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Complete SEO Course for Beginners: Learn to Rank #1 in Google — Transcript

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0:00Hey everyone, my name is Sam Oh, and
0:01welcome to the SEO fundamentals course
0:03by Ahrefs. In this course, I'll be
0:05teaching you the fundamentals of SEO
0:07with a heavy focus on execution. And
0:10while it's a beginner's SEO course, I
0:12don't want you to be fooled by the word
0:14beginner. Even for an eight-figure
0:16business like ours, we don't do anything
0:18crazy technical or complicated. Right
0:21from the start, we've stuck with the
0:23fundamentals of SEO that led to
0:25compounded growth. And today, our site
0:27gets over a million monthly visits from
0:29Google search alone. Making SEO one of
0:32our most effective strategies to get
0:34traffic to our site. So, the course is
0:36broken down into four modules plus this
0:39video, which is more of an introduction
0:40to the course as well as an SEO 101. In
0:43this video, we'll go over the basics of
0:46SEO and cover things like what it is,
0:48why it's important, and how it works.
0:50You'll then move on to module one, which
0:52is on keyword research. Throughout these
0:54lessons, I'll show you how to find
0:56keywords to target that can benefit your
0:58business. It'll also set the foundation
1:00for the next module, which is on-page
1:02SEO. In this module, we'll talk about
1:05optimizing your pages to rank for those
1:07keywords. The next module will be on
1:09link building. This is one of Google's
1:11most prominent ranking signals, which
1:13has proven to contribute to higher
1:15rankings in search. Finally, we'll
1:17finish off the course with the basics of
1:19technical SEO, which will mostly be
1:21about best practices and website
1:23maintenance.
1:25All right, let's kick things off with
1:26the SEO basics. We'll talk about what
1:28search engine optimization is, why it's
1:30important, and how Google works.
1:33SEO stands for search engine
1:35optimization, and it's the process of
1:37optimizing content to be discovered
1:39through a search engine's organic search
1:41results. Now, let's talk a bit about how
1:43they work. If you're completely new to
1:45SEO, then it's easiest to think of
1:47search engines as libraries. But instead
1:49of storing books, they store copies of
1:52websites and web pages.
1:54So, when you search for a query, the
1:56search engine will then look through all
1:57pages in its index and try to return the
2:00most relevant results. And SEO helps
2:03demonstrate to search engines that your
2:05page is that result. Now, you might be
2:07thinking, why should I focus on SEO when
2:10there are so many other marketing
2:12mediums? Well, there are three major
2:14things that attract marketers to search
2:16engine optimization. And in my opinion,
2:18these three things make SEO the best
2:21traffic source. Number one, unlike
2:23paying for ads, search traffic is free.
2:26Number two, organic traffic is typically
2:29consistent once you're ranking high.
2:31Whereas other mediums like social media
2:33and email marketing often result in
2:35traffic spikes that usually end up
2:37fading to nothing. And it makes sense,
2:39because social media networks are
2:41designed to surface fresh content.
2:43Emails often get marked as read,
2:45forgotten, or land in the spam box.
2:47Whereas search traffic is a result of
2:49users actively searching for
2:51information. And the number of searches
2:53for a given topic is typically
2:55consistent month to month. And number
2:57three, you have the opportunity to reach
2:59massive audiences you wouldn't have
3:02access to otherwise. In fact, as of
3:04October 2019, there were nearly 4.39
3:07billion internet users around the world.
3:10And almost 4 billion of those people are
3:12Google users. This is why search engine
3:15optimization is an 80 billion-dollar
3:17industry and why marketers from all
3:19walks of life are adopting and pursuing
3:22it today. Everyone wants their business
3:24to get discovered, and SEO is the
3:26perfect way to do that. Now, let's
3:28briefly talk about how Google works. And
3:30there are two parts to this. The first
3:32is crawling and indexation. And these
3:34two things are what actually allows
3:37Google to discover web pages and create
3:39their search index. So, to actually
3:41attain information, Google uses
3:43crawlers, also known as spiders, which
3:46gather publicly available information
3:48from all over the web. The spiders will
3:50start crawling from a list of known URLs
3:53called seeds. Then they follow the
3:55hyperlinks on those pages and crawl
3:57those newly discovered pages.
4:00And this process goes on and on,
4:02allowing them to collect a ton of
4:04information. They then take all of this
4:06data back to Google servers to be added
4:08to their search index. And that's what
4:11people like you and I are searching
4:13through when we key in a query in
4:14Google. Now, if you were to search for
4:16something and Google returned every
4:18result that mentioned your words on the
4:20page, then you'd end up with really bad
4:22results. This brings us to the second
4:24part, which is Google's ranking
4:26algorithm.
4:27Google has hundreds of ranking signals,
4:29and they make tweaks to their algorithm
4:31500 to 600 times per year. So, to be
4:34frank, no one knows exactly how their
4:37algorithm works. But they've given us
4:39clues and some guidelines to better
4:41understand the factors that are most
4:43important. In addition, third-party
4:46companies like ours have done studies to
4:48test and better understand these
4:50factors. Now, I won't bore you with over
4:52200 ranking signals, many which are just
4:55speculation at best. But I do want to
4:57cover a few of the most important
4:59factors that you'll need to understand
5:01from a fundamental standpoint. First are
5:04backlinks. Backlinks are links from a
5:06page on one website to another. And
5:09Google has said on their how search
5:10works page that if other prominent
5:12websites link to a page, that's proven
5:15to be a good sign that information is
5:17well trusted. The easiest way to
5:19understand the value of a backlink is to
5:22think of them as votes. When a page
5:24receives a backlink, it's essentially
5:26another website vouching for the content
5:28on the page. And the more votes you get
5:30from credible sources, the higher the
5:32trust. And we also studied the effect of
5:35backlinks on search traffic and found a
5:37clear positive correlation between
5:39backlinks from unique websites and a
5:41page's organic traffic.
5:44Second is search intent, which
5:45represents the reason behind a
5:46searcher's query. And if you think of
5:48Google's goal for search, their job is
5:51to return the most relevant results for
5:53any given query. So, with that said, you
5:56can discover search intent simply by
5:58looking at the top ranking pages for the
6:00query you want to rank for. For example,
6:03if you search for slow cooker recipes,
6:05you'll see that the search results are
6:07mostly blog posts with a list of slow
6:09cooker recipes. So, if you try and rank
6:11a product page where you're selling a
6:13slow cooker, you won't be matching
6:15search intent, and therefore, you won't
6:17rank.
6:18Now, if we change the query to just slow
6:20cooker, you'll see that the dominant
6:22types of pages are e-commerce category
6:24pages. So, if you try and rank your blog
6:27post of slow cooker recipes, then you
6:29probably won't rank because you're not
6:31matching search intent. This is a
6:33critical concept to understand, and I'll
6:35share a simple three-point checklist you
6:37can use to determine search intent for
6:39any query in the next module. And third
6:42is content depth. Search engines are
6:44made up of computer programs. So, they
6:46can't actually read and understand text
6:49like you and I would. Nevertheless,
6:51Google has poured billions of dollars
6:53into creating sophisticated technology
6:56that understands content to a certain
6:58degree. But it's your job as a content
7:00creator to provide context about the
7:03subject. For example, if you look at the
7:05top ranking pages for the query how to
7:07drive a car, you'll find that they talk
7:09about things like fastening your
7:11seatbelt, familiarizing yourself with
7:13the gas and brake pedals, adjusting your
7:15seat and mirrors, and other things that
7:18a first-time driver may not know.
7:20Basically, you want to be able to answer
7:22the searcher's query the best that you
7:24possibly can. And naturally, it should
7:27lead to content that has depth. Now,
7:30it's important to note that depth
7:31doesn't always translate to length. For
7:33example, a topic like how to turn off
7:36iPhone 12 doesn't need to and shouldn't
7:39be long. In fact, the top ranking page
7:41is only 185 words. But the content
7:44itself solves the user's query from
7:46start to finish. All right, so the
7:48basics are in the book, and it's time to
7:50move on to the keyword research module.
7:53Hey, it's Sam Oh, and welcome to the
7:54first module, which is on keyword
7:56research. In this first lesson, we're
7:58going to talk about what keywords are
8:00and how to choose them using a simple
8:02four-point checklist. Let's get started.
8:05So, what are keywords in the context of
8:07SEO? They're simply just words and
8:09phrases that people type into search
8:11engines to find what they're looking
8:13for. For example, if you were shopping
8:15for running shoes, you might search for
8:17keywords like men's running shoes or
8:19simply just running shoes. Now, keywords
8:22are actually super important in SEO
8:24because it sets the entire foundation
8:27for search engine optimization. The
8:29basic goal of SEO is to rank your pages
8:31for keywords that your target audience
8:33or customers are searching for. And if
8:36you're not ranking for keywords that
8:37actually get searched, then your SEO
8:40efforts are kind of meaningless. For
8:42example, we rank number one for the
8:44query SEO checklist. And this keyword is
8:46responsible for driving around 1,500
8:49monthly visitors from Google, and that's
8:51just in the US. So, keyword research is
8:55the process of finding keywords that
8:56people are inputting into search
8:58engines. And we'll get into this process
9:00in the upcoming lessons. So, how do you
9:03actually choose keywords that are worth
9:05targeting? Let's run through a checklist
9:06that should help you choose keywords
9:08effectively.
9:09The first thing to check is if your
9:11keyword has search demand. Search demand
9:13represents the volume of monthly
9:15searches made for a keyword. And this is
9:17measurable with a keyword metric that we
9:19call search volume.
9:21You can find the search volume for a
9:22keyword by using a keyword research tool
9:25like Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. For
9:27example, the query kilometers to miles
9:30gets searched around 478,000
9:32times per month in the US alone. But as
9:35you can see here in Ahrefs Keywords
9:37Explorer, 80% of searches go without a
9:40click to a page. And that's because
9:42Google has a handy calculator right here
9:45that'll solve the searcher's problem.
9:47So, search volume alone can actually be
9:49a bit misleading, which is why it's
9:51worth looking at the second checkpoint,
9:53which is to check the traffic potential
9:55of the topic.
9:56Traffic potential represents the total
9:58search traffic you could get if you were
10:00to rank at the top of Google for your
10:02keyword.
10:03Let's look at the stats for our SEO
10:04checklist page in Ahrefs Site Explorer.
10:07So, again, we rank number one for the
10:09query SEO checklist, and it sends us
10:12approximately 1,500 monthly search
10:14visits from the US.
10:16But, if we look at the total global
10:18organic traffic to the page, you'll see
10:20that we get approximately 3,000 monthly
10:22visits from Google every single month.
10:25And that's because this page ranks for
10:27over 200 keywords. And this page isn't
10:30an outlier. In our study of 3 million
10:32keywords, we found that on average, the
10:35top-ranking page ranks for nearly a
10:37thousand other keywords in the top 10.
10:40So, while you may be optimizing your
10:42pages for a main keyword, your page will
10:44likely rank for hundreds or even
10:46thousands of other relevant keywords.
10:49And because of that, the monthly search
10:51traffic potential of the topic SEO
10:53checklist is actually higher than its
10:55monthly search volume.
10:57This is what makes traffic potential a
10:59much more reliable metric than search
11:01volume. And the way you determine
11:03traffic potential is by looking at how
11:05much traffic the top-ranking pages are
11:07getting.
11:08For example, if we go to Ahrefs Keywords
11:10Explorer and search for submit website
11:12to search engines, you'll see that it
11:14has a search volume of 1,100 monthly
11:17searches in the US.
11:19Now, if I scroll to the bottom of the
11:20page, you'll see a SERP overview, which
11:23shows you the top 10 ranking pages for
11:25that keyword. And SERP just stands for
11:28search engine results page. And as you
11:30can see, our page gets an estimated
11:335,300 monthly search visits from the US
11:36alone. And we rank for over 1,300
11:39keywords, making traffic potential of
11:41this keyword higher than its search
11:43volume.
11:45Now, it doesn't always work out this
11:46way. For example, the query keyword
11:49cannibalization has a search volume of
11:51150 monthly searches, but the traffic
11:54potential is well under 100. So, it
11:57becomes more of a business decision
11:58whether you want to tackle the topic or
12:00not.
12:01Now, choosing keywords based on metrics
12:03alone is not a good idea, which is why
12:06the rest of the checkpoints are meant to
12:08ground you.
12:09The next point on our checklist is to
12:11assess the business potential of the
12:12keyword or topic.
12:14Business potential simply represents the
12:16value a keyword has to your business.
12:19And value really comes down to your
12:21niche as well as your business model.
12:23So, an easy way to do this is by
12:25assigning scores between one to three to
12:27keywords you're researching. The higher
12:29the number, the more important the topic
12:32is to your business.
12:33So, let's say you have a site about
12:35golf, and the way you make money is by
12:37selling used golf clubs.
12:39Bringing this back to business
12:40potential, that means topics where you
12:42can organically recommend products to
12:44visitors would hold the highest business
12:47value. For example, people searching for
12:49something like buy used golf clubs are
12:52likely ready to make a purchase here and
12:54now. So, in my books, this would have a
12:57business value of three.
12:59Now, a keyword like best golf clubs
13:01would also be relevant to your site.
13:03People are likely ready to make a
13:05purchase soon, but just don't know which
13:07clubs to buy. But, it's actually quite
13:09easy to plug your products because for
13:11the golf clubs you recommend, you can
13:13easily link back to your product pages,
13:16leading visitors closer to making a
13:18purchase. So, I'd give this a business
13:20value of two. Now, a keyword like what
13:22is a handicapping golf would be really
13:25tough to organically recommend your
13:26products. But, nevertheless, it's a way
13:29to attract relevant traffic to your
13:31site. So, I'd give this a business value
13:33of one. So, these would hold the lowest
13:35priority. And anything that has a score
13:37of zero is probably worth ignoring
13:40because it's not going to impact your
13:41bottom line. So, something like Happy
13:44Gilmore review would have a business
13:46value of zero because it has nothing to
13:48do with your business other than the
13:50fact that it's a fantastic movie about
13:52golf.
13:53All right, the next point on this
13:54checklist is to see if you can match
13:56searcher intent. This is a concept that
13:58we covered in the first lesson of this
14:00course, but it's something that I'm
14:01going to keep talking about because it's
14:04super important. So, again, search
14:06intent represents the reason behind a
14:08searcher's query. And the way we
14:10determine that is by looking at the
14:12top-ranking pages for the keyword we
14:14want to rank for.
14:15For example, let's say you have a
14:17recipes blog, and you want to rank for
14:19toaster oven.
14:20Looking at the top-ranking pages, you'll
14:22see that almost all of the pages are
14:24e-commerce category pages. This tells us
14:27that the intent of the searcher is
14:29likely to buy or at least to shop around
14:32for different toaster ovens.
14:34So, unless you can actually satisfy the
14:36intent of the searcher, it's unlikely
14:38that you'll be able to rank high for
14:39this query. And we'll dig deeper into
14:42search intent in the next lesson. The
14:44final point on this checklist is to
14:45determine whether you can rank for your
14:47keyword.
14:48Search volume, traffic potential, and
14:50business potential mean absolutely
14:52nothing if you can't rank for your
14:54keyword in the not-so-distant future.
14:57And understanding the level of
14:58difficulty to rank for a given keyword
15:01takes a bit of analysis and practice.
15:03This is why I've created an entire
15:05lesson on assessing ranking difficulty
15:07because mastering this process will help
15:09you get predictable results in SEO. So,
15:12I'll save that for a later lesson.
15:14Now, actually choosing keywords comes
15:16down to finding a balance in this
15:17checklist. You have to ask yourself,
15:20does the topic drive enough traffic and
15:22have business value to make it worth the
15:24effort? And this is the question you
15:26should ask yourself before you create
15:28pages with the intent to rank in search.
15:31And these five points in the checklist
15:33are exactly what we're going to dive
15:35deeper into throughout the rest of this
15:37module.
15:39Hey, it's Sam-O, and welcome to the
15:40second lesson, which is on search
15:42intent. And I touched on this in the
15:43first lesson on SEO basics, but I really
15:46want to take some time to unpack what it
15:48is and how to use it in keyword
15:50research. Reason being, if you can't
15:53match searcher intent, then you probably
15:55aren't going to rank for your target
15:57keywords.
15:58So, again, search intent represents the
16:00reason behind a searcher's query. And
16:03matching search intent is one of those
16:04must-do things to show search engines
16:07that your page will fulfill their goal.
16:10To deliver the most relevant results for
16:12any given query.
16:14And while it might sound like you're
16:15trying to satisfy Google, what you're
16:17actually doing is learning what you need
16:20to do to satisfy the searcher's intent.
16:23Identifying search intent is usually
16:25quite easy. All you have to do is search
16:28for the keyword you want to rank for,
16:30and then analyze the top-ranking
16:32results. And the top-ranking results are
16:35a great proxy to understand search
16:37intent because Google understands what
16:39searchers want probably more than anyone
16:41else.
16:42Now, analyzing is kind of a jargony
16:45word, but I have a simple three-pronged
16:47formula you can use. It's called the
16:49three C's of search intent.
16:51The first C is content type. Content
16:54type can usually be categorized into
16:56blog posts, videos, product category,
16:59and landing pages.
17:01For example, the dominant type of pages
17:03for the query best golf shoes are blog
17:06posts.
17:08The second C is content format. And this
17:11applies more to blog posts and landing
17:12pages. A few common blog formats you'll
17:15see are how-tos, step-by-step tutorials,
17:19list posts, and opinion editorials.
17:22For a landing page, that might be
17:23something like a tool or calculator.
17:26Again, for the query best golf shoes,
17:28you'll see that all of the top results
17:30are listicals, which makes sense because
17:32the word best implies that a comparison
17:35needs to be made.
17:36And the third C is content angle, which
17:39often depicts the benefit. It's
17:41basically your hook as to why someone
17:43should click and visit your page. For
17:45best golf shoes, you'll see that every
17:48post has gone with a freshness angle,
17:50which is evident based on the current
17:51year being in the titles.
17:53In my opinion, this is the least
17:55important and often least consistent
17:57among top-ranking pages.
17:59Now, this is just one example of search
18:01intent for a keyword. Let's go through a
18:03few more examples to really drill in
18:05this concept.
18:07The first example is for the query how
18:09to swing a golf club. The dominant
18:11content type is clearly blog posts, but
18:14you'll also notice that a YouTube video
18:15is ranking ahead of the blog posts. So,
18:18this tells us that it may be worth
18:19creating both a blog post and video to
18:22potentially get two different spots in
18:24the search results.
18:26As for content format, they're clearly
18:28all how-tos. And seeing as the nature of
18:31the topic would require a step-by-step
18:33procedure, that's probably the route
18:35you'd want to go to. And you can confirm
18:37this by actually visiting some of the
18:39top-ranking pages.
18:41Now, with content angle, it appears as
18:43though for beginners or basic seems to
18:46be the right way to approach the topic.
18:49The second example is for the query golf
18:51clubs. Looking at the SERP, you'll see
18:53that they're all e-commerce category
18:55pages, which tells us that when people
18:57search for this query, they're likely in
18:59shopping mode.
19:00Now, seeing as content format applies
19:02mostly to blog posts and landing pages,
19:05it wouldn't be applicable here since
19:07we're looking at e-commerce category
19:08pages.
19:10As for content angle, it seems to be
19:12mostly about deals, so saving money on
19:15golf clubs.
19:16All right, the final example is for
19:18something like golf bags. Looking at the
19:20SERP, you'll see something a bit
19:22different. We have a mixed SERP. Content
19:25type for the top-ranking page is an
19:26e-commerce category page. Then we have a
19:29couple of blog posts on the best golf
19:31bags. And we also have an outlier on how
19:34to buy golf bags.
19:36And towards the bottom half of the
19:37results, we have more e-commerce
19:39category pages. So, what do you do?
19:43Well, in order to make an educated
19:44decision, we still need to lay some
19:46foundation work. So, we'll revisit this
19:48example in a later lesson.
19:51Hey, it's Sam-O, and welcome to the
19:52third lesson in our keyword research
19:54module. In this lesson, I'm going to
19:56show you how to find keywords for your
19:58website based on the things you learn in
20:00lesson one and two of this module. Let's
20:03get started.
20:04So, keyword research is the process of
20:06finding keywords that people are
20:07searching for in search engines. And the
20:10general process can be divided into two
20:12macro steps. Step one is to generate
20:15keyword ideas, and step two is to
20:17validate whether those keywords are
20:19worth going after.
20:21Now, this lesson is mostly about step
20:23one, generating keyword ideas for your
20:25website. And in order to do that, you
20:27need a keyword research tool.
20:30Keyword research tools show you
20:31information on keywords like their
20:33search volume, keyword difficulty
20:35scores, and other SEO metrics. Plus,
20:38they should help you discover potential
20:39topics worth going after. There are a
20:42lot of tools out there, and you're free
20:43to use whichever ones you want. But for
20:45this course, I'll be using Ahrefs
20:47Keywords Explorer. Now, I also
20:49understand that some people may not be
20:50in a place to purchase SEO software
20:53right now. If that's you, then we also
20:55have a free tool called Ahrefs Keyword
20:57Generator, which is a good place to
20:59start. I'll leave links to both tools in
21:01the description.
21:03All right, so we're going to be doing
21:04some keyword research for the rest of
21:05this lesson. So, let's say that the
21:07website we're doing keyword research for
21:09is a golf blog. And the way this blog
21:11generates revenue is through affiliate
21:13commissions, meaning they promote other
21:16people's products, and when someone
21:17clicks on one of the links and makes a
21:19purchase, you're compensated with a
21:21commission.
21:22So, the first step is to come up with a
21:24list of seed keywords. And a seed
21:26keyword is just a broad keyword related
21:29to your niche. So, I'll go to Ahrefs
21:31Keywords Explorer and add a few seeds
21:33for our golf site. So, that might be
21:35golf balls, golf clubs, and golf hats to
21:39name a few.
21:41Next, I'll go to the phrase match
21:42report, which will show us keywords that
21:43include any of these phrases.
21:46And just like that, we have around
21:47125,000
21:49keyword ideas with search volumes and a
21:52ton of other helpful metrics, some of
21:54which we'll touch on later. Now, 125,000
21:57keywords is just way too much to filter
22:00through. So, before we continue, let's
22:02take a second and revisit the five-point
22:04checklist from the first lesson in this
22:06module. Again, the five things we're
22:08looking for when it comes to choosing
22:10keywords are one, we want keywords that
22:13have search demand. Two, keywords with
22:16traffic potential.
22:18Three, keywords with business potential.
22:21Four, we need to be able to match search
22:23intent. And five, we want to know how
22:26hard it'll be to rank at the top of
22:28Google for that keyword.
22:30So, when we're generating keyword ideas,
22:32we'll be able to check off the first
22:34four points. As for the fifth, we'll
22:36tackle that in the next lesson.
22:38All right, let's look back at our list
22:40of keyword ideas and start checking off
22:42some of these boxes. So, first, we need
22:44to find keywords that have search
22:46demand. To do that, you can set a search
22:48volume filter to show keywords with a
22:51minimum volume of at least 300 monthly
22:53searches.
22:55And now that list has just shrunk to 351
22:58keyword ideas, which will be easy to
23:00manually filter through.
23:02The next point on this checklist is to
23:04see if they have traffic potential.
23:06Again, traffic potential is a more
23:08reliable metric than search volume,
23:10because not all searches result in
23:12clicks. And at the end of the day, we
23:15want traffic, not searches.
23:17To check the traffic potential of a
23:18topic, you need to look at the top
23:20ranking pages and see how much traffic
23:23they're getting.
23:24To do that, you can click on the SERP
23:25button beside any of these keywords.
23:28So, if we do that for the query golf
23:30clubs, you'll see that the top page gets
23:32around 16,000 monthly search visits from
23:35the US.
23:36Now, if you don't have an Ahrefs
23:38account, you can get a free version of
23:40the SERP using Ahrefs SERP Checker tool.
23:43Next up is business potential. Again,
23:45business potential is simply the value a
23:47keyword has to your business. And while
23:4916,000 monthly search visits seems
23:51great, you need to consider the fourth
23:54point on the checklist, which is to ask
23:56yourself if you can match search intent.
23:58As you can see, almost all of the top
24:01ranking pages are e-commerce category
24:03pages. So, searchers are probably in
24:05shopping mode. But we have a golf
24:07affiliate blog, so the site probably
24:10isn't selling golf clubs, meaning we
24:12can't create an e-commerce category
24:14page, and therefore, we won't be able to
24:17match search intent. So, seeing as this
24:19query doesn't fulfill the points on our
24:21checklist, we wouldn't go after this
24:23keyword.
24:25Now, looking further down the list,
24:26you'll see the query best golf balls. It
24:29has a high search volume, and if I click
24:31on the SERP button, you'll see that the
24:33traffic potential is around 5,000
24:35monthly visits from the US. Pretty good.
24:39Now, in terms of business potential,
24:41this keyword would have a value of
24:42three, because our site makes money by
24:44reviewing and recommending products. So,
24:47it would be super easy to organically
24:50recommend products in a best of post,
24:53which I assume would lead to a fair
24:54amount of affiliate commissions.
24:56As for search intent, these are blog
24:58posts in the listical format with a
25:00freshness content angle, as you can see
25:02from the titles of the top ranking
25:04pages.
25:05So, this query checks all boxes and
25:07passed our initial sniff test. So, I'll
25:10click on the checkbox and add it to my
25:12golf keyword list.
25:15Now, checking the SERP for all of these
25:17keywords would be pretty time-consuming.
25:19So, there's a quick technique you can
25:21use to find relevant keywords, and
25:23that's to use keyword modifiers.
25:26A modifier is an add-on to a base
25:28keyword. For example, if our base
25:30keyword is golf hats, we can modify this
25:33keyword by adding best, top, or the
25:35current year.
25:37And modifiers tell us a lot about search
25:39intent. A word like best, again, tells
25:42us that a comparison needs to be made.
25:44So, searchers are probably looking for
25:46listical blog posts with various
25:48different product recommendations.
25:51Now, if a word like how or what is in
25:53the keyword, then it tells us that the
25:55top pages will likely be blog posts or
25:57videos with step-by-step tutorials or
26:00some other informational content. So,
26:02with this knowledge, we can actually
26:04filter this keyword list down to A,
26:07keywords that likely have business
26:09potential, and B, keywords where we can
26:12match searcher intent.
26:14For example, since we're doing keyword
26:16research for an affiliate site,
26:18modifiers like best, top, versus, and
26:21review would likely bring up topics
26:23where we can organically recommend
26:25products.
26:27So, if we go back to the keyword list,
26:29we can click on the include filter and
26:31paste this list there.
26:33Next, I'll hit the any word tab, since
26:35we want to find keywords that include
26:37any of these modifiers, as well as one
26:39of our seed keywords.
26:42Hit apply, and we now have a list of
26:44around 30 keywords that are most likely
26:46going to have high business potential.
26:49Plus, we know that 99% of the time, the
26:52results for any best type keyword will
26:54be listical blog posts. And we know that
26:57we can match searcher intent with our
26:58affiliate blog.
27:00Now, if we switch the modifiers in the
27:02include filter to words like how, what,
27:05who, where, why, guide, and tutorial,
27:10then we can apply the list to find
27:12informational topics that we could write
27:14about on our blog.
27:16And pretty much all of these keywords
27:18would be fair game for our hypothetical
27:19golf blog.
27:21Now, if you plan to use a list of
27:22modifiers, then it's worth noting that
27:24you should probably do it with much
27:26broader seeds. For example, you'll see
27:29that we only have 10 keywords when using
27:31the search volume filter paired with our
27:33list of informational modifiers.
27:36Now, if I change the seed to just golf,
27:38set the volume filter to a minimum of
27:40300 monthly searches, and then paste in
27:43my list of informational modifiers,
27:46hit the any tab, and click apply,
27:49then you'll see we have a lot more
27:50topics that we could potentially create
27:52content around. So, if this is a method
27:55you want to try, then take a screenshot
27:57of this list of modifiers, and feel free
27:59to use them in your keyword research.
28:01Now, after doing keyword research for
28:03exactly 33 minutes and 14 seconds, I was
28:07able to compile a list of over 190
28:10keyword ideas in my golf keyword list.
28:13Now, one downside to using keyword
28:15research tools is that the list of
28:17keyword ideas will usually be limited to
28:19words and phrases that include your
28:21seeds. But there are other great
28:23keywords that won't necessarily include
28:25your seeds. So, how do you find them?
28:28Well, the best way to find these
28:29keywords is to look at pages that drive
28:31the most search traffic to your
28:33competitor sites, because if your
28:35competitors are ranking for keywords
28:37that are sending them a ton of search
28:39traffic, then I'm sure you'd want to get
28:41in on the action, right?
28:43Now, by competitor, I'm not necessarily
28:45talking about your direct business
28:47competitors. I'm referring to your
28:49organic search competitors, which are
28:51websites that rank for keywords that
28:53you'd want to rank for.
28:55So, to find these competitors, I'll go
28:57back to Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, but
28:59this time, I'll click on my golf keyword
29:01list.
29:02Next, I'll go to the traffic share by
29:04domains report, which will show you the
29:06websites that get the most search
29:07traffic based on your keyword input, in
29:10this case, our golf keyword list.
29:13So, as you can see, sites like Golf
29:15Digest, golf.com, and golfwrx are
29:19getting the most search traffic from the
29:21keywords that I want to hypothetically
29:23rank for.
29:25But we already know these keywords since
29:26we created the list. So, what you can do
29:29is click on the carrot beside a domain
29:31you want to research further, and then
29:33click top pages, which will show you the
29:35pages that send the most search traffic
29:37to a website. And check this out. Golf
29:40Digest page on game improvement irons
29:43gets around 5,400 monthly search visits
29:46from the US.
29:47This page that ranks for what degree is
29:49a sandwedge gets around 4,700 monthly
29:52search visits. And we wouldn't have seen
29:54these in the keyword ideas report
29:57because they don't contain our seeds.
29:59So you can just skim through this list,
30:01look for potential topics, then go
30:03through those four points in the
30:04checklist for keywords that are
30:06interesting to you. Add them to your
30:08keyword list, and once you've exhausted
30:10a website's top pages, rinse and repeat
30:13for the other organic search competitors
30:15until you're satisfied with your list.
30:17And if you're still unhappy with your
30:19list, you can try and find other seeds
30:21within this report. The two that stand
30:24out to me right away are sandwedge and
30:26fairway woods.
30:28So I'll go back to Keywords Explorer and
30:30type those into the search box.
30:32And seeing as both of these are
30:33different types of golf clubs, you can
30:36add pitching wedge, putter, putting, and
30:39so on and so forth.
30:41Bottom line, there should be no shortage
30:43of keyword ideas, and you should be able
30:45to use these two methods to build a
30:47solid list of topics to keep you busy
30:50for years.
30:51But here's the thing, even if you've
30:53checked off these four boxes on the
30:55checklist, there's still one left, and
30:57it won't matter if you don't rank for
30:59your keywords.
31:01Hey, it's Ahrefs, and welcome to the
31:02fourth lesson in our keyword research
31:04module. Today, I'm going to show you how
31:06to determine ranking difficulty for a
31:08keyword. This will help you understand
31:10how hard it'll be to rank high in Google
31:13for your target keywords. Let's get
31:15started.
31:16So when it comes to ranking in Google,
31:18you need to understand who you'll be up
31:20against before you target a keyword.
31:22Otherwise, you could be entering a
31:24battle you won't be able to win. From an
31:27SEO perspective, competitors are pages
31:29and websites that rank at the top of
31:31Google for your target keywords. So that
31:33means your competitors can be different
31:35for every single keyword you target. So
31:38there are three main things you'll want
31:39to consider before you decide to pick a
31:41fight. And those are search intent,
31:44metrics of the top ranking pages and
31:46websites, and topical authority of the
31:49top ranking websites.
31:51Now, as we go through these points,
31:53we're going to create a list of
31:54self-check questions which should help
31:56you make informed decisions in your
31:58keyword targeting. Also, in order to see
32:00things like metrics of top ranking
32:02pages, you need an SEO tool since Google
32:05won't show you data on other pages. So
32:07I'll be using Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
32:09throughout this lesson.
32:11Now, if you don't have an Ahrefs
32:12account, you can use our free SERP
32:14Checker tool which will give you data on
32:16the top three pages. All right, let's
32:18start with search intent.
32:20The first thing you need to do is look
32:21at the SERP and ask yourself, do some of
32:24the top ranking pages fail to closely
32:26match search intent? To find this out,
32:29you can go through the three C's of
32:31search intent as we discussed in lesson
32:32two of this module.
32:34And by the looks of it, they're all
32:36listical blog posts using the freshness
32:38angle, so they do match it.
32:41Also, pay close attention to the titles
32:43and URLs of the ranking pages. In
32:46general, if the top pages include the
32:48primary keyword or a variation of it in
32:51the title and or URL, they're likely
32:54targeting that keyword.
32:56For example, all of the top ranking
32:58pages for the query how to save money
33:00are exactly about that.
33:03Whereas a query like best convertible
33:05car seats for small cars is a bit mixed.
33:09As you can see, some pages have gone
33:11specifically with the angle for small
33:13cars. As a result, it's probably
33:16matching searcher intent better than the
33:18more broad posts about the best
33:20convertible car seats for any car.
33:23This is a sign of weakness in the SERP
33:25because it means there's probably a lack
33:27of rank-worthy content out there about
33:30the best convertible car seats for small
33:32cars.
33:34Now, I don't want you to take this as
33:35advice that you must include the exact
33:38keyword phrase in your titles and or
33:41URLs. With this example, finding
33:43convertible car seats for small cars is
33:46actually a very specific need for a
33:49specific person.
33:51All right, let's talk about the metrics.
33:53The first metric to look at is the
33:54number of websites that are linking to
33:56the page. At Ahrefs, we call this
33:58referring domains.
34:01As I mentioned in module one, backlinks
34:03are one of Google's most prominent
34:04ranking signals. So if a page has a lot
34:07of quality links pointing at it, then
34:09it'll be more competitive to rank.
34:12So before choosing a keyword, you need
34:14to ask yourself, can I get more quality
34:17backlinks than the top ranking pages?
34:20The second metric is website authority.
34:23At Ahrefs, we call this domain rating,
34:25which represents the overall strength of
34:27a website's backlink profile.
34:29Very generally speaking, you should be
34:31going after keywords where your
34:33website's DR is in a similar ballpark
34:35range as the top ranking pages. Or at
34:38the very least, one of the top ranking
34:40pages should be in the same range as
34:42your website.
34:43For example, if all of the websites that
34:46rank in the top 10 have high DRs, and
34:49you have a DR of, let's say, 10, then
34:51you may want to consider competing when
34:53you're at a similar level. So let's add
34:56that question to our checklist. Is my
34:58website in a similar DR range or higher
35:01than the top ranking websites?
35:03Again, this is a very general
35:06recommendation, but still a decent one
35:08to follow if you're a beginner to SEO.
35:11To see the domain rating of your own
35:13site, you can enter your domain in Site
35:15Explorer and see it here on the overview
35:17page. Or you can enter your domain in
35:20our free website authority checker. I'll
35:22be leaving links to all of these tools
35:24in the description.
35:25All right, let's move on to the third
35:26part, which is topical authority of the
35:29top ranking websites.
35:31Google wants to rank pages from
35:33authoritative sources, and this goes
35:35beyond backlinks. For example, if we
35:38look at the SERP for how to unclog a
35:40toilet, you'll see that this DR42 site
35:43is outranking much more powerful
35:45websites with significantly more
35:48referring domains.
35:50Well, this page comes from a website
35:52that's just about plumbing, so it's
35:54likely more authoritative on the topic.
35:57So the question you need to ask yourself
35:58is, is my website equally or more
36:02topically authoritative than the top
36:04ranking websites? If the answer is yes,
36:07then that's a positive thing for you.
36:09The easiest and quickest way to find out
36:11is to just look at the domain names and
36:13use some common sense. For example,
36:16looking at the SERP for best convertible
36:18car seat for small cars, you'll see
36:20sites like Experienced Mommy, Baby
36:23Center, Parenting Pod, Baby List, and
36:27other relevant sites that talk about
36:29products for children.
36:31And for domains that aren't as easily
36:32distinguishable like 800buckleup.org,
36:36you can just visit the site, hit the
36:38about page, and get a general idea of
36:40what the site is about. In this case,
36:43you'll see that they talk about car seat
36:45recalls and review car seat brands. So
36:48yes, it is topically authoritative on
36:50car seats.
36:52All right, let's look at our full list
36:53of yes or no questions. As a very
36:56general rule of thumb, the more yeses
36:58you can check off, the better your
37:00chances of ranking. Again, very general
37:03because SEO is quite nuanced. With that
37:06said, let's go through a couple of
37:07hypothetical examples for our golf site.
37:10To set the scene, let's say you have a
37:12website that's about golf instruction,
37:14and you also review golf equipment. And
37:16your website's domain rating is low at
37:18around 15.
37:20All right, so the first example is for
37:21the query best golf grips. Let's start
37:24with the first question. Do some of the
37:26top ranking pages fail to closely match
37:29search intent?
37:31From the looks of it, they all look
37:32decent, so I'll check the no box.
37:35Next up, can I get more quality
37:37backlinks than the top ranking pages?
37:40Again, we haven't covered anything about
37:42quality backlinks yet, so for now, let's
37:45just look at quantity. Most of the sites
37:47have very few referring domains, so I'd
37:50say this is a yes.
37:52Next question. Is my website in a
37:54similar DR range or higher than the top
37:57ranking websites?
37:59Based on the SERP, there are a few sites
38:01with similar website authority, so let's
38:03give this a yes as well.
38:05And finally, is my website equally or
38:08more topically authoritative than the
38:10top ranking websites?
38:12Well, all of the top pages are from golf
38:14sites, and so is mine, so let's give
38:16this a yes as well.
38:18So based on our analysis, it looks like
38:20this would be a topic worth going after.
38:23All right, the next analysis is for the
38:25keyword best putters.
38:27Looking at search intent, overall, it
38:29looks like the majority of pages are
38:31good, so I'll check the no box. But I do
38:34want to touch on this page on the best
38:37blade putters.
38:39This is more of a focused post, and
38:40they're likely ranking high for this
38:42because of all of the other factors like
38:44high website authority, lots of
38:46referring domains, and topical
38:48authority. So I would actually exclude
38:51them from the rest of this analysis.
38:53All right, next up. Can I get more
38:55quality backlinks than the top ranking
38:58pages?
38:59Again, just looking at the quantity of
39:01links to these pages, the answer would
39:03likely be a yes seeing as we're still
39:05looking at about a dozen referring
39:07domains. But it's important to realize
39:10that getting more links than the number
39:12one page probably won't happen in the
39:14near future, meaning getting the top
39:17ranking spot will be tough.
39:19Next. Is my website in a similar DR
39:22range or higher than the top ranking
39:24websites? The answer is no.
39:27And finally, my website is topically
39:30authoritative, so I'll give this a yes.
39:33Now, it looks like we're at a tie
39:35between yeses and nos, and this is
39:37exactly why I said, as a very general
39:40rule of thumb, the more yeses you can
39:43check off, the better your chances of
39:45ranking.
39:46Again, SEO is nuanced. Plus, you need to
39:49weigh out some of the other principles
39:51we discussed like traffic potential and
39:53business value. And the best way to make
39:56sound judgment calls is through
39:58experience. So, it will take time to
40:01hone your skills and gain a better grasp
40:03of keyword analysis.
40:06So, as you can see, understanding how
40:08hard it'll be to rank in Google will be
40:10a key skill to your success in search.
40:13Why?
40:14Because it's the first step to getting
40:15predictable results. After all, if you
40:18know what it'll take to rank ahead of
40:20your competition, then it all comes down
40:23to execution. And that's what the next
40:25two modules are all about.
40:28Hey, it's Sam Oh, and welcome to the
40:29second module, which is about on-page
40:31SEO. If you haven't seen the
40:33introduction to SEO video and the module
40:36on keyword research, then I highly
40:38recommend watching those first. They'll
40:40help you get the foundational knowledge
40:41you'll need to get the most out of this
40:43module. I'll leave links in the
40:45description.
40:46All right, so what is on-page SEO? It's
40:49simply the practice of optimizing web
40:51pages to rank higher in search engines.
40:53And it revolves heavily around
40:55optimizing pages for search intent. But,
40:58on-page optimization also involve
41:00creating and optimizing HTML tags like
41:04titles and meta descriptions.
41:07Now, if you've been exposed to the
41:08practice of on-page SEO, then it's quite
41:10likely that you've heard conflicting
41:12advice. And for that reason, we're going
41:14to discuss both what on-page SEO is and
41:18what it is not. Let's talk about common
41:20advice you might see on on-page SEO best
41:23practices which just aren't true today.
41:26And while there are many old-school
41:28tactics that are still being
41:29recommended, I want to focus on just
41:31three points to help you navigate the
41:34noise. Number one, on-page SEO is not
41:37about stuffing exact match keywords.
41:41It used to be common practice to include
41:43the exact keyword you wanted to rank for
41:45in your title, URL, and content.
41:48For example, if you wanted to rank for
41:50car dealer San Diego, you would stuff
41:53that keyword throughout your page
41:55despite the fact it doesn't make sense
41:57grammatically speaking.
41:59Google is smart enough to understand
42:00things like connecting words, synonyms,
42:03and closely related words and phrases.
42:06In fact, for all of these queries, the
42:08top 10 pages are nearly identical.
42:12Unfortunately, stuffing exact match
42:14keywords is still being practiced today,
42:17which can lead to poor user experience
42:19and poor readability. All things that
42:22on-page SEO should not do.
42:25The second thing is that on-page SEO is
42:27not about using your keyword a specific
42:30number of times on the page. In our
42:32study of 3 million search queries, we
42:34found that on average, the top ranking
42:36page ranks for around a thousand other
42:38relevant keywords in the top 10.
42:42Now, can you imagine what it would be
42:43like if a top ranking page had to
42:45mention all 1,000 of those keywords at
42:48least three times? It makes no sense.
42:52The content would be unnecessarily
42:53lengthy and create an awful user
42:56experience for visitors. Here's an
42:58example. Look at the SERP for the query
43:00diet plan. You'll see that Healthline's
43:02article on how to lose weight ranks
43:05number one, and there's no mention of a
43:07diet plan in their title or URL.
43:09In fact, there's only one fleeting
43:11mention of it on the page, not even a
43:13subheading.
43:14Here's another example. GQ ranks in the
43:17top spot for classiest watch.
43:20But, if we look at the page, you'll see
43:21that the word classiest isn't there. And
43:24neither is the word classy.
43:27The third point is that on-page SEO
43:29isn't about meeting a minimum word
43:31count.
43:32Some studies have shown that the average
43:34content length of the top 10 results is
43:36over 2,000 words. As a result, many SEOs
43:40have recommended that you create pages
43:42that are at least that length.
43:44But, that isn't exactly sound advice.
43:47For example, our backlink checker is 628
43:50words, yet we rank number one for our
43:52target keyword, and the page generates
43:54around 130,000
43:56monthly visits from Google search alone.
44:00Here's another example. This page only
44:02has 76 words on it. The majority of
44:04content are images. According to Ahrefs
44:07Site Explorer, the page gets over
44:09170,000 monthly search visits.
44:13Now, let's talk about what on-page SEO
44:14is today in 2021 and beyond. Looking at
44:18the definition again, on-page SEO is the
44:20practice of optimizing web pages to rank
44:23higher in search engines. And as I
44:25mentioned, this revolves heavily around
44:28optimizing pages for search intent. The
44:30keyword here is search intent.
44:33Translation, the goal of your pages
44:35should be to satisfy the searcher's
44:37intent. How?
44:39Well, we talked about the three C's of
44:41search intent, which should help you get
44:42the basic stuff down like the content
44:45type, format, and angle. In addition to
44:48this, your content needs to address the
44:50things people expect to see. You'll also
44:52want to nail the more tangible items
44:54like titles, subheadings, internal
44:57linking, readability, and of course, the
45:00actual content itself.
45:02These are the things we'll be answering
45:04in part two of our on-page SEO module,
45:06where we'll get more tactical and talk
45:08about how you can create content that's
45:11optimized for search.
45:13Hey, it's Sam Oh, and welcome to the
45:15second lesson in the on-page SEO module.
45:18Today, I'm going to show you how to
45:19create a page that's optimized for
45:21search. Let's get started. So, as I
45:23showed you in the last lesson, on
45:25average, the top ranking page ranks for
45:27nearly a thousand keywords. For example,
45:30Healthline's page is clearly targeting
45:32the query how to lose weight fast, and
45:35sure enough, they're ranking in the top
45:36spot.
45:38Now, the traffic to this page doesn't
45:39come from just their target keyword. It
45:42comes from the combined effect of
45:44ranking for thousands of queries. And
45:46when we sum up the traffic from all
45:48keywords, it makes up well over 100,000
45:51monthly search visits just from the US.
45:54In fact, if we look at the page's
45:56keyword rankings, you'll see that the
45:58target query how to lose weight fast
46:00only sends them a small percentage of
46:02the total monthly search traffic.
46:05Now, in order to rank for a ton of
46:07keywords and get a ton of search
46:08traffic, you need two things. The first
46:11is a page that's optimized to rank, and
46:13the second are backlinks. In this
46:16lesson, we'll cover how to create an
46:17optimized page, and we'll tackle links
46:19in the next module.
46:21Okay, so with on-page SEO, there are two
46:23main things we need to cover. The first
46:25is arguably the most important, and
46:28that's to ensure your page satisfies
46:30searcher intent. We've already covered
46:32the three C's of search intent, which
46:33again, will give you very basic guidance
46:36on the type of content to create, the
46:38format to use, and the angle to go with.
46:41But, the actual content itself is what
46:44will leave your visitors satisfied or
46:46dissatisfied.
46:48So, you might be wondering, what exactly
46:50do I write about in order to satisfy
46:52searchers? The short answer is to learn
46:55from your competitors.
46:56The top ranking pages are ranking at the
46:58top for a reason. Google and other
47:00search engines deem them as the best
47:02candidates to satisfy a searcher's
47:05query. So, they're clearly doing
47:07something right, at least from the
47:08perspective of a search engine.
47:10Now, while the content will vary from
47:12topic to topic, the way you research a
47:14competitor's content will be more or
47:16less the same. Let's go through an
47:18example.
47:19So, let's say that we want to create
47:20content that targets the query best golf
47:23club sets. To start, I'll go to Ahrefs
47:25Keywords Explorer and search for the
47:27query.
47:28Then, I'll scroll down to the SERP
47:30overview to see the top ranking pages.
47:33Now, if you don't have an Ahrefs
47:34account, you can use our free SERP
47:36checker tool to do everything I'm about
47:38to do.
47:39All right, so looking at the SERP, we
47:40want to pick out the top three or so
47:43relevant ranking results. And by
47:45relevant, I'm talking about pages that
47:47match the dominant search intent based
47:49on the three C's we've discussed so many
47:52times now. So, in this case, the
47:54majority of pages are blog posts in the
47:57listical format with freshness as the
47:59content angle. So, that means we
48:01wouldn't look at pages from Amazon or
48:03Golf Galaxy because these pages are
48:05clearly e-commerce category pages and
48:08are therefore outliers to the dominant
48:10search intent.
48:11We'll also exclude the pages from Golf
48:13Digest and Business Insider since it
48:15doesn't look like they're intentionally
48:17targeting our query. So, I'll open up
48:19these three pages in new tabs. And what
48:22we're going to look for are similarities
48:24in their content, specifically in the
48:26subtopics. And we'll also look to deepen
48:29our understanding of content format and
48:31content angle.
48:33Looking at the first page, you'll see
48:34that they've created a list of
48:35categories for the best golf club sets.
48:39So, there's best selling, best game
48:41improving irons, and so on.
48:44Looking further down, they have a
48:45subheading, which is the make and model
48:47of the golf club set, followed by a
48:49brief review of the clubs.
48:51The next page also has a summary based
48:53on more broad categories like best
48:56value, premium pick, and best choice.
48:59And based on the table of contents,
49:01you'll see that they followed a similar
49:03structure where the make and model of
49:05the clubs are used as subheadings. They
49:07also add a brief description of the
49:09clubs as well as some skimmable bullet
49:11points.
49:12And the final page does pretty much the
49:14same thing. They use subheadings as the
49:16make and model, followed by a short
49:18review.
49:19Now, unless you're a golfer, you may not
49:21have caught this minor, but perhaps
49:23important detail.
49:25All the pages talk about sets that would
49:27appeal more to beginners.
49:29For example, they all talk about
49:31Callaway Strata set, and they all
49:34include sets from Wilson Staff. In my
49:36opinion, these wouldn't appeal to an
49:39intermediate or advanced-level golfer.
49:42All right, so at this point, we know
49:43that we should create a listical blog
49:45post with freshness as the angle. We
49:47also know that the content should likely
49:49be targeted at beginners. A couple
49:51common sets that were mentioned in all
49:53posts were the Callaway Strata's, as
49:56well as a set from Wilson's Staff.
49:58Now, it's important to note that you
49:59don't have to include these in your
50:01post, but it's simply an observation I
50:04had made. We also saw that the top two
50:06out of three pages had top picks for
50:08categories like best game improvement
50:11clubs, as well as best clubs for the
50:13money.
50:14Finally, we know that the subheading
50:16should be the name of the club set.
50:18Another thing I recommend before you
50:19start writing is to do a content gap
50:22analysis at the page level. A content
50:25gap analysis at the page level will show
50:27you common keywords that the top pages
50:29are ranking for where your page isn't.
50:32But, since we don't have a page, we can
50:34still find common keyword rankings
50:37amongst a few top-ranking pages using
50:39Ahrefs content gap tool.
50:42To get started, go to Ahrefs Site
50:43Explorer and paste in any one of the
50:46URLs.
50:47Next, head on over to the content gap
50:49tool.
50:50Now, I'm going to take the three URLs we
50:52analyzed and put them all in the top
50:55section of this tool.
50:57So, what this is saying is show us
50:59keywords that any of these targets rank
51:02for where at least one of them ranks in
51:04the top 10.
51:06Now, if I run the search, you'll be able
51:08to see the keywords that these pages
51:09rank for and the position that they're
51:11ranking it. As a general rule of thumb,
51:14the more URLs that rank high for the
51:16keywords, the more relevant it'll be to
51:18your content.
51:20So, to narrow our search down a bit,
51:22I'll click on the intersections
51:23drop-down and select both two and three
51:26intersections, meaning only show me
51:28keywords where at least two of our
51:30targets are ranking in Google and at
51:33least one of those targets is ranking in
51:35the top 10.
51:37From here, just skim through the list
51:39and look for interesting subtopics that
51:41might be worth adding to your post. In
51:43addition, you may be able to learn some
51:46interesting things about the audience,
51:48as well as the language they use. So, as
51:50you can see, people who search for this
51:52query are mostly looking for men's
51:54clubs. People want to know the best
51:56clubs for the money. They want to see
51:58cheaper options, and others are looking
52:00specifically for a set of irons. These
52:03are all things you should consider as
52:05you craft your content.
52:07All right, so armed with this
52:08information, you should be able to
52:10create a great post with a searcher in
52:12mind. And while the content is the most
52:14important part, there are also a few
52:17more technical on-page optimizations you
52:19should do.
52:20Let's go through a few of the most
52:22important ones.
52:23First is to include your target keyword
52:25in your title when it makes sense.
52:28Adding your target keyword to your title
52:30should come naturally. For example, our
52:32title for this post is 45 best free SEO
52:36tools, tried and tested. And free SEO
52:39tools is our target keyword.
52:42Now, there will be times when it makes
52:44more sense to use a close variant of
52:46your target keyword. For example, this
52:49post is targeting the query how to get
52:51YouTube subscribers, but our title is
52:54nine ways to get more YouTube
52:56subscribers because we went for the
52:58listical angle.
52:59The next thing you can do is to use a
53:01short and descriptive URL slug.
53:04Short and descriptive URLs help people
53:06immediately understand what the page is
53:09about before even visiting them. Just
53:11look at these two URLs. They're on the
53:14exact same topic, but one is much more
53:17descriptive than the other.
53:19This part of the URL is called the slug,
53:21and the easiest way to choose your slug
53:23is to use your target keyword where
53:25spaces will be replaced with hyphens.
53:28Again, you should only do this when it
53:29makes sense, so you don't need to worry
53:31about forcing it. Now, if you're
53:33wondering if you should use subfolders
53:35to describe categories, that's entirely
53:38up to you.
53:39All right, next is the meta description.
53:41The meta description is HTML code that's
53:44meant to briefly summarize your page,
53:46and search engines often use this text
53:48right within the serp. To my best
53:50knowledge, meta descriptions aren't used
53:52as a ranking signal, but they can
53:55influence click-through rates, and for
53:57that reason, I think it's important to
53:59add to your pages.
54:01Now, it's important to note that
54:02according to our study of 192,000 pages,
54:06we found that Google rewrote meta
54:07descriptions nearly 63% of the time. So,
54:11I wouldn't spend a ton of time on them,
54:13but you should still include them.
54:15All right, next up is to add internal
54:17links to and from your pages. Internal
54:20links are links from one page on the
54:22same domain to another, and they're
54:24super powerful because they can pass
54:27link authority to other relevant pages,
54:29and they also help search engines better
54:31understand a page's contents. For
54:34example, if I had a site in the careers
54:36niche and I was writing a post about how
54:39to write a cover letter, then I
54:40definitely want to add internal links
54:43from other relevant pages like one on
54:45how to write a resume.
54:47More importantly, visitors who want to
54:49learn how to write a resume would
54:51probably want to know how to write a
54:53cover letter and vice versa.
54:56To find opportunities, you can go to
54:58Google and search for
54:59site:yourdomain.com
55:02and then add the topic you're writing
55:04about.
55:05Then visit relevant pages and see if
55:07there's an opportunity to add an
55:09internal link to your new post.
55:11Alternatively, you can use Ahrefs Site
55:13Audit tool completely free. Just sign up
55:16for an Ahrefs Webmaster Tools account,
55:18verify your site, and then run a crawl.
55:21Then you can head over to Link Explorer
55:24to find internal linking opportunities.
55:26We have a short but helpful video on how
55:28to do this on Ahrefs Product Updates
55:30YouTube channel, so I'll link that video
55:32up in the description.
55:34All right, next up is to optimize your
55:36images. In the last 28 days, we've had
55:39over 4,000 visits to our blog from
55:41Google Image Search. While that pales in
55:44comparison to our 500,000 monthly
55:46organic blog visits, it's still 4,000
55:50visits.
55:51Now, optimizing your images for SEO is
55:53threefold. Number one, name your image
55:56files appropriately.
55:58For example, this is a picture of a
56:00puppy. If you took the photo yourself,
56:02then chances are your smartphone or
56:04camera named it something like img_
56:08and then a million numbers. Instead,
56:11change the file name to something like
56:13puppy.
56:14Not exactly rocket science, but
56:16according to Google, file names can give
56:18Google clues about the subject matter of
56:21the image.
56:22Number two, use descriptive alt text.
56:26Alt text, short for alternative text, is
56:29an HTML attribute that goes in your
56:31image tag.
56:32So, the syntax would look something like
56:34this, where the alt value should
56:35describe the image.
56:37Alt text helps improve accessibility for
56:39those who are using screen readers, or
56:42if the image fails to load, visitors
56:44will be shown the alt text instead.
56:46Now, Google recommends creating useful,
56:49information-rich content that uses
56:51keywords appropriately and is in context
56:54of the content of the page. Yes, Google
56:57explicitly says to use keywords, but
56:59they also say to avoid stuffing keywords
57:02as it results in a negative user
57:04experience and may cause your site to be
57:06seen as spam. Meaning, don't do
57:09something like this.
57:10Now, looking back at the syntax, our alt
57:13text isn't exactly descriptive. So,
57:15let's change that to something like
57:17puppy sitting on a couch.
57:19If you use WordPress, just add your alt
57:21text here when inserting your images,
57:23and the CMS should do the rest.
57:26All right, the third thing you'll want
57:27to do is compress your images.
57:29Compressing images makes your image file
57:31sizes smaller, leading to faster load
57:33times, and page speed is a Google
57:36ranking signal.
57:37There's a free tool for compressing
57:38images called ShortPixel, which has both
57:41a web interface as well as a WordPress
57:43plugin.
57:44And the last thing I highly recommend is
57:46to optimize for readability. Here are
57:48five simple but effective tips you can
57:50use to improve readability. Number one,
57:53write in short sentences and short
57:56paragraphs because no one wants to land
57:58on a page with a huge wall of text. Two,
58:02use descriptive subheadings so people
58:04who are skimming the article can easily
58:06find the things that are important to
58:07them.
58:08Three, use a large enough font that's
58:11easily readable on both desktop and
58:13mobile.
58:14Four, avoid using big words. It's more
58:17important that people understand your
58:19content. And five, write as you speak.
58:22Your content will be more conversational
58:24and entertaining to read.
58:27A free tool I recommend using is called
58:28Hemingway app. It'll give you some
58:30writing tips, as well as a readability
58:32grade. I'd recommend trying to keep
58:35things at or below a sixth-grade level.
58:38Now, there are other on-page
58:39optimizations you can do like adding
58:41open graph meta tags, or OG tags for
58:43short. These will allow you to customize
58:46the titles, descriptions, images, and
58:48other information when your pages are
58:50shared on social media networks.
58:53There's also schema markup, which is
58:54code that helps search engines
58:56understand your content and better
58:58represent it in the search results. For
59:00example, these pages use the recipe
59:02schema type, so Google is able to show
59:04things like the recipe's rating, the
59:06number of votes, the total time to make
59:09the food, as well as nutritional
59:11information.
59:12If you have a WordPress site, then you
59:14can add OG tags and schema with plugins
59:16like Rank Math or Yoast.
59:18Now, again, the most important part of
59:20your content is that you're striving to
59:22satisfy searcher intent. Yes, the
59:25technical things are important, too, but
59:27they're more like the icing on the cake.
59:29So, here's a full on-page SEO checklist.
59:32Take a screenshot and let's move on to
59:34the next module, which is on an SEO
59:36strategy called link building.
59:39Hey, it's Sam Oh and welcome to the
59:40third module in our SEO course for
59:42beginners. Throughout the next five
59:44lessons, we'll be talking about arguably
59:46the most important and most challenging
59:49SEO strategy. It's called link building.
59:52And to kick things off, we're going to
59:53talk about what it is, why it's
59:55important, and the mindset you'll need
59:57to have to be successful at it. Let's
59:59get started.
1:00:00So, what is link building? By
1:00:02definition, link building is the process
1:00:04of getting other websites to link to a
1:00:06page on your website. And these
1:00:08hyperlinks are called backlinks. Now,
1:00:11while the end result might make sense
1:00:12conceptually and seem simple, the part
1:00:15that most people don't understand and
1:00:17can't seem to get right is this, the
1:00:20process. And this ultimately boils down
1:00:23to emailing complete strangers and
1:00:26asking them to link to you. Now, let's
1:00:28take a quick second to talk about how
1:00:30strange and kind of awkward this might
1:00:32sound. So, let's go through a few
1:00:34scenarios and then we'll revisit this
1:00:36definition of link building.
1:00:38Let's say that you have a marketing blog
1:00:39and you write about SEO and digital
1:00:41marketing. Now, if some random person,
1:00:44let's call her Sally, sends you an email
1:00:46and said, "Hey, can you link to my post
1:00:48on Facebook ads? It's really good."
1:00:52Would you link to her?
1:00:53Probably not. In fact, you probably
1:00:56wouldn't even reply or click the link in
1:00:58her email to actually check and see if
1:01:01her content is as good as she claims.
1:01:03Now, let's flip the script a bit. Let's
1:01:05say that you've been following Ahrefs
1:01:07YouTube channel and blog for some time.
1:01:09You've implemented some of the
1:01:10strategies we've shared and gotten some
1:01:12great results for your site. On top of
1:01:15that, you've been using our SEO tools
1:01:17for 3 years. Now, an email pops up in
1:01:20your inbox from me, Sam Oh. A name and
1:01:23face you might recognize because you've
1:01:25been following our channel. And in that
1:01:27email, I've asked you to link to our
1:01:29free backlink checker from your page
1:01:31that lists the 15 best free SEO tools.
1:01:35Would you link to me?
1:01:36Maybe.
1:01:37Now, the final scenario. Let's say your
1:01:39mentor, who helped you get started in
1:01:41digital marketing, sends you an email.
1:01:43And she asked you to link to a page on
1:01:45her site from a relevant page on yours.
1:01:48Would you link to her?
1:01:49Definitely. She helped you get started
1:01:51in digital marketing. You obviously
1:01:53trust and respect her, and you'd be
1:01:55willing to bend over backwards for her.
1:01:58The point of these scenarios is to show
1:01:59you that the process of link building is
1:02:01actually very relational and can
1:02:04sometimes take more time than you might
1:02:05like.
1:02:06With Sally, you don't know her. You
1:02:08don't owe her anything. You don't trust
1:02:10her. She's blindly coming in, almost
1:02:13invading your inbox, and asking you for
1:02:16a favor without offering any kind of
1:02:18value in return.
1:02:20In the second scenario, when I
1:02:21hypothetically emailed you, you knew who
1:02:23I was, I had indirectly helped you, and
1:02:26you were a user of our product for
1:02:28years. So, while we may not have a
1:02:30real-life relationship, we're still
1:02:32connected in some way. So, the chances
1:02:34of linking to me are probably higher
1:02:36than linking to Sally.
1:02:38Now, when your mentor asked you for a
1:02:40link, there's a real relationship there.
1:02:43There's a sense of trust, respect, and
1:02:45gratitude. So, of course you would link
1:02:47to her.
1:02:48Now, while you can't and shouldn't try
1:02:50to become friends with everyone just to
1:02:52get links, you'll find that your best
1:02:54links will usually come from
1:02:55relationships that are sparked from
1:02:57email outreach. So, let's redefine link
1:03:00building and set the tone for the rest
1:03:01of this module.
1:03:02Link building is the process of building
1:03:04relationships with other relevant site
1:03:06owners who want and will link to your
1:03:09content because it enhances theirs.
1:03:12So, this definition isn't just about you
1:03:14getting something. It includes
1:03:15relationships, relevance, and a value
1:03:18exchange. All things we'll touch on
1:03:20later in this module.
1:03:21Now, since effective link building is
1:03:23tough, you need to understand why it's
1:03:25worth the effort. In short, backlinks
1:03:28are used by search engines like Google
1:03:29to help rank web pages. And it's been
1:03:32this way since 1998 when Google created
1:03:34PageRank.
1:03:35PageRank is a mathematical formula that
1:03:37judges the value of a page by looking at
1:03:40the quantity and quality of other pages
1:03:42that link to it. And Google confirms the
1:03:45importance of backlinks on their how
1:03:46search works page. Under their ranking
1:03:49useful pages heading, they state, "If
1:03:51other prominent websites on the subject
1:03:54link to the page, that's a good sign
1:03:56that the information is of high
1:03:58quality."
1:03:59We also found a clear correlation
1:04:01between organic traffic and backlinks
1:04:03from unique websites in our study of
1:04:05over 1 billion web pages.
1:04:07So, while getting backlinks may be
1:04:09harder than, let's say, creating a blog
1:04:11post, they're absolutely critical if you
1:04:14want to rank for competitive phrases.
1:04:16And competitive phrases are usually the
1:04:18ones that will drive the most traffic
1:04:20and revenue for your business. Now, we
1:04:22briefly touched on the main way of
1:04:24getting backlinks, but not all links can
1:04:27or will be obtained through outreach.
1:04:29So, in the next lesson, we'll talk about
1:04:31three methods to get backlinks, as well
1:04:33as the level of difficulty and
1:04:35effectiveness.
1:04:37Hey, it's Sam Oh and welcome to the
1:04:38second lesson in our link building
1:04:40module. In this lesson, we'll talk about
1:04:42three link building strategies to get
1:04:44backlinks. Now, before we get started,
1:04:47it's important to set the expectations
1:04:49right for this lesson and talk about the
1:04:51difference between a strategy and a
1:04:53tactic. To me, strategies are higher
1:04:56level in the sense that it outlines the
1:04:57scope of the plans, whereas tactics are
1:05:01more micro and often focused around
1:05:03smaller steps.
1:05:04So, the strategy sets you in the right
1:05:06direction and the tactics kind of define
1:05:08how you get there. And we'll get into a
1:05:10few link building tactics later on in
1:05:12this module. All right. So, when it
1:05:14comes to link building, there are three
1:05:16main strategies to get backlinks. You
1:05:18can create them, buy them, or earn them.
1:05:21Let's talk about what each method looks
1:05:23like, their level of difficulty, and
1:05:25effectiveness. The first method is to
1:05:27create backlinks. Creating backlinks
1:05:29means to manually add links on one
1:05:31domain back to yours. This can be done
1:05:34by adding your website to directories,
1:05:36leaving comments on blog posts, or
1:05:38adding your website's URL to your social
1:05:40media profile. Anyone can do this with
1:05:43minimal effort. So, like almost all easy
1:05:45things in life, they're generally not
1:05:47that effective from an SEO and ranking
1:05:50perspective.
1:05:51Now, buying backlinks is exactly as it
1:05:53sounds. You pay webmasters or authors a
1:05:56fee and in return, they'll link back to
1:05:58a page on your site. Now, this is
1:06:00against Google's webmaster guidelines
1:06:03and can potentially result in a penalty.
1:06:05That might be anything from losing
1:06:06ranking positions or even worse, getting
1:06:09your pages removed from Google search
1:06:11index.
1:06:12Also, buying links isn't exactly cheap.
1:06:15We contacted 250 websites to ask if they
1:06:17sell links and we found that the average
1:06:19cost of buying one was nearly $353.
1:06:24And of course, we didn't buy any.
1:06:26In terms of level of ease, if you have
1:06:28the money, it's super easy to do because
1:06:30it's just a transaction. Now, in terms
1:06:33of the effectiveness, I would think that
1:06:35they're highly effective unless or until
1:06:38you get caught. And in my opinion, the
1:06:40risk isn't worth the reward, especially
1:06:42if you want to build a business that
1:06:44will stand the test of time.
1:06:46The final way to get backlinks is to
1:06:48earn them. And there are three common
1:06:49ways you can do this. The first and most
1:06:52common are links that are earned through
1:06:54email outreach. This is when you email
1:06:56other website owners and editors and ask
1:06:59them to link to you.
1:07:00Another way to earn backlinks is by
1:07:02becoming a source for an online
1:07:03publication or media outlet. For
1:07:06example, if a journalist references you
1:07:08in an article, they'll often link to you
1:07:10and or your social media profiles.
1:07:13And the final way is to earn backlinks
1:07:15organically. For example, if someone
1:07:18visits your page from a link on social
1:07:19media, organic search, word of mouth, or
1:07:22wherever and decides to link to you,
1:07:24then that's an earned link.
1:07:26Now, even though 100% organic links may
1:07:29sound like the best way to get them, I
1:07:31don't want you to bank on that. These
1:07:33kinds of links are typically less
1:07:34consistent unless you're an extremely
1:07:36well-known brand with extremely
1:07:38well-crafted content and you're already
1:07:41getting significant exposure. It takes
1:07:43time to build a reputation that's
1:07:45well-trusted and for those organic links
1:07:47to come in on a regular basis. And if
1:07:50you're just hoping and waiting, you'll
1:07:52likely fall behind because your
1:07:53competitors will actually be busy
1:07:55building links by reaching out to other
1:07:57website owners. Generally speaking, the
1:08:00harder it is to obtain a link, the more
1:08:02valuable it'll be. And for that reason,
1:08:05we'll be focusing on streamlined tactics
1:08:07so that you can build a steady stream of
1:08:08backlinks to your page and get more
1:08:11traffic from SEO.
1:08:12Now, not all links are created equal.
1:08:15Some will propel your pages to the top
1:08:16of Google, while others can actually
1:08:18hurt your site. So, what makes a link
1:08:21actually good?
1:08:22That's what we'll be talking about in
1:08:23the next lesson.
1:08:26Hey, it's Sam Oh and welcome to the
1:08:27third lesson in the link building
1:08:29module. Today, we're going to talk about
1:08:30the attributes that make a backlink good
1:08:33or high quality.
1:08:35As I said in the last lesson, not all
1:08:37backlinks are created equal. For
1:08:39example, if you spammed forums with
1:08:41links to your site, those wouldn't and
1:08:43shouldn't hold more weight than, let's
1:08:45say, a link from the New York Times.
1:08:47Otherwise, backlinks would just be a
1:08:49game of quantity and Google search
1:08:51results would reward the biggest
1:08:53spammers. Fortunately, ranking on Google
1:08:55doesn't work that way and quality
1:08:58backlinks are still a prominent ranking
1:09:00signal. So, with that said, let's talk
1:09:02about the five attributes that make a
1:09:03backlink good. The first attribute is
1:09:06relevance. Imagine this for a second.
1:09:09You're going to visit Greece for the
1:09:10first time next month and you need
1:09:12recommendations for places worth going
1:09:14to.
1:09:15Now, you have a friend that lived in
1:09:16Greece for their entire life and
1:09:19obviously knows every nook and cranny.
1:09:21You also have a friend in the US who
1:09:23hates traveling and has never been
1:09:25outside of the states. Whose opinion
1:09:27would you hold higher?
1:09:29Obviously, your Greek friend. In the
1:09:31same way, links from a website about
1:09:33travel or Greece would hold more weight
1:09:35than links from sites about technology
1:09:38or marketing because they're more
1:09:39topically relevant and authoritative.
1:09:42For example, you'll see that this page
1:09:44is ranking number one for the query,
1:09:46"How to devein shrimp?" If we look at
1:09:48their backlinks and also filter by one
1:09:50link per domain, we can see their
1:09:52backlinks from different websites.
1:09:55Now, if you don't have an Ahrefs
1:09:56account, then you can still see
1:09:57backlinks pointing at pages using our
1:10:00free backlink checker tool, which I'll
1:10:01leave a link to in the description.
1:10:03Going back to the backlinks report,
1:10:05you'll see this page from wikiHow, which
1:10:07is called "Three Ways to Peel and Devein
1:10:10Shrimp." So, that link is on a very
1:10:12relevant page.
1:10:13Scrolling down a bit, you'll see this
1:10:15link from a page called "Shrimp with
1:10:17Garlic Sauce," which again is relevant
1:10:19at the page level. But, you can also see
1:10:21that it's relevant at the domain level,
1:10:23too, just by looking at the domain name,
1:10:26slimpalate.com.
1:10:28Both of these links are great from a
1:10:30relevant standpoint, whereas a link like
1:10:32this one isn't very relevant at all. The
1:10:35page is about Firefox 3.5, which is a
1:10:38web browser. It comes from a site about
1:10:39video games and computer hardware. So,
1:10:42an ideal link would be contextually
1:10:44placed within the body of the content
1:10:46where someone is quite literally
1:10:48recommending or referencing you.
1:10:50All right, the next quality of good
1:10:52quality links is authoritativeness.
1:10:55If you're unfamiliar with authority in
1:10:56the context of backlinks, it basically
1:10:58represents the so-called link power a
1:11:01web page has. And this relates to how
1:11:03Google PageRank works. As we discussed
1:11:06before, both the quantity and quality of
1:11:09links matter. So, the more quality links
1:11:11a page gets, the more PageRank it earns.
1:11:14And the more PageRank it has, the more
1:11:17authority it can pass to other pages
1:11:19through hyperlinks.
1:11:20For example, let's say that page C has
1:11:23two links, one from page A and one from
1:11:25page B.
1:11:27Page A is stronger than page B and also
1:11:29has fewer outgoing links. Feed this
1:11:32information into the PageRank algorithm
1:11:34and you get the PageRank of page C.
1:11:37Now, this is obviously a simplified
1:11:39version of how PageRank works, but the
1:11:41key point here is that getting links
1:11:43from high authority pages will likely
1:11:45have the greatest impact on your
1:11:46rankings.
1:11:48Now, while Google doesn't provide
1:11:49PageRank or website authority scores, we
1:11:52have two metrics at Ahrefs that try to
1:11:54quantify it. Domain rating is our
1:11:56website authority metric and it
1:11:57represents the overall strength of a
1:11:59website's backlink profile.
1:12:01And URL rating is our page level
1:12:03authority metric, which represents the
1:12:05overall strength of a page's backlink
1:12:07profile. And you'll find both of these
1:12:09metrics throughout most of our tools,
1:12:11giving you insights on referring pages.
1:12:14Now, we've covered two very important
1:12:16parts of good quality backlinks, but
1:12:18what we haven't talked about yet is the
1:12:20actual link itself. So, let's break down
1:12:23the anatomy of a hyperlink and talk
1:12:25about how the different parts relate to
1:12:27SEO.
1:12:28Here's what a link looks like to your
1:12:29website visitors. And if we look at the
1:12:31HTML code, then it would look like this.
1:12:35Now, there are three basic parts to a
1:12:36link that matter in SEO. The destination
1:12:39URL, anchor text, and the rel attribute
1:12:42or lack of one.
1:12:44The destination URL is simply the URL
1:12:46the person will visit when the link is
1:12:48clicked. The second part of a link is
1:12:50the anchor text. The anchor text is the
1:12:53clickable word, phrase, or image
1:12:55attached to the link. So, in our
1:12:57example, Site Explorer is the anchor
1:12:59text, which is the name of our
1:13:00competitor analysis tool.
1:13:02Google uses anchor text to better
1:13:04understand what a page is about and what
1:13:06terms it should rank for. But, building
1:13:09lots of links with keyword-rich anchors
1:13:11is an example of a link scheme and may
1:13:13result in a Google penalty as it looks
1:13:15unnatural. For example, if you had a
1:13:18post on the best golf balls and had a
1:13:20hundred links pointing to it where the
1:13:22anchor text were all best golf balls,
1:13:25then it would look and be quite
1:13:27unnatural.
1:13:28People often use anchors such as the
1:13:30company's brand name, the title of the
1:13:32page, the URL, or phrases like click
1:13:35here. And here's some proof. If we look
1:13:37at the anchors of backlinks pointing to
1:13:39our data study on featured snippets,
1:13:41you'll see varying anchor text like
1:13:43Ahrefs, old studies, Ahrefs study,
1:13:46research, and even specific stats like
1:13:4912.3% of search queries, and 99.58%,
1:13:54and so on. In fact, there are only 16
1:13:57websites that have linked to us using
1:13:59the anchor text "featured snippet." With
1:14:01most earned links, you have very little
1:14:04or no control over the anchor text. So,
1:14:06over-optimization isn't something you
1:14:08really need to worry about.
1:14:10And the last part of the link we'll talk
1:14:11about is the rel attribute. Some links
1:14:14contain a rel attribute, which is
1:14:16intended to tell crawlers about the
1:14:18relationship between the linking page
1:14:20and the linked page. And the three rel
1:14:23values that you should know about when
1:14:24it comes to link building are nofollow,
1:14:26UGC, and sponsored.
1:14:29Historically, nofollow links told Google
1:14:31that the linking page would rather not
1:14:33associate themselves with the linked
1:14:35page. And for that reason, Google didn't
1:14:37transfer authority through those links.
1:14:40But then, Google added a couple other
1:14:42rel values, UGC, which stands for
1:14:44user-generated content, and sponsored,
1:14:47which signifies an ethical paid link.
1:14:50They also announced that going forward,
1:14:52they would look at these link attributes
1:14:53as hints, meaning they may pass value
1:14:56through them at their discretion.
1:14:58Now, if a link doesn't have any of these
1:15:00rel values, then it would be called a
1:15:02followed link, meaning the link can pass
1:15:05PageRank and help boost your rankings.
1:15:08Seeing as this is still relatively new,
1:15:10I'd recommend focusing on building
1:15:12followed links, although that's only
1:15:14partially within your control. Now, it's
1:15:16important to note that nofollow and UGC
1:15:18links aren't bad. It's just that
1:15:20followed links are proven to pass
1:15:22authority.
1:15:23One final thing I want to touch on is
1:15:25link placement. Prominent links are more
1:15:28likely to be clicked, and it's believed
1:15:30that Google takes this into account when
1:15:32determining how much authority a link
1:15:34transfers.
1:15:35For instance, an editorial link is more
1:15:37likely to be clicked than a link in the
1:15:39footer. So, all else being equal, the
1:15:42former would be better than the latter.
1:15:44So, to summarize, an ideal link would
1:15:47come from a relevant and authoritative
1:15:49page where the link is followed. It
1:15:51would have a descriptive anchor and be
1:15:53placed contextually within editorial
1:15:55content. But, the truth is a lot of this
1:15:59is out of your control. What is in your
1:16:01control is how you spend your time
1:16:03building links. By using these five
1:16:05attributes to help qualify prospects or
1:16:08people that are worth contacting, you'll
1:16:10spend your time building links that will
1:16:12actually move the needle.
1:16:14Now, the easiest way for a beginner to
1:16:16start building links is to use tried and
1:16:18tested tactics. And we'll be covering a
1:16:20few of them in the next lesson.
1:16:23Hey, it's Ammo and welcome to the fourth
1:16:25lesson in the link building module.
1:16:27Today, we're going to talk about the
1:16:28step-by-step process to build backlinks
1:16:31as well as three cookie-cutter link
1:16:32building tactics that are tried, tested,
1:16:35and completely beginner-friendly. Let's
1:16:38get started with the general process to
1:16:40link building. There are three general
1:16:41stages in link building: prospecting,
1:16:44vetting, and email outreach. When
1:16:46prospecting, you're searching for
1:16:47relevant pages and websites that might
1:16:50link to you. These might be people who
1:16:52are linking to a similar page as the one
1:16:54you're going to create, those who have
1:16:56influence in your industry, or people
1:16:58who are passionate about the topic.
1:17:00The main goal isn't to find a perfect
1:17:02list of people. This stage is about
1:17:04finding as many people as possible that
1:17:07fit a specific set of criteria. And this
1:17:09criteria is usually dictated by link
1:17:12authority metrics as well as relevance.
1:17:14As a result, you'll usually be working
1:17:16with large and very unperfect sets of
1:17:19data.
1:17:20The vetting stage is where you start to
1:17:22refine your list of prospects. These are
1:17:24the people that you'll be contacting.
1:17:25So, you'll need to visit their websites
1:17:27and validate that they are indeed people
1:17:30worth contacting.
1:17:31Finally is the email outreach stage.
1:17:34This is when you finalize your pitches
1:17:36and start emailing your vetted
1:17:37prospects.
1:17:39Now, depending on the link building
1:17:40tactic you use, the way you prospect,
1:17:43vet, and craft your email pitches will
1:17:45differ. And this is actually quite
1:17:47difficult when you're new to link
1:17:48building.
1:17:49Fortunately, there are a few dead simple
1:17:51but super effective link building
1:17:53tactics that are completely
1:17:55newbie-friendly. But, before we can get
1:17:57tactical, let's revisit our definition
1:17:59of link building because there are three
1:18:01main parts in it that will help you with
1:18:03prospecting, vetting, and email
1:18:05outreach. Again, link building is the
1:18:07process of building relationships with
1:18:09other relevant site owners who want and
1:18:12will link to your content because it
1:18:14enhances theirs. Now, I want to
1:18:16highlight the three main parts from this
1:18:18definition:
1:18:19relationships, relevance, and a value
1:18:22exchange. We already talked about the
1:18:24relevance part in the last lesson. Now,
1:18:26we're talking about mainly the value
1:18:28exchange and what that looks like in
1:18:30some common link building tactics.
1:18:32So, let's dig into a few easy link
1:18:34building tactics and I'll show you what
1:18:36each stage of the link building process
1:18:38looks like in detail. Plus, I'll outline
1:18:40the value exchange for each tactic to
1:18:42give you a better idea of what I mean.
1:18:44All right, the first link building
1:18:45tactic is to get free PR using HARO.
1:18:49HARO, or Help A Reporter Out, is a free
1:18:51service that connects journalists with
1:18:53sources and sources with journalists.
1:18:55You sign up as a source and select the
1:18:57categories where you're qualified to
1:18:59answer questions. You'll then get emails
1:19:02from journalists from various media
1:19:03outlets looking for sources on specific
1:19:06topics. And these aren't just your
1:19:08run-of-the-mill publications. In just
1:19:10this single email, you'll see
1:19:12publications like parents.com,
1:19:14POPSUGAR, and the Houston Chronicle, to
1:19:16name a few.
1:19:18Just skim through the topics, and if you
1:19:20find something where you can add value,
1:19:22respond to the journalist with your
1:19:23expert opinion. And if they use you as a
1:19:26source, they'll usually link back to
1:19:28your site and social media profiles.
1:19:31Now, the value exchange here is simple.
1:19:32You're exchanging your expert knowledge
1:19:35for a mention and usually a link from an
1:19:37authoritative site. From my personal
1:19:39experience, I've gotten links from
1:19:41places like Reader's Digest, Inc.
1:19:43Magazine, Forbes, and The Huffington
1:19:45Post to name a few.
1:19:47Now, looking at the three stages of link
1:19:49building, the prospecting part is as
1:19:51easy as it gets. You sign up for a free
1:19:53service and journalists are actually
1:19:55looking for your help, not the other way
1:19:58around, which makes HARO super
1:20:00beginner-friendly.
1:20:01As for vetting, you can simply scan
1:20:03through the results on a daily basis,
1:20:05but that can be time-consuming. A simple
1:20:07tip you can use is to create a Gmail
1:20:09filter so only relevant emails will
1:20:12surface in your inbox. Just log in to
1:20:14Gmail and click on the carrot to bring
1:20:16down the search options.
1:20:18Next, set the from field to
1:20:20[email protected].
1:20:23Then, you'll want to set the subject to
1:20:25HARO within square brackets, since all
1:20:27of their emails include that in the
1:20:29subject line. Finally, set the has the
1:20:31words field to any keywords you want to
1:20:34monitor. And you can also use the or
1:20:36search operator to include multiple
1:20:38keywords or phrases.
1:20:41Click search to see the results your
1:20:42search filters would include and check
1:20:44out some of the emails to ensure you're
1:20:46getting relevant results. If everything
1:20:48looks good, click on the carrot again
1:20:51and then click create filter.
1:20:53You'll then have the options to apply
1:20:55labels, mark it as important, or forward
1:20:58it to another team member to take care
1:21:00of.
1:21:00Now, as for the email outreach part,
1:21:03HARO gives you an email address, which
1:21:04will then be forwarded to the
1:21:06journalist. So, just respond to the
1:21:08given email address and write your
1:21:10response.
1:21:11Now, obviously, you're not going to be
1:21:13the only person emailing the journalist.
1:21:16So, here are a few tips you can use to
1:21:18improve your hit rate. Number one, keep
1:21:20your emails as short as needed.
1:21:23Journalists get tons of emails, and if
1:21:25they see a huge wall of text, they
1:21:27probably won't even give your response a
1:21:30chance.
1:21:31Number two, go after topics where
1:21:33journalists are likely looking for
1:21:35multiple sources. For example, this
1:21:38query from Best Life is seeking medical
1:21:40experts, as in the plural form of
1:21:42expert. These kinds of requests will
1:21:45usually be your typical listical-style
1:21:47posts. So, the more responses they
1:21:49accept, the higher your chances of
1:21:51getting mentioned and linked to. Number
1:21:54three, respond as quickly as possible.
1:21:57Journalists on HARO will often give a
1:21:59tighter deadline to give themselves time
1:22:01to actually put together a good story.
1:22:04Plus, some journalists believe that
1:22:05people who respond faster are better
1:22:08sources. Don't believe me? Here's what a
1:22:10journalist from Reader's Digest said to
1:22:12me.
1:22:13The deadline was just to make sure I get
1:22:15people to respond in a timely manner. I
1:22:17actually have the rest of the month put
1:22:19the story together, which is nice. I
1:22:21find the tighter the deadline I attach,
1:22:23the better the responses, because the
1:22:25only people who go to the effort are
1:22:27ones who really have something relevant
1:22:29to offer. Obviously, this doesn't apply
1:22:32to every journalist, but it kind of
1:22:34makes sense.
1:22:35All right, tip four is to prioritize
1:22:37questions where you are an expert and
1:22:40use it as the first line in your pitch.
1:22:43There'll be days where you can't respond
1:22:44to every relevant request. So,
1:22:47prioritize the ones where you have the
1:22:48highest probability of getting sourced.
1:22:51For example, PopSugar is looking for
1:22:53experts who can talk about why cats
1:22:56scratch furniture and how to stop them
1:22:58from doing it. If you're a vet, then you
1:23:00might start your email with something
1:23:02like, "Hi Jenna, my name is Sam O and
1:23:04I'm a veterinarian with 12 years
1:23:06experience and a board member of the Cat
1:23:08Alliance."
1:23:10Clearly, I'm not a vet, but you get my
1:23:12point. When you immediately qualify
1:23:14yourself as the right person to answer
1:23:16the question, you'll likely get their
1:23:18attention. Of course, you should be 100%
1:23:21honest, so I wouldn't claim to be a vet
1:23:23when I'm not. And finally, follow all
1:23:26directions in their query. For example,
1:23:28this one says, "Please be sure to
1:23:30include your full name, pronouns, title,
1:23:33and credentials, and the website you'd
1:23:35like linked with your name."
1:23:37All right, the next link building tactic
1:23:38is guest posting or guest blogging, same
1:23:41thing.
1:23:42Guest blogging is when you create
1:23:43content for another website. And the
1:23:45reason why this strategy works is
1:23:47because there's a clear value exchange.
1:23:50They get great content for free and
1:23:52almost always, they allow you to link
1:23:54back to your site, whether that be
1:23:56within the content or in the author bio.
1:23:59Now, guest blogging also provides
1:24:00another great benefit aside from a
1:24:03potential backlink. You get the
1:24:05opportunity to get exposure to someone
1:24:07else's audience. They've already done
1:24:09the hard work in building that audience.
1:24:12You just have to write something that'll
1:24:13impress their readers.
1:24:15Now, when you're prospecting, you'll
1:24:17need to get a list of websites, and
1:24:18there are a few ways you can do that.
1:24:20The first way is to use Google search
1:24:22operators. Just go to Google and search
1:24:24for something like in title:
1:24:27write for us wrapped in quotes, and then
1:24:29a keyword that's related to your niche.
1:24:32In this case, this search query will
1:24:34show us pages that include the phrase
1:24:35write for us in the title and have the
1:24:38word golf balls somewhere on the page.
1:24:40And this is a common footprint that
1:24:42websites use to attract guest writers.
1:24:45Now, because you'll want to write for
1:24:46sites with some kind of link authority,
1:24:48you can use Ahrefs SEO toolbar to see
1:24:50link authority metrics right within
1:24:52Google search results. And if you don't
1:24:54have an Ahrefs account, you can use our
1:24:56free website authority checker to see
1:24:58the domain ratings for these sites.
1:25:01Another way to find a list of sites fast
1:25:03is to use Ahrefs Content Explorer.
1:25:06Content Explorer is a searchable
1:25:07database where you can find pages on any
1:25:10topic along with both social and SEO
1:25:13metrics. To get started, just enter a
1:25:15topic that's related to your niche and
1:25:17run the search.
1:25:19Next, you'll want to set some filters to
1:25:21ensure that A, you're getting relevant
1:25:23results, and B, that you're reaching out
1:25:25to websites that have some kind of link
1:25:27authority.
1:25:29So, first, I'll set the language filter
1:25:30to English, since that's the only
1:25:32language I'll be able to write in.
1:25:35Then, I'll set a domain rating filter
1:25:36and set it to a range like 30 to 60.
1:25:40Now, if this is your first time guest
1:25:42blogging, then you may want to set a
1:25:43lower range like 10 to 30 to get
1:25:46practice before pitching more
1:25:47authoritative sites. Or if you're a
1:25:49season guest blogger, then you can try
1:25:51something like 40 to 70.
1:25:54All right, so next, I'll enable this
1:25:56filter, one page per domain, which will
1:25:58narrow our results to one page per
1:26:00website. And this is almost a must-do
1:26:03kind of thing, because there's no point
1:26:05in pitching the same website numerous
1:26:07times.
1:26:08Now, with around 200,000 domains, you
1:26:11might be wondering which ones allow
1:26:13guest posts. The truth is, you won't
1:26:16know until you ask. But there's a way to
1:26:18improve your hit rate, and that's to
1:26:20look at websites that have previously
1:26:22accepted guest authors. To find those
1:26:24sites, just click on the websites tab
1:26:27and make sure that your results are
1:26:28sorted by the number of authors.
1:26:31Basically, the more authors you see, the
1:26:33more probable it is that they accept
1:26:35guest posts.
1:26:37Either that or they have a big staff of
1:26:38writers.
1:26:40From here, you can export the results
1:26:42and then move on to the vetting stage.
1:26:44At this point, you'll want to do a quick
1:26:45check to make sure that the websites
1:26:47don't look spammy and that they're
1:26:49actually relevant to your site.
1:26:51For example, golfballs.com is clearly
1:26:54going to be relevant and it's not spammy
1:26:56at all, seeing as it's just a regular
1:26:58e-commerce site.
1:27:00As for metricscat.com,
1:27:02the domain doesn't look like it's about
1:27:04golf. And if you visit the site, you'll
1:27:06see that it looks like a software
1:27:07company. So, we'd exclude this domain
1:27:09from our outreach list.
1:27:11Now, another thing worth checking is the
1:27:13domain's site-wide organic traffic.
1:27:16To do that, go to Site Explorer and
1:27:18search for the domain.
1:27:19Next, click on the organic search tab.
1:27:22If the site is getting consistent search
1:27:24traffic like this, then it's a good sign
1:27:26that the domain is in good standing with
1:27:28Google. Domains that have an organic
1:27:30traffic like this is probably something
1:27:33you'd want to exclude when vetting
1:27:34sites. Reason being, this huge decline
1:27:38in search traffic is telling us that
1:27:39Google may have penalized the website.
1:27:42So, you probably wouldn't want to
1:27:43associate your domain with theirs. Now,
1:27:46when you're vetting, you'll likely want
1:27:48to find around 10 times the number of
1:27:50posts you can write in a week. For
1:27:52example, if you can write two posts per
1:27:54week, then try and find 20 vetted sites.
1:27:57Reason being, most people won't accept
1:28:00your post, let alone respond to you. All
1:28:02right, let's move on to the next stage,
1:28:04which is email outreach. Now, when
1:28:06you're pitching websites for a guest
1:28:07post, ideally, you want to come up with
1:28:09a good reason as to why they should
1:28:11accept your post.
1:28:13Free content is great and all, but it's
1:28:15not necessarily so convincing that
1:28:18everyone will accept it. So, take some
1:28:20time to do your research on the site.
1:28:22See how your expertise can be helpful
1:28:24for their audience or business. For
1:28:27example, if we look at the blog for
1:28:28golfballs.com,
1:28:30you'll see that they have content on the
1:28:32best golf balls for kids.
1:28:34And after searching through their site,
1:28:36I found that they have another guide on
1:28:37the best golf balls for the longest
1:28:39distance. Now, they're missing out on a
1:28:41lot of these best golf balls for blank.
1:28:44And seeing as they're in the business of
1:28:46selling golf balls, I could easily pitch
1:28:48them topics on something like best golf
1:28:51balls for high handicappers, which
1:28:53according to Ahrefs Keywords Explorer,
1:28:55gets searched around 800 times per month
1:28:58globally. So, I might send them an email
1:29:00and say something like, "Hey, whatever
1:29:02the editor's name is, I was digging
1:29:04through your site and saw that you have
1:29:05a couple of posts on the best golf balls
1:29:07for kids and for distance, but I was
1:29:09pretty surprised to see that you don't
1:29:11have one for other types of players,
1:29:13i.e., seniors. Being a high handicapper
1:29:16myself, I spent hundreds of dollars on
1:29:18balls and countless hours on launch
1:29:21monitors to find the best ball for me.
1:29:23If you're open, I'd love to write a post
1:29:25for you about how to find the best golf
1:29:27balls for hacky golfers like myself. I'm
1:29:30happy to share all the data and stats,
1:29:32which I think will help people make an
1:29:33informed decision as they shop through
1:29:35your store. Is that something you'd be
1:29:37open to? Cheers, Sam.
1:29:40Now, with this outreach email, I'm
1:29:41showing them that I've done my research
1:29:43on their site. I'm a golfer myself. I
1:29:45have some unique data, which I spent
1:29:47time and money to get, and I'm also
1:29:50showing them how my post could help them
1:29:51get more sales. We'll talk quite a bit
1:29:54about outreach in the next lesson, so
1:29:56let's move on to the final tactic, which
1:29:58is the skyscraper technique. The
1:30:00skyscraper technique is a link building
1:30:02tactic where you find content that has a
1:30:04lot of links, create your own version on
1:30:06the topic, but improve on it, and then
1:30:09reach out to those linking to the
1:30:10popular post, and ask them to link to
1:30:13yours.
1:30:14Now, if we were to go through the
1:30:15prospecting, vetting, and outreach
1:30:17stages, this lesson would be extended
1:30:19another 7 to 8 minutes. So, instead,
1:30:22I'll link up a video which will take you
1:30:24through the entire process step-by-step.
1:30:27In fact, we have an entire playlist
1:30:29dedicated to link building tactics,
1:30:31strategies, and processes. So, I highly
1:30:34recommend watching that, too.
1:30:36Now, prospecting and vetting are pretty
1:30:37straightforward, but the hardest part of
1:30:40link building, and the part that makes
1:30:41link building challenging, is outreach.
1:30:44So, the next lesson is dedicated to
1:30:46crafting highly effective outreach
1:30:48emails.
1:30:50Hey, it's Sam Oh, and welcome to the
1:30:52final lesson in our link building
1:30:53module. Today, we're going to cover how
1:30:55to do blogger outreach that leads to
1:30:57backlinks. And this may very well be the
1:31:00most important lesson in this entire
1:31:03module, because nearly all link building
1:31:05tactics require some sort of email
1:31:07exchange. So, today, we'll cover the
1:31:09primary objectives of blogger outreach,
1:31:12two common approaches, and I'll break
1:31:14down the anatomy of a good quality
1:31:16outreach email. Let's get started. So,
1:31:18the primary objective of blogger
1:31:20outreach is to convince those with large
1:31:22targeted audiences to talk about you.
1:31:25And from the perspective of an SEO, you
1:31:27want them to link to your website. Now,
1:31:29outreach doesn't mean broadcasting,
1:31:31meaning you shouldn't be sending every
1:31:33single person the exact same email, like
1:31:35you would through email marketing. For
1:31:37example, this outreach email that I got
1:31:40is what typical blogger outreach looks
1:31:41like today.
1:31:43First of all, I can see that they didn't
1:31:44even take a second to check what my name
1:31:46is when literally 2/3 of all pages on my
1:31:50personal site have my full name on them.
1:31:52Instead, they stuck with a generic
1:31:54"there", used it in a mass mailing
1:31:56software, and broadcasted it out to
1:31:59hundreds, maybe even thousands of
1:32:01people. But the name thing isn't that
1:32:03big of a deal.
1:32:04Second, this is clearly a generic
1:32:06templated email with zero consideration
1:32:09for the recipients. The person says,
1:32:11"I'm writing because I saw your post
1:32:14here." Then they didn't even take a
1:32:15second to proofread the email, and their
1:32:18justification for me to link to them is
1:32:20because it fits well in my post. On top
1:32:24of that, the person followed up with me
1:32:25three more times with nearly the exact
1:32:29same email, all sent within the same
1:32:3130-minute period.
1:32:33This, ladies and gentlemen, is called
1:32:35spam. And the results of these kinds of
1:32:38emails lead to nothing. The page the
1:32:40person wanted me to link to got a total
1:32:43of two backlinks, and both of them are
1:32:45irrelevant and look like they've been
1:32:46paid for. And those backlinks aren't
1:32:49moving the needle since the page gets
1:32:51zero organic search visits. These kinds
1:32:54of emails, along with hundreds of others
1:32:55in my inbox, are prime examples of why
1:32:58you need to write good quality emails.
1:33:01Otherwise, you'll just blend in with the
1:33:03rest of the spam people get on a daily
1:33:05basis. After all, these are unsolicited
1:33:08emails. Now, to be clear, it doesn't
1:33:11mean that you can't use some sort of
1:33:13template to send a lot of emails
1:33:15efficiently. For example, I literally
1:33:17just got this email in my inbox, and it
1:33:19says, "Hey Sam, I just published a
1:33:21roundup post about the best personal
1:33:23blogs to read, and I featured you in
1:33:25it." And that's a link to his post. Then
1:33:28he explicitly says, "But I'm not looking
1:33:30for a share or anything like that. I
1:33:32just wanted to say thank you for all the
1:33:34inspiration you've brought to the
1:33:35blogosphere and digital marketing world.
1:33:38Best of luck in your endeavors, and keep
1:33:40up the good work on Ahrefs' YouTube
1:33:42channel."
1:33:43This email didn't come to my Ahrefs'
1:33:45email account. It came to the one on my
1:33:46personal site. So, he clearly did a bit
1:33:49of digging before sending the email, and
1:33:51I'm sure he sent a similar message to
1:33:53all 117 people he featured. So, you
1:33:57might be thinking, "What's the point of
1:33:58this email if he's not asking for
1:34:00anything?" We'll get to that later in
1:34:02this lesson. Now, the first email that I
1:34:04just showed you is one of the common
1:34:06approaches to blogger outreach. It's
1:34:08called the shotgun approach, where you
1:34:10build a broad list of targets, load them
1:34:13up into an outreach tool, and then blast
1:34:15out emails to anyone and everyone.
1:34:18The opposite approach to this is the
1:34:20sniper method. This is when you choose
1:34:22targets carefully based on a tight set
1:34:24of criteria, and then send personalized
1:34:26emails. Of the two methods, we recommend
1:34:29going with a sniper approach, because
1:34:31shotgunning emails to anyone and
1:34:33everyone is a sure-fire way to burn
1:34:36bridges. Plus, no one likes spam. And
1:34:39for that reason, the rest of this lesson
1:34:41will be centered around the sniper
1:34:42approach.
1:34:44So, before we get into actually crafting
1:34:46your outreach emails, let's quickly talk
1:34:48about who you should be contacting and
1:34:50how to find their email addresses. In
1:34:52general, you'll want to contact the
1:34:54author of the post if they work for the
1:34:56website. For example, this is a post
1:34:59written by Joshua Hardwick on the
1:35:01Ahrefs' blog. Seeing as his profile
1:35:03states, "Head of content at Ahrefs", you
1:35:06know he works there and controls what
1:35:08gets published on the Ahrefs' blog.
1:35:10Now, for this post by Josh, there
1:35:12wouldn't be any use in contacting him
1:35:14because he doesn't work for SitePoint.
1:35:17In this case, you'd want to contact the
1:35:18editor of the blog. To find who that
1:35:20person is, you can check places like the
1:35:23website's about or team page, their
1:35:25write for us page, if they have one, or
1:35:28their company's LinkedIn profile.
1:35:30Now, to actually find the person's email
1:35:32address, the easiest way is to check
1:35:34contact and about pages. This works best
1:35:37for websites with one author. For
1:35:39websites that have multiple people
1:35:41involved, like SitePoint or Ahrefs, you
1:35:43usually won't find individuals' email
1:35:45addresses on their site. So, to find
1:35:48these emails, you can use a tool like
1:35:49hunter.io. Go to their email finder
1:35:52tool, and just search for their first
1:35:54and last name, as well as the domain.
1:35:57Hunter will then give you their best
1:35:58guess. In this case, they're wrong, but
1:36:01the success rate is generally quite
1:36:03high. All right, so if you've done the
1:36:05work for the lessons in this module to
1:36:06this point, then you should have chosen
1:36:08one of the three tactics I outlined,
1:36:10created a list of prospects, vetted your
1:36:13list, and found some email addresses.
1:36:15So, it's time to actually write the
1:36:16pitch.
1:36:18Now, while there isn't exactly a
1:36:19streamlined formula for every outreach
1:36:21email you send, I want to talk about the
1:36:24anatomy of a simple outreach email that
1:36:26has been effective for me for many years
1:36:28now. And there are five main parts to a
1:36:30typical outreach email.
1:36:32First is the subject line.
1:36:34The goal of the subject line is simply
1:36:36to get them to open the email.
1:36:38Otherwise, there's no chance at getting
1:36:40a response. But you don't want to
1:36:42clickbait them, because that'll only
1:36:44leave a bad impression. So, when you're
1:36:46writing a subject line, you want to
1:36:48briefly and accurately describe why
1:36:50you're emailing them, and ideally evoke
1:36:53curiosity.
1:36:54If we look back at my guest blogging
1:36:56outreach email from the previous lesson,
1:36:58I showed you a hypothetical pitch where
1:37:00I asked if I could write a post for a
1:37:02golf site and share data I have on the
1:37:04best golf balls for high handicappers.
1:37:07So, I might use a subject line like,
1:37:09"New data. Best balls for high
1:37:11handicappers."
1:37:12In my opinion, the new data part evokes
1:37:15curiosity, and the rest of the subject
1:37:17line explains the topic of the email.
1:37:20The next part is the introduction. And
1:37:22while there are numerous ways to write
1:37:23an intro, I think it's best to start by
1:37:26telling them why you're emailing them.
1:37:28And the goal of this part is to get them
1:37:30to read the next part of the email.
1:37:32For example, with our guest posting
1:37:34sample email, I said, "I was digging
1:37:36through your site and saw that you have
1:37:38a couple of posts on the best golf balls
1:37:40for kids and for distance. But I was
1:37:43pretty surprised to see that you don't
1:37:44have one for other types of players,
1:37:47i.e., seniors."
1:37:48Now, I will admit that the first
1:37:50sentence could definitely be stronger,
1:37:52but I'm basically saying that you've
1:37:54done this and this, but looks like
1:37:56you're missing out on an opportunity
1:37:57here.
1:37:58The next part of the email is
1:37:59qualification and justification.
1:38:02Simply asking someone for a favor and
1:38:04expecting them to see a mutual benefit
1:38:07is naive. You need to show them why
1:38:09you're qualified and justify the pitch
1:38:12that we'll get to in a second. For
1:38:14example, if you're contacting someone to
1:38:16guest post, then explain why they should
1:38:18accept your post over potentially
1:38:20hundreds of other submissions. If you're
1:38:22asking them to add your link to a page
1:38:24on their site, give them an actual good
1:38:26reason why they should. So, in our guest
1:38:28posting sample, you'll see that I said,
1:38:31"Being a high-handicapper myself, I
1:38:33spent hundreds of dollars on balls and
1:38:35countless hours on launch monitors to
1:38:37find the best ball for me."
1:38:39So, the fact that A, I mentioned I'm a
1:38:41high-handicapper, and B, I've tested
1:38:44numerous balls and gotten factual data
1:38:47from launch monitors, qualifies and
1:38:49justifies what I'm about to pitch, which
1:38:52again, is a guest post about the best
1:38:54golf balls for high handicappers.
1:38:57Now, to really drill in on the concept
1:38:59of qualification and justification,
1:39:01let's look at an example email for the
1:39:03skyscraper technique. A little while
1:39:05back, we did some outreach to get links
1:39:07to our blog post on SEO statistics. So,
1:39:10we emailed people with an email that
1:39:12looks something like this.
1:39:14Hi name, I saw you mentioned how 93% of
1:39:17online experiences begin with a search
1:39:19engine on your page about how to do
1:39:21keyword research. That's our reason for
1:39:23contact. We then went on to say, "That's
1:39:26that is actually 14 years old. More
1:39:29recent research suggests that this
1:39:30number has gone down to 68%.
1:39:33I think it's lower because social and
1:39:35other sources now account for around 1/3
1:39:37of traffic."
1:39:39That's our qualification and
1:39:40justification for what we're about to
1:39:42pitch. And obviously, the next part of
1:39:45the email is the pitch.
1:39:47The pitch essentially includes your ask,
1:39:49as well as your value proposition. And
1:39:51generally speaking, the stronger your
1:39:53value proposition, the higher the chance
1:39:55of getting a link. So, for our guest
1:39:57posting example, I said, "If you're
1:39:59open, I'd love to write a post for you
1:40:01about how to find the best golf balls
1:40:04for hacky golfers like myself." And
1:40:06here's my value proposition. I'm happy
1:40:08to share all of the data and stats,
1:40:11which I think will help people make an
1:40:12informed decision as they shop through
1:40:14your store. So, not only are they
1:40:16getting data for free, but I'm showing
1:40:18them how that can bring value to their
1:40:20bottom line. Now, it's not always easy
1:40:23to think of a solid value proposition.
1:40:25For example, in our SEO stats email, our
1:40:28pitch was, "We published this and a few
1:40:30other fresh SEO stats here. Not sure if
1:40:33you're actively editing posts, but might
1:40:35be worth an update if you are. No
1:40:37pressure."
1:40:38So, what exactly is the value
1:40:40proposition?
1:40:41We're helping bloggers keep their
1:40:42content up to date. In fact, we didn't
1:40:44even directly ask for a link, yet we
1:40:47were still able to pick up 27 backlinks.
1:40:49We actually have a full three-part video
1:40:51series on this exact case study, so I'll
1:40:54link that up in the description, and I
1:40:56highly recommend checking it out.
1:40:58All right, the last part of the email is
1:40:59a simple one-liner to keep the
1:41:01conversation rolling.
1:41:03Simply put, you don't want to end your
1:41:05email with a cold, hard pitch. The
1:41:07purpose of your first email should be to
1:41:09start a conversation. So, you might say
1:41:11something like, "Is that something you'd
1:41:13be open to? Is there anything I missed?
1:41:16What do you think? Do you agree with our
1:41:18conclusion?" Or whatever.
1:41:20Now, this is just a basic template you
1:41:21can use as you start blogger outreach,
1:41:24but I don't want you to limit yourself
1:41:25within this box. All you're really doing
1:41:28is talking to people and starting to
1:41:30build some kind of relationship. Just
1:41:33think about it like an in-person
1:41:34encounter. You wouldn't go to a party
1:41:36and ask a complete stranger to buy you a
1:41:38drink. You might strike up a
1:41:40conversation, connect with them on a
1:41:42common interest, and maybe buy the first
1:41:44round of drinks, expecting nothing in
1:41:46return. And as a result, they might want
1:41:48to reciprocate by returning an act of
1:41:50kindness. Again, the goal of the very
1:41:53first email you send is simple: start a
1:41:56conversation. And this brings us back to
1:41:58this outreach email that I got.
1:42:01The person who mentioned me on their
1:42:02site specifically told me that he's not
1:42:04looking for a share or anything like
1:42:06that, and he literally just wants to say
1:42:09thank you. So, what did that accomplish?
1:42:11Number one, I actually read his email.
1:42:14Number two, I responded to him and said
1:42:16thanks for the mention. And number
1:42:18three, should he email me again, I'll
1:42:20probably open it because I'll recognize
1:42:22his name.
1:42:23So, while there will be times where it
1:42:25makes sense to ask for the link or guest
1:42:27posting opportunity right away, there
1:42:30are a lot of times when it makes more
1:42:32sense to just start that conversation
1:42:35and see where it leads.
1:42:37The final tip I want to leave you with
1:42:38is to only use your best work when
1:42:41sending email pitches. You don't want to
1:42:43email anyone and everyone for every
1:42:46single piece of content you create. For
1:42:48example, if you had a golf site and you
1:42:50created a post on a topic like, "What is
1:42:53a handicap?" there's nothing interesting
1:42:55or unique about it, yet it's still a
1:42:57topic you would probably want to cover.
1:43:00Coming up with a good reason for them to
1:43:02link to you on this topic would be
1:43:03tough. Plus, time is finite. So, it's
1:43:07worth doing outreach for your best
1:43:08content because there's a higher
1:43:10probability that it'll result in
1:43:12backlinks.
1:43:13All right, so with everything you've
1:43:15learned up to this point, you should be
1:43:16able to create content for your website
1:43:18that'll get traffic from search engines.
1:43:20But there's still one piece to the
1:43:22fundamentals of SEO that we haven't
1:43:24covered, and that's technical SEO.
1:43:27Hey, it's Ahrefs, and welcome to the
1:43:29final module in Ahrefs' SEO course for
1:43:32beginners. Throughout the next two
1:43:33lessons, we're going to be talking about
1:43:35technical SEO. And technical SEO is the
1:43:38process of optimizing your website to
1:43:40help search engines find, understand,
1:43:43and index your pages.
1:43:45Now, for beginners, technical SEO
1:43:47doesn't need to be all that technical.
1:43:50And for that reason, this module will be
1:43:52focused on the basics, so you can
1:43:54perform regular maintenance on your site
1:43:56and ensure that your pages can be
1:43:57discovered and indexed by search
1:43:59engines. Let's get started. All right,
1:44:02so let's talk about why technical SEO is
1:44:04important at the core. Basically, if
1:44:07search engines can't properly access,
1:44:09read, understand, or index your pages,
1:44:12then you won't rank or even be found for
1:44:14that matter. So, to avoid innocent
1:44:17mistakes like removing yourself from
1:44:18Google's index or diluting a page's
1:44:21backlinks, I want to discuss four things
1:44:23that should help you avoid that. First
1:44:25is the noindex meta tag. By adding this
1:44:28piece of code to your page, it's telling
1:44:30search engines not to add it to their
1:44:32index, and you probably don't want to do
1:44:35that. And this actually happens more
1:44:37often than you might think. For example,
1:44:39let's say you hired Design Ink to create
1:44:42or redesign a website for you.
1:44:44During the development phase, they may
1:44:46create it on a subdomain on their own
1:44:48site. So, it actually makes sense for
1:44:50them to noindex the site they're working
1:44:51on. But what often happens is after
1:44:54you've approved the design, they'll
1:44:55migrate it over to your domain. But,
1:44:58they often forget to remove the meta
1:45:00noindex tag, and as a result, your pages
1:45:03end up getting removed from Google
1:45:05search index or never making it in. Now,
1:45:08there are times when it actually makes
1:45:09sense to noindex certain pages. For
1:45:12example, our authors' pages are
1:45:14noindexed because from an SEO
1:45:16perspective, these pages provide very
1:45:19little value to search engines. But from
1:45:21a user experience standpoint, it can be
1:45:23argued that it makes sense to be there.
1:45:26Some people may have their favorite
1:45:27authors on a blog and want to read just
1:45:29their content. Generally speaking, for
1:45:32small sites, you won't need to worry
1:45:34about noindexing specific pages. Just
1:45:37keep your eye out for noindex tags on
1:45:38your pages, especially if after a
1:45:41redesign.
1:45:42The second point of discussion is
1:45:43robots.txt.
1:45:45Robots.txt is a file that usually lives
1:45:48on your root domain, and you should be
1:45:50able to access it at
1:45:51yourdomain.com/robots.txt.
1:45:55Now, the file itself includes a set of
1:45:57rules for search engine crawlers and
1:45:59tells them where they can and cannot go
1:46:01on your site. And it's important to note
1:46:04that a website can have multiple robots
1:46:06files if you're using subdomains. For
1:46:08example, if you have a blog on
1:46:10domain.com, then you'd have a robots.txt
1:46:13file for just the root domain. But you
1:46:15might also have an e-commerce store that
1:46:18lives on store.domain.com.
1:46:20So, you could have a separate robots
1:46:22file for your online store.
1:46:24That means that crawlers could be given
1:46:26two different sets of rules depending on
1:46:28the domain they're trying to crawl.
1:46:30Now, the rules are created using
1:46:31something called directives. And while
1:46:33you probably don't need to know what all
1:46:36of them are or what they do, there are
1:46:38two that you should know about from an
1:46:40indexing standpoint. The first is
1:46:42user-agent, which defines the crawler
1:46:44that the rules apply to. And the value
1:46:47for this directive will be the name of
1:46:49the crawler. For example, Google's
1:46:51user-agent is named Googlebot. And the
1:46:53second directive is disallow. This is a
1:46:56page or directory on your domain that
1:46:58you don't want the user-agent to crawl.
1:47:01For example, if you set the user-agent
1:47:03to Googlebot and the disallow value to a
1:47:05slash, you're telling Google not to
1:47:08crawl any pages on your site. Not good.
1:47:11Now, if you were to set the user-agent
1:47:13to an asterisk, that means your rules
1:47:15should apply to all crawlers. So, if
1:47:18your robots file looks something like
1:47:20this, then it's telling all crawlers,
1:47:22"Please don't crawl any pages on my
1:47:24site."
1:47:26While this might sound like something
1:47:27you would never use, there are times
1:47:29when it makes sense to block certain
1:47:31parts of your site or to block certain
1:47:33crawlers.
1:47:34For example, if you have a WordPress
1:47:36website and you don't want your WP-admin
1:47:39folder to be crawled, then you can
1:47:40simply set the user-agent to all
1:47:42crawlers and set the disallow value to
1:47:45/wp-admin.
1:47:47Now, if you're a beginner, I wouldn't
1:47:49worry too much about your robots file.
1:47:51But if you run into any indexing issues
1:47:53that need to be troubleshooted,
1:47:55robots.txt is one of the first places
1:47:58I'd check.
1:47:59All right, the next thing to discuss are
1:48:00sitemaps. Sitemaps are usually XML
1:48:03files, and they list the important URLs
1:48:05on your website. So, these can be pages,
1:48:08images, videos, and other files. And
1:48:11sitemaps help search engines like Google
1:48:13to more intelligently crawl your site.
1:48:16Now, creating an XML file can be
1:48:17complicated if you don't know how to
1:48:19code, and it's almost impossible to
1:48:21maintain manually. But if you're using a
1:48:24CMS like WordPress, there are plugins
1:48:26like Yoast and Rank Math, which will
1:48:29automatically generate sitemaps for you.
1:48:31To help search engines find your
1:48:33sitemaps, you can use the sitemap
1:48:35directive in your robots file and also
1:48:37submit it in Google Search Console.
1:48:40Next up are redirects. A redirect takes
1:48:42visitors and bots from one URL to
1:48:45another, and their purpose is to
1:48:47consolidate signals. For example, let's
1:48:49say you have two pages on your website
1:48:51on the best golf balls, an old one at
1:48:54domain.com/bestgolfballs2018
1:48:57and another at domain.com/bestgolfballs.
1:49:02Seeing as these are highly relevant to
1:49:03one another, it would make sense to
1:49:05redirect the 2018 version to the current
1:49:08version. And by consolidating these
1:49:10pages, you're telling search engines to
1:49:12pass the signals from the redirected URL
1:49:15to the destination URL.
1:49:17And the last point I want to talk about
1:49:19is the canonical tag. A canonical tag is
1:49:21a snippet of HTML code that looks like
1:49:24this. Its purpose is to tell search
1:49:26engines what the preferred URL is for a
1:49:29page. And this helps to solve duplicate
1:49:31content issues.
1:49:33For example, let's say your website is
1:49:35accessible at both http://yourdomain.com
1:49:40and https://yourdomain.com.
1:49:46And for whatever reason, you weren't
1:49:48able to use a redirect. These would be
1:49:50exact duplicates. But by setting a
1:49:52canonical URL, you're telling search
1:49:54engines that there's a preferred version
1:49:56of the page. As a result, they'll pass
1:49:59signals such as links to the canonical
1:50:01URL, so they're not diluted across two
1:50:03different pages.
1:50:05Now, it's important to note that Google
1:50:07may choose to ignore your canonical tag.
1:50:09Looking back at the previous example, if
1:50:11we set the canonical tag to the unsecure
1:50:14HTTP page, Google would probably choose
1:50:17the secure HTTPS version instead.
1:50:21Now, if you're running a simple
1:50:22WordPress site, you shouldn't have to
1:50:24worry about this too much. CMSs are
1:50:26pretty good out of the box and will
1:50:28handle a lot of these basic technical
1:50:30issues for you.
1:50:31So, these are some of the foundational
1:50:33things that are good to know when it
1:50:34comes to indexing, which is arguably the
1:50:37most important part in SEO. Because
1:50:39again, if your pages aren't getting
1:50:41indexed, nothing else really matters.
1:50:44Now, we won't really dig deeper into
1:50:46this because you'll probably only have
1:50:48to worry about indexing issues if and
1:50:50when you run into problems. Instead,
1:50:52we'll be focusing on technical SEO best
1:50:55practices to keep your website in good
1:50:57health.
1:50:59Hey, it's Ammo and welcome to the final
1:51:01lesson in this module. And actually,
1:51:03it's the last lesson in Ahrefs SEO
1:51:05course for beginners. In this lesson,
1:51:08we're going to go through some technical
1:51:09SEO best practices so you can keep your
1:51:12site in good health. Let's get started.
1:51:14So, the first thing you should do is
1:51:16ensure that your site structure follows
1:51:18a logical hierarchy. Site structure is
1:51:20simply the way you organize content on
1:51:22your website. You can think of it like a
1:51:24mind map. At the top, you'd have your
1:51:26homepage. Then you'd probably have main
1:51:29topics that branch out from your
1:51:30homepage like your services page, your
1:51:33blog, and about page. Then from these
1:51:36main topics, you'd probably have even
1:51:38more branches to other pages.
1:51:40These branches represent internal links,
1:51:43which are just links from one page on
1:51:44your site to another. And they help
1:51:46search engines understand the
1:51:48relationship between these pages.
1:51:50Site structure also helps search engines
1:51:52to crawl your pages more efficiently,
1:51:55which is why having a logical hierarchy
1:51:57is important.
1:51:58Now, what we've talked about is pretty
1:52:00basic stuff, and you may already be
1:52:02doing this. But it can get more complex
1:52:05as you add more pages to your site like
1:52:07blog posts, category pages, or product
1:52:10pages. We have a full video on how to
1:52:12use internal links to rank higher on
1:52:14Google, so I'll link that up for you in
1:52:16the description.
1:52:17All right, the second thing is to ensure
1:52:19your pages don't load slow.
1:52:21As you may know, page speed has been a
1:52:23confirmed ranking factor for desktop
1:52:25search since 2010. And in 2018, Google
1:52:29announced that they'd be using page
1:52:31speed in mobile search rankings. Now,
1:52:33you don't need to obsess over every
1:52:35millisecond it takes for your page to
1:52:37load. Google says, "The speed update, as
1:52:40we're calling it, will only affect pages
1:52:43that deliver the slowest experience to
1:52:45users and will only affect a small
1:52:47percentage of queries." So, bottom line,
1:52:50you don't want your pages to load slow.
1:52:53And there are two very basic things that
1:52:55I think every website should do. The
1:52:57first is to cache your website's
1:52:59content.
1:53:00Caching is basically a way to
1:53:01temporarily store copies of files so it
1:53:04can be delivered to visitors in a more
1:53:06efficient way. And most web hosting
1:53:08companies that I've come across have
1:53:10caching features.
1:53:12And the second thing you can do is
1:53:14compress your images. Compressing images
1:53:17makes your file sizes smaller, and
1:53:19smaller files load faster. You can use a
1:53:21tool like ShortPixel, which has both a
1:53:23web interface and a WordPress plugin.
1:53:26Now, if you want to take page speed a
1:53:28step further, then it can get quite
1:53:30technical and complex. So, we actually
1:53:33created a full tutorial on how to speed
1:53:35up a WordPress website using Cloudflare
1:53:38and a WordPress plugin. So, I'll leave a
1:53:40link to that in the description.
1:53:42And the final thing I want to talk about
1:53:43is to do your best to stay on top of
1:53:45around 50 potential SEO errors.
1:53:49Trust me, it's not as bad as it sounds.
1:53:51There are potentially hundreds of
1:53:53technical SEO issues that can and some
1:53:56will definitely happen to your site.
1:53:58Some of these things include pages
1:54:00becoming broken that still have internal
1:54:03links pointing at them.
1:54:04Orphan pages, which are pages on your
1:54:06site that have no incoming internal
1:54:08links. And these aren't great because it
1:54:10can make it tough for search engines to
1:54:12actually discover them.
1:54:14Duplicate content issues and redirect
1:54:16chains to name a few.
1:54:18Now, there's no point in me going
1:54:19through 50 different potential issues
1:54:22because it'll only matter to you if you
1:54:24run into them. So, what I recommend you
1:54:27do is run scheduled website audits on
1:54:29your site. And a website audit will give
1:54:31you a full analysis of potential issues
1:54:34that could be harming your website's SEO
1:54:36performance. If you're an Ahrefs user,
1:54:38you can do that using our site audit
1:54:40tool. And even if you don't have an
1:54:42Ahrefs paid plan, you can sign up for a
1:54:44free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools account,
1:54:47which will let you crawl up to 10,000
1:54:49pages on each website you own.
1:54:52To get started, go to ahrefs.com/awt
1:54:55and sign up for your free Webmaster
1:54:57Tools account.
1:54:59Then you'll need to verify your website,
1:55:00meaning prove that you actually own it.
1:55:03You can do that using Google Search
1:55:04Console, which is the easiest method. Or
1:55:06if you don't have a Search Console
1:55:08account, you can do it manually. Just
1:55:10enter your domain and click continue.
1:55:13Then verify your website using one of
1:55:15these three methods. And I'll actually
1:55:17just go back and use the Google Search
1:55:19Console method.
1:55:20Next, you'll need to import your sites.
1:55:23And I'll choose to run the first audit
1:55:24now, schedule weekly audits, and I'll
1:55:27also enable the crawl external links
1:55:29option to ensure that we catch any
1:55:31broken or redirected outgoing links.
1:55:35Hit import, and the crawl should start
1:55:37running.
1:55:38Now, after the crawl is completed, go to
1:55:40the overview report in your site audit
1:55:42project, and you'll immediately see
1:55:44things like your health score, which is
1:55:46the percentage of URLs on your site that
1:55:49don't have errors. You'll also see the
1:55:51top issues we found on your site, as
1:55:53well as the number of URLs that had the
1:55:55issue.
1:55:56So, when you run into an issue, you can
1:55:58click on the carrot to see a description
1:56:00of what it means, and also a short
1:56:02snippet of how to fix it. And once you
1:56:05have an idea of what the issue is and
1:56:07how to fix it, just click on the number
1:56:09under the crawled column to see the
1:56:11affected URLs.
1:56:13Then it's just a matter of fixing them
1:56:15one by one or hiring someone to help.
1:56:18And since you set up weekly scheduled
1:56:20audits, you can revisit the overview
1:56:22report to see if there's any SEO
1:56:24maintenance you can do.
1:56:26And that wraps up Ahrefs SEO course for
1:56:28beginners. Everything you've learned in
1:56:30this course should be enough to get you
1:56:32indexed, ranking, and to keep your site
1:56:35in good technical health. And I've
1:56:37linked up a playlist in the description
1:56:39to the entire course with all 14 videos,
1:56:42which will be free forever. Thank you
1:56:44for joining me, and I hope you were able
1:56:46to get a ton of value from the course.
1:56:48And make sure to like, share, and
1:56:49subscribe for more actionable SEO and
1:56:51marketing tutorials. Feel free to browse
1:56:54around our channel, and if you have any
1:56:55questions, leave them in the comments,
1:56:57and we'll do our best to get to each
1:56:59one. I'll see you in the next tutorial.

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