SEO Marketing: 7 Fierce Factors That Increase Quality Traffic

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seo marketing_7 fierce factors

Ever had one of those black and white cookies?

Is it black or is it white? – image source

 

There’s been a bit of differentiating between SEO and content marketing.

 

Kissmetrics claims: SEO requires consistent output. Content marketing requires consistent output.

 

…and also: SEO states the requirements. Content marketing fulfills them.

 

A Forbes article presents another way to compare the two frameworks: SEO appeals to search engines, while content marketing appeals to the readers.

 

Why does it have to be one or the other?

 

Kissmetrics knows better and also claims that SEO is content marketing and “the best way to build links is by publishing killer content, and letting the masses link back to it. This is the real way to continual SEO success.”

 

In today’s digital marketing landscape, signs point to a growing importance of the cross-section where the SEO and content marketing overlap. For the purpose of this post, we can refer to that cross-section as SEO marketing.

With SEO marketing, the purpose is to compete for the top three spots on the search engine results page (SERP), which on average provides 10 positions. Even as search engine algorithms and tactics evolve over time, competing for these top spots is crucial for long-term traffic and brand visibility.

 

According to BrightEdge’s research content is the best SEO tactic and most of the traffic directing to sites is coming from 51% organic search.

Organic search is the largest channel contributing to traffic – image source

 

According to Search Engine Land’s Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors, the content portion consists of seven factors which we’ll delve into for the purpose of this post:

SEO marketing covers the seven content elements in the Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors – image source

 

 

By focusing on these seven factors in the cross-section between SEO and content marketing, you can execute your plans in a ways that gets you the most out of your digital marketing effort.

 

SEO Marketing Factor #1: Quality

Quality content with quality links and a quality user experience will assist in getting your articles to the top competing SERP positions. Since quality can be an overarching term that applies to many of the factors we mention, we’ll specify and refer to it in terms of quality content.

 

It comes down to providing reliable and valuable info that matches the user’s search query intent. Consider these three search types when thinking in terms of how to provide content that matches search intent types:

  1. Transactional – these queries exemplify users at the bottom of the sales funnel, who are ready to purchase and include exact product and brand names in their searches. These users also include words like “purchase,” “buy” or “download” and provide a more direct attribution to your ROI.
  2. Navigational – Wordstream defines this search type as “a search query entered with the intent of finding a particular website or webpage.” These users have very clear intent, so be sure to own your own brand’s navigational query.
  3. Informational – these queries are more challenging to monetize since queries are not as specific and users are not yet ready to transact; however, this top-of-funnel zone provides a great opportunity for SEO marketers. By creating content that’s super valuable and resourceful, you can position yourself as an authoritative source of info. and thought leader, which does wonders for building your brand equity.

 

Moz breaks it down into these three signals of quality content:

  1. Engagement metrics – when you click on a link on your SERP, there’s a judging session that takes place, where the search engines determine if your behavior indicates a positive or negative experience. They aggregate stats like: how long you remain on the results page, whether or not you abandon the page by clicking the back button, etc.
  2. Machine learning – whether supervised or unsupervised, algorithms and programming help search engines determine the quality of your content and provide insight based on data. Through machine learning, search engines can determine the correlation between high-quality results and ad revenue.

    How machine learning algorithm works – image source
  3. Linking patterns – the quality of your content is impacted by linking patterns to and from your site. Moz explains the “timing, source, anchor text and number of links” are all factors of your SERP ranking.

 

SEO Marketing Factor #2: Research

Keyword research is a critical step in pumping out relevant content for your audience and can help you land top SERP positions in your SEO marketing.

 

Not only can this form of due diligence help you in becoming a top source of information on a particular topic, but it can also help you appear in more comprehensive SERPs without having the user type in the exact keywords in their queries.

 

For example, a successful keyword research on “how to prevent memory loss” can earn you a top SERP spot for your content on “brain vitamins.”

The keyword term “prevent memory loss” isn’t even in the title.

 

Because of thorough and accurate contextual signals, the user intent matches up to the language in your content, which in turn, will provide your users with a positive experience. Also, notice how, in the last article in the above list, the contextual signal picked up on the term “avoid memory loss” as an appropriate SERP option for a “prevent memory loss” query.

 

HubSpot provides us with six steps in how to conduct your keyword research:

  1. List out important relevant topics within your line of business
  2. List out keywords for each of those topics
  3. Research related search terms
  4. Keep a list that mixes both head terms and long-tail keywords
  5. Check out your competition for these keywords
  6. Narrow your list to the keywords with the highest search volume and traffic estimates

 

Bonus tip: Alex Birkett of HubSpot likes to sometimes start with step #5 to see if there are any terms to steal from competitors.

 

SEO Marketing Factor #3: Words

Keyword density, or use of keywords in your content, is another factor to consider when optimizing your SEO marketing. While there’s no exact formula that suggests the frequency you should include your keyword, just use common sense when deciding how many times to incorporate your terms.

 

Keyword stuffing may have worked in the past, but is considered dangerous today. Write naturally and include an unforced number of keywords in your content, remembering the importance of contextual signals.

Pro tip: don’t be afraid of the long-tail keywords. According to the search demand curve, they take up 70% of search traffic.

There’s less competition within that 70% of search traffic. – image source

 

Here’s another view of the search demand curve:

Head terms have the most volume but are also less specific and get lost amongst the competition – image source

 

SEO marketers have learned that oftentimes long-tail keywords are associated with bottom-of-funnel users. The more specific and lengthy a search query, the more ready-to-purchase the user.

 

Someone who types in “Aruba” is less likely to purchase an airline ticket than someone who inputs “LAX to Aruba” for example.

 

SEO Marketing Factor #4: Freshness

There’s more to content freshness than simply publishing new content on your industry topics. Google uses an algorithm named Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) to boost new content related to newsworthy and current hot topics.

 

When Google Fellow and Senior VP, Amit Singhal, initially introduced the freshness concept back in 2007, he explained that “simply changing formulas to display more new pages results in lower-quality searches much of the time.” Amit went on to say that QDF is “a mathematical model that tries to determine when users want new information and when they don’t.”

 

According to Sistrix, if these three sources cover a specific topic and the mentions and search requests are higher than average and current, the QDF algorithm will reorder and rank new content for that topic. The three sources QDF monitors are:

 

  1. Blogs and magazines
  2. News portals
  3. Search requests

 

You can take of advantage of a QDF boost by creating content that’s fresh and relevant to your industry’s latest trend, while incorporating the three content formats above.  

 

SEO Marketing Factor #5: Vertical search

As opposed to a comprehensive horizontal search that covers a wide range of topics, a vertical search covers a narrow range and includes key verticals relevant to your business.

 

Search Engine Land claims that Google “runs specialized search engines that focus on images or news or local content” while focusing on a single segment or “vertical slice of the overall interest spectrum.”

 

Some categories and tips to focus on when optimizing content for your vertical search:

  • Maps and local – according to Google, 80% of consumers conduct local searches. Be sure to optimize your title and meta description tags, claim your businesses in directories and business pages, use schema markup, build a solid rapport with online reviews and monitor reviews on your social media platforms.

    Have you claimed your business wherever possible? – image source

     

  • Images and image search – you can optimize your image searches by deploying a bunch of tactics like adding alt text, including captions, choosing the right file names, scaling reducing file sizes and using OpenGraph and Twitter cards for social shares. Yoast has a comprehensive image SEO article for you to follow if you want more detail.
  • News – Search Engine Journal provides three main tips in getting your content into Google News:
  1. Make sure your content is timely, relevant and interesting to the Google News audience.
  2. Create content that’s original, accurate and easy to read.
  3. Include industry-leading expertise to build trust and authorship.
  • Shopping – being comprehensive with your ecommerce content can help you boost your ranking within the shopping category. Be sure to include detailed product descriptions, reviews, unique titles and optimize your product pages based on the search demand.
  • YouTube, video and video search – Brian Dean of Backlinko provides comprehensive steps on how to rank YouTube videos:
  1. Find “video keywords”
  2. Put solid effort into making your video
  3. Upload your video with YouTube SEO in mind
  4. Get video views by embedding, mentioning and promoting your vids

 

Bonus tip: Get on the virtual 360-degree media bus. According to a Search Engine Land article, “Google has quietly made 360-degree virtual reality videos and images accessible across devices and optimizable for organic search.”

Are you offering your users an epic VR experience? – image source

 

SEO Marketing Factor #6: Answers

By providing rich or direct answers to search queries that come in the form of questions, you can become a trusted reliable resource for users and potentially drive more traffic to your site.

 

In a Stone Temple study, they found that of the 850,000+ questions asked in the test, Google offered some form of direct answer 19.5% of the time.

 

This provides a large opportunity to not only link to sources as for answers but also to present your brand as the authoritative resource for the answers in your field.

Are you providing rich or direct answers in your content? – image source

 

Go Fish Digital’s Bill Slawski lists three benefits of having your content referenced as direct answers:

  • You increase your chance of being seen in search results.
  • You have the opportunity to be seen as authoritative.
  • The boxed formatted draws attention to your direct answer content.
Hard to miss the boxed format at the of the SERP

 

Even if the user’s question is answered without having to click on the nice direct answer box, there is still a rapport built with your brand. By having that top SERP spot, you can be trusted as the reliable resource, which increases your brand equity and helps you become top-of-mind for your vertical.

The next time I open the peanut butter jar, I’ll likely think of M’n’Ms over Reese’s (or even jelly) – image source

 

SEO Marketing Factor #7: Thin

This basically refers to the “thin test.” Ask yourself: is your content is shallow or lacking substance?

 

Of course, the answer should be no if you want to optimize your SEO marketing.

 

Similar to the number of keywords to include in your content marketing (SEO marketing factor #3), there is no hard fast rule for how long your content should be. However, the more meaty, useful and valuable your content, the better off you’ll be.

 

Users are attracted to reliable authoritative information and by providing content that’s on point with what your users are searching for, you’ll be sure to past the “thin test.”

 

Here are some tips from various resources on creating optimal content length:

  • Yoast suggests writing blog posts that are over 1,000 words but easy to read and nicely structured.
  • Digital Marketing Pro took a sampling of five top articles and determined an average of 1,800 words is something to shoot for. They also claimed that “one of the problems that Google tried to fix with the Panda updates was to get rid of websites that only had thin content.”
  • A Forbes article suggests having a minimum of 300 words and a goal of 600-700 words per page is ideal. The article states that “the longer your content is, the higher its chances will eb to earn a high ranking’”  with some additional complicating factors.
  • Moz’s Rand Fishkin in his Whiteboard Friday defies the length to ranking logic correlation and claims you should focus on these three factors:
    1. Keyword research
    2. Innovation
    3. Matching content goals with search intent goals

 

Closing Thoughts

There’s an opportunity to beat out your competition by really acing these seven SEO marketing factors when carrying out your marketing plans.

 

In Andy Crestodina’s 3rd Annual Survey of 1000+ bloggers, he found that only 57% of bloggers report using SEO to drive traffic to content.

How are you driving traffic to your content? – image source

 

Go a step beyond the normal social media posting and incorporate SEO tactics into your content marketing effort.

Which of these seven essential elements will you work into SEO marketing?