To
produce reliable and scalable results, think beyond the content you write. Look
at the structure and targeting of your content. Here are 3 advanced SEO
techniques to help you get more conversions and better ranking from the content
you’re creating.
You
won’t need the help of your IT department to use these techniques, but you will
need to think like a strategist. Ready to take your content marketing expertise
to the next level? Read on and soak up the knowledge. Get More
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1. Structure Internal Links By Topic
Internal links make navigation
easy and intuitive while defining the structure and hierarchy of your site.
They also distribute link authority throughout your pages. However, if they
aren’t well organized, you won’t get the full benefit of an internal linking
strategy.
A clear and navigable framework
resembles a spider’s web. The home page occupies the centre; pillar pages are
the second ring, and supporting pages are the outer rings. Each pillar page and
its supporting pages are topic clusters.
The goal of topic clusters is to
demonstrate that your site comprehensively covers a subject – users can find
the answer to any subject-related question on your site.
Picking your pillar
and cluster pages
Determine your site’s main topic
areas. You want to have comprehensive pages for each area you cover.
Next, you need to conduct a
content audit. Fun? No. Necessary? Yes. A content audit forces you to take a
long, hard look at existing content. If you’ve been consistently categorizing
and tagging your content, this should be relatively easy.
If you haven’t structured
your content by categories and tags, create a simple spreadsheet. Each row
should have a blog post URL and its corresponding focus topic. Identify any
posts that serve as pillar pages or have the potential to do so.
Knowing
your pillar pages and clusters are Step 1. Step 2 is ensuring that each page is
as comprehensive as possible. Deep, broad topic coverage is a major
ranking signal, but what does it mean? Next, I
talk about how to create content that exceeds what’s already out there.
2. Optimize Topics
Creating topic clusters also
helps you optimize your site for topical authority. Thanks to Google’s
Hummingbird algorithm, the search engine extracts semantic meaning from search
queries.
Instead of providing results
based purely on the query entered, the search engine accounts for past results
for that query, links between content, the user’s personal search history, and
more. Hummingbird was the final nail in the coffin for keyword stuffing. The emphasis
in the results are topic comprehensiveness and user intent.
No-cost method for
optimizing for topical authority
A common way to gain topical
authority is the skyscraper technique – taking the highest-ranking
piece of content for your topic and writing something better. Find areas where
the competition only scratched the surface and go deeper with your content. Add
stats, figures, examples, and step-by-step instructions. Use whatever your
audience might find relevant and helpful. Whatever you do, don’t stuff it with
more keywords.
The drawback to this method compared to a data-driven
software approach is you’re guessing at what you need to add to gain better
rankings. Plus, it’s a time-consuming process, whereas tech can perform the
task in minutes.
Free tools
TF-IDF stands for term frequency-inverse document frequency.
This method determines the topical relevance of a page based on – you guessed
it – term frequency within a document. Free apps like Website
Auditor crawl your site to analyze topical relevancy and conduct a basic
SEO audit.
Enterprise solutions
for topic optimization
The platforms dreamed about
decades ago by content marketers are now a reality. Machine-learning platforms
can automate content outlines based on the terms for which you want to rank.
They take the guesswork out of the skyscraper technique by identifying the
subjects ranking pages are missing.
When people execute a search,
they are asking a question or trying to fulfil a need. Optimizing your content
for topical authority helps your readers by addressing all their possible
questions and needs, and Google likes that. The search giant rewards sites that
put quality and usefulness at the forefront.
3. Profile For User Intent For SEO
“Searcher task accomplishment” is
receiving a great deal of attention in the world of SEO. It refers to a
successful search where a user enters a query finds and clicks a relevant
link discovers information, and either stops searching or enters a query for
the next step of the journey.
Searcher task accomplishment is
the goal of user-intent profiling. Marketers create content around buyer
personas, stages in the funnel, or both.
Buyer personas help you stay organized as you create content
for a diverse clientele (industries and/or needs). If you want to get granular,
this post on the nine essential parts of a buyer persona provides
great tips and insights. Each person should include:
·
Industry
·
Needs
·
Pain points
·
Solutions
·
Preferred messaging type (e.g., Is this persona
more likely to respond to appeals to logic or emotion? Is humour appropriate?)
·
Preferred distribution channels (i.e., Twitter,
LinkedIn, forums, email, third-party publishing platforms, etc.)
Knowing this information for each buyer persona lets you
tailor content to each customer group. Aside from giving viewers what they
want, this exercise is valuable because you can A/B test your messaging and
channels to determine what is most effective for each persona.
Conclusion
Content marketers today need
to be strategists who think about achieving broader goals as the content is
created. Having an organized link structure, comprehensive topic clusters, and
user intent profiles will always be important for SEO strategies. Be sure to
master these concepts before moving on to the next big thing.
