Expert Roundup Post Guide [Based on 3,500 Expert Roundups]

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Oct 4

• 9 min read

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Terkel has created more than 3,500 expert roundup posts for 400+ brands including Fast Company, American Express, GoDaddy, Zapier, SHRM, and more.

Collectively, these expert roundup articles have driven (and continue to drive) more than 100,000 website visits for the brands who have published them.

What is an expert roundup post?

An expert roundup is an article featuring quotes from people who have unique insights to share about a particular topic. Each person featured in a roundup typically has expertise, authority, and a level of trust within a particular industry vertical. The best expert roundups start with a specific question, and list diverse perspectives to effectively cover all aspects of a topic.

Based on our experience, here’s a simple guide to creating an expert roundup post.

Identify a target keyword
Create a question
Invite vetted experts to answer
Select the best insights
Write the post
Create shareable images
Publish & Promote

Step 1: Identify The Target Keyword

The objective of an expert roundup post is to drive website traffic. Identifying a target keyword increases the chances that your post drives organic search traffic by ranking for relevant search terms.

The best way to identify target keywords is to analyze content gaps that exist between your site and competitors. Using an SEO tool like Ahrefs, follow these steps to identify target keywords:

Go to Content Gap in Ahrefs Site Explorer
Input your domain, and the domain names of three competitors
Adjust the Intersection and Word Count filters to narrow relevant keywords
Select the keyword that best aligns with your brand

For example, one target keyword that emerged from this analysis was, “online business ideas you can start with no money.” Using this as a target keyword helped create this post, which ranks well in search engines.

Step 2: Create The Question

Create a question for experts to answer that incorporates the target keyword. For example, if the target keyword is “workplace communication,” then a question may look like one of these variations:

What’s one type of workplace communication?
What is the most effective method of communicating within the workplace?
What’s your best workplace communication tip to improve collaboration amongst employees?

The question should be framed in a way that inspires great answers while limiting insights to just one tip. That way, insights from experts can be used to collectively cover a topical area.

Step 3: Invite vetted experts to answer

The most important step to creating an expert roundup post is inviting vetted experts to share their knowledge.

The best resources to identify and invite expert insights are:

Terkel
Your own customers, employees, and stakeholders
LinkedIn
Twitter
Private Slack Communities

When inviting an expert to share their expertise, remember to be clear in your request and provide a hard deadline for their contribution. Here’s a template and example for inviting experts on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Invitation Template

Hi NAME, I am writing an article for PUBLISHER NAME on TITLE OF THE ARTICLE. We’d love to include your insights in our article. It requires a 4-6 sentence quote from you before our deadline of DATE. Would you be interested in contributing?

Example

Hi Jennifer, I am writing an article for ASU W. P. Carey on the best pieces of advice for business students. As an alumni, we’d love to include a quote from you in our article. It requires 4-6 sentences from you before our deadline of April 18th. Would you be interested in contributing?

Inviting experts to contribute to your article is the most time intensive step in the process. Be sure to invite more experts than you need, follow up, and make it as easy as possible for experts to share their insights.

Step 4: Select the Best Insights

Now that you have collected expert insights, it’s time to select the best answers to include in your roundup.

Some criteria to consider when selecting insights can include:

Expertise. If you are adding quotes to an HR-focused article, prioritize HR professionals first. Try to include them, unless they have a bad quote.
Answer the question. If the question is “X” reasons to pursue a marketing career, then make sure that the contributor’s quote directly answers the question and doesn’t veer off to other subjects.
Diversity. Keep diversity in mind when selecting quotes so that your roundup article offers multiple perspectives.
Unique. Make sure the quotes are different from each other. Have you read this before in another article? If you were the audience for this article, do you think it is actually helpful and informative?
Written requirements. Answers should be around 4-8 sentences, actionable, original and non promotional.
Storytelling. If the answer is a story, then likely it is a contributor who has gained extensive knowledge and experience in their industry. Stories are always fun to read!

Read through all the answers. As you find a quote that you’d like to include in the article, copy and paste into a Google Doc or your CMS system like WordPress.

Step 5: Write the post

After you’ve identified the expert insights to include in your article, it’s time to write the post. Some different post elements include:

Article Title. Clickable, shareable, and search engine friendly.

Write the introduction. The introduction should include the question asked to the experts, as well as high level findings from the answers collected. Aim for a brief, 1-2 paragraph introduction to get right into the expert insights.

Include a summary. After the introduction, include a bullet point list of all the tips listed in the expert roundup. This bullet point list can be picked up by search engines and used as a featured snippet.

List expert insights. Use a header tag for the headline, and then list the 4-8 sentence answer shared by the expert. Be sure to include attribution to the author with name, job title, and company. Linking to the individual’s LinkedIn profile can allow a reader to verify the expert, and linking to the company adds an additional layer of credibility.

Check for plagiarism, punctuation, and grammar. Just to be safe, use Copyscape to check for plagiarism of the expert insight. You won’t want to feature an insight that has been published before, or stolen from another expert. Do quick, basic checks for plagiarism, punctuation, and grammar.

Flow and digestible chunks. Make sure the quotes flow with one another. This means that each quote should focus on a single topic, tip or subject that is a singular piece that makes the article whole. If the article is “10 Tips to Become A Better Writer,” don’t select a quote that tries to jam in five tips.

Need a guide? Here’s examples of expert roundup posts.

Step 6: Create Shareable Images

Including images in your roundup post can increase reader engagement and increase social media shares to drive website traffic.

Generally speaking, there’s two types of shareable images to create in a roundup post: the hero image, and pull quote images.

Here’s an example of a good hero image:

What makes this a good hero image for an expert roundup?

There is no number in the title. This is important if you want to add or subtract quotes in the future.
All the headshots are good quality. The experts you’re featuring a direct reflection of your brand.
Everything looks centered. This is a general best practice for graphic design.
All the spacing between the headshots look the same. Again, another best practice.
Individuals are centered and all look like they are shot within the same distance. You’d be surprised how many headshots have different depths.

While the hero image sets the tone for the roundup post, pull quote images throughout the article keep readers engaged.

Here’s a good example of a pull quote image:

What makes this a good pull quote image?

Image is high-quality. The goal with pull quote images is to inspire experts to share their quote on social media channels. If the image isn’t high quality, then sharing becomes less likely.
Quote is easy to read. Making quotes easy to read on desktop and mobile devices is key.
Brand colors. If the image is going to be featured on your blog, you want to make sure the image colors align with your brand style guide.

Once these images are created, embed them in your post and proceed to publishing.

Step 7: Publish + Promote

Optimize your content to succeed in organic search by publishing with SEO best practices in mind.

Once the site has been published, notify all experts that their insight has been featured on your blog. Encourage them to share on their social media channels by providing them with a template, and sending them the image you created featuring the expert.

In addition, be sure to share on your own social media channels and tag the expert in your status update. This also makes it easy for experts to share, just by resharing or responding to the post from your brand.

Conclusion: Creating Expert Roundup Posts

Expert roundup posts is a low-lift way to create fresh blog content and drive website traffic.

Want an even easier way to create an expert roundup post? Try Terkel.

Terkel: Decentralized Q&A from Brett Farmiloe on Vimeo.

Terkel is a question and answer site that converts any question into an expert roundup. More than 400 brands post questions on Terkel to receive blog content for their site, while 10,000+ experts answer questions on Terkel to build visibility online for their businesses.

Ask a question, and receive a blog article for your review within 2 weeks at: https://terkel.io/publishing

You can also answer questions to be featured in roundups at: https://terkel.io

Looking forward to seeing what you create in your next roundup!

Expert Roundup Post Guide [Based on 3,500 Expert Roundups]

Table of Contents

Step 1: Identify The Target Keyword

Step 2: Create The Question

Step 3: Invite vetted experts to answer

LinkedIn Invitation Template

Step 4: Select the Best Insights

Step 5: Write the post

Examples of HR expert roundup posts

Business expert roundup post examples

Technology expert roundup post examples

Finance expert roundup post examples

Lifestyle expert roundup post examples

Marketing expert roundup post examples

Step 6: Create Shareable Images

Here’s an example of a good hero image:

Here’s a good example of a pull quote image:

Step 7: Publish + Promote

Conclusion: Creating Expert Roundup Posts

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