SEO can be an extremely daunting task, especially when you’re trying to increase traffic on a product that doesn’t really have as many experienced customers as other products would.

This challenge then usually falls on the SEO expert’s shoulders in order to provide the clarity that customers are usually looking for in a product before they fully commit to it. But here’s the hurdle.

Educational content does not always succeed, because it’s usually not required. Therefore, it’s often the case when a webmaster believes their website requires such content and wastes precious time on constructing a structure as well as writing these articles.

But regardless of how often educational content works, we need to discuss why it’s important to have on most blogs and what type of benefit it brings to the website in terms of organic traffic and better ranking for keywords.

Firstly, let’s discuss what webmasters should not expect from the educational content.

The main keyword

Every website has a main keyword it needs to focus on. This could be pretty much anything starting from “kids shoes” and ending with “power tools in New York” for example. Educational content isn’t really designed to help the website rank for these particular keywords, it’s designed to rank for keywords that are thematic to the main niche.

These can be things such as “How are drills built?”, “How to repair your *brand name* drill in 5 easy steps*. It’s just light content that focuses on a very specific issue with the main niche of the website but does not even touch upon the main keyword. Why? Because you don’t want the landing page for the main keyword to be a non-thematic page. Most people who land on those pages would immediately leave because they don’t want to waste the time going to the homepage or are disappointed they didn’t get what they were looking for.

Therefore, it’s every SEO specialist’s recommendation that educational content stays as far away from the main keyword as possible. This means no “direct match” insertions anywhere. Partial match keywords could work but need to be approached very carefully.

Now, let’s get to what we can get from the educational content.

Keyword diversity

When you have a specific niche chosen, it doesn’t mean that you have to focus on only one keyword. That would set you way back compared to the competition. Why? Because people are not using only one query when searching for your niche. They don’t have just one-dimensional demands when it comes to finding websites they require.

I would like to provide an example of something quite complicated. In this case, it’s financial trading.

You see, most people wouldn’t be searching for “how do I trade?” or “where do I sign up to trade?” because in most cases, existing customers are experienced enough to know these things. But when it comes to beginners, it’s not necessarily a gold-mine market either, because there are a limited number of these people and are mostly influenced by direct marketing rather than the hands-off marketing strategy that educational content provides.

For example, in financial trading, especially for currencies, the most popular topic to focus on is the software? Why? Because it not only encapsulates beginners in its target audience but also relatively experienced traders. This mostly derives from the system that financial trading has generally, but can be applied for other things.

This is pretty much where the SEO expert’s job ends and the content writer’s job begins. It is absolutely essential that the article explains exactly what the user is looking for. In most cases, we can identify this query by looking at the complexity. The end goal, however, is to make sure that this reader walks away from the page with knowledge.

The best approach to this from the company would be comparing FX trading platforms like MT4 to cTrader or any other software that is available on the market. The main goal is to choose the most popular ones so the benefit of reference is there for both beginners and experienced customers. It’s essential for the company to explain what is the best software for trading in order to ensure that this person either uses it with them or at least has positive correlations with them in the future.

For example, let’s talk about operating systems for smartphones and their particular features. Oftentimes you will find educational content where the writer compares the camera or the processing speed of iOS and Android. And they know very well that they are targeting all markets because, beginners have no idea how it works, while experienced people want to find out even more.

And even though their main keyword could be “best android apps”, this educational content could still help them diversify their keyword coverage and try to get as much organic traffic from as many contextual keywords as possible.

Interlinking and CTAs

One absolutely essential part of SEO is having the website naturally linked within itself. What this means is that once something is mentioned on a page that you have a separate page of, then there should be absolutely nothing stopping you from interlinking them. The way Google’s algorithm is designed is that it favors websites where you can easily navigate your way through and find intriguing content without having to look for it.

Imagine, if you have an article where you talk about the best android applications in December 2020. Should you have separate pages of each of these applications where everything is more in-depth, having an interlink to that page could pretty much guarantee that the visitor will stay longer on your site as they navigate their way towards these deep pages.

Furthermore, educational content offers amazing opportunities for Calls to Action, or CTAs for short. This is the butter for your bread. This is how you encourage visitors or give them that slight push to purchase something you’re promoting or sign up for something you have to offer.

Just by saying they should go do something, you may alienate thousands of potential customers, while providing some value upfront and then encouraging them to explore further could lead to loyal and returning customers for years to come.

Remember, it’s not just about the traffic, but what that traffic could account for in the future.