The Power of Tangential Content Best for Optimizing SEO

In the ever-evolving world of search engine optimization (SEO), staying ahead of the curve is crucial. Traditional SEO techniques focus on optimizing keywords and topics directly related to your business. However, as markets become increasingly saturated, new strategies are needed to stand out and reach a broader audience. This is where tangential content SEO comes into play.

Tangential SEO involves creating and optimizing content for topics that are tangentially related to your core business. By doing so, you can engage with audiences who may not be actively searching for your products or services but could still find them relevant and useful.

This strategy is designed to build brand visibility, establish authority, attract a wider audience, and ultimately drive more traffic to your site. Whether you're a content marketer looking to diversify your strategy, a business owner aiming to extend your online reach, or a newcomer eager to learn, this guide is for you.

What Is "Tangential Content"?

Tangential content refers to content that is not directly related to your product or service offering. Let's take some examples to understand it better.

For instance, Nike, a sportswear brand, can create content around topics like music playlists for different moods or workout routines. They could even discuss urban design and its impact on outdoor physical activities. These topics are not directly related to Nike's products, but they are likely to resonate with their audience.

Starbucks, known for its coffee, could create content discussing books and literature, considering that many people enjoy reading while sipping coffee. They could start a book club, share book reviews, and host author interviews.

Apple, a technology company, might deviate from its technology-centered content to explore topics like interior design. They could highlight aesthetic and minimalistic arrangements that complement their devices or discuss how different spaces foster productivity and creativity.

IKEA, primarily focused on furniture, could develop content around topics like urban gardening. They could offer tips for creating green spaces in small city apartments or share recipes that can be created using limited kitchen tools.

Why Create Tangential Content?

Creating tangential content offers numerous benefits, especially when it comes to reaching a wider audience, building brand authority, and improving SEO performance. Here are some key advantages:

1. Broader audience reach: Similar to how a versatile chef caters to various palates, tangential content allows your brand to cater to a wider audience. This is particularly important for niche or abstract industries.
2. Increased engagement: Just like a variety of dishes keeps diners interested, a variety of content can keep your audience engaged. By showing that your brand can offer more than just the standard fare, you demonstrate a deeper understanding of your audience's diverse tastes.
3. Building brand authority: When you create a variety of dishes, you prove your culinary skills beyond your signature dish. Similarly, creating content on a range of topics positions your brand as an authority in your field, enhancing your reputation and influence.
4. Creating more emotional content and aligning with customer lifestyle: Tangential content is like designing a themed dining experience that aligns with your customer's lifestyles and preferences. By understanding your customers' values and interests, you can provide content that resonates emotionally and aligns your brand more closely with their values and lifestyles.
5. Link building: Just as a unique fusion dish might receive rave reviews and recommendations, tangential content often has a higher potential to be shared. This can earn you backlinks from various domains, boosting your site's authority, similar to how word-of-mouth boosts a restaurant's reputation.
6. SEO performance: By offering a variety of content, you cater to more tastes and attract more visitors. Similarly, by covering a range of topics, you're likely to rank for more keywords, attracting more organic traffic to your website.

While the benefits of publishing tangential content are clear, the research process itself holds great value. Similar to a chef experimenting in the kitchen and interacting with customers, the research phase allows you to understand your customers' preferences, needs, and unmet interests.

This insight is just as valuable, if not more so, as it can guide the development of new products, services, or support articles. By refining your content strategy based on customer insights, you make your brand more attuned to your customers' tastes and more valuable in their eyes.

Now that we've established the importance of tangential content, let's dive into how to generate compelling ideas.

How to Generate Tangential Content Ideas

To generate tangential content ideas, follow these steps:

Step 1: Establish Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers. They help you understand your customers better and make it easier to connect with them. Identify the demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, goals, challenges, values, and fears of your target audience.

Step 2: Create a Mind Map

Create a mind map starting with the name of your buyer persona as the central idea. From there, branch out into main topics representing key values, aspirations, preferences, and hobbies of your persona. This process helps you explore potential questions your persona may have.

Step 3: Find Data to Support Ideas

Take the questions brainstormed in your mind map and search them on Google. Even if the initial query doesn't have search volume, relevant results will still appear. Extract the keywords associated with each result using SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush.

Step 4: Rinse and Repeat with Each Content Idea

Enter each idea into Google and extract the keywords for the articles that rank, even if the original query had no search volume. This step helps you gather a comprehensive list of keywords.

Step 5: Find Additional Keywords None of Your Competitors Have

Go beyond traditional keyword research sources and explore forums and user-generated content sites like Reddit and Quora. These platforms often have unique questions and phrasings that conventional keyword tools may miss. Scrape these forums and sites for relevant keywords.

Step 6 (Optional): Use AI to Make Questions Less "Chatty"

If forum questions are phrased in colloquial or unclear ways, you can use AI language models like ChatGPT to make them more readable and concise. This step ensures that your scraped questions are transformed into simple, understandable queries.

Step 7 (Optional): Get All the Related Questions

Extract the related questions associated with your keywords using tools like "People Also Asked." This step provides additional insights and helps you identify recurring questions and topics.

Step 8: Get the Search Volumes for New Queries

Check the search volumes for the new queries you have gathered. Although many may show no volume, it's important to remember that these "zero volume" queries are still relevant based on the engagement they generate. They represent topics of interest to your audience.

Step 9: Cluster Your Keywords

Group similar keywords together to organize your data effectively. This step helps you identify patterns and recurring questions within the "zero volume" keywords.

By following these steps, you can uncover unique tangential content ideas that your competitors may have overlooked. This research-driven approach allows you to create content and develop products that are highly relevant and engaging for your target audience.

Conclusion

Incorporating tangential content into your SEO strategy

is a powerful way to expand your reach, engage a wider audience, and establish your brand as an authority in your industry. By creating and optimizing content for topics that are tangentially related to your core business, you can attract new customers, build brand loyalty, and improve your SEO performance.

Remember to start by understanding your target audience through buyer personas and creating a mind map to explore their interests and questions. Use SEO tools to gather data and extract keywords related to those topics. Don't forget to go beyond traditional keyword research sources and explore forums and user-generated content sites for unique insights.

By clustering your keywords and analyzing the trends, you can uncover new content ideas, identify gaps in the market, and even generate ideas for new products. This research process not only helps you create compelling content but also gives you a deeper understanding of your customers' needs and interests.

Embrace the power of tangential content and discover the untapped potential it holds for your brand. By staying ahead of the curve and providing valuable, relevant, and engaging content, you can outrank your competitors and achieve long-term success in the dynamic world of SEO.

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