Creating content that's not keyword-based?

[TomSnow]

I'm redesigning a Spanish site that will need an informational articles section.

This section should be siloed out by different categories and sub-categories. Easier for users to find info that's specific to their problem.

But in the Spanish SERPs, there aren't as many keywords, so I don't have enough keyword-based topics to fill the sub-categories with.

At the moment I have my three parent topics, and a bunch of children topics falling under each. But ideally it would go parent>child>grandchild (That's how similar sites do it on the English side).

Should I:

A) Base ALL my info articles on keywords, sacrificing cleaner, more granular siloing

B) Create content that's not necessarily based on keywords, in order to have a cleanly organized hub page that breaks down into categories and sub-categories.

Thanks!

[dennisjensen]

Use the keywords that you've got, and then go for B. I'm in a line of business, where there's no lack of keywords, but I still instruct my copywriters to write the good, user-oriented, qualitative text.

If you don't mind. The lack of Spanish keywords, has that got to do with lack of language skills? Maybe hook up with a local agency to perform a KW analysis? If, you didn't already.

[LifeinAsia]

Create content that's not necessarily based on keywords

Not exactly sure what you mean by this.

If people are interested in a topic, there will obviously be related keywords. If people aren't interested in a topic, then it's probably not worth wasting time writing content for it.

If you mean there aren't any high-paying keywords that advertisers are paying for, that's a different story.

[TomSnow]

@lifeinasia

I meant is there value in having content that's about my site's main topic, but that has no keyword volume.

I'm wondering if that will help build topical relevancy that will ultimately make me a subject matter expert in Google's eyes.

@dennisjensen

Thanks! We have Spanish speakers on the team. There just aren't many informational keywords in this niche. I'm building out evergreen articles that fall under my three main sub-topics.

There are plenty of transactional keywords.

[tangor]

While keywords remain a mantra (for a few good reasons, not many) they aren't the be all end all for NAVIGATION/CONTENT INDEX pages. Use what is correct, to the point, and helps the user find the content ... and let the ARTICLES deal with the "keywords".

[martinibuster]

I create models of who the users are then write to them. Instead of keywords, I focus on needs, and cataloging the how, what, where, and when type questions.

Also, keywords are evolving. Natural language searching with lots of "me" type queries are trending.

It's almost like public speaking, where the best advice I ever received on it is to focus on two to four people in the audience who represent different areas of the space in front of you, then speak directly at them. Many people have remarked that they felt as if I were speaking directly to them, when in fact I'd been focusing on someone else entirely.

Newbs are typically money. Can never go broke answering newb questions.

So instead of focusing on keywords, focus on understanding what people typically need in terms of accomplishing what they need, then create that content in text, images and video. Podcast it if applicable and makes sense.

[TomSnow]

@tangor

Thanks! I'm referring to keywords for articles in this instance.

@martinibuster

Ok will do! Thanks!