Over the past few years, Google has made some changes to the way their crawlers understand how content answers queries.
More recently, these changes include more algorithm updates, including Sophisticated enhancements Natural language processing and machine learning models like BERT and MUM.
These updates help Google better understand how people search for topics and what type of content Users are really looking for ways to meet their query needs, and then how best to meet those needs across pieces of content across the site.
The ultimate goal is to provide users with the best possible content to enhance their search experience.
With that in mind, it’s now more important to focus on creating a topic structure that meets the needs of users at all stages of the buyer’s journey, not just which keywords are used on the page.
How are topics different from keywords?
At this point you might be asking yourself what’s the difference between a topic and a keyword, especially considering I just mentioned that keywords are still a big part of the SEO puzzle.
Topics, in my opinion, are a more holistic approach to “keyword research”.
A topic can consist of several related terms and queries that can belong to different areas of the topic Buyer’s Journey.
The type of content you can create around a given topic depends in part on the vertical your site falls into.
Some sites require:
- Content covering early learning topics.
- The content of the business perspective on the topic.
- Maybe their product can solve this problem.
Smaller sites, especially local businesses, may only need a piece of educational/early funnel content that also points to content outlining the service or product offered to solve a problem or a need a customer/user may face.
1. Start with strategy
When building a website or rethinking its structure, the most important thing you can do for your website is to take a step back and strategize on the topics you need to focus on.
By looking at the broader aspects of a product and identifying the top themes for that product, you’ll better understand your needs.
After you understand what your main topic needs to be, you can follow the standard keyword research process.
The main problem is that you want to expand the research to include more semantically relevant terms related to the topic, not just the main keywords.
Check out the areas that need to be covered around the topic to meet the various needs of searchers. Ask yourself what questions might be asked about the topic and do your research on the terms.
If possible, don’t be afraid to go into the real world and ask people in your target demographic what they might be searching for or what related questions they might have.
2. Research your competitors
Once you understand what it takes to excel on a topic, start researching who rank high in those areas.
If they’re already doing well in this area, it’s safe to say they’re doing the right thing. There are exceptions to this, so make sure you continue to monitor competition in the target space.
Once a competitor is identified, I like to run their site through a tool to see how they are doing on the relevant terms over a long period of time.
This will give me some basic information as to whether these results are persistent or if it is a recent jump to determine if it is worth looking into them further at this point.
Once you understand what your actual competitors are doing in your niche, take a look at how they structure their content.
See how they deliver the content and what the site structure looks like around the topic. This information will give you a baseline blueprint when working on your website.
Now, having said that, please don’t copy your competitors’ content. Use it as a guide, but plagiarism will only hurt you in the end.
As cliché as it may sound, you’re looking to identify what your competitors are doing well, and then do it better.
3. Consider intent
As search engines have evolved over the years, especially the recently launched BERT Find out with Google The intent behind the query You are creating content around your goals.
While there are many tools in the SEO world to identify topics and keywords, I’ve always found that one of the best ways to identify the intent behind a query is to simply search for it in an incognito window.
You might surprise yourself.
You might search for something as simple as a single-word query and notice that the results return more educational content around that term—such as “what is…” results.
This will help you determine what content needs to be created (or even modified) to meet your search needs.
4. Don’t forget the site structure
Creating content around a theme isn’t the only challenge.
It’s important to organize your content in a way that makes sense to crawlers and shows that you are an authority on a given topic.
If search engines see that you are creating more relevant content around a given topic, you should see more improved results around those terms.
One of the best ways to demonstrate this authority is to use Bread crumbs Show the flow of your website.
Not only does this serve as a second level of navigation for the user, it also helps crawlers understand how to get from point A to point B on the site.
Breadcrumbs can also help you change the structure of your website without changing the URL, which is very dangerous for SEO.
Don’t forget to check out your well-performing competitors to see if you can glean any insights from their site structure.
Without reinventing the wheel, you may get more information on how to expand your topic coverage in the process.
5. Domination time
As Google implements smarter ways to process and return content to match user queries, it’s important to create a logical topic structure on your site to handle this content more easily.
This provides your content creators with the North Star to guide their writing efforts.
Make sure your content answers the promise to the reader in complete clarity. Avoid pomp, jargon and nonsense.
Remember, quality trumps quantity!
Well, it’s pretty much all about quality – it’s also about discoverability. Make sure you’re using the keywords and phrases that searchers will use to find solutions to their problems.
Then, make sure you’re tracking yours and your competitors’ performance. Establish benchmarks and always strive to do better.
In doing so, you should start dominating your competition with lasting results.
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