In-depth answers will be favoured over one-sentence answers

Nikki says: “There’s a really significant opportunity to capitalise on keywords that have a high number of impressions in Google Search Console, but a low number of clicks in comparison. A lot of people are talking about this on SEO Twitter, WordPress, and those communities.

Someone’s created a tool called Query Hunter, which helps to do exactly that. As a result, you can improve your rankings, and it works really well. It is geared more toward WordPress sites, but there are ways around it that you can use on non-WordPress sites as well.

For WordPress, it’s a plugin that you can download, and it allows you to see your Search Console data within each post while you’re editing. You can see the keywords that get a lot of impressions, but very few clicks. Therefore, you can easily see the posts that have the potential to bring in a lot of traffic. You already know that they’re being seen in search because of the number of impressions that they have.

What we can deduce from that information is that they might not be completely fulfilling the intent of the query, because they do have so few clicks by comparison. You can then look at opportunities within that content and see whether you need to write a new post around that keyword - or those select keywords - or if you need to cover them more thoroughly in a separate post.

Something else that you should do, either within this same tool or manually within Search Console, is look at the keywords for posts that are ranking around positions 3 to 11. That is really useful, and I think it’s going to continue to be useful throughout 2023 and beyond. They’re already doing well, they’re on the first page of the SERPs, but you can then look at what pages are actually above you - in positions 1, 2 and, 3.

In some cases, it can be as simple as ensuring that you’ve mentioned the keyword enough times in the content, or you can go a little bit deeper and find keywords that have actually not been mentioned in the content at all. That’s a really powerful opportunity. It essentially means that you’re already ranking for those keywords and getting impressions for those keywords, without actually mentioning them in your content. Then, look for natural ways that you can integrate the keywords into the content to facilitate that boost in rankings.

I’ve been looking at this for my own clients, both with and without this tool. You can do it manually by looking in Search Console at a page level. It is more time-consuming, and it involves a fair amount of searching and sorting through the data, but it’s certainly useful. I would love to set up a dashboard that pulls the data in, which would make it easier to roll out to other websites. I’ve been able to do it on Magento websites that have blog content using this more manual method, so it’s certainly not just WordPress specific.”

What similarities are you noticing between articles that are performing well and pages on your site that aren’t performing as well for Google?

“The frequency of keywords always helps, but I’ve actually seen that internal links have made the most difference. Also, making sure that the keywords are going from your content to the main money pages, with the appropriate anchor text. That’s something that’s often missed, and it’s something that I’ve been working on with my clients.

Make sure there’s no generic anchor text, like ‘click here’. Update it with those target keywords that we know can be improved a little bit, and use those as the anchor text to drive traffic to the money pages - as long as it’s in a natural way, and it makes sense. Obviously, we also want to avoid anything that’s even slightly spammy.

If it doesn’t make sense to do it, then I’m not going to add internal links or make any changes. I’ll always look objectively, and make sure that it is actually going to be helpful for the users.”

You’re a fan of creating long-form content, so how long is long-form?

“I try to stay away from a word count. That’s not something that I think about when I’m either writing the content myself or working with copywriters. How I try and approach it is by thinking, ‘What’s going to answer the query in the best way?’ If it’s a simple question, like, ‘How many legs does a horse have?’ (which is a common one that I see going around at the minute) then I don’t need 1,000 words to say that the answer is four legs.

I will look at other pieces of content that are ranking and see how well or not they’re answering the content. If they’re not doing well, I will look at how we can do that better and provide added value. I don’t think in terms of, ‘To rank number one on this, we need 2,000 words.’ because that’s not what’s actually going to be helpful to the user and our target audience.

If writing just 500 words on a piece of content succinctly answers the question, actually provides value, and gives our target audience what they’re looking for, then that’s completely fine.”

When you’re providing in-depth answers, are you just thinking about the users or do you ever have search engines in mind?

“I do and I don’t. I try not to fall into the trap of creating SEO content just for the sake of SEO content because Google is not my target audience. Google, or any other search engine, is the tool that we’re using to be able to get out there and reach people.

I’ve had more success thinking about the users and writing for them. I think that’s the way much more people, and particularly copywriters, are also approaching it.”

Does more success mean higher rankings and more traffic?

“Exactly. Going back to what we were saying about internal links: having these detailed answers that get straight to the point (if that’s what the query deserves) means we can then use the internal links to drive traffic and attention towards our money pages, our calls to action, or whatever it is that the business is focused on.”

How do you go about selecting which questions to answer?

“I do it in a few different ways. We’ll do initial keyword research, especially if it’s for a new client, that will give us all of the broad terms that people are looking for. However, what I’ve started doing more recently (and it’s something that I’m definitely going to be rolling out more throughout 2023 and beyond) is looking at Reddit and sites like Quora as well.

I use the internal search features of these websites, as well as the reviews that people are leaving for the businesses that I’m working on - whether that’s on Trustpilot or Google My Business, or wherever. I actually look at the language that is being used in reviews and internal searches, because that can inform the questions that we then answer, and the language that we’re using ourselves. Internal jargon, like the terms that the business uses to refer to its products, might not be quite the same language that the audience is using.

I had a client that makes plastic containers, packaging, etc. - and they sell their lids separately. What they call them internally is ‘closures’, and that’s what the manufacturer calls them as well, but the customer calls them ‘lids’. They want plastic bottle lids, so that’s what they search for. We were able to restructure the site and change the way that the language is used throughout the site, in order to reflect that. Very quickly after the content was reindexed, we were able to see the change that made to traffic, and the increase in conversions that they had as a result.

Use the data that’s already available. That’s something that not everyone looks at; they don’t think to look at internal search results that way. In that example, people were searching ‘lids’ in the website’s Magento search features, and that’s how we found it. We were able to position the content in the right way as a result.”

Do you also check People Also Ask on Google?

“Definitely. I use it for informing header choices on content as well. We can look for ideas on Reddit and Quora, and in reviews, but you can also just look for that topic on Google. When I look at People Also Ask, I tend to pick those questions out as the headings, answer that question in various headings, and then mark it up with the relevant schema as well - if it makes sense to do so.”

Is it a better use of your time to answer new questions and create new content, or update answers to questions that already exist on your site?

“I would look at the detail that’s been answered in those existing questions. Is it a quick ‘yes or no’, that’s been answered, but your competitors have actually gone into more depth? If that’s the case, then that is something to look at. You don’t want to increase the likelihood that users are getting the answers that they’re looking for on your competitor’s sites.

Look at that first, but if the questions have been well answered on the site already, then look for new questions and look at ways that you can solve problems for the clients that other people aren’t solving. I do both, in essence, but look at what has been done first, and look at what poses the biggest opportunity.”

What shouldn’t SEOs be doing in 2023? What’s seductive in terms of time, but ultimately counterproductive?

“I think it’s an over-reliance on AI-generated content. Don’t get me wrong, I use tools like this myself –I certainly have in the past for short-form, quick answers. I might also use it to get me started on a question for my own niche websites, and then write the content manually myself.

However, I think there are websites that have an over-reliance on AI-generated content. They are almost guilty of creating content for content’s sake, rather than thinking strategically about how it ties into the overall strategy.

It comes back to the question of providing value to customers and users. I think it’s always been the case that AI hasn’t answered questions fully, but that became more true when Google rolled out the helpful content update. It’s interesting to see how that impacted content.

Ultimately, my tip is not to rely on AI. Don’t create content for content’s sake; focus on providing value that’s genuinely useful and solves problems. That will be the best way to continue to have success. AI content does have its place, but use it sparingly and in moderation.”

Nikki Halliwell is a Technical SEO Consultant, and you can find her over at nikkihalliwell.com.