While the buzz around AI often leads to exaggerated claims and game-changing theories, there’s no denying the tangible benefits it brings to companies today. Early adopters of AI-powered solutions have already witnessed significant optimizations in their processes.

To shed light on the true impact of AI in the digital marketing space, we reached out to top experts in the field and gathered their insights to provide a deeper understanding of the future of AI.

Curious to know more? Keep reading to explore the fascinating world of AI and its potential in the corporate landscape.

This brings us to the importance of hub pages. A hub page or content hub is a great SEO strategy to increase the authority and credibility of your website in the eyes of Google and your target audience.

This post will answer all your queries related to a hub page and discuss how to create one.

What Is a Hub Page?

A hub page is the core page of a collection of content on different pages with similar themes. Sometimes, this collection of content is also known as topic clusters or content hubs.

The content published on these pages relates to your business and is valuable to your audience.

A Hub page has multiple pages linked to it. These spoke pages have all the supporting content related to the main topic.

The hub page is the central location of all the relevant content, and other pages are linked. These pages can be product pages, newsletters, or tutorial pages that support the main page.

Because hub pages are created for SEO purposes, the published content has relevant keywords and is aimed to drive high traffic.

The content hub is designed to provide in-depth information and resources on a specific topic and link subtopic pages to the core page.

Why Is a Hub Page Important?

Creating a hub page is an essential digital marketing strategy. The main reason why a content hub is important is because it gives your website broad exposure.

Another reason is that search engines love well-organized informative pages, and creating a hub page can improve your website’s search engine ranking. Search engines crawl faster into these pages and help them rank well.

Hub pages also encourage users to explore other pages on your website. If you create and publish content on your hub page, keeping in mind what your readers might be interested in, it is likely that they will also visit the main website for more information.

Why are content hubs good for SEO?

Creating a content hub is a great digital marketing strategy to rank higher on search engines. Content hubs are based on a spoke model where one page is linked to different pages.

The main purpose that this model serves is that it gives your users access to all relevant information and aims to answer all the questions and cover all related topics that they might have.

It makes more sense for your visitors to stay and explore your website if the content published is easy to navigate and answers their queries.

Now, you may wonder, but how is it good for SEO?

More topical authority

Hub pages allow you to cover a topic comprehensively. The parent page has various other pages linked, providing valuable and comprehensive resources and information on the subject.

Having a well-organized content structure where other pages have related subtopics linked to the main page helps establish topical authority and make you a leading brand in your industry.

More link authority

Hub pages can significantly boost your link authority.

In a content hub, hyperlinks connect the main page to other subpages. These internal links help improve the overall domain authority of the page, which in turn leads to more link authority.

Moreover, having high authority backlinks to your content hub sites establishes your credibility and enhances your Google ranking.

More engagement

Engaging your website’s visitors with interesting blogs and articles is crucial to reducing the bounce rate of your website.

Your website visitors will stay on your site longer if they find articles and blogs that fulfill their search intent.

A comprehensive hub page that keeps in mind the search intent of your readers will also encourage them to view other pages on your website, which may also lead to an increase in conversion rate.

More perceived value

An effective hub page model will build up your value and credibility in the respective industry.

A well-structured hub page with informative content will intensify the quality and usefulness of your website.

When you organize your content in a logical and user-friendly manner, you make finding relevant information easier. This also establishes your expertise in a specific niche and instills confidence in your audience for your brand.

How to build a content hub

Now that you know what a content hub is and why it is so important, let us proceed to building an effective content hub.

Create a list of topics for your hub

It may sound obvious, but it is the first and the most crucial step while building your content hub.

When selecting a specific topic or theme, ensure it aligns with your brand and business.

Secondly, define your buyer’s persona. Identify what your ideal buyer will look for on your website and how you can help them. Focus on how your content can help your visitors find the answers to their questions.

Lastly, discuss with your sales team and try to identify their pain points. Then, strategize how and what type of content will help them make more sales.

Classify your subtopics

After identifying your content hub’s main topic, it is time to examine the sub-topic.

The sub-topic should tick the following point:

1. It should be relevant to the main topic
2. It should add value to your main topic
3. It should be helpful for your readers and should be able to capture their attention.

Design a user-friendly structure

Designing a user-friendly content hub structure is crucial to helping visitors navigate the content.

The structure should make understanding the context of the content easy. Moreover, it should be easy for search engines to crawl and index your site.

Select content marketing technology assistance

Selecting a content marketing technology is essential to measure the performance of your content hub.

Select a tool, for example, Google Analytics, to help track the incoming traffic to your site. You can also check how many people subscribe to your email list or take the desired action.

This data can help you know how your content hub impacts your business.

Identify content types

Identify the content type that will be beneficial for you and your audience. The different types of content include blogs, infographics, and videos. Identify which content marketing strategy will be the best for you.

While selecting the content types, you must also conduct thorough keyword research. You must use keywords that your audience is searching for. Adding a combination of long tail keywords, mid-tail keywords, product keywords, or a CTA keyword in your published articles will lead to your visitors engaging with your website.

Include internal links

Internal linking is very crucial for your content hub. What is the difference between a content hub and a blog page if you don’t link your content? Linking is the main differentiator between a content hub and a blog page.

Internal linking has another benefit. It helps the search engine to crawl your site and rank your page.

Include conversion and CTA

Your content hub should clearly state what you are trying to convey. Adding a CTA will help your visitors take the desired actions and increase the conversion rate.

Publicize your content hub

Publicizing your content hub is as crucial as creating it. Promoting your content is a fantastic way to increase your visibility.

How will people visit your site if they don’t know about it? Effective promotion will help drive traffic to your website and improve audience interaction.

Evaluate the outcomes

Evaluating the outcomes to determine the areas of improvement is crucial for a successful content hub. This will help you take effective measures and lead to better audience engagement and conversion.

Final thoughts

Creating a content hub is not just a digital marketing trend but an effective way to establish your presence. By creating a content hub or hub page for your website, you can create a strategy that not only pleases your audience but also search engine crawlers. So, take advantage of the advantages of a content hub. Create them today to stay on top of the game.

Whether you are starting your content creation journey or planning your content marketing strategy, understanding different types of content and their application is important.

We are here to help you understand content types by breaking down their unique characteristics and sharing practical tips on how to make the most of them. We will cover everything from classic written content to eye-catching visual content so that you can better decide what types of content marketing techniques to choose from.

Types of Written Content

Now, let’s get to the core of the matter – The different types of content. We will explore 29 different types of content, ranging from traditional blog posts to eye-catching images and interactive content.

Consider this as your toolset for producing high-quality content. So, let’s jump in and explore the options.

1. Blog Posts/Articles

The backbone of online content development is blog posts and articles. They are the medium for delivering information, sharing thoughts, and interacting with your audience.

This written content can take the form of in-depth, research-based explorations or quick, concise updates that your paying customers keep an eye on.

Key Features:

Blog posts and articles are primarily informational. They educate customers about certain topics, providing valuable insights and entertaining the readers.

Blog content follows a clear structure and format with an introduction, content body, and conclusion. It presents information in a logical and organized manner.

A well-crafted blog post or long-form content captivates the attention of prospective customers from the very beginning. To do so, writers use engaging headlines, vivid images, and a conversational tone while writing their own blog content. This way, they can make the reader feel like they are having a conversation with the author.

Blog posts can also be optimized for search engine optimization by including relevant keywords and metatags. This helps the blog post appear in search results, reach a wider audience, and drive more organic traffic to the business website.

Well-written blog posts are easily shareable across various platforms to increase brand awareness and attract potential customers.

How To Guides:

Here is a guide to help you use blog posts and articles effectively:

Start by identifying topics that are relevant to your target audience. Understand their interest, needs, and pain points.

Offer practical insights, expert opinions, or valuable tips. This not only shows your expertise but also builds trust with your audience.

Regularly updating your blog post with fresh and engaging content keeps your audience engaged and encourages return visits. Establishing expertise in posting schedules is important, and stick to it.

Research and incorporate relevant keywords into your content to increase the chances of your blog posts appearing in search engines.

Share your blog posts and articles on social media platforms, through email marketing, and in relevant online communities or forums. This extends your reach and attracts a broader audience.

Foster engagement by inviting comments and feedback at the end of your posts. Don’t forget to respond to the comments timely. This will create a sense of community, and you will be able to gain valuable insights from your audience.

Use analytics tools to track the performance of your blog posts. Analyze which topics resonate most with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.

While consistency is important, it’s equally vital to prioritize the quality of your content. A well-researched, thoughtful article will have a more lasting impact than rushed, low-quality posts.

Different types of blog posts you can write:

• Press Releases
• Company News
• Educational Content
• Personal Stories
• Long Form Articles
• New strategy
• Best Practices
• Product News
• Interviews
• Q&As

Blog posts and articles are effective tools for engagement and communication with a wide range of audiences in social media. Watch your online presence grow as you master the art of writing engaging digital content.

2. White Papers

When discussing content, white papers are pillars of authority and expertise.

They are thorough and based on reliable research, offering in-depth information on a particular topic, problem, or concern. Businesses, Academic institutions, Government settings, and similar thought leadership typically use them to present research findings, propose solutions, or offer insights into complex subjects or topics.

Key Features:

White papers need a thorough and in-depth analysis, statistics, and proof to back up the shared information.

They need to be written in an objective and factual tone. Persuasive language or emotional appeals should be avoided.

The author often addresses complex issues or emerging trends while writing them. They aim to educate readers about specific topics.

They rely on reputable resources, which include academic studies, industry reports, and expert opinions, to base their claims.

Typically, a white paper follows a structured format with sections like an executive summary, introduction, methodology, findings, discussion, and conclusion.

How To Guides:

If you are wondering how to create a white paper, here’s a guide for your reference:

While creating a white paper, clearly define the purpose and object of your content. What question or issue does it aim to address?

Research thoroughly. Gather data from reliable resources, like academic journals, industry reports, interviews with experts, and surveys.

Organize your white paper with a clear and logical flow. Include sections such as an executive summary, introduction, methodology, findings, discussion, and conclusion.

The title should be clear and compelling. The executive summary should concisely overview the paper’s key points and findings. The conclusion must have a summary of key takeaways and a restatement of the document’s significance.

Provide citations for all the data, studies, and sources you refer to. This will show the credibility of your information.

Common Usage:

The most common usage of white papers is as follows:

Industry Insights: They are commonly used in business to share information on market trends, upcoming technologies, and any specific knowledge based on industry. They establish a company as a thought leader.

In technology, they help explain complicated products, services, or concepts.

Government agencies and NGOs use them to suggest new rules or ideas for important issues, offering well-researched solutions to societal challenges.

In academics, they share research or talk about big ideas in a clear way to help students understand complex problems.

White papers are detailed guides that explain things well, packed with facts and ideas on different fields. They share useful information to understand complex topics. Writing a white paper involves good research and a clear plan.

3. Ebooks

eBooks, short of electronic books, are digital versions of traditional printed books. They are a very useful tool for businesses looking to improve their brand’s online presence. They are more than simply digital books; they are a very strong resource that can help businesses achieve a variety of marketing objectives.

Do you want to offer in-depth marketing knowledge or any information about your company culture? they are your go-to. They are perfect when your audience has the time to dive deep into a subject.

E-books can be read on various electronic devices like tablets and smartphones. They are perfect for explaining complex topics in an easy-to-understand way, making your readers an expert in the same field.

When you offer an ebook, you give your audience something substantial. In return, they are more likely to trust you and consider your brand a valuable resource.

You get to tell your brand story however you choose. Ebooks give you the space to explain what sets you apart and improve your unique selling features in more detail.

There are many ways you can distribute ebooks. You can share them via email marketing, your website, or even sell them on online stores like Amazon Kindle.

This adaptability lets you approach your audience where they are most comfortable.

You can use eBooks in different ways – as free downloads to grow your email list, as exclusive content for premium subscribers, or even on platforms like Amazon to increase brand awareness.

eBooks include analytics. So you can check who has downloaded them and how interested they are. You can improve your content marketing strategy with the help of this data.

4. Customer Success Stories

Customer success stories hold immense power in content marketing strategy. These are the actual stories about how your product or service helped someone’s life or business.

Customer success stories are word-of-mouth recommendations and are mostly genuine. This authenticity helps you build trust among your target audience. Encourage user-generated content marketing efforts to build brand trust.

Readers or viewers are more likely to connect when they sense a story is real and not overly polished. Success stories should be relatable. They show how your offering solved a problem that many may have faced. When potential customers see how others overcome challenges, it motivates them to take action.

To get the most out of such stories, choose a target audience with impactful experiences. Conduct interviews, focusing on challenges, solutions, and outcomes. Use quotes to add authenticity and incorporate visual content for extra impact.

Distribute this user-generated content strategically across your marketing channels. Whether through blog posts, social media platforms, or dedicated pages, ensure they reach your target audience.

5. Case Studies

Case studies are the successful stories of content marketing efforts. They show exactly how a particular content marketing strategy or campaign made an impact on the market.

They are not just numbers and graphs; they tell a story of challenges faced and goals achieved. What makes case studies powerful is that they are transparent. They provide proof of what worked and what did not. This builds trust with potential customers.

When they see a real company overcoming real challenges, it creates a connection.

Case studies also teach. They share valuable content about lessons from past experiences. The content marketing team can study this data to understand what to use and avoid in their campaign.

Case studies can be used in different ways – blog posts, social media posts, presentations, press releases, etc. These types of content marketing have a greater impact and can be spread far and wide.

6. Product Content and Guides

A key component of content marketing strategy is product content.

Product content shares helpful information to potential customers about what a product offers and why it’s valuable. Such content format includes product specifications, descriptions, and user manuals.

The main goal of product content marketing is to inform. It answers any potential customer’s queries by clearly outlining a product’s benefits. By sharing correct information, businesses build trust, making consumers feel confident about their potential purchase. This type of content also highlights how the product can meet specific needs.

How-to guides are expert companions offering step-by-step instructions on using and applying a product or service. This helps users make the most of their purchases and also offers tips and tricks.

7. Resource Centers

To cater to potential customer concerns effectively, a well-structured help center page is invaluable.

For example, Freshchat, a live chat software provider, excels in this area. A link to their help center is clearly displayed on their homepage, making it simple to acquire setup instructions. Everything from account administration to in-depth product features and business policies is covered in their articles. In addition to helping consumers, this improves search engine optimization in digital marketing by focusing on target keywords.

8. Customer Reviews And Testimonials

Customer testimonials and reviews are an important tool in the content marketing mix. When making a purchase, consumers heavily rely on online reviews. A survey by Dimensional Research found that 90% of respondents said online reviews affect what they buy. These reviews provide ratings, customer testimonials, and real client feedback that help you strengthen your business’s legitimacy and dependability.

Consider developing a dedicated testimonials webpage to convert prospects at the bottom of the sales funnel. Your prospects’ specific advantages from your products or services should be highlighted. This content strategy gives the potential customers the extra push they need to make a purchase.

9. FAQs

Adding an FAQs page to your website is like having a helpful assistant working 24/7. These are also crucial for content marketing.

You can answer common questions about your industry, products, or services. This acts as a guide for your potential customers and also saves time by reducing repetitive queries.

Organize your questions in different categories to make them easily accessible. And don’t forget to update it regularly to keep it current and valuable.

10. Awards

Place your trust badges and proof of achievements alongside content that’s designed to close the deal, like on the purchase page. Demonstrating your credibility and expertise is always a smart move in any business strategy. This reassures your audience and can be the extra push they need to make a confident decision. Don’t be shy to let your achievements shine.

11. User-Generated Content

User-generated content is a powerhouse in digital marketing. It’s a double win – It offers social proof to potential customers and doesn’t cost a penny.

Utilizing platforms like Instagram to showcase customers enjoying your products or services or sharing their success stories on your website can be a game-changer in your content strategy.

Identify your most engaged customers and ask them what makes them choose your company over other companies, how they benefit from your products, and if they have faced any hurdles. And there you go, you have compelling content on success stories that resonates with your audience.

12. User Guides/User Manuals

User guides and manuals are your customers’ best friends when it comes to understanding your product. They are clear, step-by-step instructions on how to use what you offer.

Keep language simple and jargon-free. This ensures that everyone can follow along easily, regardless of technical knowledge.

Types of Visual Content

Visual content is a key player in the digital marketing era. While text-based content remains important, integrating visual elements can yield significant benefits when done right.

A few advantages are:

• Including photos, video content, and visual media in press releases can boost views by up to 77%, as found by PR Newswire.
• Our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, allowing for quicker understanding.
• According to Dr. John Medina, visuals increase information retention by six times, making content more memorable.

13. Images

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in many cases, this holds true. Images grab attention and convey messages quickly and effectively. Complex ideas are made more understandable with the inclusion of images.

For example, in instructional guides, step-by-step images are invaluable.

Make sure images align with your content marketing strategy. Irrelevant visuals can confuse or deter your audience. If possible, use original images; they add authenticity to your content.

14. Video

Video content helps grab attention, tell stories, and convert complex ideas into easy-to-understand format. These types of content attract an audience if done correctly.

YouTube video content is quite in the talks nowadays. Have you ever watched a YouTube video and remembered everything shared on the video? Most probably, yes, because that’s the power of video content; they are memorable. They help your web page rank higher in search engines as well.

Create video content that resonates with your target audience. Use such types of content marketing to demonstrate how to guide your products, employee stories, customer success stories, interviews with CEOs, etc. Upload this content as YouTube videos and social media posts to generate leads.

15. Infographics

Infographics are like visual summaries of information. These types of content marketing are a great example of how to explain things quickly and clearly.

They help us understand complex information in a simple way. People tend to remember things better when presented in pictures. Using infographics helps your message grab the reader’s attention and spread your message on social media.

As per the Nielson Norman Group findings, infographics are three times more likely to be liked and shared on social media channels.

16. Memes

If you are on social media apps, you must have come across those funny memes in the form of images or videos. They have found their place in content marketing.

Memes work well on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Use memes that fit your brand and what your audience finds funny or interesting.

A great example is Netflix. They use memes for their Instagram and Twitter pages to promote new movies or series launches. It’s a smart way to connect with the audience and promote their platform.

17. GIFs

If you are aiming for light-hearted and fun content, GIFs are your best bet. Twitter even has a built-in feature that makes adding GIFs to your tweets a breeze; just type a phrase, and it suggests GIFs to match.

Feeling creative? You can craft your own GIFs using tools like Giphy’s GIF Maker or And Then I Was Like. If you already have existing video content, you can also create GIF-worthy content for social media.

18. Magazines

Online magazines. also known as “e-magazines,” are a newer form of visual content. They are the digital content version of traditional physical magazines. They also use pictures, interesting stories, and updates like regular magazines.

Companies like Red Bull, Harry’s, and Fujitsu make their own e-magazines. Instead of just showing ads, they create content for their own magazines to share stories and pictures that their customers like.

Types of Interactive Content

When you include your audience in your content marketing journey, you build a connection with them that is going to stay for a long time. Interactive content marketing helps you hold your audience’s attention. It’s like a two-way conversation that invites your audience to participate actively.

Want to create a memorable experience for your audience? Use interactive content like quizzes, polls, contests, etc. Let’s explore this in detail:

19. Contest

Who doesn’t love free gifts? Especially when it’s an expensive one. But what if we include a challenge where your audience can enter a contest and win valuable prizes? That’s cool, right?

Many businesses use this strategy to attract and engage their audience or promote their product or services. Additionally, they get to collect email addresses to announce the winner, which eventually helps in email marketing campaigns.

Ocado, the online supermarket, had a clever idea. They ran an essay contest asking their customers to dream up their ideal restaurant. The prize? A fancy Michelin-starred dinner party. This not only got people excited but also spread the word about Ocado far and wide.

You can create contests, deals, or other forms with Woobox. It only needs a social media presence and landing pages.

20. Polls

Polls are a great example of how you can gather valuable insights and interact with your audience at the same time.

For instance, a fitness app can ask its users to choose their preferred workout style through a poll. If the users vote for ‘High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)’, they can introduce a specialized HIIT program.

Ever heard of Easypolls? It’s a user-friendly platform that lets you create customized polls. What’s more? You can easily integrate them into your website, enhancing user engagement and feedback collection.

21. Quizzes

Injecting a dose of fun and interactivity through Q7A sessions into marketing content strategy has become one of the popular tactics. Companies are using this strategy to capture attention.

For example, a fashion brand can launch a style quiz, asking users to identify their fashion persona. The result? An impressive surge in leads and a potential increase in the number of dedicated customers.

Qzzr is a user-friendly platform that offers visually appealing and custom quizzes. You can easily integrate them into your website or share them on social media. They also provide detailed insights into user engagement that you can use to refine your strategy.

22. Calculators

Ever wonder how some websites seem to understand your needs and preferences so accurately? Assessments are the secret. They are personalized guides that take you through a series of questions to tailor recommendations just for you.

You can try SnapApp, which helps you create assessments, personality tests, and a whole lot more.

23. Brackets

Brackets are a kind of virtual competition where users vote on different options. It’s a fun way to engage your audience.

For instance, a tech news site called Bostlnno used brackets to get over 100,000 votes on “which tech company would have the biggest impact in five years.”

You can create your own brackets with Woobox. You decide the topic and timing, and Woobox handles the technical stuff.

24. Interactive White Papers

White papers are mostly long-form content and contain a lot of information, which can be a bit heavy for some readers. To make it informative, you can use animations, clickable graphics, interactive charts, etc.

Engagebay allows you to easily create interactive content like landing pages or transform white papers. It comes with built-in analytics to help you track and understand user interaction.

Types of Video Content

25. Product Demonstrations

Product demonstrations are popular types of content creation that help you show how your product works through a video. These help your customers see their advantages and how they can benefit from them.

You can use real-life examples to show how your product fits into people’s lives. This makes it more relatable and trustworthy.

26. Vlog

Vlogging is about sharing your insights, experiences, stories, and knowledge through videos instead of putting it in written format. People love videos. They are easy to watch and understand. You can show your face and voice, building trust with your audience and turning them into loyal followers.

27. Company Culture

Company culture videos help you showcase behind the scenes of your brand. Include birthday parties, interviews with employees, a tad bit of employee’s personal life, success stories or events, etc. This gives the audience a sneak peek at your company’s culture.

28. How-To Tutorials

Tutorial videos are one of the most common searches on YouTube nowadays, which was almost 70% in 2015. They contain helpful instructions on how to use a product. It helps you showcase your knowledge and credibility.

29. Webinar

Webinars are powerful content marketing strategies that let you talk to your audience in real-time. You can answer questions live and get instant feedback, making your audience feel more connected. You can also create stories from webinars and turn them into interesting blog posts.

Final Words:

Now that you are equipped with all the information about types of content, you can create engaging content that helps you stand out in the dynamic market. Keep experimenting, listening to your audience, and refining your approach. You will definitely have a real impact in the digital world with this strategy.

We all know writing quality content requires time and space. But what if we told you the process can be made fast and efficient while keeping the quality of content in check? Seems like a long shot? Wait.

Just like all other marketing activities, content creation can take a measured and organized approach. To create content that ranks high in search engines, you need to plan and structure your content in a hierarchical format. This hierarchy constitutes an outline for your content, which is very important for SEO.

While researching a given topic can provide ample information to write your content, organizing this information in proper flow and easily digestible chunks of text can be a task in the absence of a content outline.

In this article, we will talk about the importance of working with a content outline and what constitutes a great outline. We will also explain how different SEO tools can optimize this process.

What Is a Content Outline?

A content outline serves as a blueprint to put your central ideas down in a well-organized manner using keywords, subheadings, and other supporting elements, and write faster and clearer, creating engaging content for your audience. It gives you a detailed overview of what your article should look like upon completion.

A content outline should essentially establish the goal of the article and include the main headings and subheadings stated clearly with <H2>, <H3>, <H4>, etc., tags. Make sure you derive inspiration from the existing content on Google to cover the most important questions and long-tail keywords searched for by users.

Why you should always outline your content

Professional writers are tasked with churning out high-quality, deeply researched content within strict deadlines. And sometimes, when all hands on deck fall short of the speed required to achieve a certain number of deliverables, the work must be outsourced. Imagine if content outlines didn’t exist; would teams be able to keep up with clients’ demands?

Outlining content can, thus, make things easier to manage as it offers these benefits:

Optimizes your research efforts

To ensure you are gathering the right and most relevant information for your content, a prioritized list of search queries can be useful. The list should cover the most researched topics and questions that people commonly ask. This way, you can offer all of your actionable insights in one article.

Guarantees you cover everything

Writing for businesses is geared towards creating exhaustive, insights-laden content. This means that if you write without locking down a structure for your content, your written pieces can have loose ends and scattered ideas. As a result, you may have to revisit the pieces and reorganize the information at a later time. A content outline can save you this trouble and help you ensure all the right keywords, critical points, and supporting data to satisfy the users’ search intent have been duly covered.

Makes writing a systematic process

Creating content as seen in the mind’s eye can be very gratifying. However, due to the large amounts of information we find on the internet, we can often find ourselves puzzling over what to include and what not to include, what’s relevant, and what would just be extraneous matter. Taking bits and bobs of information from different sources and stitching them together to create a well-structured piece of content is what an outline helps you do. It makes writing a systematic and well-thought-out process.

Facilitates outsourcing to freelancers

Content outlines can turn even hack writers into star writers by helping them produce good quality, highly targeted content that ranks well on search engines. So, even if you’re working with a bunch of freelancers who have no direct contact with your clients, a content outline can ensure their writing quality matches that of your in-house writers.

What is included in a great outline?

A great content outline is a detailed document that includes all the important components that every SEO content outline must have. These components are mostly based on Google search ranking requirements and best practices that have a huge impact on your rankings. Let’s drill down into some of these components.

Direction

Working with a sense of direction you’re headed in is crucial to the content shaping up just the way you intend it to. For this, having a content outline stipulating what the topic and goal of writing is will be invaluable. A content outline also helps you add notes on the specific direction if someone else is going to work on the content. Does the content need to be SEO-focused, or is it for sales or culture? The other person wouldn’t know if the content outline did not specify the purpose for writing. You can also include specific links to the outline you’d like them to refer to for writing.

Bullet points, not sentences

Creating content in the listicle format with critical information highlighted with bullet points draws in more readers than using longish sentences in uncomfortably huge blocks of text. This helps to retain the reader’s attention and keep them reading down to the last word. Using bullet points also aids in keeping ideas clear and separate.

Keyword research

As with any SEO-focused content, keyword research is a non-negotiable part of creating a great outline. Researching several relevant keywords and deciding on a primary keyword that can be included in the URL address of your website, the meta description, the title, the content body, and the subheads will help drive more organic traffic to your website than ever. And once you find your primary keyword, determining the secondary and tertiary keywords will be relatively easy.

Semantically related keywords to include

These are secondary and tertiary keywords that supplement your primary keyword’s function of making the content suitable for search engine rankings. These additional keywords add more depth to the content, making it even more relevant for searchers who will target the keywords used in the content. Uncovering these secondary and tertiary keywords involves analyzing search results and noting terms that appear prominently in the top ten rankings.

Surfer makes this process easy by presenting the recommended keywords worth adding and highlighting the ones you’ve already used in your content. It also shows the total number of mentions you have made or should make next to the terms for further insight.

Questions to answer

For creating a great outline, the types of questions you include play a pivotal role. This is so because Google identifies certain queries as commonly searched ones people will always make. If you observe Google trends closely, you can pick on an interesting trend: A good number of SEO titles and meta descriptions are strategically centered around answering these queries. This essentially underscores that search engines will always prioritize content based on how accurately it addresses users’ search queries. And when users can find content that offers solutions to their problems or answers their queries, they are more likely to land on your website.

This alignment of content with the users’ search intent will not only make your content relevant and help you get high rankings in search engines but also increase your visibility, CTRs, and organic traffic to your website.

Relevant Links

Creating a list of all the internal links to your relevant landing and product pages and adding it to your content outline can help speed up the process of internal link building while writing the content. It will not only save you time by having a comprehensive list ready when you begin adding links to your content but also help you plan your content better. Make sure to use keyword-rich anchor text in the content where you would like to use these links.

While you’re already at it, do include some external links to the websites to which you’d like the content to be linked. These external links should be of reputed and authoritative websites that you know are accessed by many users. To make it more specific, you can add the names or URLs of your preferred websites.

Examples of great content

Just as offering guidance on the direction of the content is helpful, including some relevant examples of good quality content serves as a benchmark to track quality. Doing SEO competitive analysis of the leading web pages and analyzing the use of elements like inbound links, title tags, description tags, and URLs will provide you valuable insights into how these brands are using content to maximize their success, and you can leverage these insights to create your own strategies to outperform them.

How to make a Great Outline

Now that we have covered quite a bit about what content outlines are, what they should include to make great outlines, and how they can help you create top-notch content that ranks high on search engines, it’s time to learn a few ways to create them.

While different people will have different approaches to achieving this, we recommend using a combination of manual research and an SEO tool like SurferSEO.

As a starting point, always nail down your primary keyword no matter what platform or tool you decide to use. It could be Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or Ahrefs, but the thumb rule remains the same. Once you identify the primary keyword, input it in SurferSEO’s content editor, and it will return results of the highly recommended search terms for you to choose your secondary and tertiary keywords from. You can export the outline along with the list of search terms to Google Docs for easy access. The outline conveniently appears in the sidebar of the Google doc you work on, eliminating the need to toggle between different tabs.

This might be the best feature of SurferSEO, as it allows writers to check the strength of their content by tracking the score on the right-hand side of the doc, ranging between 1-100%. There is an average score and a top score that writers can aim for. While it’s always recommended to beat the top score for better search rankings, surpassing the average score is also deemed acceptable if you’re unable to reach the top score for some reason. These scores help set the benchmark for content to be acceptable for search engines, and writers can evaluate the effectiveness of each written piece in real time.

Although SurferSEO can help you create effective content to quite an extent, tracking Google rankings and search intent cannot be ruled out of this process. Analyzing these two aspects helps you determine what kind of content and rich snippets are performing well. Look for elements like videos, images, and maps in the top-ranking page links. If you find these there, you should definitely consider using these elements in your content to make it just as relevant.

How to Outline Your Content in Six Steps

Okay, enough context setting. We will now break down the content outline creation process into six easy-to-follow steps. These six steps will give you a holistic picture of how content outlines offer a coherent structure for you to translate your ideas into compelling and meaningful content pieces.

Decide on the goal of your article

You can’t begin writing any content if you haven’t thought about why you need to write in the first place. Being crystal clear about the goal of your content is essential.

Your goal could be to foster brand awareness, explain use cases for your products, show the right way of building backlinks into content for SEO, or educate marketers on how using keyword rankings can help them optimize their content. So, unless you have a clear goal in mind, your writing will not come together in a logical way.

A practical approach to do this is to look at the search engine results pages (SERPs) and develop an understanding of the content that’s being written and published by other industry players. Use tools like Moz, SERP Simulator, and SEO Minion to streamline this task and analyze the SERPs. Observe what kind of content is ranking high, what are the common subtopics, and what are the search features and snippets.

Analyze Competitor Content

Your content competitors can be different from your business competitors. Other brands that may provide the same products and services as your brand may not necessarily engage in the same content creation as you. For instance, if you sell bath essentials like shampoos and body washes, other brands in the same business may not necessarily be relying on content to market their products. But if a brand sells herbal shampoos and body washes, they can be your content competitors because they might be writing extensively about the benefits of using their herbal products.

When you keep tabs on the content produced by your competitors, you get to understand the industry trends, customers’ expectations, and how they engage with different kinds of content. It also helps you identify gaps in the existing content and explore opportunities to provide what needs to be added to the existing literature. Knowing what your competitors are writing about helps you differentiate your content and ensure you’re offering unique content. Analyzing competitors’ content can, thus, help you formulate your own content strategies along with content outlines.

A practical approach here would be to list out your content competitors, review the content published on their website and social media, draw up a list of key SEO metrics like target keywords, organic traffic, domain authority, on-site engagement aspects, and backlinks, and run an audit for their content. You might be familiar with the E-A-T model for checking domain authority. E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Consider using it while determining the domain authority for your competitors’ websites. This in-depth analysis will help you compare your content with your competitors’ content and understand how to offer your audience content that stands out.

Pick your target keyword

Never begin writing any content without conducting basic keyword research – even if the goal of your article isn’t to rank for the chosen keyword on search engines. Keyword research presents you with relevant keyword options to select your target keyword and build a content piece that can generate additional website traffic – even if your target keyword has minimal search volume.

To begin your keyword research, you can put basic keywords related to your topic into an SEO tool like ahrefs’s Keyword Explorer and analyze the results. Other SEO tools include Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush, which will be equally helpful for finding keywords with high search volume and low competition. Make sure your target keyword is specific, descriptive, and reflects the intent of your topic.

Look at the search volume for your keyword in the overview section. How does it fare in SERPs? Are there high-domain websites in the top results? This will show you if the selected keyword will be useful for composing effective content. An important consideration here will be your website. If you don’t have a strong website, ranking for the selected target keyword can be difficult regardless of its search volume.

Take cues from the ‘Keyword Ideas’ panel for coming up with more potent short- and long-tail keywords. To check the effectiveness of the chosen keywords, you can use the featured snippet website and check your website’s Domain Rating (DR) score. This score will evaluate the strength of your website after you have published the content, so even if the content has fewer backlinks but uses the target keyword that ranks well, your content can still secure a good rank due to the keyword.

Another way to pick your target keyword is by conducting Google searches and looking at the top results. What are some commonly used keywords? Do they sufficiently capture the query you aim to answer through your content piece? Delve into the related searches, ‘people also ask,’ and autosuggestions to get more ideas and variations of your target keyword. Remember, your goal is to understand the user’s intent, expectations, and needs, and to fill any gaps with your unique content.

Research your keyword’s search intent and article angle

Search intent is the reason behind a search query, indicating why a user searched for a particular keyword. Understanding search intent is crucial to decoding the kind of content you should be crafting for a given keyword. There are four categories of search intent: Informational (knowledge or answers-based), navigational (Users looking for certain web pages), transactional (purchase-based), and commercial investigation (intended for comparative analysis of products and services).

When you understand these search intent types, you are better equipped to structure and write content the right way. Informational and commercial investigation intents are for blog articles, and navigational and transactional intents will be more relevant for the product and other sections of your website. You probably work more on blog articles. But simply using one of these search intents won’t help you write distinctive content; there needs to be an ‘angle’ to your writing, too.

Angle refers to the the unique perspective you use to write on a particular topic. For instance, if you want to write about the benefits of herbal shampoos, what are you trying to convey through your article? Are you highlighting just the benefits of using them or doing a comparative analysis of using herbal shampoos and regular shampoos?

While the first approach is one-dimensional and does not really bring a unique perspective to the topic, the second approach is evidently two-dimensional and does more than just highlight the benefits of using herbal shampoos; it tells us why these benefits outweigh the benefits offered by regular shampoos. A deep-dive SERPs research can unveil the kinds of content that exist on Google about the benefits of herbal shampoos and help you figure out how you can do your piece differently.

Decide on a USP and title

For the unversed, USP stands for unique selling point. The USP of your content is often evident in its title and helps distinguish it from your competitors’ content, making it more appealing to your audiences.

Even when you examine the titles of articles from your competitors online, you’ll see they clearly highlight what is offered in the content. For instance, you want to write an informative article on getting out of debt. Now, when you look at the existing Google articles, you might see titles like “How to get out of a debt?” “Effective ways of dealing with a debt,” “28 ways to get out of debt,” “How to pay off debts faster?” etc. You’ll notice that “28 ways to get out of debt” appears in the featured snippet, as it clearly highlights the USP.

To crack the most relevant title for your content, explore the SERPs and the “People Also Ask” section to understand what kind of titles attract the most users. Forums like Reddit can also offer valuable insights into what type of content interests users the most.

Pro tip: Always make a list of all the relevant titles you can come up with for your content and choose the most compelling one. The right title has the potential to drive website traffic and bump your rankings, so avoid making snap decisions when it comes to this.

Outline your article with headings and subheadings

Finally, we’ve got to the part where we choose the headings, the sequence to put them in and decide what should come under each heading. This greatly impacts the article’s quality and helps optimize on-page SEO.

To determine what should be covered and in what order, refer back to the SERPs and look at how your competitors structured their content.

In addition to analyzing the competitors’ content, consider exploring the “People Also Ask” box to understand what kind of search queries people make with the keyword you’re targeting. This uncovers the common pain points of searchers and opportunities for you to tailor your content with the right solutions.

To derive more inspiration for your headings, you can click on questions to expand them, and when you do this, Google will reveal additional questions. Don’t forget to also explore the related searches at the bottom of the SERPs. Using this method, we can build our content with relevant headings and create a very detailed piece.

Coming to the order of these headings, you can set off the main headings with <H2> tags and the additional points under these headings with <H3> tags. These additional points can either be sub-headings or supporting arguments for all the main headings. Under each main heading, having at least a couple of subheadings or supporting arguments laid out in bullet points can prove helpful in explaining what each section should include, offering the writer more context. The more details you provide about your expectations, the more accurate the content will be.

Using tools like MindMeister, Workflowy, or Google Docs can simplify the process of creating your outlines. Do include secondary keywords as well as short- and long-tail keywords in your headings and subheadings to optimize your content for SEO.

Ready to get cracking on building a great outline?

With this exhaustive content outlining guide, it should not be so much of a daunting task. Most professional writers swear by content outlines because they save them time and effort, catapulting their written pieces to the top of the SERPs. So, if they benefit from this practice, wouldn’t it be good to adopt it yourself and write better, faster, and more efficiently?

And, oh, remember to end your outline the right way – with a conclusion and a call to action (CTA). The conclusion should capture the main ideas of your content, and the CTA must prompt your readers to take some action (Like they should start creating a content outline after reading this article). With tools like HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator, SumoMe Headline Generator, and Unbounce Landing Page Builder, you can write and test both your conclusion and call to action.

References URLs:
https://surferseo.com/blog/how-outlines-lead-to-high-ranking-content/#how-to-make-a-great-outline
https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-do-you-structure-content-outline-seo
https://ahrefs.com/blog/content-outline/
https://www.flow-seo.com/blog/content-outline/
https://www.similarweb.com/blog/marketing/content-marketing/competitive-content-analysis/

Click, swipe, scroll—and again, on repeat! For content makers, this has provided opportunities as well as challenges. It has led to a short attention span and lesser viewer engagement. But, it allows content creators to be more innovative and make use of visual content more effectively. This will draw more responses and enhance the blog’s quality, resourcefulness, and brand image.

In this blog, we explore visual content marketing statistics of 2023 that can enable content creators to drive traction and capitalize on future marketing prospects.

So, let us get started.

3 Types of Visual Content To Look Out For in 2023

Infographics

Data is represented through the use of charts, graphs, or visual tools. It is useful as it depicts complicated data in a simpler form, which makes it easy for the reader to comprehend.

Around 40% (Venngage’s Annual Survey) of marketers use stock photos, 34% use original graphics, 14% use videos & presentations, and 8% use charts & data visualizations.

Images and Photos

Images and photos add to the brand’s visual appeal and enable the marketer to convey the brand’s essence to the target audience accurately.

Out of 200 marketers in Venngage’s Annual Survey, 40% felt those original graphics are the most impactful, 24% went for videos & presentations, 13% chose stock photos, and 9% for charts & data visualizations.

This implies that using a range of visual mediums helps attract a larger audience than confining to a few options. 

Videos

Videos are effective tools that help capture the attention of the audience. Other types of visual content, such as memes and gifs, are increasingly gaining popularity as they are catchy and easily shared.

Videos as a visual tool have performed well, with 82% of consumer internet traffic being driven by it. Why is it so appealing? This is because videos are stimulating and engage people’s imagination. 30% of internet users search videos of the product/services before going to the store to buy it.

Videos help marketers by growing their revenue 49% faster than those who do not employ this tool. This shows the impact videos can have as a visual tool.

General Statistics Related to Visual Content Marketing

1. Use of images, graphics, videos, and multimedia content is considered important by 49% of marketers. 13% of marketers consider it as the essential element of the marketing strategy.

As more internet users interact with visual content, marketers realize the need to create images, graphics, videos, and other multimedia content.

2. Another interesting fact is that 26.2% of marketers are planning to spend 21% to 30% of their budget on visual creation.

Visual content has grown rapidly over the past decade. From Tik-Tok videos to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, everything contributes to the visual content marketplace and has the potential to attract audiences.

3. Recent studies have shown that people remember visual content to the extent of 65% even after three days.

Meanwhile, written content is only retained up to 10% for the same duration. Hence, it becomes even more crucial to make use of visual content. 

4. Illustrations and graphics help increase viewers’ learning capacity by as much as 323%.

This is fruitful as it helps viewers learn a task or information they otherwise would have found hard to engage in or concentrate on. A right balance of words and infographics can effectively convey the central idea. 

5. According to a Hubspot survey, 46% of marketers believe photography is critical to their marketing strategies.

It can develop a connection to the viewers’ lives and convey the message effectively. 

6. It generates ten times more traction and viewership than a traditional video. 

Marketers can make use of other interactive platforms, such as Facebook Live or Instagram Live, to engage the audience. Twitch App was able to grow at the rate of 14.3% in 2020 compared to 2019. These platforms are replacing the other visual modes at a fast pace due to digital penetration and technological upgradation. 

7. 77% of marketers believe that interactive visual content can be used multiple times.

Interactive content such as videos, photos, or streams has the potential to engage the viewer for a long time. It is due to the fact that constant exposure to the same stimuli can promote familiarity and convince the viewers to use the app or website again. It also enables businesses to broaden their customer base.

8. According to a study, memes can help increase organic involvement by 5% to 60% on a post.

Everyone is familiar with memes, gifs, and emojis. We love to use it!  Now, who can deny that? It increases engagement by over ten times. Another interesting fact is that it can also lead to increased click-through rates by 6% from meme marketing efforts. 

9. 4% of marketers make use of memes and gifs as the most used form of visual content, according to the Venngage Survey.

An example of the same is Dominos, which started using pizza emoji. Young people are especially targeted using these means. 

10. From 2020 to 2026, data visualization is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.69%.

There has been an increase in value by $5.17 billion. Businesses increasingly adopt data visualization due to the increase in big data and aiding in marketing strategy and decision-making processes. 

Top Visual Marketing Channels in 2023

After having read about the general visual content marketing statistics, let us take a look at the top marketing channels and relevant statistics related to the same:

1. 62% of marketers are creating visual content primarily for blogs and website landing pages.

This is followed by social media sites such as Facebook, which has 49%, and Instagram, which has 47% in the Venngage Survey. Some other less prominent uses are for print & branding materials (43%) and LinkedIn (42%). This is due to the fact that technology has changed the industry, and digitization has spread at a fast pace. 

2. 55% of travelers can recall the messages on a digital billboard with relative ease. 82% of travelers can recall the messages on a digital billboard ad even after a month.

Seen a digital billboard recently? Probably yes. That’s astonishing! They have been a successful model in promoting very high engagement. 

3. 72% of marketers feel that branded video content is becoming more effective and popular than magazine advertisements.

As more people are moving online, this is a good technique to target the audience. Global newspaper ad revenue has increasingly declined from $49.245 billion (2020) to $35.93 billion (2024). It is a clear indication of an upsurge in online branding and promotion. 

4. 27% of successful marketers have guidelines pertaining to the brand in place for emails.

Also, video improves email campaigns by 500%. It can be attributed to the increased click-through rate, which leads to an increased conversion rate. Videos are effective tools that will provide a maximum input-to-output ratio. 

5. YouTube (83%) and Facebook (67%) are the two popular platforms through which most of the video content is consumed by viewers.

Viewers watch around 1 billion hours of streamed video every day on YouTube. Embedding your video on YouTube and Facebook and linking it with other strategies work in an integrated manner and provide the best results.

6. As per Orbit Media Survey, 39% of the bloggers use 10+ visuals in their content. Only 16% of the bloggers did well with one image.

It clearly indicates the correlation between the number of images used and the blog’s success. This is instructive for all bloggers who want to increase traction through infographics and visual content. 

7. A Pew Research Center study has revealed that Instagram (72%), YouTube (85%), and Snapchat (69%) are the top-performing platforms among teenagers.

Demographics play an important role, especially when targeting a particular subset. Online engagement becomes crucial for younger audiences, whereas a combination of online and offline visual tools can be employed for middle to older populations. 

8. Around 500 million Instagram stories are uploaded every day, and 4 million businesses post ads are posted on stories regularly.

Instagram has become quite popular in recent years. The data shows that 58% of the people are more interested in the product after watching an Instagram story about it. As the younger generation uses Instagram and Snapchat, it is an effective strategy to utilize these platforms. 

9. Influencer Market has reached a record level of $13.8 billion in 2021. Instagram (68%) is the top channel for influencer marketing. TikTok is second with 45%, while Facebook (43%) is a close third.

Influencers brand their own images to connect with specific demographics. Every day, a large number of potential customers get exposed to different products through influencer marketing.

10. Heard of Pinterest? 88% of Pinterest users have ended up buying at least one product they have pinned, and 49% have bought four or more from their pinned gallery.

Marketers can effectively leverage this platform as it is used by a large population to research, compare, and search different products. 

Emerging Trends in Visual Marketing

We have sufficiently discussed visual content marketing strategies in 2023, but to effectively use them, we need to look out for certain emerging trends in visual marketing to navigate through the journey smoothly. 

1. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality has continuously grown from $30.7 billion in 2021 to $296.9 billion in 2024 (forecasted).

It has been a major marketing tool for several reasons. In 2021, businesses spent around $9.2 billion on Virtual Reality. This enables marketers to showcase their products and services in an immersive environment. 

2. Virtual reality has better ad performance at 12.5% install rates. Mobile has install rates of 0.5% and desktop at 0.2%.

Virtual reality provides better conversion rates as viewers can engage fully. VR provides customers with novel experiences, as 53% of the users choose brands that use VR more than those that don’t. 

3. According to Accenture, 47% of customers are ready to pay more if they can customize and personalize the product using immersive technologies.

This is definitely an advantage that no one wants to miss. Augmented reality will drive conversion rates, and customers will be much more likely to spend more.

4. 69% of the shoppers prefer to buy products through visual-oriented searches. This will enhance the retail experience of the customers and drive sales.

Using product images in the visual content optimizes the blog and improves traction. 

5. 73% of the videos on the internet are at most two minutes! This simply means that as more content is getting generated, the attention span gets shorter.

Marketing on YouTube Shorts provides a good example of using visual content in an effective way. It engages the audience through few-second clips and evokes strong emotional responses in them, paving the way for favorable responses. 

6. 19% of marketers believe that Instagram Live will be the most popular tool for visual content (2021).

The possibility cannot be refuted. Most famous personalities use Instagram Live to stay in touch with their fans and to promote products and services. Incorporating it into marketing strategy will only enhance the chances of success.

More to know

Artificial Intelligence can be adopted in visual marketing. It can help create personalized customer experiences or even generate visual content. Marketers can effectively leverage the potential of AI-driven analytics and tools. Through AI, tangible results can be seen in the marketing business. 

Wrapping Up

Visual Content Marketing has increasingly become highly competitive.

Marketers are continuously trying to upgrade and adopt better strategies to outdo others. Visual Content Marketing Statistics become relevant in this context as it provides a deep understanding of the inner workings of the field.

Visual Content is the knight in shining armor for any brand looking to enlarge its customer base and boost engagement. Trying it will be a little, but it will help reap high rewards.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Awareness
• Evaluation
• Purchase
• Closing thoughts

Introduction

Any marketing campaign goes through a series of steps for converting a visitor into a customer. These series of steps begin by making the audience aware about your product, providing them with sufficient information to evaluate it and giving them the distinguishing factor as to why they should buy your product. The last step is the purchase. Once your audience has moved through the funnel and reached this stage, they turn into customers.

Source

In this article, we will lay out the different content formats which can be used at different stages of the funnel to push the audience further and convince them to finally buy your product.

Awareness

At this step of the funnel, your goal should be to showcase the value of your product without going salesy. Awareness stage of the marketing funnel aims at educating the user about the product.

Since this is your customer’s first encounter with the product, it is all about making good first impressions. This is where visual content comes to the rescue.

You can use videos, images and even billboards at this level of the funnel. Since this is the awareness stage, you should go for short-form content here. Here is when you can employ pre-roll ads and short explainer videos.

Videos, at this stage, should be crafted in a manner that they grab the user’s attention in the first few seconds. Also, provide a clear call-to-action button for the audience to push them further through the funnel and help them navigate to the next stage.

Infographics are also a great way to engage your audience if you are smart with your approach. Instead of giving out detailed infographics at this point, utilise them to simplify complicated products. Let your infographics speak to your visitors by eliminating the jargon.

Evaluation

This is the stage where the prospect evaluates if your product suits his requirements or not.

Give out educational videos at this stage. One good way is to use explainer videos. Explainer videos capture the essence of your brand’s functioning. Through explainer videos, you can give a demo of your product or highlight the pain points that you are addressing and in what ways.

This is the stage where you can use detailed infographics to explain the product since you are past the awareness stage and now you have to help the user in understanding how your product is different from the others out there.

Purchase

This is the last stage of the marketing funnel where the visitor may actually turn into a customer.

One effective way to use visual elements at this stage is by making use of customer testimonial videos. Let your existing customers speak to your potential customers to help them make a better decision. That’s exactly what a customer testimonial video will do for you.

Closing thoughts

When you are engaging consumers at different points in their journey, some formats will work better than the others. And this especially holds true for visual content. Whether it is GIFs, videos, infographics or images, they break the text monotony effectively to enhance consumer’s journey.

FAQs

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Voice Search Stats
• How Voice Search Is Changing Search?
  • Voice Search Queries Are Different
  • Voice Search Results Are Different
  • Voice Search Is Built For Mobile
• Keyword Research In A Voice Search World
  • Finding And Optimizing For Question Keywords
  • Finding And Optimizing For Long-Tail,
    Conversational Keywords
• Content Optimization For Voice Search
  • Optimize Content For Answering Questions
  • Optimize To Improve Your Chances Of
    Appearing In Featured Snippets
    • Find SERPs With Featured Snippets
    • Optimize Content For Specific Featured Snippets
    • Optimize Content With Long-Tail Keywords
    • Use Natural Language
• Voice Search Optimization: Advanced Tips
  • Avoid Jargon And Complex Terms
  • Put Serious Efforts In Improving The
    Domain Authority Of Your Website
  • Pay Attention To Your Site Speed
  • Include Pronouns and Prepositions In Your
    Question Keywords
  • Produce Long Form Content
  • Create And Publish More Videos
  • Make Your Website More Mobile Friendly
  • Optimize For Local Search
  • Make Use Of Structured Data On Your Website
• Conclusion

Introduction

In the past few years, SEO has undergone a number of changes. Performing effective optimization has become more difficult, the competition is more fierce than ever before, and the algorithms have become smarter.

However, many SEO experts are so immersed in staying in tune with the rapidly changing face of SEO that they forget to overlook some parts.

One such aspect of SEO that is currently being overlooked is voice search.

With that said, when a lot of people, including many experts, overlook something, it is usually not important, right?

Let’s find out:

Voice Search Stats

To establish whether or not voice search is worth your attention, the best way is to see if the users find it useful. Here are a few stats that shed light on the picture:

• In a survey conducted by Northstar Research and findings published by Google, 55% of teenage respondents reported using voice search at least once every day.
• In the same survey, 41% of adults revealed that they use voice search at least once every day.
  When asked why they use voice search, 89% of the teenagers said “because it is the future”. 85% of the adults in the survey had the same answer. 78% of the teens in the survey, along with 76% of the adults also believe that conducting a voice search is safer than traditional search methods. (Source)
• High level sources from Microsoft also reported that 25% of all searches conducted using the Windows 10 taskbar (on desktops) were voice searches. (Source)
• Research conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates that as of June 2021, there are over 126 million smart speakers being used in US households. (Source)

Searching by speaking a query is more convenient, speaking is (obviously) much quicker than typing a search query, and a lot of people believe that it is a safer way to conduct searches. These stats clearly prove that voice search is gaining popularity among users at an alarming pace. The voice search market is already too big to be ignored by any SEO that cares about results.

The fact that many are still overlooking voice search simply means that there is an opportunity for early adopters to take advantage of the lack of competition.

How Voice Search Is Changing Search?

Optimizing a website for voice-based search queries will obviously be different. However, before we can move on to discussing how it is different and how websites can be optimized for voice searches, we must first learn how voice search has changed the practice of conducting searches on the web.

Since voice search does not use typed-in queries, it is different from regular search in two main ways. Here they are:

Voice Search Queries Are Different

Let’s start understanding this difference with the help of an example. Let’s say you want to learn how to prepare overnight oats. Without voice search, you would have to whip out your phone, open up the Google Search application and type in something like:

“Flat tyre changing guide” or “change flat tyre”

However, if you speak out and ask Google, the search query may differ. It may look something like:

“Hey Google, how can I make overnight oats at home?”

So what’s the difference here? There are actually two differences. One, the voice search query is longer. And two, the voice search query is more conversational.

How does that relate to SEO? How does it change the way you should be optimizing your website? We’ll get to all that in a later section. For now, let’s look at the other way search has been transformed by the advent of voice search.

Voice Search Results Are Different

The above statement may not be entirely true. For instance, if you open up the Google Search app on your smartphone, tap on the mic icon, and conduct a search using your voice, the results you get will be pretty much the same.

However, if you have set up your Google Search app such that it reads back the answer to your query whenever possible, you will notice that the search engine reads back the content that is displayed inside a featured snippet or knowledge graph.

This is actually the big difference that has come as a result of the popularity of voice search. The guys at Google have access to a much better perspective of where the search industry is heading and that is why they are switching from being a search engine to being an “answer” engine.

It is worth noting that the introduction of modern search features like the Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets have reduced organic clicks by a whopping 37%.

Why has that happened? Simply because these features, in many cases, eliminate the need for clicking through on a result to find information. The information that the user is looking for is already present in the search results.

Let’s take another example. Let’s say you have a smart speaker at home and you want to know how many seconds there are in a day. Without the smart speaker and voice search, you’ll have to open up Google and type in something like “seconds in a day”. Then, you would have to sift through the results, find and click on a link that you think has the right answer.

With voice search on your smart speaker, however, all you have to do is say “Alexa, how many seconds are there in a day?” and the speaker will reply with the answer. (If you are wondering, it’s 86,400 seconds)

Once again, this has been made possible because of the modern SERP features introduced by Google.

Besides the two big changes that can be seen in the way people search, another interesting trend can be noted when one looks at the voice search stats. Let’s find out what it is:

Voice Search Is Built For Mobile

With smart speakers that only respond to voice and respond with voice, is it right to say that voice is built for mobile? The following findings from a study have prompted this point:

As you can see, voice search is being used more and more in public places. Since most people don’t walk around with their smart speakers on public transportation or in restaurants, it is safe to assume that they are using their smartphones and tablets to conduct these on-the-go voice searches.

And they should. As mentioned earlier, conducting a voice search, especially when you are standing in the bus or walking around at the gym, is more convenient that typing your query in the Google Search app.

But why is this observation important?

It’s because the number of mobile device users exceeds the number of desktop users on the web. When more and more mobile device users are using voice search, it is time for SEO experts to start paying attention.

Now, it is time to learn how we can optimize a website for voice search. The first step? Building a voice search focused keyword strategy.

Keyword Research In A Voice Search World

Choosing keywords for voice search optimization is quite straightforward. There are actually two types of keywords that you need to find and optimize for. Let’s see each one in detail:

Finding And Optimizing For Question Keywords

Question keywords have become a hot topic in SEO communities in the past few months, and for good reason. One of the biggest, most visible reasons behind the popularity of question keywords has to be the introduction of the “People Also Ask” section in Google’s SERPs.

However, question keywords may still be an afterthought in many traditional SEO strategies, they hold a lot of significance in the case of voice search optimization.

This is because when you want to learn more about intermittent fasting, you won’t ask your smart speaker “Alexa, intermittent fasting”. Your question would be something like “Alexa, what is intermittent fasting?”

This is not just speculation, thanks to the introduction of voice search, we are witnessing unprecedented growth in the usage of question keywords. Look at these charts:

Source

The incredible thing is, this data is from 2014, back when voice search was still in its infancy stage. It is a safe bet to assume that these numbers have grown exponentially in the past seven years.

So how do you find question keywords to target?

Answer The Public is a superb free tool that will suggest hundreds of question keywords for a topic of your choice.

Another relatively less known tool for finding question keywords is the BuzzSumo Question Analyzer.

With question keywords out of the way, let’s find out more about the other types of keywords that are relevant to voice search.

Finding And Optimizing For Long-Tail, Conversational Keywords

When optimizing for voice search, the keyword research steps will remain pretty much the same. The only aspect of keyword research that will change is the way we select keywords that we want to target.

Up until now, you may have selected the keywords by evaluating associated performance metrics like monthly search volumes, keyword difficulty, seasonal trends, and CPC numbers. While these are still important, they don’t fulfill the two new attributes that you need to look for in keywords. You must select keywords that are long and conversational.

This means, besides evaluating keywords on performance metrics, you must also ask yourself if the keyword you have selected is “too robotic”.

So you have to select keywords that are more conversational and less robotic. What does this mean?

Take a look at this list of keyword suggestions for the term “intermittent fasting”:

There are a lot of “robotic” sounding keywords like “intermittent diet” or “intermittent diet fasting plan”. While these may be important, when thinking about voice search, it is also important to target keywords like the following:

These are more conversational. Sometimes, targeting conversational keywords may also mean targeting unusually long keywords, like the following:

That’s right, if you have been following the rule of not targeting keywords that contain more than five terms, it is time to throw it out (only when you are optimizing for voice search) because we don’t restrict ourselves to five term sentences when we speak.

Now that we have learnt how to find keywords that are voice search friendly, it is time to start optimizing content around these keywords. We’ll get to the details of how you can optimize content in the next section.

Before wrapping up this section, however, I would like to leave you with the advice to not optimize your content only around voice search friendly keywords. You should still target the keywords you have been targeting before you came across this guide. Simply add these keywords to your content here and there (or wherever they make sense).

Content Optimization For Voice Search

Finally, we are going to take some actual optimization actions on our websites to make it more voice search friendly.

The good news is, optimizing for voice search does not mean your content strategy needs to undergo a revamp. Nor does it mean that the existing content on your website needs to undergo a revamp.

Optimizing your content, existing and new, for voice search only requires a few minor tweaks. Let’s look at what these are:

Optimize Content For Answering Questions

As mentioned earlier, optimizing for question keywords is important from the voice search point of view.

How do you do that?

By answering questions. It’s really as simple as that. However, there are a few more details that you must pay attention to.

In a Backlinko study of 10,000 Google Home results, it was found that Google prefers to answer question based voice search queries with short answers. Particularly, Google prefers keeping these answers under 30 words in length.

So how do you answer questions of your audience in under 30 words?

The best way to do this is to create a FAQ page where you answer all your targeted question keywords with short and precise answers. Creating a FAQ page is especially advantageous in the case of voice search.

This is because 2.68% of all voice search results are sourced from FAQ pages. That number may seem small. However, in the case of desktop results, only 1.54% of results are sourced from FAQ pages.

This means, if you create a dedicated FAQ page, you can:

• Potentially make that page rank for hundreds of different question keywords
• Improve the likelihood of the answers you have written to appear as voice search results

It’s an absolute win-win. However, this isn’t all that you can do to optimize for voice search.

Optimize To Improve Your Chances Of Appearing In Featured Snippets

Appearing in the featured snippets of a Google SERP is perhaps the gold standard of what you can achieve with SEO. Even if you overlook how important it is from the perspective of voice search optimization, appearing in a Featured Snippet can potentially open the floodgates of traffic to your website.

However, this guide is about voice search and featured snippets hold great importance here. This is true for two main reasons:

• Over 40% of voice search results are sourced from featured snippets.
• If a voice search is being conducted on a smart speaker like Alexa or Google Home, the featured snippet result is virtually the only result that is provided to the user.

In other words, the importance of appearing in Featured Snippets cannot be overstated. With that said, there is unfortunately no known surefire way of appearing in the Featured Snippets. However, taking the following actions can greatly improve your chances:

Find SERPs With Featured Snippets

Doing this should not be difficult if you have an SEO tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs. Both these tools allow you to filter your target keywords based on whether or not their SERPs have featured snippets.

If, however, you don’t have these tools, you will have to manually conduct searches using your most important keywords to find SERPs that have Featured Snippets. This exercise will not just provide you with a list of keywords that are important from a Featured Snippet (and voice search) optimization point of view, it will also tell you what kind of Featured Snippets appear for different keywords.

This brings us to our next point:

Optimize Content For Specific Featured Snippets

There are different types of Featured Snippets that appear in the results of different types of search queries. The Definition Box, The Table, The Ordered List, and The Unordered List are the most common ones.

In the previous step, you should have already determined which kind of Featured Snippet appears for different keywords that you want to target. Now, it is time to optimize your content to make it fit for the relevant type of Featured Snippet.

For instance, if you see that for one of your target keywords, Google is displaying a Definition Box, you have to optimize your content to resemble the definition box. Here’s what it looks like:

And here’s what the answer looks like on the website of American Academy of Dermatology:

As you can see, the website has a long-form content piece dedicated to the subject but at the top, it has answered the question just like answers appear in the Definition Box.

When you investigate different Featured Snippets, you will find a similar trend on the websites from where they are sourced.

To optimize your content to be fit for appearing in a ordered list, it is important to mark your “steps” with H2 tags and number them (example: Step #1). Similarly, for making your content fit to appear as The Table, make sure you are creating the kind of tables that Google is pushing on their SERPs.

Keep in mind that none of these steps will guarantee that your web page will appear in the Featured Snippets or in a voice search result. However, it would improve your chances of doing so.

Optimize Content With Long-Tail Keywords

As we have already established, creating a FAQ page is an excellent way to improve your chances of being featured as a voice search result. However, you cannot expect your website to rank well by simply answering hundreds of questions with short and precise answers.

Producing long form content is a necessity if you want your website to rank well.

By including a number of different long-tail keywords throughout your long form content pieces, you can improve your chances of ranking higher, and becoming a voice search result.

This is true because of an interesting trend that was noticed during the Backlinko study mentioned earlier. The study found that only 1.7% of the voice search results had the exact same keyword in their title tag.

This means, Google doesn’t just pick answers from the top of a web page. Instead, it will pick up answers from anywhere on a web page, as long as it is short, precise, and accurate.

This also means that when you include multiple long-tail keywords in a piece of long form content, you can potentially rank that web page for multiple voice search queries.

Use Natural Language

As discussed earlier, voice search keywords are conversational and long. Keeping that in mind, it only makes sense that your answers are similar in nature. While we have already established that long answers will not work, what will work is using conversational, casual language in your content.

Voice Search Optimization: Advanced Tips

So far, we have discussed how you can find the keywords you want to target for voice search and basic content optimization tips. However nobody ever got extraordinary results by doing basic things. That’s why, I have decided to include some more advanced tips to help you improve your chances of getting your website featured in a voice search results.

Let’s jump right in:

Avoid Jargon And Complex Terms

Good content doesn’t have to use industry jargon or complex terms that your readers have to Google to understand (ironic, I know!).

Good content is actionable and easy to understand. Keeping this in mind is especially important when you are optimizing or creating content for a voice search result.

As a rule of thumb, it is recommended that you write your content for a 9th grader’s reading level. This way, you will not just be improving your chances of that content appearing in a voice search result, but also ensuring your readers don’t have a difficult time understanding your content.

Put Serious Efforts In Improving The Domain Authority Of Your Website

Since in many cases, Google is providing only a single result as a voice result, it only makes sense for that result to come from a high authority source.

That is perhaps why the average domain rating of a web page featured in voice search results is 77 (which is considerably high).

While there is no surefire connection that has been established between high domain authority and voice results, there seems to be a definite correlation.

The benefit of having a high domain authority is that even if one of your pages does not have a lot of links pointing to it, it can still be featured as a voice search result. This is because while that page may not have a high rating itself, it does belong to a highly authoritative website.

Pay Attention To Your Site Speed

Once again, there is no direct relationship that has been established between high speed websites and voice search results. However, a trend has been noticed. This trend states that the websites featured in voice search results load their first byte in 0.54 second.

For comparison, the time taken by an average web page to load its first byte of data is 2.10 seconds.

Improving your website’s performance will also contribute to a better domain authority, which will in turn improve your website’s chances of appearing in a voice search result.

Include Pronouns and Prepositions In Your Question Keywords

Also known as filler words, pronouns and prepositions contribute a great deal in making your question keywords more ‘conversational’. From a voice search optimization point of view, this is incredibly important.

It is also important because Bing’s Purna Virji has also recommended the same in an article she contributed to Moz. Here’s her exact quote:

“The more matches you have, the more likely your ad will show on a voice search that includes words like “a” and “me” and “for.””

Considering Bing is the second biggest search engine by market share, it is safe to assume that the experts at Google also place similar importance in these “filler words”.

Produce Long Form Content

It has long been established that long form content is important for SEO success. If you did not already know, the average first page result in Google’s SERPs has over 1400 words of content.

In the same way, long form content is important from a voice search perspective. For starters, the average content length of a web page that is featured in voice search is over 2300 words. Once again, no definitive relationship has been established between voice search results and the length of content on a page, but there is a clear correlation between the two.

When you think about it, you can also see the logic behind this correlation. First of all, as we discussed earlier, longer content gives you more opportunities to include long-tail keywords that can be featured in a voice search result. This way, a single long form content page can potentially rank for multiple voice search friendly keywords.

Secondly, when you try to look at things from Google’s perspective, a user is more likely to find a “satisfactory” answer to their question on a query on a page that has a lot of content.

So, in order to improve your website’s chances of appearing in voice search results, it is strongly recommended that you produce a lot of long form content.

Create And Publish More Videos

The importance of visual content in SEO cannot be overstated. Users love videos and Google supports stuff that is loved by the users. This is true in the case of voice search results as well. Actually, it is true for all “conversational” searches.

Let me explain this with an example. When I search Google for “change a tyre”, I get video results but they are present under a Featured Snippet. Take a look:

On the other hand, when I search for “how can I change the tyre of my car”, the results look something like this:

As you can see, the video result is actually the top result here. While Google cannot and does not start playing the video when the search term is more conversational, its algorithm does seem to think that a Video Featured Snippet will actually be more helpful than a regular Featured Snippet.

Make Your Website More Mobile Friendly

As we discussed earlier, a significant share of voice searches are being conducted on mobile devices. So, if you are interested in attracting traffic coming from voice search, you must cater to mobile device users.

This point is especially relevant to you if you own or work for a local business. This is because voice searches are upto three times more likely to be local searches, when compared with text-based searches.

It even makes sense from a user experience point of view. If you are using a mobile device, on your way to work, and want to find a local coffee shop on the way, you are very likely to simply ask your phone instead of typing into it.

Since 46% of searches online are local searches, local businesses should seriously focus on making their websites as mobile friendly as possible.

Optimize For Local Search

Voice search and local SEO are not just important for local businesses, both entail a lot of the same steps. This is because in both cases, you are trying to communicate to Google that your’s is a local business that operates in a specific area.

To that end, one of your first and most important steps should be to claim your Google My Business (GMB) listing and optimize your profile.

Doing this will provide Google with the exact information that users conducting local voice searches are looking up. According to a 2019 report by Microsoft, over 50% of users use voice search to take actions like find directions to stores and make reservations.

In another Google survey of regular smart speaker users, 44% respondents said they use their smart speaker to shop for groceries and household items at least once a week.

Make Use Of Structured Data On Your Website

Structured data, or Schema Markup, is a form of metadata that search engine algorithms use to understand the context of the information present on a web page.

For instance, without structured data, the ‘Contact Us’ page on a website is just like any other web page in the eyes of the search engine. However, with structured data, the search engine algorithm can understand that the page contains the contact information of your business.

Whether you are hoping to get into the Featured Snippets or trying to do more with your local SEO efforts, structured data can go a long way. While it may not be a search engine ranking factor, it helps search engines provide more accurate information to users and at the same time, helps them better understand the content on the websites that they are ranking in their SERPs.

Implementing structured data on your website can be undertaken as a DIY job, although it may be a little difficult and time consuming if you are not handy with technical stuff. If you want to give it a go, here’s a great beginner guide. Alternatively, you can seek the help of a professional.

Conclusion

All of the data that I have used in this guide points to two facts: voice search is going to become more useful and more accurate and it will continue to garner popularity as a method to find information on the web.

I hope that this guide has helped you start realising the importance and understanding the process behind optimizing for voice search. If you have any questions or queries, feel free to drop them in the comment section.

FAQs