Content pruning is all about removing any unnecessary content from your website, which can help your website rank higher in search engine results and can also improve user experience.

In this article, you will learn how to do content pruning for SEO, from identifying what needs to be pruned to taking steps to ensure that it’s done correctly. Keep reading to find out more.

What is Content Pruning?

Content pruning involves a thorough review of all content on a website to identify any content that could be seen as irrelevant or low quality from the perspective of search engine algorithms. Once identified, content pruning involves removing those low-quality pages from the website or replacing them with better content. 

A part of regular website maintenance is making sure that all of the content on the website is up-to-date and relevant to the website’s goals. This can help ensure that a website has content that is useful to its visitors and provides value to users who arrive from search engines. 

By removing low-quality or outdated content, websites can see improved search visibility for their highest-value, highest-converting web pages.

Why Remove Content From My Website?

Content production takes time and resources. So you may be wondering: Why remove content from my website after all the work it took to create it?

Although it may feel counterintuitive to your content strategy, content pruning can actually have major benefits to your search engine performance. This is even more true for websites that have a robust SEO content strategy and are publishing new web pages on a regular basis.

Some of those benefits include the following:

• Improve a website’s visibility by allowing search engines to index your best and highest-converting web pages
• Ensure visitors are presented with the most up-to-date information
• Provide higher-quality content and a better user experience
• Prevent visitors from seeing any low-quality pages
• Ensure your crawl budget is spent on rank-worthy content

Any content that sits on your websites that doesn’t pull its weight in either traffic or conversions isn’t actually bringing value to your business.

By taking the time to regularly prune their content, content managers can ensure that their website is performing at its best. That’s why sometimes content pruning is the right choice for your content strategy.

What Makes a Web Page Prunable?

Here are some of the qualities to look for when searching for content on your website that may need to be pruned.

Low-Quality

Bad content can have a negative impact on a website’s rankings. Low-quality content can include pages with duplicate content, thin content, or other qualities. It can also include pages that are not user-friendly or are low on useful information. Content pruning can help to identify and remove such pages, allowing search engines to easily index the more relevant, more quality content on the website.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is web pages with the same content or similar content that search engine crawlers do not identify as distinct. Google does not want to see duplicate content on a website unless it has been clearly identified as such via a canonical tag.

Thin Content

Thin content is often short-form content that doesn’t provide any real value to the user. Although there is no exact content length that Google privileges in search engine results, experiments have shown that longer, in-depth content tends to rank higher.

Most often, thin content can be combined with other pages on your website to provide a more comprehensive, in-depth answer to a topic, question, or keyword query. Combining content, or redirecting thin pages to more in-depth ones, are also a part of the content pruning process.

Outdated Content

The reality is, the content on our website will become outdated over time. This is why creating evergreen content is important, however, it’s unlikely that your long-form content will last forever without the need for updating. Trends, technologies, and knowledge will change, and web pages should include the most up-to-date, useful information for search engines. 

Also, outdated information can be confusing for visitors and lead to a poor user experience. Removing outdated content can ensure that visitors are presented with the most relevant and useful information.

Under-performing Content

If you have a web page on your website that does not get traffic or conversions, what value is it bringing your business? If the web page does not rank in search results, convert users, or is not a vital part of the buyer journey, it doesn’t really have a place on your website unless you take the time to improve its content.

How to Find Pages for Content Pruning

You can use the Page Pruning tool in the SearchAtlas dashboard to discover pages that may be eligible for content pruning.

To find the tool, navigate to Site Auditor > Page Pruning. 

This tool will show you any pages that are eligible for pruning due to a variety of reasons:

• Low organic impressions
• Low clicks
• Indexability
• Total ranking keywords
• Average position
• Content quality/scores

Remember, just because a page appears on this list doesn’t mean that it has to be pruned/deleted, but that it may be eligible based on its performance metrics.

Next Steps for Page Pruning

Once you have reviewed the software’s suggestions and confirmed that the pages are eligible for pruning, here are the next options for you to take.

1. Improve the Content on the Page

The underperformance of the page may rest in the fact that the content is thin or is not providing a comprehensive answer to the user’s questions. 

You can look to the “Boostable,” tab in the Page Pruning tool to identify those pages that just might need a slight content score boost.

The URLs that are listed here are already earning organic impressions but are not seeing as much success in organic traffic. Most likely, Google sees those pages as relevant but is not ranking them on the first page as a result of the content.  

You can use the SEO Content Assistant in your SearchAtlas dashboard to discover ways to strengthen and improve your content. Or, use the on-page audit tool to see what on-page elements may be impacting your performance.

Follow the guided suggestions for focus terms, headings, questions, and internal links. Include them on the page to make the content more rank worthy. 

2. Update the Content to be More Evergreen

If your content covers trends or keywords that have seasonal search volume, that may impact their underperformance.

Consider updating the content with more evergreen information so the content has a longer shelf life in the SERPs.

Also, make sure that the information on the page is up-to-date with accurate, relevant information. Over time, links may break or content may become outdated. Updating your blogs and articles every 1-2 years should be a part of your regular website maintenance.

3. Build Backlinks to the Page

If both the SEO Content Assistant and on-page content school confirm that your content has high scores and is rank-worthy, you may just need a bit more of a link boost.

Backlinks are Google’s number one ranking factor. If you don’t have very many backlinks pointing to your web page, that may be a reason why it is not ranking on the first page.

You can use the backlink research tool in your dashboard to see which of your web pages have the least amount of link equity.

Consider investing in a link-building campaign in order to improve the off-site signals of the content. Doing so is likely to improve the overall keyword rankings, impressions, and organic clicks.

4. Reoptimize the Page for a Different Keyword

Another possible explanation for your content’s poor performance may be keyword related. 

Some keywords are more competitive than others. If you optimized the page for a keyword that is out of reach, reoptimization may be your next step.

When choosing keywords for SEO, you want to make sure your website has a realistic chance of ranking for the target keyword. Websites with higher Domain Authority will stand a better chance of ranking for competitive keywords.

At LinkGraph, we suggest keywords that are less than or equal to your website’s Domain Authority.

So once you find a more realistic goal, optimize for that keyword instead. This will likely involve changing metadata, website copy, and headings on the page. But it can make a huge difference in improving organic performance.

5. Redirect the Page to a More High-Quality One

A page may be flagged for pruning because Google is ranking a more helpful piece of content on your website.

This is known as keyword cannibalization. It happens when two pieces of content are very similar and Google doesn’t know which to promote. If there is a page that is ranking less often but is similar in relevance, you can do your “content pruning,” by adding a 301 redirect from the less comprehensive page to the better performing. 

6. Combine Thin Content into a More Comprehensive Resource

If you have a series of pages that are thin on content but relate to a similar cluster of keywords, consider combining those pages into a more useful, long-form resource.

Why? Because Google likes to promote content that satisfies users’ search intent. That means not only answering their initial questions but all of the additional questions that might follow regarding that primary topic. 

So before giving up on that set of keywords entirely, combine those various pages into one page. Then, see if the overall keyword rankings improve.

7. Consider Removing the Page Entirely

This is the last step you want to consider after you have concluded that none of the above steps help to elevate content performance.

The reality is, if a piece of content is not driving website traffic, converting users, or an essential part of the buying journey, it doesn’t really deserve space on your website. 

Take the ultimate step and trim that content branch off your tree.

Conclusion

Making content pruning a regular part of your website maintenance is a good habit to get into. This is especially true for websites that publish a lot of content and have a robust SEO strategy.

You can also use the same SearchAtlas tools to scale up your content marketing and blog strategy. Connect with one of our product managers to learn more about our enterprise SEO software platform.

The post Content Pruning Guide for Content Managers and SEOs appeared first on LinkGraph.

Here are 14 ways to upgrade your content alongside your blog posts to increase lead generation

Content Upgrade #1: Use CTAs in Blog Posts

As mentioned in the introduction, if you’re not already putting CTAs in your blog posts, you really should be. CTAs compel readers to take action once they’ve read your blog to either find out more about the topic or to engage with your goods and services. Include links to other internal blog posts, or to a relevant service you can provide which is connected to the topic of the blog.

This is especially important when we consider that inbound links are one of the most important factors Google takes into account when ranking your website, and play a critical role in SEO.

Content Upgrade #2: Continued Content

Continued content is a type of exclusive content where you simply continue the blog post for email subscribers only. This increases lead generation by getting users to input their email addresses to read the full article. Sometimes, it’s a simple case of instead of writing a top 15 blog post, write a top 10 but include an extra 5 points in the email marketing campaign sent out to subscribers.

To do this effectively, you’ll need to include a CTA at the end of your blog post with an email subscription box informing readers they can have the rest of the blog sent directly to their email address.

Content Upgrade #3: Exclusive Discounts

If you have a landing page where your ultimate CTA is to sell a product, offering exclusive ‘members only’ discounts to email subscribers is a great way to increase lead generation.

The discounts don’t have to be huge – even 5-10% will be enough to get a portion of your readers to sign up with their email address. Nowadays, this is a common practice even in large companies to improve lead generation.

Content Upgrade #4: Cheat Sheets

Cheat sheets are an excellent form of content upgrade because it provides a huge amount of value to both you and your subscribers. These are especially useful for blogs surrounding practical topics such as coding. For example, you could create a cheat sheet of simple commands for a particular language such as Linux, meaning subscribers can use your simple cheat sheet in their day to day lives. Connecting this to a blog post about the topic it’s attached to is a great CTA and should drastically increase lead generation.

Content Upgrade #5: Checklists

Checklists, like cheat sheets, are a great way for your subscribers to practically engage with your content and to make their own lives easier. It also gives your audience an opportunity to keep themselves on track with whatever they’re working on with a list outlining every step they need to complete to achieve their goals.

Checklists are also a great way to show off your creativity and visual flair to customers by making an aesthetically pleasing piece of content which matches the style of your brand.

Content Upgrade #6: Taster Courses

If you’re offering some kind of course or service alongside your blog posts, why not curate a small, free course for your email subscribers to increase lead generation towards your paid courses?

The course could really take the form of anything – from e-books and video tutorials to an entire email series. You can also take this into account when thinking about what your course actually offers. For example, if your blog posts or company provides advice for start-ups you may want to offer a free email course on how to use social media marketing.

Content Upgrade #7: Printable PDF Guides

A great way to get your subscribers to practically engage with your brand is by sending printable planners, worksheets or goal trackers for them to fill in using pens and pencils. Although this may not be for everyone, if your business provides advice, goods or services for creatives it may just be the best option. 

The best place to start when creating a printable and downloadable PDF guide is to think about what people enjoy writing down or crossing off and how this could relate to your blog content. You can create even a basic Google Doc that they can print and use.

Content Upgrade #8: Audio Blogs

Multiple newspaper websites have already taken to providing audio options for readers who may be hard of sight or who need their eyes elsewhere while they listen. Giving your readers the option of listening to your blog posts rather than reading them is an excellent way to both boost inclusivity and capitalize on those who would rather listen than read.

Additionally, if your organization holds livestreams or webinars these can be re-uploaded and distributed to your customers via email. The easiest way to do this would be by uploading the content as an unlisted video to YouTube, meaning only those with the link from the email would have access to it.

Content Upgrade #9: Scripts Templates

Scripts are great for anyone looking to send out mass emails, or who email the same types of people very frequently. This could be super helpful for PR managers reaching out to journalists, or anyone who is struggling to find the right words for certain situations. 

A great way to implement this would be as a CTA on articles which are designed to target people who are new to a certain employment status, e.g. new PR managers or anyone else who needs to get to grips with the basics of their job.

Content Upgrade #10: Case Studies

Case studies are a great way to connect simultaneously with both customers and those on your email list. Showcasing your product or service’s success is a great way to increase lead generation, since it shows customers exactly how your product or service could be used in situations that may be similar to their own. 

Case studies are usually accessible on an organization’s website, but using them as a way to generate leads is also a really smart idea.

Content Upgrade #11: Challenges

Another interactive way to improve lead generation is through challenges. This could be through email or done via avenues such as Facebook groups so everyone can participate and interact with one-another. This works great as a CTA in a blog post dedicated towards a certain goal, such as increasing your email list to X amount of people or creating a certain amount of content within a certain time. 

This simultaneously allows your readers to connect with you as a creator whilst creating a fun and productive challenge to generate new leads and email signups. As a challenge reward, your readers can also get bonus content such as free templates or checklists.

Content Upgrade #12: Infographics

Creating infographics might sound a bit daunting, but infographics can be made relatively easily using certain graphic design tools such as Canva or Visme. Infographics are great for providing statistics and quotes in a visually appealing style, and the format is easy-to-understand and digestible. 

Infographics can also be used for data visualization using charts and graphs to share significant numbers and data points. These can be shared as a CTA at the end of a blog post, telling the reader that if they sign up to the email newsletter they can find all of the statistics behind your blog post in one place.

Content Upgrade #13: Ebooks

Free ebooks are an excellent way to provide further information on a relevant topic covered in a blog post. As a CTA, they can be useful in persuading people who want to learn more about the topic to subscribe to your email list. The great thing about these is they can be as long or as short as you want – there really is no standard length for an ebook (you can also write a mini ebook 🙂

Content Upgrade #14: Free Trial

Free trials are used ubiquitously across all industries, and for good reason. Giving customers a sneak peek into content they could have access to for a monetary fee makes them more likely to pay for the full experience. Even if your organization offers a free version of the paid product, giving email subscribers access to the full experience is a great way to increase your conversion rate and convert free users to paid users.

Increasing your Business’s Lead Generation with Content Upgrades

These 14 content upgrade ideas should be enough to give your business all it needs, get more lead magnets and improve lead generation efforts. Better CTAs in your blog posts combined with more people signing up to your mailing list should drastically improve your organization’s lead generation abilities.

About the Author: Romana Hoekstra is a Content Marketing Lead at Leadfeeder, a B2B visitor identification software that tracks and identifies companies that visit your website. Currently, she is leading the remote-first content marketing team and crafts high-performing content marketing strategies with a focus on organic growth, SEO, high-quality content production & distribution. You can connect with Romana on Linkedin.

The post 14 Content Upgrades That’ll Skyrocket Your Lead Generation appeared first on LinkGraph.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing web content to rank in search engines. The on-page SEO process encompasses keyword research, SEO copywriting, meta tag optimization, page experience, and more.

Site owners who implement on-page SEO across their web pages will likely see more keyword rankings and higher ranking positions for valuable keywords in their industry.

What’s Different about On-Page SEO in 2022 compared to 2021?

Although the best practices of on-page SEO for the most part remain the same, search engine technology grows more advanced every year, changing the way we execute optimization across our web pages.

For 2022, there are some key updates that site owners should be aware of so they can leverage them to achieve higher rankings and organic traffic.

Here are some of the top SEO trends for 2022:

• People also ask: A recent study showed that Google’s “People also ask,” feature now shows up for approximately 48.6% of all searches, and often above position 1.
• Core Web Vitals: Since the Page Experience update, Core Web Vitals are officially a Google ranking factor. Fast-loading, responsive web pages now perform better in the SERPs
• AI Copy Generation: More SEO software engineers are incorporating GPT-3 into their tools and applications to help content marketers create SEO content more quickly and at scale.
• Keyword Clusters: It’s estimated that Google processes over 63,000 keyword searches a second. There are hundreds to thousands of ways that users are searching, and keyword clustering is a more effective strategy for getting a web page to rank for all of those variations.

The Best On-Page SEO Tips for 2022

For 2022, on-page SEO is all about combining SEO best practices with newer strategies that help your web pages meet the quality signals Google crawlers are looking for.

1. Make Core Web Vitals Top Priority

Last summer, Google rolled out one of the largest algorithm updates in years — the Page Experience Update. In addition to security, mobile-usability, and page speed, Google considers a web page’s Core Web Vitals when ranking content.

Although load times and speed have not traditionally been viewed as “on-page seo” priorities, the reality is, a web page with high-quality content doesn’t mean much if it takes too long to load or items shift while the user scrolls or clicks.

Optimizing Core Web Vitals should now be a part of your fundamental SEO practice. To get a better understanding of where your web pages stand, use the Site Auditor tool in GSC Insights, or run your pages through Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool

2. Answer Common Questions

A recent study of 2.5 million search queries showed that Google’s “People also ask” feature now shows up for about 48.6% of searches. 

With its prominent placement at the top of the SERP results (and often above position 1), getting your content ranking in this coveted feature is the next great way to improve site visibility and generate organic clicks.

To get there, your writing team needs to provide answers to common questions in your content. Utilize questions in your h2s-h6s, and make sure your answers are detailed and comprehensive.

By providing answers to those questions on the page, your content can show up at the top of page one, even if your traditional SERP result appears lower on the page (or even sometimes on page 2)! 

Watch this tutorial on how to optimize for People also ask using the SEO Content Assistant.

3. Use Content Optimization Software

With more advanced natural language processing technology, Google is not just looking for your target keywords on the page anymore.

Crawlers are looking for related terms, subtopics, synonyms, and other semantic SEO signals. Original insight an analysis, topical-depth, and expert authorship are also quality signals that can help improve the ranking potential of content.

To better meet all these signals, a content optimizer tool like the SEO Content Assistant can give you the “cheat codes,” to better ranking content. The tool recommends Focus Terms, outbound links, word count, and can even generate content using GPT-3 technology.

4. Leverage AI-Powered Content Generation

With GPT-3 now widely available, more software engineers are incorporating this powerful NLP model into their applications. That means you are not only competing with the content writers of your competitors, but the robots they may be utilizing to help generate more content, more quickly, than you.

AI copywriting tools still have some way to go before replacing our writers entirely. Also, some tools are far better than others. Still, content marketing teams are already using these tools to speed up ideation, outlining, drafting, and on-page SEO optimization so they can scale up their content development.

Those brands that leverage these technologies, but still keep the human touch, are likely to scale up their SEO content strategy quickly this year.

5. Write Longer Content

Although not officially a Google ranking factor, there is a strong relationship between longer content and higher ranking positions. By improving the topical depth and length of your content, you can signal Google higher quality and more comprehensive exploration of the content.

How long should your content be? There is no magic number, but tools like the SEO Content Assistant will suggest a target word count based on the top ranking content for your target keywords.

6. Review your Content on Mobile

More searches are completed from mobile devices than desktop. That’s why search engines are now prioritizing content by what best suits their predominantly mobile user-base.

To rank better in today’s mobile-first world, you need to be focusing on how your content serves mobile users (even if your current site traffic is predominantly desktop users).

The first place to check for mobile usability issues is within your own Google Search Console. These are issues that Google has already flagged for your site, which means Google is already factoring “mobile usability issues” into your search rankings.

Here are things to look for:

• Are images and assets fitting on the screen?
• Are images and assets resizing appropriately for the screen size?
• Can users easily access all of the page content?
  • Is the page short enough to scroll through easily?
  • Are large/unnecessary page elements taking up all the space?
  • Does the user have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get through the page?
• Are any page elements overlapping in a way that hinders the user viewing content?
• Do you have huge blocks of unbroken text?
• Does the design still look clean?

What you can do:

• Get the user to relevant content faster
  • Hide unnecessary images on mobile
  • Reduce the font size of headers on mobile
  • Move important content to the top of the page
  • Add jump links for longer content
• Make content easier to view/read on a smaller device
  • Make sure images and graphics are resizing responsively
  • Adjust your navigation so mobile users can see all options
  • Break up text into 2-3 sentence blocks
  • Use more whitespace!
• Increase tap areas so it’s easier to scroll to relevant content
• Use a sticky nav so users can always find a “next step” if they get stuck

For more information on mobile SEO check out our Comprehensive Guide to Mobile SEO.

7. Use More Rich Media

Mobile users spend heavy portions of their time on social media feeds, YouTube, and Apps. There are all beautifully designed platforms heavy on visuals and multimedia content.

Multi-media keeps people scrolling, conveys concepts at-a-glance, and helps users interact more fully with content. Multi-media makes blog and page content more engaging.

With images and video pulling in at the top of SERPs now, that content is yet another way to get onto the first page.

8. Meet the User’s Search Intent

BERT helped Google better understand the intent behind search queries and launched at the end of October 2019. BERT-related refreshes and advancements still matter in 2022.

As Google continually refines its understanding of the intent behind search queries it will be serving better results, especially for long-tail queries and never-before-seen queries. This means that you should be hyper-focused on creating content that helps a user find the product, service, information, or entertainment that they’re looking for with a search.

To learn more about recognizing search intent, and indicators for informational vs. commercial oriented keywords, take a look at our What are Keywords in SEO Guide.

9. Write for Humans and Robots

Readability is understood differently by SEO professionals. In general, though, simpler sentences are easier to read and less prone to grammatical errors. In voice search specifically, Google avoids overly-complex language.

It is much easier to understand a badly formulated written answer than an ungrammatical spoken answer, so more care has to be placed in ensuring grammatical correctness.

Keeping your sentences simple can also make your content more accessible to a wider range of users. Although SaaS, software, or technologies companies may have more technical content by nature of their products of service offerings, it’s still important to write in a way that is not too academic or jargon-ridden.

A survey of 15,000 searches across 3 device types found the average reading level for voice responses was 8th grade. For reference, Harry Potter is about the same reading level.

10. Link Strategically

Google pays attention to what resources you share with your users. As Google puts it, outbound links matter because they:

• Show that you’ve done your research and have expertise in the subject manner

• Make visitors want to come back for more analysis on future topics

• Build relationships with other domain experts. For example, sending visitors can get you on the radar of other successful bloggers and begin a business relationship.

“Link Neighborhood” is a term coined by the SEO community. It refers to the type of sites that you link out to, and the type of sites that link back to you, and how they link to each other.

For example, if you were to look at the “link neighborhood” for a celebrity site, you’d probably see a lot of streets to gossip magazines, social media groups, fan sites, and concert venues. If you were to look at the “link neighborhood” for an MIT lab, you might see a lot of streets going to scientific publications, tech news, grant organizations, etc.

Internal links also matter because they keep users navigating across your site. Also, they help crawlers understand your site hierarchy, and spread PageRank across your web pages.

Link neighborhoods help give context for the topical focus of a site, and the relative authority of a site; is harvard.edu linking to the site, or is bestcrystalsforhealing.com linking to the site?

Your link neighborhood is a combination of your outbound links and inbound links coming back to your site and web pages.

Recap: Tips for On Page SEO in 2022

• Make Core Web Vitals Top Priority
• Answer Common Questions
• Use Content Optimization Software
• Leverage AI-Generated Content
• Write Longer Content
• Review your Content on Mobile
• Use More Rich Media
• Meet the User’s Search Intent
• Write for Humans and Robots
• Link Strategically

The post 10 Tips for On Page SEO in 2022 appeared first on LinkGraph.

But what is author authority and how is it understood?

Here is a guide to this content-quality standard and what it means for your SEO efforts.

What is Author Authority?

Author authority is a measurement of how much credibility and expertise a given author has on the topic they are writing about.

Say you’re not feeling well, and you go to an article online to get medical advice. When you get to the bottom of the article, you see that rather than being written by a health professional, the author bio describes the writer as working in real estate.

Likely, you would feel the content you just read has less trustworthiness, because the author doesn’t have that specific topic as their area of expertise.

Author authority is particularly important in fields like healthcare, law, finance, or any more technical niche. 

The bottom line is, when it comes to the issues that matter the most to us, we want to hear from experts.

Is Author Authority a Ranking Factor?

Technically, author authority is not a ranking factor. 

But the importance of author reputation has been growing in recent years. In their recently updated Search Quality Rater Guidelines, Google emphasized the importance of the author of the main content.

Section 2.6 states, “An important part of the PQ rating is understanding the reputation of the website. If the creator of the MC [main content] is different from the creator of the website, it’s important to understand the reputation of the creator as well.”

So although author authority is not being used in Google’s ranking algorithm, it is one way that Google understands quality content. And it does evaluate content quality for how to rank search results.

Who writes your content is something that searchers and Google’s quality raters do pay attention to, and thus webmasters who want to show up in search engines should pay attention to it as well.

How Does Google Measure Author Authority?

So how does Google know whether or not the byline of a piece of content is an authoritative source?

Here are the factors that you should include in your content to make sure Google sees your content creators as authoritative.

1. Author Bylines and Bios on Every Piece of Content

Every blog post or in-depth article on your website should be accompanied with a clearly displayed author byline and bio.

Although your primary service or product pages don’t need to have clearly displayed authorship, long-form SEO content that explores a topic or related subfields in depth should be accompanied with an author bio.

This also makes for more effective content. Per the previous example, you want your target audience to get to the bottom of an article and see that the particular author does have subject matter expertise.

2. Author About Page or Bio Page

For every content creator who has a blog post or article on your website, they should also have a bio page that communicates they are a trusted expert.

Author information in an author page can include any of the following: Job title, education, areas of expertise, the kind of content they create, and mentions to other trustworthy websites where that creator has published content.

If the content creator has written multiple blog posts or articles for your web site, it’s good to link out to all of their contributions from their author page.

3. Links to Social Media Profiles

You should also be including links to your content creators’ social media profiles on their bio pages.

This makes it easy for search quality raters and website visitors to further research your authors and cross reference their content to better evaluate whether or not they are true experts.

Having social media links can also make it easier for your expert authors to get verified on social media websites like Twitter.

It can help them earn Google Author panels and help elevate their status as experts, and thus your reputation as a webmaster who features expert authorship.

4. Author schema on the Author Page

Schema markup makes it easier for Google to extract specific information about authors and display it in their search results.

You’ll often see that author bios that appear in search engine results are pulled directly from bios on the publications where those authors appear.

You can use the Schema Creator in your SearchAtlas dashboard to easily generate author schema and add it to your bio pages.

Simply select the “Person,” option and complete all of the required JSON-LD properties. Then, copy and paste the markup into the HTML header section of your author pages.

Final Thoughts on Author Authority

The more content a website publishes, the more website owners should focus on establishing the expertise of their authors in specific fields.

If your website publishes content on different topics, author authority is also very valuable.

It will give your target audience full confidence that they are reading reliable information when they discover your content through search engine results.

The post What is Google Author Authority? appeared first on LinkGraph.

Let’s all commit to maximizing the value of our links with well-optimized annotation text. The process is pretty simple. In fact, as an SEO writer, you’re likely 90% of the way there. As for the remaining 10% this article will walk you through how to write quality annotation texts that help pack every possible ounce of link equity into your internal, external, and backlinks.

What is SEO Annotation Text?

Annotation text is the text that surrounds an outbound link that a web crawler can use to better understand the linked page. It is highly likely web crawlers will index text beyond the sentence level in relation to a hyperlink. This suggests annotation text can include words and phrases that span the section, paragraph, or even entire document where the hyperlink appears.

Most importantly, Google’s algorithm patent suggests this text is a ranking factor.

In the Words of Google

Reading a patent is not what most people would consider light reading. However, looking at specific sections can be extremely insightful in regards to SEO.

A system comprising: at least one processor; an index for searching documents, the index including terms associated with documents; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform operations including obtaining, via a web crawler, a source document, identifying, in the source document, annotation text, the annotation text being text within a predetermined distance of an outbound link to a target document and the annotation text including at least one term, storing in the index an association between the term and the source document, storing in the index, responsive to identifying the annotation text, an association between the term and the target document, identifying, responsive to receiving a query that includes the term, the source document and the target document as associated with the term in the index

the annotation includes a text passage extracted from a respective source document, wherein the text passage is within a predetermined distance of a respective outbound link.

the annotation includes text outside of an anchor tag in the source document.

Diving into Google’s Web Crawler System & New Annotation Description Patent

Annotation text is an SEO element developed from Bill Slawski’s research into an update of Google’s algorithm patent. Bill Slawski, who analyzed Google’s 2007 anchor text patent realized there was an interesting discrepancy in how Google described their anchor text indexing. First, the patent describes that their anchor text indexing system will store at least one term in association with the outbound link. However, the patent goes on to explain that the annotation includes a text passage that is a predetermined distance of an outbound link.

Bill Slawski noticed that Google added geo-semantic indexing for text surrounding the anchor text.

This means that the text within a certain distance of the anchor text is indexed to better understand the meaning of the linked page.

How Does Annotation Text Affect SEO?

Google’s NLP algorithms use artificial intelligence to better understand human language. This provides Google with a better understanding of any given web page’s content. As Google’s bots crawl a page they index these NLP signals in order to provide searchers with better search results.

While anchor text is a primary indicator of the content on the linked page, Google’s NLP algorithms also index information from the surrounding text as a secondary indicator.

By including surrounding text in Google bot indexing, Google is able to provide the best user experience since the surrounding text provides insight into the relevance of the outbound link. The better Google understands the linked page, the more precise its search results can be.

Your Site’s SEO & Text Around Your Links

Providing Google’s web crawlers with more information about a page is always a better approach to trying to rank for Target Keywords, especially when it comes to off-site syndication and guest posts.

Furthermore, because most SEO content creators are solely focused on optimizing anchor text, you can gain a competitive advantage by optimizing for annotation text in addition to anchor text.

TLDR: Annotation text gives your outbound links contextual meaning.

How Strongly Does Annotation Text Affect the Meaning of a Link?

This is where things get a little sticky. As we know, Google keeps all of the signals used for PageRank’s indexing secret. “But there’s a patent…” Well, just because Google registered a patent that describes annotation text doesn’t guarantee that PageRank uses this particular patent.

It’s likely that Google does since this patent was registered around the time they were developing their SMITH algorithm. However, Google has never confirmed it.

The Structure of Annotation Text

The word annotation means notes or in-text notation. So, when Google describes the process of pulling annotations through indexing, their crawler is likely pulling hints as to the link meaning from within the text. This, like taking notes on a literary piece has an amorphous structure.

When it comes to the relationship between anchor text and annotation text, I often liken this to an atom. The anchor text is the dense center: the nucleus. The annotation text is the electrons circling this center. Both the center and the surrounding text define the atom, however, the anchor text is the most reliable in terms of its relationship to meaning since the electrons can be more difficult to pin down the electrons.

This often means there is no perfect version of a page. The web crawlers system will pull data from a “predetermined distance of an anchor tag.” So, commonsense says to make sure the most important words are nearby your anchor text but you maintain the quality of your content throughout the page.

What Is Anchor Text?

Unsure of what anchor text is? It’s a simple concept. Anchor text is the text that is presented within a webpage and when clicked, directs the browser to navigate to a URL. Most often, the text is a description or explanation of the information found on the linked webpage.

For example, “an update of Google’s algorithm patent” in the previous section is the anchor text that links to the referenced patent in the Patent Database.

Google’s web crawlers use anchor text to determine the topic of the page to which the link is pointing. This information is gathered as the bot works its way through a sitemap.

Is Annotation Text the Same as an Annotation Link?

No. While annotation links or annotated links have many meanings in the world of web development, this phrase is not interchangeable with annotated text.

Annotation links can be hyperlinks that allow video viewers to skip ahead to the section of the video that’s most relevant to their needs. Some people use “hyperlink annotation” as a synonym for “anchor link” when a photo, video, or audio file stands in place of text.

Techniques for the Best SEO Annotation Text

So, how can you make the most of annotation text for improved SEO? Most SEO content optimization software like Yoast SEO will ensure you have the foundations of keyword basics. However, these tools won’t ensure you’ve optimized your anchor text or surrounding text. however, with some attention to the text surrounding your links, you can turn a basic paragraph into a text machine that fully optimizes your links.

1. Use Focus Term Nearby Your Links On-Page and Off-Site

Annotation text gives you the opportunity to refine how Google understands a webpage. To make the most of your internal links, employ annotation text throughout your site whenever you internally link to another one of your pages.

Additionally, when you’re implementing an off-site backlinking campaign, pay careful attention to what you include in the surrounding text.

2. Identify Focus Terms to Include

Like developing the best quality content, you want to determine the best Focus Terms to use. To do this, you will want to perform keyword research using SEO software. 

For this article, we used Search Atlas’s SEO Content Assistant. Use higher importance words in the text nearby your anchor text for the biggest impact. When selecting the most important terms, consider the topical relevance of the Focus Term in relation to the linked page. Even if a Focus Term is your most important term, do not include it if it’s not topically related to the linked page.

3. Incorporate Your Focus Terms Naturally

It likely won’t come as a surprise to you that Google has an aversion to keyword stuffing. This continues to ring true when it comes to the best quality annotation text. While you want to include Focus Terms, you must be strategic about it.

Consider including the most impactful Focus Terms in your annotation text. These are often the most semantically related to your anchor text.

4. Develop the Surrounding Paragraph

If you’re going to make the most of annotation text, you must consider where the anchor link falls within a piece of content. Furthermore, you must also develop the content surrounding the anchor link.

In order to do so, avoid:

• Placing your backlink or most important internal at the tail end of a section
• Using a backlink or high-value internal link in a thin section
• Linking to your site in a bullet point in an off-site article
• Using a high-value link in a chart or table

Annotation Text = Better SEO

When it comes to the best content and the best links, annotation text provides context to your readers about your link. And Google likely uses your annotation text in addition to anchor text to better understand the page you’re linking to. This results in a better experience for your readers and more depth for Google’s algorithms to parse.

When you optimize your off-site outbound links’ anchor text and annotation, you have a better chance of ranking on the SERP #1.

Begin finding the best keywords and Focus Terms with LinkGraph’s free Keyword Research Tool or sign up for SearchAtlas for full access to all your Focus Terms.

The post How to Maximize the SEO Power of Links with Annotation Text appeared first on LinkGraph.