The Most Informative Article in My Niche

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I've Just Written the Most Informative Article in My Niche


Well, that's what Partha calls it, anyway.

Following his advice, I've created a skyscraper article of over 10,000 words, 30 heading-2 sub-articles and 31 images (one main one plus one for each sub-article).

Each of the sub-articles is taken from a "People Also Ask" heading in a Google search of the main article title, so they should represent stuff that real people are actually searching for.

Each one is illustrated by a related image.

Where appropriate, there are internal links to my own landing pages, which in turn contain affiliate links to products and there are also external links to authority sites such as Wikipedia.

The idea is for the article to gradually establish authority and to eventually rank for dozens of keywords.

It took me about a month to write, though doing plenty of other stuff at the same time and I intend to keep extending it on an ongoing basis with more and more People Also Ask headings. And probably add some video links.

I've just submitted it to GSC and hope it gets picked up for indexing quickly.

It was a lot of work but I look forward to a rewarding result.

Thanks again to Partha.

UPDATE:

The article has now been indexed in Google. It took about 3 hours!

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Recent Comments

107

Well done, a great achievement.
I have been trying to type one of these types of articles, but at the minute it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back.

I am relatively new here, and I am only building my first website which only has 30 posts as life got in the way for the past 3 months but getting back on track now

Quick question, do you add this type of pillar article to your blog with all your other posts on your website, or do you add it as a page?

Thanks this probably seems like a stupid question.

Thanks again

That's a very insightful question, Mairead.

I've added it as a blog post, as it's focused on one particular keyword (but the aim is to rank on many keywords eventually, as each paragraph is headed by a "People Also Ask" phrase).

Other than legals, my pages are landing pages promoting specific products. This allows my blog posts to use internal links, rather than affiliate links.

Thanks for the reply

That helps the thought process

Thanks again

You're welcome, Mairead.

I like these large articles that Partha spoke about - I have created a couple for two different websites and you can build out from them. The become the pillars of much more.

Congratulations on getting it done (they do take a while) and here is to many more.

Alex

Thanks for the encouragement, Alex. I'm about to do the same for 2 other websites now.

This is very interesting Phil. Please keep us updated on how the article is received by your readers. All the best. Jim

I will, Jim. Thanks.

Curious about one detail. Do you have a table of contents, and if so, do you keep it expanded?

Yes, after the opening paragraph there's a TOC listing the 30 sub-articles. It's permanently expanded.

Yep, always have the TOC expanded on LONG articles.

Okay, many people will say that you're writing for search engines, as opposed to your readers with really lomg articles.

This is actually true to SOME extent.

Basically, there's a lot more keywords that can potentially get picked up over the weeks, months, and years, which could obviously turn this type of article into a mammoth traffic monster.

Plus, you'll also generally hear that no-one will ever read an article that long.

Once more, this is essentially true, but not always the case, as it depends on the niche and the person.

I'm sure someone with a PhD visiting a 25,000-word article in an academic niche that interests them will have absolutely no problem reading through that article.

That said, the vast majority of people are not like this.

We are lazy, and we are mainly "scan readers".

Now, when it comes to someone viewing on mobile, it's unlikely that the TOC will be above the fold.

However, on mobile, people don't mind swiping, as it's EASY, it fits in well with their laziness.

When it comes to Desktop, obviously depending on the structure of your page, the TOC should usually show "above the fold".

Plus, people are more lazy about "scrolling" on a computer or laptop, as this may invvole using the mouse or the arrow buttons.

However, if the TOC is visible immediately, most people will automatically scan through it.

That's what most of us do, we "scan read".

This is also why in ALL of my articles I have a coloured block that is the "answer snippet".

People's eye will automatically be drawn to the coloured block as they "scan" through the page.

Understandably, due to our laziness as humans, probably 60% of people will scan, read a paragraph or two, especially if it answers the query posed in the title, then they' leave your website.

There's nothing you can do about that, you know for a fact that the VAST MAJORITY of people who visit your website aren't there for longer than a few seconds.

The beauty of a long article with a TOC is that most people will scan Phi's 30 subheadings, and then chosoe 2 or 3 that catch their eye and pique their interest.

They will then click on those particular subheadings to read the information that they want (so, ignoring the rest of the article).

However, people often get "stuck down the rabbit hole", in that they start scanning the page, pick something they want to read, then if it's piqued their interest, they read the next one, and then the one after that, and so on.

These people may even scroll back up the page again to look through the TOC to see if anything else specifically interests them.

As I say, this isn't always the case, and it will depend on niche and the person, but most people do "scan read"

"Is there anything on this page of interest to me?"

And this is where having the TOC expanded comes in so handy.

Partha

p.s. Fantastic job Phil, well done.

Thanks for all that information and reflection, Partha. The visitor can also click on something in the TOC that interests them, and the page will scroll up and take them directly to it.

Hi Partha, I told you I started a new site based on your approach. So I have one text with a TOC that has 36 items, quite a big block, though not as long text as Phill's.

But I have many earlier manually-made TOCs in my other sites, simple codes, sometimes with 70 items. So I have never been sure if this is good or not. They are with names of products which is not the case in this new site, so perhaps this was not bad in 'best of' type of posts. Sites used to work great. But nothing is good with such posts any longer so it does not matter.

Such manually made TOCs I cannot close as in the case with the one created with a plugin. This is why now I decided for the plugin.

By the way, all these plugins are made in a wrong way. They give itemization in a TOC, but they do not provide the corresponding items in the text's subtitles which is a must, you can see it in books for example. This makes no sense for navigation.

Now, in settings, this plugin-made TOC can only be expanded or not, but for all posts, so one cannot choose on post by post basis, or I do not see it.

But your first sentence perhaps indicates that this can be done for each post separately. The plugin is Easy Table of Contents. I guess I shall leave them expanded, the same as Phil did.

By the way, about PhD and long articles. In physics they are short, this is usually just a few 2-column pages. But then they are very condensed and every sentence is important. And they are not written in your style, so they are with ugly thick paragraphs and terribly long sentences. You would laugh to see some examples. Only review articles can be really big, those typically bring most citations for authors.

I use the TOC element that comes with Thrive Architect. You choose your style and what level of heading you want to include (all my sub-article headings are h2). It automatically displays the TOC with each menu item linked to the corresponding heading. When the visitor clicks on the item, the screen rolls up to the corresponding heading.

So this is the same as in the plugin. If the TOC has numbered items, the corresponding subheadings in the text are not numbered. I see this as bad for navigation and asked about it here at WA, but it appears that people do not see this as a problem.

In any case I have decided this time to use it as it is, it is simple and easy. In my other sites I have manually made TOCs, hundreds of them.

Sorry, I don't understand the issue. It's my choice as to whether I number the headings or not. Please explain further and I'll get back to you.

You can have itemization (numbers) in TOC added automatically, but this is not so with the corresponding subtitles in the text below. You have to add numbers in front of subtitles manually. Plugins should be able to add numbers automatically at both places, and this should be there for a better navigation. But it is not.

Imagine you have a list of 50 subtitles. Without numbers readers are lost.

Now imagine you want to add one more later, and let's say you want it on certain position in TOC. This is easy, it will be numbered automatically, all other numbers in TOC will be adjusted. But in the text below, you have to go through all subtitles and change the numbers below the added subtitle one by one.

I have hundreds of lists posts of that type, with numbered subtitles in the text. I do change them occasionally. It is annoying to change numbers manually, and I even make mistakes sometimes.

Thanks for the clarification, Jovo and for taking the time for such a clear explanation.

No problem, such itemization is always in scientific journals. Sections and subsections are numbered even if there is no TOC. I am a physicist and I am used to this.

This is because of reviewing procedure and also if you write a comment. You would then refer to section number X, subsection number Y, in sentence this and that you claim this and that, etc.

But when I ask about it for sites, people usually get surprised. This time I decided to go for plugin.

Great work Phil continue to strive and have been thinking of doing some longer posts than usual.
Continue to enjoy your Sunday

Andre

Thank you. Andre. Another lovely sunny day here.

Great to hear it was a sunny day this morning now we just got a downpour that lasted about 10 mins

Still sunny here but cooling down for the evening.

Enjoy the sun while it lasts

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