The U.S. Military originated the term “black box” to describe the flight recording device that recorded the voice actions of the crew as well as some of the instrument movements. But it currently means just about any complex piece of equipment or software where the contents are a mystery to the user.
Google’s search algorithm is considered a black box, for example. Search engine optimization as a method to improving your content’s visibility online and in search engines is often labeled “black box.” But Scribe Content Marketing Software aims to change all that with its new software platform (relatively new) to help small business owners and the firms that serve them with smarter content creation.
If this process sounds familiar, “research, optimize, connect” then you’ve likely been working on some part of the SEO process. Scribe “encourages” you to do the right things when you write a post or page — that means keyword research, then optimizing with title tag and meta description, and internal linking, among other tasks.
They wisely built the app to place the tool ABOVE the “Publish” button. So as you look right to the normal WordPress box for scheduling or direct publishing, you see a box that essentially makes you say, “Oh yeah, I should do that before I publish.”
What I really like:
- You don’t have to leave your WordPress dashboard to use the tool. As you can see here, as you create a post or page, Scribe is front and center, well front and right, to help you stay on the content creation task.
- The Linkbuilder tool is impressive. Here is a more detailed image of that process. You can see that it helps you to link to other internal posts and pages to connect readers to more of your site content. The “Page Title” area are my other posts that Scribe thinks make sense for an internal link to your “cornerstone content” as Copyblogger calls it.
What I would like to see:
- Some help prompts when you hover over any one of the three main boxes that maybe tell you why that step is important or do this, then that.
- I don’t expect Scribe to do this, but it would be awesome if there was a time estimator that tells you how much longer you should spend. Of course, that would be too difficult because of all the human user variables (slow writer, fast writer). But using Scribe means your post quality and SEO will improve, but you will spend more time before you publish. Be warned.
Scribe is creating a content marketing platform that can truly and quickly help you massage your content to a higher quality and they score it for you. Everything from how readable to if you are choosing the right keywords.
I don’t normally make recommendations, but in this case, I highly recommend all small business owners give it a try. I have only scratched the surface for you in this short review. It has a 30-day free trial, then plans start at $97/month. Take Scribe for a test drive and let me know what you experience in the comments.
Ti Roberts
Wow, this is a pretty neat software, TJ. Thanks for sharing it with us. I’ll def have to check it out soon.
Ti
The fact it works directly in the WordPress interface is huge. If you don’t make it easy to use, you won’t get SMBs to adopt it (they just download the trial, ignore it until you send an email saying it’s almost expired, use it for like 2 days, and then don’t buy because they don’t see the value).
Thanks Ti! I find Scribe to be helpful. I’m still on a long term trial of it as a reviewer.
Robert, I completely hear you on what SMBs do — because, well, I do that too! For different reasons probably, since I review so many apps, but same phenomena applies. I try not to move too fast for my own good… We need to sync up on email my friend. Good to see you here.