For good SEO, you must not only understand what your user is searching for, but also deliver a better experience than your competitors, with authoritative content in high-quality, engaging formats. So, how do you get there? Our Senior Digital Marketing Specialist, Sarah Thaler, and our Account Supervisor, Dylan McIntyre, broke our strategy into a three-part framework: Connections, Complexity and Makeovers—CCM for short.
Connections
The first pillar of our three-part SEO strategy is “connections.” It refers to the alignment between what your searcher is looking for and the solutions your brand or business offers. We use the term searcher’s intent to measure what goal the searcher wants to accomplish with their search, asking ourselves questions like:
- Do they want to consume educational content?
- Are they looking for a brand?
- Do they want to research a podcast?
- Are they looking to make a transaction?
To answer these questions, we use various tools and analytics data which involves assessing search volume, competitiveness and the current content landscape.
We also examine Google Search pages, as Google often showcases content that it deems most relevant and informative. Additionally, we take a look at the internal linking between website pages, which not only enhances user engagement, but also helps search engines recognize related content, reinforcing your site’s authority.
Complexity
The second letter in CCM stands for “complexity.” In the realm of SEO, complexity refers to the depth and breadth of content on your website. In order to add more complex thought into our SEO strategies, Sarah prefers to use a broader word; “topics,” rather than “keywords.”
“Topics” vs. “keywords”
While many people still focus heavily on keywords, this narrow approach can limit the effectiveness of an SEO strategy. This shift from keywords to topics means you can craft content that not only answers specific questions but also provides deeper insights into related subjects. As search engines have evolved, they increasingly reward content that demonstrates authority and expertise on broader topics, rather than just isolated keywords.
This shift also ensures that we answer the questions that the searchers are asking, rather than a specific interest or buzzword, making the process more robust.
In the past, we used Google’s acronym, E.E.A.T., which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, to measure our alignment.
- Experience - How much experience does your website or author demonstrate?
- Expertise - Does your site or author have relevant knowledge and skills to be covering this topic?
- Authoritativeness - Is your site or author a leading source in your industry?
- Trustworthiness - How reliable and accurate is this content?
Each of these terms points to the importance of a well-rounded library of content that demonstrates deep credibility and knowledge. More recently, Jason Barnard at Kalicube tacked two additional terms—”notability” and “transparency”—onto this acronym, forming “N.E.E.A.T.T” as a new best-in-class measurement.
- Notability - What is the prominence and recognition of your website, brand or author within your industry?
- Transparency - Are you legitimate and authentic for the content and the organization?
The addition of these terms underscores the importance of demonstrably credible and authentic content. We are far past the days of “keyword stuffing” and have moved on to multidimensional topics where the goal is to leverage your experience and expertise to deliver something unique and valuable.
Makeovers
Our third and final section is “makeovers.” A common misconception in SEO is that content is a one-and-done deal: Once it’s published, it can be left alone. However keeping content fresh and relevant is essential for maintaining and enhancing SEO performance. Just like a gardener nurtures their plants, your content requires ongoing care, also known as content hygiene.
Content hygiene is essential in SEO optimization, as search engines prioritize fresh, relevant content at the top of the page. And as user behaviors or industry trends shift, it’s important to regularly refresh your existing content to stay on top.
Conducting regular audits and performance analyses is a good way to see if your content is outdated or irrelevant. By tracking metrics and staying informed about industry trends, you can prioritize which content needs updating or enhancement. Being proactive not only keeps your site relevant but also strengthens your N.E.E.A.T.T. signals.
Achieve SEO Success
While each of these strategies—connections, complexity and makeovers—are great standalone strategies, it’s the combination of all them that gives you the biggest chance of SEO success. Understanding your searcher’s intent, implementing the N.E.E.A.T.T. framework, and constantly updating your content will make sure your SEO strategy is dynamic and effective.
Ready to see how your business can reach its full SEO potential? Read the full transcript below, or contact us.
Read the transcript
Quick note: This conversation was transcribed with the help of artificial intelligence and has been lightly edited for content.
Sarah: Hi everybody. I'm Sarah Thaler, your go-to SEO strategist here at Lasasso. I live and breathe search algorithms, SEO, and digging into the data and search results pages to craft effective organic search strategies for our clients.
And if you happen to be one of our clients, I am also Sadie's mom, our in-office pooch.
Dylan: And I'm Dylan McIntyre. I'm an account supervisor at LoSasso Integrated Marketing. And welcome to our latest podcast episode where we dive into the heart of all things SEO.
A lot of people think, and we often hear from our clients, that SEO is just focusing on keywords and the strategy behind it. Is that truly the case, Sarah, or is it deeper than we actually think?
Sarah: Much deeper than you think. SEO is the art and science of understanding what your user is searching for and delivering a superior experience with authoritative content in the most engaging formats, which brings us to the theme of today's episode where we're talking about the three things that go into our SEO strategy, which are connections, complexity, and makeovers, or CCM for short.
Dylan: And for my hockey friends or listeners out there, that's a good acronym to help us remember.
Sarah: Yeah, not even two minutes before Dylan makes a hockey reference. Very on brand for you.
Dylan: OK, OK. Let's start with the first C, “connections.” What can you tell us about that and how it fits into an overall SEO strategy as a whole?
Sarah: Yeah, so “connections” is all about connecting the dots to what your users need with the expertise and solutions your brand or business delivers.
You also need to seamlessly be linking the searcher's intent to your website's content and brand.
Dylan: I picked up that you said searcher's intent. Can you provide a little bit more information on that or what you mean by the searcher's intent just for our audience listening?
Sarah: Yeah, so intent is the goal the searcher wants to accomplish with their search. Do they want to consume educational content, look for a brand, research a podcast or make a transaction?
Dylan: So then how do you go about figuring out exactly what our audience is looking for? Especially when our clients might not even know from the beginning and that's why they're coming to us.
Sarah: It's a lot of detective work. We use a variety of industry tools and our analytics data to uncover topic opportunities. We look at things like search volume over time, competitiveness and relevancy, but we'll also just look at the search results page because that's often a good place since Google is appearing pages and content that it thinks are the best of the best.
But it's also connections between the pages of your website with internal links so that search engines understand that certain web pages are related to each other. This also helps visitors explore more related content, keeping them more engaged on the website, discovering more pages and information and hopefully leading them to a conversion.
Dylan: I noticed that you use the word “topics” instead of “keywords” and I just kind of want to drill into that just a little bit. Can you tell me what the big distinction is of the two and why it's so important for our audience and our clients to understand the difference?
Sarah: Yeah. So nowadays search engines reward sites and pages with authoritative expert and experience driven content. So to me, “keywords” is just too narrow of a focus. Broadening it to “topics” ensures that we are covering it to its full potential and answering what the searchers want. It's more of a mindset and a framework more than anything else.
Dylan: Wow. That all sounds really complex. Now I'm starting to understand why the next C is “complexity.”
Now I've heard you mention authoritative expertise and experience when talking about content several times when we've been doing SEO strategies and content strategies for our clients.
I've even heard you reference it as E.E.A.T. in the past. Can you provide a little bit more detail as to what that means and why it's so crucial for SEO and how it relates to this overarching idea of complexity?
Sarah: Yeah, so E.E.A.T is a framework that helps us build high-quality content.
So the first E stands for “experience.” So does your site or author demonstrate that it has experience?
The second E stands for “expertise.”Does your site or author have relevant knowledge and skills to be covering this topic?
A stands for “authoritativeness.” So does your site or author, are they a leading source in your industry?
And T stands for “trustworthiness.” So how reliable and accurate is this content? Though to be honest, Dylan, there's also a new acronym, now “NEEATT” or N.E.E.A.T.T., being thrown around recently, being coined by Jason Barnard, which is just really like an extension of the original E.A.T..
Dylan: So wait, so first there's E.A.T. and now there's N.E.E.A.T.T that we need to understand? How many acronyms are marketers going to have to remember these days?
Sarah: I don't know, but we just love our acronyms, don't we? But the good thing is it's still the same E.E.A.T., we're just adding more letters. So an N and another T.
The N stands for “notability.” So it measures the prominence and recognition of a website, a brand, or individual within their industry.
The second T stands for “transparency.” So disclosing information about the website and its authors so that your users and search engines can easily verify that you're legitimate and that you're authentic for the content and the organization. And I assume this also relates to why we focus on topics versus keywords that you mentioned earlier in our conversation.
Dylan: So if I'm understanding this correctly, this framework helps you craft content that comprehensively covers the topic.
Sarah: Exactly, because by doing so, you'll naturally show your reader and search engines why you are the best solution for their problem. And by this approach, we're just also going to be naturally covering all of those versions of the keywords by delving into the topic in more detail.
Dylan: Got it. So, and don't hate me for saying this, but I feel like a good analogy here would be when Shrek refers to ogres as onions. I feel like as you peel back an onion, you would just keep discovering more and more layers.
Sarah: Yeah, basically. It's a good analogy. So just like all the layers of the onion. And peeling that onion really represents uncovering that information and all of those insights that go into your content strategy.
So take a pillar strategy, for example. Here, we kind of think of that as a spider web. you have your main pillar page that covers a very broad topic in the center. And then you have all these supporting pages that go into subtopics more in detail related to that, you know, core piece. So those are like your little spider web spokes.
So this structure not only adds depth and complexity, which we know that search engines really love and appreciate, but it's also building strong connections between your content pieces because those spokes are connecting the dots to everything, making it a lot easier for both the users and search engines to navigate and understand your site's authority on the subject. So really the goal here is to just build a very robust library of content on a specific topic.
Dylan: Okay, so each layer essentially of content adds to the overall SEO strength and connection of the strategy.
Sarah: Exactly, and this just helps to ensure that we're covering the topic from every angle, reinforcing your site's expertise and authority.
Dylan: So far, I feel like we focused a lot on new content, but oftentimes our clients ask about what to do with their old content, stuff that's already been published in the past and so forth. What are your thoughts there and what recommendations or insights can we provide them?
Sarah: Yeah, so there's this myth that once you publish something, you set it and forget it. But that's certainly not true. You know, for example, my mom is a very avid gardener and she has flowers all over the yard, right? So when she plants something new, she doesn't just sit back and let it be. She trims, prunes and waters constantly. So think of your content as plants. They need tender love and care and some sprucing to thrive.
We'll also call this a more professional sense, good “content hygiene.”
Dylan: For everyone listening on the podcast, content hygiene is the makeover or portion of our conversation today.
Sarah: Precisely. We know that search engines prioritize fresh and relevant content. So regular updates, i .e., makeovers, signal that your site is active and providing up-to-date information.
This also applies to your website as a whole. So you should always be constantly updating all pages of your site to better meet the needs of your potential customers and current customers.
Dylan: How do you stay on top of everything, especially when it comes to new content, old content, and essentially helping clients prioritize what to do first?
Sarah: Yeah, it can certainly be a little overwhelming. But it's also just all about prioritizing and using the right tools to track performance. can be done through regular audits, analyzing metrics, and really just staying updated with the industry trends. And of course, having someone on your team being really in tune with what is going on in the organic search world.
Dylan: Got it. So it sounds like I'm hearing that outdated content can actually hurt and stale your SEO efforts because it could essentially be diluting your E.E.A.T or now, N.E.E.A.T.T, signals as we kind of talked about.
Sarah: Dylan, you're such a veteran SEO strategist.
Dylan: We can leave that part to you. While we are just about out of time for today, thanks for tuning into our SEO podcast where we explore how connections, complexity and makeovers work together to create a dynamic and successful SEO strategy.
Sarah: If you're ready to elevate your SEO game, visit our website or contact us directly to learn more about how we can help your business reach its full SEO potential.
Dylan: And if you haven't already listened to our previous episode on creative and strategy on our blog or YouTube channel.
Sarah: This is Sarah.
Dylan: And I'm Dylan signing off from the LoSasso office in Chicago. Catch you next time. And until then keep optimizing!
