There are multiple applications for SEO, one use of search engine optimization is to bring dormant content to the forefront to increase the value of engagement for your online property.
Depending on the tactic / framework of your business model determining if you need a micro-site / niche site, e-commerce platform / e-commerce site, portal, or social model based on user generated content or determines the method you implement to optimize each type of website.
I particularly enjoy developing authority sites. Although creating unique content is no easy task, the rewards are immense in contrast for the inherent ranking power authority sites have the ability to generate.
Sustaining relevance across multiple topics requires perpetual motion. Consider the base of your website as having a finite base, then based on the co-occurrence of the keywords and topics covered collectively in the entire site as your digital fingerprint.
Each time you add a page, the ranking factors shift, the relevance of prior information is impacted and eventually the context either gains momentum and cements itself to other similar semantic clusters and increases the term weight for a particular topic or diminishes it by diffusing your websites theme.
What is the deciding factor on which terms are considered topical and which are irrelevant?
1) The volume of content on a topic.
2) The internal link structure (does it support the pages with a corresponding link graph? Or is it considered promotional conjecture?)
3) Citation – how many sites consider the site an authority by linking to it, and what level of authority do the sites linking to it have themselves for the keywords or topic in question?
4) The age of the content – content aged with internal links can rank on its own merit with less inbound links from other sites.
Perfect examples of websites that have stemmed from one topical area and devoured market share across multiple verticals is wikipedia.org. It to this day is a marvel of user generated content (UGC) that has stood the test of time for on page and off page synergy.
Not only is their site architecture based on theming and siloing, but the internal link structure reinforces it with virtual theming by linking in mass from multiple pages to one preferred landing page that best represents that keyword / topic.
If you can apply a mere fraction of this technique to your websites on page factor and then manage to control the off page inbound links to the pages via deep links, then you can also enjoy multiple stemmed rankings based on a contingent of content relevance.
The stronger the website, the less off page factors required to rank for specific or broad match / unintentional keywords. Depending on your business model, the idea of funneling a broad array of traffic to an authority site needs to translate with some sort of actionable takeaway for the readers.
Aside from education (which is the basis of the Wiki), commerce requires a different tact. In either case, you can still integrate elements of a wiki into your website and then either redirect or use virtual theming (internal links in mass) to shift the ranking factor to a particular page to appear as the tip of the iceberg in the search engine result pages as a flagship ranking.
Like many commerce based sites, they want to get right down to the unique selling proposition, call to action and conversion. The last thing you need is to have distractions standing in between consumers and the buy now button. So, using a segment of your website to differentiate promotional and non promotional content (creating the wiki effect) is one way to work around the need to clutter landing pages with unnecessary content.
You can however keep your landing pages clean and pristine, use a noindex tag in the meta data or a noindex, follow (to still pass link flow from page to page) while building the topical relevance up within the educational contingent of your website.
Content management systems (such as a blog) are an ideal method to showcase your writing abilities, but more importantly, each page can become a launching pad for new ideas and a way to incubate quality links.
Keep in mind that the content you write today in 90 days will more than likely have page rank if you (a) link to yourself from relevant page to relevant page (b) attract a sufficient amount of backlinks (3-5 links from other sources per page) or (c) have the page included in primary or secondary navigation.
As a result, that page can be grouped with other topical pages to funnel ranking factor to your non / editorial commerce based content to push it over the tipping point. You can then enjoy (1) ambient rankings for broad match to your educational folders and (2) laser-like targeted traffic to your primary landing pages. Formulas like 200 internal links from other pages using the main anchor text / keyword and 100 quality deep links from other sites is a hard combination to beat.
By mapping out a content development plan (over 9 months) based on solid competitive analysis and keyword research can creating the wiki effect for any site and when monetized pay for itself time and time again. The fact is, the top 10 results in Google are finite, search behavior dictates that they are the most important to new visitors searching for information, products and services.
As such, search behavior will not shift into encompassing the top 20 or top 30 results in the same light as the top 10 anytime soon. Having said that, by building quality content for your website is one priceless tactic that acts as a blanket insurance policy for maintaining topical relevance in virtually any industry on the web. So, what are you waiting for, Wiki your website to see viable increases in rankings.
Excellent post. I have been using your techniques for almost 1.5 years now. They work great and are free. This is another terrific tactic. Thanks a bunch
Very usefull and it works. Simple but functional… great post.
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