Now that search engine capabilities have changed tremendously over the last several years, are you aware of what those changes are and how it would impact your real estate business?
If you found out that your optimisation strategy does not seem to work as it used to before, then you may need to rethink your search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques.
At first glance, one might think that nothing much has changed and even dismiss the idea that since content is vital it may just be a simple glitch or a slight hiccup in the search engine processes.
If so, then you may need to know what topical authority is all about. This is what affects rankings at the moment and one that needs a bit more attention.
What is topical authority?
Topical authority is the authority over a broad concept or niche and is entirely different over a single term or idea.
It is currently one of the strongest concepts in the search engine process which provides a broader range of keywords, large volumes of content around a specific topic and provides users with an almost comprehensive and accurate set of search query results.
Is it relevant for real estate?
Topical authority may just be the answer that you are looking for when you notice that your current optimisation strategies are not performing its peak or have seen a reduction in your lead generation campaigns.
Remember that search engine optimisation (SEO) is an evolving practice and one that has to adapt to the changes in order to stay relevant and effective. The same thing goes with the methods that are applied to the system and how it can create the impact it is expected to achieve.
Is content still important?
Topical authority is still about content, however, it is not just about information. It is how that information is presented and how reliable and credible it is.
It is also gained through a perception that your website contains enough information to be recognised as an authority on a subject.
But make no mistake, it falls within the purview of SEO and campaigns still need to hold on to such as keyword focus and data, common queries regularly asked from sales and support teams, and trending questions online or from offline communities and groups.
With the focus on topical authority, would content no longer be good enough?
In fact, compelling content will still be a major factor in digital real estate marketing, especially in search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies.
Since Google updated its Hummingbird algorithm years back, the company has been rapidly improving its capability to deep-dive into the context and relationship of words and its relevance to a user’s needs and intent when doing search queries.
It dramatically intensified with the launch of RankBrain which introduced machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the search algorithms. In short, it is finding out the best answers to the queries and not just providing the content.
To understand Google’s standpoint, it wants to maximise the effort to deliver the query results to customers that are aimed at fulfilling the user’s intent.
Therefore, since content is still a major factor in the search process, it drives the point that in order to provide better optimisation results, it is important to produce content that answers the questions people will have about the content, multiply it in different formats, and provide variations to improve your site to be viewed as a topical authority.