Technology has transformed many aspects of our lives. That’s a fact. And there’s a lot to be said about how mobile devices and the internet have changed the way we consume content. But looking at the bigger picture, we can’t deny the mind-blowing impact digitalisation has had on the way we navigate our daily routines. The reality is that above all, digitalisation has provided millions of people across the world with convenient access to information, services and solutions that are now just a search away.
Such level of connectivity means we are easily able to obtain data, insights and knowledge we are after. Whether it’s restaurants nearby, cheap flight deals or who wrote that controversial Game of Thrones series finale – you can simply tap/click your way through to the answer.
Then there are those instances when we are not looking for a quick answer to a burning question, but instead finding ourselves going deep down into an internet rabbit hole. One search leads to another, as we jump from one search optimised piece of content to another. Algorithms of course help with navigating that journey but it’s human curiosity that leads us there.
In the context of traditional comms, search engine optimisation (SEO) can seem as quite a complex practice to get your head around. Trying to understand the principles of indexing, crawling and ranking certainly doesn’t help make a case for SEO being non-technical either.
Indeed, there is a whole technical side to SEO that we’ve mastered through the work we do with clients. However, SEO ultimately boils down to the use of engaging content designed to satisfy searchers’ curiosity.
So how can organisations bring SEO into their content strategy to feed people’s curiosity and hunger for information?
- Start with the basics: Revisit how you are positioning your organisation online, starting with your website. When it comes to SEO, explaining what your business is all about in a comprehensive way goes a long way. It’s often tempting to emphasise too much how you differentiate from your competitors by describing your offering with terms no other organisation has used before. This is critical for demonstrating competitive advantage but remember that in search you attract attention with the use of key words people would intuitively use to find specific services or products.
- Get under the reader’s skin: Tap into your audience’s searching habits to get a better understanding about the topics they care or want to know about. This type of insight can help you identify what type of content would appeal to them. Whether it aims to inform, educate or entertain, your content can be a really powerful engagement tool.
- Narrate the journey: When unpicking your target audience’s search habits, you can also uncover interesting insights around their preferred content format. From blogs, infographics and podcasts to video, your options are wide open! Delivering content in an easily digestible format, optimised for search and mobile, will not only help drive traffic to your website but will also ultimately help feed your audience’s human curiosity.