When you build an agency, the one thing that you need to do is you need to team up with the right people to boost its growth. The only way to grow from being a start-up to a multi-millionaire company is through staffing and resourcing.
But if you want to reach the appropriate crowd for your company, you should have in-depth knowledge of SEO. In this blog post, you will see the how an organization is structured and in what ways you can get your agency become one of the top names in the organic search rankings.
How to Build the Organization Structure?
When you start an organization, you cannot recruit people to handle different departments. The thing about a start-up is that you need to handle everything on your own. Starting from service delivery to finance, you need to know all the departments.
If you are starting the agency with a few other people, then that is all the help you will get. In the beginning, your agency will not have the required funds to hire different people suitable for the job.
As your agency keeps expanding, you need to establish different departments. It would be hard for you to manage the work alone. You will need people for service execution, management, sales, marketing, finance, and other responsibilities.
When to Start Hiring?
As a recruiter, if you are unsure of when to start hiring, then the right answer to this would be the moment when you feel overwhelmed with the workload. Remember, hiring someone means you are investing in your company. If you can make that kind of investment, then you can start the process.
What Position to Hire For First?
There is no hard and fast rule as to which position you need to fill first. The choice for this would be different for every agency. The entire process depends on your requirement.
To be on the safe side, you can recruit people for the managerial position since they take over most of the tasks that are needed to run an agency. If you are not comfortable doing SEO related work, then you can get an analyst.
When you divide the responsibilities between different people, then you can focus on more important tasks that need your attention specifically.
Where Should You Hire From – Local, Offshore, or Outsource?
You can choose different talents in different positions. Do not offshore talent for a full role and just give them specific tasks that you need to be finished within a deadline. If you need people for communication-related tasks, then you should get local people.
Any communication position should be filled with people who know the local language and are based in your office location. Do not attempt to take in offshore talent for communications. You can outsource people for bookkeeping and finance if you wish.
What To Look For In The People?
This depends on the person that you are choosing and the kind of organizational culture that you want to build. While some people like to keep the environment strictly work-related, some people want their employees to have a fun and engaging work experience.
Make sure that the person you choose has similar personality traits as you. This will help in better communication between you and your staff. Also, keep into account the experience and knowledge of the people.
Where Can You Find The Right People?
(Source : Google Images)
Recruiting technology has broadened the channels from where you can appoint people. There are many social media channels, such as LinkedIn, and job hunting sites such as Upwork and other networking events. You will find people everywhere since they are always looking for jobs. You can also integrate personality tests during the hiring process to ensure a cultural fit and effective communication within your expanding organization.
How To Rank Your Agency Higher?
Search Engine Optimization is not just adding keywords in blog posts; you can also use it as an effective marketing strategy. If you want to recruit people, you’ll have to make sure that people see you. Working on your on-page and off-page SEO will drive traffic to your website and help your staffing agency show up higher on the search engine results page. Here are some ways in which you can use SEO strategies to improve your agency’s visibility:
Use on-page SEO: On-page SEO includes doing proper keyword research and understanding which keywords are the right ones for potential clients to reach you. You should place the keywords strategically in the page title, meta description, blogs, etc. Just ensure you are not stuffing the page, and you can make it to the first page of Google.
Leverage off-page SEO: On the other hand, off page SEO encompasses strategies to get organic traffic to your website from different platforms and mediums, such as backlinks, social media sites, guest posts, forums, etc.
Evaluate your SEO metrics: As a recruiting agency, you should know the essential metrics that can be useful for you to determine your target audience. Each metric is different and will work differently for various purposes. Like click-through rate, it works mainly for images. So, you need to learn the metrics to help you achieve a high place on SERPs.
Develop content: Generate quality content at the right time and with the right keywords to show up in the search results, and that will ensure that it reaches the right job seekers.
Check analytics report: Constantly check which keywords bring traffic to your page and continuously optimize it to reach your goals. Keep track of your page’s ranking on SERP and make improvements as recommended.
Endnotes
So now you must know how to rule the search queries to reach the appropriate candidates and employ the best people for your business. SEO is one of the best strategies to leverage in online marketing. It helps you build trust and credibility not only with your target audience but also with the search engines.
By using these strategies and knowing when to use them, your staffing agency can definitely be listed higher on Google searches. If you want to know more about SEO services, you can always contact us, and we’ll provide you with the best SEO solutions to help you be visible online.
FAQ
What is SEO staffing?
SEO for staffing agencies can assist in improving a site’s organic traffic and help build brand awareness. This can lead to improved lead generation and get more clients.
How is SEO helpful for recruiters?
Recruitment SEO helps recruiters when search engines like Google evaluate and rank sites according to their set algorithms. You can use the strategies we’ve mentioned to improve your online visibility and rankings to ensure your site ranks highly.
Why is SEO important for recruiters?
When recruitment agencies don’t work on their SEO, they won’t be able to reach suitable candidates or attract new clients. SEO for recruiters allows those thousands of applicants who carry out a job search on Google or Yahoo to contact the recruiting business and get started with their new job.
To find our foothold in the digital market, we need to understand the strategies of our competitors and assess them with ours. This does not mean that we will conduct a comparison of our website with that of our competitors.
To run an analysis of your competitors, you need to find the right ones. Whether they are your direct competitors or indirect ones, you need to be sure that they are the ones that you should be looking at.
Link prospecting is the competitive analysis technique used by websites to find new web pages where they can find a link. These link sources are then linked back to their web pages to increase their rankings. To find the relevant links, you can use different tools or strategies that would help you find high-quality backlinks.
The most common way to find the right backlinks for your website is through keyword searches in Google. Here you can find many relevant links that would ensure that your website finds itself at the top of the link rank. But this is not an easy feat at all.
There are many different steps to reach the top of the game, and that is what we will cover in this module. Link building is a major part of link prospecting. Here we will learn the ins and outs of links building and the steps that you could take to build the right links.
What Is Link Building?
Link building is the process through which you can acquire links from other websites to yours. Google crawls through the web using links, and they will crawl links between different websites and also between the web pages of your website.
The links will be assessed by the search engine to check their popularity. The more searches or votes a link has, the higher they will be ranked. When the rank of the link is high, the parameter for link building will be the domain quality and domain relevancy from where the link is derived.
For the good ranking of your website, link building is a necessary step that you should take. If your website is ranked well, then you will appear on top of the search results. When people search for a relevant keyword related to your website, the search results will display your website, and this will generate more traffic.
Links are currently one of the topmost ranking factors used by Google. The search engine continuously crawls the different kinks, determining the quality of the content that is present in those links, and ranking them accordingly. Not that just, the number of quality external links that are associated with your website will also be taken into consideration while ranking.
Authority – Link Quality
Authority is one of the major factors that affect the SEO performance of your website. There are three different levels of authority – page authority, domain authority, and links authority. These three levels together showcase the trustworthiness of a website and the attention that it needs.
Domain authority is the indicator using which the ability of a domain to rank is measured. The sum of the authority of all the web pages in the website is calculated to understand the ranking capability. There are two factors on which domain authority is based – age & trust and popularity.
Page authority is the same as domain authority, with the ranking of the page considered here. The basis of page authority is mainly three factors – age & trust, link value, and latest update freshness. For domain authority and page authority, you need to have a higher number to get a higher website ranking.
Link authority is the indicator that is used to calculate the ranking power that a link has. In short, the three types of authority need to be high for you to get a high ranking. When you seek links from other websites, you need to measure if they have high authority. To measure the authority of websites, you can use tools such as Moz and Majestic SEO plug-ins.
Relevancy of Links
Google would be able to determine the kind of business you wish to establish by the links associated with your website. Link relevancy is, therefore, a very important part, just like link authority. Link relevancy is the relevancy that the links associated with your site have to your business niche.
For example, if you are a home service website that specializes in providing home cleaning and security solutions, then the links associated to your website would be from the same industry and dealing with similar products or services. If you have linked to a website that provides banking services, then that would be irrelevant.
Through this, Google would understand that your website provides home solutions and would rank your website similarly. When people search for home cleaning solutions or other related keywords, then they would be able to view your website in the top results. Irrelevant linking can have an adverse effect on the quality of your website, and Google can term them as spam.
Find websites with a similar audience base and look at their authority. One thing you need to remember is the link authority, and link relevancy goes hand in hand. One cannot survive without the other, and both these factors are important for a successful link building.
Quality of Links
Since links are an important part of the ranking signal, companies have started to hack the link acquiring process. The links that are hacked are brought from low quality and irrelevant websites. Websites who acquire low quality or hacked links are often penalized by Google.
Just acquiring links is not the end of the SEO process. You need to ensure that the links are of high-quality. The relevancy and authority of a link, along with other factors, determine the quality of that link.
In a rush to increase your ranking, you cannot invest in links that are of low-quality. This would harm the website, and you would not get the desirable results. Opting for the low-quality link would spoil the reputation of your website and do more harm than good.
Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO is the technique through which SEO marketers try to increase the ranking of a website by violating the terms of service of the search engine. The term today is used to specify the unethical actions that are taken by hackers or companies to quickly make their way in the top of the ranking list.
Once revealed, these practices are penalized by Google and destroy the reputation of your website. Your site can even get banned from Google or any other search engine.
White Hat SEO
White Hat SEO, on the other hand, is the technique through which you can increase website ranking by maintaining the terms of service of different search engines. This is an ethical way of gaining backlinks and increasing the ranking of your website in the process.
The practice of White Hat SEO would help in keeping the integrity of our website intact. The process can be lengthy and costly as compared to Black Hat SEO. But the practice of White Hat SEO will in no way harm the reputation of your website.
Determine Link Quality with SEMRush
SEMRush is the primary tool that is used to determine the quality of the link. A high-quality link will be able to provide you with a high rank. To know the link quality, you need to first open the home page of SEMRush. Though it is a paid subscription, this tool will help you in the long run to enhance your website
In the search bar, you will have to paste the website URL and then click ‘Organic Research.’ The first thing that you would look at would be at the number of keywords, the traffic, and the cost of traffic that has been generated by the website. The more traffic that a website has, the better it would be for you.
(Source : Google Images)
The next thing you have to see is the graph displayed in the results. Be aware of any big drops in the graph. This means that the website may have faced certain penalties for unethical practices. If the graph should show an upward slope, then it is good for your website.
The main focus should be on targeting high-quality links. This does not mean that the low-quality links will serve no use for your website.
You may also want to consider some social signals to fill out your link profile, too.
Determine Link Quality with Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO is a plug-in that is used for checking the quality of backlinks and is a much simpler tool than SEMRush. Using Majestic, you can determine the number of backlinks that are pointed towards your website or any particular webpage on your website. You can also check the quality of these backlinks to know if they would be useful for you.
(Source : Majestic.com)
There are three sections in Majestic, which are URL, Subdomain, and Root Domain. URL shows the specific page or the link that you are currently on. The root domain is the analysis of all the links that are pointed to your website.
Based on these three sections, there are four types of analysis terms that are mentioned in the plug-in. They are Citation Flow, Trust Flow, External Backlinks, and Referring Domains. Citation flow is the overall link power that points to your website. Trust Flow is the total link quality that points to your website.
External Backlinks and Referring Domain are the total backlinks that are pointed towards your webpage or website. In this, Trust Flow and Referring Domains are the main factors that you need to keep an eye on to measure the quality of the different links.
Follow vs. No-Follow Links
There are two main kinds of links that are derived by Google – Follow and No Follow Links. Links that are ‘Followed’ will be crawled by the search engine, whereas links that are ‘No Follow’ will not be crawled by the search engine. A big example of No Follow links are social media sites.
Follow links are those which are counted as points and boost the rank of the page. These links are necessary for a successful SEO of a website. Follow links will be noticed by Google when they crawl your website. A high quality follow link will be able to pass the ranking power of SEO.
No, Follow links are those that have an HTML tag, which states that they should be ignored by the search engines. These links do not fall under the ranking system of search engines and are of no relevance to you.
There is a plug-in that helps you determine if a link is Follow or No Follow. Links that are No Follow should be avoided by you since they cannot help in boosting your website rank. The whole focus is on the Followed links of high-quality.
Using Search Engine Operators
Search engine operators are commands that are used to refine the search results in search engines. For example, if you use the search operator “site:” then you will only be able to see the results from a particular website in the results of the search engine.
You can put the necessary keywords in the search engine to derive the results that you require. This will help you find the related links that you can use for your website. Once this is found, you can use the various tools mentioned above to check the authority, relevancy, and quality of the link that you have found.
Link Building Team
When you are involved in an extensive link building process, you can hire a team of people who will be able to handle different tasks. There are certain roles that you can hire people for. The team will be able to make the work much easier and faster.
The team could consist of the Lead SEO, Link Prospector, Outreach Manager, and Content Creator. Dividing the word among the team members would involve a proper structure which can incur better results. Each of the roles will have a specific job role that needs to be fulfilled within a given deadline.
If you’d like to have us handle this for you, check out our guest post service!
Link Prospecting – Strategy
Link prospecting is a great way to take your SEO agency forward. Generally, it is a part of every good online advertising strategy. Chances are your competitors have an intricate meshwork of links that they use to broaden their social networks. Here’s an introduction to link prospecting, in case you missed it.
You need to find good online pages that you can put your links on. There are many ways to find good links online. One of the most commonly used methods is google searches and backlinks from your competitors.
Once you acquire these links, you should be able to organize them. It is hard to keep a check on all these pages unless you have an organized system for it. Google tools are highly recommended for people who have a huge database of links that they need to organize.
Google searches are vast, and it is not viable for you to go through each one of them for link prospecting. However, there are tools available that you can use to skim through these links efficiently. SERP research tool is a recommended tool that you can use to expand your database.
Another lesser-known yet effective way for link prospecting is examining outbound links for specific domains. You then target the most common links and select them as prospects.
If you are new to this process, it is advised that you start right from the beginning. Well, here is everything you need to know about creating a link prospecting strategy for an SEO agency.
Start by setting up your campaign
Link prospecting, as mentioned earlier, has a vast database. If you want to successfully create a network that works, you must get organized. There are many tools online that you can take help from. However, one of the most recommended platforms to use is Google drive.
Here is everything you should know about Google Drive and why it is your best bet at the organization. Continue reading to find out ways in which you can organize your work better and be more efficient.
(Source : Google Images)
Introduction to Google Drive
When you build an SEO agency link prospecting strategy, it is not limited to one single operation. You will have a ton of things to manage and look after. You cannot be managing multiple applications for a single client in such cases. This will only make your job more difficult, and you will have a hard time keeping track of your progress.
Google Drive has all the necessary tools to make sure you have everything you need. You will not have to juggle between different tools when you use this platform. It makes your work more convenient, and it is very easy to operate.
Here are a few features of Google Drive that make it the best tool to use when working on a link prospecting strategy.
· Everything under one roof
This is one of the most important features of Google Drive. You will be able to manage all your operations using the link building tools and other essential tools provided to you by this application. It cuts down on a lot of tedious work and helps you save time.
· Open workflow
Another key feature of Google Drive is its open workflow. All the work you do on this platform is very fluid. This is because it is integrated with a number of other applications like Gmail and Google Calendar.
Google Drive also helps you work as a team. All the members of a team can access data at any time without too much hassle. This feature also makes it easier for you to manage freelancers and all your clients! It does not sound like much, but these small details save you time and effort and ultimately make you more efficient.
Use Google Drive for all your clients
Google Drive is not just great for link prospecting when it comes to new clients. You can manage the data of your entire business with a single client on a google sheet. The best way to do that is by simply creating a new folder for your client.
(Source : Google Images)
Make a folder for every client you have on Google Drive first. This way, the content and the details of each client are already separated from the other. You can then create sub-folders within these client folders.
You can start by making a content folder inside the client folder. This folder will have all the detailed content written by professional writers for your client’s website. The content for link building generally includes guest blogs, PR submissions, website blog posts, etc. However, this completely depends on what your client is looking for.
After this, you can create a google sheet within the main client folder. Now you have two elements in this big folder, namely the content folder and the main Google Sheet.
This Google Sheet contains all the important information that you will need for your client’s project. This sheet will have 6 separate tabs that will be used to observe the progress of all the tasks you undertake closely.
These are the 6 tabs that you can incorporate in your Google Sheet too to make sure you have all the information in one place.
1. Project plans
This is essentially the command centre of the project. It contains all the important information regarding the project and its minute details. This tab will have the due dates, the project details, the plan of action, team heads, etc.
The Google Sheet allows you to assign tasks to different members separately. Once you assign a job to someone, this Google Sheet will send them a personal email, notifying them about this task. You can plan for your work at least a year in the future.
The link building project plans tab will be shared with your client. This way, you do not need to give them updates too frequently, as they can just go through this page. This way, your work is even more organized. This is just an example of one of the many features of Google Sheets. There are many other techniques on sheets that can make you more efficient in your work.
2. Live links
You will be creating certain links for your client’s website as an SEO agency. You must track the progress of all the links that go live. This tab on your Google Sheet ensures that all the live links are updated and are all present in one place.
You will not have to check each one separately and increase your workload. Moreover, once you share this with your client, they can also check up on all the live links simultaneously.
This tab will contain the information you get after you are done contracting opportunities. Once your link goes live, you put up this information on the tab for your clients to see and understand. You can include the date on which it went live and how much it cost you in case it did.
These two could be separate columns on the live links tab. In addition to these, you can also add a section where you put the link of the page you have backlinked to on the client’s website. Opportunities, links went live, move it to the live links for link building tab, so the client sees. Moreover, you can also add the anchor text present on the link on this google sheet.
3. Opportunities
The opportunities tab will have almost just as much data as the project plan tab. This tab will have all the details of the links and the updates on the links that you are pursuing. This tab will also have the dates on links contacted and whether they have reverted or not.
The opportunities tab is an empty spreadsheet filled by a link prospector. This member is responsible for finding prospecting link building opportunities online through Google searches, Twitter searches, etc.
For instance, they find guest blog writing services online that could potentially be very helpful. Then, they collect all relevant information that needs to be put up on the Google Sheet so that these links can be pursued by another professional.
This information generally includes website URL, contact information such as email, guidelines for guest blog writing, etc. This tab also has a column where you can update the status of the link.
4. Writers
As an SEO agency, content is a crucial part of your work. No matter what you do, more often than not, your client will request you for content. You can approach this situation in two ways. You can either hire full-time content writers for your job or outsource this part.
There are many affordable freelance writers that specialize in various SEO content. Before you begin working on a project, you must connect with an expert content writer. Get all their details and hire them. Then, you can fill their details such as email ID, name, rate, etc., into the writers’ tab on the Google Sheet for reference.
5. Targets
This tab will have a general overview of your plan. Here you can mention what all you need to do for your client. For instance, write down how many landing pages, blogs, guest blogs, etc. your client needs in this section.
6. Passwords
The final tab will only have the passwords your client uses. This is for internal tracking, and it is personal information and must be protected. However, having passwords to different portals in one place makes it easy to access any important information.
These are the important tabs that can make your work processes easy. However, when it comes to link prospecting, you can never be too organized. Make sure you follow these tabs and modify them as per your needs for a better experience.
However, there is a lot more that you need to learn before you start curating a link prospecting strategy. Here are some important pointers that you must pay heed to. Continue reading to find out more about link prospecting strategies through link prospecting tools like Google Drive.
Client site analysis
After you are done creating a basic structure of your approach with the client, you can take your research forward. Before working on anything new, you will first need to assess what the client already has.
Your job as an SEO agency is to amplify or enhance your client’s website. You have to revamp it, but your work becomes easier if you are able to salvage useful content from things that already exist on the client’s platform.
You can go ahead with two different types of analysis of the client’s website to understand what you are working with. Content analysis and link profiling of the website can be a great place to begin this analysis.
Here are two different types of analysis.
Content analysis
As you may know, content is very important in anything that you do. The first thing you need to analyze on the client’s website is its content. This will give you a better idea of what you are working with.
Why is content important for link building
Content is essential for everything you do. However, the most important reason why you need good content on your website is that it broadens your link building prospects. If you want to link your website on other platforms, you need to offer something to them in return.
Link building prospects are centered around providing value in some form or another. You need to add value to their website by either giving them guest blogs, infographics, etc. anything that drives more traffic to their platform.
You can also add value by engaging their audience. If you have great content on your website, you can drive the traffic to your platform easily. However, you are under no compulsion to force your client into putting up more content on their website.
Even boring websites are capable of driving traffic to their platforms. You just need to build a strategy that works and keeps switching it up, depending on your clients and their needs.
You can start by assessing your client’s web content to know where they stand. Here is why you must do it and how you can do it easily.
How to know if there is pre-existing relevant content
Be sure to go through all the blogs, web page content, PRs, etc. Anything you can find that could be turned into an asset. You should know that content determines the quality of the website and makes link prospecting opportunities much easier for you.
The best way to analyze if the content on your client’s website is good by checking the number of shares it gets if there are ways in which they optimize it, etc. You can also check to see if they use a distribution channel to get the word out on their content too. These techniques are very small; however, they generally go a long way.
So, if your client already has good content that you can use, your work becomes significantly easier. Link building simplifies when you can find good content on the website. As long as you can link back to this page, you are good to go. However, backlinking is only possible when you have relevant content to present to the customers.
In case you do not find good content
If you cannot find any good content, you must let your client know. They need to understand the importance of investing in this aspect of their business. If people cannot connect with them through their words, it will become very difficult for them to build trust within their customers.
Tell your clients that you cannot generate links and link them back to their website unless there is genuinely good content present on their website.
Once you have separated the good content for link building from the mediocre ones, you need to input it into the Google Sheet. You will take the good content and copy its link on the targets tab of your google sheet.
You can list out this quality content and turn it into a resource record. This will help you get a clear idea of how many changes you will need to make later on. Make sure you input this information along with the links and tag them as content. Do not tag them as products but only content on your targets tab.
Link profiling
Link profiling is the second step, followed by content analysis. By now, you already know what the client’s website has to offer in terms of content. You can go ahead and assess their links and see what kind of assistance they will need.
This is important because unless you know the client’s requirements, you cannot move forward with your plan. However, link profiling is extremely easy, and it does not take up much of your time.
Firstly, you do not need to focus on link profiling or the kind of links your client has unless they have faced any issues in the past. You might need to focus on their links if they have been penalized in the past for this.
You also do not need to worry about aggressive link profiling campaigns as long as everything you do is ethical. Make sure you build these links the right way and follow all the guidelines. If you fail to do so, the client’s website might end up getting penalized.
The best way to conduct link profiling for a client is by using the Majestic SEO browser plug-in. It makes this process very easy and saves you a lot of time. All you need to do is enter the link in the search bar with this plug-in on and hit search.
You will receive a detailed analysis of all the things that you want to know about this link. This is especially helpful when you are unsure if the page is over-optimized. You do not want to link to target pages that do not have a clear history.
The best way to conduct this search is by looking at the number, quality, relevance, and anchoring of the inbound links to that target page.
Additionally, you need to look for URLs that have brand names in them. This, along with naked URLs, could be extremely beneficial and are a great find when link profiling. It is important that the target page you look at does not just have keywords. This could penalize it.
As long as you take your links from ethical sources, you do not need to worry about anchor text optimization. Just make sure your website is credible and is of great quality. You also need to be mindful of your client when you are launching a link prospecting campaign.
You do not know what tour the client is capable of. If they go ahead and launch an aggressive link building campaign in the future, their page will be penalized. So, make sure you leave enough room for the changes your client would want to make.
How to assign target pages for a campaign
One of the most important factors that come into play when you run a link building campaign is the targets you assign to it. You will need to assign different keywords and targets to pages throughout this campaign.
It is very important to have keywords that can promote your client’s page and give it the boost it needs. However, you will need to follow a strategy to make sure you only give your clients what is best for their website.
Finding the right keywords
The first thing you need to do is pick the pages you want to rank. There are going to be a large number of web pages for you to choose from. However, you must find out the most promising ones and choose to promote them.
Chances are, your client already has a clear idea as to which page he wants to rank. The only problem that arises here is that he probably does not know what is best for his website. So, you need to let him know about the pages that are worth ranking.
The best way to ensure your pages are getting ranked high is by taking low hanging fruit pages and optimizing them. These pages are not the top-ranking pages, but they are also not too low on the list. This means they have potential and just need a little brushing up. You can target these pages first.
It is advised that you choose pages that rank between 6 and 35. This means they are not very good in terms of ranking, but they are not too bad either. You can figure this out by using online research and link prospecting tools like SEMrush.
(Source : Google Images)
All you need to do is search for your client’s website on SEMrush. After clicking on organic research followed by positions, you will get a detailed organic search result of the website’s performance. This data includes everything you will need to know to rank the website. You can then export this data to an excel or CSV file.
Once you know what pages you want to rank, you should begin your keyword research. Rank the keywords in terms of traffic and look for their search volume. For a small company, you can remove everything below 400. However, for bigger companies, you can take it a step further.
After this, all you need to do is take the link for good keywords, paste them in your link tracker sheet. Do not forget to label them as content because links for content are very different from links for products.
Building the project plan
The project plan in your Google sheet is the command center of this operation. There is more information on this tab than any other and for a good reason. Your entire team and your clients closely watch this sheet to stay updated on what is coming up.
You can create a project plan tab any way you please. However, if you are dealing with a large number of clients, having a set template can be very useful. The template can include the date for completion of a task, the person in charge of doing it, the link for the task, and the status on it.
This link building project plan has all the details needed. Your team members can work alongside and stay updated on their tasks. Meanwhile, your client can just have a glance at this sheet and know how this work is progressing.
It is beneficial to have project plans because they let you create project plans in the future. Even if you are starting out slow with a particular plan, your client will be assured that there is more in store later. This sheet will let them know that they will get their money’s worth eventually; they just have to trust you!
Make sure you create a new project plan for each client because every client has unique and contrasting needs. If a client has a product-centric website, you will have to focus on guest blogs and PRs mainly. However, if it is content-centric, you can write blogs, and linking becomes easier!
To sum up
Link prospecting strategy may sound like a monumental task. However, once you break it down and follow the steps, you realize how easy it is. The templates and the guidelines given are just a draft framework of how you can approach this process as an SEO agency. However, you must do what is best for you and whatever works for your business!
Link Prospecting – Preparing for Outreach
Every marketer has at one or the other time used or thought about using email outreach as their link prospecting strategy. Quite a traditional method of link building, email outreach is very tricky. If not done in the right manner, you will find it difficult to get the desired results successfully.
There are different aspects of this process. If performed correctly, you can provide valuable information to your audience. Not just a strong base of customers, but you also need a proper structure to move forward with this process successfully.
If this is your first time trying out email outreach, you need to understand the basics of this method. In this module, I will focus on the preparation of your email outreach. By the end of the module, you will be able to know how to use the outreach strategy for your benefit correctly.
Importance of a Structured Email Outreach Process
Why do we need a structured email outreach process?
The concept of email outreach is not new, but most of us are not aware of it. If you check your spam folder now, you will find hundreds of unnecessary emails filling up the folder. They are the bad attempts of email outreach and have been directed without following a proper structure.
If you do the same, you will also end up in someone’s spam folder, which is a failure in terms of this method. You need to build emails that people will reply to. For this, you have to grab their attention by following specific rules.
People only notice emails if they want to, which means you have to ensure that you are sending the right message to the right people. Even if you are doing this for your own website or a client, you need to be aware of the target audience.
What is the right way to structure an email outreach?
Make sure that you do not portray yourself as a spammer, which can reflect badly on you or your client’s brand. Let’s say that you want to go on with email outreach as a part of your link building process. The first thing that you need to do is to define the target audience and then start sending emails to them.
With the right email, you will be able to form new business relations that can be profitable for your business. If you can connect to the right people, you can get new links, which will be beneficial for your website as well.
If you have sent hundreds of emails in the last few months and have received nearly one or two replies, then you are doing something wrong. Even with the right outreach process, you may not get a hundred percent replies, the numbers will considerably grow with time.
Create a Niche Gmail
Why do you need a niche?
When you start your email outreach process, the first step that you do is to define your company’s niche. You cannot have fingers in every bowl, especially if you are a new business. It would be best if you had a niche so that you can focus on the needs of your customers. For example, if you are an agency that provides professional digital marketing services, then your niche is digital marketing.
Finding your niche is very important for determining your target audience. Without identifying your target audience, you will not be able to carry out your email outreach process. Remember that, if you want to land an editorial or guest post on a particular link, you need to have a niche and a topic. You cannot be unclear; else, the site would never consider your offer.
What has to be done to create a niche?
Hence, the first thing that you prepare is your Gmail account. The account that you create should be following your niche. Following the example, as mentioned earlier, being a digital marketing agency or an individual digital marketer, you can create a Gmail account like yourname.digitalmarketer@gmail.com or anything on the same line.
When you send an email, people will notice the mail id and immediately understand what service you are providing. This takes you one step closer to your required prospect. Creating personal email accounts that contain your name or agency’s name will not have the same effect as a niche Gmail account.
Connecting With the Prospect
One of the best things that will happen by creating the niche Gmail account is that you will get noticed. Most emails that you send as a part of this process will be sent to someone’s spam. To avoid this, you need to create an email id that will not be considered spam by Gmail.
Your aim should be to send an email that reaches the inbox of the target audience and get noticed. Once you mention your niche, your prospect will be able to connect with you better. Whether you get a reply or not, your main aim should be to make sure that your prospect opens the mail.
If you have a different niche, then you need to create separate email accounts for them. For each target prospect, you need to have a different email id, which includes the keyword of your niche.
Through this, the prospect will understand you are not a robot sending automated emails but a real person who wants to add some value to their site.
Prepping Up the Gmail Account for Outreach
Once you are done creating your Gmail account, you need to warm up the email id before you start your outreach. There are a few settings that you need to check so that the account becomes personalized. For people to understand that you are a value-adding person, you need to have a personal touch in your email account as well.
You have to add your credentials that prove you are a human. Here I have mentioned four of the most important settings that you need to follow. You can make further changes according to your wish to make the account more personalized.
Change Profile Picture
The first thing that you need to do is to change your profile picture. Go to profile and then click on Google+ to change your profile picture. Add a picture that has your face and not your company logo. Even if your email id represents your company, make sure that you include your picture so that people can connect better to it.
They will be able to know who you are and also confirm that it is not an automated email. Company logo as your profile picture will not have the same effect that your face on the profile picture will have. Make sure that you include a professional picture since this is a professional relationship build-up.
Create a Signature
After you have uploaded your profile picture, you need to create your signature. For this, you will have to click on setting, general, and signature. It would be helpful if you put your name, professional title, and company name. This information is necessary for people to know more about you.
(Source : Google Images)
For enhancing your credibility, you can also add links to your social media accounts such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Make sure that you add links to your professional account where people can know about your work rather than your personal life.
You also need to make sure that you do not include unnecessary information in your signature. The signature needs to be short and clear, with just the right information. You can include your phone number, office address, or email address to the signature if you want.
Canned Response
We will focus on building canned responses gradually. What you need to do in this process is to enable canned responses. For this, you need to click on labs and then select enable canned responses. Once you do this, you can start setting up your canned responses.
(Source : Google Images)
Remember that canned responses are important for email outreach. If you do not know what canned responses are, then they are responses that are predetermined and can be used while sending the same email to numerous recipients.
In the email outreach process, it will be tiresome and impossible to write the same email again and again to different recipients. If you need to send an email now that you may have sent a few weeks ago, you will need to check your sent emails and find out the one that you need.
It becomes a time-consuming process that can be avoided by using canned responses. You will have to save your email as a canned response, and use it whenever you like.
Giving Account Access to Your Team
If you are a widespread agency, then you most probably have a link prospecting team. Even if you are an individual, you will need help since carrying out the complete link prospecting process alone will be not only time-consuming but also tiresome. Hiring a team requires some level of resource management when it comes to staffing.
To carry out the email outreach process, the ones working on it will have to get access to your Gmail account. Though the general idea would be to provide them with your Gmail id and password, the simplest thing would be to grant them access to your Gmail account.
You can do this by going to Accounts and Imports and selecting Grant access to your account. Here you can add the email addresses of the people whom you want to give access. They will be able to operate your full account and send, edit or delete any email.
(Source : Google Images)
You can add or remove people from this section if you want later. This is an important step since you need more than one person to take care of the email outreach process. This way, the whole structure will operate smoothly.
Why Do You Need To Set Up Canned Responses?
As mentioned, email outreach is a hectic process that takes a lot of time and hard work. Not only do you need to think of the proper email content, but you also need to build up new strategies to connect to your audience. In such a hectic process, you need methods to reduce time and effort.
Canned responses not just have one but multiple benefits in the email outreach process. It is a necessary part of email outreach, which will help you carry on the activity with ease. Below are some of the reasons why you should use a canned response.
Save Time
Imagine you have a list of thousand recipients to whom you need to send emails. You have divided these recipients into three groups depending on their needs. You have to type out three different sets of emails for them, keeping your target audience in mind.
If you had set your response earlier, you could have saved a lot of time. Even if you need to send the same emails at a later date, you need not have to waste time searching for them and then copy and paste the content. You can choose the required email from the canned response, add the recipients, and send them.
Creates Less Stress
Writing an email can be stressful, especially if you have to do it in a very short time. If you have a deadline in which you need to send a certain email to numerous recipients, you may be stressed out finding the right words. You may sometimes miss out on important points, which could change the whole success rate of the email as well.
To avoid these unwanted situations, we use canned responses. Since it is easier to save more than one canned response, you can structure emails earlier and use them according to your requirement.
Eradicate Mistakes
The most important benefit that you will receive from canned responses is ‘no typing errors’ This happens to everyone and is something that cannot be avoided. When you type your email, you may have at least one typo in the content. You need to proofread your email before you send it, but there are chances that you may miss out on a few errors.
Typos can create a bad impression on the recipient, and they can perceive that you are not professional about this association. Hence, you can only eradicate the problem through canned responses.
When you compose the canned response, you will have to check the content not once but multiple times for any errors. After this is saved, you can choose your desired canned response and not bother about proofreading it until and unless you have made any changes to the email.
Setting Up Canned Responses on Gmail
Now that you have understood the importance of canned responses in your email outreach process, you will now learn how to set up the canned responses. Setting up and using canned responses are very easy and require just a couple of steps. I will elaborately explain each step so that you have a clear idea, even if this is your first time.
You already know how to enable canned responses from the settings tab. Now you will need to compose the email.
Compose the Email
The first thing you have to do is click on compose in your inbox’s upper left-hand corner. The new email box will open, and here you have to write down your email. Now you can go about this in two ways. You can either write your message or even use a template for the same.
The email here can be personalized and written in a conversational tone so that people can find the urge to reply to them. You have to mention what you want from the prospect since they already know. However, it would help if you never used informal or plain language to send across your message.
If you are confident that you will be able to write in the right tone and format, then you can form the email message yourself. Otherwise, you can use templates, which might be a much easier path for you.
(Source : Google Images)
Before you compose the email or paste templates, make sure that you delete the signature. If you save the canned response with your signature, then you will have double signatures when you use the message later. Also, include a subject line that is catchy and describes the rest of the email in a few words.
Save Responses
Once you have written down your response, you will now have to save it. You will have to select more options, then on a canned response, and select a new canned response. The message that you have written will be saved in your canned response. Even if you do not need to use it now, you can check whether it is saved or not.
To do this, delete the message that you have been composing and open a new compose window. Do not delete your signature here and select more options, then canned response. You will be able to view your saved canned response, which you can select and send to the desired recipient.
(Source : Google Images)
Always remember to read the message properly if you are using a template. If you need to make changes to the template based on your target audiences, then do so. Do not just blindly send a template filled with irrelevant information, or the whole effort will go waste.
Link Prospecting – Building a Team
If you are thinking of link prospecting, then you would need the help of a well-experienced team. The need to hire a team would depend on the workload and the budget that you are willing to put up. Link building can be very tricky, and you will need to ensure that you have the right people working with you.
Link building is time-consuming, especially if you are thinking of doing it alone. This is when you need to focus on getting different people on your team so that you can distribute the work among them. Building a team would not only divide the workload, but it will also lead to a more structured development.
Individuals who have different skillsets would be perfect for the team. They can work better than one individual even if the individual is good at everything. Before you build a team, you need to think about the different roles that you have to create. These roles will be decided on the work that you have and if these roles are beneficial for the company.
Most SEO link building teams have four roles, which include the Lead SEO, Link Prospector, Outreach Manager, and Content Creator. These four roles have some job responsibilities, which would require people with different knowledge base and experience.
In this module, we will learn about the need for these job roles and the responsibilities of the link prospector, outreach manager, and content creator. I will also touch base on the different ways that you can hire experienced people for your team.
After covering the module, you will be able to hire people for these roles to make sure you are effectively working on your link building process.
Hiring a Link Prospector for the Team
The first person that you need on your team is a link prospector. The best thing about hiring a link prospector is that they are low-cost employees. You can hire a link prospector for $4 to $8 at a per hour rate. The most basic knowledge that a link prospector needs to have is communication skills.
Link prospectors need no high-end technical knowledge, and you can easily train them about their work. The role of a link prospector is to conduct web researches as well as find good link opportunities. They would have to go through different search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo to find relevant links for the link building process.
Link prospectors will ensure that the search engine operators are doing their job of finding sponsored pages, guest posts, and other resource pages. Also, handing social media pages concerning link building is a very important responsibility of a link prospector.
Knowing SEO is good, but it is not a vital factor in hiring a link prospector. The necessary factor for hiring is knowledge of link quality. They should be able to acquire a low quality as well as high-quality links for your website.
If you are looking for a link prospector, you can put certain areas that the individual needs to be proficient in, such as link round up, building broken links, and such. The skill required for this position would consist of no more than proper communication, proofreading, and administration skills.
The prospector should also know how to use excel since they have to build up reports regarding their task and results. They should also be able to communicate with the other members of the team and multitask, all the while creating a comfortable work environment.
Hiring an Outreach Manager for the Team
Outreach managers are middle-cost staff and would cost more than a lead prospector. Outreach managers are very important for your team and would be responsible for managing most of the tasks in the team. The most vital skill of an outreach manager is their communication, writing, and editing skills.
They need to be very quick on their feet and need to be able to write an email just within a few minutes. This is because they will be responsible for contacting prospects and negotiating them. Hence, you need someone who has a very strong hold over the language and can properly engage the prospects for your company.
The work of an outreach manager is to set up emails for outreach and create proper personas. The templates for the outreach will also be set up by the outreach manager. Since they need certain existing skill sets, the general cost for hiring them would be around $15 to $30. The rates would be based on the skill possessed by the individual.
Though outreach managers need not have in-depth SEO knowledge, though, someone with that knowledge would be very beneficial for your company. The main idea is to hire someone who can multitask and also handle a large number of mails, especially if you’re doing cold outreach. The manager should be able to meet the deadline for the tasks given to them.
Make sure that you clarify the job role of the individual before you hire. Apart from contacting the prospects, replying to the emails, and managing the virtual team, there is another very important job responsibility of an outreach manager.
The content written by the writers will have to be read thoroughly, proofread, edited, and then submitted for further consideration.
Hiring Content Creators for the Team
Content creation is a necessary factor when you are looking to market your company through link building. Websites that have poor quality content will not be visited by the audience. The main part of the link building process is guest blogging; hence you need to have a strong content base.
There should be unique content that is free from plagiarism and also able to connect to the audience. The other people, such as the lead SEO, link prospector, and outreach manager, are a part of the core team. Content creators, on the other hand, are a necessary part of your team and are more in numbers.
It is hard for one content writer to handle the projects of different clients, so the best thing would be to find individual writers for each client. This way, you can put the responsibility of the clients on different writers, and the quality of the content will also be maintained.
When you find a new client, you will need to hire new writers for that client. For this, you will have to post jobs in freelancing sites as well as social groups. You should find writers who have good work experience.
For a smooth scale of work, you can appoint three writers for each client. These writers should have in-depth knowledge of the subject matter. There are three calibers of writers, and the pricing of these writers would depend on their caliber.
The first caliber is for blogs of low quality for which the writer would ideally be paid $20 to $30 for each writer. Medium quality blogs are for $30 to $70 for each article, whereas blogs for top quality are for $70 to $150 for each article.
You can hire both freelancers and in-house writers, depending on the quality and intensity of the work that you get. Straightaway ask for samples from the writers and read them thoroughly. There is no point in hiring writers who are not suitable for your company.
Tagging Writers
Once a writer is hired, you need to prepare a client workbook. There would be certain tabs where you will record the information of the writer. Assign them the tasks and record their task and article rates as well.
The record book will include tags against the name of the writer. Tags are numbers associated with the writer based on the quality of the blog. The number for the tags is typically from 1 to 5. These tags would also show the quality of the writer.
If you receive a low-quality blog, then you will assign the writer with a low tag, such as 1 or 2. The same goes for a low-quality writer. Typically low-quality blogs will be assigned to low-quality writers and high-quality blogs to high-quality writers.
When hiring low-quality writers, you need to be sure that they have the proper knowledge. Even clients who ask for low-quality write-ups would need those to hold good information. So you need to be very careful when you hire these writers.
These tags will help you understand the kind of task that you should assign to each writer. This will make it easy for you to assign tasks to the writers. You will only hire low-quality writers for low-quality blogs and vice versa.
Tagging is very important for your record-keeping as it will make the content creating process much easier. There will be no confusion or mistakes while assigning projects.
Posting Jobs in Elance
To find content writers, you will need to post jobs in different job sites. There are many premium job sites where you can fill in your criteria and find the best content writers. One such site is Elance, which is currently known as Upwork. This is a very well-known platform where you will be able to find freelancers suiting the job profile.
Here you can put up a job profile that will then be bid upon by different freelancers. When you receive a new client order, you will post a job on the site. Here you will have to provide the complete details of the job. Mention the specific niche for which you require the writer.
(Source : upwork.com)
Here you will be able to find low-quality writers effectively for your low-quality blogs. For the job post, you need to first include the requirement. For example, you can write ‘Searching for content writers for a client in the (niche) vertical who requires 2 to 3 blogs in a week’.
Mention the word count of the blogs such as 500 or more. You do not have to mention the exact word count, even if you know it. Keep a varying range so that you can reduce or increase the requirement if needed.
After this, you will have to mention the knowledge base of the writer that you want. Make sure you have your requirement written in bullet points clearly to make it understandable to the writer.
Ask them to provide a proposal for their work, which will include their sample related to the given niche, their rate per word or article, and the number of articles that they will be able to write every week.
Post Jobs in Social Media Groups
Another very important place where you can post jobs is in different social media groups. You can choose different groups where you feel there will be hundreds of writers searching for a job. When you post in social media groups, you need to be very concise and compact in your posting.
Find the right groups and post your job requirement there. Put the same information that you have done for Upwork. Include the number of articles and the niche in which you want the article. Ask the applying writers to contact in the given number with their proposals.
(Source : Google Images)
If you are not sure which social media groups to cover, you can conduct a Google search. Run Majestic as well as SEMRush using which you can determine the website. You will find many results here, and you can choose the ones that you feel would suit your needs.
Use keywords to search for the social media groups where you want to post these jobs. These keywords would be for the niche of the blog, and this will help you connect with the right people. Be very cautious when you choose the writers so that they are suitable for the requirements of the client.
Finding the right content writers is a very important part of your link building process. Without proper content writers, you will not be able to carry on the process effectively. Having content writers is not enough; you need people who can provide you with the best results.
They will help retain the client base, and the more guest blogging you do, the more you can uplift the link building process. Hence, the whole link building team is interconnected and will help you run the process effectively.
If you want to supercharge these efforts, you could consider renting a PBN to supplement your other linkbuilding tasks.
Link Prospecting – All Other Tactics
Link prospecting is finding pages where you can link your website. Many different tactics are used in link prospecting. In this module, you will be learning the rest of the tactics that we have not covered before.
Link Reclamation Method
Link reclamation is the process through which you can find a website that has mentioned your brand and then turn them into links. This is a method that works better for companies who are actively engaged in PR and have a brand reach. If you are a new brand, then this may not be quite successful for you.
Using two tools – mention.com and Google Alerts, you can find the web pages which have mentioned your brand name but are not linked to you. Once you do so, you start sending outreach emails to this site to link with them.
Link Reclamation Process
The process of link reclamation begins with setting up an account on mention.com or Google Alerts by the Lead SEO. You can use both of these sites if you wish. Mention.com is a paid tool, while Google Alerts is free. Once done, your outreach manager will monitor the mentions to find link opportunities.
When the outreach manager finds these opportunities, he or she sends out an email pitch to these links. Following up, the content is necessary to get the desired results. Make sure that you have a monitor schedule where you keep checking for unlinked mentions.
Using Google Alerts to Find Mentions
(Source : Google Images)
Google Alerts is a free tool and may not always give you the desired results. If you are trying the link reclamation process for the first time or have a low budget, then you can use this tool.
Visit the official website and create a new alert for your brand or your client. You can set a frequency for monitoring the mentions and then add the email where you want the results to be sent. Update the alert, and you are good to go.
Using Mentions.com to Find Mentions
(Source : https://mention.com/en)
Mentions.com is a paid tool and gives far better results than Google Alerts. Not only will you receive results for unlinked mentions, but you will also be able to monitor your social media activity.
Set up a new alert in mention.com, just like you have done for Google Alerts. The only difference here is that there are no search operators required.
Give input for negative keywords in advanced settings so that you receive your mentions and not the wrong ones. Negative keywords are the ones that you want to exclude from your search. Give the outreach manager’s email for receiving the results.
Pitch Link Reclamation Opportunities
The link reclamation method is carried out to find good opportunities. When you find a website where your brand has been mentioned, but you are not linked yet, then it is a good opportunity for you.
In such a case, the outreach manager will compose a pitch email and send it to the prospect. The outreach manager has to find the mail id of the prospect to send this email. You need to carry out weekly monitors so that you can keep yourself updated.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is a black hat method where you buy links from certain prospects. However, it is quite different from buying links from a link farm or other low-quality websites. Here you buy links from sites that are active and real, who want to make money through advertisements.
(Source : Google Images)
Numerous bloggers are available who are willing to advertise your website for a price. This method can be expensive since the average range is around $40 to $500 for one post. This is why this method is chosen as one of the last link building resorts.
Process of Sponsored Post
The process starts with the link prospector building a list of opportunities that contains two sections. In this method, you have two opportunities – general bloggers and websites that are looking for advertisers. Once you determine the prospects, the outreach manager sends them a pitch via email and then negotiates regarding the price of the post.
The outreach manager can also get the content written if required. The manager should follow up with the prospect until you have landed the link. Keep this process on for building more and more links every day.
Find New Opportunities for Sponsored Post
To find opportunities for a sponsored post, you can use different search operators. Provide keywords with the search operators to make a more defined search. The keyword will be your niches, such as real estate, legal, or management.
Make a record of the website links and the parameter on a different excel sheet. This helps you keep track of the opportunities you have found and the links you have landed.
Evaluating the Opportunities
Once you find the links, you need to evaluate them properly before you make your pitch. Though safe, it is still a black hat method, and you need to find out if the prospects are legitimate. This is the job of the outreach manager and might take some time.
The manager will have to access the domain authority, content quality, and trust flow of the website. Check if they are accepting sponsored posts and also do a SEMRush check. If you are not satisfied with the results, then you can move on to the next link.
Pitching and Negotiating Opportunities for Sponsored Posts
If your evaluation gives you satisfactory results, then the outreach manager will have to make their pitch. Remember that you will be making a value proposition in terms of money. Make sure that your pitch is of value and can help you land the link.
If you get a reply to your pitch, then you need to negotiate the pricing. Always negotiate and do not accept the price provided by the prospect at one go. Make sure you decide upon a price that is on par with the website quality.
Guest Posting
Guest posting is one of the most famous methods of link building and can generate more quality links than other tactics. There are numerous websites where you can post your content. Guest posts are free, and for the website, they are getting social reach.
For you, it is a great way to build links since you will be able to add links to the content that you write for them. Several powerful sites seek guest posts, and posting here can increase the authority of your backlinks.
Process of Guest Posting
The lead prospector will look out for websites that are seeking content creators who want to publish their posts. Once the prospector finds such sites, they will have to evaluate the quality of the prospect and maintain a record of each site.
The outreach manager will then send an email to the prospect. Once this is accepted, the manager will then assign a content writer to develop the post. Keep following up until your post goes live on the site.
Finding Opportunities for Guest Post
Following the same process of using search operators, you can find numerous links. Focus on keywords so that you can find related prospects. The keyword can be your niche, as well as based on which you want to develop content.
You will get results for sites that are accepting blog posts or looking for contributors. Check the links thoroughly to see if they are accepting submissions on their website.
Check Quality of Prospects
When you find the prospect link, you will have to check the quality. Guest posting on low-quality sites will not give you the desired results. You also need to avoid dead sites in the process.
Check if the sites are no-follow or follow and only choose those links which are followed. Do a SEMRush check on the link to see the traffic it generates. Rank them between 1 and 5 in the record book so that you can check the results.
Contacting Prospects for Guest Post
The first thing you need to do is set up a canned response using which you can approach your prospects. Send mails to eight to ten prospects that you have marked as a top priority. Do not send all the mails together otherwise, you may be overwhelmed by too many responses.
If you are not getting too many responses, then you can increase the number of recipients. Keep a record in your workbook under a tab named status.
Managing Positive Responses
When you receive a positive lead, you need to respond to them promptly. The prospect will likely ask for your topic on which you want to write. You need to be ready with content ideas based on the niche of the website.
Keep your content writers ready so that you can tell them to submit the project as soon as your idea gets approved. Provide the prospect and the writer with a deadline. Keep a record of the topics and the prospect links that are being assigned to the writers.
Manage Stripped Links
The most important part of this whole process is to keep track of your progress. Try to meet the deadline and keep constant communication with the prospect till the time your post goes live.
Sometimes you may notice that the links you have mentioned in your post have been stripped. Ask for the reason and make sure that you carry out the appropriate steps to bring the links back into the post. Without links, your link prospecting process will not be successful.
Link Roundups
Link roundups are different blogs that feature links of other blog posts for a certain period. These links will be of the same niche as the host blog post. They are a very successful link building tactic.
The best thing about link roundups is that it benefits you as well as the bloggers. You have well-structured content where these bloggers can link their content to. Moreover, you can land more than one link through this process.
As you keep doing this process, there will come a time when you will not have to pitch your content as well. The bloggers will follow the updates related to your content and feature the same as and when needed.
Find new opportunities for this process through social media channels and search engines. You can focus on a particular niche and then pitch your idea for the same when you find the right opportunities.
Once you land the prospects, make sure that you keep track of the progress. Update your profile from time to time so that you can gain newer prospects over time.
Podcast Outreach
A podcast is a great way to link building since most people in current times listen to podcasts. The first thing that you need to do is to develop a strategy that can be done by you or your strategist if you have one. From here, you will be able to find different opportunities. Once you find the opportunities, you need to sort out the clean ones which are good for you.
Like any other tactic, you will need to pitch the prospect based on your niche. To build a successful podcast, you need to be interesting and also have in-depth knowledge of the niche.
Determine certain keywords that you can use for finding necessary prospects. The keywords have to be based on the niche that you have selected for yourself.
Podcast Prospect
The keywords that you have used to develop your podcast strategy have to be recorded in a spreadsheet. Make sure that strategy you have developed is of high quality and is in demand right now. Use the keywords to find quality prospects where you can pitch your idea.
Prospect Pitching
The prospects that you have developed in the last step have to be pitched now. Keep a record of the prospects that you have determined. If you are focusing on different campaigns, then you have to build separate pitches.
The prospects that have been approved are the ones you will focus on. Make sure that your outreach manager develops a solid pitch which the prospect will not be able to refuse. You can send it to multiple recipients using canned responses in Gmail.
Podcast Management
After you are done with pitching the prospect, you will have to manage the whole project. The management for the podcast is more complicated than a normal guest post. You will have to meet the schedule of the client to get your podcast live.
One more thing to remember is that it takes an hour to record the podcast. So there should be a proper plan which will let you sync your calendar to your clients and get your podcast recorded in time.
Synonym Method
The synonym method is something that I have coined myself, and hence you will not find this anywhere else. The method is quite simple and is self-explanatory. Through the synonym method, you will be targeting different websites that have the same niche. However, these websites are not competitors of each other.
For example, you are an immigration attorney based in California. In this method, you will find, let’s say, a divorce attorney who is also based in California. In this situation, the niche is the same, which means that you are focusing on nice relevancy, though you are not direct competitors of each other.
You can also focus on local relevance, which means that you find links of the same geographical location. Taking the same example, you are an immigration attorney in California. For this relevancy, you can find other local businesses in California. The business can be from a different niche, such as real estate.
You provide the opportunity to create guest posts for them and promote the content using social media channels. Guest post exchange is also a major value proposition where you write content for the prospect, and they write content for you in return.
Finding Prospects for Synonym Method
You can find opportunities using search operators or even social media channels. Focus either on the niche or the location to find these links. You will find numerous links that are relevant to either of these factors.
Do not focus on both these factors at one since it can get confusing. When you find these links, analyze them to determine whether these sites are active and of good quality. Find out the contact information, especially their email, using which you can make your pitch.
Suppose you are finding opportunities in the same niche, then you need to put the niche next to the search operator. The same goes for local relevance, where you need to put the location of the client.
The aim is to find various opportunities which are of good quality. There is no point in using links that are not active and have not been able to generate traffic for a long time. Whether you are focusing on creating content or content exchange, you will have to ensure that the quality of the content is on par with you.
Pitching the Prospects
The pitching process for the synonym method is the same as all the other tactics. For any pitch, you will have to maintain the conversational tone along with the value proposition. You have to mention the different values that the prospect will receive by associating with you.
The pitch email that you send to the prospects should be personalized. Remember that the prospect might receive numerous pitches each day. What sets you apart from the other pitches is the value that you can provide to the prospect.
Resource Pages
Resource pages are pages or blog posts that give links to certain favorable topics that the website thinks the audience would be interested in. As a business, you will have to contact these websites so that you can get your link included in their post.
(Source : Google Images)
The most important part of a resource page is that you need to have strong content on your page. You need to have a tool or guide that the prospect would find useful for their target audience.
To initiate the resource page link building process, first assess your website or the client’s website. Here you will be able to determine the resources that you have, which can be used to make your pitch. Next, you will have to find opportunities based on your niche. When you find the pages, you have to check if the links are dead.
Find the necessary pages and send your pitch based on the kind of page that you have determined. Keep a record of your pitch and the type of link type that you are targeting.
Website Assessment
This is a very important step of the whole resource page link building process. To make your pitch for a resource page, you need to have some resources. The resource has to be in the form of a tool, blog posts, videos, etc.
You cannot pitch your product page or even your homepage. If you do not have a resource, you can find your prospect and then build your resource based on the niche.
Find pages that are resource pages and are relevant to your target resource. Do not target pages that are linking to content internally since that is not your target. You have to target pages that are linking out.
Record the Prospects
When you find a prospective link, you need to check the number of deadlinks on the page. You need to make a proper record that keeps tracks of the deadlinks and the resource pages which you are going to pitch.
Make sure that you include the website URL and the dead links URL so that you can create different pitches for the pages. If you have no dead links, then you can term it as a Resource Page, and if you have dead links, then you term it as Broken Link.
Proposition for Resource Pages and Broken Links
The pitch for resource pages and broken links will be very different, and the value you provide for them will also be very different. When you are pitching for a resource page, you will provide them with good content that has been created by you.
On the other hand, the pitch of the broken links would include providing them with a solution for fixing their user experience and giving them replaced content. The value proposition for this pitch will be much higher than a resource page.
Pitching Resource Pages
When you pitch for resource pages, you need to first have a quick read about the post of the prospect. If you find that you have a similar resource, then you can send them mail, which contains a pitch. The first thing that you need to do is check if the page that you are pitching for has any broken links or not.
In case there are no broken links, then it is purely a resource page, and you can now go about your resource page pitch. If you already have a resource related to this page, then you are good to go. In the absence of a niche resource page, you can build resource content, after which you can initiate the pitch.
Once done, you can create a personalized email where the subject line would include a part of the post title. Include the link of the resource page you are targeting and your resource page that you want to get a link in the email body.
If you have any additional value proposition, then you can add in the email as well, such as social media reach and such.
Pitching Broken Links
To verify the broken link, you can access the page and get the number of deadlinks that are present on the page. Using these deadlinks, you will pitch the client that you wish to replace the dead links with active links of your own for better audience experience.
(Source : Google Images)
Just like in the resource page pitch, you need to include the title of the post in the subject line. In the body of the mail, you will let the prospect know the exact links that are dead. You will insert the URL of the blog post, the anchor text, and the deadlinks that are related to the anchor texts.(These are also called as Niche Edits )
Next, you can insert your link or the client link that is relevant to the dead links. You can add other value propositions that you think would help land the pitch. It is much easier to land broken links replacements than resource pages.
After you are done, you can record the changes in the workbook so that you can keep track of your progress.
Content Promotion Hacks
Promoting your content is a great way to build new links. I have mentioned different hacks here that you can use to promote content related to your business. Remember that whichever hack you use has to be focused on a niche. This is a major factor in any link building process.
Using Forum Posts and Blog Comments
Posting comments on forums and blogs are a great way to promote your content if you can do it correctly. Remember that this is not a link building practice. You will be initiating a conversation on any forum or blog and then leave your content link on that post.
(Source : Google Images)
The link should be of content and not on your home page. Avoid buying these in bulk or outsourcing it to low-quality vendors since it will be nothing more than spam.
Process of Blog Comments and Forum Posts
Firstly, the lead SEO will access the content on the client site and determine the type of content that can be promoted. The link prospector will then find different opportunities that are related to the content that you wish to promote. They will then record the different opportunities that were found.
The content creators will then create an analysis of the opportunities and see if they are eligible for the promotion. They will then leave a related comment and the link to the content.
Hire Writers for Blog Comments and Forum Posts
For posting the comments and links to different posts and forums, you may need to hire a separate writer. For this, you need some who can write well and also have a good experience. You do not need to spend much for this writer since there are no deep write-ups required.
The writer should be smart and able to dedicate ample time to this project. Hire someone who is quick in their task and trained so that they can do a good amount of link posting per day.
Finding Quality Forums
To make this promotional tactic successful, you need to find active links and of good quality. Posting on forums or posts which do not generate much traffic will not give you the desired results.
Only join forums that are active as well as have proper traffic and make an account there. Keep a record of the forums and blogs that you are using so that you can track your progress later.
Leaving Forum Comments
There will be a niche for the blog or from you have targeted and the link that you are promoting. Make sure that you have a proper idea of the niche so that you can use the appropriate keywords while posting your comments.
You can search the forums and blogs using the keywords as well so that you find the right ones. Find a conversation thread where you can leave the comment. Write a proper comment first, which is in a conversational tone, and then leave the link as a part of the comment.
Leaving Blog Comments
The process of blog comments is the same as forum comments. You will have to find the thread and then leave the comment. Build the content around the link so that it does not seem like spam content.
Whether you are commenting on a forum or blog post, you need to record the exact thread where you have left the comments. This will help you track the success rate of this method.
Promote Content Using Facebook Groups
(Source : Google Images)
Promoting your content through Facebook groups is a very sensitive process since the moderator of the group may filter your content if you try to spam the group. The first thing that you have to do is find relevant groups using keywords and join them.
Build trust with the moderator by posting comments, liking posts, and initiating a conversation on the group for at least 15 to 20 days. You can drop a link along with a proper comment, without it being filtered, only if you have the trust.
Make the post interesting by writing engaging content. Include how the blog is relevant to you and how it may help the other people in the group. The group participants will only open the link if they find some value in it. You can always end the content with a question so that people can connect to your post and open the link.
Promote Content on Quora
(Source : Google Images)
Find the right questions where you can leave the content links by using keywords. Here you need to find questions that have a few answers and also check whether the answers are getting views.
In Quora, you cannot just leave the link with a short answer. You have to ensure that you provide a detailed answer to the question that has been asked and leave the link concerning your answer.
PR and Media Links
PR and Media Links promotion is not just your regular press release but actual coverage from authentic media sites. For this, you need to have an amazing story that people might find interesting.
If you know editors, PR, or writers of any media website, then they can post your content. You can also find a writer to post their content on well-known media websites. You can pay these writers to post your story.
The PR Process
With this process, you can find the right contributors who will post your story on different sites. It is the job of the link prospector to find these contributors that will publish content based on your vertical. The outreach manager will send a pitch email to these contributors.
The pricing will also be negotiated by the outreach manager. If the contributors want pre-written content, then the outreach manager will get it done. Follow up the whole process so that you can track posts that come live.
Find Opportunities for PR and Media Links
Straightway search for target websites where you want to post your content. Here you will have to find contributors who write for your niche. Check the profile of the contributor and see if they write quality content. Make sure that the contributor that you have chosen does freelancing.
You cannot just drop them a direct message to write content for you. The pitch needs to have value in it so that the contributor cannot deny the proposal.
Pitching Opportunities
You will have to find several contributors and then follow them on their social media pages. For a few days, you can like or comment on their posts to build a relationship. You can send them a message asking if they are freelancers. Ask them if they can write a few articles for you and pay them for those articles.
After a certain time, you can contact them again, stating that you have a site to post the articles. You can make your pitch here in a sense that you are helping them meet their quota, and they are helping you post the content which contains your link.
You can also be truthful with them that you need to post the work on these sites. This can be a steady income source for them. However, this is a much harder method to get your content posted.
You can use any of the above methods to hire contributors so that they post your content on the sites that they write for. The one thing that you need to remember is that you have to create value for them and build a strong relationship before you make the pitch.
Local Blogger Outreach
You can use this technique for local SEO as well as national campaigns. You will be able to uncover different opportunities by using this technique. Local bloggers are everywhere around you, writing extraordinary content in different niches.
You may not find them on traditional freelancing sites, but you can use local modifiers to find them. The process for landing these bloggers is the same as any other tactic.
The best thing about local bloggers is that they are passionate about their work. They cannot deny working for you if they feel appreciated or are provided monetary value for their work.
Finding Local Bloggers
Use search operators and social media to find different local bloggers. You need to add a city, state, pin code, etc. to the operator to search for local bloggers. Search using the operators in Google, and you will get numerous results.
Make sure the site you choose has regular updates. You do not want to contact a site that does not update its content since the site may not have regular traffic. It will not be too hard to find local bloggers. The best thing is that you will not have to spend much on engaging with local bloggers.
Avoid linking to staff writers since they will charge a hefty amount for the same process.
Pitching Local Bloggers
Once you find the contact of the local bloggers with the above method, you will now have to make your pitch. There are two types of pitches that you can use. For the first way, you can use money as a value proposition. This means that you will sponsor content or provide your link for content on the website.
For the second way, you can use cross-promotion. Here you will be exchanging guest posts or even submit your post directly. This is better if you and your prospect have a good audience base. You need to evaluate the site and then decide which method you want to use.
Pitching for Paid Link Insertion
If you have a low budget, then paid link insertion is another method of local blogger outreach. All you have to do here is find local bloggers related to your niche and check out their old posts.
Contact the blogger that you need to advertise your link on their website without spamming their website. The success rate for this method is quite low since there might be very less traffic on the sites.
Various Link Building Techniques
Apart from the ones mentioned above, there are certain other techniques that you can use. Below I have mentioned them shortly to give you an overview of each technique.
Manufacturer Link Building
The manufacturer link building strategy is specifically used for e-commerce websites. Many manufacturers these days do not sell their products directly. Instead, they link out the products so that the audience finds the products on different sites.
You can contact these manufacturers so that they include your link in their directory. This will work only if you have an e-commerce store and not just a content page. You need to be able to sell the products from your site.
Video Link Building
Video marketing is a great way to link building because it is both engaging and informational. You can build a valuable video-based on any topic that is relevant to the services you offer. Uploading these videos on YouTube can be a very easy way to build links.
In the description area, you can include the link to the actual content so that the audience can refer back to the content. If you can gain traffic on your video, then this link building process will be a huge success.
Directory Link Building
Directory link building is an off-beat process but can be a good way of building links. You can use different search operators based on your niche to build the directory. The most important thing in this is to find a particular niche without which the whole process will fail.
Find quality sites where you can build your directory. Do not engage in too many directory links at a time. You can go for 10 to 12 links in one month and follow up on the success of the method.
Professional Organization Link Building
Professional organization link building is a very quick and easy method. Through this method, you can gain the trust of the audience and also get better rankings in Google.
For this process, you only have to create a professional profile on any high ranking professional websites such as SEMPO.
Since these are trusted sites, any link from these sites will eradicate spam.
Finding Bloggers
If you are unable to write the content yourself, then you can search for bloggers who will write the content for you. You need to search for bloggers based on different niches. Searching for local bloggers will be beneficial in such cases.
All you need to do is pitch them your idea about freelancing for them and also pay them to post on their website or the website they are writing for. We have already covered how to pitch local bloggers earlier; hence you need to follow the same process.
Reverse Engineering Opportunities
There are many posts where you will find quality links which you can take or, in simple words, steal for your content. You will have to use tools such as Ahrefs to find those links. If you find a relevant blog post, then you simply have to copy the link of the post.
(Source : https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker)
Once done, you will now paste it on-site explorer and go to inbound links. You will find all the referring domains, and you can check them one by one to find the one that you may use.
Creating Infographics
Infographics are a great way to link building and have a huge success. There is nothing much that you have to do to create a valuable infographic. You need the right data and arrange the data with relevant images.
Be creative in your approach and make sure the infographic is relevant to the content. Conduct appropriate research to ensure that you can focus on the needs of the audience.
Destination of Different Link Types
Above I have mentioned different types of links along with the destination that they should be added to. Here is a summary of the whole structure to clear your confusion and provide a better idea of the same.
You cannot make a link building process successful if you are unable to place the link types in the right destination. Here the destination is what the prospect would link your content to. For example, if you have pitched an infographic to a prospect, they will link your homepage with that infographic.
There are three main destinations on your website –
Home Page
Product or Service Page
On-Site Content (Video, Blogs, Guides)
Below are the different link types with their destinations –
Link Roundups – On-Site Content
Resource Pages and Broken Links – On-Site Content and Product / Service Page
Guest Posts – Product / Service Page and Home Page
Sponsored Posts – Product / Service Page, Home Page, and On-Site Content
Link Reclamation – On-Site Content and Home page
Press Links – Home Page, On-Site Content and Product / Service Page
Local Bloggers – Home Page, Product / Service Page, and On-Site Content
Infographics (Pitching) – Home Page
Meetups, Podcasts, and Speaking – Home Page
Profile, Submissions, Donations, Videos – Home Page
Comments and Forums – On-Site Content
Using Automation Tools for Outreach
Here I have mentioned one tool that you can use for outreach – Pitchbox. This is a paid tool and can be quite expensive. If you have a good budget, then you can use the tool. Here you can set up different projects and also a campaign.
(Source : https://pitchbox.com)
There is no limit to the number of campaigns that you can set up for one project. Sync the project to your email account. If you are doing outreach for yourself, then you can use other tools that are much cheaper.
Even if you are well established in the online world but are still struggling to find a better spot on search engines, you surely are lacking something important.
Now, think of the time when you last checked if your SEO startegies are working well not. Can’t remember? Then, it’s probably time that you go back and check them.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best ways to keep your website going for long and help in making your website to the top.
If you need help with your SEO and want to improve your performance online, this piece will definitely help you. It doesn’t matter if your are a beginner, have an SEO agency or offering SEO services, the process mentioned here is for everyone.
Listed down you’ll find a step-by-step guide for beginners who want to conduct an SEO analysis for their website or even for their clients.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN HERE:
• SEO Data Analysis is important for maintaining a website’s long-term success and achieving a higher ranking in search engine results.
• SEO analytics include gathering and studying various set of data to improve a website’s visibility, understand current trends, and identify areas for improvement.
• The process has 4 step: planning the work, using the right tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Google Analytics, setting up an report with SEO score, and reviewing and analyzing the gathered data.
• It is a regular and continuous process for maintaining effective SEO results, ensuring traffic and conversions to the website.
What Is SEO Data Analysis?
The term SEO data analysis also known as SEO analytics means gathering and studying different types of raw data set to make your website appear better in search engines.
Doing this helps you figure out what to focus on, get permission for SEO projects, and make smarter choices to boost your website’s visibility on search engines.
Whether you are running an SEO campaign or are handling a large website, SEO analytics is a must to understand the SEO performance of your site.
Performing an analytics not only helps in understanding the current situation and reasons behind ongoing trends in the industry but also allows you to identify gaps, propose strategic responses, and estimate the expected outcomes of recommended actions.
Based on data produced you can get a detailed report on SEO. On the other hand, marketers can make informed decisions and understand the dynamic use of search engine optimization effectively.
4 Step-By-Step Beginner-Friendly Process To Do An SEO Analytics
SEO analytics is just like taking the right dose of medicine that makes your SEO project healthy. If done correctly, your website can definitely perform well and rank well on search engine results page.
Step 1: Plan Out Your Work
It’s easy to find yourself lost in the maze of analysis, losing sight of the ultimate goal. To avoid this, start by asking yourself what you want to know.
This simple question serves as a guiding light. Once you have a clear direction, you can plan which tools are necessary and decide on the specific reports to extract.
Good planning is the secret to running a successful SEO project. Rushing ahead without a thoughtful plan can lead to extra work and cause you to overlook valuable insights that could make a significant difference.
Based on your plans, first list down the areas you want to look at. Whether it is technical SEO analysis, content optimization, image optimization and so on.
Then, divide the work into different teams. Taking the time to lay out your course ensures a smoother journey through your SEO analytics reporting.
Step 2: Make Use Of The Right Tools
To get accurate data points on what you should be working one, it is essential that you use the right SEO tools.
-Google Search Console
Google Search Console is an excellent tool for businesses to understand how their business and website is performing on Google’s search results by giving the business owners the required data.
GSC data takes into account two kinds of searches, which are branded search and non-branded search. Branded search is when the audience searches for the business name, URL of the website, or the brand.
On the other hand, a non-branded search is when the audience has searched for keywords that are coincidentally related to your website. The clicks, impressions, and Click-through Rate (CTR) number for the last 90 days would be calculated in this data.
(Source : Google Images)
It gives you information on how Google crawls and indexes your website and helps find problems that affect how well it performs in searches, such as crawl errors, security problems, and manual penalties.
To set up GSC to analyze data for SEO projects:
Step 1: Visit Google Search Console and sign in using your regular Google account.
Step 2: Add a property after logging into your Google Search Account. You can enter your website’s Domain or URL Prefix to move to the next step.
Step 3: Depending on your selected option, you’ll next need to verify your website.
>If you choose Domain Property, the sole method for verifying your website is through your DNS provider.
• You can find a list of DNS providers in the dropdown list from which you can choose.
• When you find your DNS provider, you will see comprehensive instructions unique to that service. If your DNS provider isn’t listed, you may simply select “Any DNS service provider” instead.
• Once completed, copy the TXT record for your DNS that Google has provided.
• Open your domain’s website in a new tab after copying the TXT record, then log in to your domain’s account (for instance, Hostgator, GoDaddy, etc.).
• Then, find the domain you want to set in your list of ones.
• You will have the choice of managing your DNS records. Look for anything that mentions DNS and click on it if you can’t locate one.
• A page displaying the Domain Management page will then be opened, displaying a list of your DNS Records. Once you do, select “Add” to make a new one.
• You will then see a list of options with dropdown lists. First, choose TXT under “Type,” then type @ under “Host” and select 1 hour under “TTL.” Paste the TXT record you previously copied in the provided “TXT Value” space, then save the work.
• Following these procedures will add a new TXT record for Google Search Console.
• Click on Verify and create your Google Console account after adding your TXT record to Google Search Console.
Keep in mind, though, that it could take up to 72 hours to update the DNS entries. Therefore, you can always try again if your verification is not displayed.
>On the other hand, if you choose URL Prefix Property, you can use an HTML file, an HTML tag, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager to verify your website.
Step 4: Your Google Search Console will be created when you complete the appropriate procedures, choose the methods you’ll use to verify, and click on Verify.
-Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a useful too that can help you collect data from multiple sources in a single platform. This will further give you essential SEO insights on which you should work on.
Also, your website is made of certain keywords which are searched by the audience to reach your website. The performance and SEO ranking of these keywords can be determined using this tool.
(Source : https://ahrefs.com/rank-tracker)
-Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most common SEO reporting tool, used to track website traffic. The report received through Google Analytics would be vast and would take a lot of time to manually sort it out. That is why an SEO dashboard can be created to segment the data easily.
Metric in Google Analytics helps you to compare the organic session every month. You can do this for the current year or the previous one based on your need. It’s useful to keep track of major changes to your site, like if you started a PBN rental campaign for instance.
You can also garner a report where you will determine the seasonal changes in traffic generation on your website. The report will be available since the time of inception of your website. The day to day changes in organic search traffic will also be derived through this analysis.
Before you initiate the SEO campaign, the first thing that you need to do is prepare the report analyzing certain necessary data.
-Examine The Page Speed
Why would someone choose a website that’s loading slow over the ones that are faster?
When I browse the internet, if a website takes even more than 2 seconds to load, I prefer switching to a different website. And this is what many online users do.
So, if you don’t want your potential customers to leave your website, check your page speed. Even if your website is 1 second faster than your competitors, you can expect a lower bounce rate and an increased user experience.
You can check your site’s speed using Google PageSpeed Insights. The tool will show if there are any issues that slowing down your website. Make a note of them and work on it.
-Enable Caching
When a user visits your website, their browser downloads various resources such as JavaScript files or images. By enabling caching, the browser will download all the important files at once which will improve the loading speed of your website.
Since the browser will not download the same resources again and again, it will make your site more efficient and user friendly.
– Minimize HTTP requests.
If you see your website generating more than 50 HTTP requests, it’s essential to prioritize reducing this number. You can start by removing unnecessary images and optimizing their sizes.
Doing this is crucial for providing a smoother browsing experience to your visitors, especially those with slower internet connections or accessing your site from mobile devices.
-SERP Visibility
SERP visibility is an SEO metric that calculates a website’s position and authority in organic search results when users enter queries on computer devices.
This visibility metric provides valuable data insights into several aspects, including how effectively you target specific keywords, the accessibility of your pages for Google’s crawlers, the effectiveness of your titles, and the overall optimization of your website.
You can use free SEO tools like Google Ranking Check to assess your website’s visibility on both mobile and desktop devices. This will offers detailed and actionable insights into search visibility for specific regions and time periods according to which you can then work on your strategies.
-Images
Many users while glancing through a content want things to be simple. Images are a great way to visualise and summarize the content so that people that understand what the content wants to convey.
But using large image or video files could be a problem for SEO. The website’s speed will slow down and visitors might even leave the page.
You should ensure that each image inserted is well-optimized for SEO because this also impacts how Google ranks your site. To do this:
• Check your image’s descriptions
• Update/add alt texts and file names for the images
• Optimize your images for mobile devices
• Compress the image files in such a way that it doesn’t lose its actual quality
-Content
Doing a thorough content analysis of give you a chance to improve your site’s ranking. Also, by keeping your content always updated and relevant to the currents trends can further enhance visibility and increase click-through rates.
To do a website content analysis, make sure to check these important elements:
Page Title: Have your title within the range of 50-60 characters. Ask question using words like, Why, What and How while also including the main keyword you want to rank for.
Target Keyword: Focus on one keyword and rank higher for that instead of using multiple keywords.
Meta Description: Write the meta description in such a way that it falls within the character limit and includes a relevant keyword.
-URL
URLs are a way to help the online visitors to navigate a website easily. It also plays a significant role in improving the rank of a website.
To make sure, your URL is well and running, you can use Google’s free URL Inspection Tool that will give you information regarding Indexing, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), and Structured Data problems.
-Backlinks
Backlinks are those links that one website gets from another website through an anchor text. For your website to perform better, it is essential to check how many backlinks are pointing to your content and if there is chance of them being spammy.
You can use Ahrefs to check your backlink profile and also see the number of backlinks your competitors have. The more backlinks you have, the more credible and authoritative your site will appear online.
-Internal links
Internal links are those links that take a visitor to a different page of the same website. These links are very important to structure your site, making it easier for search engines like Google to understand your website is all about.
This further benefits users as they get a smoother experience while navigating your site. While working on your search engine optimization efforts, it is important to check your links to avoid issues like broken or outdated content.
This will ensure your site looks professional and improves user experience.
Step 4: Review & Analyze SEO Data
Once the report has been established, it will help you not only visualize data but also form an understanding of your website’s performance to form an initial strategy to improve your SEO.
Take this data to derive the main points presented in the report and send a compact email to the designated person. You can add the link of the report as a supporting document for each of the findings.
The areas that need SEO optimization need to be focused on more, and you need to formulate proper SEO strategies for these.
Make sure that you create a priority list so that the assigned people can take care of the task. Also, keep an organized record sheet with you so that you can keep track of the progress that is being made on each of the tasks that have been deemed as important.
Data analysis is an essential component of any SEO project. You can learn a lot about how your website is doing and spot areas for improvement by analyzing different data sets and user behavior. It is a continuous process that must be regularly tracked and improved.
You can ensure that your SEO efforts are always current and effective in bringing traffic and conversions to your website by frequently analyzing the performance statistics for your website and making adjustments as necessary.
FAQ
How does analytics help improve SEO?
SEO analytics is the process that collects data and analyzes your SEO data for search engines. It is helpful for SEO by enabling you to identify the SEO efforts you should value, get permission for SEO plans, and make better choices to boost SEO.
What are the different types of SEO analysis?
The 5 different types of SEO analysis are Content Audit, Site Audit, Off-page SEO, On-page SEO and Technical SEO.
What are the tools for SEO analysis?
The most effective SEO analytics tools you can use are Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Ahrefs.
Your website needs to be well-equipped to respond to searchers’ questions. These questions come in varied ways and include different words to express a similar query. You have to crack the art of optimizing your page through On-Page Search Engine Optimization.
Let’s say you have super-engaging content as well as multiple keywords in your mind. Your content won’t mean anything unless you use On-Page Optimization to rank higher in search results.
Simply put, Google needs to understand what you’re saying to place you in their top searches. Can’t wait to learn more? Without much ado, let’s dive right into the technical aspects of On-Page SEO!
What is On-Page Search Engine Optimization?
The On-Page SEO process aims at getting your page to rank higher in search results. This eventually increases traffic to your webpage. This process initially involves the strategic placement of the right keywords.
On-Page SEO also comprises modification of internal links, title tags, URS, as well as your content. However, Google has become much smarter than before. It skims through webpages to find keywords as well as looks at several other aspects.
Finally, Google also checks the bounce rate, search intent, user-experience, search intent, as well as the click-through-rate to decide your page’s rank.
Target the Right Keywords
It is important to understand keyword-use for On-Page Search Engine Optimization. Keywords are mere single or multiple-word phrases that hold power to make your website a high-ranked one.
Keywords need to be curated smartly to grab a visitor’s attention when they search for something particular on Google. Google’s job is to scan your websites to see where the keywords are located. It also notices the frequency of keywords.
Search engines don’t show your rank. Instead, it simply indexes your website as well as lists the pages. Let’s look at the different kinds of keywords and their usage.
Primary Keyword
Primary keyword usage is the first step to ranking high on a search result page. Once you get your primary keywords right, you need secondary as well as supporting keywords to back your page.
Here are some tips for identifying and using the right primary keyword for your website.
Research your keywords
• Create an Excel Sheet to track keywords.
• Put your brain to use. Keywords often come from brainstorming hard. The trick is to analyze each word that comes to your mind as well as ranking them in order of relevance.
• Look up your competitors’ webpages. Check their URLs or Title Tags and incorporate a similar pattern for your page. You can use Google Keyword Planner to do in-depth primary keyword research.
• Another option is to look up your search console data. You can study the keywords that are boosting your page’s traffic and the ones that require alteration. This is a very important step to get your primary keywords right.
Choose the right keyword from your research
• Search for your webpage on Google and analyze its current ranking.
• Go through your competitors’ webpages to select the keywords that will help your page the best. Do not blindly copy keywords.
• Study the basic services that your website offers and the purpose for which you’ve created it. Analyze the category you come under and find the exact fitment of your page. This will help you target the right primary keywords to make your page rank higher.
Secondary Keyword
Primary words are not the only source of traffic for your webpage. Your page is ranked through other keywords called secondary keywords. If the primary keywords are not strong enough, the secondary keywords will help strengthen your page.
(Source : Google Images)
Secondary keywords are part of a group of keywords that optimize the content on your page. These groups are also called ‘clusters.’ The best way to look for secondary keywords is to look up related searches on Google. Google Trends can also be an effective tool to determine secondary keywords.
Supporting Keyword
It is crucial to determine the exact difference between primary and secondary keywords and how they assist you in ranking your pages higher on a search result. Supporting keywords also help boost your presence on Google. The best trick is to study other websites in your domain.
Online forums and platforms like Reddit can offer a great deal of help in understanding the target audience. You can use these to keep tabs on what people want to know. It is also very beneficial to look up current discussions on online platforms. This way, you directly read what people are searching for, and you can optimize your page accordingly. This helps you decide supporting keywords to shift these readers’ attention to your page.
You can even head to Wikipedia’s table of contents to analyze the questions asked by readers. This is known to be quite accurate for finding appropriate secondary keywords.
(Source: Google Search)
For example, the above screenshot depicts how you can check Google’s conversations to answer questions using your keywords. This will help your page to rank well on Google.
The flow chart above shows the design of a webpage. The most common structure begins with the home page. This is followed by a parent or target page. These pages mostly determine the primary services offered by the brand along with deeper information about the company itself.
Child pages are created after the home and parent pages. The main factor here is the URL structure to understand silos. For example, xyz.com/parent/child or syz.com/category/parent/child makes silos based on the URL.
Google prefers web pages with an effective silo structure-keyword. Secondary keywords are best placed in the target page along with the primary keywords. Most searchers access other pages before the target place.
Let’s imagine a blog with several articles. These articles contain the right keywords that searchers are looking for. These ‘other’ pages offer solutions for a problem that will ultimately lead visitors to the target page. Let’s look at an example to understand this better.
The UK is a popular tourist destination. Let’s say London is hosting the cricket world cup. Your task is to provide backlinks to pages that answer related queries. For example, people might also want to know the weather in London, the flight prices, the cricket match fees, and even see what hotels to book their stay in.
The main aim of these supporting pages is to drive traffic to your website. Adding external links to the target page helps in engaging visitors. If visitors like the content you provided about the UK, they might check out your website for more such information. This tip helps you gain more visitors and even get them to subscribe to updates, newsletters, or even make a purchase.
How to divert your audience to the target page?
You need to meet Google’s expectations to rank well on a search result page. You need to understand what Google wants you to offer. It is important to know the different kinds of pages that exist before you consider making an impression with Google.
Pages like the category page, product page, long-form blogs, and articles, etc. have different purposes. You also need to analyze each kind to meet Google’s requirements.
There are times when a webpage’s rank dips. This is quite common, especially with outdated web pages. This happens because Google constantly filters pages as well as analyzes trending keywords to rank pages.
Update your web page
Researching your competitors is important. However, you also need to study the images, videos, and other media they have used. You can use these points to outline your page. Let’s look at the importance of outlining your page.
Why do you need to outline your page?
• A page without an outline looks unorganized, boring, and does not appeal to visitors well.
• A well-outlined page highlights the quality of the content as well as the structure of your page. It is pointless to offer great services and information without a quality outline.
Roman Numeral Outline
Google checks the hierarchical order of the webpage’s content as well as the ‘H’ tags. It is important to have a proper website structure for Google to analyze. You need to format your content using the roman numeral outline.
Where to place keywords
We have studied different keywords, silos, types of pages, etc. Now, we need to know where to place these keywords. When Google looks for websites, it checks the keywords used, contextual terms, as well as the variations offered. These are the best places to place your keywords in various categories.
Groups-
A- Meta Title/Page Title, Body Content, H1, and the URL
B- Anchor Text, H2, H3, H4
C- Bold, Italic, Image Alt
D- Open Graph, Schema, and HTML Tags
What do ranks constitute?
The four main elements of an SEO rank are primary keyword placement, contextual terms, variations of the primary keyword, as well as the final word count. Let’s take a closer look at these elements.
Primary Keyword Placements and Variations
The primary keyword is the main keyword used in ranking your website. Variations are simply the synonyms of your primary keyword. They can be partially relatable or even abbreviations. For example, Dubai Desert Safari Packages could be your primary keyword, and the variations could be Desert Safari in Dubai, Dubai Desert Tours, etc.
Contextual Terms
Contextual terms are conversational words that occur while discussing a certain topic. Let’s say you’re looking for the white sauce pasta recipe. The contextual terms would be white flour, pasta sauce, pasta mix, etc.
Word count
Word count is an important factor in deciding your page’s rank. The ideal word count is 1300-1500 words on a single web page. Studies say that a good word count boosts your ranking. These words are placed in the body in between or among hidden text.
The Basic Approach to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Marketing, SEO, or content curation should not take up much time, money, effort. However, the first crucial step is getting the SEO done. It is ideal to use a basic SEO approach, to begin with. Start by placing your primary keyword in Group A. Add a few secondary keywords in your preferred subheadings.
Stick to the 1300-word count approach or look up your competitors’ pages to see the approach they have gone for. Finally, insert a few supporting keywords as well as utilize them as the silo posts. It is also necessary to focus on a content schedule.
Meta Titles and Descriptions
(Source: Google Images)
Unique meta titles, as well as proper descriptions, are important to boost your ranking. A meta title is the best place to introduce your primary keyword. It is better to use the same meta title for your page’s H1s. Meta descriptions are also used in open paragraphs. There can be more than one meta description. (here)
Frequently Asked Questions
We understand that it could be tough to take this all in once. While you’re processing this data, we understand you might have some questions running through your mind. We’re here to answer your queries and help you understand the On-Page SEO better.
What is the difference between unique and duplicate content?
Google regularly removes web pages that contain duplicate content. This can be avoided by keeping 51% unique content on your webpage. In easier terms, 1 out of every 13 words on your page must be unique. Some tips to make your content unique are:
• A new strategy
• A well-researched list of latest resources
• Strong webpage design and User-experience
• A new and relevant case study
• Stepwise processes
What word count should be maintained for e-commerce web pages?
E-commerce websites have visitors that want a brief product description with just the important details/features. E-commerce websites don’t need to focus on the 1300-word approach. Instead, they can aim for 300-500 words for each product page.
(Source: Amazon)
The page should be crisp, well-designed, informational, as well as contain media. This attracts more readers as well as improves the chances of a purchase.
Is it important to use the right terms/ words on our page?
It is normal to be confused as to whether Google takes grammar seriously or focuses on every ‘ed’ or ‘ing’ you’ve used. You can set your worries aside by checking how your competitors are doing on Google’s search results. You can also refer to Google’s word suggestions to add better or unique words to your page.
Advanced Outlines and Other Elements
We spoke about the importance of a proper structure and an outline for a webpage. Let us understand how an SEO page should ideally look like. In fact, if you have any new content coming up, it is beneficial for you to understand the concepts of page structure, tag totals, etc.
Page Structure and Tag Totals
Page structure includes elements like HTML Tags, H1 H2, H3, etc. These help in delivering exactly what Google expects. The elements we mentioned will allow you to boost your page SEO and make it simple for Google to scan it.
While creating the page structure, you need to focus on some intricacies. For instance, if you have twenty H3s, and your competitor has five to seven of them, then your page lacks somewhere in the structure. Use different plug-ins for your website.
It is not recommended to use plug-ins that do not offer modifications. Modifications are extremely useful for your page’s ranking.
An ideal Search-Engine Optimized Page should include the following elements:
• Optimized and attractive headings/titles
• Appropriate keywords that help boost page ranking
• Unique content with a high readability score
• Error-free content (No grammatical or spelling errors)
• Bullet points to explain topics in a concise and effective way
• A word count ranging between 1300-1800
• Proper backlinks to guide visitors to target pages
Free Tools
Since we’ve understood what a page structure constitutes, it’s time for us to explain how you can use free tools to make your system. Firstly, you should see competitors’ pages and check the numbers to have an estimate.
You can use SEO Quake for your primary key to extract words that will help analyze your competitors’ approach. It will also give you ample suggestions to make your web page rank higher.
You can also choose to search for your term and jot down the variations (bold highlighted terms on the search engine results page (SERP)).
(Source: Google Search)
The image above shows variation keywords. These are the search results in bold letters. For example, Washington DC, cheap flights, etc.
Advanced Keyword Research
We have explained the concept of keyword variations and how to incorporate them in your page. Now, we’ll shift our focus towards some advanced keyword research concepts like Lost Keywords, Keyword Cannibalization, as well as additional opportunities.
Lost keywords are the ones used to rank your page. It is important to identify these keywords if your site’s ranking on Google has gone down. Keyword Cannibalization assists you to come up with extra opportunities to save various keywords.
These two techniques are effective tools to make changes or have a quick impact on your page’s ranking. All you have to do is look for the right words since they already pre-exist within your content.
How to incorporate lost keywords?
• Create a new page for lost keywords
• Re-target the page that contains the lost keyword
• Make supporting pages for your silo
There are two approaches to search for a lost keyword. One way is through Ahrefs. Click on Organic Keywords within the dashboard, click on movements, and then select lost. The other option is to click on compare data in GSC, and then ‘download,’ followed by ‘use sheet.’
(Source: Google Images)
Understanding SEO Page Audit
Google Webmaster Guidelines organizes such audits. There are four things to keep in mind for SEO:
• Find: The search engine finds your web page
• Crawl: The search engine scans through your page structure
• Index: Google indexes your site after finding it
• Rank: Google analyses your page and decides its rank
Guide To A Comprehensive On-Page SEO Audit
You are already aware that your website requires optimizing for enhanced performance, augmented visibility, and maximum traffic. After tackling the first step of understanding on-page search engine optimization, find out what this module has in store for you.
On-page SEO refers to everything you can control on your website, and that is what we will talk about. The on-page SEO audit is loosely based on the Google Webmaster Guidelines. The GWB guidelines were only used to outline this module better. With this outline, you can expect your website to elevate in terms of ranking and branding.
While Google may not always be right, it is still the leading search engine. Many brands refer to Google to see what is ranking and what should be on your website, and you should too. With this module, you will learn exactly how to do that.
Before we go ahead with this module, here are the stages of SEO that you should know about. This is the usual method for search engines to identify brands based on search engine optimization.
• Find
• Crawl
• Index
• Rank
• Brand
To explore an on-page SEO audit better, let’s break these SEO stages down.
Learning in-depth about On-page SEO?
On-page SEO is the method of optimizing web pages to rank higher and gain traction through search pages. On-page refers to a few components on your website that you can manage to optimize and bring in benefits. These components include content, keywords, and other such technical elements that help your website increase visibility.
Search engines follow a few stages for search engine optimization to help brands gain traction and visibility.
Find
The first step that search engines get into is finding your webpage. This is critical, essentially because it will determine whether or not your brand will be ranked.
Search engines are a powerful platform that can organically find your webpage. But there are a few ways in which you can contribute to fasten this process and direct the search engines to your webpage.
Analytics/Webmaster Tools –One of the best practices for your website is to have a Verified Google Search Console Account, also known as the Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics Account, and Bing Webmaster Tools Account. These accounts will evaluate your website and provide information on site performance and issues.
(Source : Google Images)
Sitemap – Search engines use a sitemap to crawl your website, while humans use it to search pages on your website. You can submit your XML sitemaps to Google and Bing search tools so that their search engines can easily find all of your websites. On the other hand, an HTML sitemap is used by us, humans. The HTML sitemap offers a good user experience to your audience.
Robots.txt file – You can use robots.txt file to stop search engines from crawling your pages that you do not wish to be indexed. For example, you most definitely do not want your admin page to be indexed.
Meta Robots – This allows you to assign search engines some instructions to do while they crawl your pages. Meta Robots are those instructions. For ranking pages, you can set up a Meta Robots with a configuration including ‘index,’ ‘follow,’ and ‘archive.’
(Source : Google Images)
The configuration helps to inform search engines that they have to index the webpage, follow site links, and archive the webpage. Moreover, they prevent the search engines from displaying descriptions of other directories such as Yahoo or DMOZ. If you utilize resources like Yoast or Jetpack, then you do not need this method. These resources will automatically optimize your page with tags.
Malware – No one likes malware, and your website should be free from it. In case your website is found with malware, your rankings will decline instantly. In fact, in extreme scenarios, you could also get de-indexed.
Manual Penalties – Manual Penalties are also known as Manual Actions. These are displayed in a tab in the search console. If a human reviewer on your webpage feels like it has violated Google’s policies, then they take action called a manual penalty. Try to resolve your manual penalties instantly and submit them for review.
HTTP(S) – Search engines will prefer your website more if you completely follow the required security measures. Search engines prefer a secured URL such as https://. Besides being widely used, https also plays a key role in your website’s ranking.
WWW Redirect – Another best practice followed in SEO is the non-www domain record redirecting to www record for your website. This is also practiced to ensure there are no duplicate content issues with your website.
(Source : Google Images)
Domain Property (Search Console) – Make sure you claim your domain property in the search console. This automatically allows you to claim several other versions of the domain, including https, https, www, and non-www. Additionally, you can access your domain in entirety in one place.
Rel=Canonical – Rel=Canonical is a tag that will determine an URL for your webpage and the content on it. This tag combines all the external links that point to your webpage and make sure that the target page is given credit. The tag also resolves duplicate content issues for your website and provides maximum security against SEO attacks. It is recommended that you implement the Rel=Canonical tag on all webpages for your site.
Crawl
After the first step of finding your website, it is necessary to have little to no structural issues. Structural issues will restrict search engines from crawling your website. Here are some examples of structural issues.
Structure Issues
• Html/CSS
If your website’s HTML and CSS code have faults, then a code validation test can easily identify these issues. You might not be able to find these issues out, but they’ll hinder the search engine’s crawling on your websites.
Another common issue is cross-browser compatibility code issues that are checked by user experience and is not good for SEO. If you want to outrank a ‘superfluous’ website, then you can use a ‘lean’ code. Even though it is uncertain whether Google uses HTML or CSS as a factor for ranking, you can still start with this.
• HTTP status
Everyone has seen errors popping up on their screens and wondering what they mean. This is what we mean by structural issues from HTML or CSS. Stay updated with the HTTP status, and here’s what each of them means.
500 errors are server-side errors and mean serious server issues. In case you see this, these errors must be resolved immediately.
404 errors are the popular ‘page not found’ error on a website. You don’t have to address them immediately since they have low priority.
302 errors are another low priority error that has temporary redirects. These should be changed to 301 to resolve them.
• Broken links
(Source : Google Images)
Your SEO can be affected by a broken link on your website. For instance, if you have a 404 error on your website, it can go all the way back to a broken link.
Always make sure you check both internal and external links. Internal broken links should be your first priority, followed by broken external links.
Site Speed – Site speed is responsible for your website’s user experience and plays a role in website ranking. You can easily check your website’s details at the site speed report. The report evaluates scores such as Page Speed score, Yslow score, Fully Loaded Time, and Time to Time Byte (TTTB). For SEO specifically, Page Speed and Yslow scores are utilized with a page load time under 7 seconds.
Page load time may be a tiny factor, but it does not play a role as a ranking factor. In fact, Time to Time Byte (TTTB) plays a bigger role in deciding the ranking.
Content Delivery Network – The Content Delivery Network or CDN is a group of servers placed according to their geographical locations. Instead of having only one location of the server on your website, CDN helps disperse your website to servers globally.
(Source: Google Images)
With the help of global distribution, your website will load quickly and provide the visitors with the actual location of the server. CDN also helps to increase security levels because hackers only hack one server and not the entire network.
Mobile Optimization – With the increasing usage of mobile phones, you also have to help your brand adapt to mobile devices. This includes mobile optimization, first index, Google AMP, site speed, click-through rate, or mobile user experience. All of these include optimizing tools for a better mobile-based user experience.
Index
Now comes the third step following finding and crawling your website. The next part to consider is indexing the website. The index simply refers to search engines categorizing webpages from your website according to content into their database.
Once you have a page about a certain topic, it is not directly categorized into a niche. The Index section further breaks into two parts, current, and future content.
Duplicate Content
Search engines curate authentic and unique content. In fact, the original content you post on your website will increase the chances for your website to be ranked. Duplicate content will also be shown as internal or external if detected.
Meta and Page Titles
Every page on your website serves its own purpose. Your page content should not only be different from other websites but your own webpages as well. Try to avoid duplicate meta descriptions and page titles. Keep a description and title that is unique only to your page.
HREFLANG
If your website is in multiple languages targeting several countries, then this tag helps to instruct the search engines to use appropriate language for the visitor. The tag: rel=” alternate” hreflang=”x” aims to ignore duplicate content between numerous languages.
Schema Markup
(Source: Google Images)
Schema markup is a language from inside a webpage that is only visited by search engines. This happens when your web developer marks up essential information about your business deep into the site with a special code. Essential information could include industry, location, operating hours, contact information, awards, description, etc. These are also known as the Rich Snippets because they allow rich and organic search results about your brand. Not to forget, the schema is a big factor in determining to rank.
Open Graph
Open graph is one of the efficient ways to add metadata to your pages and be able to control them. You can control how these pages land up on social media and are notified when it is shared. Utilizing an open graph literally opens opportunities for you. They increase your click-through-rates, bringing your website more traction. Try not to miss this step since it is the first important step for indexing and ranking.
Thin Content
Besides being unique, your webpage needs to add value to the World Wide Web. Search engines will only curate your content if they feel like it benefits the users. The measurement of content value is the word limit. Webpages with less than 250 words are considered to be ‘thin’ and are difficult to rank later on.
Reverse Silo Structure
A silo structure allows you to organize your website content. It helps you to structure your content in a way to increase your chances of higher rankings. Moreover, they also gain traction for target pages and supporting pages, both of them that work in combination through internal and external linking.
Here are some steps to set up a reverse silo structure.
• Select the target page that you want to rank for your brand. Further, select a few articles published on the site that are related to your target page. Feel free to create new content, as well.
• Then, link out to one of the supporting pages, and keep in mind that you can use the anchor text of your choice.
• Go to the paragraph text on the supporting blog articles and link it back to the target page and then a supporting page.
• Make sure you create a silo structure like this for every target page on your website.
• Choosing Keywords
When you are writing for your website, keywords are the most important part because they determine how the search engines will categorize your website. With the help of keywords, search engines also try to match visitor searches to related search results. Since search engines cannot ‘read’ the content, keywords placed in specific locations make it simpler to connect. Consider keywords to be your biggest strength and make it easy for search engines to figure out what your webpages are all about.
Make sure your target page is of a single niche. Try to optimize more than one primary keyword and phrases. This way, you get access to secondary keywords as well that are basically related keywords. These secondary keywords make up a cluster that will powerfully optimize your target pages.
Find these cluster keywords in the related searches section on your search engine results page (SERP), auto drop-down suggestions, ‘people also ask’ section or Google trends.
Rank
Finally, we reach the ranking section once all the previous stages have been tackled. Rank refers to placing your web pages in search results in a certain order. Google lists ten pages organically on every SERP. To claim the ‘first page,’ especially on Google, your webpage must rank in the top ten webpages listed for your target keywords.
This is exactly how the previous steps are so important in determining a webpage’s rank. But sometimes you might have done everything from your end and yet you worry about how to improve your rankings.
In this case, your rankings will improve solely by creating relevant content on the website and having quality backlinks for your target keywords.
Here are some factors to remember that can bring your rankings up.
• Word Count
• Latent Semantic Indexing
• Exact Match Keyword
• Keyword Variations
• Page Score
• Organic Page Performance
• Click-Through Rate by Rank Position
• Potential Traffic by Search Term
• Click-Through Rate
• Optimization Tuning
• Overall Site User Experience
Brand
The final step to getting more visibility for your brand. Search engines are constantly searching for signals to identify legitimate websites and brands. Signals include how your brand is listed across the internet and the positioning in Google and Bing along with some on-page factors.
Brand Signals & Local Optimization – You have understood brand signals, but if you are wondering what the methods to optimize your brand signals are, then here’s how.
• Google My Business Profile
(Source: Google Images)
Google My Business Profile is an essential, authoritative tool for your website, be it local, national, online, B2B, or B2C. Goggle uses this platform to verify if your website represents an actual brand. It does this by linking external links from properties like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. Moreover, it identifies your business location, reviews, and more. If you have not already optimized this for your brand’s website, then definitely should.
• Rel=Publisher
Rel=Publisher is a tag that links your brand and content together. When you write quality content, Google can attribute the content and brand together. This is because Rel=Publisher is the exact same code or tag between the content and your Google+ Business Page. With the help of this tag, your brand can improve in terms of search results. No one can question its credibility as well because the Google+ Business Page is only accessible to G Suite users and businessmen. Due to this, the signal helps to improve website authority.
Authenticity, Citations, and NAP – Your brand needs to get listed in big data aggregators and have a consistent name through NAP (Name, Address, and Phone). Factual specifically serves as a business data aggregator. Many search engines do use Factual or any other leading company. They use other important industry citing sites to verify basic brand information.
Authenticity, Brand Awareness: Owning Your Brand Across the Web – If you want Google to view your brand as trusted and reputed, make sure that you are sending the right business signals. Check the below factors, whether they exist or are accurate.
• Social media itself exists while all their information stays up-to-date and accurate.
• Check if there were any negative reviews across business platforms.
• This goes without saying, and you should stick to one name for your webpage.
Additional Information: On-Page Trust and Authenticity Factors – Google is always looking at a brand to check if they were original and reliable. Most indicators exist at the footer of stronger websites.
KPIs, Benchmarking, and Reporting
These determine the success or failure of a business. That said, these are some vital things to note when SEO is considered. There are several effective ways to do your KPIs and Reporting.
You can start by advocating page-level reporting through various keywords and unique content.
Another way is to analyze your website or specific web pages. You check its past rankings and compare them with current results. You must keep an eye on traffic, conversions, and impressions. Finally, you can benchmark everything by studying your past performance.
How to set up a dashboard?
There are many efficient ways to set up a dashboard. We understand it can get tiring, so we decided to help you out with a few things you can start with:
• Google Data Studio: It is easy to use and free of cost!
• Connect Analytics, Adwords, and Search Console
• Google Analytics Data: This is great for engagement, to check page/site visitors frequently and for conversions.
• Combine trends to build your reports
• Search Console Data: Use this to lookup keyword positions, clicks, CTR, etc.
How to optimize your CTR?
There are millions of websites on the internet. How can you ensure that yours is the one that gets clicked? Well, it might not be a cakewalk, but here are a few ways to optimize your Call-To-Action:
• CTRs with Question Tags get more clicks than others- Question Tags such as “Why should I eat green vegetables?” are visited more than other webpages because readers have shown an inclination towards them.
This is because people relate to questions better and feel like Tags with questions contain more accurate information. See the image below for an example-
(Image Source: Google Search)
• Meta-Descriptions are a must- You need to have a meta-description for your web page. Yes, you get brownie points if it is a compelling description, however, just having one suffices.
• Take help from Review Schema or FAQ Schema- These do not directly optimize your page. However, these are great for connecting to Rich Snippets. Let’s look at these two tools closely.
FAQ Schema
(Source: Google Search)
Review Schema
(Source: Google Search)
• Use Power Words in your Title- Words like “Best,” “Top,” “Free,” and “You” are called power words because of their engaging quality. Using these words can help optimize your CTR.
• Use the current year in your Title: Titles like “Top 10 SUVs in 2020” and “Best Matte Lipstick: 2020 Choice” are more likely to get clicks than other pages due to the effect of time. Visitors will find such titles more recent and hence will visit them first. Here’s a search result screenshot to help you understand better.
(Source: Google Search)
How to divide your reporting?
Reporting must be divided in the following ways:
The Complete Website
The record must include data about visitors, cluster keyword positions, clicks, conversions, CTR, conversion rate, etc.
• A record of the previous three to six months must be maintained.
• Benchmark data must include screenshots of metrics, including those from the start of the campaign to the present one.
Each Target Page
The record must include data about visitors, cluster keyword positions, clicks, conversions, CTR, conversion rate, time on site, and the Bounce Rating.
• You must maintain a complete record of three to six months.
• Benchmark data, including complete metrics from start to finish, must be maintained.
How to Calculate Return on Interest (ROI)
Businesses have two common goals when they start campaigns. The first aim is pure branding, while the second goal is to generate additional revenue. You’re also the one to decide the complete outcome of your campaign. However, you must be concerned about your Return On Investment (ROI). If you work well with ROI numbers, it will allow you to keep your monthly contracts going as well as demanding higher fees.
The following metrics should be considered before estimating the Return on Investment (ROI).
• Real Search Volume
• The Site’s Conversion Rate
• CTR by Rank Position
• The Lifetime Value of a Customer
Can images optimize your web page?
Images and SEO? Yes, it’s a match made in heaven. It is extremely beneficial to use images in your web pages. Here’s why-
• Makes your page more engaging
• Helps visitors relate to concepts better
• Media makes content more relevant
However, are you adding the images properly? Are you using original/unique photos or resorting to Stock Images?
Well, let us tell you a fact. Stock Photos can hamper all your SEO efforts. It is better to use unique photos on your web pages instead of commonly used images on the internet. This is sure to boost your SEO ranking.
What is Schema?
Schema is tags that are embedded inside your website and will tell search engines what your website contains. Search engines do not understand the symbols and numerals assigned, for instance, the weighing metrics. Instead, you can simply tag Schema and state that this is a metric. This helps search engines to understand your website’s content.
Why is Schema the worst?
When it comes to convenience and easy usage of a tool, Schema does not necessarily qualify. While it may be taking a load off your shoulders, increasing traffic, it still is confusing to understand. Moreover, Schema is mainly difficult to implement.
But here’s the secret. Hide in plain sight!
(Source : Google Images)
Try to gain inspiration from some of the popular sites on any search engine results page. Try to look at their schema and understand the secret of their plain hiding. Further, you can use the Google Data Structure Testing Tool. The tool tells you if the schema you swiped is a good one.
Sitelink Search Box
Sitelink search is a custom search box that is available when you display branded searches. Only you should have a search feature on your website, and this can be put only on the homepage.
Breadcrumbs
You can easily get breadcrumbs displayed for your website. Look at this and tell us if it looks similar, Books > Authors > Ann Leckie > Ancillary Justice.
Yes, this is exactly what breadcrumbs refer to. List all your URLs in the schema. Moreover, the URL mysite.com/type/keyword-phrase displays the 404 error. Most times mysite.com/type/ is not a real page as well.
Main Entity of Page
The main entity of the Page is a simpler opportunity to tell Google that this is what your brand is about; this is the content on it, and here’s why the brand is credible.
Item Page
Many users use the Item Page as a default. This page focuses more on one thing essentially, and it does not include fitting into another schema categories of Bollywood. The item page schema looks exactly the one in the previous schema category.
Additional Schema
Now that you have understood and looked at what Schema does, here are some more branches of Schema.
Spammy Schema Manual Action – It perfectly edits your schema mainly because you get to control a big aspect of it. Since it is manual, you can totally steer your goals into any direction.
Product Schema – Through this category, you can access all the fun stars, reviews, prices, and more than usually pop out in the SERPs. If you want to make him pop, you can use Aggregate Rating and their offers. It only works when both of them exist since Google is a fickle-minded platform.
Local Business Organization – Studying the organization behind local businesses is a great way to understand how people live. But more so digitally, how do these businesses find their way back into the ranking game.
What is Medic & E-A-T?
Medic began in August 2018, came back in December 2018 and March 2019. Medic began as a series of core updates. A lot of websites started losing their ranks even though they were real websites. Their most demanding niches varied from medics, lifestyle, food, etc. and yet they started declining.
Further, this formed a concept of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). Since then, it has become easier to become the real website that you are. Although no search engine is in power to judge whose website is real, the E-A-T concept still is one of the factors. In the end, it is all about whether Google thinks you are a real entity or not.
The first thing you should do as a brand is to create your own knowledge panel if it does not exist. If your brand does not show up in this panel, it may not be as recognized.
While this is only the first step, there are several other factors to take into consideration.
Wikipedia / Wikidata – Google widely uses Wikipedia and Wikidata for information. This is your chance to take the steering wheel in your hands by creating an interesting page. You can try out Wikidata. But here are some key points to keep in mind when creating a Wikidata account.
Avoid using email addresses with your brand’s name completely visible.
You can use the same account to contribute to the most random topics by having multiple listings.
Once you create an account, you can add statements mentioning information like location, industry type, inauguration date, official website, and more.
In the end, add a ‘qualifier’ for related data to receive similar results, especially about your brand.
Google My Business (GMB) – Another way to verifying yourself is by setting up and optimizing Google My Business. Make sure you submit your website to Google My Business and claim it for every business location of yours. Next, confirm your details such as name, office address, phone number, working hours, etc. Go ahead and add a few appealing photos and then edit your brand introduction.
(Source: Google Images)
Some people go all the way and mention modes of payment, which is a good thing. Once you start getting traction, respond to every review politely, including the negative ones. A few more things that you can do is create a 360-degree virtual tour, post twice a month, or add an optimized image every week.
Yelp Optimization – If your brand is still not verified, claim a listing on Yelp. The process is pretty much similar to that of GMB. Fill in your information, add pictures, and respond nicely to your reviews.
Huge Trust Signal (GMB / G+ / YouTube / Rel=Publisher) – The huge trust signal is like a part two to your GMB optimization. You can create a huge trust signal by simply verifying certain Google properties with the same account. We have simplified the GG Suite optimization easier for you with these basic steps.
• Log in to G+ through the GG Suite and your GMB account.
• Click on your profile to grab the URL and add it to Ref=Publisher. This tag will go in the header of your site.
• Now simply go to YouTube to sync and verify in the settings.
Citations – This is the reference information a brand provides, such as a name, address, and contact number. Usually, citation in SEO terms refers to the several business listings that take place on many sites. You can also call citations as business directories due to their large databases. There are two types of citations.
• Major Data Aggregators
These are basically just large databases for brands. They include Factual, Infogroup, Newstar, and Axiom. Factual is widely used for schema identification. Other sources of entry include Whitespark, Brightlocal, Moz Local, Yext, or any credible citation service.
• Niche Citations
The following major data aggregators are niche citations. These are specific to your brand, industry, location, keyword, or content. Find out whether your competitors are getting citations and then go ahead with getting one. Using a citation service, you can also try to conduct an audit. Moreover, you can compare these major citation services before opting for any one of the above.
3rd Party Review Sites – After you have taken the bigger steps of Yelp, GMB, and citations, you can now refer to 3rd party sites. In fact, let this be your moment for earning reviews. There are two ways to find out 3rd party review sites.
• Knowledge Panel – Simply search your business on the knowledge panel and look at ratings or remarks given by other websites.
• SERPs – Search for your brand’s reviews, and you will find numerous articles on it.
Site Information and Outbound Links – You have successfully gone through every step, and this is only to wrap it up. Here are some endnotes for you to keep in mind.
• Establish different ways for your visitor to contact you internationally and locally besides your email or personal mobile number.
• Edit your ‘about us’ or ‘meet the team’ section. Consistently update it so your brand can seem humanized to the visitors.
• Ensure that your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are specific to your niche and completely in place.
• Form outbound links such as social profiles, content creation, etc. You can link all these externally as well.
Summing it up
Make sure you follow through with all or most of these steps to guarantee complete optimization, increased traffic, and maximum visibility.
Lastly, do not have duplicate content and be real with the content on your webpage. Make sure your originality stands out for Google to know that you exist. There are many ways Google will eventually discover your content and your website.
This guide has probably taught you as much as you would need to know about setting up your own optimization tools. As long as you are putting out original content in the world, your brand will surely get recognized and ranked.
That being said, just be yourself, and everyone will simply be drawn to your content.
Endnotes
Well, we’ve sure come a long way from the start. We spoke about essential On-Page SEO tips and gave you the latest insights into the concept. Now, we understand that it is a very vast concept and requires more than just 4,000 words. However, we’re also sure this guide has given you a massive head start.
The most important concepts we discussed were the keyword research tools, CTR optimization, Page Structures, and Outlines. Even though these may not look very intense, they are the most crucial elements of an optimized web page.
On-Page SEO is more than just adding the right keywords to your title or description. It aims at fulfilling the search intent and offering the most accurate data. That is the most vital part. If you fail at providing valuable data, optimization is pretty much pointless.
That said, we need to focus on keeping the ‘Giant G’ satisfied. All On-Page SEO tips also have one common goal- to crack Google’s ranking algorithm. It’s not easy but can be done by following the steps we mentioned in our guide. Well, we wouldn’t like to keep you waiting! Go on, optimize your pages, and conquer the ranks.
On-Page SEO: How to Rank Higher on Google the Right Way
Every site should start with great content. But that only gets you so far.
To really sell your site to your target audience, you will need on-page SEO.
Anyone looking to gain organic traffic needs to drop what they’re doing and read this comprehensive on-page SEO guide.
Here you’ll learn the basics of SEO and find actionable strategies to expand your readership.
What Is On-Page SEO?
There are two types of SEO: on-page and off-page.
On-Page
On-page SEO is how you optimize a website from within. You can restructure pages, edit the content, improve your headings, change the URL, and adjust the HTML.
Basically, it concerns all the factors that you have control over.
Off-Page
In that sense, it’s the complete opposite of off-page SEO which mostly refers to building backlinks and marketing. While you can launch strategies to improve the odds of success, the result is ultimately out of your hands.
This post will focus on on-page SEO.
Search engines want sites to be useful and engaging for their users. That’s why they have algorithms in place to keep poor content out of their SERPs.
On-page SEO is the first step to satisfying both Google and site visitors. A proper on-page strategy will address issues that hamper the user experience.
In the end, you want your website to be informative, easy to understand and navigate through, fast, and relevant to user queries.
And the following tips will help you achieve just that.
On-Page SEO Techniques for You to Follow
Below are some of the guiding principles behind on-page SEO. A better understanding of these factors will help you build a site that’s designed for visibility online.
Research Your Focus Keyword
It’s all about keywords.
You can’t publish posts without targeting a primary keyword.
Ask yourself: What search terms do you want to rank for? What information does my audience need? What keywords are my readers using to find the answers I have to offer?
Optimizing your pages based on keyword research will drive traffic to your site.
Search Intent
To determine what keywords to use, you will first need to know what and why they’re conducting a search to begin with.
In SEO, there’s a concept called search intent. The idea is to find out the reason behind a search query. And based on that reason, you’ll have a better grasp of the keywords used.
There are four types of search intent:
Informational
The most basic type. The user is looking for information in the form of instructions, blogs, news, and the like.
Navigational
The user is looking for a domain and needs Google to pinpoint where it is. People who Google “The Washington Post” are most likely looking for its homepage.
Commercial
The terms that fall under this category indicate a desire to purchase a product but need more data. They’re looking for reviews, product comparisons, spec sheets, or any other information that’ll lead to a sale.
Transactional
People who are ready to buy will use transactional search terms to find a product. They’re usually preempted by the word “buy” like “buy new iPhone” or “buy toaster online”.
Is your site providing information? Or are you trying to sell something?
Knowing what your site is setting up to accomplish will help you determine the kinds of keywords you should be targeting.
Keyword Length
It may come as no surprise that generic search terms are harder to rank for. The reason is simple: the more a keyword is used, the more pages are built to rank for that term.
So keyword length will play a huge role in how you structure your pages.
A keyword will likely fall in one of three categories:
Head Term
Usually consists of 1-2 words. These are hard to rank for because they’re generally vague and sought after.
Medium Tail
They are 3 words on average. They fall in between a head term and a long tail keyword. It has the advantage of targeting other keywords in your LSI (more on that later).
Long Tail
These consist of 4 words or more. There are fewer searches made for terms in this category. But that also means they’re easier to rank for.
There’s no rule that says you only have to optimize pages for one category. A good mix of all three might even be beneficial.
It all boils down to your on-page strategy. What keywords do you need to prioritize?
Using head terms on the homepage is common practice. Medium tail terms are present in the upper tier landing pages. Long tail keywords are used on smaller pages like blog posts and articles.
But:
If there’s a long tail keyword you’d like a homepage to rank for, you can use that instead.
Finding Keywords
Where can you find keywords anyway? Where would you conduct your research?
You have several options.
The easiest way would be through the Google Keyword Planner Tool, an application that falls under the Google Ads umbrella.
You will need to set up a free account to get started.
Log in using your Google account and follow the on-screen instructions.
You’re going to be asked to provide your business information among other details. Once done, you will be given access to the Keyword Planner Tool.
The dashboard will display the basic settings. To expand the view, click Settings and select Switch to Expert Mode.
When asked to confirm your selection, select Switch to Expert Mode again.
This will change your dashboard to introduce additional features. Go to Tools and Settings and select Keyword Planner Tool.
Now you can do two things. You can either find keyword ideas or get search volume and forecasts. Both would bring you to the tool itself with slight variations on the default settings based on the option you select.
Enter a base keyword to begin your journey. Think of your site’s main topic (if you’re a blog) or product (if you’re a seller).
Next, you’ll be shown the average monthly searches for the keyword you entered. Right below it would be keyword ideas you can use.
You can use the filters to refine the results. You can also change the location you’re targeting to dial in on your target market.
But Google’s Keyword Tool does have limitations. The results, for example, are limited and does not provide you as many keywords as other keyword tools.
Ahrefs is an alternative if you need better keyword suggestions. The only caveat is that it isn’t free. But if you’re really invested, it’s definitely worth paying for.
After signing up for an account, click Keywords Explorer in the navigation bar.
Enter your target keyword in the search box and hit Search when you’re done.
This will prompt Ahrefs to deliver you an overview of your search term.
Scroll down and you’ll find suggested keywords you can target.
Click View All if you want to see the entire list.
As with Google’s Keyword Tool, you can filter the results to get a better sense of your keyword options. Pillar keywords and pillar posts can help you to identify and manage your highest-priority topics, and can inform how you structure the rest of your site, too.
Optimize Your Metadata
Your metadata will tell both Google and your readers what your page is all about. And because search engines use this information to rank your pages, this would also be the ideal place to insert your target keywords.
The question:
What comprises the metadata?
There are three main components:
Title Tags – These are given the most weight and the first thing users see on the SERPs.
Meta Descriptions – Contains additional information to complement the title tag.
txt – An HTML file on your site that tells search engines where to look for your metadata.
We’ll be focusing on title tags and meta descriptions for now.
You’ve likely seen them in action when performing a Google search.
How Metadata Affects Search Results
Your meta tags will have a profound effect on your search rankings. The key to ranking higher involves everything you’ve read so far.
Keyword research. User intent. Metadata.
Take the results below as an example.
A search for “Rent Los Angeles apartment” delivers mostly results for the keyword “Apartments for rent in Los Angeles”.
But alter the search term a bit and the results get drastically different.
Your meta titles and descriptions affect rankings. The results for transactional keywords won’t be displayed on informational queries.
The metadata relays to Google what your site is all about.
If users are looking to rent apartments, only results that help that purpose will be shown. And if users are only looking to find information, transactional pages are omitted.
Keep in mind:
A transactional page can also contain information that’s beneficial for users. But in our example, the meta titles and descriptions are clearly targeting potential customers.
The same thing can be said for the informational query example.
There are different ways to edit your metadata. Technically, all metadata can be edited by making tweaks to your HTML.
You simply need to insert the metadata in the right spot in the code.
Your meta title and meta description should be inserted in the <head> section of your HTML code.
Here’s what your typical metadata looks like in code.
Editing Your Metadata
Here’s a closer look.
If you’re unfamiliar with how coding works, you better consult with your web designer. Although editing your metadata should be quite easy.
Fortunately, most websites today use a content management system or CMS. These would be your WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and other similar web building platforms.
These CMS have dedicated sections where you can control your metadata information. In the case of WordPress, there are plugins you can install to make the task easier.
Two plugins come to mind immediately: Yoast SEO and All In One SEO. Both are more than capable of getting the job done. And there are many more out there.
And while each tool is different, they usually something like this:
They are usually found in the Edit Post section, above or below the area where you draft your post.
Edit URL Structure
A long URL just doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s even worse when the URL is reduced to a long string of characters devoid of any meaning.
So how should you structure your URL?
It should have the target keyword inserted and kept as short as possible.
This can be a challenge for sites that feature a lot of SKUs. But smaller sites like blogs, maintaining a clean URL structure better be common practice.
Your CMS should have an option for updating your URL. In WordPress, this can be found just under your post title.
Clicking Edit will allow you to make changes to the URL of the page you’re publishing. Do note that you can’t change the domain name, only the extension.
But why the fuss?
Google also uses URLs to determine what a page is about. So a clean URL helps them to accomplish its goals.
That is also the reason why your main keyword should be present in the URL.
This practice is not going to automatically rank your pages higher in the SERPs but it will definitely help you get there.
Publish Quality Content
Time is gold. And so is content.
What you put in your landing pages increase your visibility on Google. Especially if the information you put out there is invaluable to readers.
But as previously mentioned, you can’t put out articles willy-nilly. They need to adhere to on-page SEO practices.
And keep in mind, content covers a lot of ground. It not only refers to written copy. Videos, podcasts, still images, GIFs, white papers, and other forms of media are also considered content.
When writing content, remember this:
You’re trying to appease both readers and search engines.
Mistakes happen when the content is focused on manipulating Google by stuffing keywords. Not that keywords are bad. But there are times when sites overdo keyword usage that even readers begin to notice.
Take this site for example:
Not only is the site called Build Muscle, almost every heading on the homepage includes the words “build muscle”.
The site owner is clearly trying to rank for that exact term. But this is not the way you go about it.
The links, you can say, feel so inorganic.
This is a bad attempt at SEO. If done the right way, more thought should have been given to the flow of the article. On the plus side, you can take steps to repurpose your old content if it missed the mark.
Break Down Content With Headings
Headings break down posts into manageable sections. They also provide Google an overview of what the article is all about.
Search engines crawl pages so it can index pages properly. Headings are just one of the things they look at for additional data.
So headings are also a great place to insert keywords since Google finds them important.
Adding headings is easy. Here’s how you do it.
If you’re doing it through HTML, insert the heading tags (<H1>, </H1) followed by the heading itself.
But most CMS have a visual editor where you can highlight text and assign them as a heading.
Either way, inserting headings is not a difficult task.
Only Publish Fresh Content
To pump out more articles, some sites resort to copying articles and using them as their own. This is a big no-no in the SEO world.
Google has ways of finding duplicate content. Even when the content is only modified in the slightest, the chances of getting hurt is always there.
So why not start from scratch?
Stealing content not only prevents you from ranking higher, but it also dampens your brand.
Heather Lloyd-Martin is a prominent SEO with a good following. Naturally, her blogs get some traction. Like her post on convincing clueless SEO prospects.
It’s unfortunate that other sites steal her content and use them on their own sites.
Heather’s work has been lifted word for word.
But fortunately, the offending site is not ranking in Google. Even if you search for the post’s title itself.
So how would you know if your content had been stolen?
You can use a site like Copyscape to check if your article had been duplicated elsewhere.
The tool is free to use although you’d have to upgrade to a premium account if you exceeded the maximum amount of searches per domain.
Using it is simple. Enter the post’s URL and let Copyscape do its thing.
If there are duplicate articles, then Copyscape would display them in the results.
Make Spiders Read Your Images Better
Search engines crawl pages and read the content. This is done by what the SEO community refers to as spiders.
The problem with spiders is that they can’t contextualize images and other forms of media.
But there is a way around this.
By adding alt text in images, you’re able to tell Google what the image is and how it should be indexed.
This way, your image can be associated with your target keyword.
Here’s how.
If you’re doing it through HTML, you will have to insert the alt tag within the embed code.
But with an alt tag, it should look something like this:
<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-292″ src=”https://sampledomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/sample-image.png” alt=”Add your alt text here” width=”100″ height=”100″ />
Note the section in bold. This is where you add keywords that best describe your image.
It gets even easier on WordPress. You can add alt text as soon as you upload your image.
You can also edit images in posts by clicking on them and selecting the Edit button.
This would bring up a window where you can add an alt text if there isn’t one already.
Make your alt text as descriptive as possible. Use keywords when applicable.
Link Out to Right Pages
There are two kinds of links you can add to your site: internal and external.
Adding both helps point readers to the kind of information they’re looking for.
But internal links have another purpose. They pass off link juice to your other pages.
What is link juice, you ask?
It’s an SEO term that refers to the value that’s being handed down from one page to the next through links.
Linked content are seen as important pages. Think about it: you wouldn’t link to a page that has no value, right?
By linking your internal pages, you’re telling Google that those pages have value and should be indexed.
In the example above, an internal link is inserted that points to a related page in Moz’s blog section.
External links tell readers that you care about them by referencing outside sources that provide more information. They can also be used when citing sources so you seem even more credible when publishing posts.
But don’t overdo your link building. Have too many and your content will appear spammy.
Improve Keyword Density
Think of it this way:
It’s good to have a high keyword density as long as the quality of the article is not compromised.
Otherwise, Google will penalize you for keyword stuffing.
As alluded to earlier, Google likes content that’s designed to reach a human audience. It means your content should have a natural flow when read.
Certain keywords can be disruptive to that process, especially those that are placed forcibly.
Posts should connect with the audience.
There are tools online that can help you check if you’re being too liberal with your keywords.
Small SEO Tools, for example, has one where you can just enter your URL along with your keywords.
Prepost SEO also has its own version that works the same way.
WordPress users might want to download a plugin like Yoast SEO which has a tool built that checks keyword density.
It will check your keyword density based on what target keyword you’ve entered.
If you find that you’ve used the keyword too many times, you’ll need to remove those keywords or use a keyword variant, whichever feels more apt at the time of writing.
Ideally, you want your keyword density to sit under five percent.
Use LSI Keywords
LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords are a great solution when you find yourself adding your primary keyword too many times.
These LSI keywords are words and phrases that are closely related to your main keyword.
For example, you’re using Samsung Galaxy as your main keyword. If Google sees LSI keywords Android, new phone, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, camera, and other words or phrases like that, it knows your content is about mobile phones.
If you type in your keyword on Google, you’d likely see auto-complete suggestions. These would be a good place to start your search for strong LSI keywords.
However, if you want to be more methodical about it, there are other ways to gather enough LSI keywords for your post.
LSI Graph, for instance, finds keywords fast. Just type in your keyword and hit Generate.
In seconds you can have a list of LSI keywords. The paid version will open up more features and data.
Sign up for an account then log in. You’ll find Keywords Explorer in the navigation bar. Click it.
This would bring up the Keywords Explorer tool. Here you can type your main keyword. It will then proceed to deliver keywords, some of which are LSI.
LSI keywords give your article more context that is fantastic for your on-page SEO. This also opens the door to ranking for other search terms as well.
Use Structured Data
How you structure your data can also have an effect on how well you rank. Remember, it’s all about user experience with Google.
You can add ordered/unordered lists, tables, review stars, and other means of making your content more presentable to your audience.
You can add all these elements through HTML by using the appropriate tags. It does get tricky though especially if you’re a novice.
The table tags, for example, would normally look like this:
<table>
<tr>
<th>Your 1st Header</th>
<th>Your 2nd Header</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>First Cell Content</td>
<td>Second Cell Content</td>
</tr>
</table>
So HTML wouldn’t be the ideal solution. However, CMS users have more options.
For WordPress users, you can install plugins like TablePress that will make inserting tables much easier.
With WP Review, you can add a rating system that you can control when you’re logged into WordPress.
Ordered and unordered lists can be configured from the visual panel.
There’s also another structuring tool that hasn’t been mentioned yet which is schema markup.
Schema markup is additional data you can add to a post so search engines can better represent them in the SERPs.
These can come in the form of a rating system, publishing date, author name, and any other information users might find useful while browsing the results page.
But if you’d prefer to do it without enlisting the help of third-party tools, you can use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
It will give you a report that shows errors and warnings (if any are found).
Note: You will only be able to make changes to the schema markup if you’re a verified site owner.
Make Your Site Load Faster
Nobody likes a slow website.
Google hates it so much, in fact, that they’ve started penalizing websites that can’t keep up. And since more and more users are using phones to search, Google is now using page speed as a ranking factor in mobile search.
He concludes that the top results in the SERPs typically have faster load times.
In a separate case study, Radware reports that most users abandon their shopping carts because of slow load times.
The report further claims that a two-second delay in the checkout process led to an increase in abandon rates (up by 87% from the baseline rate of 67%).
So, if you want to maximize the traffic you generate from ranking on search engines, you need to shore up your load time.
It helps in improving the user experience and keeps customers from bouncing away from your site.
PageSpeed Insights
Google has a tool called PageSpeed Insights. It can measure the page of a site on either mobile or desktop.
You simply enter the URL of the page you want to check and the tool does the rest.
PageSpeed delivers a list of suggestions you could perform for you to improve your site’s performance.
Expanding each error will show you more details about the issue.
It will also display a list of areas you got right.
Moving to a New Hosting Platform
Slow servers mean slow websites. So you better do some research before you choose a web hosting platform.
You want to look at user reviews. Do the servers go down frequently? Is customer service responsive?
There are tons of web hosting solutions in the market. Some are purposely built to be great at one thing (good for WordPress, best customer support, etc.).
Here are the top hosting services based on reviews online:
According to BitCatcha, the fastest web hosting service would be SiteGround. But do note that they only tested a couple of services.
Use a Caching System
Caching is important because it creates a static version of your page. This way, users would be able to load a site faster.
WordPress users have the option of installing plugins that cache their site. An example would be WP Super Cache.
Once the plugin is installed and activated, it should start caching immediately.
You can try testing the cache if you want to be sure that everything’s up and running. Or you can delete your cache if you run into any issue with cached pages.
Optimize Image File Size
Images, especially high-resolution ones, can take a long time to load. So to avoid that, you’ll have to optimize your images and bring down the file size.
You can do this manually through software like Adobe Photoshop right before you upload. The program’s Save for the Web feature lets you fine-tune the settings so the file size is as low as possible.
Or you can go online and use online tools like ShortPixel to compress your images.
Mobile Friendly
Back in the day, sites would develop a mobile version of their sites so they can load properly on phones and tablets.
That should no longer be the case today.
Your site should be mobile friendly out of the box. This means the site should be able to adapt to any screen size.
There are site builders that offer this functionality. Squarespace and Wix have templates that are mobile responsive.
WordPress users can use themes like Genesis to make your site mobile friendly.
If you’re not using a CMS that offers responsive themes, then you would have to get in touch with a web developer to help you out.
And you need to do it fast.
The longer your site is not responsive, the further you go down the SERPs.
A company called Offspring found out that their lack of mobile responsiveness led to poor user experience. After fixing that, they felt an immediate surge in rankings (102.58% uplift in mobile/tablet revenue year on year).
Improve Conversion Rate
How are your visitors interacting with your site?
Getting eyes on your pages is one thing, but analyzing how users navigate through your site is just as important.
Where do readers go? At what point do they leave your site? For e-commerce sites, is there anything about the checkout process that confuses your customers? How good is your conversion rate?
These are just some of the questions you need to answer.
In Google Analytics you can set goals so you can track website conversions.
Select New Goal to start a new one.
In the next screen, set up your goal details. Create a name and configure the rest of the settings.
Google Search Console, on the other hand, lets you identify which pages are drawing the most attention.
From the Search Console dashboard, click Performance.
This will display your total clicks, impressions, and other details that will give you a better idea of how the site is performing.
Scroll down a bit and you’ll find a couple of tabs. Click Pages.
Here you’ll find the top pages on your site.
The Queries tab will show you which keywords are landing users to your site.
Search Console has a lot more features to offer that can help analyze your site. So feel free to explore the tool once you have it installed.
A Quick Section About Local SEO
Local businesses need to pay attention to their local SEO. It allows them to rank for location-specific search database. Local citations are the driving force behind local SEO.
After logging in, you’ll be asked to enter your business name, address, and other information.
At the end of the setup, you will need to verify your business on Google. You can do this by postcard, by phone, or by email. You can also use instant or bulk verification.
Mention NAP
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. You need to add these on important pages on your site.
You should be using a consistent NAP. Use the same NAP you provided Google during the registration process.
Add NAP to your schema.org markup so Google can crawl it.
After installation, enter your URL and click Start.
By browsing through the different tabs, you’ll be able to see the status of each page. It will also show if errors had been encountered during the crawl.
If the status says OK, then you don’t have anything to worry about.
You can also use Screaming Frog to check your meta titles and descriptions.
Viewing all the data from within the tool can be difficult. What you can do instead is export data and view it as a spreadsheet.
Simply click the Export button and select a destination to download.
The tool also allows you to check your internal linking. Select a URL and see where it was linked from and the anchor text used.
The same also goes for outbound links (so you can check for broken links).
The free version of Screaming Frog is limited to 500 crawls. So if you want to use the tool more frequently in the future, you should consider upgrading to the paid version.
Conclusion
A solid on-page SEO strategy is important if you want to succeed in your online venture.
Your strategy needs to be consistent. This is not something you can set and forget. You need to continuously update your site so that search engines would rank you better.
Keep yourself up to date with the latest trends on on-page SEO. Google’s Webmaster Blog is a good resource.
So regardless if you’re running a blog, a news site, a review site, an online store, or any other kind of site, on-page SEO should be your priority.
Well-researched and insightful websites amount to nothing if you can’t reach the audience you intend them for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) indicates the key aspects that can increase your website ranking and traffic. While you might inculcate all the best SEO practices in your website content, you need a way to measure the same.
Having set benchmarks and understanding how to measure your success in terms of SEO is extremely important. Whether you measure the success of your website or clients, this is the most important aspect. Everyone likes seeing tangible results, but due to the nuances and technical nature of SEO, it can get difficult to see the result transparently.
For this reason, you must have a thorough knowledge of key performance indicators and calculators that give insight into your approach. This can even help you tweak your method to suit your website and personalize your approach with SEO. Without further ado, let us discuss some of the most effective ways to measure results.
What is KPI and How Do You Measure Its Success?
When you use search engine optimization techniques, you, your team, and the client are putting in a lot of time, money, and effort into tactics that help the website increase its ranking. KPI stands for Key Performance indicators, which measures the success or failure of these tactics so that you know if you are getting your money’s worth.
Now to measure success, you need to set up a certain benchmark. You can measure the it before you begin your optimization.
Set this as a benchmark from which you can measure progress after a certain period of optimization (for example, three months). This gives you a tangible measure of your practices and allows you to show your client that they’re getting their money’s worth.
Setting up benchmarks, having consistent reports with updates to your approach and set KPI’s can take your practice to the next level. However, this also means that you must know which ones are useful and points to the true measure of growth. Read on to get an insight into the same.
Which KPI’s can you track?
Today, there are multiple approaches that you can use to evaluate the success of your optimization techniques. With more than 100 measures of success, it is difficult to figure out exactly what shows true growth and which KPI you must focus on reporting.
Page-level reporting with a focus on certain KPIs can give you a more in-depth and holistic approach than pinpointing on one measure. Discussing your clients’ needs and including those points in your report is also equally important. Aside from those, here are some of the most important KPIs that help you measure your SEO success and make informed decisions:
Conversion
Most websites focus on lead generation or sales made as to the end goal for success. Conversion is the first step towards succeeding in that goal. You can measure individual page conversion by setting up goals on your dashboard and looking for the conversion rate through certain actions.
For example, signing up for a newsletter or opting in for email updates is an action that is considered a conversion.
Traffic
Measuring the organic traffic directly points to your ranking and site visibility. If you have a relatively larger audience streaming onto your website, it means that your page probably has one of the top rankings. While many individuals prefer to track keywords to measure the site visibility, the traffic received gives a broader perspective for the same.
Impressions
Impressions simply point out the visibility of your brand. If an ad for your website is seen, it counts as an impression regardless of if the viewer interacts with it. Impressions point towards brand awareness and help you keep a check on the ROI for campaigns. However, your conversion rate must grow along with impressions for a successful campaign.
CTR
The click-through rate or CTR measures the success of your impressions. If you see an amazon advertisement and decide to add it to your saved videos, amazon records this as a click-through and adds it to the total percentage. The CTR is a great calculator for audience engagement and interest.
What is ROI?
ROI is an acronym for Return On Investment, that measures the performance of your investments and how profitable they are. In simple words, you can say that this metric is used to check the amount of money you invested in an investment and how much profit you made.
This is important to know whether you are making money and need more money to invest. Digital marketers are often using this method to measure success and share the details with the higher management.
How do I estimate the ROI?
When you look towards SEO and invest in marketing strategies that rank your website higher on search, it is to achieve a certain goal. For some organizations, this may be to simply get the word out about their brand and to increase brand awareness. However, for most websites, spending money on optimization and digital marketing efforts means that you must get some kind of Return on Investment.
Now this ROI can include an increase in conversions or an increase in sales, but the result needs to be tangible. It also needs to justify the money that the clients or you are putting into to fulfil the goals and objectives and get effective results.
Measuring the ROI can help you see that you’ve acquired satisfactory results. This justifies your contract and even attracts quality customers with higher pay. Here are some of the metrics that you must pay attention to when looking to estimate the ROI.
Real Search Volume
The real search volume is essentially the impressions divided by the impression share. The best way to calculate the same is to check the keywords in Google AdWords and get an exact number for your query.
If you do not have access to AdWords for any reason, you can use an alternate solution. This includes doing a broad search for your term that gives you keyword suggestions. These suggestions are your secondary keyword cluster and can give you general sensing of your search volume.
CTR by Rank Position
The CTR or Click Through Rate for a particular position is determined from data gathered from Google Search Console and Industry Averages. This helps you get an idea of the CTR you receive if you are at a certain ranking or position on the search.
If you take both the CTR and the search volume, it helps you get an idea of what course of action will give you the estimated returns you require.
Conversion Rate and Lifetime Value
The conversion rate and lifetime value are estimates that you can get from the client. The conversion rate is generally set against a certain benchmark goal that every website can get if they are using Google Console. The lifetime value of a customer is the amount that the customer has contributed to the website. This contribution occurs through their interaction with the brand.
If you or your client doesn’t have access to either or haven’t set it up, it’s important to do so before moving forward. Lifetime value is lower for goods that are precious or other luxury services. So, you must measure this metric in your ROI only if it matches the website goal for its customers.
Calculating all these metrics together by multiplying them gives you a very realistic estimate of the value your optimization practices bring to the website. This is a great way to gain trust and make client acquisition easier.
Difference Between KPI and ROI Metrics
Whether online or offline, these play a crucial role in seeing how well the business is performing and working on future budget allocation. The differences between marketing metrics are evident as they are used differently and concentrate on different business needs. However, both determine a business’s success and ultimately contribute to revenue growth.
What They Do?
ROI is a financial metric used to check the benefits and value one gets back from one’s investment. KPIs are forward-looking predictors with pre-set measurable metrics to determine how they are performing and whether or not they are aligning with the business objectives.
What Do They Measure?
KPIs are leading indicators that assess the short-term impact on a business in different areas, such as costs incurred, customer satisfaction, marketing campaigns, total revenue, customer acquisition cost, sales growth, etc. Whereas ROI is a long-term game that helps gauge profit, businesses make from their marketing costs and investment and check areas of improvement.
How Are They Measured?
KPI vs ROI have different formulas to measure business goals and objectives. To measure ROI, the benefit is divided by the total investment made. On the other hand, KPI metrics are calculated by tracking the indicators on Google Analytics or other reporting tools.
Endnotes
On-page search engine optimization has a unique purpose in today’s rapidly growing digital background. It’s important that your website not only stands out but also appears to have all the right data that reaches the target audience. However, when you are working as an SEO professional, putting in time and money for a project needs outcome.
The outcome is something tangible and measurable of a projects lifecycle, whether that’s through KPIs and Reports. Having a good return on investment and learning how to check for it is as much a part of SEO used to optimize.
Hence, you must understand the use of the best SEO practices. At the same time, you should also identify the changes and growth that it reaps for your website.
If you or your client doesn’t have access to either or haven’t set it up, it’s important to do so before moving forward for employee satisfaction. Lifetime value is lower for goods that are precious or other luxury services. To have its true impact, you must measure this metric in your ROI only if it matches the website goal for its customers.
Calculating all these metrics together by multiplying them gives you a very realistic and accurate measurement of the value your optimization practices bring to the website. This is a great way to gain trust and make client acquisition easier.
FAQ
Are KPIs and ROI the same?
No, both the metrics are not the same. In fact, ROI is a category that falls under KPI that marketers use to gauge ROI. ROI calculations assess the financial aspect and performance of a marketing campaign or a project. However, KPIs can include different metrics to help in project management and reach organizational goals.
What are ROI and KPI in digital marketing?
These two metrics determine the performance and effectiveness of marketing campaigns for successful businesses. KPIs are set indicators used to measure success, considering different parameters. ROI looks at the financial aspect of how much money is spent and whether or not a business has benefitted from the investment.
How do marketers use KPI metrics to reach their business objectives?
Through cost per acquisition, marketing managers can build successful marketing funnels. A company can have a high profit margin if the cost per acquisition is low.
Having a comprehensive content marketing strategy is easier said than done. When people think of achieving their marketing goals, it’s always about putting fresh content out there. However, this type of approach might not be the most calculated decision on your part.
Jumping into content creation without proper thinking will only do more harm than good. Sometimes repurposing or updated old content can do wonders for your content marketing strategy. Consider conducting regular content audits so that your business can identify relevant and trendy topics that you should be talking about.
A link prospecting strategy will bring you a lot of new links, but you need a content audit to make sure your site is primed to benefit fully from those linkbuilding efforts.
What is a Content Audit?
A content audit is a systematic process of analyzing and grouping the content on a website. The main objective of doing a content audit is to figure out the strengths and flaws of your existing content strategy and how you can make changes. The changes will be in line with your new content marketing goals and will outline the content plan that you should go ahead with.
Why Do You Need A Content Audit?
Content audit helps you in figuring out the content gaps that may be there in your content. This will help you to create better content for your audience and the search engine, eventually leading your website to rank better.
There are many reasons to perform a content audit:
• To begin with, a content audit can boost the traffic of your site resulting in a better experience for your audience.
• It helps to filter out the parts of your site that are not correctly optimized and need more work to make it better. For example, you may be adding images to your blog posts as your current content strategy. So what about those that were published before? Through a content audit, you can know which blog posts need images to be added.
• There are additional SEO opportunities you can find out when you run this audit. If you’re having trouble getting your blog posts to rank, this audit may recommend adding keywords to the titles of your posts to help search engines understand the content and purpose of your website. And, the more details search engines know about your website, the more accurately they recommend it to the target audience.
• A content audit SEO can let you update all the outdated content on your web page to improve your readers’ understanding of your website. Let’s say you did not add metadata to some of your web pages, or there may be some broken links on your website. This will all be highlighted when you do a content audit.
(Source: Google Images)
All in all, the main aim of this audit is to help you keep your content always up to date. It also lets you improve your content to boost your SERP ranking by addressing points such as:
• The quality of your present content
• If the content holds any value for your audience
• How is your audience able to find it
• The performance of your content, whether it is getting enough organic traffic or not
And finally, if it is relevant and accurate
Once you have the answers to these concerns, you will be able to put together content that is of excellent quality and help you stick to your content marketing strategy.
What Are Its Benefits?
Now you have an idea about why you would need a content audit. So let’s look at some potential benefits it might offer you.
• When you run a content audit, you will be given data-driven information based on facts rather than mere speculations. This will help you make careful and correct decisions to improve your content.
• It lets you highlight pages that are not SEO optimized. For example, the page may need a better heading structure or metadata.
• You can identify the content gaps and learn about more SEO opportunities to use in your content to improve it.
• Through a content audit, you can create a content inventory that will make it easier to manage your content strategy in years to come.
• You can improve the quality of your overall content to give your readers a better experience and provide them with the information they are looking for.
• It gives your content marketing team a clear direction on which content to work on and how to work on it.
• When planning to redesign your sites, running a content audit will allow you to know which part of your website needs the most work.
The process of content audit can be a difficult one, especially if you are new to it. So make sure you take enough time to figure out the problems in your content and ways how to rectify them. You can either sit with your content management team to work on it or make use of templates (discussed in the coming sections) available online to help you start with the process.
How to Perform a Content Audit?
There are certain easy steps that can help you give a kickstart to your content audit. Here is a content audit checklist that you should consider to perform the audit accurately:
Step 1: Decide What Your Goals and Metric Are
To begin with a content audit, you must first decide what you want from the audit. When you know what you want, you will better understand how to divide your audit.
Deciding your goals beforehand is also important, as auditing content requires a lot of dedication, and setting goals helps you clearly see the results you want to achieve.
• You can think and choose from multiple goals, such as:
• Increasing your brand awareness.
• Optimize SEO for certain parts of your website or your complete web page or website for better SERP ranking.
• Improving content that is outdated and repeated or completely removing them.
• Boosting user engagement and conversions.
• Working towards better organizational website structure.
Once you have listed the goals, you will better know what are the strengths and weaknesses of your content.
Make sure you have at least one objective that will serve as the audit’s driving force before choosing the metrics that will be used to evaluate progress. Doing this will lead to a successful tracking and audit of your content.
After deciding on your goals, match them with the relevant content metrics that are usually divided into four categories.
SEO metrics: This includes keyword rankings, organic traffic, backlinks, and dwell time. So if you want to focus on improving your SEO, you need to consider SEO metrics and work on getting more organic traffic and quality backlinks that will enhance the authority of your website.
User behavior metrics: This is evaluated through bounce rate, page views, and average session duration of your web page.
Engagement metrics: This usually shows the number of shares, likes, comments, mentions, etc., your content gets.
Sales metrics: This includes the ROI, number of leads, and conversion rates on your website.
For example, you should examine user behavior and engagement statistics if you want to figure out what areas are the most popular to develop more content on it.
Once you have decided on everything related to your goals, the next step is to determine the content inventory.
Step 2: Figure out Your Content Inventory
Before you move on to checking your content inventory, you must decide on the content you are going to work on. This can be landing pages, blog posts, educational content, news, etc., tests, games, quizzes, videos, and PDFs can also be taken into consideration.
It is much simpler to evaluate content performance, point out areas for improvement, and carefully update each item when you have all your content all in one place.
To create your content inventory, start by collecting all the URLs of the web pages you want to evaluate.
Use SEMrush’s Content Audit Tool to audit your content based on your sitemap data quickly. You will also receive a list of URLs and their related metrics from the tool. With this, you can also look into a particular blog post or subfolder on your website that needs improvement.
To use SEMrush:
• Go to SEMrush and select “Content Marketing” option on the left column of the page.
• Select “Content Audit”
You will be prompted to enter your domain name. The tool will show you subfolders that you can choose to make changes.
However, if your website doesn’t already have one, you can create one using a sitemap generator. Use tools like XML-Sitemaps Generators that will create a site map for you in minutes.
• Enter your website URL and hit “Start”
• You’ll soon have a list of sitemaps which you can download or open in an XML file.
When you have a sitemap, it not only helps you audit your content but also makes it simpler for search engines to quickly understand your site structure and identify the key pages on your website.
Make sure to your sitemap to Google Search Console and Google Analytics. Doing this will allow the tool to take into consideration the current data of your website.
Step 4: Catalogue Your Content
The next step after collecting the URL is to catalog your content.
After you have created your inventory using the URLs, it is now time to categorize it on a spreadsheet.
For this step, you need to keep your goals in mind so it is easier for you to track each metric of the content for the audit.
So, if you are doing a SEO content audit, you can focus on metrics such as ROI, the traffic you receive, click-through rate, and so on.
You can use a spreadsheet to divide the content into various categories as listed below:
• The date when the content was published or last modified
• Number of words
• Type of content, whether a blog, landing page, guide, product description, online publication, video media, etc.
• Format of the content, whether it only has the text content, has images and videos or not, and has a call to action or not.
• Name of the author
• Stages of a buyer’s journey, i.e., awareness, consideration, and decision
• Create a content hub where you can include a group of content belonging to a particular subject.
You can also collect metadata for every content to check and update all the metadata of the content in one place.
Finally, create columns with your metrics to collect data for each web page.
Once you bring all the content in one place with the help of a spreadsheet, a successful content inventory will be created. Through this, you can easily monitor the changes that should be made to your content.
If you find it too bothersome to do it all manually, there are tools available that will help you quickly pull together a content inventory, such as Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider Tool.
The tool is free to use if your website contains 500 pages or less.
You will need to enter the URL and start the crawl to get all the details regarding your web page.
(Source: Google Images)
If you don’t want to use these tools, you can look for a content audit template which you can find in HubSpot, and start with your work.
(HubSpot Content Audit Template)
You may also want to add traffic data from Google Analytics to each page so you can analyze content performance alongside technical SEO metrics.
When considering a content audit template we all know that it can make it easier for you to address the problems according to the issues already mentioned in the template.
However, you should also remember that each piece of content is different. And the issues mentioned in the template may sometimes be relevant to your content, and sometimes it may not.
There may be many other data points and statistics that may not be included in the template.
For example, if you are focusing on improving your blog posts, you need to focus on whether each blog post has metadata, whether images are included, if infographics are used, the right keywords are included, and so on.
While some tools may provide you with information on this issue, some might not. Therefore, you can use these templates to get an idea of how to begin with the spreadsheet and do it yourself.
You’ll be able to stay organized and comply with the requirements of your content audit when you add the correct categories to the spreadsheet.
You should also remember that while it may be tempting to remove specific categories to save time, some categories may give you important insights to analyze the content.
Also, removing certain categories can lead to incorrect analysis. So try to work on as many categories as possible to get more accurate information.
Step 5: Make A List Of Content Problems
After creating your inventory, you should list all the content problems you see and want to focus on. Have a look at all of your content to see how it is performing. You can look for specific things such as:
Content that has duplicate or repeated data
When reading a blog, if you come across the same sentences, you will not really like it and will look for an alternative blog that doesn’t have duplicated or repeated content. The same goes for search engines.
(Source: Google Images)
Search engines like when websites can provide their users with fresh content. If it finds too much duplicate content on different web pages of your site, it can reduce your ranking. So, it’s better to either rework those pages or completely remove them.
Content that is outdated
Users don’t like to come across outdated content. They want to get information about what is relevant in the present times. While users can ignore your outdated content, search engines can do the same, making it important for you to keep updating your blogs regularly.
Content Gaps
The topic around which you may have created your content may be the latest a few years back. But since there are many things constantly being added and changed, it is possible that you may have missed out on a few topics that will be important presently.
You can use Ahrefs “Content Gap” under “Site Explorer”. Enter your competitor’s domain and compare your content to theirs. The tool will give you suggestions on how you can improve your content.
Check the content gaps by analyzing what is missing in your content and the target market you may not have addressed or the topics you didn’t cover. Look at all your content and fill the gap to make your content more relevant.
Target keyword
Check if the content contains targeted keywords according to your product and industry so you are listed higher on SERP.
Metadata
See if you have metadata for all pages on your website. When you create the spreadsheet, you can easily find out which pages you have missed to add metadata or metadata that is repeated so you can change and update.
Data on the image
Analyze your image data to see if they are relevant to the content and have an alt tag and descriptive title. This will make it easier for you to know if the images are SEO optimized and easily accessible.
Word Count
You cannot simply write 100 words and expect your content to rank higher than your competitors. So, make sure that all your posts and pages have enough work count so you can optimize them for SEO.
You can use tools such as Article Insights to compare your word count with your competitors and edit your content accordingly.
Keep track of everything by creating a note next to each asset about why it needs improving. You can also color-code your spreadsheet based on the type of optimization required.
However, this is only helpful if one asset has a single problem. If one asset has multiple problems, color coding won’t be feasible.
(Source: Google Images)
Step 6: Prioritize the Issues
Now is the moment to prioritize the content-related problems you have found. There are two ways in which you can work.
• Either work on the problem starting from the first number to the last.
• Group similar optimization problems and work on them at a time. What does it mean? Let’s say you need to add images to your blog post. Group all the web pages together and work on adding the images. Similarly, if there are keywords to be added. Group the web pages that require adding keywords and work on them.
• Categorize the problems with a high SEO impact and focus on them.
• You can also begin with the easiest issues first and then work your way up to the most difficult ones.
If you are having difficulty in manually doing it, you can use Ubersuggest to do the work for you. You just need to run an SEO audit, and the tool will provide you with details about the problems and how SEO is being affected.
Simply enter the URL of your website and the tool will come up with the issues on your website which you can view and work on.
Step 7: Create an Action Plan
You’ve created your content inventory, know what issues have come up, and have prioritized it accordingly. So, now it’s time to get on with the actual work by creating an action plan.
Start by creating another column on your spreadsheet named “Action to be taken.” This will help you mention what you plan to do with your content, whether you want to keep it as it is, delete it, change it completely, restructure it, or include additional information.
(Source: Google Images)
After you’ve mentioned the action in front of each issue, work on it on a priority basis. Again, here, think about your goals and what may be most important for you. This will help you know the issue you want to take action on first.
You can take these considerations into account:
• Deleting usually takes less time and is easy to do.
• Updating content may take some time as you will have to figure out the content gaps before working on them.
• And finally, changing the entire content may take a reasonable amount of time and concentration to produce better and high-quality content.
To make the work easier, you can add one more column on your spreadsheet where you can highlight the most priority and most urgent issues that need to be addressed.
You may find it helpful to add a priority column to your spreadsheet to keep track of what’s most urgent.
At this step, you can also develop a new content strategy based on the latest topics you are working on and the posts that can improve the visibility and ranking of your website.
URL Actions You Can Take
URL actions is a directive that will include all the things that must be included in that page. This is along the lines of Website Quality Audit but with different classifications.
Let’s delve a little deeper into the classifications of URL actions.
Leave As-Is
This classification is for pages that have been posted less than six months ago. You leave such pages as it is. This is because it still hasn’t quite taken off but might be still relevant for attracting traffic. You don’t want to get rid of a page that was recently published.
If you have posts and URLs that are older than six months and generate good traffic then leave these pages as is. The visits per year should be greater than 100, which means that the post is relevant and up to date.
The relevancy of the process is to get rid of pages that are underperforming and not up to the mark. You have to get rid of pages that are not working to attract any sort of engagement or web traffic. Only get rid of pages that are dragging the website down.
301 Redirect
Now let’s look at a category of irrelevant posts, which generate no traffic, and have no trace back to the pillars. Such pages must be redirected because they don’t add any value to the website. These pages are just bogging down and negatively affecting the performance of your website.
Many content audits will suggest you take down your URL by a 404 page. However, we suggest that you do a 301 redirect if the page has keywords and existing links. Even Google support mentions that 301 redirects are the right way to rename or delete URLs.
(Source: Google Images)
By choosing to redirect, you can provide an additional field where the updated information is available. So, you’re essentially not losing the traffic like in a 404 page but just redirecting it.
Archive
If you have a group of pages that serve no value to search engines but have value to website visitors, then the best option is to block that section from being crawled. You need to manually move such pages into the archive section of the website so that they are not crawled by the search engines.
Let’s take an example of a news publishing company like BBC.com. BBC.com will have content on their website which will date back to the early days of the internet. This old content is relevant but is not generating enough traffic or engagement, therefore affecting the performance of the website. Deleting such content is not a smart choice. So what do you do?
(Source: bbc.co.uk/archive/)
Then you group such pages by an URL structure (i.e. /archives/). Shift the content to new physical folders and voila, your content is practically invisible to search engines. This works well on large, publishing sites that have a lot of old content. This classification of URL action is not for a new e-commerce site or local businesses.
It’s best to zip it all into an archive section and block it from search engines. If a person wants to access these old files, then it’s possible from the archive folder in the navigation or footer section of the website, but not through a search engine.
Refresh
When the post is losing traffic and also the keyword rankings are sliding (5 – 30) but it has a high potential to rank we want to refresh the content. This means making small updates like page title, meta description, meta title, headings, internal links, and media.
If the page is mapping to pillar pages, the content is deep enough, targeted properly then refreshing the URL is the best option. You are not losing the essence of the website, just making significant changes that will make sure to get the traffic and engagement levels back!
Some changes you can look into are making the title more clickbaity, rectifying the title tags, making the keywords more prominent, and updating the right media for the content. These changes will make all the difference instead of rewriting the whole thing.
Rewrite
If the post is losing traffic and keyword rankings are sliding (5 – 30), has high potential to rank with the current topic but is not deep enough, outdated, and needs improvement. Then in such a scenario, we want to rewrite the content.
For example, if you have a page on your website that has the top 10 mobile phones in 2019. The audience in 2020 is not going to be searching for top mobile phones from 2019. You want to give information that is updated with the current changes in the industry and also the search patterns of the target audience.
(Source: Google Images)
As a business owner, you will want your website to have the updates and relevant content. So, if your website has outdated content that is not relevant anymore, you will lose out on a potential audience. Rewriting content gives you a better chance of grabbing more traffic and also delivering quality content.
Merge
When multiple posts are covering the same topic, we will want to “merge” them into 1 page that’s the authority on that topic. This will reduce the content redundancy and also avoid any repetitions across the website.
Merging content will make it easier for visitors to glance at the content in one place rather than opening several web pages on the same topic. Now, the question that comes to mind is how to merge content?
An easy to way handle the merging of pages is to 301 redirect it, we can classify them differently for understanding. So, you’re pushing all the content into a single pillar page and cleaning up the remaining pages. This will keep your website clean and also widen the scope for making the content deeper than it is right now.
Target with Links
Many times the content is updated, relevant, and new but just doesn’t attract rank in search engines. This can happen if the page has broken links or no inbound links. If the content of the website is great, but the page is failing to rank, then you can target the page with links. You start targeted links to this page through a successful link building campaign.
Step 8: Take Steps to Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy
A content audit should not be focused just for a week or months but should be used as a long-term marketing strategy.
You should make a note to review your content marketing strategy every year to make sure all the strategies being used are according to your business goals. This is also important because what worked yesterday may not work today. So, you need to keep up with the changes.
On the other hand, if you belong to a dynamic industry that keeps changing regularly, it is best to set up review periods every month or quarter.
This can be done to discuss new and effective ways to connect with your audience and encourage them to engage with your content.
Regular adjustments should be made to stay on track with the trends. For this, content audits should be run multiple times a year to see if the changes are favorable for your business or if you need to change your strategies.
Building a Content Report
After you’ve gone through each of these steps to painfully analyze and come up with solutions, you need to show your working to the client. You should be able to display the content report in such a way that it is easy to read for a common man.
When it comes to the building stage of an SEO campaign, it’s crucial to show the client what you are working on. These are drastic changes that you will be making for the betterment of the site, so there needs to be complete transparency to the client you are catering to.
The complex spreadsheets and the huge lists will not make sense to a normal person. You cannot send these spreadsheets through and expect them to understand it. If you don’t want to babysit the client, guiding them through each detail, then creating a content report is the best option.
Here are some suggestions that will go into making our content report or content deck.
• A brief overview or index so that the client knows what is in the deck.
• What did you do? This section should explain the things you did in layman’s terms.
• What did we learn? In this section, you should explain the hub and spoke model that you’re using. And then give them an overlook into which are the pillar topics that you have identified for the client’s website. These points let the client know that you have a strategy in place.
• Analyzing the results. In this section, you can include in brief about the URL actions and what decisions you are suggesting. This will serve as a guideline for the client to understand your decision pattern.
• What did we find? In this, you can give like a summary of the pages that you feel need a rewrite, merge, or archive. You can just include the number of pages that you found were fitting the category of the URL actions. You can even include the link for the full content audit.
• What is next for content? In this, we will enlist the next steps that the client has to undertake to make the suggested changes. And also you should be willing to provide some detailed information over call or conference. The follow-up call is important because the client can get overwhelmed with the amount of information that you gave it. Additionally, you should also mention what is the next task at hand for you and the date of completion for the same.
Next steps after a Content audit
A content audit is not a one-time done deal. The results of the Content audit are actionable. You should be willing to make all the changes that we suggested in the URL actions part. Whether it is advancing your content marketing strategy. The suggestions that are mentioned need to be pushed out into production so that they can take effect.
The suggestions need to be taken into action and implemented as soon as possible. The rewrites and merging of content are quick SEO tricks that will save you time.
After you’re finished with the content audit and the proper reporting for it, you should send it across to your client. Write a concise email that has links to the deck and content audit file. Enlist the next steps that you will be targeting to complete. Also, include any important deadlines that you are working for.
Now’s the perfect time to use our guest post service to get some amazing links pointing to your newly optimized content.
To Sum Up
Content auditing doesn’t have to be so difficult. It might be a time-consuming process, but if done right can do wonders for your content marketing strategy. Make sure you take care of the above steps so that you can have a hassle-free time doing a content audit!
FAQ
How many months is a page considered to be suitable for a content audit?
While it is recommended to conduct a content audit once a year, certain may require more frequent audits.
• If it is awareness content such as blog posts, you need to run the audit every six months.
• Consideration content is something that you use to guide the audience to the product and services you are offering. This must always be up-to-date as it has a major role in conversions. Therefore, the right time to run a content audit for this type of content is every 3 to 6 months.
• When it comes to conversion content that is mainly for e-commerce websites, the audit should be done every quarter.
• Finally, retention content that includes content guides, tips, and information related to future products being released on your website should be audited annually.
What should a basic content audit template include?
A basic content audit template should have the following categories:
• Name of the web page• Title of the content
• Type of Content
• Format of the Content
• Content Lengths
• Word Count
• Number of pages
• Last date of modification
• Funnel stage
• Page traffic
What content audit tools can you use?
Some of the common audit tools to use are:
Google Search Console: This tool lets you easily track and evaluate your site and search data. Additionally, using GSC, you can also track specific URLs for informative data.
Google Analytics: With the help of this tool, you can plan your audit and know more about your visitors and their behaviors on your site.
Google Sheets: Google Sheets is an alternative to a spreadsheet where you can easily organize your content audit information.
Ahrefs: With Ahrefs, you can easily check the SEO performance of your site. By adding the details manually or importing from Google Search Console, you can make use of the data to run a site audit.
SEMrush: SEMrush gives a customized audit report that shows where improvements can be made on your site.
Screaming Frog: It is a website crawler that gathers URLs from a sitemap and creates a list for SEO audit.