Hi Guys
I need your opinion on this one!
We have a topic, or even some topics, which is ranking really good SEO-wise, but all the visits this topic gets, is nearly “lost”, due to the fact, that the content in this topic is nonhelpful. But the title of this thread is probably what makes the topic popular at the Google search engine.
We’ve tried to redirect the traffic by linking to another topic, which has a wide topic of knowledge and better content, but it seems like, that the users are not visiting the link we’ve put in.
So here’s the question:
How can we benefit of this really good SEO-ranked topic, when the content is not helpful?
Would you suggest to fill in our content to this thread - even though it’s not related to the actual topic (which is an really old topic), or should we make a new topic with a title similar to this old one and wait till the SEO-ranking gets better over time (which will not help here and now or maybe not for a long time).
Looking forward to hearing from you! And thanks!
Nonhelpful topic is ranking really good, but has no good content. How make benefit of this topic?
Best answer by Julian
Hi Kasper,
thanks for sharing your feedback here!
Good that you are analyzing this, not all communities are doing that and are missing out on opportunities in my opinion.
Reminds me one of the top performing threads on my previous community: Customers were searching for a newer version of a discontinued product and ended up in a thread that did not help them really. Back then we did not do much with it, but today I would do the following, especially when the topic is already this old:
Open the topic in the Control environment, and edit the starting post. In the editor in the Control environment, you can actually make use of callouts (found next to the “Paragraph” drop-down menu). Choose a color that suits your brand, and fill the callout with an official note, including a link to a better topic. It could look something like this:
Note from company name: This topic is outdated and probably will not help you much. Visit this topic to learn all about our mail product in this topic: https://community.insided.com/got-a-question-38/nonhelpful-topic-is-ranking-really-good-but-has-no-good-content-how-make-benefit-of-this-topic-2157
I think this is the most elegant way to do it without interrupting the user experience too much. Be as clear as possible what content can be expected after the link, this increases the likelihood of someone clicking on it.
I personally am also not a big fan of editing / replacing customer content, as you more or less are putting words into the mouth of your customers. Even if the “risk” is low, you don’t want your users to feel manipulated or cheated, in a sense. So I hope the above will help you improving the situation.
+2My initial question would be: What is the topic about?
- About a product your company sells or no longer sells
- About an issue with a product that many customers face and that has a solution or no solution
- About criticism regarding your company or a product
- something else
Based on that there are different possible ways to go.
Hi
Thank you for replying.
The topic is about our email product. We can see from Google, that this particular topic is ranking really high.
People visit this topic to find help but don’t find any.
+2What stops you from making the content of the topic helpful? I.e., do you know what answers the users are looking for when they find you via Google? And can you provide these answers? Then you could either edit the topic or post a comment (and mark it as “solution” or pin it to the top) to give users the answers.
If you can’t provide the information they are looking for and trying to redirect the users by linking to another topic doesn’t work, then maybe you could implement a “technical” redirect, meaning you automatically forward all users who want to access this URL to the URL you want to guide them to.
But without knowing more details about it, I don’t know if that is in any way helpful to you.
First and foremost thank you for trying to helping me. I really appreciate it! 
Nothings is really stopping us, but I was in doubt of, what was the best solution and forum “etiquette” if you will.
We don’t know what the customers are looking for, but I’m working on some material, which is covering wide, regarding some common subjects about our mail product.
I was wondering if it was okay to completely edit the topic completely and just “hijack” the customers thread, even though it is 6 years old.
My first idea was also to just post a comment and mark it as best answer. Should you then tell the course of doing so at the top of my comment?
How is a technical redirect done?
+5Hi Kasper,
thanks for sharing your feedback here!
Good that you are analyzing this, not all communities are doing that and are missing out on opportunities in my opinion.
Reminds me one of the top performing threads on my previous community: Customers were searching for a newer version of a discontinued product and ended up in a thread that did not help them really. Back then we did not do much with it, but today I would do the following, especially when the topic is already this old:
Open the topic in the Control environment, and edit the starting post. In the editor in the Control environment, you can actually make use of callouts (found next to the “Paragraph” drop-down menu). Choose a color that suits your brand, and fill the callout with an official note, including a link to a better topic. It could look something like this:
Note from company name: This topic is outdated and probably will not help you much. Visit this topic to learn all about our mail product in this topic: https://community.insided.com/got-a-question-38/nonhelpful-topic-is-ranking-really-good-but-has-no-good-content-how-make-benefit-of-this-topic-2157
I think this is the most elegant way to do it without interrupting the user experience too much. Be as clear as possible what content can be expected after the link, this increases the likelihood of someone clicking on it.
I personally am also not a big fan of editing / replacing customer content, as you more or less are putting words into the mouth of your customers. Even if the “risk” is low, you don’t want your users to feel manipulated or cheated, in a sense. So I hope the above will help you improving the situation.
Hi
Thank you very much for your take on how to do this the best way!
Have a great day both of you
+5Awesome, happy to hear that, you too! :)
Reply
Sign up
If you ever had a profile with us, there's no need to create another one.
Don't worry if your email address has since changed, or you can't remember your login, just let us know at community@gainsight.com and we'll help you get started from where you left.
Else, please continue with the registration below.
Welcome to the Gainsight Community
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.