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20 Online Business Ideas That Actually Work

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20 Online Business Ideas That Actually Work

Starting an online business is the single best way to create freedom in your life—freedom over your time, your money, your work environment, and more.

I’ve started over half a dozen online businesses in my life (three of which were highly successful, and one of which I sold for multiple six figures).

What I’ve learned is that there are a lot of ways to start an online business. To help you avoid the pitfalls, I’ve compiled a list of 20 online business ideas that I’ve either personally had success with or know someone who has.

Every one of these business ideas has the potential to earn a full-time salary at the low end, while some can earn multiple six figures or more at the high end. 

  • Pros: Inexpensive, high income potential, works well in conjunction with other online business ideas
  • Cons: Takes a long time to grow, big learning curve

I’ve started multiple blogs and have been blogging for nearly 15 years. The business I sold was a blog, and I still own multiple blogs that earn an income.

Needless to say, I’m a fan of blogging. That’s because I love writing. It also has huge potential, with multiple options for income streams (affiliate marketing, selling your own products or services, PPC ads, etc.) and for traffic sources (SEO, social media, newsletter, etc.). 

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For example, here’s a page on one of my sites that I monetize by reviewing and promoting products I’ve used:

Affiliate marketing example on a blog

If someone clicks the “View Now” button and makes a purchase, I get a commission on that sale.

Plus, starting a blog is fairly easy and inexpensive. All you need to do is purchase a domain name (~$12) and website hosting (~$4/month), build your website, and start writing.

Lastly, a blog also makes a great supplement to almost every other business idea on this list. You can use a blog to promote your freelancing services, sell stuff, and so much more.

Here are a few examples of successful blogs you can check out:

  • Bank My Cell – A blog about cell phones that makes the majority of its income through old phone trade-ins.
  • Adventures On The Rock – My blog about overland adventure travel and sustainability, which makes money through affiliate marketing.
  • Authority Hacker – A blog that teaches you how to create profitable websites. It monetizes through an online course that it sells, as well as from affiliate sales of software it uses.

Ready to get started? Check out our free blogging course. We’ll guide you through the whole process—from figuring out what to write about to growing and monetizing your blog.

2. Sell products on Amazon

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  • Pros: Fairly simple, piggyback on Amazon’s existing traffic
  • Cons: Lower profit margins due to Amazon fees, no access to customer data

One of the most common online businesses most people see success with is selling products on Amazon. At first, this may sound complicated and expensive. But actually, you don’t even need to hold inventory or worry about shipping or handling anything.

That’s because Amazon offers Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA)—a service where it handles all the logistics. All you have to do is come up with a product idea or even just private label an existing product, find a manufacturer to work with, and create a storefront.

Here’s an interesting case study by Susan Peterson, founder and CEO of baby shoe company Freshly Picked:

Amazon wrote a guide to coming up with product ideas, which is a great place to get started. I also recommend you read its complete “how to sell on Amazon” guide.

You can also use Ahrefs’ free Amazon keyword tool to see what people are searching for on Amazon to come up with product ideas, as well as help optimize your product listings to display higher in Amazon’s search results:

Amazon keyword ideas for baby shoes, via Ahrefs’ free Amazon keyword tool

So for example, you could include the phrase “baby shoes boy 12-18 months” in your listing to help it show up for that keyword, which is searched ~1.6K times per month.

This tool is also a great way to see if a product you’re thinking about selling gets enough search volume to potentially make enough money in sales. This, in turn, will help you decide whether you should start this kind of online business.

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3. Create an online store

  • Pros: Higher profit margins, more control over your customers’ data
  • Cons: Harder to find customers, takes longer to start earning

This is the next step up from selling products on Amazon. You can create your own online store to sell your products directly to customers—and avoid paying the high FBA fees, letting you take home bigger profits.

However, this requires a bit more work because you need to learn how to build an e-commerce website and how to get traffic to your new site since no one will know about it at first.

It’s not too difficult, though. You can use an e-commerce website builder like Shopify to streamline the process, then learn online marketing to get eyeballs. This is where that blog will come in handy.

One great example of an online store that was bootstrapped and started in a garage is Woodgeek Store. Saikat started selling small wood items he made in his garage and eventually grew the setup into a full company with eight employees making and selling hand-crafted wooden decor.

Woodgeek e-commerce website

Inspired? Here are a few guides to help you get started:

4. Try out freelancing on Upwork (and other platforms)

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  • Pros: Start earning an income almost immediately, scale up or down as you please
  • Cons: Lots of competition, you lose money to Upwork fees

Freelancing simply means offering services as a contractor. You can be a freelance writer, coder, designer, editor… the list goes on.

The nice thing about freelancing is that you can pick up work as needed and do lots of different things. It’s a great way to dabble in online business and see what you like (and don’t like).

Before you commit to becoming a fully dedicated freelancer and building your own website, portfolio, and social media pages, you can test the waters on freelancing platforms like Upwork or Fiverr.

Fiverr search results for "virtual assistant"

These are sites that already have clients looking for freelancers, so you don’t need to worry as much about marketing yourself and finding your own clients. You can just create an account and start getting work (relatively) quickly.

The only downside about these sites is that they take a hefty commission from any sales you make, so it’s not the best long-term solution.

Check out this guide on how to get your first Upwork job with no experience.

5. Provide professional freelance services

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  • Pros: Higher profit margins, more control over your work
  • Cons: Harder to find clients on your own

If you tried the last idea and realized how much you like freelancing, you can grow that business by creating your own website and social media channels, dedicating yourself to improving your craft, and finding your own clients so you don’t need to pay any fees.

Similar to upgrading from selling on Amazon to creating your own online store, you’ll need to learn how to market yourself. However, the payoff is worth the effort.

There are a plethora of examples of successful freelancers out there. I started as a freelance writer, then learned content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to be able to offer more and charge a higher rate.

Some other successful freelancer examples include:

Check out this list of ideas of freelance services you can offer to get started.

6. Sell/license photos and videos

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  • Pros: Can be quick money, excellent supplemental income to other businesses
  • Cons: Highly competitive, typically low income potential, requires expensive camera gear and editing software

If you’re good with a camera and editing, selling your photos or videos as stock media can be a nice extra income to freelance work.

There are a few different ways to go about this. You can sell your photos on your own website, on stock sites like Shutterstock, or even as prints or T-shirt designs. 

Shutterstock media sales page

Check out this guide to learn more about how to sell photos online. You can also turn your work into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and sell them as digital art pieces.

If video is more your forte, you can create beautiful stock footage of places around the world and license that footage to any companies that want to use it. For example, here’s some 4K footage of Namibia, Africa, that a company could potentially license:

Keep in mind that in order to sell stock media, you’ll typically need some of the best camera gear money can buy. So this is not a cheap entry business idea.

  • Pros: Great channel to use in conjunction with other business ideas, relatively low cost of entry, can talk about almost anything 
  • Cons: Highly competitive space, can take a long time to earn an income from

Podcasts are great if you love to talk about things you’re interested in. And you can start a podcast about almost anything. Literally:

Podcasts on Spotify about anything

That said, starting and maintaining a podcast is a lot of work and comes with a high learning curve. You need to buy and learn how to use audio equipment and audio editing software. And if you’re anything like me and make a lot of random mistakes and noises while recording, you’ll have to do a ton of editing, which takes a long time.

In addition, writing show notes and creating a page with any links mentioned takes time, promoting the episode takes time, and growing an audience takes time.

However, you can start with a cheap lapel mic and little to no editing, no website, and no show notes. In fact, that’s a great way to get started and see if you actually like recording podcasts or not.

As far as making money goes, you have lots of options, including brand sponsorships, direct advertising, and affiliate marketing. A podcast also pairs well with selling your own online course, books, or services. Some podcasters even sell access to their episodes.

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A few of my personal favorite podcasts include:

I highly recommend Pat Flynn’s guide on how to start a podcast if you’re interested in this idea. His course, “Power-Up Podcasting,” is also an excellent resource once you’re ready to invest in learning more.

8. Grow a YouTube channel

  • Pros: Excellent to use in conjunction with other business ideas, video is only getting more popular, lots of monetization options
  • Cons: Big learning curve, long time to grow and earn money, ever-changing algorithm

YouTube has been the leading platform to find user-created videos since its inception. With over 2.6B active users, there’s a huge audience to capitalize on.

Plus, you can make YouTube videos on nearly any topic. If a hobby exists, chances are, people are looking for it on YouTube.

The cost to entry is also super low, with most phones being able to take excellent video these days. Just invest $20 in a lapel mic, utilize natural lighting, and you’re good to go.

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You can monetize your channel using any monetization method for a blog or podcast too—affiliate marketing, selling products, brand sponsorships, and more. YouTube will even pay you directly through its YouTube Partner Program once you get big enough, so there is no shortage of ways to make money.

For example, my friend, David, runs a highly successful YouTube channel called The Barbeque Lab, where he shares videos on how to become the ultimate BBQ chef, grill reviews, and more. He earns money through ads, affiliate sales of BBQ products, and direct sponsorships.

Here’s a great video on how to start a YouTube channel:

We also have a few articles you can read on Ahrefs’ blog:

Feel free to check out Ahrefs’ YouTube channel while you’re at it.

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9. Start streaming on Twitch

  • Pros: Get paid to play video games
  • Cons: Highly competitive, low income, long hours, lots of work

Twitch, if you weren’t aware, is an online streaming platform where anyone can go on and stream themselves doing pretty much anything—but mostly, it’s used to stream video games.

Gamer streaming on Twitch

If your childhood dream was to get paid to play video games, it could be a reality with Twitch. You can make money through Twitch’s Partner Program once you meet its requirements. But you can also make money through brand sponsorships and advertisements, viewer donations, and platforms like Patreon.

However, be warned—starting a business as a Twitch streamer is probably more work than any other idea on this list, and it often doesn’t pay much unless you’re able to get extremely successful with millions of views every time you stream.

This is one that I only recommend if you’re passionate about gaming and streaming, and don’t mind making very little money for a long time.

Check out this guide to learn more about becoming a successful Twitch streamer.

10. Create an online course 

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  • Pros: Can become semi-passive income, high income potential
  • Cons: Have to find customers, takes a lot of time to film and edit

Creating an online course is one of the best ways to make money online. The best part about courses is that once they’re finished, the work is pretty minimal aside from occasional course updates. So it’s really like building an asset that continues to produce for you.

Ahrefs Academy's link building course
One of Ahrefs Academy’s online courses.

But just because you make a course, it doesn’t mean it will sell. The hardest part of starting a business around courses is finding customers.

One way to get around this is to create a course on a course membership website like Udemy, Skillshare, or Maven. However, you typically won’t be able to charge as much because there is so much competition, and the platform will take a fee from every sale you make.

Check out this guide to learn how to create an online course.

11. Launch a digital product

  • Pros: Ability to scale, avoid trading time for money, can be lucrative
  • Cons: Requires coding experience or hiring a coder, may be hard to find customers

Launching a digital product, such as an app or building a SaaS (software as a service) company, has historically been a lucrative business plan.

This is because you can scale almost infinitely without that scale requiring comparatively more work hours or hiring more people, so overhead costs are often lower than traditional business models. Adding customers doesn’t necessarily add more work to your plate.

However, you need to come up with a product idea that people actually want and are willing to pay for. And it also requires you to either be an experienced coder or hire someone who is. Additionally, various marketing and design skills to spread the word and make a good UI are needed.

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Examples of this type of business include Notion (note-taking and task management app) and Ahrefs (all-encompassing SEO tool).

Ahrefs homepage

Check out SaaS Academy’s guide to starting a SaaS company.

  • Pros: Control over your schedule and clients, impact people’s lives
  • Cons: Can be slow to start, requires you to learn to market yourself well 

If you have a skill and enjoy teaching others, coaching can be a great option for your online business. There are lots of options too—such as business coaching, life coaching, or coaching someone on a specific skill (like marketing or fitness).

All you need to become a coach is a desire to teach people and to find clients willing to pay you. Once again, marketing skills come in handy.

You can advertise your skills on websites like Fiverr, but the best clients are more likely to come from marketing efforts like a podcast, blog, or being active on LinkedIn or Twitter.

As an example, my voice coach, Laura Seipert, launched her business, The Mindful Voice Teacher, and has loved being able to help her clients become more confident and happier in their lives. She also takes a multi-faceted approach and earns money from her voice clients, as well as through coaching other voice coaches to impact even more people with her work.

Check out this guide to learn more about advertising a coaching business.

  • Pros: Lots of different business model options, can be used to promote other products and services, low cost to start
  • Cons: Takes a long time to build your list, difficult to stand out in a crowded inbox

If you enjoy writing up email newsletters, it’s possible to create a business entirely on email marketing. All you need is the skill to write something worth reading in a crowded inbox.

To get started, you need an idea of what you want to talk about. You can pick almost anything you’re passionate about—it’s more important to choose something you feel you can stick to for the long term than think about choosing something because it can make money.

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It’s going to take a long time to build a good list (a year at a minimum). And once you have an audience, you can find ways to make money. Where there is an engaged audience, there are businesses willing to pay to access it.

One great example of a newsletter business is The Tonic. It started with a small list of fewer than 100 people and grew it to over 10,000 subscribers and six figures in under two years.

Newsletter business example

Its newsletter shares tips, quotes, and products that can help you become a happier, healthier, and more productive entrepreneur.

Example newsletter from The Tonic

And it monetizes through brand sponsorships, where other brands pay it for an excerpt in its emails:

Newsletter sponsorship example

Interested in creating a newsletter business? Check out this guide with three ways to build an email list without a website and read my guide to growing an email list to get started.

  • Pros: Fairly easy to start making money
  • Cons: Takes a long time to earn good money, requires good audio equipment and editing skills

Has anyone ever said you should be a radio announcer? If they have, doing voice-overs could be a great idea. If not, this could still be a great business opportunity for you if you have a good voice.

You can create a business where someone sends you a script and you send back an audio file of yourself reading the script in an interesting and ear-enticing way.

Check out this guide to learn how to find voice-over work.

15. Become a tutor/online teacher

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  • Pros: Rewarding, quick to start making money, easy to do part-time work
  • Cons: Not very high income potential, requires you to directly trade time for money, typically requires at least a bachelor’s degree in your field of choice

Teaching students anything from math, to English, to coding can be a rewarding and fun online business opportunity.

You can either offer private tutoring through your own website or you can find clients through a platform like Tutor.com, although it will take a fee from your income.

Check out this guide to learn more about becoming an online tutor.

  • Pros: Scaleable, high income potential, gets you away from trading time for money
  • Cons: High overhead in the form of employees, reliant on finding and training good people and good clients

If you’ve found that you enjoy freelancing but want to scale it up and hire other people to do the client work for you, creating an agency is the perfect next step. However, it’s definitely not for everyone and requires a much different skill set.

An agency allows you to hire others to do your client work for you, freeing you up to focus on higher-level business operations like marketing and company direction.

But this is a big step, as you’ll need to hire people you can depend on without compromising quality of work—and it makes you more dependent on finding (and keeping) high-quality clients. What happens if you make a hire and lose a client? How will you pay their salary? These are things you need to think about.

The income potential of an agency is exponentially higher than doing the work yourself because it removes your time constraint and the limit on how many clients you can work with at one time. But only if you become a good manager of both people and projects.

Here’s a quick guide to learn more. 

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  • Pros: High income potential, can be done on a part-time basis 
  • Cons: Requires high-level skills, reliant on finding clients

While a coach helps people learn how to do something, a consultant comes in and tells people how to fix specific problems. 

For example, I am an SEO consultant. Businesses hire me to look at their website for SEO issues and to get a strategy they can execute to get more traffic from Google—typically a one-off service. I also offer SEO coaching services in which I teach people how to do SEO, but it’s a separate service that’s usually ongoing.

You could also offer marketing, management, sales, accounting, and many other types of consulting services. It just depends on your skill set.

Here’s a good guide to learn more. 

  • Pros: Relatively low cost to start, good side gig, big payout potential
  • Cons: Highly competitive, requires some luck, high risk of losing money

Domains (www.thisisadomain.com) are an important part of the online world. Some people are willing to pay a lot of money for the right domain. And since only one person can register a domain, if you have a domain someone wants, they can pay you for it.

I have a friend who paid over $10,000 to get the .com version of his business’s domain (he had been using a .co for years). So it can be fairly lucrative. 

In fact, here’s a list of domain names and how much they sold for:

List of domain names and how much they sold for

The catch is that you need to know what people may value in a domain name and how much it may be worth. You have to get good at hunting for bargain domain names and predicting what will be wanted and what may be a waste of money—and you always risk buying a domain that you ultimately lose money on or can’t sell.

As always, here’s a guide for you to learn more.

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  • Pros: Relatively low cost to start, good side gig, big payout potential
  • Cons: Requires some luck and patience, some risk of losing money

One step up from flipping domains is flipping actual websites. You can buy cheap websites (sometimes even with good domain names), revamp them, and even do some basic SEO on them. Then you can resell them for a profit.

You can also build your own websites from scratch and sell them. Typically, the value of a website comes from one of three things:

  1. How much money it makes (usually a 3X multiple of annual revenue).
  2. The value of the domain name (if someone really wants or needs it).
  3. The value of its traffic and backlink profile (backlinks from certain publications can be really valuable, such as from Forbes or The New York Times).

So you can build an affiliate site that earns revenue and then sell it for an immediate influx of cash. Or you can buy and improve an existing site by doing conversion rate optimization, working on SEO, and finding higher-paying affiliate partners—then resell it.

You can buy and sell websites through marketplaces like Flippa, Empire Flippers, or FE International. Although the best deals will typically be private ones.

Empire Flippers website marketplace

20. Become a virtual assistant

  • Pros: Always needed, great way to learn other business skills
  • Cons: Pay is usually not the best, your hours are set by someone else

If you can’t decide what else to do, becoming a virtual assistant (VA) is a great way to test the waters, learn some skills, and figure out what you like doing.

Virtual assistants are usually jack-of-all-trades type of people. Your job is to do whatever your clients need you to do—from sending emails, to editing articles, to data entry, and more. You’ll often find yourself touching almost every part of your clients’ businesses.

You can find virtual assistant job opportunities on sites like Indeed or ZipRecruiter, or you can offer your services directly to your own clients through your website and by reaching out to companies directly to promote yourself. You can also offer VA services on sites like Upwork or Fiverr.

Check out this guide to get started.

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Final thoughts

Starting an online business is one of the best things you could ever do to have more freedom in your life. It has a higher income potential than most jobs, while also giving you flexibility to choose when and how you work. 

My recommendation is to try blending multiple business ideas together to create various traffic and income streams. It’s also a great way to test different tactics to see what works and what you enjoy doing.

For example, you could create a website to showcase your services that also has a blog and podcast. That said, try to focus on one thing at a time and then add more as you figure out how to streamline the process to avoid spreading your attention too thin. 

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The Most Engaged YouTube Fans For NCAA Basketball Teams

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The Most Engaged YouTube Fans For NCAA Basketball Teams

Imagine that you head up digital marketing at Turner Sports or CBS Sports, which have the exclusive rights to license NCAA marks, tickets, and taglines in commercial promotions.

Or suppose that your social video agency was just invited to pitch AT&T, Capital One, or Coca-Cola, which are official NCAA corporate champions.

And you have an assignment to identify the most engaged YouTube fans for the NCAA Division 1 Men’s and Women’s basketball teams.

I realize that you probably don’t work at one of those sports media and entertainment companies and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be asked to pitch one of those brands in the foreseeable future.

So, why should you care about what makes engaged NCAA fans on YouTube?

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Keep reading, there is method in the madness.

Cognitive, Emotional, And Behavioral Metrics

As mentioned previously, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has identified 30 metrics – 7 cognitive, 4 emotional, and 19 behavioral – that brands or agencies can use to measure the “engagement continuum.”

Image from IAB, March 2024

But fan engagement can fluctuate depending on whether a college basketball team is on the bubble, makes it to the Big Dance, or goes deep into the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and Final Four.

Fan engagement can also vary depending on the number of logo 3s, buzzer beaters, or overtime wins.

That’s why this hypothetical assignment is so hard.

Nevertheless, exploring various video engagement metrics from several video intelligence sources can help you better understand the most engaged YouTube fans for NCAA basketball teams and how to apply what you’ve learned to your brands or clients.

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Here are three cognitive metrics that you should explore when measuring engagement:

  • Change in Brand Awareness/Familiarity: You can use surveys to measure the extent your brand is recognized by potential customers before and after this year’s NCAA tournaments.
  • Change in Brand Consideration: You can also use pre- and post-March Madness surveys to measure your brand’s inclusion in a set customers would select from.
  • Change in Purchase Intent: You can also use Brand Lift surveys to measure the delta in customers’ plans or willingness to purchase your brand in the future.

Here are three emotional metrics that you should look at using to measure engagement:

  • Change in Baseline Brand Perception: Surveys enable you to measure the pre-post delta in what potential customers think and feel about your brand.
  • Change in Baseline Brand Favorability: Surveys also enable you to measure what potential customers like and value about your brand before and after the Big Dance.
  • Change in Baseline Brand Loyalty: Surveys enable you to measure customer loyalty in terms of weight and frequency of usage – as well as likelihood to switch – from Selection Sunday, March 17, to the women’s NCAA championship game on Sunday, April 7, and the men’s NCAA championship game on Monday, April 8, 2024.

Here are six behavioral metrics worth exploring to measure engagement:

  • Watch Time: The total amount of time viewers spend watching a video, including any replays or rewatches, should be a key metric. Since it’s only available if you have access to your brand or client’s YouTube Analytics, digital marketers and social video agencies use “views” as a metric to compare videos across other YouTube channels.
  • Applause Rate: The number of likes a YouTube video gets.
  • Amplification Rate: The number of shares a YouTube video gets.
  • Conversation Rate: The number of comments a YouTube video gets.
  • Engaged-View Conversions (EVCs): In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), an engaged-view conversion (EVC) indicates that someone watched a YouTube video for at least 10 seconds and then converted on your website or app within 3 days of viewing the video.
  • Economic Value: This is the monetary value of visitors from YouTube to your site who go on to complete micro conversions like subscribing to a newsletter or initiating a chat with your business, as well as macro conversions like purchasing a product or registering for a service.

In addition, here are some of the video intelligence sources you should evaluate:

  • Official Team and Conference Channels: Many NCAA Division 1 teams and major conferences, like the ACC, Big 10, and SEC, have their own YouTube channels. These channels feature highlights, interviews, and behind-the-scenes content. Comparing their metrics can provide you with insights.
  • Media and NCAA Basketball Channels: YouTube channels like CBS Sports and March Madness upload video content about various college basketball teams, allowing you to compare fan engagement based on comments and viewership.
  • Third-Party Tools: Tubular Labs, a social video intelligence company that provides data on social video audiences, and Pixability, a company that helps brands monitor their YouTube and CTV campaigns, can provide deeper insights into engagement, but they require paid subscriptions.

For this article, I contacted Matt Duffy, the company’s CMO, and Sean Alie, the head of its insights team, to see if they had any critical data or strategic insights worth sharing.

They did – and it appears below.

There are four sections: men’s team views, women’s team views, year-over-year (YoY) data for men’s and women’s teams + men’s vs. women’s teams, and lastly, views by popular players (such as Caitlin Clark, the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer of the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Conference).

Here’s what the men’s NCAA basketball views look like.

They are filtered to sports videos only, and each video includes the keywords “*team name*,” “basketball,” and “men” somewhere in the metadata.

The timeline is February only.

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Men’s Basketball

Houston, the #1 ranked team, earned 7.5% more views than the next leading team, Kansas (21M vs 19.6M). Kansas did rank first in engagements, though, earning 13% more engagements than Houston (442K vs 391K).

Duke ranked 3rd in views (16M) and engagements (389K). One thing to note is Houston is the #1 ranked team and the most viewed team on YouTube.

However, Kansas was ranked 14th and Duke 9th, yet they were able to rank 2nd and 3rd in views. This is a testament to the brand awareness these programs hold.

Men's basketball engagement dataImage from Pixability, March 2024

Women’s Basketball

This data uses the same methodology as the men’s data except with “women” as a keyword instead of “men.”

Iowa, home of star Caitlin Clark, earned 51% more views than the next leading program, LSU (12.4M vs 8.2M). This makes sense as Angel Reece plays for LSU and is widely considered the second most popular player in women’s college basketball, after Caitlin.

The individual stars may influence views for women’s programs more than the team’s fan base. Iowa earned 9.5% more engagements than LSU (178.5K vs 162.9K). Indiana ranked 3rd in views, followed by UConn.

Women's basketball engagement dataImage from Pixability, March 2024

Men’s Vs. Women’s Teams And YoY Stats

  • The top 16 men’s teams earned a combined 130.8M views in February 2024, which is 157% more than the top 16 women’s teams have earned (50.8M). Men’s teams earned 247% more engagements (2.4M) than women’s teams (690K).
  • YoY, the top 16 ranked men’s teams earned 61% more views this year compared to the top 16 ranked teams last year in February (130.8M vs 81.2M).
  • YoY, the top 16 ranked women’s teams earned 147% more views this year compared to the top 16 ranked teams last year in February (50.8M vs 20.5M). This means that views for women’s college basketball are growing faster than the men’s. A large part of this was due to the rise of Caitlin Clark.

Views By Popular Basketball Players

The stats below are based on players participating in the tournament: Caitlin Clark earned 17.5M player mention views in February, which is more than any other player in the men’s and women’s tournaments.

Caitlin earned 10.6x more views in February than the highest male player (Kyle Filipowski) views polled in February (17.5M vs 1.6M).

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The second most viewed player was also a woman, Angel Reese, who plays for the LSU Tigers in the Southeastern Conference. Angel earned 3.9x more views than Kyle Filipowski, who plays for the Duke Blue Devils in the Atlantic Coast Conference (6.4M vs 1.6M).

The rivalry between these two women stars has fueled incredible engagement on YouTube.

Again, men’s teams are more popular than women’s teams, but at the individual level, women players are outperforming men by a large margin.

Although the USC Trojans of the Pac-12 Conference won’t make the tournament this year, LeBron Raymone “Bronny” James earned 32M views, which is 87% higher than Caitlin Clark’s views.

This is still incredibly impressive for Caitlin as she is putting up numbers that compete with someone as well-known as Bronny James.

Engagement Data for PlayersImage from Pixability, March 2024

Of course, you could figure out who are the most engaged YouTube fans for NCAA basketball teams without using third-party tools.

But that might take so much time that you’d miss some of the games that make March Madness worth watching and create highlights worth sharing on YouTube.

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Hey, you make the call.

How Marketers Can Use Insights Into The Most Engaged Fans

So, how can digital marketers use these insights about NCAA basketball’s most engaged fans?

Well, I can think of three key ways to apply what we’ve just learned.

First, as I mentioned in “39 Emotions Digital Marketers Can Use In Advertising,” people share videos that elicit “high-arousal” or intense emotions twice as much as ones that elicit “low-arousal” or moderate emotions. And March Madness elicits several intense emotions.

For example, the Big Dance triggers nostalgia, a sentimental longing or wistful affection for some past period or irrecoverable condition. How do you make use of this insight?

Watch Continental Tire’s “Grant Hill, Christian Laettner, and the Smart Choice!” Basketball legends Grant Hill and Christian Laettner of Duke not only tell us about the importance of making smart choices but also remind us of “The Shot” during the 1992 NCAA tournament.

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During a game between East Region #1 seed Duke and #2 seed Kentucky in the East Regional Final to determine a spot in the Final Four, defending national champion Duke trailed 103–102 with 2.1 seconds remaining in overtime.

That’s when Hill threw a pass three-quarters of the length of the court to Laettner, who faked right, dribbled once, turned, and hit a jumper as time expired for the 104–103 win. In 2004, Sports Illustrated called it the greatest college basketball game of all time.

Second, college athletes can now make money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). So, brands like State Farm Insurance can now feature players like Caitlin Clark in YouTube videos like “Shoot! (feat. Caitlin Clark, Jimmy Butler, Reggie Miller) :30 | State Farm Commercial.”

It’s worth noting that State Farm uploaded this video on Nov. 21, 2023, almost three months before Clark broke “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I scoring record on Feb. 15, 2024. Kudos to the brand and their agency for being ahead of the curve.

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Third, the line between creators and their audiences is blurring.

At last year’s Brandcast, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told advertisers, “The universe of ‘creators’ is growing every day as more people make videos on their phones.

This limitless access means the world of creation is changing. Fans used to engage with a like or subscribe. But now, you can see a trend and easily jump in with your own video.”

For an example, check out “Meet the New Face of March Madness – Robbie Avila #collegebasketball #indianastate #sports #funny.” BenchwarmerBran, the online alias of Brandon Carney, a sports content creator who makes jokes about teams, players, and fantasy leagues, uploaded this video on March 7, 2024. And it currently has 405,000 views and 63,500 engagements.

If you use Tubular Intelligence, then you will see that 1,536 accounts in the U.S. uploaded 3,208 videos about “March Madness” to YouTube in the last 90 days.

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And influencers uploaded 2,359 of these videos (73.5%), while media and entertainment companies uploaded 602 (18.8%), and brands uploaded only 224 (7.0%).

Now, these 3,208 YouTube videos about March Madness got a total of 11.6 million views and 455,000 engagements.

So, targeting affinity segments, people who already have a strong interest in relevant topics, may be a much smarter option than targeting placements, specific YouTube channels or websites and apps on the Google Display Network.

How SEO Pros Can Use This Information, Too

So, how could an SEO specialist use this information to make actionable decisions?

Well, I’m sad to say that some won’t.

Why? As Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) said in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn”,

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“He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking.”

In other words, some intelligent SEO specialists think their job is to work with text, not videos. And they also think that the content that their optimizing is to help people make rational decisions, not emotional ones.

But YouTube videos have been appearing in Google’s search results since May 2007. And as I mentioned in “Customer Personas Can Transform SEO, PPC and Content Marketing,” Google has talked about emotions driving search intent since May 2019.

As Justin De Graaf, Head of Ads Research and Insights at Google, observed back then,

“The truth is, decision-making is not a rational process, but one driven mainly by how people feel. The rational brain layers on reasons for our choices only after they’re made.”

So, if SEO specialists continue to focus on optimizing text to help people make rational decisions, then their pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking.

Now, they may continue to be somewhat successful, especially if they can answer “yes” when asked: “After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?”

But, as Google has said,

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“The helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn’t meet a visitor’s expectations won’t perform as well.”

So, SEO specialists who can’t create (and optimize) video content that tells a good story and makes a visitor feel something emotionally may struggle to provide a satisfying experience.

In conclusion, this is why it’s worth dreaming about getting a starring role in a Cinderella story.

I realize that you probably won’t get a job at one of those media and entertainment companies and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be asked to pitch one of those brands in the foreseeable future.

But, if and when your opportunity presents itself, then you will be ready to take your best shot at the buzzer.

More resources:


Featured Image: adriaticfoto/Shutterstock

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7 Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses

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7 Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses

If you’re a small business owner, people are searching for what you do on Google. Unless you show up, you’re missing out on customers or clients.

SEO is how you do that, and the basics are quick and easy.

Follow these tips to rank your small business higher in no time.

If you only do one thing as a small business owner, make it to claim and optimize your GBP.

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A Google Business Profile helps users find and learn about your business in Google search and maps. It’s free to set up and lets you share important details about your business with customers, like its phone number, opening times, and offerings.

But here’s the real beauty of Business Profiles: People don’t have to search for your business to see your profile. They can appear for broader searches like “pizza restaurant near me.”

Example of a Google Business Profile in the 'map pack ' resultsExample of a Google Business Profile in the 'map pack ' results

This makes them a powerful way to attract new customers searching for what you do.

Here are the basics of optimizing your profile:

  • Set the right business category and type
  • Add opening hours (and keep them up to date!)
  • Add contact details
  • Add photos
  • Add your products or services

Learn more in our 30-minute Business Profile optimization guide.

People don’t always turn to Google to find small businesses. They also search popular business directories and trusted review websites.

Even if they do search Google, they’ll often end up browsing a popular directory anyway because that’s often what ranks.

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For example, I was recently searching for a cat sitter for an upcoming vacation. I started my search by typing “cat sitter near me” into Google. But I soon ended up browsing a niche directory because that’s what all the top results were.

Local directories and niche sites rank for "cat sitter near me"Local directories and niche sites rank for "cat sitter near me"

In fact, I even ended up booking a cat sitter through one of these websites:

Booking I made on a local niche site after finding it in GoogleBooking I made on a local niche site after finding it in Google

Long story short, if you’re not listed on popular niche or local directories, you’re losing out on second-hand search traffic and customers.

Let’s look at a couple of ways to find the best directories to get listed on.

Search Google

Head over to Google and search for “[what your business does] in [location]”, then add your business to directories that rank on the first page.

For example, if you’re a cat sitter in Seattle, you’ll probably want to get listed on:

  • Meowtel
  • Rover.com
  • Yelp
  • Care.com
Local niche sites and directories ranking in Google searchLocal niche sites and directories ranking in Google search

Find the directories your competitors are listed on

Most directory listings also link to your website, which means you can use your competitors’ backlink profile to find relevant directories.

Here’s how to do it in Ahrefs:

  1. Go to our Competitive Analysis tool
  2. Select the “referring domains” mode
  3. Enter your site in the “Not linking to target” field
  4. Enter the sites of a few competing businesses in the “But linking to these competitors” fields
  5. Hit “Show link opportunities”
Finding local and niche directories in AhrefsFinding local and niche directories in Ahrefs

You should see a list of domains that link to your competitors but not you. Eyeball this list for sites that look like relevant directories and add your business to them.

Examples of local directories linking to competitorsExamples of local directories linking to competitors

Not sure who your competitors are?

Search Google for “[what your business does] in [location]” and go to Maps. Follow the website links on their profiles to find their domains, then copy and paste them into Ahrefs.

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How to find competitorsHow to find competitors

Having technical SEO issues can hurt your rankings, so it’s worth checking that your website is technically sound and fixing any major issues.

The easiest way to do this is with an SEO audit tool like Ahrefs’ Site Audit. You can use this free of charge with an Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) account. Just sign up, follow the steps to crawl your site, then filter the All issues report for Errors:

How to find website errors in Ahrefs' Site AuditHow to find website errors in Ahrefs' Site Audit

For advice on what the issues mean and how to fix them, hit the tooltip:

How to find advice on fixing the issuesHow to find advice on fixing the issues

For example, Site Audit found eight 404 pages on our blog during a recent crawl:

Example of a 404 page issueExample of a 404 page issue

To fix this issue, we can either reinstate, redirect, or remove internal links to the pages.

If you also schedule regular crawls in Site Audit, you’ll get alerts about new SEO issues so you can fix them before they cause problems.

Email alert from Ahrefs' Site AuditEmail alert from Ahrefs' Site Audit

People often search for specific products or services rather than what your business does. For example, they might search for “bathroom remodel near me” instead of “plumber near me.”

If they do this, Google tends to show pages about that service, not plumbers’ homepages.

Google tends to service pages rather than homepages when searching for specific servicesGoogle tends to service pages rather than homepages when searching for specific services

You might struggle to rank for these terms unless you have these pages.

But you might be thinking, “I offer lots of services. I don’t have enough time to create pages for all of them.”

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Keyword research is the answer. This is the process of discovering what words and phrases your customers are typing into Google. You can use it to find the products or services they’re searching for the most and then prioritize creating pages about them.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Brainstorm all the products or services you offer
  2. Paste them into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer (make sure to select the country you’re in)

You’ll see the keywords sorted by their estimated monthly search volumes from high to low:

Plumbing keywords sorted by popularity, via Ahrefs' Keywords ExplorerPlumbing keywords sorted by popularity, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

This should give you a good idea of relative interest in the products or services you offer and the pages you should prioritize creating.

Sidenote.

These are national volumes, but that shouldn’t really matter. If a service is more popular than another nationally, it’s probably more popular in the local area where your business operates, too. The only caveat is if you offer something like HVAC services and the climate in your country differs greatly from region to region.

For example, it would make sense to have a page for boiler servicing if it’s something you offer.

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Having pages about your products and services is one thing, but you also need to make sure they tell searchers what they want to know. If you know your customers well, you can probably get halfway there easily. But it’s always best to do a bit of research.

For example, I was recently searching for someone to repair our boiler…

My process went a little like this:

  • Searched Google for “boiler repair near me”
  • Had a quick look at the reviews and websites of the top-ranked businesses
  • Called the most promising ones

I knew that our boiler brand isn’t very common, so I was specifically looking for engineers who mentioned working with our brand on their websites. Out of a dozen sites I checked, only one mentioned this:

Example of a site giving searchers what they wantExample of a site giving searchers what they want

As a result, this was the first company I called.

If the other engineers had only done a bit of keyword research, they’d have known this is something customers care about and included it on their pages.

Here’s how you can do that in Ahrefs:

  1. Go to Keywords Explorer
  2. Search for your product or service (e.g., “boiler repair”)
  3. Go to the Matching Terms report
  4. Go to the “Cluster by terms” tab
Use term clustering in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer to find what customers care aboutUse term clustering in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer to find what customers care about

From here, skim the list for similar terms that might indicate the kind of information searchers are looking for.

For example, the highlighted terms below are all boiler brands:

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Customers searching for boiler repair care about boiler brandsCustomers searching for boiler repair care about boiler brands

I also see mentions of different types of boilers, like oil, gas, and electric:

Customers searching for boiler repair care about boiler typesCustomers searching for boiler repair care about boiler types

From this quick skim alone, it’s clear that searchers are looking for engineers who can repair their type and brand of boiler.

If you’re a local boiler engineer, having this information not only helps searchers but also saves wasted time answering the phone to give your “Oh… I don’t work with that brand of boiler, sorry!” response.

Can this also help you rank higher?

In all likelihood, yes.

For example, had I searched Google for local engineers who work with our brand of boiler, the engineer’s website that actually mentions the brand ranks in position #3:

Giving searchers what they want seems to pay offGiving searchers what they want seems to pay off

Backlinks are a known ranking factor. The only problem is that high-quality backlinks are far from easy to get. (This is what makes them such a good ranking factor.)

For small businesses, taking advantage of existing relationships is a good starting point.

Here are a few ideas:

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  • Give suppliers testimonials. These often get featured on their sites along with a link.
  • Publish client spotlights. For example, if you’re a plumber who recently helped renovate your local church, write it up and ping them about it. They might feature it on their website.
  • Pitch stockist pages. For example, if your store stocks a local craft beer, see if the brewery lists its stockists on its website. If its does, you can usually get featured just by asking.

I would also recommend trying to replicate your competitors’ best backlinks. To find these, plug their site into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and check the Backlinks report.

How to find your competitors' backlinks in Ahrefs' Site ExplorerHow to find your competitors' backlinks in Ahrefs' Site Explorer

Sidenote.

If there is a lot to go through, toggle the “Best links” filter to narrow things down.

For example, this local plumber has two links from sites listing small businesses that offer discounts to health and other key workers:

Example of easy-to-replicate backlinks to a plumber's websiteExample of easy-to-replicate backlinks to a plumber's website

Both of these would be pretty easy links to replicate (assuming you’re happy to offer this discount!)

Google itself advises small business owners to remind customers to leave reviews and reply to them to build trust:

Google's advice on reviews for small businessesGoogle's advice on reviews for small businesses

As Google says, the easiest way to do this is to create and share a link to your Business Profile with customers. You can do this in “thank you” emails, at the end of customer support interactions, or simply by including a link or QR code on receipts.

This is also likely to help with your “map pack” rankings, at least according to BrightLocal’s survey. It states that 17% of SEOs deem reviews to be the most important ranking factor.

17% of SEOs think reviews is the most important ranking factor for the 'map pack'17% of SEOs think reviews is the most important ranking factor for the 'map pack'

But don’t limit yourself to asking for and replying to reviews on your Google Business Profile. Many customers also trust other websites. If you’re wondering which review sites matter most for your small business, Google its name and look for other review sites in the results.

For example, reviews on TripAdvisor are clearly important for my favorite pizzeria:

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TripAdvisor is an important place to get reviews for restaurantsTripAdvisor is an important place to get reviews for restaurants

For my favorite local craft bottle shop, niche review sites like RateBeer and Untapped seem more important:

Untappd is an important place to get reviews for bottle shopsUntappd is an important place to get reviews for bottle shops

FAQs

What is small business SEO?

Small business SEO is the process of improving your online presence to get more customers from Google and other search engines. It almost always revolves heavily around optimizing for local searches.

What are the benefits of small business SEO?

There are three main benefits of doing SEO for your small business:

  • More brand awareness. Showing up in more places online means more people will become familiar with your business.
  • More traffic. Ranking higher in Google and other search engines leads to more traffic.
  • More customers. As long as your traffic is targeted, it’ll bring in more customers or clients.

What’s the difference between small business SEO and local SEO?

Unless you sell products or services beyond your local area, not much.

If your small business sells products nationally or internationally, check out our guide to ecommerce SEO or our guide to international SEO.

If your small business sells services in multiple locations (e.g., car hire), read our guide to local keyword research to learn how to optimize for that.

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A Comprehensive On-Page SEO Checklist for 2024

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A Comprehensive On-Page SEO Checklist for 2024

If you’ve invested time and effort writing an epic piece of content, don’t forget about on-page SEO. It helps google to understand what your page is about and show it to as many people as possible in the search results.

Even better, many on-page improvements are super quick and easy to do.

Follow this checklist for perfect on-page SEO every time:

If you’re looking for a reusable interactive checklist to use time and time again, here are a few other formats

Let’s run through everything real quick.

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Google says it’s best to use words that are relevant to your content in page URLs, so you don’t want random gobbledygook urls like domain.com/734/834753956756 if you can avoid it. It’s better to use something short and descriptive like domain.com/mens/shirts.

Short, descriptive URLs are best for SEOShort, descriptive URLs are best for SEO

It only takes a few seconds to change this in most content management systems:

You can change URL structures in most CMS's in secondsYou can change URL structures in most CMS's in seconds

If you’re not sure what words or phrases to use, the main keyword you’re targeting is usually a good bet. That’s what we do on the Ahrefs blog 90% of the time.

For example, our target keyword for this post is “on page SEO checklist,” so that’s what the post’s URL is:

Using the target keyword is never a bad idea for a URL slugUsing the target keyword is never a bad idea for a URL slug

Few best practices to keep in mind:

  • Avoid repeating words. If your page is about mens shirts and it’s nested in the /mens/ subfolder, you don’t need to repeat the word “mens.” domain.com/mens/shirts/ is better than domain.com/mens/mens-shirts/
  • Avoid dates. If a searcher comes across domain.com/blog/2020/fashion-tips/ in 2024, they’re going to assume it’s out-of-date even if you updated the content yesterday. So domain.com/blog/fashion-tips/ would be better.
  • Avoid being too specific. If your URL is domain.com/blog/20-best-fashion-tips/, it’s going to look weird if you add more tips to your post later on. Using the less specific domain.com/blog/best-fashion-tips/ gives you more future freedom.

Google says that title tags are often the main piece of information searchers use to decide which result to click on. If yours is boring and dull, you’re probably not going to get as many clicks as you could—even if you rank.

It’s the same story for meta descriptions, which Google often uses for the descriptive snippet.

Pages with compelling title tags and meta descriptions get more clicksPages with compelling title tags and meta descriptions get more clicks

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for title tags, but the ABC formula is a decent starting point for blog posts:

Use the ABC formula to craft more compelling title tagsUse the ABC formula to craft more compelling title tags

For your meta description, my best advice is to try to expand on your title tag to give searchers more detail and context.

If you’re struggling or just want a fast solution, give our free AI title tag generator and meta description generator a shot. Tell the tools what your page is about and your desired writing tone and they’ll generate a few options.

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Use Ahrefs' free AI and meta description generators to craft compelling copy in secondsUse Ahrefs' free AI and meta description generators to craft compelling copy in seconds

Remember to keep them both short and swee, too. If they’re too long, they’ll get cut-off in search. This looks odd and makes them less compelling. You can use a free tool like this one to check for truncation before publishing, or Ahrefs’ Site Audit to find all the issues on your site.

Google recommends using one H1 tag per page. It makes sense to use this for your page title as H1 is the highest level heading there is.

Most content management systems do this automatically, but you can double-check your title is indeed a H1 for free using Ahrefs SEO toolbar. Just click the Content tab:

Use the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar to check the structure of your contentUse the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar to check the structure of your content

If the copy you’d expect to be wrapped in a H1 tag isn’t, hit up your developer!

People want what you promised them in your title and meta description, so don’t kick things off with a load of fluff. Get straight to the point and give the reader what they came for in the first sentence.

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to do this. It all depends on what searchers are looking for.

For example, when people search for “toxic backlinks,” they’re overwhelmingly looking for a definition above all else. That’s why I made the very first paragraph of my article the definition:

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People have short attention spans; get to the point fastPeople have short attention spans; get to the point fast

But when people search for “best snow blower,” they just want a recommendation—so that’s what Wirecutter gives them in the first paragraph:

Wirecutter is great at getting to the point in their introsWirecutter is great at getting to the point in their intros

Sidenote.

I think Wirecutter’s opening paragraph could be even better because there’s no point in that first sentence. If you’re searching for “best snow blower,” you already know the benefits of the product. You just want to know which one is best!

Google’s John Mueller said that the search giant uses headings to help better understand the content on a page. This is why you need to make sure they’re clear and descriptive.

It’s easy to miss the mark here. We’ve even been guilty of it ourselves.

For example, look at these two subheadings from our list of blogging tips:

Some of our rather cryptic subheadings from our list of blogging tipsSome of our rather cryptic subheadings from our list of blogging tips

Do you have any idea what those mean at first glance?

Me neither. And many of the other subheadings in our post were also unclear.

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If you suspect the same might be true for your subheadings, try this: ask ChatGPT to rewrite them for clarity.

Asking ChatGPT to rewrite subheadings for clarityAsking ChatGPT to rewrite subheadings for clarity

This is exactly what Sam did for our post, and it made them much clearer in seconds.

For example, “Create a ‘Do 100’ project” became “Start a ‘write 100 blog posts’ project”:

Example of a subheading rewritten by ChatGPTExample of a subheading rewritten by ChatGPT

Make sure your subheadings have proper hierarchy, too. It helps Google to understand the structure and makes it easier to skim for readers.

Headings improve user experience by creating hierarchyHeadings improve user experience by creating hierarchy

Search intent is the reason behind the search. Unless your page aligns with intent and gives searchers what they’re looking for, your chances of ranking high are slim to none.

To show just how important this is, look at this graph:

Our rankings for "backlink checker" shot up after we matched search intentOur rankings for "backlink checker" shot up after we matched search intent

This shows our ranking position for the keyword “backlink checker” over time. You can see that in late 2018, we suddenly went from struggling to rank higher than position #5 to consistently ranking #1.

How? By optimizing our page for search intent.

Here’s what the page looked like before:

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Our original "backlink checker" landing pageOur original "backlink checker" landing page

Here’s what it looks like now:

Our current "backlink checker" landing pageOur current "backlink checker" landing page

Minor design tweaks aside, there’s one important difference: there’s now a free backlink checker embedded. Before it just asked visitors to start a trial of our SEO software.

By catering to what searchers actually wanted, we improved the page’s rankings and its estimated search traffic from ~18K to ~215K monthly visits. That’s a 12X improvement!

Traffic increased by 12X when we improved search intent. That's huge!Traffic increased by 12X when we improved search intent. That's huge!

But how did we know what searchers wanted?

Back then, we had to do a manual analysis of the top search results. While you can still do that, it’s much easier just to click the “Identify intents” button in Keywords Explorer:

Use the "Identify intents" button in Keywords Explorer to quickly understand what searchers are looking forUse the "Identify intents" button in Keywords Explorer to quickly understand what searchers are looking for

This uses the power of AI to analyze the top search results and tell you what searchers are looking for.

Broadly aligning your content with search intent isn’t enough. It should also cover the topic in full to tell searchers everything they want to know. This can help it rank for more keywords and bring more traffic as a result, too.

To find what searchers are looking for, look for common subtopics among top-ranking pages.

There are a few ways you can do this.

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Manually check the top-ranking pages

Search for your target keyword in Google, open a few top-ranking pages, and eyeball them for commonalities.

For example, many top results for “best running shoes for flat feet” give a budget option:

Many first-page results for "best running shoes for flat feet" talk about the best budget option
Many first-page results for "best running shoes for flat feet" talk about the best budget option

Check the keyword rankings of top-ranking pages

Pages often rank for keywords related to the subtopics they cover. If you see many top pages ranking for these keywords, it’s probably an important subtopic to cover.

Here’s how to find these keywords:

  1. Go to the Competitive Analysis tool in Ahrefs
  2. Enter your page’s URL in the “This target doesn’t rank for” field. (If you haven’t published your page yet, enter the URL you plan to use.)
  3. Enter the URLs of a few similar top-ranking pages in the “But these competitors do” fields
  4. Look for keywords that represent subtopics

For example, the top three results for “best running shoes for flat feet” also rank in the top 10 for many keywords related to men and women’s shoes:

Keyword rankings for top-ranking pages often reveal important subtopicsKeyword rankings for top-ranking pages often reveal important subtopics

This tells you that the best picks for men and women is an important subtopic to include.

Find subtopics with the help of AI

It’s currently in beta, but the new AI Content Grader in Ahrefs finds “missing” subtopics. It does this by comparing the content of the three top-ranking pages for your target keyword to your content.

To use it, just enter your target keyword and your page’s URL. (If you haven’t published your page yet, enter the URL you plan to use).

For example, here’s one of its suggestions for the keyword “best running shoes for flat feet”:

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AI suggestions for subtopics to include, via Ahrefs' Content GraderAI suggestions for subtopics to include, via Ahrefs' Content Grader

Information gain is a measure of how unique your content is. Google describes a mechanism for scoring this in a patent granted in June 2022.

Two months later, in August 2022, Google launched the helpful content update, which they described as “part of a broader effort to ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.”

Are these two things related? Nobody knows. But what we do know is that Google cares about the originality of your content, and almost certainly has mechanisms in place for identifying it. 

This means that covering what other top-ranking pages cover isn’t enough for a well-optimized page. It also needs to bring something new and valuable to the table.

For example, my colleague Chris collected data on how folks deal with low-quality backlinks for his post on removing backlinks:

Research Chris did for his post on removing backlinksResearch Chris did for his post on removing backlinks

Ryan interviewed three B2B marketers for unique insights for his post on B2B content marketing:

Research Ryan did for his post on B2B content marketingResearch Ryan did for his post on B2B content marketing

And I worked with Patrick Stox to create an interactive workflow and template for my content audit guide:

Template I made for my post on how to do a content auditTemplate I made for my post on how to do a content audit

None of these posts are completely unique. They contain plenty of information that you can probably find elsewhere—and that’s fine. What matters is that we’re bringing at least something new to the table.

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Google’s algorithms are designed to surface content that demonstrates E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust.

If you’re an expert in your field or crafted your content from personal experience, your page already has E-E-A-T. But searchers aren’t going to know that without reading it, so you should try to showcase it as obviously as you can on the page. Let’s look at two ways to do this.

Flash your credentials

Healthline does this extremely well. The very first thing you see on their page about rheumatoid arthritis is that the content was reviewed by a rheumatologist:

Healthline flashes author's credentials right in the introHealthline flashes author's credentials right in the intro

Put your uniqueness front and center

If you’ve put time and effort into adding “information gain” to your content, don’t bury it. Make sure searchers see it right away so they know they can trust you.

For example, to curate our list of the best Facebook groups for SEOs, we asked the 12K+ members of our customer-only group to vote for their favorites. Instead of burying this fact deep in the post, we highlighted it in the very first paragraph.

Always put your uniqueness front and centerAlways put your uniqueness front and center

For a page to earn backlinks (which are a strong ranking factor) and shares, people have to actually consume the content. This isn’t going to happen if the copy is hard to read.

You can use free tools like Hemingway and Grammarly to fix this.

For example, Hemingway gives my recent guide to toxic backlinks a reading grade level of 7:

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Use tools like Hemingway and Grammarly to improve readabilityUse tools like Hemingway and Grammarly to improve readability

Given that 54% of Americans lack literary proficiency (essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level), this means we’re alienating at least 46% of readers. If we could bring the reading grade level down, more people would be able to read it.

Sidenote.

This isn’t absolutely necessary for every topic. It depends on who your audience is. If they’re technical folks, don’t worry about it. But if you’re publishing content for the masses, accessibility matters.

Here are a few more tips to improve readability:

  • Use short sentences and paragraphs
  • Use bulleted lists
  • Use images

Featured snippets give searchers a short answer right in the search results.

Featured snippets in search resultsFeatured snippets in search results

But here’s the cool thing: Google pulls the snippet from one of the top-ranking pages. This means that if your page already ranks in the top 10 for keywords where Google shows a featured snippet, there might be an opportunity to steal it without much effort.

This is exactly what I managed to do a couple of months ago, which led to a ~38.9% jump in estimated search traffic to our page:

Traffic improvement of 38.9% by optimizing for featured snippetsTraffic improvement of 38.9% by optimizing for featured snippets

Here’s what happened:

In Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, I used the Organic Keywords report to find the page’s top 10 keyword rankings with featured snippets we didn’t own.

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How to find featured snippet opportunitiesHow to find featured snippet opportunities

Right away, I noticed a trend: many of the keywords were people searching for the most searched thing in Google (singular) rather than a list of top searches (plural):

Example of an obvious opportunity to optimize for featured snippetsExample of an obvious opportunity to optimize for featured snippets

After searching for a few of these keywords in Google, I saw that the snippet was pretty much always pulled from this very short paragraph in a competing post:

Example of copy Google was using for a featured snippetExample of copy Google was using for a featured snippet

So… I added a similar paragraph to our post (using our data instead):

The copy I added to our page to optimize for featured snippetsThe copy I added to our page to optimize for featured snippets

This quick big of on-page SEO won our page 163 more featured snippets:

Results of optimizing - 163 more featured snippetsResults of optimizing - 163 more featured snippets

Images on your page can rank in Google Images and send you more traffic. There are three things you need to do to optimize them.

Filenames are descriptive

Google says that these give clues about the subject matter, so avoid random file names like IMG_5497.jpg in favor of something short and descriptive like brown-dog.jpg.

How to name image files for SEOHow to name image files for SEO

Alt text is present and descriptive

Google also says that image alt text helps them understand subject matter, so the same rules apply as filenames: keep them short and descriptive.

How to write alt text for SEOHow to write alt text for SEO

Most content management systems have a place to add alt text in the UI, so there’s no need to mess around with HTML:

Most CMS's make it easy to add alt textMost CMS's make it easy to add alt text

Images are compressed

Compressed images are smaller and faster to load. Some platforms like Shopify claim to do this automatically, but the results aren’t always great. It’s generally better to employ the help of a plugin like TinyIMG or Shortpixel.

Internal links are links from one page on your site to another. They help Google understand what a page is about and boost its authority, which can lead to higher rankings.

For this reason, when you publish a new page, it pays to internally link from there to other relevant pages. This won’t help the new page’s rankings, but it might help the rankings of the pages you internally link to.

To find relevant opportuntities, use Ahrefs’ Site Audit:

  1. Go to the Internal Link Opportunities tool
  2. Enter the URL of your newly-published page in the search box
  3. Choose “Source page” from the dropdown
How to find internal linking opportunitiesHow to find internal linking opportunities

Sidenote.

Site Audit needs to have crawled your site since you published the new page, otherwise this won’t work.

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Pay attention to these columns:

  • Source page → your newly-published page, where you will add the link
  • Keyword context → where on the page to add the link
  • Target page → where to link to

For example, here the report is suggesting that I link from my post on toxic backlinks to our bad links guide:

Example of an internal linking opportunityExample of an internal linking opportunity

Citing valuable resources is helpful for readers. Even Google says so.

Does that mean it’s a “ranking factor?” No. But it does improve your content’s credibility with readers, and that can impact things that do matter like links and shares.

This is something we regularly do on the Ahrefs blog:

Example of us linking to sources on the Ahrefs blogExample of us linking to sources on the Ahrefs blog

If you’re trying to boost the rankings of the page you’re optimizing, you’ll want to add internal links to it from other pages on your site.

To find relevant opportunities, use Ahrefs’ Site Audit:

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  1. Go to the Page Explorer tool
  2. Enter your target keyword (or part of it) in the search box
  3. Choose “Page text” from the dropdown
How to find internal linking opportunities on other pagesHow to find internal linking opportunities on other pages

This will find pages on your site that mention your target keyword, which may be good places to add internal links.

For example, it tells us that our guide to removing backlinks mentions the word “toxic”:

Example internal linking opportunityExample internal linking opportunity

If we search that page, this is the mention:

Perfect place to add an internal linkPerfect place to add an internal link

That looks like the perfect place to internally link to our guide to toxic backlinks.

Schema markup is code that helps search engines understand the information on a page. It also powers many rich snippets you see in Google, which can lead to more clicks.

What rich results look likeWhat rich results look like

If you’re not sure whether schema markup is worth prioritizing for your page, search for your main target keyword in Google and look at the top results. If all or many are rich results, it’s probably worth adding it.

Most of the results for this term show rich snippets, so it's probably worth optimizing for themMost of the results for this term show rich snippets, so it's probably worth optimizing for them

If you use WordPress, you can easily add schema with a plugin like Yoast or RankMath. Alternatively, use a tool like Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator to generate the JSON-LD code yourself and add it manually.

Keep learning

Check out even more of our on-page SEO resources:

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