Moving From Niche Sites & Affiliate To Agency Owner via @sejournal, @rollerblader

This week’s Ask An SEO question comes from Mike in New York, who asks:

“I have been creating affiliate blogs and niche websites throughout my 10 year career. Had some great successes and setbacks to share. But now I feel tired of it with Google also specifically targeting more of these types of websites in their updates.

What other fields are there to explore in SEO, what else is working right now? How is client side SEO? How can a person like me who has worked on content websites throughout their career can make a switch? What does future hold for SEO? “

Great question, and one that actually led to me starting my agency. Here’s the background and then the answer to your question.

I had niche sites in music, weddings, clothing, architecture, etc.

They were all growing and doing well, but I got bored of the same topics in the same niches, and it became incredibly disheartening when unqualified affiliate managers took over programs, destroying parts of my income, or companies closed their programs because of low-value affiliates being approved in.

That’s when a few interesting things happened:

• A few of the advertisers on my sites (affiliates and sponsors) asked how I was driving traffic, so I shared with them how I optimized for search and then social later on.
• Next, I walked them through the email funnels and automations I created. The email automation backfired on me big time when 3 of my sites got hacked through a plugin, and 20 spam newsletter blasts went out simultaneously as they posted spam blog posts to my sites). Never connect your newsletter to automatically drop when a new blog post goes live.
• I met with two of the companies in person.

Both companies asked me if I could do the optimizations I do for myself for them. It was interesting because I was getting bored and missed the structure of a “real job,” which sounds weird because I’m not a 9 to 5 person.

After a few more conversations, it made sense. So I started letting my niche sites die and used them for training purposes as I brought on contractors and staff.

Now, probably 10 or 15 years later, my agency is still going, and each of the domains has expired (I chose not to sell them even though I got an offer when they were bigger).

Now onto the answer, there are four things to be aware of and prepare for.

The first is how agency work differs so you can mentally prepare.

Next is lining up why you’re more qualified than an experienced agency.

Third, you’ll want to outline the types of clients you can work on (can and want to are different) and projects you’re able to do.

Last is being ready for more instability and inconsistency than being a niche site owner.

Being Mentally Ready For SEO Consulting

When you leave building and monetizing your own websites for consulting, you leave as your own boss. You know what works and does not, and what needs to be included in content, for example.

But it is not your choice anymore, and that becomes frustrating.

You know that the Google Reviews update recommends listing multiple shopping options in order to provide a better user experience.

Still, the ad sales team or affiliate manager sold a sponsored post. Their agreement prevents you from adding the extra store. Then, they want to know why the review or list isn’t ranking.

Another obstacle is when they insist the content cannot have “real experience” or list certain or any “negatives” because the content is a sponsored post – and everyone needs to make the advertiser happy.

Google and social media guidelines do not matter in the ad and publisher affiliate manager world; it’s about the advertiser and getting more money from them. They are not SEO pros or social media specialists; they are sales and account managers.

Their job isn’t to know that their way of thinking and selling impacts the loss of traffic. They just need to close sales and negotiate higher commissions.

With ecommerce, you have to meet brand guidelines, which can include not being able to use direct and specific language.

Sometimes you cannot follow pixel lengths (character counts) for title tags because it goes “against brand,” and that same team will ask why the titles don’t show up in the search results.

Other times, you have to “stick to branding” instead of meeting customer intent. This will drive you crazy because the opportunities are right there, but branding almost always wins, even when it costs the company money. This is a cycle that runs on repeat.

As a niche site owner, you focus on UX and revenue, but branding usually takes center stage with a company.

The branding team is not a performance marketing team. It is guided by the general counsel and going for what is required for the trademark and appearance of the brand.

As a consultant, you will benefit from learning about branding and finding a way to balance the two. Corporate branding is different from niche site branding.

The general counsel also comes into play. When you run a niche site, you can take original photos, give real feedback, and share genuine opinions.

The general counsel of your client may decide that this is not allowed on an ecommerce store, service company, or within the publication.

A story could be about to break, and you have an opportunity to get massive backlinks and Google Discover traffic or beat the current articles ranking because none of them have original thoughts or experiences.

But the general counsel holds it up for review, and the opportunity passes you by. Or the counsel decides with branding that listing negatives is bad for the company or company image, even though it can build consumer confidence through transparency.

The lack of trust builders can negatively impact both SEO and conversion rates. It isn’t their job to know how to rank a website or convert a consumer – that is your job. You also need to work within the atmosphere they provide, as you are not part of the company.

You are no longer the boss, even though you own your agency. It is your client’s website and platform. You are an easy-to-fire version of an employee who relies on the decision-maker trusting your advice.

That means you cannot push back as heavily as an actual employee; you have to make more sacrifices while keeping things afloat.

That does not mean being dishonest or not sharing the downsides, but you do walk a fine line in every meeting.

It is frustrating not to be the boss or able to make the decisions, so prepare yourself mentally for the above and more. With that said, you will learn how to better select clients and who you work with as you establish yourself. My current client base is like living a dream.

It took me over a decade to learn how to detect red flags and when it is time to move on, but now that I did, I love working with all of them.

It is the same enjoyment I got from running my own sites, but I get the structure and deadlines I missed from the corporate world. Many of them have become friends of mine outside of work. Even when I part ways with them, many keep in touch, as we did become actual friends.

List Your Skills

Yes, literally create a list of what you are highly qualified to do and print it out. This comes in handy when pitching clients, and imposter syndrome kicks in. And it will!

Under each skill, list a few successes with each so you can mention it when talking to clients. Make sure you change them out as new ones happen.

Something you did five years ago is no longer relevant as an agency. You need new and consistent wins to stay in business.

Skills can include:

• Email and SMS acquisition.
• Monetization (CPC, CPM, CPL, CPV, download, sponsorships, affiliate, subscriptions, info products, etc…).
• SEO.
• Niche knowledge and the levels about which parts of the niche.
• Connections with other niche influencers and experts.
• Audience building (social media, readership, community forming, events planning, etc…).
• CRO or conversion rate optimization.
• Code and markup (HTML/CSS, Javascript, PHP, schema, python, etc…).
• Datafeed optimization.
• Syndication.
• PR, interviews, and media training.

Once your list is built, rate each skill on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the highest. Think about which skills help other skills or teams so you can become a go-to resource for clients.

Now invest in yourself to get each marketable skill to at least a seven. I did this through necessity, like learning CSS (which I’m still not very good at) because I had to.

I also went to conferences where I could learn and discovered that many “gurus” and “keynotes” are not actual experts.

A few shows that changed my trajectory learning-wise are Pubcon, State of Search in Dallas, Zenith Duluth, and Barbados SEO. These, in particular, really changed how I see things. But I don’t use them to build business.

As an agency owner with niche experience, if you want to build clients, you go where the hiring managers are. If you are in the electronics space, go to electronics shows and inventors shows and pitch to speak.

That is where the marketers and founders are listening and looking for help. Do you work in housewares, food and recipes, etc.? The home shows are your perfect market to build clients.

The Types Of Clients You Can Work On And Projects You Can Do

Ecommerce SEO is very different from niche sites – the same with publishers and service-based companies. Then you get into non-profits, which is an entirely different ballgame.

Decide if you want to work on competing companies or all complementary to each other.

Now, determine how much time and effort each will take, and price yourself accordingly.

Don’t be afraid to map out hours on your calendar. This helps me keep track of what I need to be doing, in addition to my to-do list (which I literally write out and check off each week).

• News sites (wholesale, trade, organization, media).
• Niche sites (publishers, bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, influencers, etc…).
• Ecommerce.
• Service providers.
• Lead gen.
• SEO audits.
• Retainer projects.
• Advisor roles.
• Hourly.
• Workshops.
• Public speaking.
• Event hosting.

Prepare For Instability

If you think Google updates or having a social media account closed is bad, wait until all clients leave in the same week. Things spiral faster than niche sites tanking.

It happens to almost everyone.

Clients are going to get pitched all the time, and you will lose some, even though you did nothing wrong.

Or you grow a company and brand, they make money and hire a new VP or Director, and that person brings in a new agency because they worked with them in the past.

You’ll also hear that the new agency can scale and work with larger companies. This may not be true, but it is what the founders hear from other founders when they attend networking events.

You lose when their peers put ideas in their heads.

Always put a little bit of money away, even $100 a month. It adds up and lets you keep going when things get bad.

This post is getting long; if you can’t tell, I’m passionate about it. So I’ll stop here. Give it a try if you have the ability and can take the risk both financially and mentally.

The worst that will happen is you fail and go back to building niche sites, take a full-time job, or do a hybrid. At least you won’t ever have to wonder what could have been.

More resources:

 Featured Image: ESB Basic/Shutterstock

Ask An SEO: What Are The Best Resources To Learn SEO And Who Are The Best People To Follow Online For Good Advice? via @sejournal, @HelenPollitt1

This week’s Ask An SEO question comes from Nicolò, who asks:

“What are the best resources to learn SEO and who are the best people to follow online for good advice?”

This is a great question that goes to the heart of what a lot of people struggle with when learning SEO. There is a lot of information online.

There are a lot of SEO “experts.”

Often, there is a lot of contradictory advice.

So, how do you sort the truth from the fiction – the opinionated from the experienced?

People To Follow

The issue in the SEO industry is that we are often left in the dark. Google and the other search engines offer us morsels of information, and we run wild with speculation.

Unfortunately, this can then become “fact.”

The rumor spreads. Pretty soon, you’ll hear it discussed in agency pitches and incorporated into brand strategies, all without it being properly questioned.

Finding the truth amid all of this noise can be tricky. Essentially, you are asking me, “Who and what can I trust?”

Really, the answer is to find SEO pros to learn from who are constantly testing their own assumptions.

I’m not going to list names here. I don’t want to risk putting you off following an SEO on social media purely because I haven’t included them in my list.

There are a lot of highly accomplished SEO pros who I don’t know.

Instead, I’ll suggest some ways of identifying those people who are digging into SEO and drawing conclusions from data.

Conferences And Publications

Start by attending SEO conferences and taking note of the speakers who are bringing something new to the table.

These are the people who are conducting experiments or backing up their claims with their own case studies.

Similarly, look for authors writing in reputable SEO publications – like Search Engine Journal – read their work and follow those constantly looking to question conventional wisdom and prove or disprove it with data.

Conference organizers and publication owners perform a certain level of due diligence, which means you are a little bit safer following the people they have chosen to showcase than following strangers on the internet.

Follow Who They Follow

A good next step to expand your list is to look at who the people you identified above follow.

If the same names pop up on the social media profiles of these conference speakers and article writers, you can be reassured that they are bringing useful insight to the platform.

Try to identify who they are discussing SEO with on social media. Snoop on those conversations and see who your trusted list of people to follow are also having informed discourse with.

It’s okay, too, if the SEO professionals you follow do not necessarily agree with what’s being said by the other people, as long as those other people are bringing rational, data-backed opinions. Sometimes, we learn best through hearing both sides of an argument!

Ask For Recommendations

It’s also perfectly acceptable to ask for recommendations of who to follow online like this Reddit user did.

To avoid getting back the same small list of famous SEO professionals each time, consider reaching out to some of your “trusted” SEO pros from the list above and ask them who they would recommend for specific areas of SEO.

For example, are you looking to learn more about local SEO or ecommerce SEO?

Ask for recommendations of who they would turn to if they had a question in that field.

Be Part Of The Discussion

SEO is constantly evolving, and no single SEO expert has all the answers. We learn from each other and from discussing ideas and opinions.

It’s never too early in your career to take part in those discussions.

Join In The Conversation

Look for conversations that are happening on SEO topics and join in the discussions. For example, @MordyOberstein’s #SEOChat over on X or the Google Search Central Help Community 

Try some of the Reddit subreddits about SEO, like r/TechSEO and r/bigseo. There will be a lot of discussions (I mean arguments, really) that will give you some quick insight into what practicing SEO pros make of particular ideas or approaches.

You can simply read through questions and replies, or you can take part. Give your own thoughts and ask for critiques and opinions. Engaging in discourse and learning from others can help you to sharpen your knowledge.

Start A Conversation

Perhaps, if you’re feeling brave, you can start your own conversations in these forums.

There is always the risk that you might be met with answers by people who haven’t really practiced SEO that much. The great/awful thing about the internet, however, is there are always people waiting in the wings to argue and say an opinion isn’t valid!

Ask a specific question and crowd-source the answer. Wait for the arguments to be presented and countered, then use it as an opportunity to learn how to validate others’ SEO opinions.

Conferences And Meet-ups

As already mentioned above, seeing who is speaking at events can give you an idea of some reputable people to follow, but let’s explore that a bit more.

Learn Something New

Something I recommend to SEO pros, both experienced and new, is to attend SEO talks that don’t interest them. That might seem counterintuitive, but it can actually be extremely eye-opening.

The chances are that the aspects of SEO you find exciting are the ones you will actively seek to learn more about.

If you are interested in the technical side of SEO, you will likely look for talks on cutting-edge experiments, advances in load speed and rendering, or case studies about complicated migrations.

But you possibly already know a lot about that as you are already interested in it. Every once in a while, set out to attend the talk you are least interested in.

If you are a digital PR at heart, attend a tech talk or two. If you are an in-house SEO, attend a talk about client management.

By doing this, you have a high chance of learning something completely new that will enhance or complement your existing skill set. For example, the in-house SEO will be able to apply skills discussed in the agency talk to their own stakeholder management issues.

Some good conferences to start with include BrightonSEO (Brighton, UK, and San Diego), WTSFest (Philadelphia, London, Berlin), MnSearch Summit.

Read more: The Best SEO Conferences For 2024-2025

Look Outside Of SEO

A good way to expand your knowledge of SEO is to not just attend SEO conferences. Go to events where a more holistic digital marketing approach is spoken about.

Or, if you are feeling really inclined, go to one that discusses adjacent disciplines like PPC and email marketing. This way, you may well learn more about the context of SEO in the digital landscape and how to better implement it within a complicated marketing system.

There are several specialist conferences that cover marketing subjects like paid media, social media and content marketing available, including ADWorld Experience, Hero Conf, and Content Marketing World.

There are also large multi-discipline conferences that cover a wide range of digital marketing topics, including Moz Con, State of Search, INBOUND, and the Growth Marketing Summit.

Go To Panels

A conference talk is, by design, very one-sided (heckling aside!). The speaker presents the material how they want to and goes into as much depth as they feel appropriate.

Due to this, you don’t have any opportunity to hear other peoples’ views on the subject or even their challenges to the assertions made.

Panels, however, are more collaborative and discussion-focused. Many events that have traditional workshop or presentation formats will also have the occasional panel or fireside chat.

These are your opportunities to hear the views of multiple SEO pros, perhaps even disagreements on a subject.

Listening to more than one view of a topic will help you discern what you agree or disagree with and ultimately form your own opinion. It is a good way of preventing yourself from just agreeing with whoever you have heard speak on the subject most recently.

Participate In Webinar Q&As

Webinar question and answer sessions are another way to hear multiple SEO pros give their opinions on a topic. They will also allow you to ask your own questions to the participants.

For example, the Good Signals “SEO Office Hours” webinar hosted by Michael Chidzey and Jo Juliana Turnbull is a weekly webinar that allows viewers to submit their questions in advance or ask questions during the event itself.

Then, a panel of SEO practitioners will discuss their thoughts on the questions.

Similarly, if you want to hear directly from the horse’s mouth, you can participate in Google’s “SEO Office Hours” asking your questions directly to Googlers from the Search Quality team.

Read more: Top 17 SEO Podcasts For 2024

Communities

Many communities have been set up to help with learning SEO. Some are region – or demographic-specific to help with more nuanced questions or support those traditionally less supported in the industry.

These communities are designed to facilitate a safe space to ask questions and get answers from others in the industry.

This sort of networking isn’t just useful for increasing your practical knowledge of SEO, they can also help with job opportunities. There are a lot available but here is a selection:

Location-specific Meetups include:

Create Your Own

If there isn’t a community that serves your specific need, or you’d prefer something smaller, consider creating your own.

It could start off as regular meet-ups at local cafés where you get to know other SEO pros in your area.

Or perhaps, an online call once a month where you can just bring questions to each other.

Maybe you have met some other SEO pros you feel you could learn from. You might be able to invite them to participate in a Slack or WhatsApp group.

Create A Forum

Another way to create a community that uses existing infrastructure and is, therefore, much easier to create is through Reddit or other forums.

You could set up a “subreddit” for a particular aspect of SEO and share it on other SEO subreddits. That way, you can encourage a much wider range of people to participate without you needing to know and invite them all personally.

Resources

To finish, let’s return to the question I discerned at the beginning: “Who and what can I trust?” There are already a lot of resources online about SEO, some less helpful than others!

Newsletters

Other than online blogs like Search Engine Journal, there are newsletters that can round up breaking industry news and case studies.

For example, Aleyda Solis’s “SEOFOMO Newsletter” sends a weekly summary of interesting articles and webinars from the SEO industry.

Nikki Halliwell’s “Tech SEO Tips newsletter” offers news and tips designed to help solidify your tech SEO knowledge.

Tom Critchlow’s “SEO MBA” newsletter focuses on the career and management side of SEO.

Women in Tech SEO also has a newsletter for everyone in the industry to learn SEO from, summarising interesting articles that have been recently released.

Training Courses

There are a lot of SEO training courses out there, paid and free.

Some that have been highly recommended to me in the past are the Hubspot Academy, Semrush Academy, BrightLocal Academy, Blue Array Academy, and the BrightonSEO short courses.

Sometimes, though, you may want to go more in-depth into new areas of SEO. Perhaps you don’t really know where your skills gaps lie. For this, I would strongly recommend looking at Aleyda Solis’s LearningSEO.io.

It is a free and highly comprehensive roadmap of SEO concepts. It runs from beginner to advanced, with reliable free resources accompanying each.

Summary

There is a lot of information about SEO online. It’s an ever-evolving subject and that means more content will be produced on it all the time.

With that amount of information available, it can be overwhelming to know who or what to trust.

Use the suggestions and resources above to start to curate your own list of trustworthy material and people to learn from. That way, you can keep expanding your knowledge in a safe and helpful way.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Ask An SEO: What To Analyze On Competitors Sites For SEO via @sejournal, @rollerblader

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Sanjay in Coimbatore, who asks:

“What are the things I need to analyze in our competitors site for SEO?”

Sanjay, thank you for asking this question. The most important thing to keep in mind when analyzing a competitor or multiple competitors’ SEO techniques is to never do something just because they are.

If you implement similar copy, design elements, internal links, schema, and get the same backlinks, there’s no reason for search engines to show your website.

Search engines don’t need two versions of the same page. What they may need more than yours is something better that gets searches to a solution faster or more easily.

If you’re adding things because competitors have them, it is in the search engine’s best interest to continue showing the current winners. If you’re emulating their success closely, then you’re effectively admitting they have the better resource.

Focus on what they are missing or what they’re doing that is irrelevant to the search intent, and always track their changes and your own.

One option is to create a spreadsheet or use a visualization tool that populates charts and graphs so you can track your findings. This will help save you time when you need to reference the “why” you’re making specific changes.

What We Analyze On Competitor Websites, And What We Don’t Bother With

Schema

Please keep in mind that schema is a way to tell a search engine what is on the page, but schema on its own may not help you rank higher.

Schema is a way to create rich results if your pages are already ranking. It is important to have, but not an end-all solution.

There are a ton of tools that make it easy to deploy. Two of my favorites are Schema App for WordPress websites, and I’ve fallen in love with seoClarity for ecommerce and service websites not based on WordPress. It has a browser extension that is free to use.

Using your favorite tracking tool (Semrush, Moz, Ahrefs, etc.), look to see which competitors have featured snippets. From there, analyze the schema libraries on their pages and note which types of rich results they have. Split it out by page type, too.

Here’s an example of page types:

• Blog posts.
• Product pages.
• Category pages.
• Landing pages.
• FAQs and information.

Now put a column next to it and add in the current schema libraries you find and include:

• Errors.
• Warnings.
• Fields not being used but could be helpful.

In the next column, add which results they’re populating a rich result for. Having schema on the page doesn’t mean a search engine will use it.

If you do this monthly, or as the specific search engine algorithms update, you can see which libraries are being used, who is winning, and what may be helpful (or not).

Now deploy what is relevant to your website, but remember: you should never put schema on a page if the feature is not there, i.e. don’t use breadcrumb schema if you don’t display breadcrumbs on the page.

Overusing schema will likely lead to problems. Pay attention when libraries are deprecated like “how to” and “FAQ.”

If other systems and platforms need it, keep it. But if nobody does, pull it. There’s more to the marketing ecosystem than SEO, and being reliant on one channel is always disastrous as that channel can disappear overnight.

Copy On The Page

If your competitors have detailed guides that rank for “blue widgets,” don’t start including copy and headers because everyone else has them. Instead, evaluate the following:

• What is missing that they haven’t answered yet but is topically relevant and important for the consumer on that specific page?
• Have they thrown in irrelevant headers and paragraphs that don’t make sense for the user to read?
• Is everything on the page easy to find within a quick scan, or are answers buried in paragraphs and at the bottom of the page?
• How is the text formatted, and can you do it better?

The job of a search engine is to provide the best possible answer and user experience to the person searching. Giant paragraphs and irrelevant text create a bad experience. You can create a better one by being concise, direct, and formatting differently.

If you’re comparing two things, does it make sense to add a table or chart of the features? What about sections for the two?

If the person is already searching for “blue widgets” and the phrase is about buying, repairing, or compatibility with “red whatsits,” they know what a blue widget is.

Do not add a section that defines a blue widget just because your competitors have that on their pages. Instead, move the comparisons and answers higher up by deleting fluffy content at the top.

Explaining what the person already knows wastes their time. You can always use an internal link off of jargon to a dedicated post if the person wants more information, and then they can return to the previous page. This doesn’t mean to avoid creating a “what is” post that defines the blue widget.

Create the “what is” post for people just entering the industry or who are about to buy their first one. It is still topically relevant to your website because you sell them, repair them, or provide guides to using them if you’re a publisher. But it doesn’t make sense for someone who already knows what they are.

By removing the irrelevant text and ensuring everything on the page is directly relevant to the title and H1 tag, you have now created a better experience than the competitors, and that may reward you with SEO traffic.

Backlinks

Backlinks are not as important as they used to be. Yes, they matter, but no, not all backlinks are the same.

Having the same exact link profile or type of links won’t give you an advantage; having quality links and some original ones will. This is where link builders and auditors normally go wrong.

It is still and has always been quality over quantity with links if your goal is long-term stability. Churn and burn sites can go quantity over quality, as well as AI-based content. These don’t survive.

Here’s what we look at after we pull backlink reports. Majestic SEO is my preference for the best database, but there are countless providers. Go with the one you can use most easily. Some of the tools above offer nice comparison charts, too.

• Which are missing from you – Look at the competitors with highly relevant and high-quality links like actual citations in industry publications. Also, check for organic features in niche blogs and websites. These are the ones where your customers are reading and visiting. Because it is your same topic and audience, it is somewhere you would want to be. That makes it a good link. Domain authority, authority scores, etc., are all tool-based metrics, and they don’t show quality or lack thereof. Ignore them.
• The links that no competitors have – Find websites and influential places like podcasts and webinars that feature original content that is on topic for your company. Begin building relationships with them and get featured. You could be a guest on the show, have a resource on your site they may source if they shared a data point and didn’t source it, etc. If you get this link and your competitors don’t have it, it may be an advantage. If everyone else has the links, it’s not a hard one to get and likely doesn’t matter as much. It may not harm you, but it won’t be as helpful either.
• Who is paying for links – Many times, companies and link building service providers pay for links. You’ll see the “authors” write about everything from health supplements to home decor, and there’s a mix of big brands and small companies to try and throw search engines off. Search engines are not as ignorant as we think about these links. They will catch up as the links get mapped, and these sites will pay the price. If you have a competitor paying for links, you can try reporting the links to Google, but it is unlikely this will do anything.

When building links, don’t worry about what your competitors have, but pay attention to where they’re being featured and why.

It can lead to content ideas you haven’t covered yet or topics you can create new pages for in a better way. Focus on where you can get high-quality features and work to get those links.

Robots.txt And Architecture

One thing I do use with competitors is their crawl and architecture plans. I look to see which folders and pages they prioritize, what they push for keywords and topics, and what is not important to them.

This can lead to taking over their big revenue generators and coming up with ideas for new PPC campaigns when the paid media teams are ready to test new markets.

You could discover new phrases and keywords not yet considered in your strategies, as well as better ways to structure your own site.

• Robots.txt – It shows their priorities with folders and site structure for crawling.
• Meta robots – It helps you understand which pages are meant for SEO and what they don’t actually care about.
• Sitemaps – If priority is set, you can see what they’re updated the most frequently or what their priorities are, and watch those pages climb, fall, or remain stagnant.
• Breadcrumbs – You’ll see the keywords they want to rank for, possibly the words their customers use, and how they structure their products, topics, or services.

There are a million other things you can look at.

As you evaluate your competitor’s SEO techniques, keep in mind that if you are focusing on them so you can do what is working for them, you’re forgetting to build something better and original.

Search engines only need one version of their site. If you create a better experience, which sometimes means less copy or a design that eliminates hero images, you may overpower them in the top spots.

I hope this helps, and great question!

More resources:

Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock

How Do Keyword Optimizations Change After Helpful Content Update? via @sejournal, @rollerblader

Today’s Ask an SEO question comes from Ines, who asks:

“Can we go over how/if keyword optimization will change (after the Helpful Content update)?”

Great question, and one that gets asked a lot, especially when sites get penalized, remain stagnant, or lose positions.

Keyword optimization strategies should not change at all because SEO pros should never be optimizing for keywords.

If you want Google to know when to show and optimize your page, you have to optimize for a solution and the topic so that the person searching will benefit from the page they land on.

Yes, keywords make a page understandable for a search engine, and if it is the phrase and jargon your customers are using, it will be relatable.

Being relatable can increase conversions because you’re speaking your customer’s language. But don’t stress over the keyword.

If you’re going to focus on something, the best bet, if you want traffic and conversions, is to hone in on the intent of the searcher.

When you do this, the keyword begins to appear naturally throughout the page – and in ways an actual customer would be using it.

I’ll share an example and then expand on it while fine-tuning the “keyword-based” content.

If the keyword is “blue t-shirt,” do not do:

• Title Tag – The Best Blue T-Shirts from Blue T-shirt Store.
• H1 Tag – Blue T-Shirts From The Top Blue Tee Shirt Shop.
• Blurb – “We sell the most comfortable blue t-shirts available. Each blue t-shirt comes in crew neck, v-neck, and wrangler or baseball style with blue tee sleeves. Shop below to find the best selection of blue tee shirts in cotton, polyester, and blends.”

This is trying to optimize for a keyword phrase and keyword stuffing.

You also do not need variations of the phrase “blue t-shirt” as often because modern search engines have begun understanding the differences. They use the context and, likely, the structure of the page to understand what the product, service, or content on the page is.

It’s a hard habit to break – and I’m guilty of it – but one that is vital for success with the spam, core, and HCU signal checkers and algorithms.

One thing we do with our clients is have a stranger read the text.

If their facial expressions change, the test groups look confused because they’re repeating the same phrases over and over, or they pause and start to laugh; we have keyword-stuffed the content (i.e., optimized for the keyword) and need to rewrite the text.

Pro tip: You don’t have to spend tons of money on focus groups. I use coffee shops and cafes where there’s a regular influx of people coming in and out (so nobody knows what I’m asking after 10 minutes), and people are bored waiting for their coffees. I’m giving them something to do. At times, I’ll pay for their coffee as well.

Let’s look at another way to get the same message across that is more “SEO friendly” but with fewer keyword optimizations.

In this example, I’m thinking about the types of phrases that would answer a customer’s questions and incorporating them into the architecture and content so they know they’re in the right place if they visit.

It may look like:

• Title Tag – Comfy Blue T-shirts Available in Popular Styles.
• H1 – Blue T-shirts for Sports & Casual Wear.
• Blurb – “Are you looking for a graphic t-shirt that is perfect for school, or a wrangler with blue sleeves for baseball? You’re in luck. Here at ABC brand, we sell a huge selection of these tees in multiple fabrics and styles no matter what style you need.”

This type of copy isn’t perfect, but it speaks to the reader and lets them know you may have a solution for their “blue t-shirt” needs. But like I said, we can take this multiple steps further.

I don’t know if this is accurate or not, but from my experience, I have seen the relevance of a header tag pass through to the copy below. So if the H1 tag is “Blue T-shirt,” don’t stuff that in below.

Describe the blue t-shirt, its purpose, and uses instead of keyword stuffing. Modern search engines likely know how to connect the two. So, let’s go deeper and create a more topically relevant copy experience.

Pro-tip: Talk to your customer support and warehouse team and look for the reasons the blue t-shirts get returned. Adding hints as to which to buy can reduce returns, time wasted with customer support about sizing, etc. This reduces overhead, labor costs, and wait times for actual customer problems.

Issues you may discover in our fake scenario may include:

• Faded during the fifth wash.
• Didn’t fit or was too tight.
• Ripped after wearing.
• The colors didn’t match the photos.
• Arrives after the needed date (think print on demand for parties).

Take the customer support and warehouse feedback and place it in a keyword cloud, or try using AI or a custom GPT to create a keyword cloud of the most common three to six-word phrases.

This gives you a way to meet customer needs and potentially include longtail phrases with topical relevance throughout the category and product pages.

Once you have these, think about where these answers can be included on the page:

• A few additional words in the product description or category.
• FAQs on the product or collection/category page.
• The blurb at the top of the page, or if needed, below the product grid.
• It can also be included in your live chat scripts, although that won’t help with SEO.

You can always try adding content to a column in the products as well as your site search box. However, site search won’t help with SEO, so I’ll save that for a different column if someone asks. How does this relate to SEO?

Modern search engines try to show the most relevant experience, and if someone is looking for a product that ships fast, has positive reviews, doesn’t fade, and can stand up to summer camp dirt and grime, having this information on your page lets them know you have a solution to the searches needs.

But don’t go wild!

Here’s what the page may look like now:

• Title – Fade-free Blue T-shirts in Multiple Styles & Materials.
• H1 – Blue T-shirts That Last.
• Blurb – “From baseball to casual wear, and cotton to mixed blends, when you shop ABC brand, you’ll discover a selection of fade-resistant blue t-shirts that are machine washable and in sizes from XS to XXXL. 2-day shipping available. Buy a size up; they’re tight in the chest.”

Now add in FAQs, but make sure they only apply to the blue category of t-shirts. If they apply to red, white, green, or purple, then they should go in the main t-shirt category, as blue FAQs should be specific to blue.

Here’s an example of an FAQ that belongs on the category page and one example that should not go on the page.

One that can go on the page:

What does the blue look like after five washes?

Although our blue tones are made from X, Y, or Z dyes which are fade-resistant, fading happens, especially in warm or hot water. Here’s a color chart featuring Royal, Baby, and Navy after five, 10, and 30 washes.

One that should not go on the page:

The blue isn’t like the color in the photo, what can I do?

If the color doesn’t match the image on the page, you’re covered by our return policy which you can find here.

The second FAQ does not go on the page because it applies to any and all colors. It is about the return policy and is not specific to a blue T-shirt. It belongs on a general store FAQ page.

An alternative to the FAQ is to include you have a money-back guarantee near the CTA on the product pages and link to the policy from there. It’s a trust builder, not a piece of unique copy.

Focusing and optimizing for keywords is how you get penalized. Focusing on providing a good user experience and the topic of the queries is how you get rankings.

• Look at the keyword groups.
• Match the intent to the page type, like a collection, product, blog post, or comparison.
• Write content that answers users’ questions.
• Match the images to consumers’ needs.
• Include bonus tips that help make a positive shopping experience, like sizing and care instructions.
• Don’t keyword stuff.

I hope this helps answer your questions about keyword optimizations and the helpful content update. Thank you for being a subscriber.

More resources:

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

How Can You Begin To Rank In New Markets (Local, National, International) via @sejournal, @rollerblader

Today’s ask an SEO question comes from Mark:

“How can a small company that only ranks in its local markets begin to rank in another market? What would you do to help the small company rank in a new area?”

Great question, Mark! The good news is that the answer is fairly easy and can be applied to local, national, and international in the base strategy.

All three can also require foreign language versions, but that is for another post. I’ll give some hints in this one for that situation, though.

I’m going to cover the basics of getting SEO traffic in new markets here, making the assumption it is regional vs. new products, and then share some tips specific to local, national, and international.

Google Business Profile (GBP)

If you’re local or have a national footprint, when you expand, make sure to update your area served or serviced by location. This link goes to Google’s guide for how to use a service area.

Make sure to keep your hours up-to-date on the website, landing page, and on your GBP.

This helps the search engines to understand where you’re now offering services, what your footprint is, and when customers can access your offerings.

You can also launch new profiles for new locations. Just make sure you verify ownership for each one and keep them up-to-date. This includes holiday hours and closings.

Schema

Do you have service area or organization schema on your site or pages? Make sure to fill out and update the “area served” fields by referencing Wikipedia or Wikipedia’s entries.

Wikidata has almost every city, county, state, country, and region to help you define where your products, services, stores, etc., are located.

The more you can help the search engines know where you offer services, and the hours you offer them, the better job they can do at showing you as a provider to people in those markets.

Do you offer services in all of North America (US, Mexico, Canada)? There’s a page for that, too. This way, you don’t have to reference all three.

But something really weird here is that Wikidata includes “Greenland” as North America.

That’s definitely not accurate for your locations, although it is technically part of the continent (geographically). Politically, Greenland is part of the EU, as it is currently a territory of Denmark.

Here’s a screenshot of the page with a date stamp. This likely wouldn’t impact your ability to rank, so don’t second-guess yourself here.

I’m using this as an example because it could be confusing as to why you may reference this page when you don’t offer services in Greenland.

Screenshot from Wikidata, January 2023

Localize Or Regionalize Your Titles And Descriptions

Meta descriptions are not a ranking signal or used in rankings – at least, that’s my opinion – though they do influence how many people click through to your site. But only when a search engine uses the meta descriptions you create.

Title tags, however, do move the needle, based on my experience, when combined with other on-page elements.

When the description reinforces the region or market the title displays for, you create an enticing ad for a consumer to click on.

And meta descriptions are vital.

If you are optimizing for tourists and mention you’re right by a specific landmark, they will know you’re close to their location and may click on your listing over another business higher up that shares generic titles and descriptions.

This can work for retailers, pharmacies, restaurants, housing or car rentals, etc. Here’s a guide I created for writing localized meta descriptions and title tags.

Build Citations And Do PR Work

This one is a double win! Look up local blogs, newspapers, and magazines, then focus on getting featured and mentioned.

By being featured, you can get referral traffic and customers to your business and signal to search engines you have a new local location or expansion. In some cases, you may get a backlink.

Whether the backlink is natural and good or not depends on the site linking to you and the type of link.

As an added bonus, if the new market you have moved into recognizes and trusts the media company’s brand, feature the logo on your page.

This may help build trust to increase conversions both online or for foot traffic if they’re deciding between two businesses to try.

If you were to expand into my city (Washington D.C.), focus on Washingtonian Magazine, Popville, or ARLnow. These could be recognizable by locals in our area.

Other Things To Pay Attention To

One thing to keep in mind when you expand your footprint is that demographics may change location by location.

You may find the new location has a different skew for race, religion, single vs. married, income levels, or age ranges. This means the way you market also needs modifying.

• If you offer new languages, make sure to check your hreflang tags so they reference the correct language version for products, services, and content. Here’s Google’s guide on this.
• Update the imagery to match the demographics of the customers who will be contacting you for services or visiting your location.
• Make sure the wording makes sense for their needs. If your original location is in a DINK-heavy area (dual income, no kids), and the new one has multiple elementary schools, mention the new location is kid-friendly or add in relevant promotions, e.g., “kids eat half price.” While you might do this for the kid-friendly location, keep the wording focused on relaxing, calm, quiet, and romantic for the DINK location.

Expanding a business or service is exciting, and it is easy to begin getting traffic, customers, and sales from it.

You just need to put in the work, make sure you cater to the needs of your new audience, and that your content and code are updated regularly. I hope this helps.

More resources: 

Featured Image: Toey Andante/Shutterstock

How Do I Optimize SEO Conversions On Non-Branded Search Terms? via @sejournal, @rollerblader

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Arpit, who asks:

“How do I optimize SEO conversions on non-branded search terms?”

Great question! This one is all about meeting user needs and modifying your copy or the page experience at the current step in the consumer journey.

And it applies to both B2B and B2C.

In some cases, you’ll need to use a multi-channel approach. The good news is it is a pretty easy one to solve.

The first step is to evaluate what the intent of the visitor is. Consider whether they are:

• In the research phase.
• Mid-funnel and choosing between products or vendors.
• Ready to convert but not ready to pull the plug.

In The Research Phase

Someone just researching solutions hasn’t decided if they’re ready to convert yet. So make sure you have remarketing pixels ready to tag them.

Remarketing is vital here because there is an interest in a product or service you provide.

By tagging them, you can bring them back once they’re ready to convert and share new content to help educate them during their journey. This is especially important with large and B2B purchases.

Pro-tip: PPC likely has the lifecycle timestamp and channel touchpoints if they’re tracking lifecycle customer data.

Remarketing includes email and SMS opt-ins, social media, PPC, and media planning or ad buys. And there’s a huge benefit to these channels from your SEO efforts.

Your company can save PPC money on low-intent but topically relevant keywords by having you rank for them and get the clicks for a new customer at a fraction of the cost.

The PPC, ads, and social media teams can work with your SEO top-funnel traffic to drive the conversion as the lead warms. Make sure they report back on this touchpoint so that all channels win in company-wide reporting.

Cold leads are an important part of the consumer journey and acquisition campaigns.

This even applies to medical needs like plastic surgery, large purchases like SaaS solutions and data centers, and corporate trip planning.

What we do with clients that have this problem is create thought leadership and educational content to build trust for the research phase.

By becoming a “trusted resource” or “authority” on the subject, we begin building a relationship with them mentally and a positive association with our brand.

By having educational content show up for each question they have, we have the opportunity to earn their trust as a company that really knows the topic.

This way, when they decide it is time to pull the plug, they may come to our sales page directly or see our remarketing ads and convert through them.

Either way, it is about meeting the user’s needs at each step of their journey.

Mid-funnel

Someone mid-funnel could be looking for comparisons or to solve a problem – like changing a water heater tank or learning how to do a pull-up.

If you’re taking them to a product page, they may not need the product yet. Instead, take them to demonstrations with a video or a written guide with step-by-step instructions to complete the task.

This way, they can see the solution with their own eyes and know you’ve been there and solved it before.

I’ll use the water tank as an example here.

By showing multiple standard sizes and where they fit in a room via images and video, you can help the person visualize the size they need vs. what they thought they needed.

You can explain how many minutes of hot water it can produce or answer other questions they might ask – and even those they haven’t thought of yet.

This builds trust while showing experience in their situation.

Next, demonstrate how to install it in case the user is a DIYer. This can be done on the same page, or you can lead them to a new one.

The benefit here is you can highlight which tools are needed and link to those product pages to increase your order value and items in a cart.

These are two metrics we report on with some clients. If it turns out to be too hard for them or intimidating, close the content out with a call to action to hire your company to do it for them.

Pro tip: If you are a local business and cannot offer nationwide services, sell the leads to a trusted third party.

Or let the consumer know that you do not service their area, but XYZ company does, and use an affiliate link (with an advertising disclosure) to provide a resource and ask the person to subscribe to your channel.

I have this guide to finding an affiliate program you can make money with and this one to getting started in affiliate marketing.

Ready To Convert But Didn’t Pull The Plug

This is the tricky one. You could have a “high-intent” keyword that isn’t converting as it should.

There are a couple of places I start here; these can fix a large portion of the conversion issue.

Option 1

Crawl and index your customer service conversations, then extract all that have the product or service mentioned.

Next, look for common questions and see if your product or service page explains you do offer them. If not, update your page as soon as possible.

Option 2

Use abandonment intent pop-ups to ask potential customers why they’re leaving. It may be you’re priced too high, or they don’t understand you actually provide the solution.

• If priced too high, work on trust builders like money-back guarantees, positive reviews, educating the audience on quality over discounts, or work on your pricing if you have a margin.
• When the copy doesn’t reflect you provide a solution, add it to your copy to answer the question. You could do an FAQ or place it within the product description above the CTA if enough people mention it.
• You can also work on getting PR mentions in industry and mass media websites. The logos on PR bars can increase trust and conversions in many niches.

Pro tip: If customers are not sure the product will fit, work, match (color, theme, size, etc…), or solve a problem, you may need to create a demonstration and guide content vs. optimizing a product page.

And try adding the uses to the product copy above the call to action.

Wrapping Up

The trick to converting non-branded search traffic is to find out what was missing from your current consumer or lead process and add it in.

If that doesn’t work, discover what step of the customer journey the person is in and bring them to the right experience.

And that is how you can convert non-branded SEO keywords into paying customers.

I hope this guide helps, and thank you for reading.

CRO is one of my favorite types of projects. Thank you for asking this one!

More resources: 

Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock

Should You Focus On Zero Search Volume Keywords? (Festive Flashback) via @sejournal, @rollerblader

Celebrate the Holidays with some of SEJ’s best articles of 2023.

Our Festive Flashback series runs from December 21 – January 5, featuring daily reads on significant events, fundamentals, actionable strategies, and thought leader opinions.

2023 has been quite eventful in the SEO industry and our contributors produced some outstanding articles to keep pace and reflect these changes.

Catch up on the best reads of 2023 to give you plenty to reflect on as you move into 2024.

In this Ask an SEO, Mouna asks:

“Should we use a keyword even when we don’t have volume or keyword difficulty data ? Sometimes there are no info on [tool name redacted] concerning some keywords?”

Great question, Mouna!

And the answer is yes, you should focus on zero search volume keywords when it makes sense for your company.

Here are four examples to make the business case if you’re being asked, “Why would we focus on questions that nobody is searching for?”

1. You build a site structure.
2. Customers could be asking, and this provides a solution to both them and future customers.
3. It is cheaper to remarket to someone than to pay for all acquisition touchpoints.
4. The question may not have search volume, but responses show up for the main phrase which has substantial search volume.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these examples.

1. You’re Building A Site Structure

On ecommerce sites, and sites built for branding, the amount of core website pages and content is normally limited.

By having these topics that are relevant to what your company or organization does, you can use zero search volume keywords and entities to create topically relevant content.

This content helps search engines and potential customers learn what you do, and which pages provide those solutions.

As you mention or demonstrate a product or service, you can source the conversion page with an internal link. This is a natural way to build a site structure for SEO and help the website visitor at the same time.

And if the page gets backlinks from quality sources, it could boost your other pages for a larger SEO boost.

Pro Tip: Just because a tool shows there is zero search volume, it does not mean there are zero people searching.

If you build a quality experience, you could become the website that gets cited as journalists and bloggers are looking for resources.

2. Because Customers Are Asking

An SEO tool does not know what your customers are asking. They can only come up with variations of questions and make assumptions about how many people are actively searching.

Talk to your customer support team and get the database of live chat questions.

If your customers are actively asking these questions, and the question or phrase is showing up in the SEO tools, it means there is in fact a search volume – and it is likely a high-intent one, too.

A high-intent keyword with 100 monthly searches could drive more revenue than a low-intent phrase with 10,000, as the person is further along in the sales funnel and looking to convert.

Pro Tip: Because you know the person is looking for a specific answer, and your customer support team has shown what answers the question and converts the customer, you have a data-based advantage compared to someone taking a shot in the dark and going with online research.

One option is to create a dedicated blog post for the topic.

If there is a how-to part, try adding a video demonstration and go for the YouTube and Google Video results.

And if it is something people are asking that is directly related to the use of a product or service, consider adding it to the text on your product or service page, as it may lead to a higher conversion rate. This could also be a good addition to an FAQ.

By answering these questions for people who are considering shopping with you or using your services, you can let them know they’re in the right place.

This reduces customer support’s workload because they’re not answering the same thing multiple times, and gives the social media and PPC teams a new asset to land people.

3. Remarketing Is Cheaper Than Acquisition

If you can bring the person in through SEO, you can tag them with remarketing pixels.

Instead of bidding on the big keywords where you need a massive budget, you can tag the person higher up in the sales funnel and bring them back for pennies on the dollar.

The added benefit here is that you gave them a solution in the content without a hard sales pitch. If you did a good job, you gain their trust.

Now, as your remarketing ads show to them, you have already built credibility and trust and can keep them coming back to more relevant posts or direct conversions.

But this all depends on the topic and where the person is in your sales funnel.

4. Your Content Can Show Up For Bigger Phrases

Even if the long-tail phrase or question has no search volume, type the shorter volume phrase into a search engine in incognito mode.  You may find the question actually does appear in the following and you can take the traffic from:

• People Also Ask.
• Related searches.
• Videos.
• Knowledge panels.
• Other.

If the titles of these, or the responses, are the same as your topic, you could replace them by creating a more relevant and better user experience.  Even though your phrase has zero search volume, it still shows up for a phrase with 20,000 monthly searches.  It’s a trick we use with some of our clients who have newer sites and aren’t ready for link building.

Look at what is missing, but needed, to provide a solution for the topic, and create it.  If the current top sites have a great answer, but the answer is buried under fluff, create content that gives the answer first and then provides more solutions.

Pro Tip: I do this on YouTube sometimes. I look for the videos showing up in the top results for the big phrases and then look to see what plays after each.

From there I study why these videos are recommended, what they’re missing, and what the other videos have in common with them.

Then, I create a better video and try to get the viewer without going for the main phrase.

In Conclusion

Yes, zero search volume keywords are worth going after, but only if they’re relevant to your business.

They can increase conversions for people in your funnel, be used by multiple channels, and bring in traffic the SEO tools don’t account for.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock