Kelsey Galarza
Your website is the face of your company. And if visitors need help figuring out what you do, you're in trouble. That's why it's crucial to align all the components of your website to ensure that your visitors clearly understand what you do, no matter how they arrive at your site. Plus, you must make it obvious to search engines that you're an authority in your industry and on the topics you want to rank for.
When your website is a hot mess, visitors get confused, and you end up creating cognitive dissonance (a state of inconsistent thought, beliefs, or attitudes). Simply put, your website visitors don't trust what they see.
Creating a Topic Strategy
Categories
To start, strategically select the topics you want to rank for. But let's get one thing straight: it's not about keywords but topics. Choose simple phrases that identify what you sell or provide, and make it easy for visitors to self-select what interests them.
Even if your product or service falls outside typical categories (maybe your innovation is new or serves a particular niche), you must include what category analysts consider your product or service to fit. That's where the most significant search volume usually is, my friend.
Topics
Now, let's talk about good and bad topics. Here are some examples:
Good Topics:
- Atlassian Managed Services
- Freight Tracking and Reporting
- Disaster Recovery as a Service
Bad Topics:
- What we do
- MST-3000
- Networking
Honestly, it's not rocket science. Don't overthink it. You want your topics to be direct and obvious, not cute or clever. Visitors wish your site were easy to navigate and answer questions. The last thing you want is for them to wonder what you do.
Website visitors are primarily looking for:
- Answers to questions
- Expert advice/insights
- Compelling brand message/story
- Videos/visuals
- Excellent aesthetics and easy navigation
Executing the changes
Once you have your topics, align your website's various elements around them. That includes:
- Navigation link names
- Page titles (the actual page title should be something like “[Topic] for [ideal customer] | [Brand name]
- Header tags, H1-H6 are all read by search engines as more important
- Topic clusters
- Supporting content (like blogs)
- Google ad groups
It's like giving your website a makeover!
Stellar Website Example
Check out this example of a website that has all its elements aligned:
It's crystal clear what this company does. And they've replicated this formula across multiple categories, making them a Google "snippet" favorite.
You don't need to start from scratch. Change the navigation and page titles, re-categorize your blog posts, and voila! You're already off to a good start. Then, when creating long-form content, focus on one of your topic categories and build short-form content around it. This way, you'll make your website more aligned and easier for visitors and search engines to understand. So what are you waiting for? Get aligning!
B2B Demand Gen Superheroes!
Not to brag, but we have helped soooo many B2B clients with demand generation strategies that we've got this down to an art! We can help you get started and teach you what to do. Reach out to us if you want to stand out online better and have more prospects find your business!
