Since I got involved in the SEO industry nearly 14 years ago, “Content is King” has been one of the major themes. With algorithm updates over the years, Google has gotten better at algorithmically rewarding and penalizing good and bad content, by looking at different ranking factors. These factors include speed and links pointed at the content, as well as some other factors not directly related to the words on the page so to speak. It appears the update or updates that have been rolling out for weeks since November of 2019 are really getting to the heart of the content on the page, and perhaps even more on the supporting pages, to decide what should rank highly.
Supporting Content Seems to Boost Rankings
I recently saw Slideshare presentation of a great study that has since been removed, that showed amazing ranking increases, simply from building supporting pages of content, without adding any traditional link building for strength. In traditional SEO, we often talk about on-page and off-page optimization. This is a bit of a hybrid of that. Building content silos around a topic that all link to each other and offer supporting content to boost each other seems to really help both the user and the algorithm. Typically the algorithm is trying to find a way to measure what the user wants and reward that.
Build Content Pages for the Whole Sales Funnel
Now you want to create content pages for the entire sales funnel. From the exploratory phase of trying to understand what your product or service is, to the pages that show comparisons or lists of the important factors to consider when choosing the solution, to a detailed solution page that outlines all of the reasons from the prior steps as to why you are the right choice.
I would go so far as to move from at one time saying that you need a page for every service that you offer that you want to rank for, to now suggesting you at least have three pages for every service. Exploration, Research, and Buy. These are three different user intents, but they push people down the funnel or even grab people via search, at the different points in the funnel. Users and Google like to see all steps though, and providing that in 2020 can give you an edge on the competition.
ERB in 2020: Explore, Research, Buy
Each step of ERB may require more than one page, but should at least have one page. The research phase may have a page each for comparing different aspects of the service. You may be providing a packaged service that addresses three main pieces and each of those pieces may need its own exploratory and research page before moving on to the final buy solution. ERB may not be the acronym that catches on in SEO circles, but keep it in mind for your content in 2020. Give us a call if you need help along the way.
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