Getting a featured snippet is basically hitting the SEO goldmine, resulting in increased clicks, traffic, and potentially, increased business.

The good news here is you don’t have to work that hard to get more featured snippets of your website. Interested? You should be.

Backed by the years I put into writing and SEO, I’ve put together a guide to help you identify featured snippet opportunities. 

How Do I Find Featured Snippet Opportunities?

Quick Answer: Use tools to look into where your website currently stands with regards to featured snippets. Use manual search and the same tools to find keywords with featured snippets you can aim for, as well as other related keywords you can leverage. From there, find quick-win opportunities based on your website’s authority, the content you can optimize, and the structured data you can apply. After making these changes, keep track of what techniques worked for your website, and what didn’t.

What are Featured Snippets?

This is a type of search engine results page (SERP) feature that answers your questions using a snippet that crawl bots have pulled directly from an article or web page. Often, it’s a summary of the information that Google thinks users are looking for.

Here’s an example from an older article of mine on link optimization:

Google has been rolling out featured snippets for an ever-widening variety of search queries for a while now. That’s because they’re great for serving quick answers to users. 

Why do Featured Snippets Matter in SEO?

Featured snippets are great for your SEO because they rank #0 on the organic search results. It sits on top of the #1 organic search result.

It’s also formatted in a way that makes it much more helpful and accessible to users, compared to organic search results. 

Let’s look at the featured snippet for the query “What is a featured snippet,” versus the first organic result on the same page.

And here’s how short a traditional organic result looks like:

That’s it. If I were the user searching this, I definitely gained a more substantial answer from the first, rather than the second.

And, if I was a curious user, I would be more likely to click on the article that feels more helpful to me—which featured snippets are formatted to be like. 

In short, having your content appear in a featured snippet is important for SEO because it can lead to way more clicks to your website. That means it’s good for your click-through rate and growing your organic traffic.

Types of Featured Snippets:

The most common type of featured snippet is the one I just showed you above, but Google can provide different formats in different spaces. 

As of the time of writing, there are five general types of featured snippets:

1. Paragraph
2. List
3. Table
4. Video
5. Accordion

Of these, we know that paragraph- and list-type featured snippets are the most common. Lists can come in numerical format, or in bullet format. You often see these two types when asking for definitions, instructions, and of course, lists of products. 

Recently, I’ve also noticed that Google is pushing for more table and video-formatted featured snippets. 

Tables are common if your search has to do something with product specifications, such as price. 

Videos, on the other hand, show up if you’re looking for how-to guides or demonstrations, where Google will show a specific section of a video that it thinks provides the most appropriate answer. 

Last are accordions. These I don’t see as often, but they look a lot like the People Also Ask section. When clicked, the accordion expands and almost always shows you additional featured snippets, which is fascinating.

Important Statistics on Featured Snippets

Let’s take a look at some general stats that I found from several studies regarding featured snippets. This data can give SEOs and site owners a better look into how they affect SEO, and how to find opportunities to gain more featured snippets.

19-23% of all SERPs include a Featured Snippet

One study from Moz states that they’re included in about 23% of all SERPs. Another study from SEMRush and Brando said they appear in 19% of all SERPs. Either way, this is up over 150% since 2016—that’s wild. 

Paragraphs and Lists are the most common types of Featured Snippets

According to SEMRush, Paragraphs made up 70% of all featured snippets, followed by lists at 19.1%. This study, made in 2020, might not have the most accurate numbers for 2023, but this shows us a pretty clear picture as to what kind of content format is often pushed as featured snippets in Google. 

Getstat also had the same findings in their own research—showing that Paragraph snippets showed up in 82% of all the featured snippets they saw.

People Also Ask sections are seen on 93.8% of Featured Snippet SERPs

Moz, in the same study, noted that we usually see the PAA section whenever there’s a featured snippet. 

Here’s an example, using the same search query as earlier (what is a featured snippet):

This is pretty interesting to me, as it shows that whenever there’s a featured snippet, there are several other opportunities for your article or page to get on the search results—even if, organically, it might not be ranking well.

If you can’t get the featured snippet spot, you can seed your keyword research, add some of the PAAs that show up to your content, and gain more chances to get put on the SERPs. 

Getstat’s research revealed another interesting tidbit: In 23% of the SERPs with both PAAs and a featured snippet, the first PAA had a similar answer to the featured snippet. 

Featured Snippets affect your CTR rate

A study by Ahrefs a few years back showed that, while featured snippets are eye-catching and informative, they don’t necessarily get the most clicks out of every site on the first page.

A page that’s #1 on a SERP without a featured snippet can get about 26% of all clicks. However, a page that’s #1 on a SERP with a featured snippet will only get about 19.6% on average.

This means the #0 spot effectively steals a good portion of the clicks from the #1 organic result. Pretty good tradeoff if you can’t quite beat the #1 result, but still want to get tons of clicks. 

How to Research Featured Snippet Opportunities

Manually looking for a featured snippet opportunity is going to take a lot of time. And, Google Search Console doesn’t currently show any information regarding featured snippets. 

I recommend using third-party tools to research featured snippet opportunities to optimize your content.  

Research Tools to Use for Featured Snippets

I use two tools to look into where our websites are at, in terms of featured snippets: Ahrefs and SEMrush. You can use both to check for your current rankings as well as untapped featured snippet opportunities. 

How to check your Current Snippets

Before you begin the process of looking for opportunities, I recommend getting a good idea of where your website is first.

On Ahrefs, just put in your domain, and click the organic keywords report. From there, you can filter the results by SERP features, and click on featured snippets.

The resulting list contains all the keywords you’re showing up as a featured snippet for.

With SEMrush, put your domain in the search bar, click enter, then select positions in the first menu you see below.

From here, you can further filter the results by clicking SERP features, which will show you which pages are currently shown as featured snippets (plus some other features, such as Local Pack).

On either tool, you can look at the percentage of your search results that appear in any kind of snippet. If you see a low number there, don’t panic. It’s common for most websites to have a low number—especially if you haven’t been trying to optimize for this kind of thing in the first place. 

What you’re getting here is a baseline for your optimization efforts. It’s good to know where you started to understand what’s working for you, and what isn’t, once you start trying to target featured snippets.

Plus, working within a niche where Google already considers you an expert is a pretty good place to start. You’re more likely to capture opportunities here than anywhere else.

How to find your competitor’s snippets

In the same way that you looked at your website’s standing, you can also check your competitors’. 

Why? Because you want to beat your competition. And if your competitors are showing up in the snippets 1 out of 10 times, then you should try to appear in them twice as much. That’s how you can get a bigger market share in your industry. 

The good news is that these two tools let you see the same data for your competitors. Just follow the same instructions using their website domain, and see where your competitors’ snippets are coming from. 

What keywords are they targeting that have a featured snippet? Are these snippets coming from their articles, pages, or homepage? 

These two considerations can reveal new opportunities as well as their tactics—both of which you can use later on. 

How to Identify Featured Snippet Opportunities 

This step-by-step guide can help you potentially win a featured snippet:

1. Check if keywords have featured snippets.
2. Look into keyword suggestions.
3. Optimize content for the featured snippet type.
4. Know your audience’s intent.
5. Make your content concise and informative.
6. Use schema markups.
7. Keep track of featured snippet targets.

Let’s get into each one.

Check if keywords have featured snippets

You can see this in SEMRush. If you look at your organically ranking keywords, you might see symbols like these, which indicate that the search queries show both organic results and structured results, such as featured snippets, PAAs, and more.

You should also check the SERPs manually to see what kind of featured snippet is showing up for this keyword.

From this, we know this particular keyword has a list featured snippet. This means that if I added a list to my old article, I can try to steal this featured snippet from the currently ranking website. 

Look into keyword suggestions

From there, go into Keyword Overview, which shows you related keywords and queries of your selected keyword. In the example below, I’m checking the keyword “how to tell seo is working,” which I used in a previous article.

This data shows what other keywords you might want to include in your article or page, as well as opportunities to hit the PAA section.

Optimize content for the featured snippet type.

Once you know what type of featured snippet your targeted keyword has, it’s time to optimize your content for it.

Make sure you’re adding something that fits the criteria. I also have other tips in another article I previously wrote on optimizing for featured snippets, if you need more help on that.

In the previous example, I said I’d add a list for my article targeting the keyword “how to tell seo is working” because that is the type of snippet I saw in the SERPs. 

If, on the other hand, I saw that it was showing a paragraph-type snippet, then my strategy for this article would change. 

Pro-tip: whatever you saw in the current featured snippet you’re trying to claim, one-up it. If it’s listing, say, the seven benefits of something, list eight to ten. If it’s a concise description of a topic, try doing the same—but with a little extra valuable info (if you have some expertise in the area, this is where it would come in handy). 

Always try to beat the value of the current featured snippet with the content you’re optimizing.

Know your audience’s intent

Part of optimizing your content is understanding your audience. 

When people search certain keywords, they are looking for a specific answer—they may not know what that is, yet, but you should. 

You have to know what kind of answer they’re looking for. Knowing that will help you understand how to best answer their query. I dive deep into this topic in my other guide on how to make helpful content.

Crafting the right response makes it more likely for your content to become a featured snippet. 

Make your content concise and informative.

Aside from using the right type of content, you have to make sure your answers are succinct and relevant to the query. Make your answers as to the point as possible (think 2-3 sentences, max).

Why? Google regularly pushes for short yet informative answers in the featured snippet. So, we know this is the way to go. 

Another pro tip: add a quick summary section to your articles.

You might have seen this in other websites. I’ve also started doing it while I refresh some older content of mine, like this section I added to this article, and some of my older but high-performing work, like my guide to aggregate rating schema. 

Adding a “too long, didn’t read” (tl;dr) to your most popular pages is an easy way of gaining a few featured snippets here and there. Making small additions to deliver your content in a simpler way can actually do a lot for your SEO. Plus, it’s a really easy way to experiment with your content. 

Use schema markups

Schema markups are lines of code that feed search engines (like Google) data in a structured manner. This helps Google better understand your content and its context, which results in improved snippets, also known as rich snippets.

Applying the right schema markup when applicable can help you win that featured snippet. Some common ones include:

1. FAQ schema
2. How-to schema
3. Recipe schema
4. Product schema

There are two ways to add schema markups to your website. The first is through plugins, the second is through hard coding. I recommend looking into the different markups you can add to your content on the Schema website.

Keep track of featured snippet targets

Lastly, always keep track of your progress. Like I said earlier, you won’t know what’s working out for your SEO and what isn’t if you don’t have a baseline to compare it to. And the same goes for your ongoing progress—so monitor those featured snippet targets.

From there, you can continue applying what works well for your website to other pages, and get rid of the strategies that don’t.

Key Takeaway

As featured snippets continue to dominate the top of the SERPS, knowing how to identify featured snippet opportunities—and how to capture them—can help you increase visibility for your website. 

There’s a lot of untapped opportunities waiting on your website, so get ready to do some research into your keywords, and deliver the right answers in the right format in simple, concise language.

The post A Guide to Seizing Featured Snippet Opportunities appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Here’s a straightforward answer. Yes, internal links CAN help build topical authority for your website.

Internal linking is a very important aspect of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that helps build topical authority on your website. Here’s what you need to know, and how to use them strategically.

What is Internal Linking and Topical Authority? 

Internal linking is when you link to the other pages on your website within your content. Topical authority in SEO refers to the establishment of your website as an authoritative source of information on a specific subject or topic. 

For example, if I’m writing a blog post that mentions the best SEO tools, I would link to another post where I discuss them in detail. This helps your readers find more relevant and useful information for your website. 

By using links strategically, you can signal to search engines the relevance and importance of your content, which can improve your ranking and visibility in search results. 

Internal Links vs External Links

The differences between the two are as their names imply: internal links are those that go between pages of the same domain, while external links direct you toward different sites. We call external links pointing from other sites to your site backlinks. See my posts on link building techniques if you’re interested in also optimizing the external links pointing to your site.

Why are Internal Links Important?

You should care about the internal links on your site because they’re pretty valuable to your SEO. 

As advanced as the Google algorithm is–and how demanding their core updates can be–there are still fundamentals that, once optimized, will give you an immediate boost in topical authority, and subsequently, rankings and traffic. Internal linking is one of them. 

Types of Internal Linking

There’s only two types: navigational, and contextual. The first are the links you see in headers, footers, and any other navigational bar or menu on a website. The second are in-text links, which point users from one page to another. This kind of link includes anchor links in your articles, a related posts section, and any other relevantly linked URLs. 

How Internal Links Improve The Topical Authority of Your Website

By using internal links effectively, you can improve the topical authority of your site in the following ways: 

1. Internal links help create a logical and hierarchical structure within your website. By linking to related pages and topics, you show search engines that your site has extensive coverage of a specific subject. This organization improves user experience and makes it easier for search engines to understand the context and relevance of your content. 
2. Internal links allow search engine crawlers to discover and index your content. If search engines find internal links when crawling your website, they can follow those links to access and index additional pages. This helps search engines understand the depth and breadth of your content, resulting in better visibility in the search results. 
3. Internal linking allows you to distribute the authority of the highest-ranking pages to other pages on your site. When you link to a page that needs a boost in visibility from a page with high authority, you are giving some of that authority to the linked page. This can improve the topical authority of the linked page and improve its chances of ranking well in search results. 
4. Internal links make it easier for the user to navigate within your site, allowing visitors to easily access related content and explore different aspects of a topic. When users spend more time on your site, interact with multiple pages, and find value in related content, it sends positive signals to search engines about the quality and relevance of your site. 

How To Use Internal Linking To Build Topical Authority in SEO

So how do you use internal linking to build topical authority in SEO? It’s not gaming the system, it’s not gray hat, and it’s not a sly trick. It’s also definitely one of the easiest things to do for your website. 

Here are some best practices to follow:

• Use descriptive anchor text. Anchor text is the clickable text that links to another page. Instead of using generic phrases like “click here” or “read more”, use descriptive words that tell your readers what the page is about. For example, instead of saying “Click here to learn more about this topic”, say “Learn more about using anchor text effectively for your SEO.” See what I did there?
• Link to relevant pages. Don’t just link to any page on your site, link to pages related to the topic of your current post. For example, if you’re writing about how to grow tomatoes, don’t link to a page that talks about how to knit a scarf. Link to pages dedicated to gardening, tomatoes, or farming tips.
• Link to quality webpages. Don’t link to pages that have low-quality content, outdated information, or broken links. Link to pages with high-quality content, up-to-date information, and working links. This improves the credibility of your website and its user experience.
• Link strategically. Don’t overdo it with internal links, or you could annoy your readers and weaken your topical authority. Only link when it makes sense and adds value to your content. For example, don’t link to the same page multiple times in the same paragraph, and don’t link to all pages on your site in a single post. Link strategically and with a grain of salt.

What is the Optimal Format for Internal Linking?

For more bonus tips on how to do internal linking right, you might want to read our in-depth post about the do’s and don’ts of internal linking. 

By following these tips, you can use internal linking to create an up-to-date SEO authority and boost your site’s performance. Internal linking is a powerful technique that can help you create a better user experience, grow your traffic, and increase your authority.

What is the Best Internal Linking Strategy?

Now that you understand the best practices when it comes to internal linking, you’re ready to see the basic steps to setting up your internal linking strategy:

1. Determine the structure you want for your site. Think of your website in terms of categories, then work your way down to subcategories (and even sub-subcategories, if needed). Keep internal links within categories.
2. Figure out your cornerstone content. A.K.A. your landing pages, these are the most important content on your site, and the ones that you want users to find when searching for your industry, products, or niche on Google. Direct most of your internal links toward them.
3. Add contextual links. If you already have tons of posts on a certain topic, then you should try linking them together. You can use in-text links or recommend topically related posts for reading at the end of your post.
4. Work down from the hierarchy you establish. Link parent pages to child pages, and sibling pages to each other. Parent pages are those at the top of each category you create for your structure. 
5. Use navigational links. I highly recommend adding links to your most important pages from your homepage or adding them from your navigation menu. This denotes importance in Google’s eyes and gives them a lot more link value. 
6. Insert links to your most recent posts. Adding links to newly published posts from existing content on your website is a good way to improve topical authority.
7. Insert links in your most popular posts. Since these posts draw in the most traffic, adding links from these posts to related ones can also improve your topical authority. 
8. Create umbrella posts. If you’re on a roll with writing for a specific topic, consider making an umbrella post. This can be used to interlink all of the posts you’ve written for the topic so far, boost topical authority, and serve as a catch-all of sorts for related keywords. Take, for example, our technical SEO guide, which references a bunch of our other technical SEO topics.

Setting up the right internal linking strategy depends on what you want to do with your website and your SEO goals. But, these steps are a good place for you to start.

Key Takeaway

Do take note that while internal linking can add to the topical authority of your site, it should be done carefully and naturally. 

Focus on being intentional about your strategy, making meaningful links between relevant pages, and steering clear of spammy linking practices to reap the most benefits possible while avoiding penalization. 

Ultimately, providing valuable, well-organized, and interconnected content is key to building topical authority over time.

The post Can Internal Links Help Build Topical Authority? appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Keywords, as we all know, are the bread and butter of SEO. They are how potential customers find us online and are what we build entire strategies around.

But targeting the best keywords for your business is tough. Short tail keywords are attractive, but are often too competitive, too high volume for most to fight for—so what is the alternative? 

Here’s where long-tail keywords come in. They provide an untapped opportunity to drive more relevant traffic to your website and connect with customers further along their purchase journey. 

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the essence of long-tail keywords, examining their importance, advantages, and—most importantly—how to incorporate them effortlessly into your content strategy. 

What is a Long-Tail Keyword?

Long-tail keywords in SEO are keyword phrases with more than three words that are extremely focused and specialized. These keywords are more targeted and reflect users’ exact search intentions than generic or broad-based keywords. They can also provide users with a more customized search experience.

The Power of Precision

When you are conducting keyword research, you can specifically target the wants and demands of your target market. You may draw readers who are more likely to convert by including these certain terms in your article. 

For instance, if you own a running shoe business, it will be very difficult to rank at the top for the keyword “best running shoes,” much less gain much traffic from your efforts. 

If, however, you decide to target the keyword “women’s running shoes for wide feet” instead, then you are more likely to draw highly interested customers who are looking for that exact product.

After all, when someone enters that very long, very specific keyword, they are demanding one thing: the kind of product that they just searched for on Google. 

By positioning yourself as someone who can answer their demand, you grab their attention, answer their search question, and ultimately bring in users who are more likely to buy your product. 

There is a value of precision that specific keywords provide. You may attract people who have a precise aim and are inclined to become clients by using such focused terms. 

Less Competition=Less Cost

Though these keywords often have lower search volumes since they are more specific than short tail or broad keywords, there often are fewer opponents for this from other websites. 

In that sense, you can also easily rank at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for these keywords, and attract more customers by focusing on untapped niches in a crowded online market.

So, this level of specificity of the keyword not only helps you reach a particular target audience but also distinguishes you from your competitors who may only optimize for broader keywords like “best running shoes.”

By catering to the needs and preferences of your audience, you also position your website as a trusted and reliable source for those looking for that particular product.

Providing people with exactly what they’re looking for will allow you to gain traffic almost effortlessly in a less competitive space, and drive conversions on your website. 

What is an Example of a Long-Tail Keyword?

To further comprehend the idea of what a long-tail keyword is, let’s look at an example. 

Consider a bakery that specializes in making desserts and sweets without gluten. 

Instead of optimizing your website for a short tail keyword like “dessert,” an extended keyword example you might consider is “gluten free chocolate chip cookies.”

This phrase is extremely particular, addressing the dietary needs of a smaller audience looking for a particular type of dessert. 

Aside from dietary needs, another way to find long-tail keywords is to look at the preferences of a potential customer. Things like flavor, color, or size can lead to a long-tail keyword. A customer might look for “mini chocolate frosted cupcakes,” which is another area you could target.

In short, almost every descriptor or variation of the products you offer is a long-tail keyword that you can potentially target.

Why Should You Integrate Long-Tail Keywords in Your Blog Posts?

Using long-tail keywords doesn’t just have to be on your website pages—it’s a great strategy for your monthly blogs, too. 

Integrating these in your blog posts can have a significant impact on both your entire content plan and SEO efforts.

Focused Traffic

As I said earlier—these keywords reveal users’ intentions when they look for certain knowledge, goods, or services. 

You can draw readers who are more interested in your content and offers by including long-tail keywords in your blog entries. 

These users are also often further along in the purchasing process, which increases their likelihood of becoming customers. 

You can direct targeted visitors to your blog and improve your chances of accomplishing your conversion goals by tailoring your content to their particular demands.

Enhanced Relevance

By focusing on writing for long-tail keywords, you can produce content that is incredibly relevant to the particular wants and needs of your target audience. You can satisfy their expectations by providing them with useful and informational blog entries by answering their specific questions. 

This can also position your blog post as a reliable source of information in SERPs—usually in the form of a featured snippet or rich result for that search query. 

Improved Search Rankings

High competition makes it difficult to rank highly in the search results for short, generalized keywords. 

On the other hand, long keywords frequently have a lower search volume and face fewer competitors. By targeting these, you drive better results for much less effort and time spent. This is especially helpful if you work in a cutthroat industry. 

You can quickly build your online presence, improve your exposure, and increase organic blog traffic by concentrating on long keyphrases.

When Should You Use Long-Tail Keywords in Your SEO?

To maximize their impact, long keyphrases must be used in the right situations within your SEO plan. 

Here are some pointers on when you should use these keywords.

Niche Targeting

Long-tail keywords might help you more successfully reach your target market if your company works in a particular niche or caters to a specialized demographic. Although they could draw in a larger audience, generic keywords do not guarantee that they will be interested in your particular services. 

You may boost your chances of bringing in highly relevant traffic by selecting keywords that represent the particular demands, preferences, or pain points of your audience. 

For instance, if you sell eco-friendly yoga mats, you may reach yoga practitioners who are concerned about the environment and are looking for sustainable products by optimizing your SEO using long keywords like “natural rubber non-toxic yoga mats.”

Entering Competitive Industries

In highly competitive industries, it might be difficult to rank effectively for generic keywords in highly competitive sectors. Long-tail keywords provide you the chance to stand out and draw in a smaller but more intent audience.

You might find several long-tail keywords once you start your competitors’ analysis. When you do, you’ll see that the difficulty of targeting these is low, since they have lower search volumes and fewer people actively trying to rank for them. 

This may be a golden opportunity for you—you can enter your industry through what is essentially a side door. Take gaming laptops, for example, where your website could enter by marketing your “thin and light budget gaming laptops.”

Focusing on a very specific part of the market can draw visitors who are actively looking for the exact goods, services, or information you provide. And, before you know it, you’ll have secured territory in a competitive arena.

Content Optimization

I said earlier that long-tail keywords are great for blog posts, and this plays into a larger strategy for content optimization.

Users frequently utilize longer and more precise keyword phrases while looking for information or solutions to their problems. You can give thorough and specific responses to these questions by including long keywords in your blog posts, articles, and FAQ sections. 

Providing useful material not only enhances user experience but also helps address any content gaps your posts or pages may have. They can help you establish authority in your field and draw in people looking for in-depth information by including them in your content optimization plan.

How do I Search for long-tail Keywords?

Using tools like SE Ranking and Semrush are pretty useful for when it comes to finding potential keywords, but here are a few free ways to do your keyword research:

1. Google Suggestions: A great place to start as we know these are phrases that people are searching for.
2. Google’s Related Searches: Always check the bottom of the SERPs for more suggestions linked to your keywords.
3. Google Search Console: The performance report will show you the long-tail queries search queries that drove people to see or click on your pages. If you don’t have pages that are optimized for the queries you’re showing up for the most, consider making one to improve conversion and user satisfaction.
4. Q&A Sites: Since these forums contain plenty of potential pain points and queries from users, it’s a great source for your blog topics, FAQ section, and more.

Key Takeaway

Long-tail keywords are a potent optimization technique that increases conversion rates and drives focused visitors. You attract interested visitors who are more inclined to take action by concentrating on precise, pertinent keywords. These keywords provide you with a huge competitive advantage simply because of how targeted and exact they are. 

Maximize your SEO potential now with long-tail keywords. Take charge of your website’s visibility, attract highly engaged visitors, and drive conversions like never before.

The post Long-Tail Keywords: Game-Changers for Your Website Traffic and Rankings appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Just when we thought that we could use everything AI to write all of our content, developers went and dropped AI writing detectors on us, too.

The creators of ChatGPT themselves released one just a few weeks ago, amidst new Google statements and updates on the whole issue of generative AI and content. 

It’s looking hard out there for these writing tools—but can engineers really develop a way to detect whether text has been by AI writers and conversational chatbots? Can Google detect AI-generated content? And, should you be worried about penalization if you’ve been using these tools yourself?

Let’s get into what this all means for your content production, and what you can do to avoid getting hit by Google’s algorithm. 

Is AI Content Bad for SEO?

Yes, AI-written content can be bad for your SEO. 

Google has said multiple times in the past that purely AI-written content goes against its guidelines. We’ll get into why and how it can be a problem for you later on.

Google also has a long, long history of using and developing AI tech. So, it’s safe to say that they do have ways to tell if your articles are written by an AI tool. 

Why AI-Generated Content Goes Against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Is using AI assistance in writing explicitly prohibited by Google’s Webmaster Guidelines? No. But, there are guidelines that strongly condemn ‘spammy automatically-generated content.’ Specifically, they call out any article written by AI for the “primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results,” which they state is a violation of our spam policies.

This is a mistake you can commit if you’re trying to churn out the most content simply to climb the ranks as fast as possible. 

So, it’s not that AI-generated content is, by default, something that Google will punish you for. But, if you’re just mass publishing content using AI, then it may ultimately hurt your rankings, rather than help. 

Danny Sullivan—a renowned SEO expert and representative of Google—made this clear in a past statement:

“We haven’t said AI content is bad. We’ve said, pretty clearly, content written primarily for search engines rather than humans is the issue. That’s what we’re focused on. If someone fires up 100 humans to write content just to rank, or fires up a spinner, or a AI, same issue…”

How Can Google Detect AI Content?

To understand how Google can detect AI content, it’s important to understand how AI writing tools work.

Jasper, ChatGPT, and other similar AI use a process called Natural Language Generation (NLG) to generate copies and responses. NLG uses algorithms, trained on a large corpus of data, to generate human-like text. 

Google on the other hand can use machine learning algorithms to learn the different signals in content—such as text structure, grammar, and syntax in the text. This will help it detect patterns in the content that are indicative of AI generative writing. 

In short, if it falls within a structure that is noticed by the algorithm, Google can flag it.

This is entirely possible because AI writing is missing the natural variation, nuance, and complexity found in human writing. Plus, AI writing tends to be repetitive, and the facts and data they present may also be outdated or misinformative. 

So, Can Google Detect AI Content?

Yes, even if it’s been run through your AI tools a couple of times. It can possibly even detect it if it reads naturally.

However, even if Google recognizes some of your content being AI-generated, it may not affect your rankings, so long as the content is primarily designed to be helpful, useful, and valuable for users. That means, your AI-written content may only be penalized if Google feels that you’re using it simply to manipulate your rankings. 

That’s not to say that Google’s algorithm is 100% accurate, though. When asked in an interview if Google was able to automatically detect the difference between human and AI content, Google’s John Mueller responded “I can’t claim that. However, if the web spam team sees anything that is automatically generated, they will take action.” 

So, it’s clear that there is no foolproof way of detecting AI-generated content, at least not yet. As AI technology and machine learning continue to develop, it’s safe to say that they will develop a highly reliable way to detect and penalize it.

Other AI Writing Detectors

As I mentioned earlier, there are several AI detection tools out there that can catch AI-generated content. 

The one developed by Open AI, which they’re temporarily calling “AI Text Classifier,” is just the latest in the long line of tools you can use. Originality AI is a premium tool that charges you 0.1 cents per credit and checks your content for both originality and AI. Another option is AI Content Detector from Writer, which you can use for free—though only for 1,500 characters at a time.  

I tried the free tools myself. I first asked ChatGPT to write me an article:

Then, I put it into the AI detector tools, without any edits:

Here’s what AI Content Detector had to say:

So, these tools seem pretty reliable in finding purely AI-written content.

Should You Stop Using AI for Your Content?

“I’m using an AI writing tool, should I be worried?”

A lot of people are asking this question now. After all, with the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022, and the explosion of AI software adoption, we all saw the incredible capabilities of AI. Suddenly, we all had free access to a tool that could replace a lot of the legwork and money that usually goes into content writing. 

How could we not use this technology in our SEO strategies, when it was so good? 

And now, months later, many are wondering if their AI-written content puts them in danger of a Google penalty. 

So, should you be worried if you used an AI writing tool for your site? The answer is—it depends. 

The situation as I see it is this: when you use things like ChatGPT to make content, you either publish it as is, or edit it before doing so. 

The first puts you in a bad position because you’re putting out bad content. And like I mentioned earlier, it may be downgraded by Google because it’s low-quality content that doesn’t provide a helpful, valuable experience for readers.

Why? Because tools like this only scrape and remake content that was fed to them. They do not provide anything novel, since you’re not adding your expertise, your thoughts, or your interpretations to the content. When you take the content they spit out and post it without a second thought, you’re essentially doing black hat SEO, spamming users with useless posts with the intent of boosting your rankings.

So the name of the game now is knowing how to use these tools efficiently, while still adding quality (and a human touch) to your content. Always offer that expertise to it that makes it valuable to readers.

How Does This Affect AI-Generated Content?

You might still be skeptical, and feel safer if you’re writing content purely without AI.

However, what you should be worried about is choosing the best content writing tools, and making sure to use them properly. After all, given how much time and money you can save with this in your toolbox, it’s worth taking the risk—with a few guidelines set in place.

Google even supports this (in a way), in their updated page on AI-generated content:

On the same page, they also said this: “This said, it’s important to recognize that not all use of automation, including AI generation, is spam. Automation has long been used to generate helpful content […] AI has the ability to power new levels of expression and creativity, and to serve as a critical tool to help people create great content for the web.

This is in line with how we’ve always thought about empowering people with new technologies. We’ll continue taking this responsible approach, while also maintaining a high bar for information quality and the overall helpfulness of content on Search.”

So no, you don’t have to stop using your tools. But you might have to revisit how you’ve been using them.

For starters, I suggest working with the right team. If the people using them are complete novices, then it might do your content more harm than good. 

Why? Because if they don’t know how to use these tools properly, then they might end up producing low-quality content that will, at best, be ignored by users (and at worst, get penalized by Google). Either way, the result is something you need to avoid.

Plus, if they keep churning out that kind of content on your site, you’re probably going to see a dip in your traffic and engagement.

On the other hand, if you’re able to train them to use these tools in such a way that creates great content for your audience with less time and effort spent, then it will become an extremely valuable asset for your site. In the right hands, it’s a powerful thing. 

So if you’re going to use an AI writing tool, invest some time in learning how to use them, and figure out what you should avoid doing with your content creation. 

What to Do When Using AI for Content Creation

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Check the writing style, tone, flow, and grammar of the generated content. Nothing turns off a reader more than something that is poorly written—or sounds odd.
• Use the tool to generate the bulk of the text. You could start with an outline, and ask for a paragraph or two for each point. This will make it easier for you to target as many relevant talking points as possible with less effort on your end.
• Provide clear guidelines. Without proper instructions, AI tools can struggle to generate quality content. If you don’t do this, you’ll probably waste time trying to re-generate the content you’re looking for. 
• Understand what prompts you can use. AI tools are programmed to respond a certain way to prompts, which can help you generate content in different formats, or for a dedicated focus. Knowing what prompts to use in a given situation can help cut down the time you spend trying to create the right content with your tools.
• Your content should be relevant and informative. Don’t just push out articles and blogs for the sake of it. If it isn’t relative and informative, it has little to no value for any reader. 
• Make sure to add your own take on the content—add in your expertise, your thoughts, and your comments on the matter. This human touch not only displays your knowledge of the topic but also transforms the content into something that will be uniquely yours. 

What to Avoid When Using AI for Content Creation

And here’s what to avoid doing completely with your tools: 

• Relying completely on AI for your content. As I said earlier, doing this will do you more harm than good, especially since the tools (and Google’s algorithm) can sniff out purely AI-written content. 
• Substituting AI-generated content for human creativity. Use these tools to cut down on writing time so you and your team can invest in something more valuable—your human creativity, insight, and expertise. Always insert that into your writing.
• Using AI for complicated, niche topics. Depending on your industry, you might not always be able to use it for your content. While AI is pretty sophisticated in what it can answer, it often cannot answer questions that require inference, a nuanced understanding of language, or a deeper understanding of multiple topics. 
• Keyword stuffing. This is an SEO content best practice as old as time. When you stuff your writing full of keywords, it will make your work sound spammy, and may even get you penalized by Google for being spam content.
• Forgetting to proofread and fact-check. Don’t expect AI to be perfect. Always proofread and fact-check. Any data, statistics, or facts given by your tool should be checked for accuracy. 

Conclusion

Can Google detect AI-generated content? The answer is yes, but that doesn’t mean that you have to stop using it in your SEO. 

Though several AI writing detectors are out there—many of which are free to use—it’s clear to me that AI-generated content won’t be going away anytime soon. In fact, there are several ways for it to be used ethically for SEO. 

With the proper guidelines, you can add AI writing tools as a valuable addition to your content creation arsenal, without fear of penalization.

The post AI Bust: Can Google Detect AI Generated Content? appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Zero Traffic from Google—that is what more than 50% of online content gets everyday. Ahrefs found this out last 2020.

And yet, countless websites continue to put them out regularly—a problem made even worse with all the AI-powered content tools out there. The result is an endless flood of low-quality blogs and posts that are, ultimately, not useful for anyone who reads them. 

So, what did Google do in response? They put out another addition to their algorithm, called the “Helpful Content Update.” Their goal with this one was to help make sure that valuable content that actually helps their users (a.k.a., people-first content) would be able to rank. 

Much like with every update, SEO professionals like you and I need to revisit our strategies to stay ahead of the game. In this article, I will show you some tactics I use to write content for people first, while maintaining good SEO practices. 

What We Know About Google’s Helpful Content Update

The Helpful Content Update algorithm update by Google was designed to improve user experience by putting high-quality content written for people higher up in the SERPs. 

Here’s how Google put it in their own words: 

“The system generates a site-wide signal that we consider among many other signals for ranking web pages. Our systems automatically identify content that seems to have little value, low-added value or is otherwise not particularly helpful to those doing searches.

Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that’s better to display. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.”

While this update was first announced back in September 2022, it has now progressed into a global update, impacting all languages. Google also announced that the system will continue to publish new signals over the coming months, helping their site identify more content created primarily for search engines versus people.

What does this mean for your website? Well, there are a lot of changes that others have documented in the last few months, which I summarize for you here: 

• Purely AI-generated content is considered spam, and Google will be using its machine learning algorithm to detect it.
• Content made for clicks (i.e., ad monetization) won’t work anymore. 
• There may be no manual penalties, but sites have experienced losing organic visibility. 
• It seems to affect the overall site performance, rather than hitting specific pages—and Google won’t be telling you which pieces of your content it has deemed as not useful.

Google’s Danny Sullivan also talked about this update possibly working in connection with future updates:

So, like Hummingbird, this update may become fundamental to ranking algorithms—which means that its exact effects could be only observed over the next few years.

Even so, it already puts a stronger emphasis on your content. Writing with a “search engine first” approach should no longer be your angle. 

After all, Google is, primarily, a space for users to learn. So, it makes sense that they’re making no room for unhelpful content.

While this update will undoubtedly be more damaging for poor-quality sites, it also presents an opportunity for well-maintained sites to take a second look at their content strategy. 

How Does Google Evaluate my Content in this New Update?

Google’s complete guidelines on creating helpful, reliable, and people-first content can easily be found on Google Search Central. But, I’ve gone through the list and summarized it into the five most important criteria:

1. Content and quality: Does your content have original, substantial information? Does it avoid copying and rewriting existing content? And, does it provide value, compared to others in the search results?
2. Expertise: Does your content demonstrate your expertise, as well as clear sourcing of supporting evidence? Is it factual? Is it written by someone who knows the topic well?
3. Presentation and production: Is the content written well, free of any spelling or stylistic issues? Does it avoid excessive ads or marketing? Does it display well on mobile devices?
4. People-first approach: Does the content have a clear purpose or focus? Does it meet that purpose or focus? Does it provide useful information  that helps create a a satisfying experience for the reader?
5. Avoidance of search engine-first content: Was the content written with the reader in mind first, rather than search engine rankings? Does it avoid manipulation of search algorithms (such as through extensive automation, summarizing others’ content without adding value, etc.)?

How to Optimize Your Content—and Make it More “Helpful”

With this update, we have to start thinking about our content holistically, rather than just trying to gain as many clicks as possible (or maybe even a featured snippet).

To achieve this, you have two main action points to consider: improving your intent and processes, and providing high-quality content.

Let’s go over some tips I’ve come up with in the last two months to better tackle these points (and enhance your writing): 

Review Your Intent and Your Audience

Before you even start on your next blog post, you need to know who your audience is. 

Ask yourself, who are you writing for? What are their needs, and why are they asking these questions? What do they need help with?

These questions will help you tailor your content to help your target audience. Otherwise, it’s likely that whatever you write won’t be considered helpful by Google—and you won’t be able to reap the benefits from your work. 

If you’re having trouble understanding who your audience is, then take a look at your Google Analytics data, under your demographic details report. This is the best place to gain some insight into who is currently looking at your content, as well as other things they might be interested in. 

So, beyond inserting your keyword into your blog post, consider factoring both your intended audience and relevant adjacent content. 

Provide Real Expertise, Insights, and Experiences

When it comes to making helpful, valuable content, it’s a big plus if you have some first-hand expertise to add to your writing. 

Avoid writing on topics that are trending, but you know nothing about. I also highly recommend against simply regurgitating information you’ve seen in other posts. Instead, your insights and experiences with the topic should be the main focus of your writing.

Not an expert on the particular topic you’re currently drafting? That’s okay—not everyone can be one. You can still produce helpful content by doing your due diligence, diving deep into research, and sharing what you’ve learned. 

Remember, readers can see right through you if you’re faking being an expert, so avoid making false claims at all costs. 

Use AI Content Strategically

Though this update may be primarily aimed at reducing the amount of AI-generated content out there, that doesn’t mean your tools no longer have a place in your work. 

AI tools, such as the increasingly popular ChatGPT or our recently-reviewed Content Marketing Platform from SE Ranking, can still be used to improve your work and productivity. The key is to use them strategically. 

Use them to lighten your workload, and avoid depending solely on them. For example, you can use your tools to help you generate better titles or introductions—but always remember to add a human touch to whatever they make. And, make sure that the bulk of the ideas come from you! 

Try to Hit Related Queries (Such as the People Also Ask (PAAs))

I mentioned that we have to start approaching our writing holistically, and that means providing as much valuable information to our readers as possible. 

Now that being helpful is the name of the game, it’s a great time to take a look at all the related queries users have for your intended topic. Here’s what comes up when I google ‘wedding catering:’

Check the PAAs and related searches that pop up when you type in your keyword. These aren’t just generated questions Google thinks people might ask—they’re actually being searched up by real people! These will provide good subheadings to include in your next blog article.

Ask Yourself: Will Readers Be Satisfied After Reading Your Content?

Things like word count and keyword density are now a thing of the past with this update. The most important thing now is that your audience enjoys what they’re reading, or they learn something of value from your article. 

In short, they leave your site feeling satisfied. 

So, always gauge your writing by asking this question: will people be satisfied after reading this?

For example, if you’re writing an article on how to properly brew specialty coffee, will the reader come away from your article with more knowledge than before? Will they have all their questions answered? Will they know how to properly brew their new coffee beans?

If the answer is yes, then you’re doing great. But, if you’re unsure—or the answer is a resounding no—you must make some changes. 

That said, not every reader that comes across your work will be happy with what you’ve written. It is, after all, impossible to please everyone each time you publish something. However, as long as a majority of your audience is satisfied, then you’re doing something right! 

Revisit Your Old Posts

Lastly, because this update affects you sitewide, it’s a good idea to look at your previous work. 

If you’re like me, then you’ve been blogging for upwards of a decade—and that might mean some of your posts aren’t as valuable to readers today. The content might be outdated, or not up to snuff with newer guidelines, but either way, this bank of legacy content can bring your traffic down.

So, revisit your work and review its ability to provide your readers with the answers and experience they’re looking for. Take the time to check if you need to make some additions to make it useful once again, or redirect them to newer content. I highly recommend prioritizing evergreen content, which is something I covered in my Blog Writing 101 guide.

This is especially important if you’re in any industry that moves fast (think fashion or tech). Content here usually goes from helpful to obsolete in a matter of months! 

Key Takeaway

Google has always favored people-first content, and this recent update is just the latest in many of their attempts to make sure the right content gets to their users. 

The Helpful Content Update will continue to release tweaks to their signals over the coming months, so it’s prime time for us SEO specialists to take a second look at our content and writing strategies.

Luckily, this update could be a win for you—just keep these tips in mind, and you’re on the right track to getting the most value from your content efforts. 

The post Optimizing Your Content for Google’s Helpful Content Update appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Nothing is more frustrating than when your team creates outstanding content, and nobody reads it. If you want the content to work in your favor, you need to make sure it ranks so it gets relevant readers right away. 

So if you are a blogger and want to win over your readers, if you run a business and need to outperform your competitors, or if you want to increase your revenue, you need to make sure that all the textual content produced by you or your team is optimized with SEO fundamentals and your chosen content strategy. 

That way, you can ensure your site ranks on the first page of Google Search and gets significantly more traffic. 

In a Content Marketing Institute survey, 88% of marketers reported that content marketing was successful in building brand awareness and credibility, 78% reached their goal of building loyalty with their clients and users, and 64% of marketers confirmed success in nurturing leads. 

By the way, if you need help reaching any of the objectives above, read our guide on 5 easy ways to build a solid content strategy. 

In this blog post, I’ll be reviewing a content optimization tool that can make your life easier: it’s a new roll-out by the SE Ranking team called the Content Marketing Platform. 

The Content Marketing Platform from SE Ranking is a time-saving tool for creating content to advance to the next level in marketing and business. It’s a simple-to-use, all-inclusive content marketing solution for SEO that covers a range of SEO factors stemming from content production efforts. Let’s check it out! 

Exploring SE Ranking’s Content Marketing Platform

SE Ranking’s Content Marketing Platform is a tool that takes your content to the next level. It saves time by helping your writers automate their work and provide your business and clients with exceptional marketing results. 

With the help of an AI algorithm, the tool analyzes all competitors’ content. So, in addition to keeping an eye on your rivals, you can create insightful briefs for your content marketers and copywriters and get suggestions on how to improve your messages from an SEO perspective. 

The Content Marketing Platform has two main tools: the Content Idea Finder and the Content Editor. With the help of these tools, you don’t need to spend hours scrolling through articles in search of relevant and up-to-date content ideas that will bring you thousands of readers. 

Features of SE Ranking’s Content Idea Finder

Let’s look closely at the Content Idea Finder. One of the fascinating things about this SE Ranking tool is that all you need to do is write down the desired topic. In a matter of seconds, you get keyword groups, which are accompanied by key SEO & PPC parameters such as search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, and level of competition.

Another valuable feature of this tool is that it allows you to find interesting topics for your readers and the most effective keywords, which search engines also take into account. 

Thanks to SE Ranking’s tool, you can get a list of the top 10 articles with the best performance in the SERP, according to the keyword in your cluster with the highest search volume.

If you still can’t pick the right keywords for your article, you can use a mind map to see a visual comparison of keywords ranked by difficulty and search volume. You can then transfer some keywords to the Content Editor to continue working on your piece of content.

Features of SE Ranking’s Content Editor

To ensure that your future content is fully aligned with SEO requirements, you can create a comprehensive brief for your writers with the Content Editor. 

Setting up a brief

With the help of an automated AI-powered tool, the software analyzes the top-ranked content of your rivals. You can select the most relevant pieces from a list of competitor publications that is automatically provided according to the search intent and based on domain and page trust indicators, the total number of referring domains, word count, and the website’s visibility. 

Below is what it looks like.

Then according to the list of articles, the tool suggests the length for your content, the number of used media elements, and other content parameters. 

SE Ranking’s AI algorithm also suggests terms and common expressions with the needed SEO information for you to use in your text. All these suggestions are data-driven, so you can boldly rely on them (unless, of course, you know better because of niche experience).

Another part of setting the brief is the content structure. With SE Ranking’s Content Editor, you can see how your competitors build their texts and can then add their H1-H6 headings to your SEO technical assignment or use them as a reference and create your structure from scratch, and add the notes and comments with your copywriter. 

When the brief for your article is finally ready, you can share a link with your content team so your writers can collaborate on your project, even without logging into SE Ranking’s account. Another option is sharing your brief via email.

Editing an article

Using SE Ranking’s Content Marketing Platform, your writers can insert the Content Editor outline from your brief and start working on the text right there on the Platform, instead of Google Docs or Microsoft Word, as the tool has all the needed text formatting features. 

To make sure that the text is fully aligned with your brief and SEO requirements, the Content Marketing Platform checks all the content’s parameters and keywords, even as the team is creating the piece.

The Content Editor also has its own  assessment of the quality of drafts. The program checks the grammar, spelling, and punctuation of texts. It also defines the stop-words and grades the piece’s overall readability score. So you can be sure that your article will be high quality and bring you the best possible results. 

Pricing

Even though SE Ranking released its Content Marketing Tool only three months ago, it has already been ranked by G2 as a niche product among the market’s Content Analytics Software, according to user reviews. To join those clients and assess the Module yourself, you can try SE Ranking’s SEO tool for free for 14 days and get two free content pieces with access to the Content Marketing Module.

Note: A paid SE Ranking account is needed to continue working with the Content Marketing Platform. You can get 15 articles per month for an additional $29, 30 articles for $49, or 120 content pieces for just $99.

Key takeaway

SE Ranking’s Content Marketing Platform elevates your content to the highest possible standards. The Module analyzes competitors’ content in just minutes, and with the help of the AI algorithm, you can build a customized brief with all the needed SEO requirements and notes of your content team. 

Within the Content Marketing Platform, you can assess the quality of created texts and their SEO parameters, making sure that your content is also SEO-friendly. 

If you want to ensure that all of your content is appreciated by readers and search engines and effectively attracts traffic to your site, check out SE Ranking’s Content Marketing Platform.

The post An In-Depth Look at SE Ranking’s Content Marketing Platform appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

You are stuck in a maze and you’ve tried every possible turn but there is no way out.

This is what our brains feel like sometimes and if you haven’t tried banging your head against the keyboard out of frustration with your content strategy, you have no business reading this.

Yes, even I have those days when getting the mix of SEO and the client’s technical writing desires in your content strategy seems like an unsolvable puzzle.

So here are 5 things to keep close when planning your content strategy so you don’t ever have to damage your keyboard again. You will rank and you will also provide the best possible content to your client and your readers – win, win and win.

The Importance of a Strong SEO Content Strategy

Before anything else, it’s important to acknowledge that quality content is one of the defining components of an SEO strategy. Great content paired with SEO efforts has always been the backbone of any successful campaign. Regardless of other standard SEO practices- if your content isn’t good enough for Google, then your website isn’t good enough to rank.

Ways of Setting Up An Effective SEO Content Strategy

Do Keyword Research Above All Else

Keyword research is like the egg to your omelet- all your ingredients won’t come together without it. Never start building your SEO content strategy without gathering your keywords first. Your keywords will be the foundation of any type of content that you’ll be publishing to your web pages. It’s important to keep in mind these guidelines when doing your keyword research:

• Use keywords that acknowledge your target audience
• Ensure keyword relevancy to your website
• Understand the search intent of each keyword in the list
• Only consider keywords that have good monthly search volume

Learn more about the latest keyword research practices!

Identify Website SEO Content Opportunities

It’s a fairly general SEO practice to commit all your content publications as blogs for your website. While this particular SEO content strategy proves to still be very effective in attracting website traffic- wouldn’t it be ideal if you could attract THAT traffic straight to pages that have higher possibilities to convert?

Imagine an e-commerce site with a web page that purely displays product listings as its content.

By including a frequently asked questions (FAQ) type of information, we allow that page to target SEO-friendly keywords increasing the chances for it to have a strong online presence.

This is an example of an “SEO content opportunity” on your website. Instead of simply publishing blog articles, you can direct your writing efforts to pages where there’s an opportunity to target a keyword.

You can mainly identify these SEO content opportunities by analyzing search results and identifying what type of pages are ranking. For example- when searching for the term electric scooter, the search result returns product listings. Therefore, there’s a higher chance of ranking a page that mainly displays products. Which makes it a good target for additional content.

Keep Your Content Human

Build your content for users.

The rising popularity of AI-written content allowed web pages to rank high within search results. This led to unnaturally written articles being presented to users. As a result, Google continues to release algorithm updates that punish these pages’ rankings.

It is very important to note in your SEO content strategy how the articles should be written. Always bear in mind to present information in a way that’s digestible and easily understood by readers. Not only will this help keep Google’s eyes away from you, but it will also increase user retention.

Acknowledge Your Competitor’s Content Strategy

In any card game, there’s a benefit to knowing what hand are your opponents playing. The same concept applies when building your SEO Content Strategy. Your competitors have done the work, so why not learn from them?

Noting your competition’s implementation of content in web pages, topics they publish in their blogs, and how they’re structuring their content can give you an idea of how can you improve your own content strategy.

The tool that I mainly use to gauge my competition is SE Ranking’s competitive research tool.

This allows me to see what organic keywords are they using on their website, in addition to manually browsing through their content.

Optimize As Much As Needed

Let’s assume that you’ve already started publishing your content- the only way to maintain and improve its quality is to perform regular on-page SEO optimizations. Not only can it serve as the solution to ranking changes, but it also allows you to be flexible in the content you have on your website.

Here are some of the things that you should consider when performing on-page SEO optimizations:

• Maintain the quality of the SEO factors being implemented in your pages by ensuring proper keyword usage in SEO factors such as title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and the like.
  
• Look for opportunities to improve/update existing content- such as enhancing keyword usage and content comprehension.
• Point out and correct any existing UI/UX issues to improve the visitor experience
• Ensure proper indexing practices such as appropriate robots and sitemap implementations that guarantee website visibility.

Key Takeaway

There are honestly a lot of ways that you can approach your website’s content. But instead of overloading yourself with information, learning these 5 ways of building a solid SEO content strategy can allow you to focus on the basics. Only then can you start applying other SEO practices that can help you formulate a successful SEO campaign.

If you want to learn more about content marketing, check out our guide on how to write your content!

The post The 5 Key Elements for Successful SEO Content Strategy appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Writing and publishing new content is an industry-standard for SEOs. New keywords are continuously being worked on and targeted for rankings. After a while, these articles will reach their peak potential for rankings but then will start to fall off as new and better articles are published by other websites.

Yes, it’s always good to discover and target new keywords and publish fresh content but that doesn’t mean that the old articles should be forgotten. 

That’s when the content gap analysis comes in. Content Gap analysis is a popular SEO optimization strategy because of the traffic boost that it can give to websites with less time and effort as you would put in writing a new article from scratch.

What is Content Gap Analysis?

A content gap analysis is a process where you evaluate existing content on your website and find lapses and opportunities for improvement.

It can be done on blog posts, sales pages, product pages, and more. Basically, anything on your website that has information and value.

Content gap analysis is an efficient SEO strategy because you use existing content and just improve on that. It saves you more time than completely starting a brand new article.

When you publish an article, your goal is to get number 1 at SERPs. Nobody aims for top 2 or top 5. The number 1 spot is where you get the most clicks and that’s what everybody wants.

That’s why you wouldn’t want to leave out old articles especially if there is potential to take the number 1 spot. It could provide a good boost in traffic and possibly bring more sales.

How to do a Content Gap Analysis

Find keywords where your website is ranking for but not at the top of SERPs

• First is you’ll need a tool that could provide you a list of keywords your website is ranking for. I personally use SEMRush organic research tool.
• Set a filter to see keywords where you are already on the first page but still not at the top. I prefer checking out from the top 2 to 10. You could also not limit yourself on the first page. I recommend going down to the 2nd page at most if you want to push articles to the first page and get more traffic.

• Collect keywords that you want to optimize for and the page ranking for those.
• You should also note the rankings for progress tracking. This helps you evaluate whether the improvements you made on the content worked or you might need to make some additional changes.

Study the competition

In Content Gap Analysis, one of the goals is to find out why other websites are outranking your content. The best way to understand what your content is missing is to study your competitors and analyze what makes their content better than your current content.

When studying the competition, you’d want to look at:

• Their title tag and meta description
• Find details about the topic that competitors touch and is missing on your article
• Look for anything that stands out in the page
• Search intent; is Google rewarding transactional or informational intent? 
• Keyword and LSI keyword mentions
• Study the tone and delivery

Audit your content and apply necessary changes

Once you’ve collected enough data, it’s time for you to evaluate your current content and identify what you are lacking. You should take notes from what your competitors are doing and not just look at how to copy them but look at how to do better than them.

Take note of which information they have that your page doesn’t have and consider adding those. Simply adding word count isn’t the way here as well. Remember: you’re not making your content longer, you’re adding value to it that Google won’t be able to resist. Freshness is also important. Check for any details that are outdated.

If you need to remove some of the existing content and replace them with more updated content, then you could do so. You may also consider design changes. A complete overhaul of content is rarely needed. You should do it only if the intent of the old content is completely different from the intent Google is rewarding.

Track your Progress

Once you’ve implemented improvements from your content gap analysis, it’s now to track whether the changes you’ve made actually helped the article move up. Just like any other changes you make for SEO, felt effects do not immediately happen. Here’s a sample:

Our team wrote an article for one of our clients who is a catering company in the Philippines. The article is targeting the keyword “unique debut theme ideas” and it was published back in August of 2017. It reached its peak traffic back in early 2018 and then started a downtrend.

We then did a content gap analysis on the article and optimized the article in December 2018. It wasn’t until February of 2019 when the rankings started picking up. We also optimized the article for featured snippets and once we got the top spot, traffic started reaching new heights and was able to maintain higher monthly traffic compared to its previous numbers.

The changes we made weren’t so big. The article listed 7 Unique Debut Theme Ideas and we improved it to 15 ideas. Added a featured snippet bait and that’s it! We continued updating some of the information in the article and we were also able to retain the featured snippet spot after 4 years after it was initially published.

Key Takeaway

The content gap analysis is one of my favorite SEO strategies because of its holistic approach to SEO; you continue to publish fresh content but also make sure that old content is taken care of and still contribute to the whole website’s numbers.

If you’re a SEO content writer, the content gap analysis is a useful strategy if you’ve hit roadblocks in finding new keywords and topics to write. It is never wrong to capitalize on the current content your website has.

The post How to Conduct a Successful Content Gap Analysis appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

To succeed on the SERPs, you need to prove that you’re an expert in your field. How? By showing Google that you have the knowledge and expertise to go in-depth on topics related to your industry. Not only that, but you also need to show that you have the ability to expound on these topics through multiple types of content. This strategy is all about building topical authority for SEO.

Even if you have already established your brand and your image to consumers in the real world, optimizing for search engines is a different game. Since Google utilizes algorithms to understand what your website is about, it’s important that you know what type of information you need to have to improve your rankings. That’s where topical authority comes in.

What Is Topical Authority?

Topical authority is achieved when Google or other search engines see your website as an authority on a particular topic. Why is this important? It’s simple. The more you build your authority with Google, the more it trusts you and the content you produce. The more trust you have, the more keywords you can rank highly for.

Let me give you an example. For one of our new clients, we created landing pages that talked about polo shirt uniforms, corporate uniforms, and work uniforms. One day, to improve rankings, I thought of placing the keyword “uniform supplier Philippines” in the homepage’s meta data. After a few days, I searched for the keyword again and found our client in the # 2 spot.

How did that happen? Well, we were able to establish topical authority.

How To Establish Topical Authority Through SEO Blogs

If you want to establish topical authority, it’s important that you understand what you’re optimizing for in the first place.

With the introduction of the Hummingbird update in 2013, Google advanced and improved search results using natural language processing. Instead of relying on the number of keyword mentions or the number of backlinks, Google’s algorithm started using semantic search and synonyms to understand content better.

Currently, if your content is able to target the right search intent, your website can start gaining authority. To boost your chances of ranking for more keywords, you should start looking into building your topical authority. Here are some ways that you can do that.

Use The Topic Cluster Strategy

One of the best ways that you can establish your topical authority is through the Topic Cluster strategy. The premise is simple — create cluster content that connects to a pillar content through hyperlinks. This strategy will have you creating content with interconnected topics, which can increase your topical authority.

Let’s say that you want to become an authority on construction wear. The first step is to make a pillar page about it. After that, you can show your authority by creating blogs that talk about the importance of high visibility workwear, fire retardant suits, and head protection.

Give Answers To User Questions

One other way to establish topical authority is by creating content that can give answers to user questions. Use tools to distinguish what type of questions people have regarding your industry. Then, create content that can answer it. Once Google sees that you have the information that people are looking for, your chances of ranking for keywords related to your industry will increase.

After you’ve done all that, you should see big spikes in your data.

What Are The Benefits of Topical Authority For SEO?

Besides better rankings, there are some other perks that come with having topical authority. First of all, it can lead to more clicks. The higher you rank on the SERPs and the more keywords you rank in, the more visible you become to users. If your content meets their search intent, they will click into your site.

Another benefit that comes with having topical authority is that it can lead to natural link building. Once people see that your content is relevant and made by an expert, more sites are guaranteed to build links to your pages. They may direct users interested in learning more about certain niche topics to your website. And, once they do that, your authority will increase even more.

Key Takeaway

If you want to be the go-to website in your industry, take note of the importance of topical authority for SEO. By creating content that is interrelated, you can establish yourself as an authority to the search engines and to the users. The more you do so, the higher your chances are to rank for all types of keywords related to the topic.

Have any other ways to improve topical authority? Let me know in the comments below!

The post The Power of Topical Authority in Establishing Your Website’s Expertise appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Search engines such as Google use different methods to determine what the topic of a certain page is. Previously, search engine algorithms would crawl a page in search of the keyword mentioned multiple times throughout the content to understand what it’s about. Now, Google uses Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords alongside it to give context to the page’s topic.

What does that mean for you? If you have a landing page that’s not doing so well despite having optimized metadata and a good number of backlinks & internal links, then this may be why. You may not have enough LSI Keywords to help Google understand more about your page and what its goal is.

Today I’ll be teaching you how to use LSI Keywords for SEO.

What Are Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords?

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords refer to terms related to a certain topic that search engines can connect to one another to better understand a page. These can refer to synonyms or phrases and words that are commonly used when talking about the subject matter. Think of it like the Topic Cluster Model but in one piece of content.

To start utilizing the LSI Keyword strategy, you will first have to find the best ones for you.

How To Find LSI Keywords

Today I’m going to show you three of the best ways to find LSI Keywords. These make use of tools and methods that can be easily accessible to any SEO professional. Let’s begin.

Google’s Recommended Search

You may not know it, but you look at LSI Keywords all the time when you use a search engine. First, take a look at the terms that pop up when you type in your main keyword. These are keywords that people are searching for that could be beneficial for your content.

Check out the example below when I search for the keyword “household pest”.

You can also take a look at the set of related searches at the bottom of the page.

Competitive Research

Another way to look for LSI Keywords is through competitive research. Take a look at the top results on the SERPs and observe what your content is missing. Start by searching for your keyword and looking at the bolded words. These signify potentially helpful LSI keywords.

To dig even deeper, look through the top pages to see why these competitors may be ranking better than you. You may be surprised to see that it’s because they’re utilizing LSI.

SEO Keyword Research Tools

Lastly, I highly recommend using SEO Keyword Research Tools such as SEMRush’s Keyword Magic Tool. These tools often give related keywords that can be used as LSI Keywords. You can even take a look at their volume as well as their keyword difficulty to confirm that they are being searched.

Once you’ve found the LSI Keywords that you want to use, it’s time to apply them to your page.

How To Use LSI Keywords For SEO

To successfully integrate LSI Keywords into your page, you need to place them in the following places:

• Title Tag
• Meta Description
• Headings (H2, H3, etc.)
• Alt Texts
• The Content Itself

Take a look at what my team did to boost up the rankings of one of our clients. By using LSI Keywords, we were able to bump them up from the Top 7 to the Top 3 position of the SERPs in less than a week.

How did we do it? By beefing up our content and adding related phrases and terms. Since they offer pest control in the Philippines, we added LSI Keywords such as “pest management services” and “pest infestations”. We also listed down the types of pests they handle and the locations that they cater to.

Key Takeaway

Now you know what Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords can do for you. These terms can be used together to give search engines such as Google a deeper understanding of your subject matter.

Optimize your landing pages with the help of recommended search, competitive research, and keyword research tools to find the best LSI keywords for you. Make sure that it perfectly describes the products and services your business provides. I guarantee that you will see an increase in rankings in no time.

Do you have any other strategies that use LSI Keywords? Let me know in the comments section below!

The post How To Use LSI Keywords in Your SEO Strategy appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.