Search Has Changed. Here’s How Your Content Needs to Evolve.

当2006年的入站营销量增长时，搜索引擎是读者发现新内容的主要方式。在2017年，这仍然是正确的。

Social, video, and messaging apps now occupy a fair share of the content landscape -- but with over3.5 billion searches per day on Googlealone, search is a channel marketers still can't afford to ignore.

Over the last ten years or so, it feels like we've figured out a pretty standard content formula: publish a large volume of content to target long-tail keywords, and convert that organic traffic into leads via gated content offers.

But this way of thinking about content has hit a wall. Search has changed, and it's time content did too.

搜索如何发展

近年来，搜索发生了两种大方法：

1. Our search behavior has shifted.
2. The technology search engines use to interpret and serve results has improved.

Let's dive into each.

How Our Search Behavior Has Changed

早在2006年，搜索行为就相对简单。我们在搜索引擎上打字，其中包括“波士顿餐厅”，而不是在对话中与他们交谈。

Today, the average search query goes something like, "Where is the best place to eat near me right now?".

实际上，2016年5月Google首席执行官Sundar Pichai宣布20% of querieson mobile and Android are voice searches.

Regardless of whether you type or use voice search,更长的，更转换的查询已成为标准化。

In a study conducted by Ahrefs of search volume by keyword length, they found 64% of searches are four words or more. And the rise of conversational search is only making this search pattern more prevalent.

Source:AHREFS长尾关键字研究

这并不是因为我们突然变得很自在与机器人交谈。这主要是因为搜索引擎提供的结果质量以及内容的数量得到了显着提高。

We've learned the playbook and have published so much content, some marketers say we've hit "content shock," and that producing content at this rate is no longer sustainable.

“尽管内容的数量已大大增加，但质量却没有。”

While the quantity of content has dramatically increased, quality has not.Sure, there are individual publishers and sites that create amazing content you probably consume regularly. But for the most part, a lot of content published today doesn't contribute much to the conversation.

除了我们的搜索行为外，我们使用Internet与网站交互的一般方式也发生了变化。我们已经转移了从基于台式机的PC到移动笔记本电脑，再到智能手机作为我们手掌的迷你计算机。

读者正在浏览内容并寻找快速答案。The emergence of messaging also means visitors are less likely to fill out a lengthy form. This has natural consequences on how we think about our content to build an audience, brand, and ultimately generate leads.

The Impact of Search Engine Updates

We're going to focus on Google-specific updates here, since between their core search, image search, and YouTube, they collectively control 90% of the search market.

When Google first popped up on the scene, the way they returned results was to essentially deconstruct queries into their fundamental pieces -- meaning individual keywords that appeared -- and serve results based on exact matches. At that time, marketers who stuffed matching keywords into content would naturally rank for the query, until Google started adjusting their algorithm.

If we go back just a few years, we can see a rich history that leads us to the search experience we have today, and we can uncover lessons that apply to our own content strategies.

Let's walk through three of the most important Google search updates and how they impact your strategy.

Penguin Algorithm Update-- Rolled out April 24, 2012.

This algorithm update was designed to penalize "webspam" and sites that were over-optimized using black-hat SEO techniques. Webspam --such as keyword stuffing and link schemes -- was penalized in this update, with3.1% of English search queries impacted.

In the official Penguin announcement, Google described a blog post that was written about fitness and had relevant content. But within the post, there were also completely irrelevant links to payday loans and other sites. This form of random keyword stuffing is a perfect example of an SEO tactic that was likely impacted by Penguin.

The takeaway:Include relevant links and keywords in your content, but don't overdo it. While there's no magical number that's right or wrong, look at your content through the lens of a reader and make a judgment call if it's too much.

Hummingbird Algorithm Update- 2013年8月20日宣布。

根据我们所知，这是一个核心算法更新，重点是改善语义搜索。随着搜索变得更加对话，蜂鸟现在是解释这些查询并将其转化为有意义的结果的核心算法。

For example, if you search for "what's the best place to buy an iPhone 7 near my home?" a traditional algorithm before Hummingbird would have taken each individual keyword and looked for matches. With Hummingbird, Google began to look at the meaning behind these words and translate them into a better result.

Digging into that example query above, "place" means you're looking for a store you can physically go to, instead of a website you can buy from. Hummingbird looks at the全部的query and attempts to understand the meaning behind the words used to return relevant results.

The takeaway:现在，我们搜索说话的方式。仅关注关键字意味着您可能会错过对话搜索的流量。开始思考clustering your content into topics，并调整使用支柱页面创建内容的方式。

RankBrain Algorithm Update-- Announced on October 26, 2015.

2015年10月，Google宣布，通过Rankbrain，机器学习已经成为其算法的一部分，几个月来，现在是第三大影响力的排名因素。

It's important to understand that there are over 200 ranking signals when Google evaluates a page. When RankBrain was announced, it immediately became the third most-important factor Google uses to determine rank.

So, what does RankBrain do? At a basic level, this algorithm helps interpret searches to find pages that might not have the exact words searched for. For example, if you search for "sneakers," Google understands that you might have meant "running shoes" and incorporates that factor into results.

Although Google begun to understand synonyms between words prior to this update, RankBrain propelled that understanding forward and truly brought a focus on topic-based content to the forefront.

The takeaway:Searchers are likely discovering your content even though they don't use exact keywords. When you combine this update with Hummingbird, the evidence is clear that we need to shift how we think about, plan, and create content.

根据我们的搜索行为和搜索技术更新，需要更改内容的剧本。我们过去十年中使用的相同公式仍可能会产生适度的结果，但这不能帮助我们适应潜在的买家今天搜索我们的内容或搜索方式的方式。

Wait, does this mean keywords are irrelevant?

No -- keywords are still very relevant today. Yet many marketers solely rely on keywords to inform their content strategy. With the search behavior and technology changes we've discussed, your future playbook must be based on the overall topics that match the intent of a searcher,andthe specific keywords they use.

例如,如果你想要帮助企业重新设计websites, then you would naturally want to appear on a search engine results page for the keyword "website redesign." In this case, "website redesign" is the overall topic. But some users might be really be searching for "redesign existing website", which is essentially the same query with different keywords.

With this shift in search technology, search behavior, and how we interact with content,the way we make content to attract users has to change.

这是新剧本的核心原则，可帮助您调整：

The New Content Playbook

The new content playbook is comprised of three parts: overall topics that you want to be known for organized into clusters,支柱含量, and subtopic content. This model can helps you establish areas of influence into overall topics, and a solid information architecture at the same time.

主题群

As Matt Barby,Global Head of Growth and SEO at HubSpot,explains:

“在主题群集中构建内容程序的基本前提是在整个核心主题领域进行更深入的覆盖范围，同时在此过程中创建有效的信息体系结构。”

与其考虑确切的关键字的每一个变化，不如考虑要熟悉的主题，而您创建的内容将深深涵盖该主题。然后，在此基于主题的内容中，包括相关的关键字。为了进一步解释，让我们在下表中分解主题与关键字。

An overall topic cluster is represented with a comprehensive piece of content at the center (called pillar content) and then surrounded by subtopic content. Visually it looks like this:

A topic cluster should be specific to the topic you want to be known for and should be short -- ideally between two and four words.

For example, at HubSpot "inbound marketing" is a topic cluster, and we have pillar content dedicated to describing the methodology. You can have numerous topic clusters across your site for as many topics as are relevant to your company.

Pillar Content

Pillar content is central to this new strategy. It is typically comprised of a single page -- such as a website or landing page -- that offers a comprehensive view of the topic.

如果你有很多的内容,这个页面可能already exist on your site. If not, or you want to expand into a new topic, check-out this decision tree to help decide when to create a new piece of pillar content.

您应该考虑的支柱内容的三个关键方面：

• Ungated- 柱子含量应没有固定。也就是说，所有内容都应用于搜索引擎爬网和访问者阅读而无需填写表格。您可以在页面上有一个表格，但不要隐藏表格后面的内容。
• Comprehensive- Pillar content should be comprehensive, which also generally means long-form. Consider all of the questions your sales, services, and support teams regularly receive concerning a specific topic and build in answers within the page content.
• Related terms- Remember when we talked about the algorithm updates above? Be sure to mention your core topic a number of times on the page, but also include synonyms as well. That way, no matter how someone searches for that topic, they'll hopefully land on your page.

亚主题内容

Subtopic content should be related to your pillar content. It centers around the same overall topic, but should answer longer, more niche questions. These can take the form of blog posts or site pages, and should contain a text link that points back to the pillar content.

This hyperlink helps signal to search engines that all of this content is related. With all of your subtopic content pointing towards the pillar, it builds authority within your site.

Here's an example of what this could look like for your website:

这种新方法可帮助您吸引更多的广泛主题流量，并且仍然可以捕获基于长尾关键字的流量。该解决方案对您的访问者来说更好，并允许您提供他们期望找到的答案，而不会遇到技术障碍。

最好的内容将在这种结构中具有出色的，全面的和组织，不仅可以帮助搜索爬行者发现其内容，而且自然会为基于主题的查询提供答案。在过去的几年中，内容创作发生了发展，现在正在撞击一个拐点，在我们眼前正在发生另一个主要进化。

As marketers, it's up to us to create valuable content people actually want.Content that is helpful, human, and easily found.

Ultimately you want to achieve your goals -- whether that's increasing traffic, leads, or MQLs -- but it all begins with content that matches the way people search, and the way search engines work today.