Let’s talk about the SEO benefits of having a glossary on your business site.
No doubt the search intent here is informational, meaning unless you’re targeting users that seek knowledge – it will not always be relevant to your target audience and yet I highly recommend business owners to use it, or at least test it.
Why should you have a glossary on your site?
First is E-A-T: Explaining industry-specific terms will not only help you to be perceived as an expert, but it will also contribute to your business authority and trustworthiness.
Second, this is a great opportunity to rank on long tail phrases such as “what is [$term]” or “[$term] definition”.
One may think this kind of long tails are low in search volume but that’s not always the case.
“What is a/b testing” for example has ~3K searches a month while “agile definition” enjoys 27K searches a month – both are terms taken from the truly awesome glossary by ProductPlan.
By the way, based on SEMrush data, ProductPlan’s glossary brings more than 70% (!!!) of the organic traffic to productpaln’s website which is 171,000 visits a month!!!
Third, a database of industry-specific terms makes it easier to add internal links to your site pages.
So… Now that you understand the benefits, let’s discuss how you should do it.
How to create the best glossary, SEO wise?
- Create a list
The obvious first step will be to create a list of terms and check their search volume, but I would like you to put search volume aside. If you wish your users to see you as an expert, provide them with the info they need, even if it’s not the most hot or trendy topic out there.
- Explore search results
Once you have this list – check the search results for each term.
If the first search result page is full with dictionary pages and you have nothing unique or useful to add – skip this term (save it to a different content format, i.e. a thought leadership piece). - Create a unique format for your content
For cases where you do have something to add, create a unique format for your content.
Even if you follow the basic glossary structure of “What is [$term] and why is [$term] important”, you should always add your unique thingy, whether it’s your opinion, your experience or your product relevance to the topic.Investopedia’s glossary is a winning example.
Look for example on this page about balance sheet – it is a wonderful mix of great explanatory content with complementary images, videos, examples and even “fast facts”.
Please note, in order not to cannibalize other pieces of content on your site, you shouldn’t target the same terms for your glossary page and your blog posts.
Last tip?
Don’t bind yourself to this idea of having a glossary unless you see good results.
I created several glossaries for my clients – some were a huge success while others were not. In the second case we tested all kinds of things, ending with converting the glossary pages to posts, which, surprisingly, did way better!
Bottom line: you should always put your ideas to the test.
If they work – rinse and repeat.
If not – adjust and change.
