With all the fuss about AI Overviews and SGE in recent months, one factor has emerged quite unnoticed as a key factor for on-page ranking following the March core update.
We are talking about issue authority (which this June report focuses on).
It should come as no surprise to today’s SEO professionals that building comprehensive authority on a topic is an excellent way to build organic engagement. White hat SEO in recent years has focused on creating valuable, authentic and rich content on fast-loading and easy-to-navigate website properties.
But there’s more to it than that. So think about topic authority, the most important ranking factor of 2024.
Go wide
It is almost always the case that a topic contains concentric themes that are valuable to users. For example, a real estate company would get a lot of interest with an article about considerations for determining the right mortgage rates and terms.
Don’t just claim your authority in a particular field, build a moat of related topics and conduct research on a regular basis to ensure you continue to add topics as they arise.
Go into depth
Every single perspective and insight your organization can provide on a topic goes a long way toward building your authority.
Doing your own research is a good option here, especially if you can combine it with analysis that helps readers understand the “so what?” behind the data. In the real estate example, it might read something like this (I’m making this up): “Demand for three-bedroom homes is higher than it’s been in the last 30 years, so prices are artificially high. Buyers looking to avoid excessive costs should look at larger two-bedroom homes that have space for a third bedroom.”
There are other options, too: Comprehensive guides (“Everything a prospective new homeowner needs to know before making an offer”), white papers, and case studies should all be on the table in your topic authority strategy.
Becoming inclusive
Speaking of broad-based, find experts on the closely related topics and offer to publish their (original) content on your earning websites. To follow up on the above example, a long-time professional in the mortgage industry may be able to provide an excellent perspective on trends and interest rate fluctuations.
Not only do guest authors add valuable content to your site, but they are often happy to promote that content, meaning they are adding another layer to your organic reach.
You can and should also try to find internal and external experts who can speak with authority on your core topics. Well-known thought leaders with a large sphere of influence are great, but the most important piece of the puzzle here is expertise. You should have a concrete reason to invite someone to contribute content, whether it’s a unique point of view, tons of experience in your field, or a connection to a well-known organization that your users are familiar with.
Get practical
You can tick off some key engagement and consideration boxes by providing content about your product or service in use – across industries for B2B or demographics for B2C. Case studies, real-world applications, user testimonials and perspectives – these serve multiple purposes in the customer journey and should be included in your content plan.
Think about crowdsourcing
You can take both an active and passive approach to gathering content ideas from your audience. Social media monitoring and customer service interactions will give you plenty of input, but you can also run surveys and targeted outreach to discover things like new use cases and related topics of interest.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of gathering qualitative insights about your audience is that it’s a highly effective way to spot trends before Google does, meaning you can get a leg up on competitors who rely on more traditional forms of research.
Go away (from Google)
One of the most effective ways to build your brand’s topic authority is to engage users outside of Google on platforms like Reddit, Quora, and TikTok.
Google has throttled some of the less interesting Reddit and Quora content in the SERPs, but given the exclusive deal to display Reddit content, I expect this to change as the algorithm gets better at identifying valuable content to pull. Not only will you get more engagement on these platforms, but you’ll also get referral traffic from Google and the potential for an increase in branded search volume.
Final thoughts
You’ll notice that AI isn’t explicitly mentioned in any of these points, and there’s a reason for that: doing what’s good for SERP engagement also increases your brand’s chance of being included in AI overviews. If that’s not reason enough to take it seriously, consider that great, authoritative content will have powerful ripple effects along the entire customer journey.
Kelly Ayres is the Director of SEO at Jordan Digital Marketing.
