No, this isn’t some meta-article where I ask myself what I should write about. This is addressing a question asked of us from our writers, or even ourselves. Google has declared that we merely need to “create great content” and everything else will take care of itself. Of course we know that it is more complicated than that but it raises a fundamental question, “What constitutes great content?” and “How do you produce great content?”
Last year (2020) in Volume 3 Issue 4 of Pages SEO Magazine I wrote about how Google is looking for Strings and Not things. If you have not read the article I suggest you find a copy of it online (https://www.pageonepower.com/linkarati/content-optimization-things-not-strings) and read it. Google is no longer just relying on singular keywords to determine relevance and to rank a page. They are looking to better understand the context. I showed how if you want to rank in this new paradigm, you need to be able to use the entity words that Google expects to find in your content.
After reading that article you will know how to optimize for search engines – but that really shouldn’t be our endgame. You may know what keyword(s) for which you are trying to optimize, but what information are users seeking online? When the searchers arrive on your page they need to find content that is both engaging and answer their questions. We need to learn how to optimize for readers. What information do they want to find on your page(s)? Put simply, “How do you know what to write about?”
Without a clear answer to this question it often leads to webmasters creating a content dump on a page – writing about anything and everything – and then lamenting when traffic does not convert into leads or sales. Even worse, many SEOs and website owners, in an effort to generate content, are seduced into creating mountains of thin or even duplicate content pages. These pages will not only fail to convert searchers but are also likely to run afoul of Google’s Panda Algorithm*.
* The Panda algorithm penalty was first released in February 2011 and had manual roll-outs through 2015. At that point it was able to be rolled into the core algorithm.
So again I ask the question, what should I write about and how do I make sure it is great content? Content that searchers not only enjoy to read, but which they find helpful as well.
Well, I have good news! There are an abundance of resources and tools that give us the exact insight we need to satisfy the searcher. They can tell us exactly the questions people are asking about our product, service, company or industry.
The primary resource I use when determining what to include on a page, or a supporting article, is Google’s auto-complete. If you took any journalism or writing classes in college (or even high school) you were likely taught about the 5Ws (and 1H): Who, What, When Where, Why and How. These are questions whose answers are considered basic in information-gathering. You should use them too! To do this, open up a new window for Google.com and type: Who <keyword> into the search bar – DO NOT press enter. You will see a list of some of the top “who” questions Google receives about this keyword – make note of all of them. Often you can refine it further by including words such as the following: is, are, were, does, will – plus many other I have probably failed to consider.
“Who” Examples:
Who <keyword>
Who is <keyword>
Who are <keyword>
Who were <keyword>
Who does <keyword>
Who will <keyword>
Some may make sense with your keyword while others may sound a little nonsensical. Don’t censor yourself. Even if they do not make sense check them anyways. It is amazing the oddly worded questions I have seen in Google’s auto-complete. They all still give you insight into what answers searchers are seeking. Using Excel you could even build yourself a template that could auto-populate for you. Use the example below:
Full list of examples:
| Who | What | When | Where | Why | How |
| Who <KW> | What <KW> | When <KW> | Where <KW> | Why <KW> | How <KW> |
| Who is <KW> | What is <KW> | When is <KW> | Where is <KW> | Why is <KW> | How is <KW> |
| Who are <KW> | What are <KW> | When are <KW> | Where are <KW> | Why are <KW> | How are <KW> |
| Who were <KW> | What were <KW> | When were <KW> | Where were <KW> | Why were <KW> | How were <KW> |
| Who does <KW> | What does <KW> | When does <KW> | Where does <KW> | Why does <KW> | How does <KW> |
| Who will <KW> | What will <KW> | When will <KW> | Where will <KW> | Why will <KW> | How will <KW> |
Hopefully you now have all kinds of ideas swirling in your head but we have only just begun because the 5Ws are just step #1. Don’t forget there is a list of prepositions you could use as well. For example: is, are, can, best, which, and to – obviously there are many more that could be added to this list as well. The cool thing is that if you swap the position of the two words you will often get two totally different sets of results. For example: is <keyword> and <keyword> is. And like the 5Ws you could easily set an Excel file to auto-populate so you (or your virtual assistant) can easily copy and paste the phrases into Google.
Examples:
is <keyword>
<keyword> is
can <keyword>
<keyword> can
best <keyword>
<keyword> best
If you are as excited about using this data as I hope you are I have even better news for you. You do not have to do this manually. There is currently a website, AnswerThePublic.com, which will perform many of these searches for you automatically. By default they use the Google UK database so if you want to use the US one you’ll be required to pay for a premium subscription. Personally I like to do this research manually. Not only am I cheap, but I like how it forces me to delve deep into the data.
Bonus for Brands:
If you are managing a brand I would be remiss if I did not mention that you can also search using comparison queries. For example: <brand name> vs or <brand name> versus. This tells you who of course your customers are comparing you, but more importantly it gives you clearer insight into your actual competition – and not just who you think is your competition.
A Happy Little Accident:
One of the reasons I enjoy writing articles like this one is that it forces me to dive deep into the subject. While doing research I learned something new. While testing search variations using my company Verizon’s brand name I noticed that the auto-complete questions looked much different than usual. I first thought that maybe Google updated their database but that would mean millions of users suddenly changed how they searched for our company – this did not seem likely to me. I then noticed that I was searching under Google News by accident. That’s when I realized that the auto-complete results are different for each of Google’s different search results: News, Shopping, Images, Etc.
I hope you realize what this means? This means that you can take those dozens of auto-complete and multiple them out to hundreds more. If you have an ecommerce site you can use the Google Shopping results or even Google Images. If you handle a large brand then Google News is a great place to mine as well.
But why stop with Google? You can use other websites’ auto-complete data as well. For example YouTube, Amazon and eBay – the last two are perfect for ecommerce companies. Hopefully you can now see the possibilities. Even if you are only using the initial 5Ws, with all these databases to mine you have an almost limitless number of results. And these are not just simple content ideas. These are the actual questions searchers are seeking answers to online. Learn how to answer them well, and optimize effectively, and you have the making of top-ranking content that should survive handily through future algorithm updates.
Oh, But There is More:
While we are well on our way in this journey we are not done yet. This next one may seem a little obvious but we have to discuss it. That is Google’s “People Also Ask” feature. For most keyword searches Google will display a list of 4 common questions. Did you know that you can get more questions out of Google? It is all there for the asking, simply click a question result to expand and then immediately click to collapse. Did you see what Google just did? They increased the numbers of questions they display on the SERP. Click to expand and collapse again and Google will add more questions. I’m not sure if there is a limit or if Google will go on forever but I have never had Google stop delivering questions. I have noticed that the questions begin to drift too far from the main topic after 4 to 5 expansions. I suggest digging until the questions stop making sense for your topic – this will vary greatly from keyword to keyword.
One Last Idea:
I have also been experimenting with another way of gathering more topical questions – social listening. With some of the great social listening tools that have been developed lately we now have an opportunity to learn the questions people are asking – almost in real-time. We are no longer beholden to Google’s database – which may or may not be as up to date as we would like. Social listening tools allow us to put a finger on the pulse of our customers. We can discover what new topics have appeared. This is the perfect chance to get an edge on the competition.
TL; DR
Figuring out what content to develop for your primary pages or supporting articles does not have to be an arduous process. No guessing is required, all the answers we need can be found online – mostly for free.
Auto-Complete
Using Google, and other search engines’ auto-complete feature you can mine their databases for the most common questions searchers are asking about your product, service, industry or even brand. Just remember to use the 5Ws (and 1H).
People Also Ask
Search your primary (and secondary) keywords on Google and look for the People Also Ask section. Expand and collapse the questions so that more are revealed. Address and answer these questions in your page content.
Social Listening
Experiment with these tools to try and discover the most current problems or topics your customers are discussing. Get an edge on your competition by optimizing for questions that only you are answering.
Charles is great at helping companies build their SEO practice into a sustainable strategy for long-term growth and value. Contact him today at CharlesHarryTaylor@gmail.com to get custom SEO consulting to fit your budget and needs.