How Databricks Uses a Keyword Glossary Strategy to Drive Organic Traffic

What do you do when you don’t understand a word or phrase?

With over 9 billion searches happening daily, you probably Google it.

In fact, people use search engines so much that “Googling” and “Google it” are now used to describe the act of searching for information on the internet.

Considering that a significant percentage of people use search engines as a dictionary, it’s a no-brainer for you to create glossary pages — especially if you use a lot of industry-specific terms or jargon.

And that’s exactly what the team at Databricks did. We like to call it the keyword glossary strategy.

This keyword glossary strategy has played a significant role in helping Databricks achieve:

• A $38 billion valuation.
• Over 6,000 customers.
• More than half of their website’s value.

This case study will take a deeper look into how Databricks built out its glossary pages to attract a lot of traffic and prospects in the cloud data niche. And, more importantly, how you can do the same too.

Building an SEO Moat Through Glossary Pages

The glossary keyword strategy is the process of creating glossary pages — landing pages that define specific terms around your niche or industry — to serve prospects looking for information.

Unlike B2B SaaS brands in popular spaces like project management, marketing, or sales, the Databricks team is in a rather niche market: AI and Big Data analytics. As such, they don’t have the luxury of having keyword terms with thousands of monthly searches. What companies like Databricks do have going for them are the many industry-specific terms with which few people are familiar.

For instance, imagine you’re reading a guide on data storage systems and you come across the term ACID transactions. Unfortunately, you don’t know what it means, and since it’s an industry-specific term, your dictionary is of no help. 

Where do you turn?

You type the words into Google, and the first result is this glossary page from Databricks that perfectly defines the term.

The glossary keyword strategy helps Databricks rank for over 14,000 industry-specific terms.

Here’s a look at the scorecard for Databricks’ glossary page.

Compared to the numbers their competitors pull, you can tell that Databricks is leading the pack. For instance, Databricks’ glossary — not their whole website — attracts more organic traffic than the entire website of competitors like Qubole and Dremio.

That’s bonkers when you think about it.

Let’s now consider why Databricks create glossary pages and why you should do the same.

Educate & Convert Prospects

When you pick up a dictionary, you want to learn the meaning of a new word. Similarly, when people look for industry-specific terms, it’s because they want to learn more about the topic.

The Databricks team understands the informational intent behind the searches people make and so they’re able to provide valuable content that matches that intent.

Since it’s unlikely people searching for these terms want to satisfy a transactional intent, Databricks does well not to overly promote their products. Instead, they provide high-level content that satisfies the curiosity of prospects.

For instance, Databricks ranks for the term “ETL,” which has over $122,400 in traffic value and generates 8,600 in organic traffic.

The page goes into detail to answer the reader’s questions about ETL. Then, as readers scroll farther down the page, they’re met with a simple CTA that encourages them to create a free account with Databricks.

Even though the content is for prospects at the top of the sales funnel, including the CTA at the bottom of the page serves as a non-intrusive chance for conversion.

To run some numbers, let’s assume this page has a conversion rate of 3%. With 8,600 in monthly traffic, 258 people sign up for Databricks every month.

That’s not a bad return from a single piece of content.