SEO
Content Optimization: The Complete Guide
Content optimization helps you get more out of your content efforts, but you don’t necessarily need to make the same optimizations as everyone else. It depends on your goal.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to optimize content for SEO, conversions, and social shares.
But first, let’s make sure we’re on the same page…
Content optimization is the process of improving content to ensure it stands the best possible chance of meeting its desired goal. That may be ranking on the first page of Google, increasing social shares, or attracting your best customers.
Content optimization dramatically improves your content’s performance and helps you meet your marketing goals.
Without it, you miss out on visibility, rankings, traffic, leads, and sales.
The challenge is that the optimization techniques that move the needle forward aren’t always immediately apparent.
For instance, optimizing content for SEO vs. conversions requires two very different approaches. The former involves keyword research, while the latter involves copywriting and a product-led approach.
Before you think about attracting email subscribers or leads for your business, you need to start from the top. So let’s look at the different ways you can optimize your content for SEO and get traffic to your site consistently.
1. Make sure you’re targeting a keyword with traffic potential
Optimizing for a keyword that nobody searches for is pointless. Even if you rank #1, you won’t get any traffic.
To identify keywords with high traffic potential, here’s what you should do:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
- Enter one or multiple broad keywords related to your topic
- Hit Search
For example, when you enter “content marketing” and check the Matching terms report, you’ll get around 26,000 keyword ideas with search volumes, Keyword Difficulty (KD), and other valuable data:
To ensure that you’re finding keywords with the potential to attract traffic from organic search, add a minimum Traffic Potential filter. This metric shows the estimated monthly organic traffic to the current top-ranking page, so it’s a reasonable estimate of how much traffic you can get by ranking in pole position.
If your website is new and has low authority, it also pays to filter for low-KD keywords to unearth less competitive topics.
Recommended Reading: How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
2. Make sure it aligns with search intent
Unless your content aligns with what searchers are looking for, you’re dead in the water before you start. That’s because Google prioritizes search intent. If your content fails to answer searchers’ questions, this is a signal that your content is a poor match for the query and doesn’t deserve to rank.
The easiest way to understand search intent is to use the current top-ranking results as a proxy. Specifically, you can analyze them for the three Cs of search intent:
- Content type – The type of content on the SERPs (e.g., blog post, product page, landing page, category page). If the top 10 positions for your keyword show blog posts, stick to blog posts. Don’t try to shoehorn your product page into the SERPs; it won’t work!
- Content format – The content format in the search results (e.g., how-to, step-by-step guide, listicle, review). The top-competing posts will indicate what the searcher predominantly wants to know. If the first page of Google shows listicles, go with a listicle. If it shows guides, go with a guide. You get the idea.
- Content angle – The unique selling point of the competing content on the SERPs (e.g., discounts, inexpensive strategies, free shipping). While it’s crucial to stand out from the competition, you should still consider the similarities between top-ranking posts.
For example, if we look at the search results for the keyword “seo tips,” we see that the content type is blog post, the content format is listicle, and the dominant content angle is traffic boosting:
If you want to stand the best chance of ranking for this query, you should follow suit.
This is what we did with our list of SEO tips.
Recommended Reading: Searcher Intent: The Overlooked ‘Ranking Factor’ You Should Be Optimizing For
3. Make sure it covers everything searchers want to know
Does your post stack up against the competition?
Conduct a content gap analysis to see how you fare. The idea here is to identify potentially missing subtopics that searchers want to know and brainstorm how you can do better.
You can do this quickly by examining the three top-ranking posts most similar to yours (i.e., you may want to ignore that random landing page at the second spot if you’re writing a how-to guide):
- Paste the URL of your page into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
- Go to the Content Gap tool
- Enter the URLs of the top three posts for your keyword
- Click Show keywords
For example, if we plug in our guide to guest blogging and a few similar top-ranking pages, one subtopic jumps out right away: a definition.
We don’t rank for this because we do not have a definition on our page, so it’d probably be best if we added one.
4. Make sure it’s easy and enticing to read
Most people don’t read webpages from beginning to end. Instead, they scan the main points and pick out phrases that jump at them.
Here are four practical ways to make your content more enticing and easier to skim:
- Eliminate fluff – Clichés, low-impact adverbs, and hard-to-read sentences repel users. Before publishing your post, use the Hemingway Editor, Grammarly, or ProWritingAid to catch these errors.
- Increase visual comprehension – Long walls of text overwhelm readers. Use short paragraphs and bullet points (like what we’re doing here), have bold key takeaways, and include relevant images to make your post more reader-friendly.
- Add a table of contents (ToC) in long posts – The ToC offers easy navigation and tells readers the list of topics covered.
- Prioritize important information – A well-optimized post makes valuable information accessible. Don’t make readers dig through them! Put your best ideas at the top. Leave the nice-to-know information at the bottom.
You’ll notice that we’re doing many of these things in this post. For example, if you’re reading this on desktop, there should be a floating ToC on the left:
Recommended reading: SEO Copywriting: 12 Easy Tips for Better Content and Higher Rankings
5. Make sure it has a compelling title tag and description
The title tag and meta description is the first thing searchers see on the SERPs.
Ideally, they should describe what your content is about at a glance. It’s a bonus if they set your post apart from competing posts. (This goes back to our point on content angle earlier!)
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when writing them:
- Match search intent – It should be clear that your page matches what the searcher is looking for from your title tag and meta description alone.
- Keep them short and sweet – Google truncates title tags and meta descriptions after a certain length. This is usually around 70 characters for title tags and 120 characters for meta descriptions, although it varies.
- Include your keyword – This helps searchers see at a glance that your page is a relevant match to their search.
- Highlight specificity – Specific data points increase credibility and respect. Compare “How to Attract Customers in a Month” with “How to Attract 2,738 Customers in a Month on a Shoestring Budget.” Which compels you to click more?
6. Make sure it has enough backlinks
Backlinks help you get into Google’s good books, as they’re one of the top three ranking factors.
Our search traffic study discovered that the more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it attracts. The graph below shows the trend between monthly organic search traffic and the number of backlinks from external websites (referring domains).
So if you want to rank high on the SERPs, you’ll need to build links from authoritative and relevant websites.
Here’s an easy way to find the number of websites that link to your page:
- Go to Site Explorer
- Enter your page URL
- Hit Search
You’ll see the number of referring domains on the Overview report.
You can then plug your keyword into Keywords Explorer and check the KD score to see if you have anywhere near the estimated number of referring domains needed to rank in the top 10:
If this number is way higher than the number of referring domains to your page, that may be what’s holding you back.
SEO may bring you lots of targeted traffic, but that traffic will be useless if your content doesn’t convert. And the trick to doing this is to pair product-focused content with snazzy copywriting skills that pack a punch. So let’s go through how to do that.
1. Make sure it targets a keyword with business potential
The true mark of content marketing success is not ranking on the first page on Google. It’s ranking and attracting a steady stream of leads and sales.
Unfortunately, many businesses create mountains of blog posts without considering the business potential of their keyword or topic.
You’ve probably seen these posts lurking around. They’re often about topics that have nothing to do with the business’s product, and they always end with a pushy call to action (CTA) that serves zero value to the reader.
That’s why it’s crucial to target keywords or topics that align with your product.
Here at Ahrefs, we always consider a keyword’s “business potential” score. The higher it is, the better the opportunity to position our product as an irreplaceable solution to the reader’s problem.
Here’s the scale we use:
This brings us to the million-dollar question: How do you position your product as the best solution so that readers will choose you over your competitors?
2. Make sure it shows your product in action
As marketers, our job is only half done if we target keywords with business potential but fail to educate prospects on how our product works. After all, that’s the whole point of choosing topics with high business potential.
But you shouldn’t just tell readers how your product works—you need to show them.
That’s what we’re doing in this post. Notice how we demonstrate how our SEO toolset helps you optimize your content? You’ll probably hit the “X” button if we make a blatant statement like “Ahrefs optimizes your content with a few clicks” without backing it up with proof.
3. Make sure it includes a persuasive call to action
It’s a pity to leave readers hanging after they read a post, especially when it drives massive value.
Include an irresistible CTA to encourage readers to take action toward solving their problems—whether it’s subscribing to an email list, booking a free consultation call, or even something as basic as leaving a question in the comment box.
What makes a CTA powerful? We boil it down to:
- Emotion – Conversion-driven CTAs speak to the prospect’s pain or goals and immediately trigger action. Your CTA should make them go, “This company gets me.”
- Credibility – With trust comes sales. Appeal to skeptical buyers with social proof like specific data, testimonials, and expert endorsements.
- Timing – Effective CTAs align where the prospect is in the buyer’s journey. Don’t be afraid to pepper them throughout the post.
Here’s a powerful CTA from Cognitive FX that ticks all the boxes:
Note how the treatment center adds an empathetic touch to a post about concussion memory loss in its CTA. It also leverages its impressive results (“on average, our patients improve by 75%”) to instill confidence.
Furthermore, look at the strategic placement of the CTAs.
Cognitive FX places them after setting the stage for the patients’ recovery journey, which strikes an emotional chord with readers.
Recommended Reading: RADically Rethink Your CTAs
The more people share your post, the more eyeballs it gets. So, in this last section, let’s look at how you can increase exposure on social networks.
1. Make sure it includes expert quotes
Unique quotes from subject matter experts boost distribution.
When you feature a source in your post, odds are they will want to share the post when it gets published. Plus, not only do you bake organic distribution directly into your content, but you also back up your claims without conducting additional research.
When Fio Dossetto, creator of ContentFolks, was writing a guide on content marketing for Ahrefs, she approached 14 marketing leaders for their insights. Many of these leaders shared the post with their followers after it went live.
Here’s Louis Grenier, founder of Everyone Hates Marketers, sharing it on Twitter:
My advice to create successful content in 2021 (or any year, really).
Thank you @content101 and @ahrefs for the feature.
👉 https://t.co/3jKS5ZK4w2 pic.twitter.com/FbMd3wTyMW
— Louis Grenier (@LouisSlices) January 27, 2021
Fio’s post generated 127 tweets and 161 backlinks as of today.
TIP
Even if the experts you feature have a smaller following, you can still replicate this technique. Databox, a business intelligence platform, tags them on LinkedIn, further amplifying the reach of its posts.
To make this work, you must first identify the right experts.
Even though platforms like HARO connect you with sources, watch out. Most of them are affiliate marketers with irrelevant expertise looking for backlinks.
A better approach is to look for subject matter experts using Ahrefs:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
- Enter your article’s topic
- Click the Authors tab
Identify experts who have written extensively about the topic and have a lot of followers. For example, we may reach out to Jonas Sickler and Caroline Forsey for a quick quote if we’re writing a piece on content marketing examples.
2. Make sure your social share buttons are visible at all times
Given that most readers won’t make it to the end of the post, it’s not an exaggeration to say that they will most likely ignore the social share buttons at the bottom.
This is where sticky share buttons from tools like AddThis and Sumo come in handy.
Since these anchored buttons stay on the screen while the reader scrolls, they’re more likely to notice, click, and share the post.
That’s what we do here at Ahrefs:
Readers can easily share our posts with a click instead of scrolling down to locate the elusive button—or worse, copying and pasting the URL on their social media channels.
Final thoughts
Optimizing content is like using the rocket start technique on Mario Kart. It helps you power up, gain a running start, and get the most out of your content efforts.
Try the tips above to rank higher on the SERPs, increase social shares, and attract your best customers.
Got questions? Ping me on Twitter.
SEO
Google Rolls Out New ‘Web’ Filter For Search Results
Google is introducing a filter that allows you to view only text-based webpages in search results.
The “Web” filter, rolling out globally over the next two days, addresses demand from searchers who prefer a stripped-down, simplified view of search results.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, states in an announcement:
“We’ve added this after hearing from some that there are times when they’d prefer to just see links to web pages in their search results, such as if they’re looking for longer-form text documents, using a device with limited internet access, or those who just prefer text-based results shown separately from search features.”
We’ve added this after hearing from some that there are times when they’d prefer to just see links to web pages in their search results, such as if they’re looking for longer-form text documents, using a device with limited internet access, or those who just prefer text-based…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 14, 2024
The new functionality is a throwback to when search results were more straightforward. Now, they often combine rich media like images, videos, and shopping ads alongside the traditional list of web links.
How It Works
On mobile devices, the “Web” filter will be displayed alongside other filter options like “Images” and “News.”
If Google’s systems don’t automatically surface it based on the search query, desktop users may need to select “More” to access it.
Screenshot from: twitter.com/GoogleSearchLiaison, May 2024.More About Google Search Filters
Google’s search filters allow you to narrow results by type. The options displayed are dynamically generated based on your search query and what Google’s systems determine could be most relevant.
The “All Filters” option provides access to filters that are not shown automatically.
Alongside filters, Google also displays “Topics” – suggested related terms that can further refine or expand a user’s original query into new areas of exploration.
For more about Google’s search filters, see its official help page.
Featured Image: egaranugrah/Shutterstock
SEO
Why Google Can’t Tell You About Every Ranking Drop
In a recent Twitter exchange, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, provided insight into how the search engine handles algorithmic spam actions and ranking drops.
The discussion was sparked by a website owner’s complaint about a significant traffic loss and the inability to request a manual review.
Sullivan clarified that a site could be affected by an algorithmic spam action or simply not ranking well due to other factors.
He emphasized that many sites experiencing ranking drops mistakenly attribute it to an algorithmic spam action when that may not be the case.
“I’ve looked at many sites where people have complained about losing rankings and decide they have a algorithmic spam action against them, but they don’t. “
Sullivan’s full statement will help you understand Google’s transparency challenges.
Additionally, he explains why the desire for manual review to override automated rankings may be misguided.
Two different things. A site could have an algorithmic spam action. A site could be not ranking well because other systems that *are not about spam* just don’t see it as helpful.
I’ve looked at many sites where people have complained about losing rankings and decide they have a…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 13, 2024
Challenges In Transparency & Manual Intervention
Sullivan acknowledged the idea of providing more transparency in Search Console, potentially notifying site owners of algorithmic actions similar to manual actions.
However, he highlighted two key challenges:
- Revealing algorithmic spam indicators could allow bad actors to game the system.
- Algorithmic actions are not site-specific and cannot be manually lifted.
Sullivan expressed sympathy for the frustration of not knowing the cause of a traffic drop and the inability to communicate with someone about it.
However, he cautioned against the desire for a manual intervention to override the automated systems’ rankings.
Sullivan states:
“…you don’t really want to think “Oh, I just wish I had a manual action, that would be so much easier.” You really don’t want your individual site coming the attention of our spam analysts. First, it’s not like manual actions are somehow instantly processed. Second, it’s just something we know about a site going forward, especially if it says it has change but hasn’t really.”
Determining Content Helpfulness & Reliability
Moving beyond spam, Sullivan discussed various systems that assess the helpfulness, usefulness, and reliability of individual content and sites.
He acknowledged that these systems are imperfect and some high-quality sites may not be recognized as well as they should be.
“Some of them ranking really well. But they’ve moved down a bit in small positions enough that the traffic drop is notable. They assume they have fundamental issues but don’t, really — which is why we added a whole section about this to our debugging traffic drops page.”
Sullivan revealed ongoing discussions about providing more indicators in Search Console to help creators understand their content’s performance.
“Another thing I’ve been discussing, and I’m not alone in this, is could we do more in Search Console to show some of these indicators. This is all challenging similar to all the stuff I said about spam, about how not wanting to let the systems get gamed, and also how there’s then no button we would push that’s like “actually more useful than our automated systems think — rank it better!” But maybe there’s a way we can find to share more, in a way that helps everyone and coupled with better guidance, would help creators.”
Advocacy For Small Publishers & Positive Progress
In response to a suggestion from Brandon Saltalamacchia, founder of RetroDodo, about manually reviewing “good” sites and providing guidance, Sullivan shared his thoughts on potential solutions.
He mentioned exploring ideas such as self-declaration through structured data for small publishers and learning from that information to make positive changes.
“I have some thoughts I’ve been exploring and proposing on what we might do with small publishers and self-declaring with structured data and how we might learn from that and use that in various ways. Which is getting way ahead of myself and the usual no promises but yes, I think and hope for ways to move ahead more positively.”
Sullivan said he can’t make promises or implement changes overnight, but he expressed hope for finding ways to move forward positively.
Featured Image: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock
SEO
56 Google Search Statistics to Bookmark for 2024
If you’re curious about the state of Google search in 2024, look no further.
Each year we pick, vet, and categorize a list of up-to-date statistics to give you insights from trusted sources on Google search trends.
- Google has a web index of “about 400 billion documents”. (The Capitol Forum)
- Google’s search index is over 100 million gigabytes in size. (Google)
- There are an estimated 3.5 billion searches on Google each day. (Internet Live Stats)
- 61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches result in no clicks. (SparkToro)
- 15% of all Google searches have never been searched before. (Google)
- 94.74% of keywords get 10 monthly searches or fewer. (Ahrefs)
- The most searched keyword in the US and globally is “YouTube,” and youtube.com gets the most traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)
- 96.55% of all pages get zero search traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)
- 50-65% of all number-one spots are dominated by featured snippets. (Authority Hacker)
- Reddit is the most popular domain for product review queries. (Detailed)
- Google is the most used search engine in the world, with a mobile market share of 95.32% and a desktop market share of 81.95%. (Statista)
- Google.com generated 84.2 billion visits a month in 2023. (Statista)
- Google generated $307.4 billion in revenue in 2023. (Alphabet Investor Relations)
- 63.41% of all US web traffic referrals come from Google. (SparkToro)
- 92.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (SparkToro)
- Only 49% of Gen Z women use Google as their search engine. The rest use TikTok. (Search Engine Land)
- 58.67% of all website traffic worldwide comes from mobile phones. (Statista)
- 57% of local search queries are submitted using a mobile device or tablet. (ReviewTrackers)
- 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphones. (Think With Google)
- 54% of smartphone users search for business hours, and 53% search for directions to local stores. (Think With Google)
- 18% of local searches on smartphones lead to a purchase within a day vs. 7% of non-local searches. (Think With Google)
- 56% of in-store shoppers used their smartphones to shop or research items while they were in-store. (Think With Google)
- 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results (e.g., “click to call” option). (Think With Google)
- 63.6% of consumers say they are likely to check reviews on Google before visiting a business location. (ReviewTrackers)
- 88% of consumers would use a business that replies to all of its reviews. (BrightLocal)
- Customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable if they find a complete Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. (Google)
- Customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with a complete Business Profile. (Google)
- 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day. (Think With Google)
- 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Think With Google)
- Mobile searches for “store open near me” (such as, “grocery store open near me” have grown by over 250% in the last two years. (Think With Google)
- People use Google Lens for 12 billion visual searches a month. (Google)
- 50% of online shoppers say images helped them decide what to buy. (Think With Google)
- There are an estimated 136 billion indexed images on Google Image Search. (Photutorial)
- 15.8% of Google SERPs show images. (Moz)
- People click on 3D images almost 50% more than static ones. (Google)
- More than 800 million people use Google Discover monthly to stay updated on their interests. (Google)
- 46% of Google Discover URLs are news sites, 44% e-commerce, 7% entertainment, and 2% travel. (Search Engine Journal)
- Even though news sites accounted for under 50% of Google Discover URLs, they received 99% of Discover clicks. (Search Engine Journal)
- Most Google Discover URLs only receive traffic for three to four days, with most of that traffic occurring one to two days after publishing. (Search Engine Journal)
- The clickthrough rate (CTR) for Google Discover is 11%. (Search Engine Journal)
- 91.45% of search volumes in Google Ads Keyword Planner are overestimates. (Ahrefs)
- For every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, they receive $8 in profit through Google Search and Ads. (Google)
- Google removed 5.5 billion ads, suspended 12.7 million advertiser accounts, restricted over 6.9 billion ads, and restricted ads from showing up on 2.1 billion publisher pages in 2023. (Google)
- The average shopping click-through rate (CTR) across all industries is 0.86% for Google Ads. (Wordstream)
- The average shopping cost per click (CPC) across all industries is $0.66 for Google Ads. (Wordstream)
- The average shopping conversion rate (CVR) across all industries is 1.91% for Google Ads. (Wordstream)
- 58% of consumers ages 25-34 use voice search daily. (UpCity)
- 16% of people use voice search for local “near me” searches. (UpCity)
- 67% of consumers say they’re very likely to use voice search when seeking information. (UpCity)
- Active users of the Google Assistant grew 4X over the past year, as of 2019. (Think With Google)
- Google Assistant hit 1 billion app installs. (Android Police)
- AI-generated answers from SGE were available for 91% of entertainment queries but only 17% of healthcare queries. (Statista)
- The AI-generated answers in Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) do not match any links from the top 10 Google organic search results 93.8% of the time. (Search Engine Journal)
- Google displays a Search Generative element for 86.8% of all search queries. (Authoritas)
- 62% of generative links came from sources outside the top 10 ranking organic domains. Only 20.1% of generative URLs directly match an organic URL ranking on page one. (Authoritas)
- 70% of SEOs said that they were worried about the impact of SGE on organic search (Aira)
Learn more
Check out more resources on how Google works:
How the TikTok Algorithm Works in 2024 (+9 Ways to Go Viral)
How to Use Keywords for SEO: The Complete Beginner’s Guide
How To Protect Your People and Brand
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