As the digital marketing industry continues to evolve, we as search marketers must stay ahead of the curve. This means switching up our traditional content strategies and utilising new technologies. Interactive content has emerged as an important tool for both enhancing user engagement and boosting SEO. In this blog, we’ll look into how involving our users in our content can lead to a higher search performance.
What is interactive content?
Simply, interactive content is any content that requires active participation from users and includes things like quizzes, polls, surveys, calculators, interactive infographics, and more. Instead of being passive consumers, our audience is invited to actively engage with the content they’re viewing. This hopes to provide more value for the user which ultimately benefits the brand presenting the content. It can also be used to gain insights into an audience’s preferences and behaviours.
Why is interactive content useful for SEO?
- Increased engagement metrics: When users are interacting with content, they’re likely to increase metrics such as dwell time – the amount of time a user spends on a webpage before returning to search results. This is a critical SEO factor and helps signal to search engines that the content is relevant and informative.
- Lower bounce rates: Similarly, having engaging content encourages longer stays on a site, which means that fewer users will leave the site without interacting with it, which has a negative impact on search rankings. Engaged users are also more likely to explore the site further.
- Social sharing: In general, interactive content tends to be more shareable, because other people can join in with the content too. A fun quiz or engaging poll is far more likely to be shared on social media, increasing the brand’s reach and traffic.
- Improved user experience: A good user experience is a key factor in improving our search performance, and interactive content really helps with this. For instance, a well-designed interactive element can make complicated information more digestible and engaging, leading to higher satisfaction and return visits.
How to use interactive content for user engagement
- Understand your audience: Before you can start creating the right content, you must identify your user’s interests and preferences. Ways of finding out more about what your audience wants include surveys, customer feedback and discourse on social media. This can help you to understand which types of interactive content will be best for reaching your desired audience.
- Choose the right type of interactive content: Similarly, once you know what your audience wants, you can select the right type of content that will engage them, and align with your business goals. For instance, those trying to generate leads may choose a different type of content than those who want to educate their audience. The right option will be unique to each brand.
- Optimise for SEO: Just as we would with any other content, we should always be correctly optimising interactive content for search engines. This includes all the key recommendations like using relevant keywords in titles, descriptions, and metadata and ensuring that the interactive elements are mobile-friendly and have fast loading times, as these factors can significantly impact SEO performance.
- Promote your interactive content: Once the content is live, you can start to promote it across your digital channels. The more exposure your content gets, through things like social media shares and email newsletter broadcasts, the more opportunities it has to attract engagement and backlinks.
Need a hand making a start?
Utilising interactive content is more than just a trend; it’s a powerful strategy for boosting SEO and enhancing user engagement. But if you’re not sure where to start, or are struggling to understand your audience’s needs, get in touch and let our team of experts help out.