SEO
12 Actions That Help Improve Your Google Keyword Rankings
Right now, someone is doing a Google search to find a new product, service, or solution to their problem, something that your business is uniquely qualified to provide.
Will they end up on your website where they’ll see how you have exactly what they’re looking for?
If your website doesn’t show up on the first page of Google results, the answer is, unfortunately, probably not. That’s for a few reasons.
Firstly, Google dominates the search engine market, with more than 85% of global traffic and 270 million unique visitors in the U.S. alone.
Secondly, 75% of internet users never go beyond the first page of results.
Now consider that 34.36% of all clicks go to the number one search result, and it becomes clear why search engine optimization (SEO) is so important.
But, you already knew that – it’s why you’re reading this article, after all.
You probably also realize that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
In Google’s unending quest to provide better results to searchers’ queries, its algorithm is updated thousands of times every year.
And while some of these are so minor most people will never notice them, Google occasionally rolls out an update that significantly impacts search engine results pages (SERPs).
What’s an SEO professional to do?
In the past, the answer was to jam keywords everywhere on your site, with the idea that more is better. Those days are gone.
Google’s algorithm has increased in complexity, which means it is now better able to understand the intent behind queries.
And, this means it values sites that provide better answers to those searches over those that are just packed with relevant words and phrases.
To ensure your website ranks highly, you can’t just focus on what search engines are looking for.
You also need to consider the experiences of visitors to your site. You need to take a holistic view of the value your website provides to users, then optimize your content so that it gets the results you need.
Let’s take a closer look at various ranking factors and discuss how you can more effectively use keywords to drive search traffic.
1. Measure Your Rankings
The first (and probably the most obvious) place to start is measuring your rankings.
Without a solid understanding of your baseline keyword performance, you won’t know how far you’ve come and how much you’ve improved.
I’d highly suggest exporting all of this valuable keyword data and keeping it on file for future reference. If nothing else, it will show you how much better you’ve gotten at SEO.
Some of us may have learned the hard way, but you never know when things will change with any given tool – whether it’s how data is reported, what information we have access to, etc.
Export keyword data from Google Search Console and landing page traffic (organic and total) from Google Analytics.
Analyzing this data will give you a good idea of:
- Your most valuable keywords/landing pages.
- The most immediate opportunities for improvement.
- Keywords/landing pages that are underperforming.
Focus on improving keywords that are ranking in positions five through 15 (where you’re teetering at the bottom of Page 1 or top of Page 2 on Google).
It’s easier to get these terms ranked at the top of the first page on Google, which will give you some quick wins to share with your client or boss.
2. Target The Right Keywords
To ensure your keyword targets are aligned with overarching business objectives and offer real value, it’s important that you understand both the search intent behind them and the difficulty of ranking.
While terms have a particular meaning to you, they could take on an entirely different meaning in Google and vice versa.
Knowing the intent, whether it’s informational/educational, transactional, or navigational, will help you understand which stage of the sales funnel users are at.
Doing a thorough SERP analysis is essential. Look at what’s currently ranking in the top search result for your core keyword targets including:
Knowing what is required to rank for a particular keyword will help you draw conclusions about what content development efforts will be required, as well as come up with a plan for creation.
Semrush’s SEO Content Template is really great for this type of analysis.
You simply enter a keyword, and the tool will analyze what’s showing up in Google’s top results to provide recommendations for SEO-friendly content.
Cross-referencing your organic keyword research with paid advertising data can also help uncover new opportunities and fill gaps.
Don’t ignore long-tail queries. While they may have lower search volume, you could be missing out on extremely targeted audiences that are ready to buy.
3. Clean Up Your Site Structure
The structure of your website plays a big role in SEO. Set a solid foundation for yours by resolving any technical issues that may diminish your organic keyword visibility.
Site pages should be both easily found and navigated by search engines and users.
If your website is difficult for users to navigate and search engines to crawl, your keyword rankings will likely be negatively impacted.
And, vice versa – if your website is intuitive for both users and Google, your rankings are bound to see positive increases.
Make sure that your site has a solid website structure, fix any broken links, and resolve any duplicate content issues.
Conducting a thorough technical SEO audit is necessary to ensure all priority technical issues are addressed.
4. Pay Attention To User Experience Signals
User experience and brand equity are important when it comes to driving organic search visibility.
While user experience may not be a direct responsibility of a search engine marketer, it’s important that user experience and SEO work together – especially considering that Google’s algorithm has consistently taken UX into page rankings
To ensure web visitors are interacting with your website, you should use Google’s Core Web Vitals report.
This monitors the loading time of each page on your site and generates data to show you which pages are providing good experiences and which need work.
Another important UX area you need to consider is the responsiveness of your site.
Mobile web browsing first surpassed desktop in 2017 and now accounts for more than 54% of global traffic.
If your website is not responsive, you will have a higher bounce rate, which in turn will negatively affect your ranking.
Here are some other elements that present an opportunity to improve UX and SEO:
- Keyword research: Confirm that you’re targeting keywords that have the right search intent and are aligned with the language that your target audiences use.
- Page tagging: Ensure page tagging is engaging and encourages clicks to your website (title tags, meta descriptions, and main headings).
- Content optimization: Keep users on the page and provide them with another logical destination or next step. This involves everything from the navigation to the copy, internal cross-linking, and calls-to-action on your site.
- Page speed: Give users the content they are requesting quickly and seamlessly across devices. Compress images, be mobile-friendly, clean up your code, and speed up your server.
5. Optimize For Users & Search Engines
Many of us get so fixated on optimizing content for Google that we forget what the end game is – to reach a highly targeted set of humans.
While search engines and humans have different ways of reading and digesting content, there are certain commonalities that will help ensure we are creating content with both in mind.
Both robots and humans want us to be:
- Be clear and concise.
- Provide accurate information.
- Avoid jargon.
- Cover-related subtopics.
This is important to keep in mind from the start of your content creation process.
As we are thinking about ways to make our content easier to read for both users and search engines, header tags are key.
Not only will proper header tags improve the overall readability of your content, but they will also ensure search engines can follow the hierarchy of what is most important on the page.
Images should also be a consideration, as providing more engaging imagery can make all the difference for users.
This also presents the opportunity to further optimize for search engines through ALT text and file naming.
6. Create Eye-Catching & Engaging Titles
Dare I say that title tags are the most important SEO element of a webpage?
Not just because it’s an SEO best practice, but also because it’s the first thing users see in search results and on social media.
The title tag is your biggest opportunity to catch the eyes of a user and encourage them to click into the page.
Determine the page that you want to rank for each keyword target, and then figure out a way for your title to stand out from all the others.
Yes, the keyword target should be included towards the beginning of the title tag, but how else can you encourage users to click?
BuzzSumo analyzed 100 million headlines and learned that:
- Emotional headlines drive interactions.
- Curiosity and voyeurism gain engagement.
- List posts and the number 10 in headlines are extremely powerful.
While meta descriptions don’t have a direct impact on rankings, they should work closely with your title tags. Incorporate the keyword if possible, as well as a clear call-to-action for users.
The goal of your title tag and meta description should be to explain the benefit to users, provoke emotion, and trigger engagement – all while applying SEO best practices.
7. Stay On Top Of Algorithm Updates
Why should you care about Google’s most recent algorithm updates?
Because good SEO professionals stay on top of that stuff.
Among many other reasons, it helps ensure your keyword rankings are not only steady, but they’re constantly improving.
Knowing when an algorithm update first hit and when it officially ended is useful for tracking purposes, and will allow you to trace keyword and traffic fluctuations back to the root cause.
This will help you uncover potential reasoning for how/why a site was hit by an update, or certain keyword rankings and pieces of content that may have been impacted by it.
When multiple algorithm updates happen over a short stretch of time, figuring out why certain site changes have occurred and analyzing the impact of a specific update is extremely difficult.
8. Provide Answers To The Questions People Are Asking
Google seeks to provide users with the best answers to their queries.
Just look at all of the new and increased SERP features we have seen over the past few years:
Optimizing for featured snippet results and rich snippets around your priority keyword targets is now becoming an essential part of SEO strategy.
While there is certainly a great deal of debate over the direct value that ranking in “position zero” of search results offers a business, ultimately, I pose this question:
Would you rather have your competitor rank in the Answer Box for that search query?
As far as we know, the featured snippet result isn’t going away anytime soon, and not ranking in it could mean lost visibility to your competitor, or even your “frenemy” Google.
9. Build Valuable Inbound Links
Start by looking for opportunities on your website to cross-link to assets from keyword-rich anchor text. This will help drive users to relevant content and build keyword associations.
Unfortunately, crafting a strong internal link strategy is only half of the battle.
The other half is generating highly authoritative and valuable inbound links from third-party websites.
This can seem overwhelming, but there are some key tactics to hone in on:
- Create link-worthy content that is based on your keyword research and analysis of what is ranking in top search results to help generate inbound links and improve keyword rankings.
- Monitor mentions of your brand for some quick-win opportunities to gain an inbound link from websites that are already talking about you.
- If you want other websites to link to you, remember to link to other websites. You only get as much as you give.
- Leverage social media to support link building. Interact with your targets beforehand to help build relationships prior to reaching out about a link building opportunity.
These are just a few tactics to get you started. However, there are certainly more advanced link building tactics to be successful in today’s extremely competitive landscape.
10. Promote Your Content Strategically
I mention this briefly above, but it’s also important to leverage non-SEO channels in an effort to drive visibility to your assets and support your link building efforts.
The more eyes that you get on your content, the more opportunity you have to:
While different promotional tactics may apply to different types of content, creating a checklist is always helpful.
This way, when it comes time to promote an asset, you have a list of all possible tactics.
This could include:
- Distributing across social media channels.
- Pushing out an email to subscribers.
- Encouraging shares from internal team members.
- Reaching out to those mentioned in the asset.
- Setting up Google Alerts to monitor conversations around the topic.
- Sharing directly with certain experts or influencers.
- Answering related questions on Quora or other forums.
- Advertising on social media.
- Identifying existing internal cross-link opportunities.
- Creating a SlideShare presentation or repurposing the asset in other forms.
11. Continuously Optimize & Improve Content
While there are numerous other factors that are important to SEO, content is still king.
Quality content counts more than anything else when Google is determining how well your site answers a query.
In fact, if you only take one thing away from this piece (and hopefully you’ll take more than that), it should be the importance of high-quality content. Emphasis on “high quality.”
Google’s Search Quality Guidelines explicitly state the importance of E-A-T, that is expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Your content should assert to both search engines and visitors that you are a reliable expert on the topics related to your keywords.
But because search engine results are constantly changing, you need to make continuous optimizations and improvements to your content.
For example, just because you’ve gained the Featured Snippet result for a particular keyword or phrase, does not mean that you will stay there.
Refreshing your content will ensure that you’re offering users the best (and most up-to-date) information and driving increased keyword visibility.
If the content is out of date, you will likely see the associated keyword rankings decline.
On the other hand, if you’re always looking for opportunities to refresh your content and provide users with the best material, you will likely see keyword ranking increases.
Content optimization should never be one-and-done, especially if you aren’t seeing the results that you want.
If an asset isn’t ranking, re-optimize it for relevance, search intent, engagement, and readability.
Your goal should be to offer users a piece of content that is better than everything else being displayed for the given query.
The concept, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” certainly applies here.
For example, if you are ranking in the first position on Google for an extremely competitive and highly searched keyword, you don’t want to risk losing that.
In that case, I would not recommend changing the title tag or anything that could have a negative impact.
However, there could be opportunities to make the asset that is ranking more conversion-friendly and encourage users to stay on your site.
12. Setup & Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Local search has become another important part of SEO.
In addition to driving business to your physical location, it also has an impact on your website’s rankings.
In many cases, Google factors the searcher’s location into SERPs.
Things like photos, reviews, and phone numbers are more likely to include answers to queries than text-only links.
The best way to get in on local searches is to create and optimize your Google Business Profile.
This free service allows you to manage how your business shows up across Google properties, including Maps, Reviews, and Local Pack Listings.
A Google Business Profile improves your visibility and gives users information about you at a glance. It also allows people to review your business on Google.
Not only do these increase your credibility and allow you to control the narrative around your business, but they are also thought to have a significant impact on rankings.
Further, your profile will provide you with insights into your audience that may help you uncover new opportunities and keywords to target.
You get information on which queries are directing searchers to your website, how they are interacting with your posts and how many clicks your website link is generating.
Final Thoughts
An SEO professional’s work is never done.
And, even if Google someday decides, “You know what? We’ve finally got this algorithm perfect.” (which they never will), your results on SERPs will constantly change as others targeting the same keywords tweak and adjust their own strategies and content.
This means you need to keep working on your website. Just remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.
Just because you don’t see the results you want right away doesn’t mean you’re not on the right track.
And vice versa – don’t assume because you’re highly ranked today that you’ll stay there.
SEO takes a lot of testing. Don’t be afraid to experiment.
You may not always get the top spot, but if you put in the work and follow these SEO best practices, you should see your site climb the rankings.
And that will bring with it the traffic you want.
Featured Image: Jirsak/Shutterstock
SEO
Marketing Calendar 2024 With Template To Plan Your Content
Setting yourself and your organization up for successful marketing means understanding the interesting dates, holidays, and events throughout the year that you can leverage for your brand.
Pulling that information together takes time and effort, so we’ve done the legwork for you.
Our complete marketing calendar for 2024 with a template gives you all the information you need to plan your content.
You can customize this easily referenceable table and pull out the relevant dates for your business to create your own 2024 marketing calendar.
For planning content and social media campaigns, using a marketing calendar gives you insights and opportunities to tie your content into well-known events in engaging ways.
These range from big sporting events to awareness months that you can plan content around, to public holidays so you can leverage them for engagement.
Free Marketing Calendar And Template For 2024
Below, we have listed some of the major holiday highlights for 2024. We have also compiled a free spreadsheet that lists many obscure awareness days to help you plan content in any niche.
The full 2024 marketing calendar and template are available at the end of the article, with a breakdown of each month.
This calendar focuses mainly on the U.S. and Canada, with some major international and religious holidays included.
Your 2024 Holiday Marketing Calendar
January
January is a time of resolutions and fresh starts, with many picking a goal for the year or looking to make a change.
It can be a slow start, given that many people are still recovering from the end of last year, but that gives you time to plan your calendar and ease into a new year of content.
There are plenty of broad activities to lean into, like Veganuary and National Hobby Month, to connect with audience lifestyles.
Events in January always have all eyes on them, too, like the Golden Globes and Winter X Games, so content around them can kickstart your 2024 engagement.
Monthly Observances
- International Creativity Month
- National Blood Donor Month
- National Braille Literacy Month
- National Hobby Month
- Dry January
- Veganuary
Weekly Observances
- January 1-7 – New Year’s Resolutions Week
- January 1-7 – Celebration of Life Week
- January 1-7 – Diet Resolution Week
- January 8-14 – Home Office and Security Week
Days
- January 1 – New Year’s Day
- January 1 – Mexican Independence Day
- January 1 – Global Family Day
- January 2 – National Science Fiction Day
- January 4 – World Braille Day
- January 6 – Epiphany
- January 7 – Orthodox Christmas
- January 10 – Golden Globes
- January 13 – Korean American Day
- January 13 – Stephen Foster Memorial Day
- January 14 – Orthodox New Year
- January 14 – Ratification Day
- January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- January 15 – Civil Rights Day
- January 17 – Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day
- January 17 – Benjamin Franklin Day
- January 18-28 – Sundance Film Festival
- January 20 – World Religion Day
- January 24 – Tu BiShvat
- January 26-29 – Winter X Games
- January 27 – International Holocaust Remembrance Day
- January 28 – Data Privacy Day
Popular Hashtags for January:
- #NewYearsDay
- #ScienceFictionDay
- #NationalTriviaDay
- #NationalBirdDay
- #NationalStickerDay
- #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
- #CheeseLoversDay
- #MLKDay
- #NationalHuggingDay
- #PieDay
- #NationalComplimentDay
- #PrivacyAware
February
Despite being the shortest month, February is full of interesting events you can leverage for your marketing campaigns.
The colder days can leave people looking for things to get involved with from the comfort of their homes. So, make sure your content is working in line with popular days to attract people to your organization’s content.
Spread the love on Valentine’s Day, celebrate the Lunar New Year, and embrace Black History Month as we enjoy a slightly longer February with 2024’s Leap Year.
Monthly Observances
- Black History Month
- American Heart Month
- National Heart Month
- National Weddings Month
- National Cancer Prevention Month
- National Library Lovers Month
- Celebration of Chocolate Month
Weekly Observances
- February 7-13 – African Heritage and Health Week
- February 9-14 – New York Fashion Week
- February 11-17 – Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
- February 11-17 – International Flirting Week
- February 11-17 – Random Acts of Kindness Week
- February 18-24 – Engineers’ Week
- February 19-25 – National Pancake Week
- February 28-March 5 – National Eating Disorders Awareness Week
Days
- February 1 – First Day of Black History Month
- February 1 – National Freedom Day
- February 1 – National Change Your Password Day
- February 2 – Groundhog Day
- February 4 – Rosa Parks Day
- February 4 – World Cancer Day
- February 4 – The Grammy Awards
- February 7 – National Girls and Women in Sports Day
- February 10 – Lunar New Year
- February 11 – Super Bowl Sunday
- February 11 – International Day of Women and Girls in Science
- February 12 – Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday
- February 12 – Red Hand Day
- February 12 – Georgia Day
- February 12 – Darwin Day
- February 13 – Mardi Gras
- February 13 – International Pancake Day
- February 14 – Valentine’s Day
- February 14 – Ash Wednesday
- February 14 – Arizona State Day
- February 15 – Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday
- February 18 – NBA All-Stars
- February 18 – Daytona 500
- February 19 – Presidents’ Day
- February 22 – George Washington’s Birthday
- February 29 – Leap Day
Popular Hashtags for February
- #GroundhogDay
- #WorldCancerDay
- #NationalWeatherpersonsDay
- #SendACardToAFriendDay
- #BoyScoutsDay
- #NationalPizzaDay
- #ValentinesDay
- #RandomActsOfKindnessDay
- #PresidentsDay
- #LoveYourPetDay
March
March marks the beginning of spring, and the days start to get longer. Whether March Madness turns up the heat or Easter is on its way, there are plenty of exciting events to get your content involved with.
Some of the monthly observances, such as Women’s History Month or The Great American Cleanup, can serve as great causes for regular engagement this month.
Monthly Observances
- Women’s History Month
- Nutrition Month
- Music in Our Schools Month
- Craft Month
- American Red Cross Month
- The Great American Cleanup
- Ramadan begins on March 10
Weekly Observances
- March 10-16 – Girl Scout Week
- March 10-16 – National Sleep Awareness Week
- March 17-23 – National Agriculture Week
- March 24-30 – National Cleaning Week
Days
- March 1 – Employee Appreciation Day
- March 1 – Zero Discrimination Day
- March 1 – Global Unplugging Day
- March 3 – World Wildlife Day
- March 3 – National Anthem Day
- March 4 – International HPV Awareness Day
- March 8 – International Women’s Day
- March 10 – Daylight Savings
- March 10 – Ramadan
- March 12 – 96th Academy Awards Ceremony
- March 14 – Pi Day
- March 15 – The Ides of March
- March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
- March 17 – NCAA March Madness
- March 17 – World Sleep Day
- March 18 – Global Recycling Day
- March 19 – Nowruz
- March 19 – Spring Equinox
- March 22 – World Water Day
- March 24 – Palm Sunday
- March 24 – Purim
- March 26 – Epilepsy Awareness Day
- March 27 – World Theatre Day
- March 28 – MLB Opening Day
- March 28 – Maundy Thursday
- March 29 – Good Friday
- March 30 – Holy Saturday
- March 31 – Easter Sunday
Popular Hashtags for March
- #PeanutButterLoversDay
- #EmployeeAppreciationDay
- #ReadAcrossAmerica
- #DrSeuss
- #WorldWildlifeDay
- #NationalGrammarDay
- #BeBoldForChange
- #DaylightSavings
- #PiDay
- #StPatricksDay
- #FirstDayofSpring
- #WorldWaterDay
- #NationalPuppyDay
- #PurpleDay
- #NationalDoctorsDay
- #EarthHour
April
April is probably best known for April Fools’ Day, and a chance to get creative with parody and spoof content for your calendar that can make your customers smile.
Earth Month also means you can make more eco-friendly posts about your organization’s commitment to reducing its impact on the planet.
You also might want to get your cape out of storage on April 28th for National Superhero Day.
Monthly Observances
- Earth Month
- National Autism Awareness Month
- Parkinson’s Awareness Month
- Celebrate Diversity Month
- Stress Awareness Month
- Ramadan ends on April 8
Weekly Observances
- April 15-21 – Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week
- April 21-27 – National Volunteer Week
- April 21-27 – Administrative Professionals Week
- April 22-26 – Every Kid Healthy Week
Days
- April 1 – April Fool’s Day
- April 1 – Easter Monday
- April 2 – World Autism Awareness Day
- April 2 – International Children’s Book Day
- April 5 – Lailat al-Qadr
- April 6 – National Walking Day
- April 7 – National Beer Day
- April 7 – World Health Day
- April 8 – Total Solar Eclipse
- April 10 – Eid-Al-Fitr
- April 11-14 – Masters Tournament PGA
- April 11 – National Pet Day
- April 12-21 – Coachella Music Festival
- April 13 – Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday
- April 13-15 – Songkran
- April 15 – American Sign Language Day
- April 15 – Tax Day
- April 15 – Boston Marathon
- April 15 – Patriots’ Day
- April 16 – Emancipation Day
- April 21 – World Creativity and Innovation Day
- April 22 – Earth Day
- April 22 – Passover starts
- April 26 – Arbor Day
- April 27 – World Design Day
- April 28 – National Superhero Day
- April 30 – National Honesty Day
- April 30 – Passover ends
Popular Hashtags For April:
- #AprilFools
- #WAAD
- #FindARainbowDay
- #NationalWalkingDay
- #LetsTalk
- #EqualPayDay
- #TaxDay
- #NH5D
- #NationalLookAlikeDay
- #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay
- #DenimDay
- #EndMalariaForGood
- #COUNTONME
- #ArborDay
- #NationalHonestyDay
- #AdoptAShelterPetDay
May
May brings a lot of variety with it as there are plenty of good causes to raise awareness for, plus major sporting events and unique celebrations you can join in with.
Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby, and Memorial Day are just a few examples of events that will have lots of people paying attention and can make for great marketing themes.
Monthly Observances
- ALS Awareness
- Asthma Awareness
- Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
- Jewish American Heritage Month
- National Celiac Disease Awareness Month
- Clean Air Month
- Better Sleep Month
- Lupus Awareness Month
Weekly Observances
- May 5-11 – National Pet Week
- May 19-25 – National Travel & Tourism Week
- May 5-11 – Drinking Water Week
- May 6-12 – Nurse’s Week
- May 12-18 – Food Allergy Awareness Week
Days
- May 1 – May Day
- May 1 – Law Day
- May 1 – Lei Day
- May 2 – World Password Day
- May 4 – Star Wars Day
- May 4 – International Firefighters Day
- May 4 – Kentucky Derby
- May 5 – Cinco De Mayo
- May 5-10 – French Open
- May 6 – National Nurses Day
- May 6 – Yom HaShoah
- May 8 – World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
- May 10 – World Lupus Day
- May 11 – World Fair Trade Day
- May 12 – Mother’s Day
- May 13-19 – PGA Championship
- May 14 – Yom Ha’atzmaut
- May 15 – International Day of Families
- May 17 – NASCAR Day
- May 17 – Malcolm X Day
- May 17 – Internet Day
- May 19 – HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
- May 20 – World Bee Day
- May 20 – Victoria Day (Canada)
- May 21 – World Meditation Day
- May 25 – Geek Pride Day
- May 26 – Trinity Sunday
- May 26 – Indianapolis 500
- May 27 – Memorial Day
- May 28 – World Hunger Day
- May 29 – Memorial Day
Popular Hashtags For May:
- #RedNoseDay
- #MayDay
- #WorldPasswordDay
- #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou
- #InternationalFirefightersDay
- #CincoDeMayo
- #MothersDay
- #BTWD
- #MemorialDay & #MDW
June
Once June has arrived, it’s finally starting to feel like summer. Everyone wants to make the most of the sunshine, and the positive energies are flowing.
Given that June also marks Great Outdoors Month, this is a great opportunity to make your brand a must-have companion for planning a beachside vacation or hosting a cookout.
You can also show your support for LGBTQ+ Pride, Flag Day, and Father’s Day, along with all the other events listed here.
Monthly Observances
- LGBTQ Pride Month
- Caribbean-American Heritage Month
- Great Outdoors Month
- Men’s Health Month
- National Safety Month
- National Zoo and Aquarium Month
Weekly Observances
- June 2-8 – National Garden Week
- June 2-8 – National Headache Awareness Week
- June 10-16 – National Men’s Health Week
- June 16-22 – National Roller Coaster Week
Days
- June 1 – Global Parents Day
- June 5 – Hot Air Balloon Day
- June 5 – World Environment Day
- June 6 – D-Day
- June 8 – Belmont Stakes
- June 8 – World Oceans Day
- June 8 – National Best Friends Day
- June 9 – Donald Duck Day
- June 10 – Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
- June 11 – Kamehameha Day
- June 12 – Shavuot
- June 13-16 – Bonnaroo Music Festival
- June 14 – Flag Day
- June 14 – Flag Day
- June 16 – Father’s Day
- June 16 – Tony Awards
- June 13-16 – U.S. Open PGA
- June 19 – Juneteenth
- June 20 – Summer Solstice
- June 23 – International Widows Day
- June 29 – July 21 – Tour de France
- June 30 – International Asteroid Day
Popular Hashtags For June:
- #NationalDonutDay
- #FathersDay
- #NationalSelfieDay
- #TakeYourDogToWorkDay
- #HandshakeDay
- #SMDay
July
July presents lots of opportunities for savvy marketers, from the 4th of July to the International Day of Friendship.
As we enter the summer slow-down period, there’s lots to celebrate that can help to feed your social media content to keep customers engaged.
So celebrate your independence, indulge in a little ice cream, and bring people together with one of the many events in July.
Monthly Observances
- Family Golf Month
- Ice Cream Month
- National Parks and Recreation Month
- National Picnic Month
- National Independent Retailer Month
- National Blueberry Month
Weekly Observances
- July 15-21 – Capture the Sunset Week
Days
- July 1 – International Joke Day
- July 1-11 – Wimbledon
- July 2 – World UFO Day
- July 4 – Independence Day
- July 6 – International Kissing Day
- July 7 – World Chocolate Day
- July 8 – National Video Games Day
- July 11 – World Population Day
- July 12 – Pecan Pie Day
- July 16 – Moon Landing Anniversary
- July 16 – MLB All-Star Game
- July 17 – World Emoji Day
- July 17 – Ashura
- July 18 – Nelson Mandela International Day
- July 20 – International Chess Day
- July 20 – National Moon Day
- July 21 – National Junk Food Day
- July 24 – Amelia Earhart Day
- July 26 – Aunt and Uncle Day
- July 26 – August 11 – Summer Olympics
- July 28-30 – Summer X Games
- July 28 – Parents’ Day
- July 28 – World Hepatitis Day
- July 30 – International Day of Friendship
- July 31 – World Ranger Day
Popular Hashtags For July:
- #NationalPostalWorkerDay
- #WorldUFODay
- #WorldEmojiDay
- #DayOfFriendship
August
We’ve hit the hottest days by August as back-to-school looms, and we welcome the return of football.
While many are topping up their tans and making the most of the final Summer days, August still provides lots of opportunities to align your content with wider events.
Make sure you’re using your marketing calendar to the fullest extent to post any sunny seasonal content promptly before fall arrives.
Monthly Observances
- Back to School Month
- National Breastfeeding Month
- Family Fun Month
- Peach Month
Weekly Observances
- August 1-7 – International Clown Week
- August 4-10 – National Farmers’ Market Week
- August 25-31 – Be Kind to Humankind Week
Days
- August 1 – National Girlfriends Day
- August 1 – NFL Hall of Fame Game & Preseason
- August 2 – International Beer Day
- August 4 – National Friendship Day
- August 7 – Purple Heart Day
- August 8 – International Cat Day
- August 9 – Book Lover’s Day
- August 11 – National Son and Daughter Day
- August 12 – Victory Day
- August 13 – Left Hander’s Day
- August 15 – Assumption of Mary
- August 17 – National Honey Bee Day
- August 19 – World Humanitarian Day
- August 19 – Raksha Bandhan
- August 20 – National Radio Day
- August 21 – Senior Citizens Day
- August 26 – Women’s Equality Day
- August 30 – Frankenstein Day
- August 30 – National Beach Day
Popular Hashtags For August:
- #InternationalCatDay
- #NationalBookLoversDay
- #WorldElephantDay
- #LefthandersDay
- #WorldPhotoDay
- #WorldHumanitarianDay
- #NationalLemonadeDay
- #NationalDogDay
- #WomensEqualityDay
September
As fall begins, some of the bigger events happening in September are Hispanic Heritage Month, Grandparents Day, and, of course, Labor Day.
There are also plenty of other events to inspire you, from Oktoberfest to National Yoga Month. Plus, a National Coffee Day for those who struggle to start their day without a caffeine fix.
Monthly Observances
- Wilderness Month
- National Food Safety Education Month
- National Yoga Month
- Whole Grains Month
- Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15)
Weekly Observances
- September 8-14 – National Suicide Prevention Week
- September 15-21 – National Indoor Plant Week
- September 16-22 – Pollution Prevention Week
- September 24-30 – National Dog Week
Days
- September 2 – VJ Day
- September 2 – Labor Day
- September 4 – National Wildlife Day
- September 5 – International Day of Charity
- September 6 – National Fight Procrastination Day
- September 8 – Pardon Day
- September 8 – National Grandparents Day
- September 11 – 9/11
- September 11 – Patriot Day
- September 12 – Video Games Day
- September 13 – Uncle Sam Day
- September 15 – Greenpeace Day
- September 17 – Constitution Day
- September 21 – Oktoberfest Begins
- September 21 – International Day of Peace
- September 22 – World Car-Free Day
- September 22 – September Equinox
- September 24 – World Bollywood Day
- September 24–29 – Presidents Cup PGA
- September 27 – Native American Day
- September 27 – World Tourism Day
- September 29 – National Coffee Day (US)
- September 29 – Confucius Day
- September 29 – World Heart Day
Popular Hashtags For September:
- #LaborDay
- #NationalWildlifeDay
- #CharityDay
- #ReadABookDay
- #911Day
- #NationalVideoGamesDay
- #TalkLikeAPirateDay
- #PeaceDay
- #CarFreeDay
- #WorldRabiesDay
- #GoodNeighborDay
- #InternationalPodcastDay
October
It’s that time of year when pumpkin spice lattes roll around again.
While October is known as the spooky season to many, there’s much more to this month than just Halloween – there’s Teacher’s Day, World Mental Health Day, and Spirit Day, to name a few, around which your organization can look to create content.
Monthly Observances
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month
- Bully Prevention Month
- Halloween Safety Month
- Financial Planning Month
- National Pizza Month
Weekly Observances
- October 8-14 – Fire Prevention Week
- October 13-19 – Earth Science Week
- October 20-26 – National Business Women’s Week
Days
- October 1 – International Coffee Day
- October 1 – World Vegetarian Day
- October 3 – National Techies Day
- October 5 – World Teacher’s Day
- October 6 – Oktoberfest Ends
- October 7 – Child Health Day
- October 10 – World Mental Health Day
- October 11 – National Coming Out Day
- October 12 – Yom Kippur
- October 14 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day
- October 14 – Columbus Day
- October 14 – Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
- October 16 – World Food Day
- October 19 – Sweetest Day
- October 20 – Spirit Day (Anti-bullying)
- October 22 – Make a Difference Day
- October 24 – United Nations Day
- October 30 – Mischief Night
- October 31 – Halloween
Popular Hashtags For October:
- #InternationalCoffeeDay
- #TechiesDay
- #NationalTacoDay
- #WorldSmileDay
- #WorldTeachersDay
- #WorldHabitatDay
- #WorldMentalHealthDay
- #BossesDay
- #UNDay
- #ChecklistDay
- #Halloween
November
During the month in which we all give thanks, there is also a wide range of causes you can help out with or raise awareness for, like Movember and America Recycles Day.
You should also mark your marketing calendar for arguably the biggest sales events of the year – Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) – which are sure to be on everyone’s radar.
Monthly Observances
- Native American Heritage Month
- Movember
- World Vegan Month
- Novel Writing Month
- National Gratitude Month
Weekly Observances
- November 11-16 – World Kindness Week (second week: Monday – Sunday)
- November 18-22 – American Education Week
- November 18-24 – Game and Puzzle Week
Days
- November 1 – Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos
- November 1 – All Saint’s Day
- November 1 – World Vegan Day
- November 2 – Melbourne Cup
- November 3 – Daylight Savings Time Ends
- November 5 – Election Day
- November 8 – STEM Day
- November 9 – World Freedom Day
- November 10 – Marine Corps Birthday
- November 11 – Veterans Day
- November 13 – World Kindness Day
- November 14 – World Diabetes Day
- November 15 – National Entrepreneurs Day
- November 24 – Evolution Day
- November 28 – Thanksgiving Day
- November 29 – Native American Heritage Day
- November 29 – Black Friday
Popular Hashtags For November:
- #WorldVeganDay
- #NationalSandwichDay
- #DaylightSavings
- #CappuccinoDay
- #STEMDay
- #VeteransDay
- #WKD
- #WDD
- #BeRecycled
- #EntrepreneursDay
- #Thanksgiving
- #ShopSmall
December
December is here, and the end of the year is in sight.
Although 2025 is right around the corner, and you might want to start planning your content calendar for next year, don’t neglect your content in the run-up to the holidays.
Send your year off in style with marketing campaigns dedicated to events like Nobel Prize Day, Rosa Parks Day, Green Monday, and more.
You can even do a content wrap-up of your best moments from the year – and make sure to get your 2025 marketing calendar sorted early before the post-Christmas wind-down.
Monthly Observances
- Human Rights Month
- Operation Santa Paws
- Safe Toys and Gifts Month
- World Food Service Safety Month
Weekly Observances
- December 9-15 – Human Rights Week
- December 25 – January 2 – Hanukkah (Chanukah)
- December 26 – January 1 – Kwanzaa
Days
- December 1 – World AIDS Day
- December 1 – Rosa Parks Day
- December 2 – Cyber Monday
- December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
- December 6 – St. Nicholas Day
- December 7 – Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
- December 7 – National Letter Writing Day
- December 8 – Feast of the Immaculate Conception
- December 9 – Green Monday
- December 10 – Nobel Prize Day
- December 10 – Human Rights Day
- December 11 – UNICEF Anniversary
- December 15 – Bill of Rights Day
- December 18 – National Twin Day
- December 21 – Winter Solstice
- December 22 – Forefathers Day
- December 23 – Festivus
- December 24 – Christmas Eve
- December 25 – Christmas Day
- December 25 – Hanukkah
- December 26 – Kwanzaa
- December 26 – Boxing Day
- December 31 – New Year’s Eve
Popular Hashtags For December:
- #IDPWD
- #NationalCookieDay
- #NobelPrize
- #WinterSolstice
- #NYE
The Complete Marketing Calendar And Template To Plan 2024
You can find the link to our complete marketing calendar and template for 2024 right here.
By having a content plan set out months in advance, you can rest assured that you’ll have great ideas to work with throughout the year.
And just because you have a plan doesn’t mean you can’t adapt if something interesting happens later in the year.
Simply rearrange your calendar and work your trending content around key dates.
Keep track of what ideas work throughout the year and use them to help guide your marketing calendar for 2025, so you can double down on successful content ideas.
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
SEO
Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It
Content pruning sounds pretty appealing: delete a ton of content and see your organic traffic improve. But pruning has risks (like deleting useful pages and useful backlinks), and benefits are not guaranteed: So how does pruning actually work? And when…
SEO
8 Free SEO Reporting Tools
There’s no shortage of SEO reporting tools to choose from—but what are the core tools you need to put together an SEO report?
In this article, I’ll share eight of my favorite SEO reporting tools to help you create a comprehensive SEO report for free.
Price: Free
Google Search Console, often called GSC, is one of the most widely used tools to track important SEO metrics from Google Search.
Most common reporting use case
GSC has a ton of data to dive into, but the main performance indicator SEOs look at first in GSC is Clicks on the main Overview dashboard.
As the data is from Google, SEOs consider it to be a good barometer for tracking organic search performance. As well as clicks data, you can also track the following from the Performance report:
- Total Impressions
- Average CTR
- Average Position
Tip
But for most SEO reporting, GSC clicks data is exported into a spreadsheet and turned into a chart to visualize year-over-year performance.
Favorite feature
One of my favorite reports in GSC is the Indexing report. It’s useful for SEO reporting because you can share the indexed to non-indexed pages ratio in your SEO report.
If the website has a lot of non-indexed pages, then it’s worth reviewing the pages to understand why they haven’t been indexed.
Price: Free
Google Looker Studio (GLS), previously known as Google Data Studio (GDS), is a free tool that helps visualize data in shareable dashboards.
Most common reporting use case
Dashboards are an important part of SEO reporting, and GLS allows you to get a total view of search performance from multiple sources through its integrations.
Out of the box, GLS allows you to connect to many different data sources.
Such as:
- Marketing products – Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360
- Consumer products – Google Sheets, YouTube, and Google Search Console
- Databases – BigQuery, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
- Social media platforms – Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter
- Files – CSV file upload and Google Cloud Storage
Sidenote.
If you don’t have the time to create your own report manually, Ahrefs has three Google Looker Studio connectors that can help you create automated SEO reporting for any website in a few clicks
Here’s what a dashboard in GLS looks like:
With this type of dashboard, you share reports that are easy to understand with clients or other stakeholders.
Favorite feature
The ability to blend and filter data from different sources, like GA and GSC, means you can get a customized overview of your total search performance, tailored to your website.
Price: Free for 500 URLs
Screaming Frog is a website crawler that helps you audit your website.
Screaming Frog’s free version of its crawler is perfect if you want to run a quick audit on a bunch of URLs. The free version is limited to 500 URLs—making it ideal for crawling smaller websites.
Most common reporting use case
When it comes to reporting, the Reports menu in Screaming Frog SEO Spider has a wealth of information you can look over that covers all the technical aspects of your website, such as analyzing, redirects, canonicals, pagination, hreflang, structured data, and more.
Once you’ve crawled your site, it’s just a matter of downloading the reports you need and working out the main issues to summarize in your SEO report.
Favorite feature
Screaming Frog can pull in data from other tools, including Ahrefs, using APIs.
If you already had access to a few SEO tools’ APIs, you could pull data from all of them directly into Screaming Frog. This is useful if you want to combine crawl data with performance data or other 3rd party tools.
Even if you’ve never configured an API, connecting other tools to Screaming Frog is straightforward.
Price: Free
Ahrefs has a large selection of free SEO tools to help you at every stage of your SEO campaign, and many of these can be used to provide insights for your SEO reporting.
For example, you could use our:
Most common reporting use case
One of our most popular free SEO tools is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT), which you can use for your SEO reporting.
With AWT, you can:
- Monitor your SEO health over time by setting up scheduled SEO audits
- See the performance of your website
- Check all known backlinks for your website
Favorite feature
Of all the Ahrefs free tools, my favorite is AWT. Within it, site auditing is my favorite feature—once you’ve set it up, it’s a completely hands-free way to keep track of your website’s technical performance and monitor its health.
If you already have access to Google Search Console, it’s a no-brainer to set up a free AWT account and schedule a technical crawl of your website(s).
Price: Free
Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar is a free Chrome and Firefox extension useful for diagnosing on-page technical issues and performing quick spot checks on your website’s pages.
Most common reporting use case
For SEO reporting, it’s useful to run an on-page check on your website’s top pages to ensure there aren’t any serious on-page issues.
With the free version, you get the following features:
- On-page SEO report
- Redirect tracer with HTTP Headers
- Outgoing links report with link highlighter and broken link checker
- SERP positions
- Country changer for SERP
The SEO toolbar is excellent for spot-checking issues with pages on your website. If you are not confident with inspecting the code, it can also give you valuable pointers on what elements you need to include on your pages to make them search-friendly.
If anything is wrong with the page, the toolbar highlights it, with red indicating a critical issue.
Favorite feature
The section I use the most frequently in the SEO toolbar is the Indexability tab. In this section, you can see whether the page can be crawled and indexed by Google.
Although you can do this by inspecting the code manually, using the toolbar is much faster.
Price: Free
Like GSC, Google Analytics is another tool you can use to track the performance of your website, tracking sessions and conversions and much more on your website.
Most common reporting use case
GA gives you a total view of website traffic from several different sources, such as direct, social, organic, paid traffic, and more.
Favorite feature
You can create and track up to 300 events and 30 conversions with GA4. Previously, with universal analytics, you could only track 20 conversions. This makes conversion and event tracking easier within GA4.
Price: Free
Google Slides is Google’s version of Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don’t have a dashboard set up to report on your SEO performance, the next best thing is to assemble a slide deck.
Many SEO agencies present their report through dashboard insights and PowerPoint presentations. However, if you don’t have access to PowerPoint, then Google Slides is an excellent (free) alternative.
Most common reporting use cases
The most common use of Google Slides is to create a monthly SEO report. If you don’t know what to include in a monthly report, use our SEO report template.
Favorite feature
One of my favorite features is the ability to share your presentation on a video chat directly from Google Slides. You can do this by clicking the camera icon in the top right.
This is useful if you are working with remote clients and makes sharing your reports easy.
Price: Free
Google Trends allows you to view a keyword’s popularity over time in any country. The data shown is the relative popularity ratio scaled from 0-100, not the direct volume of search queries.
Most common reporting use cases
Google Trends is useful for showing how the popularity of certain searches can increase or decrease over time. If you work with a website that often has trending products, services, or news, it can be useful to illustrate this visually in your SEO report.
Google Trends makes it easy to spot seasonal trends for product categories. For example, people want to buy BBQs when the weather is sunny.
Using Google Trends, we can see that peak demand for BBQs usually happens in June-July every year.
Using this data across the last five years, we could be fairly sure when the BBQ season would start and end.
Favorite feature
Comparing two or more search terms against each other over time is one of my favorite uses of Google Trends, as it can be used to tell its own story.
Embellishing your report with trends data allows you to gain further insights into market trends.
You can even dig into trends at a regional level if you need to.
Final thoughts
These free tools will help you put together the foundations for a well-rounded SEO report.
The tools you use for SEO reporting don’t always have to be expensive—even large companies use many of the free tools mentioned to create insights for their client’s SEO reports.
Got more questions? Ping me on X 🙂
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