The Clever SEO Strategy That Every Niche Site Should Know About

If you're running a niche affiliate site, you're probably keeping an eye on your SEO.

Even if organic search traffic isn't your main source of leads and conversions, it's still a good idea to keep your content optimized. You might even surprise yourself by ranking for some longtail keywords.

There are numerous tactics and strategies involved in SEO, but there's one recent development that could help your site in a big way.

You've probably noticed that when you type certain kinds of queries into Google, especially in the form of a question, you'll see your answer in big text right at the top.

This is called “Google Rich Answers,” and it's something for which you can optimize your content with a few simple tweaks. Being featured at the top for niche questions can be a great thing, and it will increase the number of click-throughs you get from the SERPs.

To do this, you want to craft your content in a particular way, which makes it more likely to be featured. These refinements to your content structure can also add value for your audience.

Even if SEO is an afterthought rather than a primary concern, there are some important takeaways here for how to structure user-friendly content that answers a question.

Optimize for Google Rich Answers to Drive Additional Traffic

You’ve seen Google Rich Answers right?

The boxed answer that appears on top of Google’s search results when your query is a question.

[image source: Niche Hacks]
It has been around for a while, but marketers are now truly understanding its potential.

Making it to the rich answers box for a high traffic keyword can result in thousands of additional visitors.

But that’s not the only benefit.

Studies suggest that Google shows rich answers more frequently for voice searches as compared to text queries.

And every voice result starts with a brand name reference to the source site.

For example, if NicheHacks makes it to the rich answers snippet, the voice result will start like this

“According to NicheHacks……”

A huge branding opportunity!

Source: Link Assistant Blog

Over 50% of US teens and 41% of US adults use voice search every day.

So the rich answers snippet can prove to be a traffic goldmine in the coming years.

But here’s the real question.

How do you make it to the featured rich answers box?

Convince & Convert ran an experiment to find out just that and here’s what their study found.

Pages on your website that are already in the top 10 results have a much higher chance of making it to the featured answers box.

There’s already too much competition for common questions, so the real opportunity lies in going niche.

Identify the questions your audience is asking and create content that clearly answers them.

The structure of your content is the key.

Mention the question in the heading or a subheading on your page and answer it in clear terms in the body text.

It can be in the form of bulleted points or a single passage.

For example, here’s the answer I got when I searched for “What is internet marketing”.

[image source: Niche Hacks]
When I clicked the source page, this is what I found

[image source: Niche Hacks]
Ultimately, Google’s algorithms decide which results to feature in the rich answers box.

But if your site has a few high ranking pages, try refining the content structure to give it the best possible chance of making it to featured answers.