The strategy known as Bedrock SEO, envisioned by Liberty Tax’s David Schaefer, was developed with the intention of predicting Google’s objectives and developing a methodology that will provide searchers what they want, every step of the search process. These five principals helped develop the strategy:
- Search engines are moving towards predictive results
- Search engines are using ranking factors other than links
- Different searches reflect different searcher intentions
- Search Engines are moving towards personalized search
- Search engines give semantic results
Mining for Gold
Gold is most often found fifty feet or deeper in the Earth, and in order to get to that ideal depth miners must first drill or dig. Drilling for gold is not a blind shot in the dark, however; pathfinder elements, or elements found in the same general area as gold, are first found in order to identify the best place to dig. A study in Ghana, for instance, found that gold often clusters with copper, iron, lead, and manganese. So, in order to get to the gold, miners also have to dig through these elements. What’s this have to do with SEO? I’ll tell you.
Quality content is now an extremely important aspect of search marketing and can bring additional visitors to a website via landing pages or blog posts. Bedrock SEO looks to create content for every stage of the funnel, thereby predicting a searcher’s intent every step of the search process.
Content pieces should therefore be created in threes: one for the top of the funnel, one for the middle of the funnel, and one for the bottom of the funnel, all linked to each other. Here’s an example:
Joe, a smart guy and decent do-it-yourselfer, has returned home from work to find his house is freezing cold because his furnace went out. Naturally, his first instinct is to fix it himself, so he searches “broken furnace” online. In this case, he would receive an article entitled “8 Furnace Warning Signs” on HomeEnergyCenter.com. He’s at the top of the funnel, in the information gathering phase. From this post, he identifies that his thermocouple is broken, so he then conducts a middle of the funnel search for “how to fix a furnace thermocouple.” Notice that the keyword phrase is now much longer, as longer queries generally represent lower phases of the funnel. He finds an article entitled “Replace a Furnace Thermocouple” on About.com. He reads the article, decides it’s better to hire a repair person, and searches “furnace thermocouple repair company”, a bottom of the funnel search query.
Bedrock SEO is designed to develop a brand throughout the funnel process by creating content for each phase. If bedrocking for the above example, these three posts and pages would be recommended:
- Search Query: “broken furnace”
Stage of Funnel: Top
Potential Blog Post: “10 Reasons Why Your Furnace Broke” - Search Query: “how to replace a thermocouple”
Stage of Funnel: Middle
Potential Blog Post: “How to Replace a Thermocouple” - Search Query: “thermocouple replacement services”
Stage of Funnel: Bottom
Potential Site Page: “Thermocouple Replacement Services”
The above content chain only provides the solution to one problem, however—the first article lists ten reasons the furnace broke, so additional chains such as the following can be created:
- Search Query: “broken furnace”
Stage of Funnel: Top
Potential Blog Post: “10 Reasons Why Your Furnace Broke” - Search Query: “furnace electrical problems repair”
Stage of Funnel: Middle
Potential Blog Post: “5 Electrical Problems with Furnaces and Their Solutions” - Search Query: “buy furnace baltimore md”
Stage of Funnel: Bottom
Potential Site Page: “Furnaces for Sale and Installation”
Note that the second chain begins with the same initial search query, so that content does not need to be rewritten. Also note that the first two pieces of content in the chain are blog posts, while the final is a site page.
By creating content for each phase of the funnel, you’re effectively branding your company throughout the sales process. This predictive process works on the assumption that users would rather stay on one site to receive their answer than visit many sites. A predictive search engine would, in theory, be able to understand user intent, as well as common end of funnel solutions to their initial query. Most likely, search engines already understand the stages of the search process, and would prefer to deliver content that aligns with its own predictions, and content they know will ultimately give the user the solution they need.
Linking each piece of content to the next and previous stages of the chain is crucial, allowing crawlers to get to each page and associate one with the other. By establishing pathfinding content, you can steer customers in the direction of your golden piece of content, which will ultimately provide the solution they’re looking for.
