Topical relevance is more significant for SERP ranking now than ever in search engines’ history, thanks to highly intuitive tools.
This raises the question of how marketers may change their content to stay at the top or even go up in the ranks, given that search engine algorithms are only improving at ranking the content most relevant to users’ queries.
This book explains how to create topical relevance in social media posts, web copy, and other digital assets so that you can maintain (or improve) your search engine ranking.
Why is Topical Relevance Important?
When search engines started, brands mostly used content volume to get more people to their websites.
Whether or not the content reflected the goal of the website or the topical expertise of its contributors was irrelevant because outdated search engine indexing technology could not understand the kind of content available on a page. Thus, site designers packed their pages with (often unrelated) content to get a rating.
These days, search engines are more intelligent, honing several techniques to locate the pertinent data and excellent content that users genuinely seek.
Finding content that is deemed “topically relevant” and giving it search priority is one of these techniques. For a website to be considered topical, it needs to:
- Discuss the keyword-related topics in-depth (and in length).
- To build authority, discuss a topic cluster or a closely connected issue.
- Include a lot of relevant text and links to the keywords you are using.
When search engines scan a post to see if it matches a user’s query result, they seek evidence of the page’s authority on the topic and assign it a ranking based on that information.
Although many variables affect the algorithm (and paid search engine marketing methods can also affect ranking), backlinks, keywords, and content length tell search engines that a page contains essential, pertinent information.
The Building Blocks of Topical Relevance
Let’s dissect these pillars of topical relevance—backlinks, keywords, and content volume—and see how each affects ranking.
Backlinks
Backlinks are just hyperlinked text links on one website that point to another, bringing visitors away from your website.
Similar to an essay’s citation list, backlinks convey:
- Credibility: By including links to other web pages pertinent to a specific issue, site builders demonstrate to search engines that they have done their research. The text on a website is (quite literally) linked to other pertinent content, which persuades an algorithm of its importance.
- Expertise: The most valuable aspect of content marketing in today’s algorithms is expertise. An algorithm will prioritise a page’s search results if it can verify that the page provides expert knowledge on the subject.
The practice is also reciprocal: search engines view links from websites with comparable or higher traffic as endorsements of your site.
Websites with pages and pages of nothing but links that deceived web spiders into believing a page was popularly used to be able to be featured on link farms years ago. Search engines now search for hints to determine whether:
- The content’s links are pertinent to the subject.
- There is excellent stuff at those links.
Algorithms evaluate the relevancy and accuracy of outbound links from referral pages during this phase. Additionally, links are compared to well-known spam sites and overly optimised websites that use excessive links to game the system.
Keywords
For search ranking, keywords are crucial. A thorough study of keywords ensures that your material is optimised for the search engine and topically relevant. Algorithms pay attention when your post contains relevant keywords associated with search terms.
But the key word here is relevancy. For instance, if a company offers hair tools, its digital team might use the following keywords in its content under the relevant topic cluster:
- Hair tools
- Hair care
- Hair brushes
- Combs
- Hair spray
- Shears
Then, the algorithm may recognise the brand’s keywords when a user searches for “Hair care products for women,” and it will be ranked appropriately for that query.
However, selecting the appropriate keywords is essential for ranking. For example, a brand that sells canine grooming supplies wants to avoid appearing in searches for human hair tools. In other words, through careful keyword research, marketers must select phrases that precisely reflect the search intent of their target audience.
Content-Length
Content length is the final component of the topical relevance trinity. Assuming all other variables remain constant, the search results page, or SERP, will favour the article with more relevant text over a different page with the same volume of visitors.
How come? A search engine that displays more words on a page will interpret it as having more fantastic content and detail.
Even while more information is typically better, for a search term to genuinely represent topical relevance, the volume of content must connect with both keywords and backlinks:
- Topically relevant keywords must be present on a page with fair concentration.
- Relevance can only be attained when backlinks, anchor text usage, and keywords are all related to the same subject, regardless of how much or little each is used.
- High-copy volume pages need to show subject emphasis toto rank; even with excessive amounts of backlinks and irrelevant keywords, a page’s content volume won’t affect ranking.
Therefore, while content length matters when producing content for search engines, marketers should be cautious when producing wordy pieces that lack subject relevance.
Conclusion
Topical relevance is critical to excelling in today’s search engine landscape. As algorithms become more sophisticated, they prioritise content deeply relevant to users’ queries. To ensure your content ranks well, focus on three main areas:
building authoritative backlinks, using relevant keywords, and maintaining appropriate content length.
You can boost your content’s visibility and engagement by aligning these elements with your audience’s needs and search intent. Adapting to these practices will keep your content competitive and effective in attracting and retaining your audience.
