Topical Optimization: Create Modern SEO Strategy With Semalt
Winning at search engine optimization is all about staying one step ahead of your competitors. One way to ensure a digital marketing win is to try and experiment with new SEO strategies that are both relevant to you and has the potential to improve visibility and generate traffic. One such strategy which is slowly becoming the norm is topical optimization, and today we'll take a good look at what it means and how Semalt can help you execute it for yourself or your clients.
What is Topical Optimization Vis-à-Vis SEO?
As the name suggests, topical optimization involves optimizing a piece of content for an entire topic as opposed to specific keywords of that topic. For example, if you are writing about life insurance, a topical optimization strategy would mean covering everything there is about that topic. This would naturally make the content longer and meatier.
Traditionally, when it comes to SEO content, we pick a primary keyword and create content around it. We also throw in a few secondary and LSI keywords, FAQs, and other related terms to boost its ranking.
Which makes topical optimization akin to the popular skyscraper technique. But there is a major difference between topical and skyscraper: topical SEO aims at covering the entire gamut under a topic and is keyword-agnostic.
Topical search engine optimization then provides the following benefits:
- Rank for multiple high-volume keywords
- Achieve topical authority on the subject
- Rank for dozens of secondary keywords
- Rank in answer boxes, rich snippets, and Q&As
This answers the puzzling phenomenon where an article ranks at №1 on Google when its title does not even have the main keyword in it. This is more common these days than it was a decade ago. Websites executing topical optimization on their content databases is what is causing this shift in what content is ranked on the top.
Executing a topical SEO strategy can be beneficial for content-heavy and ecommerce platforms that aspire to be authorities in their space. But how do you go about executing it?
Semalt has a quick plan of action.
How to Execute Topical SEO On Virtually Any Website?
The first phase of this strategy is web research where you take a deep look into the topic at hand. Let's assume you are writing on dedicated virtual private networks (VPNs). The first thing to do here is to look up sub-topics and related subjects for this main topic.
Step 1. Research subtopics
KEYWORD RESEARCH IS MOST CRITICAL FOR TOPICAL SEO
Anything and everything related to the topic of "dedicated VPNs" need to be researched and collated. These will act as your content headings and subheadings, in addition to their potential as LSI keywords.
Semalt's dedicated SEO dashboard has several tools that can help you in this deed. For instance, keyword and competitor research tools can help you find untapped keywords that are closely connected to your main theme. Or you can simply visit our homepage, enter your website URL, and work on the suggestions provided for free.
USE SEMALT TO FAST-TRACK YOUR TOPICAL SEO STRATEGY
Look at the People also ask section on Google so that you don't leave any stone unturned in researching the topics and keywords. Remember that the goal is to find virtually all topics that fall under the main topic.
WATCH OUT FOR QUESTIONS AROUND A TOPIC
Once you have a repository of keywords, questions, and long-tail search terms, you can start composing content.
Step 2. Create content for all keywords and questions
The key to writing search-worthy, topical content is to start by answering the intent of the main topic. If "dedicated VPNs" is the main topic, try to understand what is the main intent when people search for it. This will give you a bird's eye view of the topic and a good start. In this context, people searching for "dedicated VPNs" would want to know what they are, what their benefits are, and how to get them. This will help you create a structure for your topical piece.
Then gradually move to the subtopics and questions. The People also ask section is a goldmine of questions that you can turn into subheadings in your content piece. Google and other search engines will lap it up and show your content as answers in their rich snippets.
Pro Tip - Use synonyms, word variations, and related words of your keywords to improve the searchability of your content. For example, if you're writing about laptops, also include words like a notebook, flat computer, MacBook, Chromebook, Surface, etc. in your content.
Do not digress within your content - as if it's an essay or a column piece - so as not to make the whole content or part of it irrelevant.
Feel free to include rich media like infographics, screenshots, images, videos, GIFs, and other files to make the content more energetic and improve its quality.
Step 3. Get a subject matter expert to vet your content
This is the Semalt way of executing topic optimization.
One sure-shot way to ensure that you have covered the topic in its entirety and filled all the SEO gaps is to vet and verify the content before publishing. Hire a subject matter expert to edit and polish the content by validating the facts, figures, and statistics.
Subject matter expertise can help boost the authenticity of the content and make it stand apart from the crowd on organic search. Since there are thousands of pages vying for the top spot, this is how you can do topical optimization differently.
Step 4. Execute topical SEO on more content
Executing topical optimization on one post and sitting back to view the results will not help. Your website needs to create a topical ecosystem for that one post (and many more published in the future) to thrive.
This will require more pillar posts and a never-ending flow of topical content.
Think of the cornerstone content vs skyscraping strategy where you have four to five small pillar posts that create a mesh around a larger one.
This will be easier in this context because you already have the keyword research handy. Just choose the most important subtopics and create shorter articles around them.
Publishing such topical content will help establish you as an authority in the eyes of Google and other search engines. After all, this is part of the goal of topical optimization. Right?
Creating a mesh would then entail:
- Hero article + pillar articles
- Mesh structure through effective internal linking
You should continuously seek to fill both SEO and topical gaps. Once your topical optimization is complete, don't wait around for results. Watch out for newer subtopics that may appear and create new interesting content.
If your platform is into ecommerce, you will likely never run out of topics. A constant flow of content is then essential to ensure that your topical optimization strategy works and keeps working for the foreseeable future.
Using Semalt Services to Boost Topical Optimization
While we have gone through the generic topical search engine optimization strategy that Semalt employs for our clients, you can go a step ahead and use our tools to boost it.
AutoSEO and FullSEO are our tailored programs that will help you keep track of your topical and SEO gaps. If your competitor is working on something, then our tools will alert you of a potential opportunity. This goes for finding new topics, subtopics, and keywords as well.
Semalt's range of tools simplifies topical optimization and demands less from you without compromising on the output. Another great tool is the Semalt SEO Dashboard which simplifies creating SEO reports for your clients. It's a dashboard that brings analytics and reporting together.
Read to explore what Semalt can do to optimize and transform your website. Get in touch today!