Let me start this post with a question… How often do you pay close attention to your long-tailed keyword traffic? You know… the keyword queries with single digit visitors tied to them. My guess is that it’s not very often, and you are more focused on the heavy hitters driving the bulk of your organic traffic and conversions. Unless you are using Google Analytics keyword filters or scrolling through your entire list of organic keywords, you may not be fully leveraging keyword theme trends and using them as a new traffic opportunity to support your main keyword focus.
Question-based keywords are often over-looked in the keyword optimization process, but can ultimately have a positive impact on your keyword rankings, organic traffic and quality conversions. If you haven’t included question-based keywords in your SEO strategy, now is the time.
Below are some important questions you may be wondering about and I hope to shed some light on the answers.
How do I develop my question-based keyword list?
Start with Google Analytics. If you have well-written FAQ content on your site, you should already be getting some sort of question-based keyword traffic. Pull up your organic keywords report and do a filter for “how” and “what” keywords. Extend your date range back at least one year. This is a good indicator of what question phrases are already bringing traffic to your site. Look for common themes and questions that include your “strategic”, “marquee”, or “broad” keyword focus, and add them to your list. For the rest of this blog post I will refer to them as “strategic keywords”.
As backup, also look at the Google Webmaster Tools > Your site on the web > Search queries report. This most likely won’t show you long tailed question-based keywords, but if any of these keywords have significant volume, and you are already ranking in Google, this report will tell you where you are at.
The Keyword Discovery keyword research tool offers a database devoted to “Question Phrases”. Enter your strategic keywords into the tool to determine what popular question-based keywords are being searched.
Visit “Question & Answer” sites that are designed to let people ask and answer questions. Sites like Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn Answers, and Mahalo Answers are good places to start. Simply do searches for your strategic keywords to find out the questions people need answers to. Again, look for common themes and frequent problems people have. Start thinking about how your business can answer these questions and solve these same problems. There is no reason why your site can’t be the authority to answer that same question found on a Q&A site.
“How-to” and other “User-Generated Content” sites can also be a great source for keyword research. The step-by-step instructions can be a great inspiration to developing problem-solving content on your own site that is tied to a question-based keyword search query. A few quality sites to look at for keyword ideas are eHow, HowStuffWorks, Squidoo, and HubPages.
What type of content do I need to support more question-based keywords?
For any type of content that can answer a common question, or solve a problem, you need more of it! Start with enhancing you existing FAQ page. If you don’t have one, create it with answers to some of the most commonly asked questions you get from phone calls or web inquiries. If your FAQs can be organized by themes or categories, consider breaking them into multiple pages, or utilize an SEO-friendly knowledgebase system. If you have FAQs specific to a certain e-commerce product, put it directly on that product page to improve your entrance keywords and conversions.
For timely content that can quickly get spread around the web, consider a well-written and thorough blog post that answers a popular question tied to your keyword focus. A blog post is more suitable for reader comments, social sharing, and RSS syndication.
Online video can be a great tool to quickly convey a message that can’t easily be demonstrated in written words. Consider creating videos to support your written FAQs and problem-solving content. These same videos can be uploaded to video sharing and how-to websites.
Why should I use question-based keywords in my SEO strategy?
Many search queries originate from someone trying to solve a problem online. Because of the evolution of search engines, most people use broad searches to find the information they are looking for. However, the evolving sophistication of the searcher and the search engines will create more opportunity for sites that can solve a problem on a specific topic.
If you are in business to solve problems with products or services, then question-based keywords should be a natural fit with your content strategy. By developing question-based keyword content you can strengthen the keyword themes of your site to support a highly competitive keyword.
Informative and timely content that solves a problem on the web will naturally attract links. As we know, quality inbound links are an important factor in keyword rankings. Killer content development and deployment can save you some time in tedious link building campaigns, especially if you don’t have a resource fully dedicated to finding links. If you can solve someone’s problem, and they want to share your site with others, they’ll be much more likely to link to your site or refer it to friends.
Question-based keywords also provide an opportunity to increase conversions. If you can solve someone’s problem via your website content, then they are likely to inquire or purchase your products or services. After you get the searchers to your content, determine what you have to do to get them to convert. Proper internal linking and effective calls to action can easily point people to get more detailed information or take action on a more conversion friendly page on your site.
If your site can answer someone’s question prior to them emailing or calling you, you can significantly reduce customer service follow-up costs.
Putting it all together
Question-based keyword optimization isn’t going to double your organic search traffic overnight, but is a great tactic for steady traffic growth that will support your best converting strategic keywords. If you sense the slightest bit of opportunity to improve your bottom line, a question-based keyword strategy is worth implementing.
I’ll leave you with advice from SEO Vanilla Ice:
If there is a problem yo I’ll solve it – check out the hook while my SEO resolves it
Last night, Facebook unveiled Facebook Places, the site’s best effort to connect their 500 million-member society with the real world. The site’s blog promises that, while Facebook has answered “Who,” “What” and “When” for years, it will now answer “Where.”
Like many location sharing services, Facebook Places allows users to tell their friends where they are by “checking in” to a location with their mobile phone. Facebook Places features several innovations that help differentiate it from other location sharing services like Foursquare and Yelp, including:
• The ability to tag friends. Just like photos or videos, Facebook users can now tag friends who are with them at their location.
• A “People Here Now” section. This section allows users to connect with friends at the same location at the same time. It also allows them to connect with others they don’t know but may share their same interests.
• Integration with other location apps like Foursquare and Yelp. The companies Gowalla, Yelp, Foursquare and Booyah all gave announcement at the presentation about how they would integrate Facebook Places into their applications.
• Easy-to-use privacy settings. The default privacy setting for Facebook Places only allows friends to see a user’s location. From there, users can allow everyone to see location updates or even just certain friends.
• The ability to share information about a place. Users can access reviews, pictures and information about their location from those who have visited before when they check in.
Even though Facebook Places brings a few cool innovations to the table, its biggest contribution could be introducing location sharing to the mainstream. While location sharing has exploded in popularity over the last year, the membership of sites like Foursquare and Booyah are miniscule compared to the half billion active users on Facebook. By bringing location sharing to the masses, Facebook Places could bring plenty of new opportunities to your business.
What does Facebook Places mean for your business?
• Claim your business. Official representatives of a business can claim it, which will turn the place into a Facebook Page. From there, you can post updates to people who like the page, update business information and more.
• Push coupons to Facebook users at your business. When someone checks into your business, you can send them coupons, promotions or tips.
• Promote interaction. Encourage users to interact with your Facebook Places page by offering incentives for things like reviews, feedback, etc.
• Encourage loyalty. Businesses have long been using Foursquare’s reward system to give discounts to users who visit often. While Facebook Places does not have a gaming feature like Foursquare, you should be able to offer promotions to customers who visit often.
• Get real-time stats about your customers. Facebook Places offers a powerful tool to learn more about the people who check into your business.
What do you think? In the comments section, give us some of your ideas for businesses using Facebook Places.
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Photo provided by moriza on Flickr.
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Tweet. Like. Retweet. Status update. @ reply. Wall post. Digg. Tag. Sphinn.
Even if you don’t participate in many social media conversations, you still may know what many of those words mean. And even if you live in isolation from the Internet, chances are you still heard about the latest Facebook scandal involving the faulty “Dislike” button.
What does this prove? Social media is everywhere, and as a result it’s rapidly becoming the go-to platform for companies aiming to build brand awareness and engage in timely dialogue with consumers. Because of this, the content a company produces for its social media campaign carries a lot of weight. If companies aren’t using their Twitter , Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media accounts to release original, engaging content that connects with their customer base, they’re passing up a valuable opportunity to expand their influence.
Social media messages have the unique ability to create a relevant, ongoing dialogue between a business and its customers. Companies can provide real-time updates on their latest coupons and promotions while also answering customer questions and providing an expert source of industry information.
A recent survey compiled by Kingfish Media, HubSpot and Junta42 did an excellent job of drawing the connections between well-written, original content and a successful social media campaign. Four hundred fifty-seven respondents in corporate management and sales/marketing management positions completed the survey, and several of its most significant findings included that:
- Original content, both branded and expert, is by far the most commonly used social media tactic (73% for branded and 72% for expert)
- 85% of respondents believe original content is critical to the success of their social media campaign
- Development of an audience for social media content is one of the top objectives of today’s marketers
As you can see, not only is content still King, but it has now also expanded its influence into the social media sphere. Gordon Plutsky, Director of Marketing and Research at King Fish Media said it best: “This research confirms what we’ve been saying for years: content is the key to creating an emotional connection. Social media has clearly emerged as a dynamic vehicle for delivering it to the right people in their preferred format.”
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When it comes to helping your website rank well in the search engines for relevant keyword phrases, there are plenty of on-site best practices that should be on the list of every diligent webmaster. Meta titles, linking structure, original content, image alt tags and page load time all play a big role in how the search engines rate–and rank–your website.
In spite of the attention that webmasters give to on-site factors, though, the single most effective tactic that you can use to increase your organic search traffic is still smart linkbuilding. The formula is simple: the more relevant links you have pointing at your domain from other sites, the higher it will rank for your targeted keyword phrases.
If you’re new to off-site SEO, however, the prospect of linkbuilding can be more than a little intimidating. With so many different options for pursuing links, what are the most effective? Remember: it isn’t just the sheer number of links that helps your site rank higher for targeted keywords, but also the relevance of the pages that link back to you.
Here are the five methods for link building that I’ve found to be most effective in the years that I’ve spent in search engine optimization. While they aren’t the only ways to build links back to your website or blog, they have worked best for me on a wide variety of different sites. Remember: don’t just limit yourself to one linkbuilding strategy, and never stop digging deep for more places online to get good, relevant backlinks!
1. Article Marketing
Article marketing is used frequently by countless webmasters to build relevant, do-follow links back to domains, but it’s rarely done effectively. While publishing original articles on marketing sites does create relevant links back to your site, the articles themselves tend to carry very little search engine authority . . . which means that you have to publish a lot of articles in order to make much of a difference.
It also helps if the original articles that you publish are also well-written and helpful to the target audience, since that makes it more likely that they will be picked up and re-published on relevant blogs (creating even more links back to your site from different domains).
In order to have even limited success with article marketing, plan on publishing several articles a month (at least) and linking back to your site’s homepage and an internal page in the resource box. The article marketing sites that I’ve used the most are Ezine Articles, GoArticles, Article Dashboard, SearchWarp and Articles Base.
2. Guest Blog Posts
If done correctly, guest blog posts can be the single most powerful off-site SEO tool you have in your linkbuilding arsenal. The problem is that effective guest blog posting is much more difficult to do than article marketing, link exchanges and directory submissions. The links that you include back to your own site are generally much higher quality, though, so it’s worth the extra effort.
In order to get content accepted by an influential blogger for a guest post, it needs to be relevant, useful and well-written (unlike articles on article marketing sites). Don’t be afraid to submit your guest posts to smaller, less popular blogs as well. One valuable online community that helps you find other bloggers who are interested in guest posters is My Blog Guest.
3. Relevant Link Exchanges
Notice that I included the word “Relevant” when mentioning link exchanges. There are some people who say that link exchanges have been rendered ineffective for SEO purposes by the search engines, but this isn’t entirely true. As long as you exchange links with sites that are relevant to your own–and don’t overdo it–you can still gain a lot of authority with link exchanges.
It’s best to build professional relationships with the webmasters of relevant sites before suggesting a link exchange. Become active in your niche’s online community by leaving comments, submitting guest posts, interacting with other bloggers, and referring to your own site when it’s helpful to do so. This will make webmasters much more likely to agree to a suggested link exchange.
4. Running A Website Contest
Giving away prizes to your site’s regular visitors is a much more effective–and affordable–link building tactic than you might realize. While giving away cash or prizes in exchange for links is a big no-no with the search engines, you can still effectively use contests to encourage your fans to interact with your site and mention it to their own readers.
Rather than offering a monthly prize to someone who links back to your site, why not make it an entry requirement to simply mention your site somewhere online? Whether the contest entrants mention your site on their own blog, in their Facebook profiles, or in an online forum, they will still be building your brand recognition . . . and this will inevitably generate links in the long run.
Once you’ve started your own competition, be sure to advertise it on some of the many free online contest forums such as About Blog Contest, Contest Blogger and Lucky Contests (there are dozens of more places to post your contest, as well). And don’t think that you have to offer up a super-expensive prize in order to get people to take part; even fun trinkets, books and t-shirts can generate user interaction.
5. Authoritative Directory Submissions
Directory submissions have been a part of the standard SEO link-building package for years, and there are literally thousands of different directories online that will link back to your website for free. The problem is that these directories have been severely de-valued by the search engines due to linkbuilding abuse.
Still, submitting your site to a limited number of relevant and higher-authority directories is still a good way to start building a profile of backlinks and reinforce your other strategies. For webmasters who have a linkbuilding budget to work with, it’s always a good idea to spend a few bucks to get your site listed in authoritative directories such as the Yahoo Directory, Business.com, JoeAnt, Best of the Web and Directory Journal.
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Do you ever wonder why your blog posts aren’t getting the attention you think they deserve? You spend the time researching and writing, but you don’t know why people aren’t reading your blog. There aren’t any hard and fast rules to writing posts that attract the attention you desire, but here are just a few tell-tale sings that your blog content isn’t working:
- You’re not making your point: Part of making sure your point hits home is to consider whether or not your audience would care about your blog post topic. In addition, when you read what you wrote, does it make sense? I used to think that adding as much information as possible would create a stronger piece. However, too much information can actually confuse the reader. A blog post with multiple themes could cause your readers to come away wondering what it was they just learned.
- No teacher would give your content an A+: The Internet is a vast resource for information on all kinds of subjects. Since you’re probably not the only one writing about your topic, mediocre writing will not get you noticed.
- You’re not getting any comments or retweets: If your comments section is so bare that you hear crickets chirping, you’ve got a problem. It either means that no one is reading your blog, or that people are reading it but weren’t invested enough in your topic to comment on it. Likewise, even more concerning is when no one is retweeting your blog post. Retweeting is as simple as clicking a button. If no one wants to do that after reading your blog post, you need to find out what it was about your content that didn’t work and fix it.
- You’re not spending time on it: Although there are some topics that you could easily write about in 15 minutes, most blog posts won’t be this quick. Take the time to research your topic and write about your subject in a compelling, relatable and easily understood manner.
- You over-optimize: Keyword stuffing is a major no-no everywhere on your website and your blog isn’t excluded from this. Not only does it make your content harder to read when keywords aren’t woven into it naturally, it cheapens what you’re trying to say. Try writing your blog post first, then optimizing it for relevant keywords.
Now that you know some reasons why your blog might not be attracting readers and gaining attention, take a look at your blog. Are you doing any of these things?
Want to learn more about how to improve your corporate blog? Contact Fathom SEO today.
*Photo provided by notionscapital on Flickr
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