SEO
How To Optimize Pages & Beat Competitors

This post was sponsored by SE Ranking. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Whether you run a large website or are launching a simple landing page, your goal is the same – you want it to hit the top spot on the SERP.
To make this happen, you need to ensure that your page quality is on par with its direct competitors – or better.
How Do I Rank Higher On Google?
To claim a top SERP position, the best technique is to offer more value than any other page optimized for the same keywords.
Also, you should make sure that your targeted page doesn’t suffer from critical SEO issues that can affect its performance.
These techniques fall under the realm of on-page SEO.
On-page SEO can be performed easier and faster by using an on-page SEO checker.
Tools like on-page SEO checkers are specifically designed to:
- Show where your page stands within the competitive landscape.
- Give you an action plan for bringing your content straight to the top of the SERP.
But for starters, let’s run through some basics.
What Is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing page elements for specific keywords.
When we say “page elements,” we mean things like:
- Content quality.
- Keyword density.
- Title and description.
- URL structure.
- Page experience and usability.
- Media optimization.
- Internal and external links, etc.
Most of these elements can easily be improved, meaning that the page can be optimized for a particular search query.
While this type of optimization works for any page type, including home page, product page, blog post, or landing page, this post will focus on optimizing landing pages.
Why Is On-Page SEO Essential?
Page elements are the primary points of connection between you and your users.
Improving them helps improve their experience.
It also tells search engines more about your pages.
Well-optimized on-page SEO can help improve page rankings and thus increase traffic.
In addition to improving rankings, these page changes help you to hold a user’s attention and more accurately target their queries, making your traffic more meaningful.
How To Do On-Page SEO Tasks
On-page SEO can include a variety of tasks that you’ll need to perform on many different elements.
They can be easy to miss, so make sure you have a thorough checklist and documentation about how to update each element.
In this article, we will give you insights into what to check for in your on-page SEO strategy and how to better target your keywords.
We’ll also show you a great tool that can help.
Because there’s so much to check, an automated tool can be extremely helpful.
Task 1: Run An SEO Audit
The first step for performing on-page SEO is to run an audit.
There are almost 100 elements to check, and some are more important than others.
Step 1: Check Elements That Impact SEO
For landing pages, some of the most important factors are:
- Title.
- Descriptions.
- Keyword density of your primary keywords.
Other checks include:
- Heading structure.
- URL.
- Favicon.
- And so on.
Checking each element individually may take a long time, and it can be difficult to identify errors and fixes.
This is why automated tools are so helpful.
Step 2: Discover Errors & Choose Their Priority
After you uncover changes that will boost your optimization scores, it’s time to decide what to change first.
The weight of each parameter is defined by its effect on your page’s ability to rank on SERPs.
Some examples of important, on-page SEO errors that should be highly prioritized are:
- Missing elements.
- Elements that are optimized for an irrelevant keyword.
- Missing title tags on pages.
Low-priority changes would be minor items, such as a missing favicon, which is less urgent.
How Do I Identify High-Priority Changes?
Tools can be your friend here.
They can speed up the process and help you climb to the top of the SERPs faster.
You want to look for sophisticated tools that can provide flexible recommendations based on individual page types, instead of a standardized list.
The deep analytics that come with more modernized tools can compare target pages with similar search results and calculate the range of recommended metrics.
This way, the recommendations are based on direct competitors’ metrics and take into account niche specifics, instead of offering generalized SEO standards.
Such methodology makes them much more accurate and practical.
One of the more advanced AI-powered tools is SE Ranking.
This on-page SEO checker can help you check and optimize your pages.
How To Use SE Ranking To Run An Audit
To run an audit:
- Enter a URL.
- Select your target location.
- Enter keywords.
Then, let SE Ranking do its magic.
It will check 94 on-page SEO parameters.
Perk: You can choose the depth of analysis – your page can be compared against 3 or up to 50 SERP rivals.
With SE Ranking, it takes only a couple of minutes to run an audit.
Once the check has been completed, you will see the results – every priority change will be listed on one dashboard.

Check Your Quality Score
The tool calculates the page quality from 0 to 100.
The better the page is optimized for the target keyword, the higher the score is.
Your quality score gives you a clear picture of your on-page SEO health, helping clarify if off-page factors are the issue and not poor on-page optimization.
Note that backlink-related parameters, which are also located on the dashboard, do not impact the page’s quality score.
Tackle Your High-Priority Issues
Your next step is to examine the list of issues found on your analyzed page.
SE Ranking’s report includes insight into the page’s content quality, keyword usage and density, page experience and usability, links used on the page, and the page’s backlink profile.


To help with understanding priorities, your list of tasks is divided into several columns:
- All: Displays scores against all 94 parameters.
- Errors: Shows critical issues worth your immediate attention.
- Warnings: Points to areas worth paying attention to once you have fixed errors.
- Notices: Shares parameters that don’t necessarily affect SEO performance but are good to keep an eye on.
- Passed checks: Gives you something to feel good about.
Now, you can start building your workflow and prioritizing fixes.
Task 2: Competitor Research
Power up your on-page SEO repair tasks by doing some competitor research.
This step will help you clarify what keywords to target and new ways to improve your page further.
Assessing your competitors helps you understand what works and where your page needs improvement most.
Step 1: Look At The SERPs For The Keywords You’re Targeting
A great way to start is to put the keywords you rank for into Google and examine the top results.
What do you notice about them?
Take note of:
- The words they use in their URL, titles, and content.
- Their meta description on the SERP.
- The layout of their page and content.
- How your competitors approach answering the query.
- The CTAs and internal links they used on their page.
Think about the ideas they convey, their approach to the content, and what keywords they use and where.
Step 2: Uncover Competitor Flaws
You’re looking to learn how the most successful pages do it. But you’re also looking for flaws.
Are there any areas that you think you can improve?
Do you see any gaps or unaddressed elements of a query?
Try to identify any patterns you can about the most successful results and compare them to your page.
Make sure that you’re not only fixing things that are missing but also looking for opportunities to improve existing on-page elements.
If you want to get more granular, this is another place where a tool like SE Ranking can help.
How To Use SE Ranking For Competitor Research
A robust tool like SE Ranking can help you benchmark your results against your rivals to better understand how they got to the top of the SERP.
You can easily compare important on-page SEO parameters against your direct competitors without having to dig through the SERPs and evaluate each result, one at a time.
For example, on the screen below, you can check which keywords competitors used, study their titles and headings, and assess their technical metrics.


All the critical data is at your disposal to ensure that you’re not missing opportunities for improvement.
Quickly See Competitor SERP & Traffic Stats
In the Terms tab, you will see the list of words that were found on your competitors’ pages, along with their search volume potential, count, density, and page elements.
From our experience, using proper keywords on a page while striking the density balance is crucial for landing pages.
The tool shows how many times and in which elements of the page a primary or secondary keyword is used: title, description, main copy, URL, etc.
This helps you identify keywords with real search potential and add them to your page.
You can also fix the keyword density of some search queries that are already on your page.
Leverage Competitor Keyword Flaws
Finally, you can add keywords to relevant page areas that need them.
You will probably notice that SE Ranking makes a distinction between primary and secondary content, just like Google does.
Tools that don’t may unintentionally lure you into keyword stuffing, making you add extra keywords to your main content.
Task 3: Start Updating Your On-Page SEO
By now, you’ve run an audit and performed competitor research.
You should have a good idea of:
- The errors in your on-page SEO that need fixing.
- Areas where your on-page SEO could be improved, compared to competitors.
You’ve made lots of discoveries!
What’s next?
Step 1: Organize Your Workflow
First, create your list of individual tasks.
Start by listing tasks out by priority.
You can either use your own task management system or an on-page SEO tool to organize your list of tasks.
As a rule of thumb, you should prioritize anything that’s missing.
If you haven’t specified things like title tags and meta descriptions, search engines will generate them for you.
You want to be in control of what users see about your page on the SERPs; be sure to add them yourself.
Next, focus on anything that has changed about your keyword priorities.
Did you find new opportunities during your research or discover adjustments you should make to keyword density? These are important too.
Step 2: Get Started
Go ahead and start fixing the issues!
We’re happy to say that most issues with on-page SEO can be fixed from within your CMS.
How To Prioritize SEO Tasks & Track Progress With SE Ranking
If you need help prioritizing and tracking your tasks, SE Ranking can do that all within one tool.
Switch to the SEO Tasks tab.
SE Ranking provides you with a step-by-step plan based on the issues found on your website during the audit.


The tool groups tasks by priority, category, or status:
- In the By Priority tab, the tool labels all the tasks with high, medium, or low priority.
- In the By Category tab, all the tasks will be grouped according to the page element, to which they correspond.
- In the By Status tab, you will see which tasks should be done and which are already completed.
Start with the most urgent ones. This should give the most tangible result.
You can also add your own custom tasks and assign any priority to them.
For example, if you have been examining the competitor’s page and found something worth adding to your own page, just create a new task.
And vice versa, ignore tasks that you consider irrelevant to your landing page.
After fixing an issue, click on the completed checkbox. The tool will reassess the page quality, and you will instantly see the new score.
The more tasks are completed, the higher the score will be.
Make On-Page SEO Easier – Try An On-Page SEO Checker
There’s no doubt that keeping up with the competition and having your pages optimized is hard work.
But with the right tool in hand, it becomes much easier and faster.
With On-Page SEO Checker, you can measure overall page performance, identify and fix issues that could impact your rankings, enhance your content based on what works for the SERP leaders, and keep track of all the on-page tasks on your agenda.
This will help you move up the ranking ladder and beat your rivals.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by SE Ranking. Used with permission.
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SEO
SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.jpg)
Editor’s note
Here are the top takeaways:
- The median annual salary for SEOs we polled was $49,211
- The highest annual salary we polled was $229,652
- To earn the higher salaries in SEO you need be a technical SEO expert—Heads of SEO, SEO Directors and SEO Leads all said that their main specialization was technical SEO
- Only 5.4% of respondents learned SEO through a course—most learned on the job (52.3%) or by themselves (42.3%)
- 36.9% described themselves as content specialists, 30.6% described themselves as technical specialists, 6.3% described themselves as specializing in link-building
- 49.5% of respondents worked in SEO agencies, 42.3% in-house and 8.2% were self-employed
- Most respondents (28.8%) worked in companies that had 11-50 people
- The average SEO experience of our respondents was 6.9 years
- Self-employed SEOs earned the most on average ($60,232k)—the median annual salary for in-house roles was slightly lower at $56,789, and agency SEOs had the lowest median annual salary at $44,169
There were also a few surprises:
- Few SEOs in our survey said that they specialized in link building compared to technical and content. This is despite the fact that links are still one of the most important Google ranking factors.
- The average level of experience between SEO Directors and Head of SEO is not that different—10.4 years for a SEO Director and 10.6 years for a Head of SEO—but the salary difference between the roles was ~$11,552—quite substantial.
Overview
Role | Median annual salary ($USD) | Average experience (years) | Main specialization | Main work location |
---|---|---|---|---|
Head of SEO | $92,988 | 10.6 | Technical SEO | Agency and in-house |
SEO Director | $81,436 | 10.4 | Technical SEO | Agency and in-house |
SEO Lead | $38,289 | 7.4 | Technical SEO | Agency |
SEO Specialist | $49,229 | 5.8 | Content | In-house |
SEO Account Manager | $43,850 | 4.2 | Content | Agency |
SEO Consultant | $49,240 | 6 | All-rounder | Agency |
SEO Executive | $31,956 | 3 | All-rounder | Agency |
SEO Analyst | $56,393 | 5 | All-rounder | In-house |
Here’s how annual salaries broke down across our respondents:
According to the SEOs we polled, most of them learned SEO on the job or were self-taught.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Chart displaying how individuals learned SEO.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_87_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Chart displaying how individuals learned SEO.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_87_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Most of our respondents had a couple of years of experience under their belts. The amount of experience Head of SEOs had versus SEO Directors was not that different, at around 10 years.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Average level of experience by role](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_647_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Average level of experience by role](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_647_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
- Across all respondents, the average experience was 6.9 years
- For Head of SEO, the average experience was 10.6 years
- For SEO Director, the average experience was 10.4 years
- For SEO Lead, the average experience was 7.4 years
- For SEO Account Manager, the average experience was 4.2 years
- For SEO Consultant, the average experience was 6 years
- For SEO Executive, the average experience was 3 years
- For SEO Analyst, the average experience was 5 years
Technical and Content were the two top skills that SEOs we surveyed specialized in.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Areas of SEO specialization](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_745_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Areas of SEO specialization](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_745_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
The proportion of SEOs that said they specialized in links was much lower despite links being a major ranking factor.
Our survey showed an almost 50/50 split between the UK and Europe. 48.6% of respondents were from the UK—perhaps not surprising given that BrightonSEO is based in the UK.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Chart of countries SEOs are from](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_949_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Chart of countries SEOs are from](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_949_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Most of the respondents we spoke to worked in agencies or in-house. It does mean, however, that our salary data was mainly focused on these two employment types.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Chart listing where SEOs work](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_779_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Chart listing where SEOs work](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_779_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Across all respondents, the most common company size was 11-50. A large proportion of SEOs also worked for substantially larger companies that had over 1000 employees.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Number of people in the company](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_772_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] Number of people in the company](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_772_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Here’s the full breakdown of each role.
Head of SEO salary
It’s probably not too much of a surprise that the Head of SEO role was our highest-paying SEO role surveyed. What’s more of a surprise was the variation in salary—our survey showed that a Head of SEO can earn anything from ~$25k to ~$229k.
Average experience
According to our survey, a Head of SEO has ~10.6 years of experience.
Type of company
46.7% of respondents worked for an agency, and 46.7% worked in-house. 6.7% were self-employed.
Education
66.7% of respondents said they were self-taught, 26.7% said they’d learned on the job, and 6.7% said that they had learned SEO from a course.
Specialization
40% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 33.3% in Content, and 13.3% said they were a generalist. The remaining 13.4% said they focused on people management.
This is surprising, as it implies that 73.3% of people in Head of SEO roles are actively providing SEO services for their clients rather than focusing on managing a team.
Company size
There were two company sizes that were most popular for Head of SEOs to work in. 40% of respondents said they worked in companies with 11-50 people, and 20% said they worked in companies with over 1001 people.
Location
40% of respondents were from the UK, 13.3% were from the Netherlands, and the remainder were from mainland Europe.
SEO Director salary
The salary variation wasn’t quite as extreme for SEO Directors, but salaries ranged from ~$42k to ~$121k—still quite a difference.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Director salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_970_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Director salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228375_970_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Average experience
SEO Directors in our survey had 10.4 years of experience on average.
Type of company
There was a 50/50 split between SEO Directors’ backgrounds, with 50% from agency and 50% from in-house
Education
62.5% of SEO Directors described themselves as self-taught, and 37.5% said that they learned SEO on the job.
Specialization
75% of them specialized in technical SEO, whilst 25% described themselves as generalists or Other.
Company size
According to our survey, SEO Directors typically work in medium to large companies. 25% said that they worked in companies that had over 1000 people, and 25% said they worked in companies that had 51-100 employees.
Location
Most SEO Directors we surveyed were from the UK (62.5%). The rest were equal splits between India, the U.S., and Germany (12.5%).
SEO Lead salary
SEO Leads typically have a lot of experience, but our survey shows that they only earn slightly more on average than SEO Specialists.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Lead salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_68_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Lead salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_68_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Average experience
SEO Leads in our survey had 7.4 years of experience on average.
Type of company
50% of SEO Leads came from an agency background, 41.7% came from in-house, and 8.3% were self-employed.
Education
69.2% learned on the job, 23.1% were self-taught, and 7.7% learned SEO through a course.
Specialization
30.8% of SEO Leads specialized in technical SEO, 23% specialized in content, and 23.1% specialized in links. 15.4% described themselves as generalists. The remaining 7.7% described themselves as specializing in SEO strategy.
Company size
46.2% worked in companies that had 1001+ people, and the remaining 53.8% worked in smaller companies.
Location
23.1% of SEO Leads came from the UK, with the remainder coming from the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden (15.4% each) and 30.7% from other European countries.
SEO Specialist salary
SEO Specialists we surveyed had around 5-6 years of experience, but they typically got paid better than SEO Leads. Based on my experience, this may be due to in-house roles paying better than agency roles in the UK.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Specialist salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_734_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Specialist salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_734_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Average experience
SEO Specialists in our survey had an average of 5.8 years of experience.
Type of company
41.2% of SEO Specialists came from an agency background, while 58.8% said that they were from an in-house background.
Education
58.8% of SEO Specialists said that they had learned SEO on the job, 35.3% said that they were self-taught, and 5.9% said that they had learned SEO through a course.
Specialization
52.9% of SEO Specialists specialized in content, 29.4% focused on technical, 11.8% described themselves as all-rounders, and 5.9% described specialized in links.
Company size
41.2% of SEO Specialists said that they worked in companies that had 11-50 people. Only 17.6% of respondents said that they worked in companies that had 1001+ people. 23.6% said they worked in companies between 51-500 people. The remaining 17.6% worked in smaller companies with less than 10 people.
Location
23.5% of SEO Specialists said that they were from the UK, with the remainder from Europe.
SEO Account Manager salary
SEO Account Managers in our survey were one of the most consistent salary bands earning between ~$40k and ~$55k.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Account Manager salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_314_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Account Manager salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_314_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Average experience
SEO Account managers in our survey had 4.2 years of experience on average.
Type of company
85.7% of respondents worked for an agency, and 14.3% worked in-house.
Education
71.4% of respondents said they learned SEO on the job, and 28.6% said they were self-taught.
Specialization
42.9% said that they specialized in content, 28.6% described themselves as an all-rounder, 14.3% said they were technical SEO, and the remaining 14.2% said they specialized in links.
Company size
42.9% of respondents said they worked in companies with 11-50 people, and 28.6% said they worked in companies with over 1001 people. The remaining 28.6% was split equally between people who worked in companies with between 2-11 people or 51-100 people.
Location
85.7% of respondents were from the UK, and 14.3% of the remainder were from Europe.
SEO Consultant salary
SEO Consultants we surveyed earned up to ~$87k, which was lower than I was expecting—because our SEO pricing post suggested that SEO consultants charge between $100-150 per hour.
But as the data is UK-focused, the likely reason for this is the £85k VAT tax threshold.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Consultant salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_411_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Consultant salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_411_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Average experience
SEO Consultants in our survey had 6 years of experience on average.
Type of company
63.3% of respondents worked for an agency, and 36.7% worked in-house.
Education
45.5% of respondents said they were self-taught, 36.4% said they’d learned on the job, and 9.1% said that they had learned SEO from a course. The remaining 9% said they’d learned from other ways.
Specialization
27.3% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 27.3% in content, and 27.3% said they were a generalist. The remaining 18.1% said they focused on management and strategy.
Company size
SEO Consultants typically worked on their own or in smaller agencies according to our survey — 36.4% of respondents said they worked on their own, and 27.3% said they worked in companies with 51-100 people. The remaining 36.3% said they worked in companies with between 2-50 people.
Location
36.4% of respondents were from the UK, 27.3% were from the Netherlands, and the remaining 36.3% were from Europe.
SEO Executive salary
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Executive salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_756_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Executive salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_756_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Average experience
SEO Executives in our survey had 3 years of experience on average.
Type of company
80% of respondents worked for an agency, and 20% worked in-house.
Education
80% of respondents said they were self-taught, and 20% said they’d learned SEO from a course.
Specialization
40% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 20% in Content, and 40% said they were a generalist.
Company size
80% of respondents said they worked in companies with 11-50 people, and 20% said they worked in companies with 1001 or more people.
Location
80% of respondents were from the UK, and 20% were from Belgium.
SEO Analyst salary
SEO Analysts typically had a few more years of experience than SEO Executives, but it looks like they earned roughly the same as them.
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Analyst salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_108_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
![SEO Salary Survey 2023 [Industry Research] SEO Analyst salary](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701228376_108_SEO-Salary-Survey-2023-Industry-Research.png)
Average experience
SEO Analysts in our survey had 5 years of experience on average.
Type of company
33.3% of respondents worked for an agency, and 66.7% worked In-house.
Education
33.3% of respondents said they were self-taught, and 66.7% said they’d learned on the job.
Specialization
33.3% said that they specialized in technical SEO, 33.3% in Content, and 33.3% said they specialized in News SEO.
Company size
33.3% of respondents said they worked in companies with 101-200 people, and 66.7% said they worked in companies with over 201 people.
Location
SEO Analysts came from a range of locations 33% of respondents were from Portugal, 33.3% were from Brazil, and the remainder were from Serbia.
Sidenote.
We didn’t get many respondents for the SEO Analyst role—so take these results with a pinch of salt.
Final thoughts
SEO salaries aren’t often discussed in detail within the industry, so getting a snapshot of their current state from one of the biggest SEO conferences in the UK was insightful.
For our next salary survey, we’ll be opening it up to all SEOs. If you’d like to take part—you can enter here.
Got questions? Ping me on X (formerly known as Twitter)
SEO
4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples]
Many popular link building tactics produce low-quality links that don’t improve SEO performance.
Even if these techniques make an impact, it’s often for a short time, and Google can easily devalue them down the line.
Here are four tactics for building high-quality links that help you stay ahead of your competition, expose your brand to new audiences, and are less likely to be devalued in future algorithm updates.
Digital PR is the process of creating content that appeals to journalists and promoting it to them.
If they like the content, they’ll write a feature about it or include it in a piece they’re writing. This can land you many high-quality backlinks from big sites and news publications for free.
Examples
In the months following ChatGPT’s release, Fery Kaszoni and his team at Search Intelligence compiled statistics about Open AI’s popularity since launching ChatGPT and compared it to other popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
The result? 60+ free link placements, including mentions on Yahoo News (DR 92), The Wrap (DR 84), and Time magazine (DR 92).
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] A few examples of backlinks earned by a piece of content about Open AI’s popularity since launching ChatGPT](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
In another campaign, Fery and his team calculated how much money beloved video characters would earn in real life. This campaign earned 20+ free links including a DR89 link from British newspaper, The Daily Express.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a high-DR like from Daily Express](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_586_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a high-DR like from Daily Express](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_586_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
How to do it
Successful Digital PR requires some creativity, but this is the process in a nutshell:
- Find a trending topic
- Create relevant newsworthy content around that topic
- Tell journalists about it
For example, AI has been a major topic of conversation in all industries since it launched. Any new data or insights about it would go well in news cycles while it remains a topic of interest.
Once you have a topic, you need to come up with interesting content ideas that are relevant to your business.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] The best topics for digital PR](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_87_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] The best topics for digital PR](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_87_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
This is the hard part. It’s really a case of brainstorming ideas until you land on something you think could be interesting.
For example, here are a few random content ideas for a company that sells furniture online:
- Have AI refurnish rooms from popular TV shows in new styles.
- Have AI design a new item of furniture, create it, and sell it.
- Ask 100 interior designers if they’re worried about AI taking their jobs, share the data.
After you find your winning idea, create the content, give it an attention-grabbing headline, and write a press release about the most interesting insights.
Then, promote your content to journalists. You can try services like Roxhill or Muck Rack to find journalists who might be interested in your content.
You can also use a tool like Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to find sites that have recently published content about your topic and reach out to them.
Here’s how to do that:
- Enter your topic into Content Explorer
- Filter for pages published in the last 90 days
- Filter for pages on DR70+ websites (big sites that you probably want links from)
For example, if we do this for the topic of “chatgpt,” we see thousands of well-known websites that have recently published about ChatGPT including Business Insider, Tech Republic, and Wired.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding websites that recently published about a topic with Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_900_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding websites that recently published about a topic with Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_900_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Data journalism is a way of enhancing or creating newsworthy content by analyzing unique data sets. It can fall under digital PR, though it typically requires more detailed research.
This technique works because reporters love a good statistic they can either quote or write an opinion piece about. Be the source of such data, and you can earn many high-quality links anytime your data becomes relevant to trending news topics.
Examples
Data journalism can be quite simple. For example, in another case study from Search Intelligence, Fery’s team used Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer as a data source for a cybersecurity PR campaign.
The study reveals the top UK banks where customers seek help with fraud, allowing journalists to report on which banks are more secure than others.
The data fuelling these insights is keyword search volume. That’s it.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Ahrefs' data that fuelled a cybersecurity PR campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_121_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Ahrefs' data that fuelled a cybersecurity PR campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_121_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
This method doesn’t take very long, doesn’t need a data scientist and can very easily be replicated in other industries where search popularity can unearth interesting insights.
In another example (and perhaps one of our all time favorites), marketing firm Yard created a data study comparing the CO2 emissions of various celebrities and ranking the worst offenders.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Data study on the C02 emissions of celebrities](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_951_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Data study on the C02 emissions of celebrities](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_951_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
If you follow celebrity news, there’s no way you missed reports of Taylor Swift’s private jet emissions being among the highest compared to other celebrities.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Just a few of the thousands of posts about Taylor Swift's jet emissions following a successful data journalism campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_692_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Just a few of the thousands of posts about Taylor Swift's jet emissions following a successful data journalism campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_692_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Every single one of these news stories originated from the data study.
When the study was first released, it went viral and earned links from almost 2,000 referring domains within the first month.
But that’s not all.
This topic trended in news cycles again when rumours spread that Taylor Swift attended a Jets game to bury the original negative publicity about her private jet usage, earning Yard a well-deserved second round of links.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Google Trends data for "taylor swift jet"](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_809_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Google Trends data for "taylor swift jet"](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_809_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Today, this post has 1,861 links from 1,155 referring domains, 77% of them are dofollow, and 38.4% are higher than DR 60.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] DR distribution of backlinks to the celebrity C02 emissions content piece](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_950_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] DR distribution of backlinks to the celebrity C02 emissions content piece](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_950_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Talk about drool-worthy results! That’s high-quality link building done right.
How to do it
Successful data journalism is similar to digital PR but relies on the intriguing, data-backed insights you can unearth.
In a nutshell, the process looks like this:
- Find a data-driven content angle that gets links and media attention
- Gather data to provide new or updated insights on the topic
- Tell journalists about your findings
Start by considering “your money or your life” content angles that everyday folk care about. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking too narrow or pitching ideas only a small demographic may understand.
For instance, cybersecurity is not a sexy topic journalists or their readers will likely care about. There’s also not a high degree of literacy about the topic among the general population.
But everyone cares about whether their bank is secure and how safe their money is.
This concept needs no explanation and that’s exactly why data that helps answer the question “how safe is your bank?” worked exceptionally well as a link building tactic in the example above.
You can also use Content Explorer to gather more ideas like:
- Evergreen yet stale topics that you can update with more recent data
- Data you can visualize better or repurpose into a different content format
- Trending angles in other industries you can apply to your industry
For example, on the topic of ChatGPT, we found Rand Fishkin’s post claiming usage has declined 29% between May and August 2023 and that 30% of its usage is by programmers.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding content ideas in Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_373_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding content ideas in Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_373_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
You don’t need original ideas to succeed. If you’ve got the data to back it up, you can easily take the angles of a “useage patterns” or “most popular audience segments” and apply them to popular tools in your industry.
Some decent data sources you can start with include:
- Search data: Like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer for uncovering interesting search patterns.
- Historical data: Like Google Trends for highlighting growth or decline patterns over time.
- Scientific research: Like on Google Scholar or in specific research journals.
- Public niche data: For instance, Yard’s study used the CelebrityJets Twitter page.
- Proprietary data: From within your (or your client’s) organization.
When you find an interesting insight or pattern worth sharing, write a press release about it and share it with journalists who frequently report on the topic.
Statistics pages are curated lists of facts and figures in a particular industry. These pages attract evergreen links for as long as the statistics remain relevant.
It’s one of our favorite link building tactics. Here’s how we’ve used it quite successfully over the years.
Example
We first launched a detailed list of SEO statistics in 2020 and it has been naturally earning high-quality links ever since.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Backlinks over time to our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_615_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Backlinks over time to our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_615_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Currently, the page has:
- 5,787 backlinks
- 2,282 referring domains
- 82% “dofollow” links
- 37.7% from DR 60+ websites
While we used some outreach techniques in the early days, most of the success has come from the page’s ability to maintain top position rankings for competitive keywords.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Rankings for our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_872_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Rankings for our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_872_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Do it right, and this tactic remains wildly effective for earning links naturally for many years.
How to do it
Start by entering a few broad topics related to your website into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. For example, we might enter the following for Ahrefs:
- SEO
- Content marketing
- Link building
Then navigate to the Matching Terms report and apply the inclusion filter for things like stats, statistics, facts, or figures. Make sure your filter is set to include any of these phrases.
Then it’s just a matter of checking out the results to find a relevant topic you want to write about.
We went for “SEO statistics”:
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding statistics keywords in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_824_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding statistics keywords in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_824_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Once you pick your topic, it’s a just matter of curating linkworthy stats and publishing them on a page.
While you can earn some seed links with early outreach efforts, long term success comes down to keeping your content updated with the latest data. That’s the best way to compound performance year on year, earning many high-quality links with no ongoing outreach needed.
Relationship-based link building prioritizes long-term relationships with journalists, writers, and editors.
It is an effective addition to digital PR campaigns as you can shortcut the time it takes to find the right people to distribute your content.
Better yet, you can be a journalist’s first point of call when they write a story on topics you or your clients are experts in.
Example
Imagine having journalists contact you asking to feature your clients in upcoming stories. That’s exactly what growth marketing firm, EngineRoom, has achieved.
A journalist from Mamamia (DR 78) made a call out on Sourcebottle, the Australian equivalent of HARO, seeking expert advice on immigration law. EngineRoom’s link building expert, Don Milne, responded and won the story along with a high-quality link.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_405_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_405_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Then, the real magic started.
Instead of ending things there, Don also shared a client list with the journalist in case they ever wanted to collaborate on future stories again.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, the journalist reached out, asking to connect with another client in the drug rehab space to develop a story on heroin addiction. The client is featured in about 30% of the completed article with detailed quotes from the founder and (of course) a link back to their website.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_499_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_499_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
No pitching. No outreach. Just a genuine partnership and collaboration now earning multiple high-quality links for their clients.
How to do it
This technique is all about the follow-up after you collaborate on your first story with a journalist.
If getting the first foot in the door is where you’re stuck, you can check out our detailed guide on relationship-based link building by Irina Maltseva, the former Head of Marketing at Hunter.
Once you get that first story, make sure you keep the relationship going.
If you have a list of websites or clients you represent, create a professional document with a mini bio about each client. Make sure it’s also easily searchable for writers in a hurry and makes your contact details clear and easy to access.
Then, share it with journalists, writers, and editors you collaborate with so they can refer to it in the future if they need an expert on a specific topic for their content.
Final thoughts
Earning high-quality backlinks can be much easier than many people realize and cheaper too! All the examples shared in this post earned free link placements on high-authority websites and with minimal outreach.
These techniques have more staying power. They are also far less likely to be seen as “link manipulation” or devalued in future Google updates.
And, if you get your content angle just right, they also have the potential to be earning links many months, if not years, down the track!
Got questions? Ping me on LinkedIn.
SEO
Google To Curb Microtargeting In Consumer Finance Ads

Google is updating its policy limiting personalized advertising to include more restrictions on ads related to consumer financial products and services.
Google’s personalized ads policy prohibits targeting users based on sensitive categories like race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Over the years, Google has continued updating the policy to introduce new limitations. The latest update to restrict consumer finance ads is part of Google’s ongoing efforts to refine its ad targeting practices.
What’s Changing?
Google will update its personalized ads policy in February 2024 to prevent advertisers from targeting audiences for credit and banking ads based on sensitive factors like gender, age, parental status, marital status, or zip code.
Google’s current policy prohibiting “Credit in personalized ads” will be renamed “Consumer finance in personalized ads” under the changes.
Google’s new policy will state:
“In the United States and Canada, the following sensitive interest categories cannot be targeted to audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code.
Offers relating to credit or products or services related to credit lending, banking products and services, or certain financial planning and management services.”
Google provided examples, including “credit cards and loans including home loans, car loans, appliance loans, short-term loans,” as well as “banking and checking accounts” and “debt management products.”
When Does The New Policy Take Effect?
The updated limitations on personalized advertising will take effect on February 28, 2024, with full enforcement expected within six weeks.
Google said advertisers in violation will receive a warning at least seven days before any account suspension.
According to Google, the policy change aims to protect users’ privacy better and prevent discrimination in financial services advertising.
However, the company will still allow generalized ads for credit and banking products that do not use sensitive personal data for targeting.
What Do Advertisers Need To Do?
Google will begin enforcing the updated restrictions in late February 2024 but advises advertisers to review their campaigns for compliance issues sooner.
Advertisers should carefully check their ad targeting settings, remove improper personalization based on sensitive categories, and adhere to the revised policy requirements.
Failure to follow the rules could lead to account suspension after an initial warning. Google will work with advertisers to ensure a smooth transition during the ramp-up period over the next six months.
Featured Image: SurfsUp/Shutterstock
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