Content for Google

I was fortunate enough to attend the #SEMRushconf2019 and here are some of the takeaways. While numerous parallel tracks on various topics were live, I preferred to stick to content and search tracks. So, if 'Search' is a key part of your organization's marketing strategy, you'd find this article useful.

1.      Content Buckets

a.      Text

i.     News

        ii.     Interview

        iii.     Research

        iv.     Recap

        v.     Articles

        vi.     Case studies & Whitepapers (Have part of the content on the website and them visitors download the pdf version – gated content)

        vii.     Blogs (Articles work better than blogs for SEO)

        viii.     FAQ’s (How, why, when, where)

b.      Visual

     i.     Infographics

        ii.     Slide Presentations

c.      Video

     i.     Live Event

        ii.     Product and Marketing Videos

        iii.     Online Conference

        iv.     Interviews

        v.     Leaders Speak

        vi.     Testimonials

d.      Audio

    i.     Podcasts

e.      Interactive

     i.     Tests

        ii.     Quiz

        iii.     Calculator’s

f.       Pdf

    i.     E-book

        ii.    Tutorial

        iii.   Template

        iv.   Checklist

        v.    Research Publications

2.      Optimize your website for Users and for Google

a.      For Users

     i.     Catchy Title

        ii.     Image & Text

        iii.     Social Media Buttons

        iv.     CTA

        v.     Feedback Capability

        vi.     Engaging Content

b.      For Google

    i.     Keywords and article relevance to search queries

        ii.     Tags

        iii.     Internal Linking

        iv.     Hyperlinks & social links

3.      Content Guide for SEO

a.      The content length of within the top three listings is 45% longer than the 20th position in all search volume groups

b.      810 words the average text length

c.      Average monthly unique page views are much more for 3,000+ worded page

d.      Social shares for content with 3,000+ words have a better chance of being shared

e.      Plain language gets better attention than University language

f.       Have content for all stages of the funnel

g.      Content Readability plays an important role and the following should be taken care off

                 i.     Clear Structure and Style

                 ii.     Headline

                 iii.     Images

                 iv.     Bullets

                 v.     Numbered Lists

                 vi.     Internal Linking for long articles

h.      Are you content Understandable?

                   i.     A clear purpose

                   ii.    A solution to audience problems

                   iii.   Reflection that you considered the User Persona

                   iv.   Context

                   v.     Matches the audience reading level

i.        Is your content actionable?

        i.     Have a clear CTA

        ii.     A place to comment

        iii.     An invitation to share

        iv.     Links to related content

        v.     A direct summary of what to do

j.        A paragraph should have an average of 44 words and 108 words maximum. It can have an avg of 297 characters and max of 691

k.      If your content is in list format, average items should be 5 and max 8. Avg words per item should be 8 and a max of 52

l.        For table formats, it's best to have an average of 4 rows and 3 columns. Max should be 5 rows and 7 columns

m.    For images, average height should be 159 and width 231. Maximum is 600x800

n.      Inorder to appear in ‘People Also Ask’ section of search, the sentence beginning with ‘How’ performs better than ‘does, why, should and are’ (in the same order)

o.      Conversion rates are always higher for long-tail keywords

p.      The detailed report can be downloaded from https://www.semrush.com/lp/state-of-content-marketing/en/

4.      Voice Search

a.      Majority of voice searches are done when driving, followed by Watching TV, Working, Cooking, exercising and with family (in the same order)

b.      Majority of voice searches are discovery searches

c.      Remember, the majority of voice searches from mobiles are clickless searches.

d.      This means you will have to optimize your content for featured Snippets. And best performing featured snippets average 44 words

e.      Most voice searches follow conversation language and your content should be designed for conversational and natural language queries

f.       Most voice searches follow the pattern of micro-moments such as

    i.     I want to know

        ii.    I want to go

        iii.   I want to do

        iv.   I want to buy

g.      Create Conversational content for each Micro moment

    i.     I want to know

1.      Guides

2.      How to

3.      Tools

4.      FAQ

        ii.     I want to go

1.      Store locations

2.      Services

3.      Press Releases

4.      Customer Service Info

        iii.     I want to do

1.      Videos

2.      Product Information

3.      Comparisons

4.      Product Store

h.      Voice search is problem-solving and mostly with no clicks to your pages. For example, does the Marriot Hotel have a Gym? So, create content for everything that the hotel offers. This can be reiterated under the products or service section and must in the FAQ section.

i.        Inoder to get clicks from voice search, your domain must have the following

   i.     Authority (consistent qualitative links and citations)

      ii.     Speed

      iii.     Technical SEO (Indexability and Crawlability)

      iv.     Clickability (UX, Layout, and Structure)

      v.     Relevancy (Relevant, Fresh and Conversational)

5.      YouTube Videos

a.      YouTube is the second biggest search engine and hence cannot be avoided. You can have videos outside YouTube for various reasons, but consider having the same video on YouTube

b.      Optimize every video with the right Title, Tag, Description, and transcript of the video inorder to be easily found. Use keywords that match your searcher's intent.

c.      Using a human in the thumbnail is proven to be more effective than an image

d.      Posting regular content helps increase subscribers

e.      Watch time and completion are most important for videos to be recommended

f.       Videos impact funnel

g.      Embed your videos on your website in the form of a blog, article, testimonial, etc

h.      Four Types of YouTube Content

   i.     Discoverable Content - Goal is to get newbies to come to our channel and watch. CTA is to subscribe or watch another video

      ii.     Sales Videos - Goal is to grow like/trust factors. CTA is to get someone offsite.

      iii.     Community Content - Goal is similar to Sales videos, but CTA is engagement with topic, comment and discuss

      iv.     Buzz or Big Content - Goal is around a giant push to generate buss in your industry outside YouTube. Requires time and energy, paid promotion, etc

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There are numerous articles and research documents regarding the above topic. Hence I've tried to recap what was discussed as briefly as I can. If I've missed some key points, please feel free to add it to the comment box.