Create or sign in to your free account (which lets you audit up to 100 pages per month). Google also displays SERP features (non-standard results) to enhance the search experience. Search engines are somewhat secretive about the systems they use and constantly change them to improve search results. A higher ranking typically translates into more impressions and a better click-through rate.
Later, below, I’ll cover a more sophisticated SEO content strategy that has generated millions of organic traffic visits for the HubSpot blog. For content marketing, an SEO strategy is a critical piece of the puzzle because it is how your content will be seen in the first place, especially in search engine result pages (SERPs). If your content is scattered and unorganized, search engine bots will have more difficulty indexing your site, identifying your area of authority, and ranking your site pages. Technical SEO involves optimizing your website to help search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages.
Create a list of these new keywords (especially long-tail terms with high organic search volume). Remember, this checklist is a general guideline, and it’s important to customize it based on your specific needs and goals. If you’d like a more detailed explanation of our planning process, our SEO team would be happy to develop an SEO plan for your business. Data-driven decision-making is a key to continuous optimization.
Keyword Research for Local SEO
SEO works by aligning your website with how search engines define good search results. PPC can give you immediate visibility for high-value keywords, whereas SEO can take weeks or months to show results. The term “SEO” can also refer to a person, such as a “search engine optimization expert” or similar. Combining data from various sources gives you a holistic view of your website’s performance. Set up analytics tools like Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA) to track your website’s performance and understand how visitors interact with your content.
The primary goal of on-page SEO is to help search engines understand your content and its meaning. Now, you’ll want to determine what content you need to create to rank by looking at the SERPs for those target keywords. The AI-powered tool will then generate topic clusters—groups of thematically related pages that each consist of a pillar (main) page and subpages that cover specific topics in greater detail. Along with keyword clusters—groups of keywords that share the same intent and can be targeted on the same pillar page or subpage.
Optimize for Image SEO
Because the search intent behind the keyword “best video editors” is commercial. SEO Anomaly Users are looking for video editing software options rather than a definition for what a video editor is. Then, from the “KD%” (Keyword Difficulty percentage) drop-down menu, select either “Easy” or “Very Easy” to focus on keywords that are less competitive and easier to rank for.
- In October 2019, Google announced they would start applying BERT models for English language search queries in the US.
- All you’re doing is trying to understand how a search engine’s algorithm determines how to rank content in what order.
- Blogs add content to your website that people are looking for via Google and other search engines.
- Each cluster starts with a pillar page that covers the topic broadly, supported by cluster pages that explore subtopics in more detail.
The traffic quality and how you engage visitors once they land on your site are also major determining factors in whether they turn into customers or not. Keep in mind that driving more traffic to your site isn’t the only key to business growth. Our study of over four million Google search results proves it. Results showed that the first organic search result receives 27.6% of all clicks. The number falls down to 15.8% for the second result and 11% for the third. Google uses a multi-step process to discover, store, and rank web pages.
Create quality content targeting those keywords
At Ahrefs, ranking potential means it’s viable for us to rank in the top three with our available resources. Scoring a keyword depends on how valuable it is for your business. So there’s no right way of scoring it—a “3” for you may be a “1” for others. A keyword’s business value, or business potential, is how easy it will be to pitch your product while covering a given keyword.
At the end of this step, you should have identified at least 4-5 main organic competitors. The “Common Keywords” section is useful as it shows you the total number of keywords you share with each site. Spy on your competitors’, prospects’, and potential partners’ website traffic. Their tool makes the process super easy and can save you a lot of time. So if you wanted to cover that topic on your site, you’d want to note that the first page results are made up mostly of list posts.
After discovering where you’re starting and where you want to go, start the SEO process with keyword research. This process allows you to see what people search for when they want your product or service. Page speed is how quickly the content on your website loads when someone visits a specific page on your website. Google began taking page speed into account for SERP rankings in 2018, making it a critical area of focus when you enact your strategy. An SEO report is an overview of the SEO efforts you’ve enacted over a specific period of time.