You aced that last exam, waltzed across the stage in your cap and gown, and you’re eager to start your career. The only problem: you’re about to dive into the uncertain abyss that is post-grad life and the only certainty, is that your diploma will arrive in 6-8 weeks.…
The post The Benefits of an Internship After Graduation appeared first on Seer Interactive.
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One of the first big deliverables in an SEO campaign is Keyword Research. At Seer, we leverage a wide variety of data to identify target keywords. We leverage audience insights, paid search data, and 3rd party search data to identify three core attributes:
The post How to Get Client Buy-In for Keyword Recommendations appeared first on Seer Interactive.
While there are many sites that we at Seer keep bookmarked for constant use, one of our favorites definitely has to be SEMrush. When it comes to getting a gut-check on your site and on your competitors’ site – its many features provide a well-rounded view of both.…
The post Three Essential SEMrush Features for SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Pop-ups, overlays, modals and interstitials are similar website elements that can be used to engage users, increase conversions, and prompt other website actions. However, Google understands that these elements impact the user’s experience on a landing page and has implemented ranking penalties to deter websites from using these in a way that is bad for users.…
The post Pop-ups, Overlays, Modals & Interstitials Best Practices appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Managing vendors on behalf of clients is a part of agency life. Whether it’s a tool provider, search engine or social network, we’re often asked to serve as the intermediary between the client and the vendor, but this can be a tricky minefield to navigate.…
The post How to Effectively Manage Relationships between Clients & Vendors appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Once you decide to hire an SEO agency, you have to decide which agency to hire. Whether you are going through the RFP process or reaching out to agencies directly, these 14 questions will help you evaluate which agency is the best fit for your business.…
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There are a lot of problems that can occur in SEO, and it can be super time consuming to complete a full audit – especially if you’re simply looking to identify if there is an opportunity to improve organic visibility on your site.…
The post Identify Critical Technical SEO Issues Using Only Your Browser appeared first on Seer Interactive.
If you do any SEO work, chances are you spend a lot of time in your browser checking out SERPs to survey the landscape for potential keyword targets and on websites making sure your landing pages are providing users exactly what they’re looking for.…
The post The Best Google Chrome Extensions for SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Every industry has their own slang and jargon that, if heard by someone outside the industry, would make absolutely no sense. Well, SEO is no different. I mean SEO is an acronym. Whether you are new to the industry, looking to learn more about SEO, or you’ve recently started working with an SEO agency, here is a list of terms that you need to know.…
The post SEO 101: Digital Marketing Terms & Acronyms appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Branded keywords tend to be deprioritized in organic search strategies because many businesses assume the following:
Question: Which of the above is false?…
The post Brand Search Strategy: Save Campaign Spend and Drive More Organic Sales appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Written By: Mike Kaplan & Aoife Laughlin.
Could you hear it?
On January 22nd, 2020 at 4:30 pm SEOs around the world collectively groaned at the announcement that Google has begun to deduplicate results on Featured Snippet pages.…
The post Featured Snippets Will No Longer Be Repeated in Search Results appeared first on Seer Interactive.
One of the beauties of PPC is that there’s no such thing as “set it and forget it”. We can move spend around and make optimizations to improve the efficiency of our spend, even a few days after launching. Let’s walk through 5 quick checks to get your campaign moving in the right direction.…
The post 5 Things to Check After Launching a PPC Campaign appeared first on Seer Interactive.
There are thousands of personality tests available to learn about your own and your coworkers’ working styles: Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, DISC, etc. At Seer, we’re big on using data vs. trusting our gut, and getting to know our team members and clients is no different!…
The post The Best Personality Test To Know Yourself, Your Team & Your Clients appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Content hubs are all the rage among the SEO community these days. But there’s a lot of confusion out there about what it actually means to build a content marketing hub.
…The post Content Hubs 101: A Guide to SEO Content Strategy appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Giving back has always been a part of our cultural DNA and we are so proud of that. #SeerGivesBack is a team-driven initiative that was implemented to help us live into our values by providing more volunteer options for our team, donating to causes near and dear to our clients and our team, and by fostering relationships with these organizations.…
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Want to increase your sales from Amazon in 2020? Make Amazon advertising a part of your strategy!
Since ads were first introduced on Amazon in 2008 with Sponsored Products, ad options have grown to include Sponsored Brands (formerly headline ads) and Sponsored Display (still in beta).…
The post The Ultimate Guide to Amazon Advertising appeared first on Seer Interactive.
To skip sections or jump around between them – you can use the links below:
With the release of Facebook Analytics (analytics.facebook.com) back in late 2018, it was clear that Facebook had one goal in mind for the future of social tracking – burn everything that wasn’t scalable.…
The post How to Master the Facebook Pixel: A Comprehensive Guide appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Last year Google announced an update to cross-site cookie standards as part of an ongoing effort to improve data privacy and security. The new standards go live with Chrome 80 on February 4, 2020. Firefox and Edge have support planned, but no ETA.…
The post SameSite Security Update for Chrome: What It Means & How To Prepare appeared first on Seer Interactive.
All these acronyms strike fear in a digital marketer’s heart. After all, most of us don’t have a law degree.
Privacy and data is a combination that has been a concern since the advent of digital marketing, and only continues to grow in discussion and regulation.…
The post Data Privacy 101: How to Answer Common Legal Questions About Data appeared first on Seer Interactive.
This SEO turned PPC for a very niche client project. We wanted more insights into what was converting for our client to stop guessing and start using data to make better keyword choices that resonate with our audience. So we paused our SEO engagement and pivoted to a PPC campaign. …
The post 3 Things an SEO Learned During Her First PPC Campaign Build appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Breakups are hard, but when you work in an agency, losing clients is a reality that affects everyone. Client turnover happens to everyone. It’s important to know what to do when a client tells you they’re leaving and how to end the relationship on good terms.…
The post 4 Things to Do When a Client Tells You They’re Leaving appeared first on Seer Interactive.
We knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time before Google launched its first algorithm update for 2020. Although there were rumors of a ranking update on January 7th, on January 13th, Google Search Liaison reported an upcoming release of a broad core algorithm update: the January 2020 Core Update.…
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At Seer, our account teams are usually made up of an account manager and an associate. The account manager is the primary point of contact for the client projects they work on, driving the overall strategy of the project, and overseeing the day-to-day tactical work that helps drive that strategy.…
The post The AM/Associate Questionnaire: Starting Your Account Team Relationship Off Right appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Google receives around 63,000 searches every second, but have you ever wondered how it processes these requests?
The Google “brain” so to speak is ever-changing and can be seen gathering large amounts of data at any moment. Google has evolved and become more sophisticated over the years and is now able to process natural language making informed decisions on what the consumer base is looking for.…
The post Why Linguistics & Natural Language Processing are Important for SEO appeared first on Seer Interactive.
I’m going to talk about two different kinds of industry updates here: Digital Marketing updates (our industry) and Client Industry updates (their industry).
In the fast-paced, ever-changing digital marketing industry, it’s important to stay up-to-date with what’s happening.…
The post Updating Your Clients On Our Industry & Their Own appeared first on Seer Interactive.
The Google Analytics IQ (GAIQ) exam can be daunting when you approach it, especially if it’s your first time taking it.
As marketers, Google Analytics is one of the most important tools we have at our fingertips to tell us about our client’s performance – so knowing how to use it and its ever-evolving features is critical!…
The post 5 Tips for Passing The Google Analytics IQ (GAIQ) Exam appeared first on Seer Interactive.
When I moved on from my last agency and accepted a job offer at Seer, one of my biggest reasons for doing so was because I was looking for a challenge and growth opportunity. I’ve been working at Seer for a little over half a year now, and in such a short amount of time, I’ve learned a lot about how to achieve professional growth.…
The post 3 Things I Learned About Growth During My First 6 Months At Seer appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Ahrefs is a tool we use frequently at Seer. Whether it’s keyword research, finding backlink and outreach opportunities, or finding organic search opportunities, Ahrefs is a solid platform with a ton of different features.
If you’re looking for new ways to use this tool, here are three features we love, as well as some tips on how to use them:
Of all of its myriad features and dashboard, Ahrefs is renowned for its backlink data.…
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Looking for an SEO consultant who can help you grow your company in 2020? Keep reading.
An SEO consultant is an advisor who helps companies improve their search engine rankings. This applies to every search engine including Google, Bing, YouTube, and even Amazon.
An SEO consultant can help you grow your company in few different ways.
SEO consultants can be called on to answer all your burning SEO questions. Sometimes you don’t need a full-on SEO analysis and roadmap. Sometimes you just need to get some targeted questions answered by an SEO expert.
he most common use of an SEO consultant is to analyze existing campaigns and develop a strategy for improving them.
Typically a consultant will perform an SEO audit and then create a list of actions based on what will have the highest impact.
All you need to do is execute on these actions, track performance, and stay in touch with the consultant as questions or challenges arise.
Having a second set of eyes (especially someone who’s probably already experienced whatever challenge you’re having) can take your SEO performance to another level.
Not every company has jumped on the SEO bandwagon.
That’s when a proven SEO consultant comes into play.
The consultant can develop a 6-12 month (or longer) SEO plan for driving more organic search traffic.
Some companies already have a digital marketing team in place and just need some additional guidance and SEO training.
An SEO consultant can come in, analyze your campaign(s), and guide your team members so they can drive better results.
This type of consulting is most common with digital marketing agencies that want to improve their team’s performance, so their clients can get better results.
Now you know what a qualified SEO consultant can do for your company.
Here’s what do you need to do next:
Think about what you truly want when you hire an SEO consultant.
But now you might be wondering:
How do you find a qualified SEO consultant?
I’ve developed an 8-step qualification process for hiring the perfect SEO consultant for your company.
Make sure you read qualification step #4 because getting it wrong could destroy your SEO performance.
Hiring an SEO consultant is a big step for every company.
These questions will bounce around in your mind. That’s okay because they should.
Hiring a qualified SEO consultant can explode your company’s growth, but hiring the wrong one, can be devastating. You SHOULD be asking these questions.
That’s why today I’m going to give you 8 steps you need to cover when you’re trying to hire an SEO consultant.
Let’s jump right in.
An SEO consultant should be able to demonstrate that they know what they’re doing. All that matters are the results that are being achieved TODAY. Not years ago.
That’s why I laugh when some “experts” claim that ranking for “SEO” keywords is “worthless”. If these keywords are “worthless”, then why aren’t these supposed experts easily ranking for them?
Well, the answer is simple. They can’t.
You’re hiring an SEO consultant to get you more traffic, leads, and customers from organic search.
How could you possibly trust someone or a company that can’t visibly do it themselves?
That’s why I’ve put in concentrated effort to rank for “SEO” keywords since launched Gotch SEO. From the very beginning, I wanted to PROVE to clients that I knew what I was doing.
Of course, getting client results is more important. But ranking for your industry’s keywords is further proof that you know what you’re doing.
How can anyone deny this?
One last important point here:
Be careful of “experts” that claim to have “achieved” results when they’re an in-house SEO.
All the results I’ve achieved for Gotch SEO and our clients are my own doing.
I didn’t have a massive team with an enormous budget pushing these results forward. I didn’t join an already successful company and claim that I was the catalyst for their growth.
Most companies I’ve worked with have virtually no organic search traffic or rankings. I grew them from the ground up. I didn’t jump on an existing rocket ship and claim I did some magic.
The TL;DR of this section is simple:
Only consider SEO consultants that have real results that you can see with your own eyes.
There are variety of reasons to hire an SEO consultant. It’s a good idea to know what objectives you want to achieve by hiring an SEO consultant.
I believe two people need to genuinely like and enjoy talking to each other for a business relationship to work out. It’s crazy how well principles in your personal life translate business world.
Would you be friends with someone who didn’t like? Then why do we do business with people who make us cringe even thinking about them?
I used to take on pretty much every client because I was money-hungry.
I’ve learned over the last 5 years of running an SEO company that this is a horrible idea. That’s why I always make sure it’s a good fit before engaging in any relationship. You should do the same.
When you speak to a prospective SEO consultant, you need to be thinking about a few things:
Don’t underestimate the importance of this step. Every time I ignored “my gut” and all the warning signs, I ended up regretting it.
In fact:
I just recently I told a prospect (who was willing to pay $5,000/mo + for SEO) that I had to pass on the engagement.
Am I insane for passing up money? Maybe.
But in my eyes, my personal health and wellbeing in the long-term is far more important than money (or dealing with a nightmare client).
There might be some situations that warrant sketchier SEO strategies such as companies in phrama, gambling, etc. However, most companies (in non-controversial industries) should use safe, long-term focused SEO strategies.
You don’t need an SEO consultant to say that they’re “white hat” to know whether that’s true or not. You just need to analyze what they’re saying.
A qualified SEO consultant will talk a lot about the following:
The most important element to ask questions about is link acquisition.
There are many SEO consultant (and companies) that still use high-risk link building tactics. Some of these tactics include Private Blog Networks (PBNs), public blog networks, web 2.0s, profile links (on irrelevant websites) or pretty much any link type that isn’t acquired through an editorial process.
These backlink types can work in the short term, but can get you penalized in the long-term. Then you’ll have to hire another SEO consultant to get you out of the penalty!
Avoid this at the on-set.
If a consultant tells you that their link building process is “proprietary” then run for the hills.
Qualified SEO consultants don’t have anything to hide.
In fact, they would be proud to show what they’ve done.
It’s the SEO consultant’s job to set clear expectations. These expectations will largely depend on what type of work is being done.
If they’re developing an SEO strategy from the ground up, they may say that you can expect to see improved SEO performance within 6-12 months (if you’re taking the necessary actions).
Just remember to be realistic.
SEO is a long-term game. It doesn’t have an on and off switch like paid media. It takes time to see results, but in the long-term, I believe it dominates all other channels (as far as CAC).
You’re hiring an SEO consultant because you’re not an expert in SEO. A qualified SEO consultant is. That’s why you should listen to them.
I’m not saying you should have blind faith in them and not ask questions.
But if you are micromanaging them and not giving them the freedom to do what they believe is best, then you will not have a successful relationship.
All you need to do is think in reverse.
Would you like the SEO consultant to tell you how you should fix the sewage backup at your client’s home?
I think we both know the answer!
The best SEO consultant in the world will fail if you or company doesn’t take action on their recommendations or plan. Unfortunately, this is very common.
Listen to this part very carefully:
Do not hire an SEO consultant until you’re willing and able to take action on their recommendations and game plan.
We all exhibit levels of procrastination in life. Some more than others.
Entrepreneurs and existing companies are on the low end of the procrastination scale, but it still happens a lot.
It happens to me when a “new” marketing channels comes into play like “chat bots”. The procrastinator in me starts asking:
These are excuses to avoid the pain of learning something new or trying something different.
I can tell you this:
Procrastinating on doing SEO or not hiring an SEO consultant to help you can be detrimental.
Getting SEO results takes time and I can guarantee your competitors aren’t going to wait for you. So, whether you need to optimize your existing SEO performance or need to start from scratch, today is the day.
Every day you wait to improve your SEO performance is day your competitors are getting ahead. Don’t wait.
Can you learn anything from the world’s most useless websites?
I analyzed hundreds to find out.
Here’s what I discovered:
The biggest lesson I learned is that these sites aren’t useless at all.
In fact:
Some of them are powerful marketing vehicles.
We gathered 141 of these useless websites to see how well they perform from an SEO perspective.
According to Ahrefs, these websites have 277 linking root domains on average:
This was super interesting to see because these sites are clearly effective forms of link bait.
We also found that these sites had 12,651 backlinks on average:
One website had 450,346 total backlinks!
You may think that these sites are nothing more than link bait, but some have solid organic search traffic numbers.
According to Ahrefs, these websites are ranking for 1,200 organic keywords on average:
68% rank in the top 100 for at least 1 keyword.
In fact:
The average useless website is getting 6,597 organic search visitors according to Ahrefs:
Not so useless after all, right?
Now let’s tackle what these sites are doing to achieve this level of performance:
Bored Button gets 244,054 organic search visitors per month according to Ahrefs and the target page has 82 words.
So how does it rank for so many keywords?
First, 92% of its linking root domains are hitting the homepage.
Second, the website likely has insane user signals such as dwell time, people bookmarking on Chrome, etc.
Thirdly, it’s a partial match domain (most of its keywords revolve around “bored”).
Lastly, the majority of their anchor text is branded or naked link anchors.
This is another example of why you should focus on creating UNIQUE content.
Most SEO experts think using synonyms of words is unique.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
The definition of unique is “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.”
That should be the standard we live by when we’re targeting a new keyword phrase.
Be the first to do something and you’ll get all the benefits.
Some of these websites are hypnotic because they focus on one singular goal.
Like this one for example:
The only goal is to slap this dude with an eel.
Identifying what the “goal” of these websites isn’t easy.
However, some common trends are to be funny, entertaining, weird, and even addictive like this one:
Many of these tap into deep human psychology. More on this in a second.
Analyzing these gave me an important reminder as a digital marketer:
Singular focus on a goal is critical.
Most websites are filled with distractions and clutter which leads to decision fatigue and overthinking.
The user shouldn’t have to think when they’re on your website.
Focusing on one goal per page is a way to achieve that goal.
Society doesn’t champion weirdness, but the Internet does.
Aiming to be different, unique, and even sometimes off-the-wall weird is an intelligent move.
Ordinary doesn’t win on the Internet.
The funny part is that ordinary behavior doesn’t win in life either.
The only time it makes sense to “follow the rules” is when you’re trying to get good grades in school.
Unleash your weirdness and creativity and the Internet may reward you.
Most of these sites are deceptively simple.
Achieving simplicity is VERY difficult.
Steve Jobs said: “Simple can be harder than complex” and it’s so true.
It’s in our nature to overcomplicate everything.
For example, SEO isn’t as complicated as most believe.
Sure, there are many moving parts.
But when you break it down to its core principles, SEO is content, user experience, and links.
These websites are a good reminder to keep it simple.
Don’t focus on adding more.
Think about how you can remove more or do less.
If you deeply examine these sites, you’ll see that most DO have an objective.
For example, most of these so-called useless websites link to the person or company that created them.
That means they’re being used as a marketing tool.
It makes sense because showing that you’re creative is far better than saying you’re creative.
Plus:
You can send backlink equity to your website as well which can help SEO performance.
You probably don’t know 99.9% of the people that create these websites.
That’s also probably the way they want it.
People often confuse “fame” or notoriety with expertise.
The psychological concept of “authority” (popularized by the book Influence) is based on PERCEPTION.
In reality:
There are extremely creative and successful people who you will never know.
They prove their value through their work.
Not through shouting and telling everyone that they’re the best.
These “useless” websites may seem stupid, but most of them are super creative.
You can find value in everything if you’re willing to keep an open mind.
Most people write things off too quickly.
These websites are NOT useless.
Especially from an SEO perspective!
We all know the old adage: is marketing is an art or a science? At Seer, we think it’s both. But we don’t necessarily think it’s both at the same time. We believe the better question is: which comes first in marketing, art or science?…
The post How to Write a Marketing Research Objective appeared first on Seer Interactive.
It’s tough to accurately describe Seer’s culture in a way that others can understand. Our team is just as ambitious, driven, and competitive as it is supportive, kind, and nurturing. But at the end of the day, we’re all a bunch of nerds.…
The post Seer Interactive Goes to Hogwarts appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Transitioning jobs can be a tricky process across any industry, but moving from one digital marketing agency to another comes with its own quirks. Having recently made the switch myself, I’ve learned a thing or two. Here are 5 tips for anyone leaping jobs from one digital marketing agency to another:
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Have you ever run into a situation where you’ve identified all these amazing opportunities for your client, but they’re so busy that they have trouble finding the bandwidth to review them, let alone implement them? Before you know it, these opportunities that you were so stoked about are still sitting unread, collecting dust months later.…
The post How to Prioritize Work for Busy Clients appeared first on Seer Interactive.
Roll-Up reporting combines data from multiple Google Analytics properties and lets you view them in a single one.
For example, say you have a brand website (www.yourbrand.com), an ecommerce site (shop.yourbrand.com), a slew of paid search landing pages (www.yourbrand-marketing.com/Campaign-Name), and several international sites (www.yourbrand.eu, www.yourbrand.ca, www.yourbrand.co.uk), roll-up reporting merges data points — in the form of Google Analytics “hits” — into an individual property.…
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Ahrefs is one of the most powerful SEO tools on the market.
Today, I’m going to show you how you can use it to your advantage (and start getting better SEO results). I love this tool and don’t know how I could function as an SEO without it.
That’s why I’m going to show you everything you need to know about using this incredible tool. Let’s jump in.
Auditing your existing link profile is a good first step for any new SEO campaign.
Ahrefs will give you the data you need to make informed decision about your link profile.
Extracting link opportunities from your competitors is one of my favorite functions of Ahrefs.
I’ll be showing you how to not only find these link opportunities, but also how you actually land links that your competitors have.
Most people don’t think of Ahrefs as a keyword research tool, but these people are missing out!
This tool has become one of my “go-tos” for finding keywords and content ideas. I will show you how to do exactly that later on in this guide.
Finding keywords is easy, but the real magic happens when you understand how to qualify your keywords.
Ahrefs can help you achieve this goal. I’ll show you how to validate keywords in this guide.
Ahrefs keyword tracking is excellent.
I’ll show you how to set it up later in this post.
Only tracking individual keywords is an outdated strategy. The most important KPI in SEO is your organic search traffic data inside Google Analytics.
But in addition to Google Analytics, you should leverage the “Total Organic Keywords” data inside Ahrefs. More on this later.
Ahrefs allows you set up alerts for keywords or branded keywords. This is a powerful function for relationship building and brand management. I’ll get deeper into the tools alerts function in this guide.
Lastly, Ahrefs now has a site audit tool.
This tool can help your technical SEO performance.
Here is the Ahrefs terminology that you need to understand before using the tool:
Ahrefs rank is their version of Alexa rank. In essence, it’s an attempt to rank websites based on their estimated traffic volume.
The lower your Ahrefs Rank, the higher they believe your estimated traffic is. Take this metric with a grain of salt. Ahrefs doesn’t have access to your internal traffic numbers, so it’s not possible for their “Rank” to be 100% accurate.
URL Rating (or sometimes called URL Ranking on different parts of their site) is Ahrefs’ metric for measuring the authority and strength of a single page.
For example, my backlinks article has a ~ 44 UR. The concept of UR is similar to Moz’s Page Authority (PA) metric. Ahrefs has a much better crawler, so UR is probably more reliable.
Ahrefs’ “Traffic Value” metric is an estimation of a website’s organic search traffic value in terms of dollars. This is determined based on Google Ads cost-per-click (CPC) data. This is a useful metric because there is a correlation between CPC and organic search competition.
Meaning, if businesses are willing to pay a “high” (what’s considered to be high or low CPC is relative to the industry, the business model, etc.) CPC, there’s a good chance they are investing heavily into SEO as well. The only difference is that throwing more money at SEO doesn’t guarantee better results.
If you really want to see how hard high CPC niches are from an SEO perspective, just attempt to rank for “city + personal injury lawyer”.
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Ahrefs?
I’m willing to bet that it isn’t “keyword research”.
Most people know Ahrefs for its backlink analysis capabilities, but you are missing out if you aren’t using it keyword research.
That’s why I’m going to show you several ways you can use Ahrefs to find keywords. I’ll even show you one trick I use to find “untapped” keyword opportunities.
Let’s jump in:
The first step of this process is for you analyze a competitor’s URL. After you have chosen a competitor, go the “Site Explorer” section and enter the URL.
After the analysis is complete, it’s time to move onto step two.
The second step is click on “Organic keywords” under the “Organic search” section.
This where your keyword goldmine will be. Now, this section alone can give you tons of ideas, but to take your keyword research to another level, you need to filter these ideas. That brings me to step three.
Using the filters is where the magic happens, but before you begin, you need to establish one thing:
What is your website actually capable of ranking for?
Meaning, do you have a firm grasp on the authority of your website?
The reason why you need to is because your site’s authority will determine what keywords you should to target.
For example, if you have a brand new website, then you need to target longer tail keywords. If you have an authoritative website (relative to the competitor you are analyzing), then you can target more competitive keywords.
For this example, I’m going to assume you have a new website. The first step is to filter your results based on “Volume”, or in other words, the average search volume per month.
I’ve found that targeting keywords in the 100 – 1,000 search volume range is a good target for new websites. That’s because keywords in that range are going to be less competitive (and longer tail).
Keep in mind:
This doesn’t mean you should target this search volume range forever. You should step into new higher search volume ranges when your website begins to build authority.
The next step is to mess around with is the “Words” filter. So, if you only want to see long-tail keywords, then you should set the “From” field
You could stop your initial keyword research at this point because of how much you’ve narrowed the results.
But I also like to use the “Position” filter as well. This filter will show where your competitor is ranking in Google for each keyword in your set. I like setting this filter from position 11 and to position 20.
Having this intel is important for a few reasons:
1. There’s a good chance that your competitor isn’t targeting that specific keyword phrase. The competitor is probably showing up for those long tail keywords just because of their page authority. Not because they are specifically targeting them.
2. Many long tails ranking on the second or even third page are going to be loosely relevant to your competitors primary keyword. That leaves an opportunity for you to step in and dominate that targeted long-tail keyword.
Now, I want to show you how you can monitor your competitor’s new keywords.
Click on “New” under the “Organic keywords” section.
So, you might be wondering why should you care about your competitor’s “New” keywords?
The first reason why you should care is because you don’t want them to get too much momentum.
As pages age, they will acquire more social signals, backlinks, and user signals. All of these signals will not only help your competitor rank, but will also solidify their rankings. And
I’ve noticed many times that there is a “snowball” effect when you hit the first page of Google. That’s because most people will not go beyond the first page when they are looking for resources to link to.
The key takeaway is that you don’t want your competitors to build to strong of a foundation.
You need to monitor what new keywords they are targeting and then make a concentrated effort to compete with them on those keywords. That means you need to create a page that is more valuable than theirs.
Now I want to show you how to find your competitors top performing pages.
To find a competitor’s best performing pages (from an organic search traffic perspective), go to “Organic search” and click on “Top pages”.
This is one of favorite sections within Ahrefs because you will topics that have already been validated by your competitors.
Backlinks and social signals are validation that the topic has value.
It’s also validation that your competitor picked an attractive content angle for that topic.
Lastly, your competitors strong individual keywords rankings are validation from Google that they have fulfilled searcher intent the right way.
This section will give you the ability to create content and pages that your industry actually cares about.
You will also see what type of content you need to create to fulfill searcher intent (the way that Google wants).
Take advantage of the data in this section because it will eliminate a lot of guesswork from your keyword targeting.
Now I want to show you a quick way to find other competitors in your industry.
To find your other competitors click on “Competing domains” under the “Organic search” section.
I recommend you go through the process above to extract even more keywords from your other competitors as well.
The next tactic I want to show you is the Content Gap Tool (love this tool).
Click on “Content gap” under the “Organic search” section to access this amazing tool.
This is an amazing tool because it will show what keywords you are NOT ranking for, but your competitors ARE ranking for. All you need to do is put your competitor’s URL in to the “Show keywords that any of the below targets rank for” section. You can add more than one competitor, but in this example I’ll only be using one.
Then, put your URL into the “But the following target doesn’t rank for” section and click “Show keywords”.
Now you will have access to keywords and content ideas that you aren’t currently targeting.
It’s your responsibility to compete for these search terms. That means you need to create pages that are much more valuable (and different) than your competitors for these keywords. Do not allow your competitor’s to have smooth sailing!
The last keyword research tactics I want to show you in Ahrefs is leveraging their Keywords Explorer tool.
To access this tool, click on “Keywords explorer” in the navigation.
All you need to do now is enter some prospective keywords into the field. In this case, I’m going to use a very general keyword “fitness”.
After the analysis is complete, Ahrefs is going to expose you to all kinds of data about this keyword. This tool is excellent for qualifying your prospective keywords, but in this case, we are only going to use for identifying more keyword ideas. To achieve this goal, go down to the “Keyword ideas” section.
This section is going to show all kinds of great keywords related to original seed keyword.
How you go about leveraging these keyword ideas will largely depend on the authority of your website.
For example, it would difficult to rank for a broad head keyword like “fitness” unless you had a super website. Most websites online are not capable of ranking for such a keyword.
That’s why it’s a good to target longer tail keywords like the ones that Ahrefs is providing in this section.
Now you have a firm grasp on how to find keywords using Ahrefs, let me show you how you can qualify your list of keywords.
Building a big list of prospective keyword targets is an important first step. However, the real magic happens when you qualify your list of keyword targets.
What does it mean to “qualify” your keywords?
It means you’re going to narrow your list by running your keywords through a vetting process. The end result will be a set of keywords that have “qualified”.
Here’s how to get started:
The first step of the keyword validation process is to click on the “Keywords explorer” option in the Ahrefs’ navigation.
Next, simply paste a prospective keyword in the field. In this example, I’m going to use the keyword phrase “what is creatine”.
As the analysis is complete, you will be taken to a page that looks like this:
Ahrefs’ Keyword explorer is going to show some useful data in this section. The first data point that’s worth looking at is the “Keyword
This a decent gauge of keyword competition.
However, you need to remember that this metric is based on Ahrefs’ internal data. It’s not perfect.
That’s why you need to always conduct your own manual research. But if you’re doing a quick analysis, the Keyword difficulty score will suffice in most cases.
The next metric that you should consider is the amount of searches that result in a click.
According to Ahrefs, the search phrase “what is creatine” produces 50% organic clicks.
That means that out of the approximate 14,000 search per month, only 7,000 of those result in a click. This is often the result of featured snippets or other SERP features that answer the search query without a searcher needing to conduct any additional research.
Another area in the Keyword explorer that you should analyze is the Paid vs. Organic results for your prospective keyword phrase.
This is important for the same results above because more paid results will push the organic results further down the page. That will reduce organic CTR. So, you need to keep that mind when you are doing your research.
Now that understand some of these 30,000-foot view metrics inside the Keyword explorer, I’m going to take this process a little deeper.
Scroll down to the “SERP overview” section and click on the “Export” button in the right hand corner.
Open up the Excel sheet and delete every column except for: “URL”, “Backlinks”, “Referring Domains”, “URL Rating”, “Domain Rating”, and “Facebook”. Your sheet should look like this after you’re done:
The next step is go column-by-column and average out the numbers. Highlight the cells/numbers that need to be averaged and click on the dropdown arrow on the autosum button and select “Average”.
Repeat this process for all the columns. The next step is paste your domain or target URL in the “URL” column. Then paste your Domain Rating (DR) in the appropriate column like so:
In this example, I am making the assumption that you do NOT have a page already targeting the keyword phrase. The distinction is important because comparing DR is the only option in this scenario.
On the other hand, if you already had a page targeting “what is creatine”, then you would need to add data for every column to get a proper comparison.
So, in this scenario, Greatist.com has enough authority (DR) to compete for this keyword phrase. It wouldn’t be easy, but there are some obvious weakness in these results.
First, there is a YouTube video ranking.
That’s a good sign.
Second, both Blonyx.com and MyProtein.com have one or zero total linking root domains. That’s an indication that these pages are ranking well because they are fulfilling searcher intent the right way. But the biggest force driving their rankings is their overall website authority.
So, in the case of Greatist.com, this would be an attractive keyword to target because their domain is stronger than three of the ranking pages.
Also, Bloynx.com has the lowest DR, but is ranking almost in the top five.
So, this brief analysis is just the first stage of the process.
After you have confirmed that your website can compete (at least at a 30,000 foot view), you then need to analyze each ranking page.
This is critical because SEO isn’t just simple a game of metrics.
On the surface, Greatist should have no problem ranking for this keyword phrase.
However, that confidence can change like the wind when you analyze the ranking URLs on a deeper level. The biggest factor being the quality of the pages.
The main question you have to ask is:
Can you create a page that is MORE valuable and DIFFERENT than what is ranking?
Think about this question every time you want to target a keyword.
Now that you understand how to find and validate keywords using Ahrefs, it’s time for me to show you how to use this tool for technical SEO.
Finding broken backlinks is one of the easiest ways to acquire backlinks. That’s because you already HAD the backlink. Plus, the “linker” has already made the decision to link to you.
That means you can skip right past the relationship building stage of the outreach process.
Here’s how you can find broken backlinks using Ahrefs:
The first step is open up the “Site explorer” tool and enter YOUR domain.
Now go to the “Backlink” section and click on “Broken”.
Now you need to go through each result, find contact information (Voila Norbert and Hunter), and then send each prospect a template similar to this:
“Hey [NAME], love your blog!
I blog over at [your blog] and I saw that you are linking to my article about [topic] (thank you).I noticed that the link is actually broken. It looks like [insert issue].
When you get the chance, do you think you could change that link to this URL: [your correct URL] – I would be so incredibly grateful.
Thank you!”
There are many ways to find link opportunities, but one of the best methods is extract them from your competitors. The key to acquiring your competitor’s backlink is to have an effective outreach process.
Anyone can find link opportunities, but it takes a tested and refined system to acquire backlinks at scale.
That’s the focus on the video below:
The first step of this process is to open Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and paste a competitor’s URL in the search bar.
After the analysis is complete, go to the “Backlink profile” section and click on “Backlinks”.
Now that you can see all of your competitor’s backlinks, it’s time to begin the link acquisition process. I’m going to give you a framework you can take action on today.
But here’s an important point:
You MUST test, refine, and improve your outreach process overtime. No outreach process is perfect. All you can do is test the process and improve it.
Here’s what my link acquisition process looks like (at a 30,000-foot view):
Your success in SEO (and digital marketing in general) is dependent on your ability to build relationships with the individuals who have influence (and established audiences) in your industry. It all begins with outreach.
The first part of this process that you need to understand is that your outreach process will vary based on the type of backlink you are trying to acquire. For example, the process of acquiring a backlink through a guest post is much different than trying to acquire a backlink through broken link building.
Here’s how you can find contact information using Voila Norbert:
Here’s how you can find contact information using Hunter.io:
The next stage is to begin the process of getting “your name out there” and building relationships with your prospects.
Let’s get one thing straight:
No bloggers likes cold outreach. In fact, it’s borderline disrespectful to reach out to a blogger who has an established audience and ask them for something. Why? Because you basically saying: “Hey, can I have all the benefits of your established audience that you probably spent years building without any work on my side?
Moral of the story:
Don’t cold outreach. It’s a dangerous game to play if you are trying to become a serious player in your industry. You do NOT want to burn bridges or repel the people who have the influence. I think you get the point.
So, you’re probably wondering:
HOW do you start the process of building relationships with your link prospects? The best way to hit the prospect on multiple fronts.
Some easy methods include:
I recommend using most of these strategies. The key is avoid being creepy and overbearing.
Spread these actions out over the course of weeks.
Otherwise, it becomes obvious that you are only engaging for selfish motives.
All that you need to remember is that effective relationship building and outreach is like how you build relationships in real life.
Take your time and be patient.
Also, always be thinking about how you can add value before asking for anything.
After you have spent some time building relationships with your prospects, it’s time to “test the waters”.
Here are a few templates you can use to “test the waters”:
“Hey [NAME], love your blog!
I blog over at {your blog}.
I was reading one of your articles and noticed that you had a few broken links. Would you like me to send the URL over?”
“Hey [NAME], love your blog!
I blog over at {your blog}.
I was wondering if you are accepting guest contribution at the moment?
I have 3 ideas that I think would be perfect for your blog if are.
Please let me know, thanks!”
“Hey [NAME], love your blog!
I blog over at {your blog}.
I noticed that you are linking to {brand’s article about topic}.
I created a similar piece of content except it takes an entirely different angle.
In fact, it {argues|proves|disproves} that {insert why it’s different}.
Would you be interested in reading it?
Just let me know if you’re interested and I’ll send you it over.
Thanks!”
All you need to do now is wait for responses (~1-2 weeks). Send your offer/pitch to those that respond and follow up with the non-responders. If you landed a guest post, write the guest post. If you are “paying to play”, then send the dough.
Now that you know how to find link opportunities, let me show you how to qualify them.
As I mentioned above, finding link opportunities is the easiest step of the link acquisition process. The next most important step is knowing what link opportunities are actually worth pursuing.
Here’s what you need to do to qualify your link opportunities (at scale):
The first part of qualifying your link opportunities is to go the “More” drop down in the navigation and click on “Batch Analysis”.
Then all you need to do is paste your list of link prospects’ URLs into the box. In this example, I’m going to analyze a list of guest post opportunities in the “fitness” niche.
After you have pasted the URLs, click the dropdown and select the “domain with all its subdomains” option.
This is important because we are qualifying the link prospect’s website as a whole (not just a single page). So, after the analysis is complete you will be presented with a large set of data like this:
The question is… what do you do with all of this information?
The first thing that needs to happen is to understand what we are trying to achieve during this process.
The first objective of this process is to eliminate opportunities that are low quality or do not meet your minimum criteria standards. After that, you then need to prioritize your prospects.
This is possible through the data that Ahrefs provides, but I also recommend using The Relevancy Pyramid as well.
You just need to figure out if you want to focus on the more challenging opportunities or the lower hanging fruits.
Websites is higher authority and traffic are harder to get link placements on, but they have a huge impact when you do successfully land one.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, you can focus on lower authority websites with a quantity focus.
Either way works, but I prefer focusing on the “harder” opportunities because they always seem to perform better (in my experience).
To begin the process of prioritizing these link prospects, you need to sort them by “Keywords”.
“Keywords” are how many estimated organic keywords the website is ranking for based on Ahrefs’ data. This is important for qualifying link opportunities because if a website is performing well in Google, it’s an indication that Google’s algorithm “trusts” this website.
Higher trust = better (and usually more impactful) link opportunity
The opposite is also true.
You should be concerned about websites that are NOT performing well in Google. All you need to do is sort your list in ascending order to find this type of link prospect:
Keep this in mind:
Just because a website doesn’t have great SEO performance, doesn’t mean that it’s a bad opportunity.
You have to remember that Google is just one website and one marketing channel.
The “value” of a link opportunity can’t be based on one channel.
There are a few ways to determine the “value” of a link opportunity outside of organic search traffic such as examining their audience size across multiple channels, examining the quality of their link profile, examining their social media engagement, and even examining their blog engagement.
I’ll get deeper into this process in a future blog post, but for now, the key takeaway is that a link opportunity isn’t “BAD” just because it doesn’t perform well in Google.
But let’s be honest… what I just explained is an optimistic viewpoint.
That’s because many of the opportunities you will encounter WILL be low quality and should be avoided.
All you need to do is examine the websites that have weak SEO performance and see if there is any way that these websites can add value to yours.
If you’re struggling to find any value in a link opportunity, then remove it from your list.
It makes much more sense to focus your time on the prospects that are clearly valuable.
The next step is to sort your list by DR (Domain Rating).
The validation step is simple:
Getting backlinks from websites with higher DR are going to be more impactful (in most cases). They are also harder to get placements on, so you need to keep that in mind as well.
You can then sort your list by Total Referring Domains (the number of unique websites that are linking to yours).
DR and Total Referring Domains are going to be correlated. For example, websites with many Total Referring Domains will usually have a high DR as well.
You can qualify or eliminate most opportunities just based on Total Organic Keywords, DR, and Total Referring Domains.
Some other metrics that you may want to consider are the quantity of .edu and .gov backlinks because this is an indication of trust.
Also, take a look at the Total “Linked” Domains (the total number of outbound links on a prospects website).
If there is a high number of outbound links, it can sometimes mean that the website is selling backlinks. It’s worth investigating if you see an alarming number of outbound links.
But, before you jump in, you need to understand how to optimize your anchor text.
Understanding how to optimize your anchor text can improve your SEO results and keep your website safe from penalties. In the training video below, I show you how you leverage Ahrefs to optimize your anchor text the right way:
Let’s say I wanted to rank for the keyword phrase “healthy breakfast”.
In the example, below I found this keyword phrase while looking through Greatist’s organic keywords. You do an immediate examination, just click the SERP dropdown button.
From here, just click on the down arrow next to each competitor’s URL and open their “Anchors” in a new tab. I recommend doing at least the first five competitors, but ten isn’t a bad idea either. So, now all you’re going to do is get an average of exact match anchor text for this keyword.
This is important because you will be able to see what the “ceiling” is for exact match anchor text.
I usually cut the average anchor text in half and make that my ceiling just be safe.
For example, if the average exact match anchor text is ~10%, I would choose 5% as my ceiling. And as I’ve recommended since the first Penguin update, you should usually stay below 1% exact match anchor text.
This recommendation can change based on the scale.
One other important factor to consider when averaging exact match anchor text (and using it as a guide) is the competition. The reason is because higher authority websites can usually get away with more aggressive anchor text practices.
That’s why it’s a good idea to look at the EMA for the competitor’s that are in a similar authority range as your website.
You can go through the averaging process for partial match anchor as well.
So, at this point, you know how to find and validate keywords, how to find and fix technical SEO issues, how to find and validate link prospects, and how to optimize your anchor text using Ahrefs.
Now, I want to show you how you can monitor your SEO campaigns using this awesome tool.
There are countless ranking tracking tools out there, but Ahrefs give you more than enough functionality to track individual keywords, track your overall organic visibility, and track your link profile. In the video below, I show you how you can use Ahrefs to manage your SEO campaigns:
I hope this guide helped you learn how to use Ahrefs to improve your SEO performance. Ahrefs is well worth the investment if you are serious about getting better SEO results.
Also, if you enjoyed the videos, please subscribe to my YouTube channel because I will be producing an incredible amount of actionable SEO training this year.
