In Brief:
- Google has become a Q&A engine and rewards websites providing clear Q&A
- From 30-50% of all organic searches do not result in a website click.
- A reputation for great Q&A and How-To Content drives brand value and subsequent, direct traffic.
Customers want answers – now – and Google is moving to satisfy that need. The result is that Q&A / How-To queries often result in no website clicks. An on-SERP (Search Engine Results Page) strategy is based on building brand value as the “go-to” source for a topic so that future searches include the brand name.
The Long-Tail Answer Engine (KnowledgeBase SEO)
Google has evolved into a search engine focused on Q&A and How-To “conversational” search activities. This is true in text, voice and video. Businesses must evolve their Q&A strategy under the assumption that as more digital natives become customers, the expectation is that you provide lots of information for their due diligence online, not assuming they’ll call to ask questions.
The effect of this presence as the answerer of questions drives brand value. It would be the long term goal to become the go-to for questions on a topic so that searchers visit your site by branded search (typing your company name into Google) so you are not as subjected to Google’s zero-click search results.
Beyond Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are the original form of Q&A, but things are well beyond these short lists of questions. Now, we need to produce large knowledge bases of Q&A and show those to Google as part of your SEO strategy. Each of the questions will offer up a small bit of traffic, which accumulates as the knowledge base increases in size. A FAQ list may have been 15 questions, but the knowledge base may have 200-300.
Everyone Interacting with Customers Contributes to Q&A Knowledge Bases (KBSEO)
Knowledge bases for SEO are built by having everyone at the organization contribute questions, answers and ideas over a long period of time, and that these are captured in a central knowledge repository. We will assist in the process flow and the optimization of the resulting customer-facing pages.
No Click SERPs – Desktop and Mobile – image via Sparktoro.
Project Elements
Definition of Audience and Stages of Research
Define the audience for your services or products and the stages of the buying cycle. Most clients know this but have not documented it. The sales cycle is also often known but not documented.
Clearly define the differences between Internal and External FAQs
Most clients by default begin writing Q&A / Knowledge Base Content as if the customer is already theirs. They may not be. Choosing the target of the content can make or break your SEO.
Identify Questions
This process harvests the questions and how-to being asked on the web about your services, products, and business category and flowed into a Knowledge Base.
Assign Writing
After choosing the set of questions to be answered, assignments for writing the answers are given. Explanation about the inverted pyramid is provided to writers, along with basics about creating a short answer, longer answer pair. Various writing collaboration tools are available to facilitate writing, approvals and publishing.
Measure Results
As Q&A/How-to content is developed it’s important to measure impact and to use customer behavior to guide expansion. Analytics reports specifically for the knowledge base will be built into your dashboard to show use and engagement.
See Also
- Local SEO Local SEO is the process of connecting your business to the community of searchers nearby in a cost-effective manner.
- SEO Audits This is a honest, plain-English, objective critique of your website's SEO from a SEO specialist and researcher. These clinics are done via screen sharing and a phone call, or in person and on-site using big data, state of the art tools and rich Q&A.
- Avoiding SEO Scams, Incompetence and F.U.D. Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time defending clients from unsolicited SEO pitches - many of which depend on "FUD" (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to cause less aware staff to question the necessity of our "white hat" methods for SEO, while offering a shortcut through the slog. Client education is key an we make every attempt to keep our clients aware of the state of the art so they're able to discern these scams when they see them.