So, what is keyword difficulty, and how does keyword difficulty factor into your SEO content strategy? This article will explain how this metric is calculated and how you can use keyword difficulty to improve your website’s search visibility.

What Is Keyword Difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is a metric used in search engine optimization that estimates how much of a challenge it would be to rank for that keyword. Some platforms use the terms SEO difficulty and keyword competition instead of keyword difficulty.

A higher keyword difficulty score indicates how difficult it would be to be displayed on the first page of Google’s search engine results page (SERP). A high score means that there is fierce competition among the websites that are already ranking for that keyword.

Keyword difficulty is measured on a scale of 0 to 100. The closer to 100, the more difficult the keyword would be to rank for. The nearer to 0, the easier the keyword is to rank for.

How Is Keyword Difficulty Calculated?

So, where does this number come from? Most SEO tools use a range of metrics to calculate these metrics. Some of these factors include the competing domains’ ratings and your own domain rating.

At SearchAtlas, we use a weighted formula that takes into account the rating of the domains that rank for the specific keyword, the traffic share that frequents the top-ranking SERPs, and other nuanced factors. Domain rating is calculated by the number and quality of backlinks to that particular website.

Why Does Keyword Difficulty Matter in SEO?

You want to compete in your own weight class. If your competition is a domain rating giant, your content won’t be able to compete–and it will become buried in the SERPs. Keyword difficulty allows you to rank on Google for keywords that you can be discovered for. This, of course, leads to higher traffic and increased conversions.

Furthermore, keyword difficulty allows you to strategically invest your time, money, and other resources in efforts that will pay off. This makes creating an SEO content strategy easier.

How to Choose the Best Keywords for Your Website

Choosing the right keywords is key to SEO success. When selecting what keywords you can rank for, you will want to take into account keyword difficulty, search volume, CPC, and search intent.

1. Evaluate Keyword to Rank & Form a Winning SEO Strategy

The first step to creating a successful SEO content campaign is narrowing down where to focus your efforts. This is part of the beauty of keyword difficulty–it allows you to identify words you can realistically rank for, saving you time, and earning you organic traffic.

Pillar Pages & Cluster Content

Most SEO content specialists suggest starting with pillar pages, then clustering supporting target keywords around them. A pillar page is a long-form guide, landing page, or blog that focuses on a primary or core aspect of your business or website. Cluster content relates to the pillar topic but gives you the opportunity to expand upon smaller details or aspects of the pillar topic.

You should have a handful of pillar pages that relate to your industry. You can add cluster content as needed and as new keyword opportunities arise. 

A pillar structure allows Google’s web crawlers to more easily assess your website’s semantic content and give you kudos for overall topical depth.

For example, if you run a spa, your pillar topics will feature the primary aspects of your business. These may be massage, skincare, acupuncture, hot stone treatments, and waxing. From there, you can expand upon the topic. For example, you can have cluster content pieces for the benefits of each individual type of massage.

Once you’ve defined your pillar topics, you can then begin to create cluster content ideas based on keyword research.

2. Perform Keyword Research

With established pillar topics, you can begin your keyword research for your content clusters. When performing your research, your goal is to find keywords, or search terms, that are the most relevant to your business and that you will be able to rank for. This will require research. 

Often the simplest way to choose keywords is to list subtopics for your pillar pages. Then, plug those topics into a keyword research tool to explore potential keyword choices.

The SearchAtlas SEO suite allows you to quickly perform research and nail down your supporting keywords. With the software suite, the Keyword Discovery tool is an excellent choice for this step.

Simply type what keyword you want to research into the search box. Then, explore suggested keywords by viewing all. If you have a brick-and-mortar business or only ship within one geographic zone, you will want to refine your keyword location.

Review the list of keywords and select keywords by Search Volume (SV) and Pay-Per-Click Difficulty (PPCD)–which is similar to keyword difficulty but takes into account using a paid campaign. 

Select keywords with a difficulty score that is lower than your domain rating or domain authority. Keep in mind the low competition keywords have low difficulty scores. This ensures you have the best chance of appearing in the search results for that keyword. Watch this video for more information on how to use Keyword Difficulty and Domain Authority in your keyword selection.

3. Turn Your Research into Keyword Optimized Content

Once you have a list of keywords you want to create cluster pages around, you can use SEO content creation tools to optimize for those keywords.

In the SearchAtlas suite, navigate to the Content Assistant tool. Then select create a new article. Enter your selected keyword into the Add keyword field. The Content Assistant will run that keyword through our proprietary analyses and display the keyword’s

• Search Volume (SV)
• Keyword Difficulty (KD)
• Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

If you hover over the keyword, you can select the graph icon to display a full report of the keyword’s metrics.

You will also find suggested target keywords you can add to the same article. You can add up to 5 target keywords per piece of content. 

From there, you will be given a list of focus terms to include that relate to each particular keyword. These terms help improve the value of your content for search engine algorithms.

SearchAtlas’s Keyword Difficulty Scale

With the keyword researcher tool, you will find the keyword difficulty scale prominently displayed below the keyword you are researching. This scale is color-coded by difficulty level and labels the difficulty score of the particular keyword.

KD Difficulty Scale

0-25 = Easy

26-50 = Average

51-75 = Hard

76-100 = Very Hard

Keyword Difficulty Tools

A simple search will result in a wide array of keyword difficulty score tools. While each software will use a slightly different method of calculating keyword difficulty scores or keyword difficulty metrics, you will gain insight from whichever you choose. When comparing competitor software, keep in mind that you want to choose the best for your overall SEO needs. This often includes:

• An intuitive user interface, including a keyword overview
• A reliable keyword research tool that displays volume, keyword difficulty (KD), PPC, and KW competitors
• The ability to change keyword difficulty metrics location to another country or region
• Page authority for competing URLs and domain authority scores
• Backlinks profile analysis
• Which keywords should appear in headings
• Content idea suggestions based on keywords
• A keyword mosaic to easily visualize how your competitors use your targeted keywords
• A content creation tool to ensure your content is optimized for search results potential and content quality

SearchAtlas as a Keyword Difficulty Tool

SearchAtlas offers a full suite of SEO tools, including a range of tools to help users select competitive keywords that they have the highest chance of appearing in the top organic search results for.

In SearchAtlas, you will find:

• The SEO Content Assistant for optimizing based on the right keywords. 
• Content Ideas aids you in planning content that engages your target audience. 
• The Content Researcher displays your ranking potential for keywords, KD, a terms grid, keyword discover, the content score for top-ranking URLs, SV, CPC, readability and word count for your competition, and domain rating.
• The Keyword Researcher tool streamlines the keyword research process and helps you understand your keywords’ KD.

Free Keyword Difficulty Tools & Free Keyword Checkers

There are a plethora of free keyword difficulty software choices available, including the Keyword Research Tool and the SEO Content Assistant. With a 7-day free trial, you can determine if SearchAtlas is the best keyword tool for you.

Keyword Difficulty & Your Website

With the right keywords, you can take your content from underperforming and undiscoverable to Google’s first page of search results. Become the author of your site’s future by taking the next step toward mastering keyword selection, page authority, and SERP rankings. SearchAtlas makes keyword difficulty metrics easy to understand and guides you through the steps of producing the best content in your niche.

The post What is Keyword Difficulty & How Does It Affect Your SEO appeared first on LinkGraph.

If you want your business to be a top contender as a top source for holiday gifts this December, your online store must climb Google’s search engine results through curated content, relevant landing pages, and exciting social media campaigns. With more traffic, you can anticipate increased conversions.

This may sound easier said than done, but with a few simple tips, you can capture more holiday sales and increase conversion rates using search engine optimization techniques. Which work best for the holiday season?

Here are our favorite ways to increase sales through SEO when you can hear sleigh bells ring and your customers are thinking about the holiday season:

1. Answer the most searched questions related to your products

Want to provide customers with valuable content? Provide them with in-depth, accurate, and authoritative information related to their most common questions and search queries! Not only will including these questions in your content help to boost your ranking, but this is a great way to increase your engagement rates. Your customers are inherently invested in learning the answers to what they want to know as proven by query counts. This lengthens their ability to focus on your content.

Plus, answering your customer’s questions promotes confidence in their purchases. And creating high-quality content surrounding keywords and search term clusters ensures Google’s algorithms can find and promote your website to potential customers.

When your content points to your ability to predict your target audience’s needs, you create the opportunity to improve brand reputation. Add a discount for your new customer and a way for them to subscribe for future email marketing and campaigns and you’ve tripled your marketing efforts through relevant keywords alone. And customer loyalty through repeat customers is built on a foundation of trust and exclusivity after all. 

Where can you find questions your customers are asking?

The SearchAtlas keyword research tool makes discovering questions and queries surrounding your primary keywords easy! With keyword clusters and related questions tabs, it’s easy to pinpoint what your target audience wants to learn.

2. Choose Blog Topics That Draw Customers Into Your Website

A healthy blog can be the best way to promote holiday season online sales and prevent you from being left with excess stock for post-holiday shopping season clearance. By researching keywords and using SEO best practices, Google and other search engines have a higher likelihood of connecting your website with people shopping during the holiday season.

How can you find topics your customers care about?

Using keyword research and targeting higher search volume numbers can take your website from page 5 of Google SERPs to page 1. In doing so, you can anticipate a tidal wave of potential customer impressions and a healthy click-through rate for higher online sales and greater market share.

Unsure where to start when it comes to your content topic? Use the SearchAtlas’s Content Ideas tool.

3. Offer Gift Ideas for Everyone on Your Customer’s Shopping List

Gift guides provide customers with insight and gift inspiration. They’re also a fantastic way to expose people to a greater range of your product offerings and draw attention to your online sales.

Keep in mind when creating your gift guides, that more and more online shoppers prefer to purchase multiple items from one seller. Give your buyers an incentive to increase the number of products in the shopping carts by mentioning which items pair well together. Highlight minimum purchase requirements, too, for those people hoping to receive free shipping or shipping discounts and bundle deals. This tactic is a great way to increase your average per purchase and boost overall online sales.

4. Don’t Miss the Opportunity to Promote Your Online Store Through Social Media

Through fun and festive social posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram you can express your excitement for the season and funnel customers to your website. Where can you find inspiration? Everyone loves a Black Friday deal and getting sneak peeks of sales and new products through their social media accounts. Shoppers also flock to giveaways.

People also prefer business social media pages and businesses that feel authentic. They also want to support a company that actively posts and engages with customers. So, post regularly and revisit your branding guide. And keep in mind there is no right or wrong way to add personality to your posts, but staying true to your buyer persona and target audience can make creating content easier.

You can also get inspiration for posts by exploring keywords and your competitor’s websites and social pages. And don’t forget to highlight your sales and that consumers want to feel like they’re buying from a company they can trust.

5. Add a bit of holiday joy to your customers’ digital shopping experience.

Why do customers choose to shop online? They want to avoid crowded aisles, long checkout lines, and pushy salespeople. But just because your customers are shopping from the comfort of their computers or mobile devices, doesn’t mean you can’t spruce up their holiday shopping experience.

Adding holiday-themed graphics and sales to your web design will set you apart from your competitors. This tactic is also a great way to get people’s attention for a memorable and fun campaign this holiday shopping season.

Additionally, potential consumers are more likely to become a part of conversion success stories if the user experience is well-designed. Most people jump ship during the checkout process. So, focus on your checkout page before adding Christmas flair to your homepage.

What can you do to deck your digital halls?

Creating a streamlined and enjoyable user experience is all about reflecting what people want and need through your website’s layout, menus, and graphics. What do customers want when shopping for holiday sales? Here are a few examples:

• Highlighted holiday sales and best sellers
• High-resolution images of your products
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and products featured on your homepage
• Holiday graphics on your product pages to boost your business’s branding
• Customer service and a return policy in an easy-to-find location

Have a Happy Holiday Selling Season!

The LinkGraph family wishes you and your team records sales and endless happy customers. Keep in mind that holiday sales extend far beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Search engine optimization helps your website wind up on more customers’ gift lists and provides your business a boost that will last all year long.

Are you looking to beat last year’s sales or need assistance with your SEO? Give yourself the gift of expert assistance by contacting LinkGraph now for a free consultation on how SEO can boost your conversion rate to make last year’s number feel like a thing of the past.

The post How to Increase Online Sales During the Holidays with SEO appeared first on LinkGraph.

In order to improve the relevance of the SERPs, Google has had to get better at understanding human language. Thanks to natural language processing algorithms and machine learning, Google is one of the most literate robots out there. 

So what can website owners do to leverage the power of Google’s NLP models? It’s called semantic SEO. It’s all about creating content that shows Google that your content has topical depth, relevance, and quality.

What is Semantic SEO?

Semantic SEO is the process of creating your content around topics, instead of one or two keywords. It is when you build more meaning into the content you create. Also, it involves thinking about the true intent of your readers and how the various landing pages on your website interrelate. 

A piece of content that is optimized properly for semantic SEO not only will answer the question a user has now but will answer the second, third, and fourth question they may have after reading. It is all about adding more depth, meaning, and reason to your content.

There are 3 problems that content creators face when dealing with content on a search engine:

• Google is smart, but it’s still a robot. Several Google algorithm updates have focused on helping Google crawlers understand human language. However, they are bots. While their machine learning is quite advanced, they aren’t able to truly speak with human language. This is where semantic writing can come in handy.

• Other brands are vying for your target audience. With more content fighting for valuable search engine real estate, it is hard to stand out to a searcher. Google uses authority, quality, and page experience to determine whether or not your relevant content is more valuable than your competitors.
• Google can promote your content, but you have to do the rest. Search engines can usually figure out what your content is about. But it’s up to you to answer consumer’s questions before they even ask them and drive them toward conversion.

The concept of semantic search can help with all 3 of the above problems. Using this method not only will help a content creator develop topics that answer their user’s intent, but they are also able to position the content where more than one question can be answered in more than one way. The goal is to add depth to your content and to frame content to longer queries and topic clusters rather than a literal keyword match.

Semantic SEO and Natural Language Processing

To get a better understanding of what exactly semantic SEO is, it’s important to understand how the data behind language is processed. 

Natural language processing (NLP) is how computers work to understand human language and infer meanings behind what is spoken. 

NLP models are building blocks of communication between humans and computers. New advancements in NLP are happening all the time, like with SMITH and GPT-3. 

With every new algorithm update, search engines like Google get better at understanding human language.

How Do Search Engines Use Semantics and Natural Language Processing?

Google released an update back in 2019 that aided them in semantic analysis and NLP. The BERT update (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), was one of the most important algorithm updates in years and affected 10% of all existing search queries. 

In short, BERT helped Google better understand what the words in a sentence mean. It also helps Googlebot gain insights of the context around certain words.

Here are a few different examples of linguistic artificial intelligence capabilities that are used by NLP models like BERT.

Semantic Mapping

Semantic mapping is the act of exploring connections between any word and phrase and a related set of words and concepts. A semantic map will visualize how terms work together, and the search intent of the consumer.

For example, if a person simply searches for the term “pizza for dinner,” they could be looking to order a pizza from a local restaurant. Or, they could be looking for a recipe to make one at home. 

So how does Google know what the true search intent is? It’s all about the terms that the consumer searches with the main “pizza” keyword. If they are looking to make one at home, they could be searching for ingredients and proper oven temperatures. Or, if they’re looking to order, we can assume their search query will include the terms “near me” or descriptive words like “best ” or “great.”

Semantic Coding

This is the process of using coding to better explain to Google what types of information can be found on each different page.

One popular example of semantic coding is schema.org. Schema markup is a semantic vocabulary of tags, or microdata, that you can add to your HTML. It improves the way search engines read and represent your web pages in relevant search results. When you use schema markup, you tell Google exactly what is on your page, and how you want to present it. 

There are other vocabularies and tags that you can add to help Google understand your content. Header tags such as H1-H6 map out the multiple subheadings and breaks in the content. 

There are also other semantic tags that can be used for emphasis, quotations, citations, acronyms, definitions, and thematic breaks.

How Can you Improve your SEO with NLP ?

As mentioned before, there are many benefits to crafting content with natural language processing in mind. By crafting your content towards how NLP models work, you can earn more keyword rankings, better SERP positions, and more organic traffic.

Add Structured Data Markup

Google wants site owners to add structured data to their website so they can better understand their content. If you have specific products, events, or jobs that you’re trying to promote, there is no reason not to add the appropriate markups so your pages can appear in rich results.

Use Internal Links With Contextual Anchor Text

When a user clicks onto your website, they want to find a solution to their problem. They’re looking for the easiest and best answer to their solution. If they have to spend time hunting around for information, they most likely will move on to another website.

That’s why you’ll want to provide as much relevant, and contextual information to them as soon as they land on your website.

This means not only using content to create meaning around a particular topic, but to include helpful internal links and anchor text. 

You need to think of your customer’s journey. Instead of putting all the information they may need on one web page, a strong internal link structure can work wonders. It both answers users’ questions and boosts your own SEO. However, you will want to create links with relevant anchor text that matters to the reader, to ensure they click on them!

Think Bigger About Keywords

Keyword research is, in a nutshell, complex. Most digital marketers just do simple keyword research on individual keywords that are relevant to their products and services. 

But just think of how many different types of words there are in the English language! Your keyword research should really aim to capture all the different ways that users may search for products or services like yours. For example, use the LinkGraph SearchAtlas Chrome extension to better understand other ways users are searching for similar queries.

This includes verbs, adjectives, related questions and phrases, subtopics, and lsi keywords. LSI keywords, also known as latent semantic index keywords,are search terms that are relevant to the main, single keyword you are targeting.

When you enhance your keyword research and double down on content creation, you will have great success in creating relevant content. That content will also appear higher up in the search results for more relevant keyword phrases.

The Benefits of Writing Content with Topical Depth

There are many benefits to writing content with topical depth. Although longer content is not technically a ranking factor, the advantages of creating more in-depth content are clear in the SEO research and the rankings.

Rank for More Keywords

Even if you only want to rank for one primary keyword, Google usually ends up ranking our web pages for multiple keyword phrases. Why not hit multiple birds with one stone when writing your content? 

Pieces of content with topical depth tend to explore more subtopics and questions related to the primary keyword target. This broadens the reach of the content within the SERPs. 

The idea is simple; the more you write about multiple different related subtopics, the higher chances you have when improving your visibility in multiple search results. 

Above anything else, optimizing for multiple keywords will ensure that you have more opportunities to drive traffic to your website.

Decrease Bounce Rate and Increase Scroll Depth

Not only does Google read the content you promote on your website, they take a look at how people are consuming it. 

In a quest to ensure the best user experience possible, Google only wants to promote high quality web pages. If they see that consumers are bouncing from your website almost as soon as they land there, they will believe that your website isn’t relevant or valuable.

Because in-depth content requires longer landing pages, your visitors will scroll further and spend longer on the page. That is, as long as the text, images, and rich media are quick to load.

Topical depth allows for you to dive really deep into a certain topic at hand. But as you add topical depth to the page, make sure that you don’t sacrifice other key parts of the user’s experience. That includes site architecture, links, and easy navigation elements like jumplinks.     

Improve Readability

Have you ever read a piece of web content that’s stuffed full of the keyword the site owner wants to rank for? Not only is it difficult to read, it devalues the entire experience.

As stated before, semantic SEO is not hyper-focused on one keyword. By writing with semantic SEO in mind, you actually improve the readability of your content.

When you use related words to your main topic, then you’re able to give the reader more context, which improves readability tenfold. Readability is important on both a user intent and SEO basis, as readability improves engagement with the page. 

Engagement is one of the most important metrics that Google pays attention to, and it ties directly in with improving search rankings and search volume. And who wouldn’t want that?

Allow for Easy Conversions

The whole purpose of writing content is to get some sort of conversion, whether it is a phone call, an email subscriber, or a purchase. 

So every bit of content you create will need to serve its own purpose. If your content is stagnant and doesn’t inspire users, then what is the point? Content ties all of your marketing efforts together, and fantastic content will allow for an easy conversion. 

When users find content that is in-depth and answers their questions, they will be more likely to buy. They will also more likely see your brand as an industry authority.

Using the SEO Content Assistant to Improve Semantic SEO

LinkGraph’s SEO Content Assistant uses NLP algorithms and machine learning to help site owners practice semantic SEO. 

With this tool, any digital marketer can take their target keyword and create high-quality, in-depth content. The higher the content score, the more likely the content will rank well in Google and push the user toward conversion.

Our SEO Content Assistant uses semantic technology. It compiles a wide variety of related phrases, LSI keywords, and shoulder topics from your specific keyword and main topic. Additionally, the software will suggest focus terms, multiple on-page elements to use, and keyword frequency that your content needs. This will help your web page outrank competitors for high-value keywords in your industry. 

As a result, you will have dozens of Focus Terms to use in your content that help to enhance the topical depth of your content. The SEO Content Assistant allows for you to optimize your content up to 5 keywords, but make sure those target keywords are related and have similar relevancy. 

Our easy interface makes it seamless to import your content from existing URLs, export new content into Google Docs, and collaborate on your projects with other members of your team.

All in all, this tool will enhance your content and make it a valuable asset to your digital marketing goals.

Final Thoughts on Semantic SEO

Semantic SEO is a fantastic tool for both search engine optimization purposes, but also to really grab your users at the perfect time for conversion. 

By creating content that works to speak to a consumer in natural language, instead of stuffing keywords in unnaturally, consumers are more likely to gain the overall context of your main topic. 

Are you interested in elevating your existing content with semantic SEO? If so, our digital marketing team at LinkGraph is here to help. Learn more about our content tools and software.

The post The Beginner’s Guide to Semantic SEO appeared first on LinkGraph.

Prior to this SEO case study, LinkGraph had already earned moderate keyword rankings for our “Free SEO Audit,” landing page, but our SERP results were located primarily on page 2 and 3. As a result, those rankings drove minimal organic traffic to our website. 

Our goal was to improve the performance of this particular landing page because of its proven results as a lead generation tool. We believed that enhancing the content-quality signals on the page could improve our rankings, even without aggressive link acquisition or digital PR promotion.

Spoiler Alert: We were right. In just 3 short months, LinkGraph got to page 1. We also improved organic traffic to the page by 468%.

Here’s how we did it.

But first…Some SEO Industry Context

Many SEO companies use free audits as lead generation tools. These audits identify the on-site and off-site factors that are impacting a potential client’s website, and then offer the results in exchange for an email address.

It’s no surprise then that according to Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer, ranking for the keyword phrase, “free SEO audit,” is extremely difficult. 

Because LinkGraph had already earned page 2 and 3 rankings for “SEO audit” related keywords, we knew that Google was accurately understanding the content and relevance of the landing page.

But the page did not have the necessary backlinks approximated by Ahrefs’ metric to reach page 1. Still, we did not focus on any backlink building in our strategy.

Instead we wanted to test whether improving content quality signals alone could have an impact on our SERP positions. We narrowed in on the on-page SEO factors that we could control, and directed our optimization efforts toward the landing page copy and design.

Step 1: Elevate Content Quality Signals on the Page

In order to improve content quality, our content strategists utilized LinkGraph’s SEO Content Assistant. They were tasked with the following:

1. Improve semantic richness of the content by including more Focus Terms into the landing page copy (these are the terms, phrases, and topics our software generates for their relevance to the primary keyword target) 
2. Elevate topical depth of the content by increasing the word count from approximately 1100 words to over 2500
3. Increase the content score of the landing page from 42 to 80+ (score on a scale of 100)
4. Add additional content in a natural way that doesn’t impact readability
5. Incorporate on-page SEO best practices with keyword inclusion in page titles, meta descriptions, and headings

Step 2: Incorporate New Content with Quality Web Design

After our strategists optimized the content and increased the word count of the landing page, our web designer went to work outlining a new information architecture. They prioritized the following design techniques:

1. Add the additional copy in a natural way that does not disrupt the user experience or deplete the aesthetic quality of the landing page 
2. Maintain the text-to-image ratio by using features like vertical tabs, carousels, and expandable content modules 
3. Keep the location of the SEO audit text bar and subsequent lead capture form 

A snapshot of LinkGraph’s redesigned “Free SEO Audit” landing page

SEO Case Study Results: Higher Keyword Positions and Increased Organic Traffic

Our content optimizations went live on January 1, 2021. Within two weeks, we started to notice results in Google Search Console.

As stated earlier, LinkGraph had already earned keyword rankings for the landing page, but we were stuck on page 2 and 3 and getting very few clicks. 

After our optimizations went live, our total number of keywords for the page actually remained static.

We think the reason we didn’t see any increase in total keywords is because we had already optimized for the most salient long-tail keywords the first time we created the page. But where we did see significant improvements was in our average position across all of those keywords. 

Our average position across all keyword rankings for the page on January 1, 2021 was 61.

Our average position across all keyword rankings for the Page on March 30th, 2021 was 38.8.

By nature of these higher SERP positions, organic traffic naturally followed. 

In the 3 months prior to the on-page optimizations, total organic traffic to the landing page was only 70 clicks.

In the three months after the content quality optimizations went live, total organic traffic was 398 clicks.

So where did these clicks come from? According to data from our GSC insights tool for January – March, the majority of those clicks came from the highly competitive keyword phrase: “free seo audit.”

Since publishing the new version of the landing page, our SERP result improved from page 2 to page 1 for the keyword phrase, “free seo audit.”

Although our rankings fluctuate daily on the first page, LinkGraph has ranked as high as the number 4 position, despite having only 7 backlinks to the landing page.

Remember that Keyword Difficulty score of 91?

Good thing we shot for the moon.

What Can We Learn From this SEO Case Study?

With any SEO strategy, it can be difficult to know exactly which optimizations resulted in improved SERP performance. Core algorithm updates, search volatility, and backlinks are all variables that can impact keyword rankings. However, by testing one variant at a time, and referencing the absolute truth of search engine data — Google Search Console — we can get a good sense of which of the optimizations we make to our websites are most or least effective.

In the case of our above example, here are some reasonable conclusions.

Content Quality Matters 

High-quality, relevant content has always been Google’s end goal. All of the efforts Google’s engineers make to improve their algorithm stem from the desire to bring the best search results to users. By focusing on improving the content-quality signals on the page (and according to Google’s quality guidelines), LinkGraph started outranking competitors for a very valuable keyword in our industry niche.

Keyword Position > Total Keywords

In our case study, our total number of keywords for our landing page remained unchanged. However, because we were able to elevate our average SERP position across all of those keywords, we saw the bump in organic traffic that we were striving for. Although the total number of keywords is certainly important for overall impressions and growing your market share, when it comes to seeing those real clicks come in, you need to get to page 1. 

Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty is an Imperfect Metric

Many site owners use Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty to shape their SEO strategy, but there are shortcomings to over-relying on this metric. The metric has an over-focus on the number of links to the landing page, which hasn’t been as predictive of good search performance as other metrics like content quality or the amount of PageRank. Google’s algorithms reward quality, meaning an emerging website can compete with the likes of the SERP-dominators, as long as they prioritize bringing the most useful, valuable content to users. 

The unreliability of this metric actually led LinkGraph CTO, Manick Bhan, to create our own organic difficulty ranking in our Keyword Researcher tool. We don’t want site owners overlooking certain high-value keywords in their industries because they don’t believe that they can compete. 

With the right SEO tools and quality-driven strategy, you can.

Google Search Console Data is Our most Powerful Tool

Our ability to accurately measure the impact of our optimizations is essential in refining our SEO strategy. The above case study relied heavily on our GSC Insights tool (which is built on top of Google’s API and gives you access to Google Search Console data for your site) in order to understand and evaluate the impact of our strategy.

By having granular data about where exactly our impressions and clicks come from, we can understand what works best to improve our SERP performance. Then, we can apply similar optimizations across the entirety of our web pages.

The post SEO Case Study: How LinkGraph Reached Page 1 for a Competitive SEO Keyword in Just 3 Months appeared first on LinkGraph.

But you might not know that these informational guides are actually examples of something called information marketing, and they can be a great tool for both consumers and business owners alike. More than ever, we consume information on our desktops, tablets, and mobile devices, and when leveraged properly, informational marketing can improve your business’ reputation, earn new leads, and even generate additional revenue for your brand.

What is Information Marketing?

Simply put, information marketing is a marketing strategy that provides specific details about a product or service. This type of marketing can include information about the following:

• How a product or service works
• How to use a product or service
• The different features of a product or service
• How a product or service compares to similar solutions
• Additional knowledge necessary to use a product or service

If a customer knows everything there is to know about a product, then he’s more likely to buy it––so goes the logic of information marketing. Think of it as providing the nitty-gritty of your products, services, and their overall value potential. 

Additionally, if someone visits your website, and you answer all of their questions, then they won’t need to leave your page in search of answers somewhere else. There’s also the matter of transparency. To the average reader, more information correlates with a greater degree of honesty. The more you tell a potential consumer about your product, the more likely they are to fall in love and ultimately convert.

Content Marketing vs. Information Marketing: What’s the Difference?

People often assume that content marketing is the same as informational marketing. Sure, content marketing informs consumers, and informational marketing consists of content (Doesn’t everything?), but the intentions and goals behind both have important distinctions.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a long-term, strategic marketing approach that focuses on building long-lasting relationships with consumers, all the while understanding and learning their behaviors. When done correctly, content marketing targets consumers in all parts of the marketing funnel––from prospective customers simply searching for ideas to those who have brand loyalty and are ready to convert.

Content marketing is a long game, and there are plenty of ways to share your content. When crafting your content, keep in mind these two concepts: relevance and consistency. You’ll want to provide readers content relevant to them, on a consistent basis.

Here are some ways to achieve this:

• Develop a blog on your website: You can get creative with these, and speak about a variety of shoulder topics of your product and/or service. Look into Search Engine Optimization best practices, and check out what your competitors are doing for some good ideas to get started. When done properly, a blog can turn your website into a multifarious resource that pulls in readers and directs them towards your services.
• Beef up your social media game: Social media is more popular than ever, so you’ll want to optimize your profiles on the channel that makes the most sense for your consumers. For example, if your item is a consumer product, choose Instagram so you can take great quality pictures and videos and share them that way. On the other hand, if your service is targeted to professionals and businesses, LinkedIn may be the better platform to invest your efforts. Not sure of where to start? A Facebook profile is always the best bet as it reaches a variety of demographics in one single swoop, and you can also use this platform for some strategic paid media campaigns. 
• Research your potential customers: At the end of the day, your purpose for content marketing is to create brand loyalty, so you’ll want to reach your customers right where you can find them. Do some market research to find out what channels and platforms are the best for this, whether through newspaper ads, social media banners, or direct-to-consumer mailers.

Content is exceptionally versatile, making it all that more important to be strategic in your marketing approach. You can think of content marketing like the stock market; whatever you put into it, you’ll likely get out of it. Invest your time and your efforts wisely, and you’ll likely reap the benefits.

How is information marketing different?

Where content marketing is a long-term strategy that can be broad and versatile depending on your market segment, informational marketing is specific, targeted, and detailed. This type of marketing most often tells a story, explaining either a service offering or a product. As a part of an overarching content marketing goal, informational marketing usually falls within the following media:

• Webinars
• Ebooks
• White Papers
• Tutorials

Types of Information Products to Promote your Knowledge

When it comes to informational marketing, your ideal medium depends on both your specific needs and business model. Use the following information to decide which option is best for you.

Ebooks

In a world of digital content, an ebook is an object of value, one that won’t get lost in the hustle and bustle of links and webpages. Additionally, an ebook works to strengthen your brand as it shows prospective consumers that you’ve taken the time to create a trustworthy document, further promoting your position as a thought leader in your industry.

As far as your informational marketing strategy goes, an ebook can be a gift that keeps on giving. Not only can you repurpose portions of its content for social media accounts and blogs, but you can also publish updated editions as newer information becomes available. Once you have your ebook base, you’ll only be able to expand from there, possibly culminating in a physical text, further cementing your authority within your industry.

Webinars

Even amidst our current pandemic, brands are seeking to engage their consumers on a personal level. This is where webinars come in handy, as they help a customer put a face to your brand, all the while gaining access to valuable video content. A webinar can be a great way to promote a new product or a business process while showing off your strengths to your target market

Plus, we are all bored at home, and we are craving something to look forward to. A webinar can be seen as an “event,” which can cause excitement for consumers. After all, it’s nice to focus on something when stuck at home. While having a one-time webinar can be great when it comes to testing the waters of webinars, it will be helpful for your marketing mix to include webinars on a more regular basis. Think of it this way, the more webinars you host, the easier you can segment your content into smaller, digestible chunks. Video content also possesses a high likelihood of being shared. Never underestimate the power of passive media.

White Papers

In order to make a purchase, some consumers want the hard facts––and lots of ‘em. This is where white papers really shine, as they are in-depth, persuasive reports on a specific problem and the ways in which your product or services can solve it.

When it comes to informational marketing, white papers can educate the audience, promote methodologies, or explain a controversial topic. It is important to note that white papers are not product pitches; rather, you are offering a solution to the problem at hand, with your product and/or service being the answer. The goal is to inform, persuade, and convince the audience that there is a problem, and thus, why the prospective customers need to buy the product right now. For example, if your product is productivity software for remote workplaces, an effective white paper might point out the ways in which online distractions can tank productivity with at-home workers, ultimately pointing towards the solution offered by your program.

What makes a white paper stand out is the size, depth, and time commitment that goes into creating each one. While blog posts are easily digestible and can be made flashy with art and GIFs, white papers are going to look and read more like an academic text. While it won’t be as flashy as your other marketing materials, a white paper will impress consumers with its thorough research and reporting.

Tutorials

Tutorials offer brands a quick and easy way to teach your consumers about a certain product or service. Not everyone learns through reading content, so creating a visual webinar promoting your product can appeal to all sorts of consumers, from visual learners to those who don’t have the time to read your 30-page ebook.

In a world of digital content, you’ll want to stand out like a big fish in an even bigger pond of marketing activities. Video tutorials are an attractive method of showing a user how your product works, as well as answering any potential questions they may have. Plus, it is easier to go into depth with video, as very long descriptions can turn people off and cause them to find answers elsewhere.

Tutorials are powerhouses when it comes to marketing, as when the user is done watching the video, they’ll learn more about your brand, your story, your products, and how the product will benefit them. Let’s use the same example of a productivity software. Sure, your software promises increased computer-based productivity, but this sounds abstract and potentially complicated. A video tutorial of its features can help demystify the product, showing the potential user how simple it is to use.

How to use Information Marketing for Lead Generation

Many B2B and B2C consumers are seemingly afraid of lead generation, as it can be quite a daunting word and concept for a beginner. However, the key to efficient lead generation is to be creative. Again, you will want to stand out, so here are some creative ways to use your information marketing to grow your business through lead generation.

• Request a reader’s email before they can download your ebook or white paper. This way, you have their contact information and can include them in any business marketing email outreach, so they don’t forget who you are as a brand.
• Create an informational and interactive quiz about your product or service. Then you can reward a good score with a special offer or discount.
• Share success stories from industry thought leaders, and how your business can support these principles.
• Create a learning course that can be taken over email. Or similarly, have a weekly webinar with new, updated information every week and promote it over email.
• Develop a template or worksheet that can help simplify an everyday task. By doing this, you’ll show the prospective consumer how much they can benefit from utilizing your brand.

At the end of the day, all of these lead generation concepts are here to promote brand loyalty to a niche market and to remind consumers that you exist. Giving away information up-front––before the consumer even has the chance to ask a question––is a fantastic way to build trust, which in turn results in conversions and profit.

How to Use Information Marketing as an Additional Revenue Stream

So how do you get the best ROI when using information marketing for your online business? The easiest answer is to charge for your work. Marketing doesn’t always have to be free to consume, so it only makes sense that you need to monetize all your hard work while promoting that you have valuable content.

Consider this––the average person sees about 5,000 ads and various consumer marketing materials a day. This is a ton of content, and chances are, we don’t really absorb everything we read. Because of this, it is only natural that we put a lower value on marketing that is free, so charging for your ebooks, whitepapers, and attending webinars makes sense.

However, in order to gain the most interest in your materials, make sure to allow a free preview of some kind. You don’t want to turn people away automatically because you charge for premium content, so give them a quick taste first to increase demand.

Some ideas for this “free taste” can be the first chapter of an ebook, the first third of a whitepaper, and free attendance for one session during a recurring webinar.

Information Marketing and Google’s E.A.T

Every once in a while, Google comes out with different updates to their algorithms. One of the most popular and most newsworthy algorithm updates was the E.A.T update that happened back in 2018 and 2019. During this time, Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines were updated to rank content that has expertise, authority, and trustworthiness to its readers rather than content that may not be relevant and useful.

The whole idea behind this change is to more effectively rank pages based on how the users view the content. In short, Google feels that if a reader does not believe content has expertise, authority, and honesty, they will leave the webpage and not convert. And if there is nothing of value to a prospective customer, why bother ranking it in the SERPs over another webpage with great information? After all, value is a descriptor both democratic and subjective.

When broken down, the specifics of what Google rates as E.A.T are as follows:

Expertise

• Are the writers experts on the topic, and do they have any specific credentials on this topic in the industry?
• Do other suppliers, distributors, and industry professionals link to this page, therein casting a vote of confidence in its content?
• Is all the information easy to read and accessible on the site?

Authority

• Do these people have generally recognized authority in their industry’s space? Are they considered thought leaders in their field?
• Is a website a good source of information on this topic? 
• Is the topic updated regularly, with evidence that it is factual?

Trustworthiness

• Do consumers consistently come to your website for information they can trust?
• Is the content free from factual inaccuracies and grammatical errors?

Because informational marketing is chock full of details and is specifically targeted to a niche audience, you will want to keep the E.A.T guidelines at the top of your mind when creating content. Informational marketing tends to be the first in-depth glance a consumer has about your brand and business, so ensuring your content comes from an expert, authoritative, and trustworthy source is one of the most important things you can do.

Final Thoughts on Information Marketing

When used properly, informational marketing can be a very powerful marketing tool for any size business. From promoting retail items and  digital products, to creating thought-leadership potential, info-marketers are making themselves known to the marketing community by sharing the most detailed information they can. 

So, in a world full of information, how will you make yours stand out?

The post Information Marketing: How to Share (and Sell) your Knowledge appeared first on LinkGraph.