This article is part of an ongoing series of SEO content strategies. We are discussing ways to develop useful and interesting web content in the post-Panda world. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to conduct an online survey and publish the results on your website for SEO purposes.
Objective: Your goal is to publish original research that is unique to your industry. This will help you attract links from reputable and relevant websites, which in turn will boost your search engine rankings over time. This SEO content strategy will also help you distinguish your website from others within your industry. Original research is the key to unlocking these benefits.
Tools: It doesn’t take much to conduct an online survey. You only need two things: survey software and a survey group. Do you have a steady amount of traffic to your website or blog? If so, you have a survey group at your disposal already. All you need now is the software program. We will talk more about these and other logistical factors below.
By the Numbers: How to Conduct an Online Survey
Let’s revisit the purpose of this SEO content strategy. You want to publish a survey that will generate interest from other publishers who cover your industry. There are many benefits to this kind of coverage. But in this lesson, we will focus on the SEO-specific benefits. By publishing web content around original research and analysis, you’ll have an easier time acquiring links from other websites. That’s what makes this an effective strategy for SEO content.
Here are the steps you’ll need to take:
Step 1 – Choose a survey program.
The first thing you need is a web-based survey tool. You’ll use this program to collect and analyze responses from your survey group (your website visitors, in this case). If you choose the right software program, it will handle 99% of the work for you.
SurveyMonkey is one of the most popular tools for conducting online surveys. They offer a free version, but it will limit you to a certain number of responses. The paid version allows you to collect unlimited responses. It’s relatively affordable, too. At the time article was published, their paid options started at $17 per month.
Other programs worth considering:
- Zoomerang (www.zoomerang.com)
- QuestionPro (www.questionpro.com)
- KeySurvey (www.keysurvey.com)
Some of these products have free-trial versions available. This is a great way to test the different features before purchasing anything.
Step 2 – Identify your survey topic.
Before you choose a topic for your survey, reflect on your mission. You are using this as an SEO content strategy, among other things. You are trying to create interesting web content to attract links from other websites. This will boost your search engine rankings over time.
Ideally, the survey should relate back to the primary focus of your business. You should also think about the journalists, bloggers and publishers who cover your industry. What kind of news do they report on most often? What might be considered a hot topic among these people?
In 2010, when the housing crisis was still fresh, RealtyTrac published the results of a survey relating to homeowners and foreclosures. That story got a lot of coverage. It was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and countless other blogs and websites. Talk about a boost in link popularity! Why did this story have good legs? Because it focused on a hot topic. It was also a well-structured survey with an intriguing headline (more to follow on this).
Step 3 – Conduct your survey.
Once you’ve identified a good topic for your survey, you can begin collecting responses. In order to be considered “statistically valid,” your survey will need to include a certain number of responses. Aim for a thousand, if possible. How long you run the survey will depend on the amount of exposure you give it. A high-traffic website could gather a thousand responses in a couple of weeks. A smaller website might have to run the survey for a couple of months or more.
You could also conduct the survey on other websites that share a similar audience. So consider partnering with other publishers or bloggers in your industry. Of course, you’ll have to share the exposure with this other publisher as well. It’s a tradeoff.
Step 4 – Publish the results.
Now we are getting to the SEO content side of things. It’s time to publish your findings on your website, and optimize it for search engine visibility. Be straightforward and factual as you present the results of your survey. This is not the time to be clever or cute with your content. You want to be taken seriously by journalists and bloggers. So play it straight.
Include the following items when you publish your survey:
- The timeframe when the survey was conducted
- The number of responses you’ve collected
- Key findings from the survey
- Your analysis of the findings
- Supporting graphics such as pie charts or graphs (see next step)
Remember, you are publishing dual-purpose website content. Your research will help you position yourself as an authority in your field. It also serves as SEO content, helping you attract high-value links from other websites. So be sure to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Make sure the information is presented in a professional manner. Proofread for clarity, spelling and grammar.
Step 5 – Use graphics and other supporting images.
You’ll attract more links if you include some “eye candy.” For an online survey, this might include a bar graph or pie chart to help people visualize the results. Some of the survey software programs mentioned earlier will handle this for you. They allow you to create charts and graphs to support your data, with the click of a button. SurveyMonkey is particularly good for this.
Graphics will help you turn your survey results into highly effective SEO content. Publishers will be more inclined to link to your survey if it includes visual elements. Include a “source” citation in the bottom corner of each graphic. That way, if other publishers share your graphic with their readers, your website and brand will go along with it.
Step 6 – Publish a press release.
You’ve conducted an online survey. You’ve published the results on your website or blog. Now it’s time to promote the content through any means available. Press releases are ideally suited for this task. You can write a news-style press release to publicize the results of your survey. You can publish it through a distribution service like PRWeb.com.
The headline is the most important part of your press release. It’s the headline that will (ideally) capture the attention of journalists and bloggers. The rest of the release just covers the basic facts of the survey, and offers a link to the published results.
Public Relations 101: You can increase readership by including percentages or other numbers in the headline of your release. For example:
- “78 percent of homeowners believe that…”
- “Three out of four small business owners expect to…”
- “67 percent of consumers plan to purchase…”
A well-written press release helps you grab the attention of other publishers. It will help you attract those all-important links to your survey results. Thus, it improves the performance of your SEO content.
Step 7 – Contact industry journalists and bloggers.
You can submit your press release through a website like PRWeb.com. And you may get some decent exposure in this fashion. But you’ll get even more coverage if you send the release to specific journalists, bloggers and publishers who cover your industry. Just send them a short email with the press release attached. Provide a link to the page on your website where you’ve published the survey results. If it’s an interesting survey, that’s all you have to do.
Original Research + Website Content = SEO Success
What’s the point of all this work? Why should jump through all of these hoops to conduct an online survey? For one thing, it will help you improve your search engine performance in the post-Panda world.
In May of 2011, Google engineer Amit Singhal explained how the so-called Panda update measures quality of content. He said: “if you want to step into Google’s mindset, the questions below provide some guidance on how we’ve been looking at the issue … Does the article [being considered] provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?”
This the type of content Google seeks to reward with its ranking algorithm. The online survey checks all of the boxes mentioned above. It provides original reporting, research and analysis. It’s an effective SEO content strategy in the post-Panda world.
