In the recent past, Keywords were king when it came to SEO, but those days have come to an end. The rules of SEO are quickly shifting from a keyword-centred method to a topic relevancy, subject-driven approach. To thrive in this new world, you have to know how to boost your SEO efforts with content.
It’s a Whole New World of Content
Content marketing remains a component of inbound marketing, where the goal is to drive a potential customer to where you want them by giving them helpful and compelling content. It is important to remember that your content should be topic-based now and not packed with too many keywords. What does that mean? It means your content should be appealing and command a user’s attention right away. Compelling content is still a crucial factor for a website; bounce rate still matters. But don’t restrict yourself with obsolete ideas about how content should be crafted to improve your SEO.
There has been an ongoing change in the SEO world over the last few years. Search engines have slowly but steadily moved toward semantic-based searches. Keywords are still essential to SEO, but there are more reliable ways to promote your content marketing campaign, such as using a topic-driven approach.
There is little doubt choosing the correct keywords and topics are the most indispensable step in connecting with your target customers and giving them value, but the dynamic has changed. Let’s take a closer look at how topic-based content can improve your SEO.
Why Topic-Based Content?
Here is what happens when you concentrate on topics before keywords:
- You will discover new opportunities to generate content that drives traffic to your site and is relevant to your field or industry.
- You will have a higher ranking for new topic related keywords that you might not have discovered in your keyword planning by addressing relevant sub-topics.
Keywords always have and probably always will be required by search engines. When a user enters a query on a search engine and generates a results page, the users see highlighted keywords that match titles and meta descriptions, which serve as a guide to which link to click.
Next, let’s see what happens when we concentrate on topics first and keywords second.
Clustered Together
Here is a way to use keywords and topic selection tools to improve your most important web page’s results by employing a content marketing strategy.
Content Clusters
You may not be aware of content clusters yet, but they are more and more frequently used in web design. Content Clusters are a group of pages that orbit around a central topic. They are similar to Hub-and-Spoke models used by transportation, telecommunications, and freight industries. A central page must be designed to act as the “Hub” or “Pillar” for the content cluster and several hyperlinks or “Spoke” pages that relate back to the central hub or pillar page. Spoke pages are then interlinked to the hub or pillar page, and the hub or pillar pages link to all of the spoke pages. This hub-spoke interlinking system tells search engines that the hub page is an authority over a given topic.
Creating Content Clusters
- Chose Your Core Topic
- Chose your core topic using keyword research.
- Check SERP Returns for Competitiveness.
Enter your core topic in Google and see which sites are returned for your topic. By checking SERP for your subject, you will discover who your competitors are. Benchmark your competitor’s site and find their content marketing approach around the topic.
Choose Topics Which Support Your Main Topic
The key to determining supporting topics to your chosen main topic is to use a keyword research tool. A quick look will show that there are a few supporting topics related to your main topic. This exercise is a swift and easy process.
After you have done the research, it is time to put it all together. Be sure to monitor your SERP returns so you can make modifications to your topic-based content as required.
Brian Bailie Jr Writing Service Can Create Your Content
Don’t get left behind when it comes to your SEO campaign; migrate your website’s content to subject-based. If you need help with your content, give us a call or use our contact form. We will be happy to discuss content writing with you