10 April 2024 |

 “Ranch style” SEO

By Tracey Wallace

SEO has changed. You all know that. And my team has shifted, starting in Q4, from long-form pillar pieces to more snackable assets built for specific audience segments at specific points in their journey. 

But don’t take my word for it. Bernard Huang detailed this strategy here––and named it!. 

Two notes on this:

  1. It’s working! And quickly. 
  2. If you’ve been writing long-form pillar pieces, then you have a lot of what you need for this strategy. Now, you need to go through your content, and split them up. Build briefs for the different keywords, for the different audiences, and at different stages. 
  3. Here is where we’ve landed for audience segments. It isn’t perfect, but it’s passed most stress tests in the last two quarters:
    1. “What is” content = entrepreneurs 
      1. These folks are looking to understand the lingo, and get a good understanding of their options. Types content falls into this bucket, too. 
    2. “How to” content = small businesses 
      1. These folks are going to do the thing…and they need step-by-step instructions for doing it. 
      2. We actually go deeper here and think about it in terms of dream it, learn it, do it content –– which will then include examples content to inspire.
    3. “Why” content = mid-market or enterprise 
      1. These folks are often going to have someone else do it for them. They need to understand the reason behind doing it, so they can advocate for the resources. 

That’s it from me this week, y’all!