What is Content SEO? Introducing methods and merits with examples
Content SEO is "one of the SEOs that aims to increase the number of customers from natural search by continuously transmitting high-quality content that meets the user's search intention." In other words, it is a measure to aim at the top search page with content that accurately responds to what the search user wants to know and what they are interested in. On the other hand, we also optimize tags to make it easier for search engines to evaluate. Since it is a measure aimed at the top of the search, it is a kind of SEO.
Content SEO measures do not lead to results simply by creating content (articles). You need to understand and work on the important points that must not be missed when performing content SEO.
This time, I will explain the important points by focusing on the basics of "what is content SEO" and the actual "content SEO procedure (content creation flow)".
What is Content SEO?
Content SEO is "one of the SEOs that aims to increase the number of customers from natural search by continuously transmitting high-quality content that meets the user's search intention." In other words, it is a measure to aim at the top search page with content that accurately responds to what the search user wants to know and what they are interested in. On the other hand, we also optimize tags to make it easier for search engines to evaluate. Since it is a measure aimed at the top of the search, it is a kind of SEO.
We analyze the user's search intentions (needs), select keywords and co-occurrence words, and create content that answers the user's questions. After releasing the content, measure the effect and rewrite it to measure the improvement of the content to maximize the effect.
Differences between content SEO and content marketing
Content marketing is a marketing measure that is often confused with content SEO. Here, we will explain content SEO from the difference between the two and the background that content SEO is required.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing method that ultimately establishes customers as fans by transmitting high-quality and valuable information (content) to customers and building relationships. Unlike the method in which the company sends information unilaterally, it has the characteristic of providing the information requested by the customer at the right time. This is not limited to web pages but includes SNS / social media such as Facebook and Twitter, email newsletters, video content, etc. as a type of content provision that builds contact with users.
Difference between both measures
On the other hand, as mentioned above, content SEO aims to increase the number of customers from natural search by continuously transmitting high-quality content in line with the user's search intention on owned media.
Content marketing is channel-agnostic. Whether it's a search engine, social media, or an e-mail newsletter, we regularly publish content to deepen our relationships with potential customers. In other words, content SEO, which focuses on search engines, is also one of the measures for content marketing.
Purpose of content SEO
Content SEO has different purposes and varies from company to company. The general purpose is to attract customers to sites, blogs, product pages, etc.
Increase in visits and views
Increased conversions
Branding
Increasing awareness due to increased exposure frequency
Background of the need for content SEO
Behind the need for content, SEO is Google's increased crackdown on search engines. Black hat SEO * has been thoroughly cracked down by Google updates such as Penguins Update and Panda Update. White hat SEO has become much more efficient than taking an extra risk for each site to increase inflows.
Therefore, content SEO, which is the main method of white hat SEO, has become more important.
White Hat SEO A
variety of techniques used to display homepages and blogs at the top of search engines according to Google's search engine algorithms.
Black Hat SEO
A technique that raises the search ranking of low-quality content by fraudulent methods such as mass installation of backlinks. It's been popular in the past, but it's being weeded out by Google updates.
In addition, content SEO is compatible with SNS (social media), and high-quality content may be shared and spread on those platforms. As a result, content SEO is also playing a role as a marketing measure that is independent of search engines (horizontal development of content).
Benefits of content SEO
Content SEO, which is attracting so much attention, has great advantages. From here, I will explain the advantages of content SEO and the success stories of content SEO that are easy to understand.
You can approach potential customers with potential needs.
Content SEO is a marketing method that can reach your website a lot, so prospective customers with potential needs can also be directed to your website. In other words, you can reach a lot of potential customers who are not buying now, but who may eventually buy your product.
In addition, by continuing to reach potential customers, there is the advantage that needs can be nurtured (nurturing).
Can attract customers in a stable and long-term manner
Compared to advertising, content SEO can attract customers in a stable and long-term manner.
Listing ads are a well-known method of attracting customers to websites. Attracting customers with ads will incur costs depending on the number of clicks and imps. In other words, the more you try to attract more customers, the higher your advertising costs will be. It is effective for attracting customers in the short term, but it must be assumed that it will cost a huge amount of money to obtain a long-term and continuous inflow.
On the other hand, the content created by content SEO remains on the site as an asset. In other words, past content will continue to contribute to attracting customers, so once you have the content, it tends to be more cost-effective for listing ads.
The site becomes an asset
By creating content and accumulating it on the website, it becomes an asset of the site. Once you upload an article, it will always be displayed on search engines.
In addition, even if it is not displayed at the top, you can aim for the top display again by rewriting the article.
Highly diffusive
I think there are many people who have the experience of reading the article because it was shared on SNS.
For readers, it is a measure that tends to be highly diffuse in the case of useful information. By creating useful, easy-to-understand, and accurate content, it is more likely to be spread on SNS and will be a stepping stone to achieve the various purposes mentioned above.
Become branding
If you can occupy the top of the search ranking with your own site or page, authority and credibility will improve and it will lead to branding. The hurdles for high-level display are not low, but the benefits are great.
At the same time as branding, there is also the advantage of being able to take the first recollection of a specific keyword.
Can also be used in business negotiations and presentations
By actually aiming for keywords that have a high affinity with your company's services, you can use them in business negotiations and give them a role as killer content for your customers.
For example, you can easily create materials by using the contents for sales talks or by preparing proposal materials and escalation materials.
At the same time, in-house production of content SEO is expected to deepen employees' in-house products and marketing knowledge, leading to the acquisition of know-how that can be applied effectively.
Disadvantages of content SEO
Content SEO has great advantages, but it also has disadvantages.
Not an immediate measure
Content SEO is not a measure to increase the number of leads or purchases right away. Basically, it is a measure to attract stable customers over the medium to long term. There are two main reasons why this is a non-immediate measure.
The first is that it takes time for search engine ratings to stabilize. It generally takes some time (a few days to as long as 3 weeks or more) for Google crawlers to discover the added content. If you place a keyword and the ad rank is guaranteed, here is the difference from the listing ad that will be displayed at the top immediately.
The second point is that the more content you have, the easier it will be to achieve results. The key to content SEO is how many pages can be created at the top of the search. This determines the ability to attract customers. In other words, it means that it takes man-hours, so it is necessary to formulate a strategy systematically.
At the initial stage when there is little content, it is not possible to attract customers as expected, and when the content has accumulated to some extent, the number of customers becomes stable. Therefore, it should be noted that it takes about a few months to a year to produce results.
Maintenance such as rewriting is required
Although I wrote an article, there are some contents that are not displayed at the top. At that time, it is necessary to maintain the article. In other words, it's a rewrite.
Since it is a page that has been evaluated by Google once, the advantage of rewriting is that it may be displayed higher than new content by changing the content or title a little.
However, the fact that the effect must be measured and maintained on a regular basis is a disadvantage from the viewpoint of increasing man-hours.
Man-hours are required to create content
It takes a lot of time and effort to create high-quality content. It takes a lot of time and resources not only to add pages, but also to set keywords, create composition plans, and write manuscripts. However, by sitting down and delivering high-quality content firmly, it is possible to achieve stable customer attraction over the long term.
Content SEO success stories
This time, we will introduce this site " Keywordmap ACADEMY " operated by our company as one of the successful cases of some content SEO. Keyword map ACADEMY is a subdirectory media under Keywordmap.jp that disseminates useful information for web marketing and attracts corporate marketers.
Due to the influence of the new coronavirus, it has become necessary to change from the conventional sales method. Specifically, it is a transformation to a sales model that makes a small amount of money and becomes an asset, instead of a sales model that makes short sales with a large amount of investment. Keyword map ACADEMY was born with this background.
Since its release, we have succeeded in raising the ranking of keywords across the board by disseminating SEO-conscious content. Approximately 76% of domains ( keywordmap.jp ) are inflows via owned media. Before and now, the number of sessions has increased by 336 times, and the number of organic leads has increased by 40 times.
In this way, there are many merits of operating owned media in-house.
For example, it goes without saying that the number of leads will increase and the unit price of leads that have been acquired through advertisements will be reduced.
In addition to the above, as a by-product, it also had the advantage of promoting understanding of the company's products and improving web marketing know-how. By actually writing the content, it has come to function as a persuasive killer talk on the sales floor about the necessity and results of the company's products.
If content SEO can be performed with an appropriate flow and purpose in this way, it can be performed as content SEO that leads to results.
Content SEO content creation procedure
What are the key points in actually performing content SEO?
The most important factor in creating content is to meet the needs of users. We'll look at the content SEO steps needed to meet user needs below.
3C analysis
It is necessary to adjust the market environment from the basics of marketing, 3C (Customer customer/market, Competitor competition, Company's own company), and three factors.
Why do you do 3C analysis? That's because content SEO is a relative measure. Optimal content SEO is impossible without knowing the market situation, the competitive situation, and what the persona (customer) search keyword is. In a relative environment, we will investigate and analyze which market your company is aiming for, and which keyword group you are aiming for.
Customer: Clarify the user image (create a persona)
In content SEO, it's very important to know what your prospects are looking for. To do this, you need to clarify the target user image. Therefore, it is necessary to set a persona. For more information on personas, see " Selecting personal targets that influence content ."
Creating a persona makes it easier to imagine the worries of prospective customers and the information they want to know. In addition, since the ideal customer image can be shared by everyone in the company, there is an advantage that it is possible to prevent deviations in information transmission.
Competitor Conflict: Know Conflict
Apart from the content SEO-like competition survey described later in keyword selection, here is a survey of competitors' businesses. What kind of business style and what kind of results are you achieving? What are your strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics? Is there anything you can use for your company? If you consider various factors, you can see the "difference" between the competition and your company.
Company In-house: In-house analysis
One of the must-do steps before creating content is your own analysis.
Please grasp your company's services and products once again. By clarifying the strengths of your products and services, you will be able to see the differentiating strategy from competitors and what kind of content should be delivered to users. As a first clue, it is recommended to check from your company's corporate website where the company's philosophy and products/services are posted.
Keyword selection method
This is the initial survey for content SEO. From here, we will begin content creation, which is the most important process of content SEO. First is the selection of keywords that are the core of the content.
To select a keyword, you need to go through the following five steps at a minimum.
Let's look at each one.
① Understand the user's search intention
Think about what the user intends to search for, depending on the persona you have set. Keywords and themes will naturally be decided once the user's search intentions can be understood as to what they are wondering about and what kind of information they are looking for.
The heart of content is user needs, and the quality of content depends on how it is incorporated into the content. In other words, it is necessary to understand what kind of intention the user who searches for the company's product will type in the keyword and what kind of search will be done.
Consider the keyword "diet".
There are many needs for users who search for a diet. For example, there are cases where you want to lose weight as a whole, cases where you want to lose weight for each part, cases where you want to know foods suitable for diet, cases where you want to know about optimal exercise, and cases where you want to know about the gym.
Understanding your search intent means assuming such a case. If you think in terms of keywords, the search intent tends to appear in the word that is multiplied by XX in "Diet XX".
② Identify keyword candidates
There are as many search keywords as there are user needs. In order to select the appropriate candidate from the huge number of keywords, let's first identify the candidate.
It is necessary to identify keyword candidates as thoroughly as possible. There is a limit to continuing to extract manually while comparing it with the user's search intention. We recommend using tools to save time and effort.
For example, if the main keyword is "Osaka Hotel", there are various candidates as shown below. Below is a list of candidate countermeasure keywords.
③ Narrow down the keywords
It is necessary to prioritize and narrow down keyword candidates that are as close as possible to the user's search intent. If you check the sites that are ranked high by the candidate keywords and also check the theme of the top sites, you will be able to narrow down without deviation from the keywords that the person searches.
As a point, in the initial stage of content SEO, it is better to take measures from long-tail keywords that have a clear search intention and are easy to produce SEO results, rather than aiming for big keywords.
④ Competitive keyword analysis
When doing content SEO, it is important to check what kind of competing sites are in the market you want to target. The competition here is not a general business competition. It's a search engine, or SEO, competition.
It is important to discover the keywords that your competitors want to aim for, and then formulate the keywords that your company should aim for. The keywords that the top-ranked competitors are aiming for are those that have merits (attracting customers, CV). Therefore, the difficulty is high, but in some cases, it is effective to simply set the countermeasure keywords for the top competing pages.
⑤ Decide the theme
The theme is the direction of the article, "This article will talk about these things." Let's think about the theme of the content at the same time while selecting keywords. As mentioned above, the most important indicator is whether it meets the needs of users. However, it is NG to decide the theme just because you want to convey it.
It is important to decide the theme by comparing it with the top sites, user needs, and countermeasure keywords.
⑥ Investigate competing pages
Find out what kind of theme the top-ranking competing pages for countermeasure keywords are specifically designed, and what keywords are frequently used.
The top-ranked competing pages just have a reason to be top-ranked. Therefore, it is important to add the originality unique to your company's content while grasping the trends of the top sites.
How to create an article composition plan
In order to aim for the top search in SEO, it is important to create an article composition plan called a plot before writing an article.
The composition plan is, so to speak, the content that can be said to be the design document of the article.
As is the case when writing articles by yourself, this article composition plan must be prepared when outsourcing, that is, in order for writers to write high-quality articles.
Follow the steps below to create an article structure plan.
Explore the user's search intent.
Investigate top competitors.
Create large headings, medium headings, and subheadings while grasping the trends of competing themes.
How to create content
There are four main things that are important when writing a manuscript.
Refer to the trends of top sites
Originality
High readability
Information coverage
Refer to the trends of top sites
Check what kind of keywords are included in the top site to create the content. When creating content for content SEO, it is a great hint to analyze why the top sites are displayed at the top and what kind of theme the content is being created.
As a general rule, by including the themes and contents handled by the upper page, it will be easier for users and search engines to evaluate.
Originality
The second is to incorporate originality into the content.
Google professes on its official blog that it provides its own content and information as a prerequisite for high-quality articles.
If you just imitate the tendency of the upper side, the content will be similar to the upper site. In addition to the high-ranking sites, it is possible to differentiate from the high-ranking sites by firmly incorporating in the content the intentions that are close to the company's products in the user's search intentions.
High readability
The third is to check if the readability is high.
Even if the content is displayed at the top, it is meaningless unless the content is read properly. Therefore, check whether the structure is easy for the reader to read when writing the manuscript, and also thoroughly check the proofreading and proofreading after creation.
Also, text-only articles and long content can be tiring for users. It may be possible to prevent the user from leaving by inserting an image or a video appropriately.
Comprehensive information
Finally, the point of view is whether the information can be covered.
Whether or not the content responds to the user's search intent is the most important point in content SEO. Users have more than one search intent. Be sure to include information in a comprehensive manner to satisfy all users with similar search intent. The completeness of this information is also an important indicator in SEO.
Properly apply internal SEO
Even if the content is of high quality, it can be difficult for search engines to evaluate it if the internal SEO is not properly applied.
Internal measures have many elements such as title tags, description tags, heading tags, list tags, and alt tags.
It is important to properly implement such internal measures.
How to proofread an article
Article proofreading and review are often neglected in content SEO. However, typographical errors and content that leave you uncertain about the authenticity of the information will lead to the withdrawal of users. Be sure to check if there are any differences in the notation or content of the text itself.
At the same time, you have to make sure that the article covers the elements to be displayed at the top in SEO. If there are any missing elements in the page displayed at the top, it is necessary to request correction each time.
rewrite
Even if you upload a new article, there are some keywords that are not displayed at the top. Rewriting is
done at that time. As mentioned above, rewriting is article maintenance, an improvement on already released content.
It is important to extract articles that are not displayed at the top of the articles that your company has uploaded and add elements that are missing compared to the top sites.
Please check this out for details.
Key points for successful content SEO
In addition to referring to the above creation steps, there are some points to keep in mind for successful content SEO. Please also check the following points.
Assign one editor exclusively
When performing content SEO, it is recommended to have one editor dedicated to the company. To ensure the influx of search engines, you need to keep up-to-date with quality content on a regular basis. Therefore, the existence of an editor is indispensable.
If you have a writer write it, or if there is a recognition discrepancy in the theme of the content, the editor will help you to correct it quickly and accurately. In addition, by assigning an editor who has a solid understanding of the company's products at the time of content creation, the keywords searched by the company's persona can be effectively selected, and the storyline up to the CV can be converted into content. Maximize SEO outcomes.
Build an in-house system
Content SEO is a time-consuming measure, while it has many benefits. Therefore, in order to operate continuously and efficiently, it is necessary to build an operating system that involves the company. It is necessary to thoroughly identify and secure the creator of the content, the number of content to be created each month, and the man-hours required for that purpose.
With the cooperation of the company and departments, building a solid internal system at the initial stage will lead to continuous results of content SEO.
If content SEO cannot be produced in-house from a resource perspective, consider outsourcing from content creation to effect measurement. It is also possible to outsource each process. Optimize against your company's resources.
Use tools
Analytical power is still the key to the success of content SEO.
Analyze keywords, investigate conflicts, find out about search intent, understand trends on top pages, and more. If you neglect these, the success rate of content SEO will decrease. However, it will be difficult to do everything manually.
Therefore, let's use various tools to simplify these analyzes and at the same time improve the level of analysis. Reducing man-hours and performing high-quality analysis while utilizing various tools are also the points for successful content SEO.
Content SEO using the tool "Keyword Map" -Tips for achieving results-
That's all for content SEO. The following introduces how to create efficient content using the SEO / content marketing tool " Keyword Map ".
Keyword selection
By using the tool, you can investigate the conflict more efficiently.
For example, it is almost impossible to fully understand what kind of keywords the competitors are acquiring by human power. On the other hand, if you use a tool like Keyword map, you can check the keywords that your company has not acquired and the competition has acquired and their ranking as shown below.
Discover seasonal keywords
The issue that arises when competing for research and visualization of keyword groups is which keyword should be prioritized when writing an article. Seasonal factors are one of the references for prioritization. For some keywords, the number of searches varies significantly depending on the season.
For example, the keyword "Enoshima" is one of them.
Enoshima-related keywords can be effectively maximized in attracting customers by taking measures so that they will be displayed at the top in August. On the other hand, there are also keywords such as "Enoshima Sea Candle" whose search volume will increase toward winter. It is possible to create content that can attract customers not only in summer but also in winter. Therefore, it is important to prioritize keywords so that the content is displayed at the top according to the timing when the search Vol grows.
How to create an article composition plan
As I've said many times, the important point in creating an article structure is to understand the needs of users and the intent of searching. However, if these are done manually, a huge amount of work will be required.
With Keyword Map, you can instantly check what the user's search intention is like, as shown below. It is necessary to confirm what kind of search intent is being investigated by actual Google users and to create a headline proposal that appropriately responds to the user's needs.
How to proofread an article
We use "co-occurrence words" to review articles.
Co-occurrence words are words that frequently appear (prone to appear around keywords) when explaining countermeasure keywords. In other words, by checking whether the keywords that appear frequently in this high-ranking site are included, it is possible to check whether there is any information or theme that is missing compared to the high-ranking site (or the degree of information coverage is poor). Isn't it?).
From the inclusion check of this co-occurrence word function, check whether there is a "missing keyword" that the company's article does not include in the query that the upper site contains in the sentence.
Rewrite method using Keyword map
Keyword ranking is one of the references when selecting articles to be rewritten. For example, if a keyword in the 11th place or lower becomes the 10th place or less (1st page), the number of inflows will increase dramatically.
Keyword map can extract keywords of 11th place and below at once. If you try to do this manually or with a free tool, it will take a lot of man-hours.
In addition, after confirming the articles that should be rewritten from this, we will compare them with the higher-ranking sites using the co-occurrence words mentioned earlier. Specifically, check if there are any missing user needs or co-occurrence words compared to the higher-level site, and add them if any.
summary
Doing content SEO the right way is the most important piece of the outcome. However, on the other hand, there are some high hurdles to do manually. If you want to complete content SEO in-house, we recommend using tools to reduce man-hours.
Content SEO isn't easy and it's even harder to get results, but you can benefit a lot by developing a strategy, and staying patient with it.
As a means of web marketing, how about working on content SEO with reference to this article?
