a revelation, but it does the trick as it emphasizes the current frustration of the reader and expresses empathy.
- It develops the problem: Here’s the “agitation” — the author develops a narrative around the problem of trying to write a great bio off the cuff. It’s uncomfortable, we’re often isolated behind screens and find it hard to reach out, and we don’t know how to get started. Now we’re really feeling the pain. Can this article please just take away our pain??!
- The intro goes on to list what’ll happen in this article to solve the problem. I’d normally say you want to avoid this approach. After all, no one likes those 7th-grade essays where the author spends more time on what they’re going to do than they spend on doing it. Developing writers typically waste oodles of a reader’s time by forcing their words into templated formulas like this. But B2B buyers are busy and appreciate knowing why the article is worth their time! Simple signposting and a quick bullet-pointed list strike the right balance.
- It ends with a vision of what life will look like when you solve the problem. This intro concludes by telling readers they’ll have a great bio to whip out whenever they need one from now on. Wow! It’ll be quick and easy! That contrasts with the frustration they’re feeling in the first paragraph. They’re more willing to read on if this article can deliver on that promise.
Un-fun fact: There are no studies on the effectiveness of various introduction formulas on SEO or overall blog effectiveness. Not sure what format to use? Consider your goals for distribution, usability, and funnel location. Personalize the “problem” and your empathy to your ideal reader and the stage of decision-making they’re in.
Informational, Google-Friendly Body Content
- That means this post is mostly “People Also Ask” (PAA) content. It makes sense that Jasper lost some traffic in the HCU, as these info-heavy posts are losing ground to AI answers within the Google search results (SERPS). While they’re still performing well in this article, those seeking longevity would do well to add some exclusive interviews, data, infographics, visuals, etc. that Google can’t replicate.
- Pictures! 15 total examples to peruse, which couldn’t exist solely in the Google SERPS. This is the meat of what gives this article ongoing value. There’s little analysis of each, but the authors do point out a couple of differences between approaches, stating what worked in bios and what didn’t. That makes this article highly skimmable, which likely boosts its ranking.
- Relevance: Jasper AI can help you write a bio, and one section discusses how. But notice the article gives us actual bios to peruse, rather than 15 examples of AI prompts to create your own. So this article is aimed at people who want to do something manually, not necessarily via Jasper. But inevitably, many will look to the snappy examples, try it themselves, and decide it’d ust be easier to use Jasper’s service. The post-article Call to Action (CTA) section makes it clear how this is relevant to Jasper. It reads, “Ready to Create Better Content with AI?”
- High DA external links (to Twitter and Instagram) and plenty of internal links (to other blogs about how to create brand voice, style guides, and AI images) create a content pillar around creating online content with generative AI.
Good body copy is relevant, skimmable, specific, visual, includes internal and external links, and is structured content into multiple, small sections.
So What Should I Do?
Here are the takeaways:
- Not everyone needs bespoke interviews, new data, or infographics to shine and bring in big traffic. Sometimes PAA content performs when done right. That’s especially true here, in a B2B niche with small business owners and topic pillars with tons of traffic.
- A CTA to sign up for the free trial to do that exact thing they’ve just searched and learned about it is golden. Not only does the article perform in search, but we bet it converts well, too. Start by crafting your content pillars around areas where you can lead readers to your tool to solve their problems in an easier/quicker/sexier way than the content you’ve just given them.
- Curate content. A round-up of amazing examples is valuable, helpful content in a how-to post. Be specific. Give both hypothetical and real examples in every article.
Put More Kefi in SEO Blog Posts
Jasper’s performing information blogs prove the model’s still working for B2B tech companies in 2024. While there are whispers that informational content is getting taken over by AI, the reality is that “how to” and “what is” content still needs human explanation and examples that give your readers confidence and a blueprint to follow-through.
Looking for a production team that knows what kind of relevant content is best for your audience? Kefi blogs always break down the best headers, sub-topics, and stand-out examples so your readers know you’ve got their backs. You can order top-quality blogs in 5 minutes, or get on our calendar to partner on strategy so you’re assured your articles are going to hit the mark.
