DrJigsawā¢This week
Recently hit 6,600,000 monthly organic traffic for a B2C SaaS website. Here's the 40 tips that helped me make that happen.
Hey guys! So as title says, we recently hit 6,600,000 monthly organic traffic / month for a B2C SaaS website (screenshot. Can't give name publicly, but can show testimonial to a mod).
Here's 40 tips that "helped" me make this happen.
If you get some value of the post, I write an SEO tip every other day on /r/seogrowth. There's around 10 more tips already up there other than the ones I mention here. If you want to give back for all my walls of text, I'd appreciate a sub <3
Also, there are a bunch of free stuff I mention in the article: content outline, writer guidelines, SEO checklist, and other stuff. Here's the Google Doc with all that!
Tip #1. Take SEO With a Grain of Salt
A lot of the SEO advice and best practices on the internet are based on 2 things:
Personal experiences and case studies of companies that managed to make SEO work for them.
Google or John Mueller (Googleās Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst).
And, unfortunately, neither of these sources are always accurate.
Personal SEO accounts are simply about what worked for specific companies. Sometimes, what worked for others, wonāt work for you.
For example, you might find a company that managed to rank with zero link-building because their website already had a very strong backlink profile. If youāre starting with a fresh website, chances are, you wonāt be able to get the same results.
At the same time, information from Google or John Mueller is also not 100% accurate. For example, theyāve said that guest posting is against Googleās guidelines and doesnāt workā¦
But practically, guest posting is a very effective link-building strategy.
So the takeaway is this:
Take all information you read about SEO with a grain of salt. Analyze the information yourself, and make your conclusions.
SEO Tip #2. SEO Takes Time
Youāve already heard this one before, but considering how many people keep asking, thought I'd include this anyway.
On average, itās going to take you 6 months to 2 years to get SEO results, depending on the following factors:
Your backlink profile. The more quality backlinks you have (or build), the faster youāll rank.
Age of your website. If your website is older (or you purchased an aged website), you can expect your content to rank faster.
Amount of content published. The more quality content you publish on your website, the more āauthoritativeā it is in the eyes of Google, and thus more likely to rank faster.
SEO work done on the website. If a lot of your pages are already ranking on Google (page 2-3), itās easier to get them to page #1 than if you just published the content piece.
Local VS global SEO. Ranking locally is (sometimes) easier and faster than ranking globally.
That said, some marketing agencies can use āSEO takes timeā as an excuse for not driving results.
Well, fortunately, there is a way to track SEO results from month #2 - #3 of work.
Simply check if your new content pieces/pages are getting more and more impressions on Google Search Console month-to-month.
While your content wonāt be driving traffic for a while after being published, theyāll still have a growing number of impressions from month #2 or #3 since publication.
SEO Tip #3. SEO Might Not Be The Best Channel For You
In theory, SEO sounds like the best marketing channel ever.
You manage to rank on Google and your marketing seemingly goes on auto-pilot - youāre driving new leads every day from existing content without having to lift a fingerā¦
And yet, SEO is not for everyone.
Avoid SEO as a marketing channel if:
Youāre just getting started with your business and need to start driving revenue tomorrow (and not in 1-2 years). If this is you, try Google ads, Facebook ads, or organic marketing.
Your target audience is pretty small. If youāre selling enterprise B2B software and have around 2,000 prospects in total worldwide, then itās simply easier to directly reach out to these prospects.
Your product type is brand-new. If customers donāt know your product exists, they probably wonāt be Googling it.
SEO Tip #4. Traffic Can Be a Vanity Metric
I've seen hundreds of websites that drive 6-7 digits of traffic but generate only 200-300 USD per month from those numbers.
āWhatās the deal?ā You might be thinking.
āHow can you fail to monetize that much traffic?ā
Well, that brings us to todayās tip: traffic can be a vanity metric.
See, not all traffic is created equal.
Ranking for āhormone balance supplementā is a lot more valuable than ranking for āMadagascar character names.ā
The person Googling the first keyword is an adult ready to buy your product. Someone Googling the latter, on the other hand, is a child with zero purchasing power.
So, when deciding on which keywords to pursue, always keep in mind the buyer intent behind and donāt go after rankings or traffic just because 6-digit traffic numbers look good.
SEO Tip #5. Push Content Fast
Whenever you publish a piece of content, you can expect it to rank within 6 months to a year (potentially less if youāre an authority in your niche).
So, the faster you publish your content, the faster theyāre going to age, and, as such, the faster theyāll rank on Google.
On average, I recommend you publish a minimum of 10,000 words of content per month and 20,000 to 30,000 optimally.
If youāre not doing link-building for your website, then Iād recommend pushing for even more content. Sometimes, content velocity can compensate for the lack of backlinks.
SEO Tip #6. Use Backlink Data to Prioritize Content
You might be tempted to go for that juicy, 6-digit traffic cornerstone keyword right from the get-go...
But I'd recommend doing the opposite.
More often than not, to rank for more competitive, cornerstone keywords, youāll need to have a ton of supporting content, high-quality backlinks, website authority, and so on.
Instead, itās a lot more reasonable to first focus on the less competitive keywords and then, once youāve covered those, move on to the rest.
Now, as for how to check keyword competitiveness, here are 2 options:
Use Mozbar to see the number of backlinks for top-ranking pages, as well as their Domain Authority (DA). If all the pages ranking on page #1 have <5 backlinks and DA of 20 - 40, itās a good opportunity.
Use SEMrush or Ahrefs to sort your keywords by difficulty, and focus on the less difficult keywords first.
Now, that said, keep in mind that both of these metrics are third-party, and hence not always accurate.
SEO Tip #7. Always Start With Competitive Analysis
When doing keyword research, the easiest way to get started is via competitive analysis.
Chances are, whatever niche youāre in, thereās a competitor that is doing great with SEO.
So, instead of having to do all the work from scratch, run their website through SEMrush or Ahrefs and steal their keyword ideas.
But donāt just stop there - once youāve borrowed keyword ideas from all your competitors, run the seed keywords through a keyword research tool such as UberSuggest or SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool.
This should give you dozens of new ideas that your competitors mightāve missed.
Finally, donāt just stop at borrowing your competitorās keyword ideas. You can also borrow some inspiration on:
The types of graphics and images you can create to supplement your blog content.
The tone and style you can use in your articles.
The type of information you can include in specific content pieces.
SEO Tip #8. Source a LOT of Writers
Content writing is one of those professions that has a very low barrier to entry. Anyone can take a writing course, claim to be a writer, and create an UpWork accountā¦
This is why 99% of the writers youāll have to apply for your gigs are going to be, well, horrible.
As such, if you want to produce a lot of content on the reg, youāll need to source a LOT of writers.
Letās do the math:
If, by posting a job ad, you source 100 writers, youāll see that only 5 of them are a good fit. Out of the 5 writers, 1 has a very high rate, so they drop out. Another doesnāt reply back to your communication, which leaves you with 3 writers.
You get the 3 writers to do a trial task, and only one turns out to be a good fit for your team.
Now, since the writer is freelance, the best they can do is 4 articles per month for a total of 5,000-words (which, for most niches, aināt all that much).
So, what weāre getting at here is, to hire quality writers, you should source a LOT of them.
SEO Tip #9. Create a Process for Filtering Writers
If you follow the previous tip, you'll end up with a huge database of hundreds of writers.
This creates a whole new problem:
You now have a database of 500+ writers waiting for you to sift through them and decide which ones are worth the hire.
It would take you 2-3 days of intense work to go through all these writers and vet them yourself.
Letās be real - you donāt have time for that.
Hereās what you can do instead:
When sourcing writers, always get them to fill in a Google form (instead of DMing or emailing you).
In this form, make sure to ask for 3 relevant written samples, a link to the writerās portfolio page, and the writerās rate per word.
Create a SOP for evaluating writers. The criteria for evaluation should be:
Level of English. Does the writerās sample have any English mistakes? If so, theyāre not a good fit.
Quality of Samples. Are the samples long-form and engaging content or are they boring 500-word copy-pastes?
Technical Knowledge. Has the writer written about a hard-to-explain topic before? Anyone can write about simple topics like travelingāyou want to look for someone who knows how to research a new topic and explain it in a simple and easy-to-read way. If someoneās written about how to create a perfect cover letter, they can probably write about traveling, but the opposite isnāt true.
Get your VA to evaluate the writerās samples as per the criteria above and short-list writers that seem competent. If you sourced 500 writers, the end result of this process should be around 50 writers.
You or your editor goes through the short-list of 50 writers and invites 5-10 for a (paid) trial task. The trial task is very important - youāll sometimes find that the samples provided by the writer donāt match their writing level.
SEO Tip #10. Use the Right Websites to Find Writers
Not sure where to source your writers? Here are some ideas:
ProBlogger \- Our #1 choice - a lot of quality writers frequent this website.
LinkedIn \- You can headhunt content writers in specific locations.
Upwork \- If you post a content gig, most writers are going to be awful. Instead, I recommend headhunting top writers instead.
WeWorkRemotely \- Good if youāre looking to make a full-time remote hire.
Facebook \- There are a ton of quality Facebook groups for writers. Some of our faves are Cult of Copy Job Board and Content Marketing Lounge.
SEO Tip #11. Always Use Content Outlines
When giving tasks to your writing team, you need to be very specific about the instructions you give them.
Donāt just provide a keyword and tell them to āknock themselves out.ā The writer isnāt a SEO expert; chances are, theyāre going to mess it up big-time and talk about topics that arenāt related to the keyword youāre targeting.
Instead, when giving tasks to writers, do it through content outlines.
A content outline, in a nutshell, is a skeleton of the article theyāre supposed to write. It includes information on:
Target word count (aim for the same or 50% more the word count than that of the competition).
Article title.
Article structure (which sections should be mentioned and in what order).
Related topics of keywords that need to be mentioned in the article.
Content outline example in the URL in the post intro.
SEO Tip #12. Focus on One Niche at a Time
I used to work with this one client that had a SaaS consisting of a mixture of CRM, Accounting Software, and HRS.
I had to pick whether we were going to focus on topics for one of these 3 niches or focus on all of them at the same time.
I decided to do the former. Hereās why:
When evaluating what to rank, Google considers the authority of your website.
If you have 60 articles about accounting (most of which link to each other), youāre probably an authority in the niche and are more likely to get good rankings.
If you have 20 sales, 20 HR, and 20 accounting articles, though, none of these categories are going to rank as well.
It always makes more sense to first focus on a single niche (the one that generates the best ROI for your business), and then move on to the rest.
This also makes it easier to hire writers - you hire writers specialized in accounting, instead of having to find writers who can pull off 3 unrelated topics.
SEO Tip #13. Just Hire a VA Already
Itās 2021 already guysāunless you have a virtual assistant, youāre missing out big-time.
Since a lot of SEO tasks are very time-consuming, it really helps to have a VA around to take over.
As long as you have solid SOPs in place, you can hire a virtual assistant, train them, and use them to free up your time.
Some SEO tasks virtual assistants can help with are:
Internal linking. Going through all your blog content and ensuring that they link to each other.
Backlink prospecting. Going through hundreds of websites daily to find link opportunities.
Uploading content on WordPress and ensuring that the content is optimized well for on-page SEO.
SEO Tip #14. Use WordPress (And Make Your Life Easier)
Not sure which CMS platform to use?
99% of the time, youāre better off with WordPress.
It has a TON of plugins that will make your life easier.
Want a drag & drop builder? Use Elementor. Itās cheap, efficient, extremely easy to learn, and comes jam-packed with different plugins and features.
Wix, SiteGround, and similar drag & drops are pure meh.
SEO Tip #15. Use These Nifty WordPress Plugins
There are a lot of really cool WordPress plugins that can make your (SEO) life so much easier. Some of our favorites include:
RankMath. A more slick alternative to YoastSEO. Useful for on-page SEO.
Smush. App that helps you losslessly compress all images on your website, as well as enables lazy loading.
WP Rocket. This plugin helps speed up your website pretty significantly.
Elementor. Not a techie? This drag & drop plugin makes it significantly easier to manage your website.
WP Forms. Very simple form builder.
Akismet Spam Protection. Probably the most popular anti-spam WP plugin.
Mammoth Docx. A plugin that uploads your content from a Google doc directly to WordPress.
SEO Tip #16. No, Voice Search Is Still Not Relevant
Voice search is not and will not be relevant (no matter what sensationalist articles might say).
Sure, it does have its application (āAlexa, order me toilet paper pleaseā), but itās pretty niche and not relevant to most SEOs.
After all, you wouldnāt use voice search for bigger purchases (āAlexa, order me a new laptop pleaseā) or informational queries (āAlexa, teach me how to do accounting, thanksā).
SEO Tip #17. SEO Is Obviously Not Dead
I see these articles every year - āSEO is dead because I failed to make it work.ā
SEO is not dead and as long as there are people looking up for information/things online, it never will be.
And no, SEO is not just for large corporations with huge budgets, either. Some niches are hypercompetitive and require a huge link-building budget (CBD, fitness, VPN, etc.), but theyāre more of an exception instead of the rule.
SEO Tip #18. Doing Local SEO? Focus on Service Pages
If youāre doing local SEO, youāre better off focusing on local service pages than blog content.
E.g. if youāre an accounting firm based in Boston, you can make a landing page about /accounting-firm-boston/, /tax-accounting-boston/, /cpa-boston/, and so on.
Or alternatively, if youāre a personal injury law firm, youād want to create pages like /car-accident-law-firm/, /truck-accident-law-firm/, /wrongful-death-law-firm/, and the like.
Thing is, you donāt really need to rank on global search termsāyou just wonāt get leads from there. Even if you ranked on the term āfinancial accounting,ā it wouldnāt really matter for your bottom line that much.
SEO Tip #19. Engage With the SEO Community
The SEO community is (for the most part) composed of extremely helpful and friendly people. There are a lot of online communities (including this sub) where you can ask for help, tips, case studies, and so on.
Some of our faves are:
This sub :)
SEO Signals Lab (FB Group)
Fat Graph Content Ops (FB Group)
Proper SEO Group (FB Group)
BigSEO Subreddit
SEO Tip #20. Test Keywords Before Pursuing Them
You can use Google ads to test how profitable any given keyword is before you start trying to rank for it.
The process here is:
Create a Google Ads account.
Pick a keyword you want to test.
Create a landing page that corresponds to the search intent behind the keyword.
Allocate an appropriate budget. E.g. if you assume a conversion rate of 2%, youād want to buy 100+ clicks. If the CPC is 2 USD, then the right budget would be 200 USD plus.
Run the ads!
If you donāt have the budget for this, you can still use the average CPC for the keyword to estimate how well itās going to convert. If someone is willing to bid 10 USD to rank for a certain keyword, it means that the keyword is most probably generating pretty good revenue/conversions.
SEO Tip #21. Test & Improve SEO Headlines
Sometimes, youāll see that youāre ranking in the top 3 positions for your search query, but youāre still not driving that much traffic.
āWhatās the deal?ā you might be asking.
Chances are, your headline is not clickable enough.
Every 3-4 months, go through your Google Search Console and check for articles that are ranking well but not driving enough traffic.
Then, create a Google sheet and include the following data:
Targeted keyword
Page link
CTR (for the last 28 days)
Date when you implemented the new title
Old title
New title
New CTR (for the month after the CTR change was implemented)
From then on, implement the new headline and track changes in the CTR. If you donāt reach your desired result, you can always test another headline.
SEO Tip #22. Longer Content Isnāt Always Better Content
Youāve probably heard that long-form content is where itās at in 2021.
Well, this isnāt always the case.
Rather, this mostly depends on the keyword youāre targeting.
If, for example, youāre targeting the keyword āhow to tie a tie,ā you donāt need a long-ass 5,000-word mega-guide.
In such a case, the reader is looking for something that can be explained in 200-300 words and if your article fails to do this, the reader will bounce off and open a different page.
On the other hand, if youāre targeting the keyword āhow to write a CV,ā youāll need around 4,000 to 5,000 words to adequately explain the topic and, chances are, you wonāt rank with less.
SEO Tip #23. SEO is Not All About Written Content
More often than not, when people talk about SEO they talk about written blog content creation.
Itās very important not to forget, though, that blog content is not end-all-be-all for SEO.
Certain keywords do significantly better with video content. For example, if the keyword is āhow to do a deadlift,ā video content is going to perform significantly better than blog content.
Or, if the keyword is āCV template,ā youāll see that a big chunk of the rankings are images of the templates.
So, the lesson here is, donāt laser-focus on written contentākeep other content mediums in mind, too.
SEO Tip #24. Write For Your Audience
Itās very important that your content resonates well with your target audience.
If, for example, youāre covering the keyword āskateboard tricks,ā you can be very casual with your language. Heck, itās even encouraged!
Your readers are Googling the keyword in their free time and are most likely teens or in their early 20s.
Meaning, you can use informal language, include pop culture references, and avoid complicated language.
Now, on the other hand, if youāre writing about high-level investment advice, your audience probably consists of 40-something suit-and-ties. If you include Rick & Morty references in your article, you'll most likely lose credibility and the Googler, who will go to another website.
Some of our best tips on writing for your audience include:
Define your audience. Whoās the person youāre writing for? Are they reading the content at work or in their free time?
Keep your readerās level of knowledge in mind. If youāre covering an accounting 101 topic, you want to cover the topicās basics, as the reader is probably a student. If youāre writing about high-level finance, though, you donāt have to teach the reader what a balance sheet is.
More often than not, avoid complicated language. The best practice is to write on a 6th-grade level, as itās understandable for anyone. Plus, no one wants to read Shakespeare when Googling info online (unless theyāre looking for Shakespeare's work, of course).
SEO Tip #25. Create Compelling Headlines
Want to drive clicks to your articles? Youāll need compelling headlines.
Compare the following headline:
101 Productivity Tips \[To Get Things Done in 2021\]
With this one:
Productivity Tips Guide
Which one would you click? Data says itās the first!
To create clickable headlines, I recommend you include the following elements:
Keyword. This oneās non-negotiable - you need to include the target keyword in the headline.
Numbers. If Buzzfeed taught us anything, itās that people like to click articles with numbers in their titles.
Results. If I read your article, whatās going to be the end result? E.g. āX Resume tips (to land the job)ā.*
Year (If Relevant). Adding a year to your title shows that the article is recent (which is relevant for some specific topics). E.g. If the keyword is āMarketing Trends,ā I want to know marketing trends in 2021, not in 2001. So, adding a year in the title makes the headline more clickable.
SEO Tip #26. Make Your Content Visual
How good your content looks matters, especially if you're in a competitive niche.
Here are some tips on how to make your content as visual as possible:
Aim for 2-4 sentences per paragraph. Avoid huge blocks of text.
Apply a 60-65% content width to your blog pages.
Pick a good-looking font. Iād recommend Montserrat, PT Sans, and Roboto. Alternatively, you can also check out your favorite blogs, see which fonts theyāre using, and do the same.
Use a reasonable font size. Most top blogs use font sizes ranging from 16 pt to 22 pt.
Add images when possible. Avoid stock photos, though. No one wants to see random āoffice people smilingā scattered around your blog posts.
Use content boxes to help convey information better.
Content boxes example in the URL in the intro of the post.
SEO Tip #27. Ditch the Skyscraper Technique Already
Brian Deanās skyscraper technique is awesome and all, but the following bit really got old:
āHey \[name\], I saw you wrote an article. I, too, wrote an article. Please link to you?ā
The theory here is, if your content is good, the person will be compelled to link to it.
In practice, though, the person really, really doesnāt care.
At the end of the day, thereās no real incentive for the person to link to your content. They have to take time out of their day to head over to their website, log in to WordPress, find the article you mentioned, and add a link...
Just because some stranger on the internet asked them to.
Hereās something that works much better:
Instead of fake compliments, be very straightforward about what you can offer them in exchange for that link.
Some things you can offer are:
A free version of your SaaS.
Free product delivered to their doorstep.
Backlink exchange.
A free backlink from your other website.
Sharing their content to your social media following.
Money.
SEO Tip #28. Get the URL Slug Right for Seasonal Content
If you want to rank on a seasonal keyword, there are 2 ways to do this.
If you want your article to be evergreen (i.e. you update it every year with new information), then your URL should not contain the year.
E.g. your URL would be /saas-trends/, and you simply update the articleās contents+headline each year to keep it timely.
If youāre planning on publishing a new trends report annually, though, then you can add a year to the URL.
E.g. /saas-trends-2020/ instead of /saas-trends/.
SEO Tip #29. AI Content Tools Are a Mixed Bag
Lots of people are talking about AI content tools these days. Usually, theyāre either saying:
āAI content tools are garbage and the output is horrible,ā
Or:
āAI content tools are a game-changer!ā
So which one is it?
The truth is somewhere in-between.
In 2021, AI content writing tools are pretty bad. The output youāre going to get is far from something you can publish on your website.
That said, some SEOs use such tools to get a very, very rough draft of the article written, and then they do intense surgery on it to make it usable.
Should you use AI content writing tools? If you ask me, no - itās easier to hire a proficient content writer than spend hours salvaging AI-written content. That said, I do believe that such tools are going to get much better years down the line.
This one was, clearly, more of a personal opinion than a fact. Iād love to hear YOUR opinion on AI content tools! Are they a fad, or are they the future of content creation? Let me know in the comments.
SEO Tip #30. Donāt Overdo it With SEO Tools
There are a lot of SEO tools out there for pretty much any SEO function. Keyword research, link-building, on-page, outreach, technical SEO, you name it!
If you were to buy most of these tools for your business, youād easily spend 4-figures on SEO tools per month.
Luckily, though, you donāt actually need most of them. At the end of the day, the only must-have SEO tools are:
An SEO Suite (Paid). Basically SEMrush or Ahrefs. Both of these tools offer an insane number of features - backlink analysis, keyword research, and a ton of other stuff. Yes, 99 USD a month is expensive for a tool. But then again, if you value your time 20 USD/hour and this tool saves you 6 hours, it's obviously worth it, right?
On-Page SEO Tool (Free). RankMath or Yoast. Basically, a tool that's going to help you optimize web pages or blog posts as per SEO best practices.
Technical SEO Tool (Freemium). You can use ScreamingFrog to crawl your entire website and find technical SEO problems. There are probably other tools that also do this, but ScreamingFrog is the most popular option. The freemium version of the tool only crawls a limited number of pages (500 URLs, to be exact), so if your website is relatively big, you'll need to pay for the tool.
Analytics (Free). Obviously, you'll need Google Analytics (to track website traffic) and Google Search Console (to track organic traffic, specifically) set up on your website. Optionally, you can also use Google Track Manager to better track how your website visitors interact with the site.
MozBar (Free). Chrome toolbar that lets you simply track the number of backlinks on Google Search Queries, Domain Authority, and a bunch of other stuff.
Website Speed Analysis (Free). You can use Google Page Speed Insights to track how fast your website loads, as well as how mobile-friendly it is.
Outreach Tool (Paid). Tool for reaching out to prospects for link-building, guest posting, etc. There are about a dozen good options for this. Personally, I like to use Snov for this.
Optimized GMB Profile (Free). Not a tool per se, but if you're a local business, you need to have a well-optimized Google My Business profile.
Google Keyword Planner (Free). This gives you the most reliable search volume data of all the tools. So, when doing keyword research, grab the search volume from here.
Tool for Storing Keyword Research (Free). You can use Google Sheets or AirTable to store your keyword research and, at the same time, use it as a content calendar.
Hemingway App (Free). Helps keep your SEO content easy to read. Spots passive voice, complicated words, etc.
Email Finder (Freemium). You can use a tool like Hunter to find the email address of basically anyone on the internet (for link-building or guest posting purposes).
Most of the tools that donāt fit into these categories are 100% optional.
SEO Tip #31. Hiring an SEO? Hereās How to Vet Them
Unless youāre an SEO pro yourself, hiring one is going to be far from easy.
Thereās a reason there are so many āSEO expertsā out there - for the layman, itās very hard to differentiate between someone who knows their salt and a newbie who took an SEO course, like, last week.
Hereās how you can vet both freelance and full-time SEOs:
Ask for concrete traffic numbers. The SEO pro should give you the exact numbers on how theyāve grown a website in the past - ā100% SEO growth in 1 yearā doesnāt mean much if the growth is from 10 monthly traffic to 20. ā1,000 to 30,000ā traffic, on the other hand, is much better.
Ask for client names. While some clients ask their SEOs to sign an NDA and not disclose their collaboration, most donāt. If an SEO canāt name a single client theyāve worked with in the past, thatās a red flag.
Make sure they have the right experience. Global and local SEO have very different processes. Make sure that the SEO has experience with the type of SEO you need.
Make sure youāre looking for the right candidate. SEO pros can be content writers, link-builders, web developers, or all of the above simultaneously. Make sure you understand which one you need before making the hire. If youāre looking for someone to oversee your content ops, you shouldnāt hire a technical SEO expert.
Look for SEO pros in the right places. Conventional job boards are overrated. Post your job ads on SEO communities instead. E.g. this sub, bigseo, SEO Signals Facebook group, etc.
SEO Tip #32. Blog Post Not Ranking? Follow This Checklist
I wanted to format the post natively for Reddit, but itās just SO much better on Notion.
Tl;dr, the checklist covers every reason your post might not be ranking:
Search intent mismatch.
Inferior content.
Lack of internal linking.
Lack of backlinks.
And the like.
Checklist URL at the intro of the post.
SEO Tip #33. Avoid BS Link-Building Tactics
The only type of link-building that works is building proper, quality links from websites with a good backlink profile and decent organic traffic.
Hereās what DOESNāT work:
Blog comment links
Forum spam links
Drive-by Reddit comment/post links
Web 2.0 links
Fiverr ā100 links for 10 bucksā bs
If your āSEO agencyā says theyāre doing any of the above instead of actually trying to build you links from quality websites, youāre being scammed.
SEO Tip #34. Know When to Use 301 and 302 Redirects
When doing redirects, itās very important to know the distinction between these two.
301 is a permanent page redirect and passes on link juice. If youāre killing off a page that has backlinks, itās better to 301 it to your homepage so that you donāt lose the link juice. If you simply delete a page, itās going to be a 404, and the backlink juice is lost forever.
302 is a temporary page redirect and doesnāt pass on link juice. If the redirect is temporary, you do a 302. E.g. you want to test how well a new page is going to perform w/ your audience.
SEO Tip #35. Social Signals Matter (But Not How You Think)
Social signals are NOT a ranking factor. And yet, they can help your content rank on Googleās front page.
Wondering what the hell am I talking about?
Hereās whatās up:
As I said, social signals are not a ranking factor. Itās not something Google takes into consideration to decide whether your article should rank or not.
That said, social signals CAN lead to your article ranking better. Letās say your article goes viral and gets around 20k views within a week.
A chunk of these viewers are going to forget your domain/link and theyāre going to look up the topic on Google via your chosen keyword + your brand name.
The amount of people looking for YOUR keyword and exclusively picking your result over others is going to make Google think that your content is satisfying search intent better than the rest, and thus, reward you with better ranking.
SEO Tip #36. Run Remarketing Ads to Lift Organic Traffic Conversions
Not satisfied with your conversion rates?
You can use Facebook ads to help increase them.
Facebook allows you to do something called āremarketing.ā This means you can target anyone that visited a certain page (or multiple pages) on your website and serve them ads on Facebook.
There are a TON of ways you can take advantage of this.
For example, you can target anyone that landed on a high buyer intent page and serve them ads pitching your product or a special offer.
Alternatively, you can target people who landed on an educational blog post and offer them something to drive them down the funnel. E.g. free e-book or white paper to teach them more about your product or service.
SEO Tip #37. Doing Local SEO? Follow These Tips
Local SEO is significantly different from global SEO. Hereās how the two differ (and what you need to do to drive local SEO results):
You donāt need to publish content. For 95% of local businesses, you only want to rank for keywords related to your services/products, you donāt actually need to create educational content.
You need to focus more on reviews and citation-building. One of Google Mapsā biggest ranking factors is the of reviews your business has. Encourage your customers to leave a review if they enjoyed your product/service through email or real-life communication.
You need to create service pages for each location. As a local business, your #1 priority is to rank for keywords around your service. E.g. If you're a personal injury law firm, you want to optimize your homepage for āpersonal injury law firmā and then create separate pages for each service you provide, e.g. ācar accident lawyer,ā āmotorcycle injury law firm,ā etc.
Focus on building citations. Being listed on business directories makes your business more trustworthy for Google. BrightLocal is a good service for this.
You donāt need to focus as much on link-building. As local SEO is less competitive than global, you donāt have to focus nearly as much on building links. You can, in a lot of cases, rank with the right service pages and citations.
SEO Tip #38. Stop Ignoring the Outreach Emails Youāre Getting (And Use Them to Build Your Own Links)
Got a ton of people emailing you asking for links?
You might be tempted to just send them all straight to spam, and I donāt blame you.
Outreach messages like āHey Dr Jigsaw, your article is A+++ amazing! ...can I get a backlink?ā can get hella annoying.
That said, there IS a better way to deal with these emails:
Reply and ask for a link back. Most of the time, people who send such outreach emails are also doing heavy guest posting. So, you can ask for a backlink from a 3rd-party website in exchange for you mentioning their link in your article.
Win-win!
SEO Tip #39. Doing Internal Linking for a Large Website? Thisāll Help
Internal linking can get super grueling once you have hundreds of articles on your website.
Want to make the process easier? Do this:
Pick an article you want to interlink on your website. For the sake of the example, letās say itās about ābusiness process improvement.ā
Go on Google and look up variations of this keyword mentioned on your website. For example:
Site:\[yourwebsite\] āimprove business processā
Site:\[yourwebsite\] āimprove processā
Site:\[yourwebsite\] āprocess improvementā
The above queries will find you the EXACT articles where these keywords are mentioned. Then, all you have to do is go through them and include the links.
SEO Tip #40. Got a Competitor Copying Your Content? File a DMCA Notice
Fun fact - if your competitors are copying your website, you can file a DMCA notice with Google.
That said, keep in mind that there are consequences for filing a fake notice.
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