The Content Radar
In fact, there are many methods that you can use to find the best content forms for your purposes. Of course, it is not possible for us to present all of these methods in detail here. However, we do not want to deprive you of the approach that is often most beneficial in the context of search engine optimisation, the so-called content radar. The content radar is particularly relevant to SEO because it places the recipients, i.e. your potential customers, at the centre of the analysis. And these should – as pointed out again at the beginning – always be considered as precisely as possible for a maximum SEO effect. The method distinguishes between emotional and functional content and superficial and profound content on two axes.
Emotional and Functional Content
The axis of emotional or functional content focuses on the benefits that are conveyed to the respective recipients. The central questions here are: Do the users learn something by using the content, do they really take away information that they can use later on, is the content comprehensive so that their viewers/listeners ultimately know much better? Or does the content primarily generate emotion and have little functional value – do recipients perhaps even find this more valuable?
The axis of superficial or in-depth content is used to determine how much time recipients take to use the respective content forms, i.e. how much they are really interested in them. If the interest is superficial and low, the content should be short and crisp and often not go into too much detail. If there is a lot of interest – i.e. if the users of a content form are prepared to invest time in order to absorb the relevant information – you will generally not be able to satisfy them with superficial content. In this respect, optimal content is as detailed as possible.
Taking into account the axes of the content radar, four perspectives of your recipients are to be determined, which describe different areas of benefit and on the basis of which, in turn, the content forms are aligned: News/Information, Knowledge/Enabling, Entertainment/Fun and Relationship/Sense.
In the area of news/information, particular emphasis must be placed on topicality and trends. The aim here is to convey real news value and to convince through facts under the conditions of speed, topicality and exclusivity. Knowledge/enabling includes above all orientation and decision-making aids, in the context of which the best possible depth of information is usually highly important. If you want to develop your expert status on the net or even strive for competence supremacy in a certain field in order to win more users for your content and thus push your positioning in the rankings of the major search engines, you should especially resort to content forms that cover the areas of news/information as well as knowledge/enabling.
In the area of news/information, particular emphasis must be placed on topicality and trends. The aim here is to convey real news value and to convince through facts under the conditions of speed, topicality and exclusivity. Knowledge/enabling includes above all orientation and decision-making aids, in the context of which the best possible depth of information is usually highly important. If you want to develop your expert status on the net or even strive for competence supremacy in a certain field in order to win more users for your content and thus push your positioning in the rankings of the major search engines, you should especially resort to content forms that cover the areas of news/information as well as knowledge/enabling.
It is clear that more and more net users are no longer just an IP address or customer number in many areas of their customer journey and want to know that the solution to their problems or needs is in the hands of real people. If you manage to fully embrace this reality in your content, you will greatly enhance the user experience of your customers – which, in fact, has a very big impact on ranking.
Set specific strategic content focuses on – initially – one of these areas. Choose the segment that is best suited for your business or marketing and ultimately SEO purposes. Ask yourself whether you only want to swim along there, have an above-average status or even be a leader. In this way, you can not only define which content forms you use, but also what standards you should set for their production. This in turn helps you to plan your resources efficiently, increasing your chances of being truly competitive in the area you focus on.
But which content forms actually tend to be particularly useful or which are frequently used in view of the content radar and how do they work? These and other relevant questions are answered below.
News/Information
Of course, you can cover the news/information area – as well as all other segments of the content radar – with corresponding articles, videos, podcasts, etc. on your corporate website. However, there are practically always certain channels or associated content formats that tend to provide a significantly increased benefit in the respective context.
Typically, quick, event-related news/information is much better off in a specific company blog. This is recognised as such by Google and Co. or as being suitable for such content characteristics and is thus sometimes given preferential consideration in relevant search queries. Furthermore, social networks and especially Twitter, with its focus on short, quick messages, form an ideal basis for news/information.
Social networks are practically omnipresent and thus offer, among other things, a very good reach in many business contexts. At best, corresponding posts link to the company website or blog, which generates more traffic there – SEO-effectively. In view of the sometimes enormous distribution, this content and associated website or blog entries actually have increased potential to receive backlinks – and these are still among Google’s most important ranking factors.
Knowledge
Your customers search the web primarily for information that helps solve specific problems or needs. By providing your target group with knowledge related to your goods or services with high added value, you can convince them of the quality of your brand. The more frequently and extensively relevant content is used, the better Google will rank it.
In order to get the most out of it, it is not only important to land as high as possible in the conventional organic ranking, but also to be considered in Google’s so-called Knowledge Graph. This is a database whose contents appear in an additional window to the right of the organic results if there are suitable queries or the right company coordination. The search engine leader obtains most of the facts listed there from Wikipedia, which means that company-related entries on the free knowledge platform are extremely relevant for SEO.
Ephemeral Content
Retailers and the associated marketing have been using the effectiveness of limited offers very successfully for many years. If a good/service or a special variant of a product is only available for a short period of time, the desires of the respective target group sometimes increase enormously. This actually makes them tend to buy much more quickly.
This fact is now also increasingly being used in content marketing. So-called ephemeral content in itself does not have as lasting an effect on search engine optimisation as other forms of content, as it is only available for a short time. However, the fact that – primarily as a result of the normally particularly prompt use by your customers – it generates a good engagement rate and can mean a lot of traffic for your web presences when implemented optimally is definitely very useful for SEO.