Introduction
The marketing landscape is constantly changing – so it is not surprising that content marketing is also adapting to the new circumstances. What is meant in this case, above all, is the change in search engines, which require adjustments to the content marketing.
Many overlook the fact that they can use this specifically for themselves, their website and its SEO optimization. Wondering how? Quite simple- with a sound content strategy!
Search engines are constantly evolving their content-crawl algorithm
Nothing stands still in our time, especially not the internet. And so search engines are constantly developing. This is primarily the consequence of changed user behavior.
Gigantic amounts of search queries are made every day, around 65,000 per second. Users are increasingly turning to the spoken language, which is not least due to new tools such as voice input on mobile devices. That is why Google’s algorithm is increasingly designed to process and interpret natural speech optimally.
Likewise, the search is tailored to the context that Google assigns you at that moment. This results in highly personalized search results.
This is one reason why the results for your search query are structured. In addition, highlighted snippets play an important role in the presentation of the content. It is therefore important to structure your content in such a way that there is a chance of showing up in these snippets.
The reason for presenting this background is obvious. If the search engines are no longer the same as they were a few years ago, the same applies to the keyword ranking, which is closely linked to the way the algorithms work.
On the one hand, the context of a query is gaining in importance, which in turn means that the context also has a significant impact on the ranking. On the other hand, one can no longer speak of the 10-20 “important keywords” – this view is long out of date. Instead, there are now countless variants of long tail keywords due to the increased use of voice input.
The content strategy as a means to success
Of course, you can ignore the developments described above and trust that your previous use of keywords will (continue to) bear fruit. But why not use your knowledge to your advantage?
Especially if organic search is one of your main focuses, a content strategy can help you to expand your SEO optimization.
In this way, you have to work on your presence and your visibility with regard to a certain topic or cluster of topics and tend to turn away from specific keywords.
Your content creation is therefore increasingly based on a topic cluster with which you generate more traffic for a large number of keywords relevant to your buyer personas and establish yourself as a brand.
What is a topic cluster?
A topic cluster can be split into two categories. On the one hand, there is the pillar content and on the other, there is the cluster content. The pillar content is an element of content that focuses on your main topic. It introduces your readers, so to speak, to the overriding topic and pursues the goal of conversion.
Rely on evergreen content so that you can benefit from your content in the long term. A number of different subtopics linked to the pillar content is called the cluster content. It serves to generate more visibility for a wide range of topics and to increase the traffic of the pillar content.
Using topic cluster in your content cluster
Content cluster creates an intelligent information structure. This helps, on the one hand, to identify relevant topics for your personas, on the other hand you offer them a better user experience, as they can obtain comprehensive information about the topic you are presenting. In addition, the search engines rate the internal links as positive. This leads to an increase in your visibility and thus your traffic as well as your chance of conversions.
With this approach, you do not optimize each post individually, but spin a network of links, which contributes significantly to SEO optimization and is also more time-saving than conventional post optimization.
How do you create a thematic cluster?
- Find out what is bothering your buyer personas through surveys, interviews and research. Try to pinpoint around 5 to 10 major problems.
- Create subject areas to which the problems can be assigned.
- Use the keyword research to assign sub-topics to your main topics. Focus on long tail keywords.
- Fill your categories with possible content.
- Research in your industry whether your chosen topic promises success.
- All done? Then the content creation begins.
- Create content strategy topic clusters
As you can see: creating topic clusters has two decisive advantages. The assignment of sub-topics to a main topic helps you with your editorial planning and content creation. On the other hand, you automatically build your content on one another in such a way that you achieve a good ranking in the search engines.
Conclusion
Content instead of keywords – that is the motto of content marketing. And you should make them yours too. Because there are far more indicators for the success of your content than the search engine ranking and its keywords.
As soon as you create content that interests users, you can assume that you will be found – you owe this to the intelligence of the search engines, which can now find relevant texts even without a defined keyword. So try to focus on the big picture and put people in front of abstract numbers again.