How To Expand On Listicles With In-depth Content

If you've spent any amount of time on the internet over the last ten years, you must be familiar with the listicle, an internet stable and social media darling over the last decade. Even if you need to become more familiar with the term, you will indeed have visited one or two of these content formats in your internet journeys.

Listicles are a popular type of content that is both informative and engaging; they usually take a topic and break it down into short, bite-sized formats that those browsing social media feeds will love to click on.

Listicles usually have a number of and a hook to get you to click on them, and they can turn out to be anything from a collage of photos and tweets to a long high-level analysis of a topic or time frame.

If you're annoyed with the amount of articles using this format, you're not alone; as they gained popularity, they became a watered-down format for clickbait and garnered a bad reputation, but despite this, the listicle is not going away because they still work.

Listicles might have been designed to capture bored readers on Facebook, but they have evolved over the years, and they are also a great way to improve your website's SEO.

The BuzzFeed-ification of the internet

We all love our daily dose of the internet, that one piece of content that captures the imagination for the day and gets shared all across various social media apps, instant messaging apps and, of course, picks up a whole lot of search volume as people hear about this next viral sensation.

In the earlier days of the internet, the viral pick of the day was heavily influenced by the organic traction of the masses finding something shocking or funny.

Then came BuzzFeed, the new media site that looked at all things trendy on social media and turned it into a product of its very own to engineer virality for itself.

To give you an idea of the type of success we're talking about, the top-performing post on BuzzFeed generated around 13 million views. When you're pulling in numbers of that size, you're going to double down that formula until it croaks.

The trend is your friend.

By now, we can all accept that Listicles work to generate traffic, but not all listicles are created equal. When crafting one of these behemoths, you must decide your end goal: what do you want the user to do?

In BuzzFeed's case, they focused on views to serve ads and getting others to reshare it to drive more views, so their content doesn't always have to be filled with in-depth research but rather something that triggers the readers' emotions.

If you're not a news or ad-serving website, that might not be the right approach for you; getting views is one thing, but if no one ends up converting into a lead funnel or an eCommerce purchase, then what exactly was the point of the exercise?

In short, the trend does work, but it doesn't mean it will work for you; this isn't some brainless attempt at content creation, so there has to be a method to your madness.

Get your list going.

If you're going to use listicles as a content strategy for B2B or B2C commerce, you're going to need to look at either appealing to features, benefits or points.

Customers are actively searching for content that helps them:

• Diagnose my issue
• Relate to my issues
• Solve my issue
• Give me options for my issues

If you're an expert in your field, you'll know what that is; in my case, it's marketing, and if you're reading this article, it's because you're interested in content marketing.

To start your listicle journey, you'll need to build a framework.

• Choose the right keywords. The first step is to choose the right keywords for your listicle. Use keyword research tools to find keywords that are relevant to your topic and have a good search volume.
• Optimise your title, meta description, header tags, and captions. Your title and meta description should be optimised for the keywords you have chosen. Make sure to include your keywords in the title and meta description, and make sure that the title and meta description are accurate and informative.
• Structure your listicle well. Use headings and subheadings to structure your listicle well. This will make it easier for readers to scan your listicle and find the information they are looking for.
• Use images, videos, and social media post embeds. Images and videos can make your listicle more visually appealing and engaging. They can also help to improve your SEO. Make sure to use relevant images and videos, and make sure to include alt text for your images.
• Write informative and engaging content. People who read this type of content are not looking for long explanations, and big bodies of text will put them off, so you can either break up text with headings, images, gifs, social media embeds, etc. or try to keep it high-level and save the in-depth information for a complimentary article.
• Pull in social proof. Another way of beefing up your posts and making them unique is showcasing customer testimonials or projects you've completed.

Once you have your framework, you can decide if you're going to build

• One mega listicle.
• Break down your listicle into a series.
• Create localised versions.
• Create versions based on different user groups.

Sorting out your headlines

Listicles are all about getting people through the door to click on your site and to do it with massive volume, and your first point of contact will be your page title and your description; this will handle your SEO, but if possible, you should also customise your open-graph tags for Meta, Twitter/X and Pinterest for rich pins.

Once you have the correct markups in place, consider how your title will appeal to your user and base it on the following guide:

• Use a number in the title. Listicles with numbers in the title tend to rank better in search engines.
• Keep your list of items concise and to the point. Each list item should be one or two sentences long.
• Use links to other relevant content. Linking to other relevant content on your website will help to improve your SEO.
• Promote your listicle on social media. Sharing your listicle on social media will help to increase traffic to your website and improve your SEO.

Additional tips for Listicle performance

Organise your content effectively

Listicles are all about organisation. Use clear headings and subheadings for each item on your list. This not only makes your content more scannable for readers but also helps search engines understand the structure of your article. Use H1 tags for the main title and H2, H3, etc., tags for subheadings.

High-quality content is key

Each item on your list should provide value to the reader. Don't sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. In-depth, informative, and well-researched content performs better in search engine rankings. Include relevant statistics, examples, and practical advice to support each point.

So, the least you can do is review competing articles for those keywords and try to provide more value, richer research, updated stats, and unique information where you could become the future reference for that claim.

Optimise for featured snippets

Google often displays featured snippets at the top of search results. To optimise for featured snippets, format your listicle in a way that Google can easily pull information from it.

This includes using concise explanations and bullet points, italics or bolding content where applicable, and in some cases, you might need to include tables.

Use engaging media

Incorporate images, infographics, videos, and other media to make your listicle visually appealing. Ensure that your media is relevant to the content and properly optimised with alt text and descriptive file names. Visual content can enhance user engagement, which can indirectly benefit your SEO.

Mobile-friendly design

As an increasing number of users access content on mobile devices, it's essential to ensure your listicle is mobile-friendly. Responsive design and fast-loading pages are crucial for SEO rankings.

Internal and external linking

Include both internal links (links to other pages on your website) and external links (links to reputable sources) within your listicle. This not only enhances the user experience but also signals to search engines that your content is well-researched and connected to other valuable resources.

Promote and share

After publishing your listicle, promote it through social media, email newsletters, and other marketing channels. The more exposure your content gets, the more likely it is to attract backlinks, which are a significant factor in SEO.

Monitor and update

SEO is an ongoing process. Regularly monitor the performance of your listicle using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console. If you notice declining rankings or engagement, consider updating and improving your content to stay relevant.

Turn your lists into a content funnel.

In the world of content marketing, it will hardly be the case that a user will read your content and immediately purchase; your article will be the first step in a series of touch points that can eventually lead to a purchase.

Listicles have become a popular and effective format for presenting information. Listicles are easy to read, visually appealing, and tend to perform well in terms of engagement, but they are often awful for conversion and either businesses stop using them for that fact, or they fail to capitalise on the traffic they do get.

This is where expansion and mid-content funnelling come in.

Clicks to conversions

You should get to the point where anyone else would quit, and you're not gonna stop there. No, what are you waiting for? JUST DO IT!

The real secret sauce of Listicles is to get people through the door and then start to profile them into different buckets. Creating a listicle that not only engages your audience but also ranks well in search engine results requires some strategic thinking and optimisation, but believe me, that's the easy part; the next part is where most marketers give up.

The next part of the process is to review your listicle, look at the scroll depth, look at the dwell time and then, from there, pick out the points in your list that get the most traction and create a dedicated in-depth piece on that point.

Once it's completed, update your listicle to reference that piece and repeat the process for each step in order of importance.

This will not only make your content execution easy since you already know in advance what you're going to be researching and creating, but it also builds a solid internal backlink profile for your listicle to give it some extra juice.

While that is all good and dandy, the real magic comes when you notice the few that hit your listicles start to click through to the in-depth articles. these are your customers, these are the interested parties, and these are the visits you want to drive to conversion be that

• Signing up for a newsletter
• Scheduling a call/meeting
• Completing a form
• Driving a purchase

And, at the very least, using those next step click-throughs to build a solid retargeting campaign.

In conclusion, listicle-style content can be a valuable asset for your website's SEO strategy when done right. By selecting the right topic, creating high-quality content, and optimising for SEO, you can improve your listicle's chances of ranking well in search engine results and attracting a broader audience.

But if you're not willing to expand on it and lead listicle readers away from the fluff into something more serious, you're only going to drive high bounce rates and lose out on possible conversions.

Please give us your take.

So, have you noticed a change in search results steering you to specific information? How are you dealing with it? Let us know in the comments below.

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Recommended reading

If you enjoyed this post and have a little extra time to dive deeper down the rabbit hole, why not check out the following posts on SEO and search updates.

• Google Launches Neural Matching Algorithm
• Is Pushing Live Too Many Pages Risky For SEO
• Why Ranking #1 Does Not Always Equal Improved Leads or Sales
• 10 Reasons Why Your Site Doesn't Rank For *Insert Keyword*
• Google Trial More Related Searches On Mobile
• Google Launches Expandable Featured Snippets

Tags: SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Online Marketing