SEO
How to Spot SEO Myths: 20 Common SEO Myths, Debunked
There’s a lot of advice going around about SEO.
Some of it is helpful but some of it will lead you astray if acted on.
The difficulty is knowing which is which.
It can be hard to identify what advice is accurate and based on fact, and what is just regurgitated from misquoted articles or poorly understood Google statements.
SEO myths abound.
You’ll hear them in the strangest places.
A client will tell you with confidence how they are suffering from a duplicate content penalty.
Your boss will chastise you for not keeping your page titles to 60 characters.
Sometimes the myths are obviously fake. Other times they can be harder to detect.
The Dangers of SEO Myths
The issue is, we simply don’t know exactly how the search engines work.
Due to this, a lot of what we do as SEOs ends up being trial and error and educated guesswork.
When you are learning about SEO, it can be difficult to test out all of the claims you are hearing.
That’s when the SEO myths begin to take hold.
Before you know it, you’re proudly telling your line manager that you’re planning to “BERT optimize” your website copy.
SEO myths can be busted a lot of the time with a pause and some consideration.
How, exactly, would Google be able to measure that?
Would that actually benefit the end-user in any way?
There is a danger in SEO of considering the search engines to be omnipotent, and because of this, wild myths about how they understand and measure our websites start to grow.
What Is An SEO Myth?
Before we debunk some common SEO myths, we should first understand what forms they take.
Untested Wisdom
Myths in SEO tend to take the form of handed-down wisdom that isn’t tested.
As a result, something that might well have no impact on driving qualified organic traffic to a site gets treated like it matters.
Minor Factors Blown out of Proportion
SEO myths might also be something that has a small impact on organic rankings or conversion but is given too much importance.
This might be a “tick box” exercise that is hailed as being a critical factor in SEO success, or simply an activity that might only cause your site to eke ahead if everything else with your competition was truly equal.
Outdated Advice
Myths can arise simply because what used to be effective in helping sites to rank and convert well no longer does but is still being advised.
It might be that something used to work really well.
Over time the algorithms have grown smarter.
The public is more adverse to being marketed to.
Simply, what was once good advice is now defunct.
Google Being Misunderstood
Many times the start of a myth is Google itself.
Unfortunately, a slightly obscure or just not straightforward piece of advice from a Google representative gets misunderstood and run away with.
Before we know it, a new optimization service is being sold off the back of a flippant comment a Googler made in jest.
SEO myths can be based in fact, or perhaps these are more accurately SEO legends?
In the case of Google-born myths, it tends to be that the fact has been so distorted by the SEO industry’s interpretation of the statement that it no longer resembles useful information.
When Can Something Appear to Be a Myth
Sometimes an SEO technique can be written off as a myth by others purely because they have not experienced success from carrying out this activity for their own site.
It is important to remember that every website has its own industry, set of competitors, the technology powering it, and other factors that make it unique.
Blanket application of techniques to every website and expecting them to have the same outcome is naive.
Someone may not have had success with a technique when they have tried it in their highly competitive vertical.
It doesn’t mean it won’t help someone in a less competitive industry have success.
Causation & Correlation Being Confused
Sometimes SEO myths arise because of an inappropriate connection between an activity that was carried out and a rise in organic search performance.
If an SEO has seen a benefit from something they did, then it is natural that they would advise others to try the same.
Unfortunately, we’re not always great at separating causation and correlation.
Just because rankings or click-through rate increased around-about the same time as you implemented a new tactic doesn’t mean it caused the increase.
There could be other factors at play.
Soon an SEO myth arises from an overeager SEO wanting to share what they incorrectly believe to be a golden ticket.
Steering Clear of SEO Myths
It can save you from experiencing headaches, lost revenue, and a whole lot of time if you learn to spot SEO myths and act accordingly.
Test
The key to not falling for SEO myths is making sure you can test advice whenever possible.
If you have been given the advice that structuring your page titles a certain way will help your pages rank better for their chosen keywords, then try it with one or two pages first.
This can help you to measure whether making a change across many pages will be worth the time before you commit to doing so.
Is Google Just Testing?
Sometimes there will be a big uproar in the SEO community because of changes in the way Google displays or orders search results.
These changes are often tested in the wild before they are rolled out to more search results.
Once a big change has been spotted by one or two SEOs, advice on how to optimize for it begins to spread.
Remember the favicons in the desktop search results?
The upset that caused the SEO industry (and Google users in general) was vast.
Suddenly articles sprang up about the importance of favicons in attracting users to your search result.
Whether favicons would impact click-through rate that much barely had time to be studied.
Because just like that, Google changed it back.
Before you jump for the latest SEO advice that is being spread around Twitter as a result of a change by Google, wait to see if it is going to hold.
It could be that the advice that appears sound now will quickly become a myth if Google rolls back changes.
20 Common SEO Myths
So now we know what causes and perpetuates SEO myths, let’s find out the truth behind some of the more common ones.
1. The Google Sandbox
It is a belief held by some SEOs that Google will automatically suppress new websites in the organic search results for a period of time before they are able to rank more freely.
It’s something that many SEOs will argue simply is not the case.
So who is right?
SEOs who have been around for many years will give you anecdotal evidence that would both support and detract from the idea of a sandbox.
The only guidance that has been given by Google from this appears to be in the form of tweets.
As already discussed, Google’s social media responses can often be misinterpreted.
Verdict: Officially? It’s a myth.
Unofficially – there does seem to be a period of time whilst Google tries to understand and rank the pages belonging to a new site.
This might mimic a sandbox.
2. Duplicate Content Penalty
This is a myth that I hear a lot. The idea is that if you have content on your website that is duplicated elsewhere on the web, Google will penalize you for it.
The key to understanding what is really going on here is knowing the difference between algorithmic suppression and manual action.
A manual action, the situation that can result in webpages being removed from Google’s index, will be actioned by a human at Google.
The website owner will be notified through Google Search Console.
An algorithmic suppression occurs when your page cannot rank well due to it being caught by a filter from an algorithm.
Chuck Price does a great job of explaining the difference between the two in this article that lays out all of the different manual actions available from Google.
Essentially, having copy that is taken from another webpage might mean you can’t outrank that other page.
The search engines may determine the original host of the copy is more relevant to the search query than yours.
As there is no benefit to having both in the search results, yours gets suppressed. This is not a penalty. This is the algorithm doing its job.
There are some content-related manual actions, as covered in Price’s article, but essentially copying one or two pages of someone else’s content is not going to trigger them.
It is, however, potentially going to land you in other trouble if you have no legal right to use that content. It also can detract from the value your website brings to the user.
Verdict: SEO myth
3. PPC Advertising Helps Rankings
This is a common myth. It’s also quite quick to debunk.
The idea is that Google will favor websites in the organic search results, which spend money with it through pay-per-click advertising.
This is simply false.
Google’s algorithm for ranking organic search results is completely separate from the one used to determine PPC ad placements.
Running a paid search advertising campaign through Google at the same time as carrying out SEO might benefit your site for other reasons, but it won’t directly benefit your ranking.
Verdict: SEO myth
4. Domain Age Is a Ranking Factor
This claim finds itself seated firmly in the “confusing causation and correlation” camp.
Because a website has been around for a long time and is ranking well, age must be a ranking factor.
Google has debunked this myth itself many times.
In fact, as recently as July 2019, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller replied to a tweet suggesting that domain age was one of “200 signals of ranking” saying “No, domain age helps nothing”
The truth behind this myth is that an older website has had more time to do things well.
For instance, a website that has been live and active for 10 years may well have acquired a high volume of relevant backlinks to its key pages.
A website that has been running for less than six months will be unlikely to compete with that.
The older website appears to be ranking better, and the conclusion is that age must be the determining factor.
Verdict: SEO myth
5. Tabbed Content Affects Rankings
This idea is one that has roots going back a long way.
The premise is that Google will not assign as much value to the content that is sitting behind a tab or accordion.
For example, text that is not viewable on the first load of a page.
Google has again debunked this myth as recently as March 31, 2020, but it has been a contentious idea amongst many SEOs years.
In September 2018, Gary Illyes, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, answered a tweet thread about using tabs to display content.
His response:
“AFAIK, nothing’s changed here, Bill: we index the content, its weight is fully considered for ranking, but it might not get bolded in the snippets. It’s another, more technical question how that content is surfaced by the site. Indexing does have limitations.”
If the content is visible in the HTML, there is no reason to assume that it is being devalued just because it is not apparent to the user on the first load of the page.
This is not an example of cloaking, and Google can easily fetch the content.
As long as there is nothing else that is stopping the text from being viewed by Google, it should be weighted the same as copy, which isn’t in tabs.
Want more clarification on this?
Then check out Roger Montti’s post that puts this myth to bed.
Verdict: SEO myth
6. Google Uses Google Analytics Data in Rankings
This is a common fear amongst business owners.
They study their Google Analytics reports.
They feel their average sitewide bounce rate is too high, or their time on page is too low.
So they worry that Google will perceive their site to be low quality because of that.
They fear they won’t rank well because of it.
The myth is that Google uses the data in your Google Analytics account as part of its ranking algorithm.
It’s a myth that has been around for a long time.
Google’s Gary Illyes has again debunked this idea simply with, “We don’t use *anything* from Google analytics [sic] in the “algo.”
If we think about this logically, using Google Analytics data as a ranking factor would be really hard to police.
For instance, using filters could manipulate data to make it seem like the site was performing in a way that it isn’t really.
What is good performance anyway?
High “time on page” might be good for some long-form content.
Low “time on page” could be understandable for shorter content.
Is either right or wrong?
Google would also need to understand the intricate ways in which each Google Analytics account had been configured.
Some might be excluding all known bots, and others might not.
Some might use custom dimensions and channel groupings, and others haven’t configured anything.
Using this data reliably would be extremely complicated to do.
Consider the hundreds of thousands of websites that use other analytics programs.
How would Google treat them?
Verdict: SEO myth
This myth is another case of “causation, not correlation.”
A high sitewide bounce rate might be indicative of a quality problem, or it might not be.
Low time on page could mean your site isn’t engaging, or it could mean your content is quickly digestible.
These metrics give you clues as to why you might not be ranking well, they aren’t the cause of it.
7. Google Cares About Domain Authority
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm used by Google to measure the importance of a webpage.
Google used to display a page’s PageRank score, a number up to 10, on its toolbar.
Google stopped updating the PageRank displayed in toolbars in 2013. In 2016 Google confirmed that the PageRank toolbar metric was not going to be used going forward.
In the absence of PageRank, many other third-party authority scores have been developed.
Commonly known ones are:
- Moz’s Domain Authority and Page Authority scores.
- Majestic’s Trust Flow and Citation Flow.
- Ahrefs’ Domain Rating and URL Rating.
These scores are used by some SEOs to determine the “value” of a page.
That calculation can never be an entirely accurate reflection of how a search engine values a page, however.
Commonly, SEOs will refer to the ranking power of a website often in conjunction with its backlink profile.
This too is known as the domain’s authority.
You can see where the confusion lies.
Google representatives have dispelled the notion of a domain authority metric used by them.
Gary Illyes once again debunking myths with “we don’t really have “overall domain authority.”
Verdict: SEO myth
8. Longer Content Is Better
You will have definitely heard it said before that longer content ranks better.
More words on a page automatically make yours more rank-worthy than your competitor’s.
This is “wisdom” that is often shared around SEO forums without little evidence to substantiate it.
There are a lot of studies that have been released over the years that state facts about the top-ranking webpages, such as “on average pages in the top 10 positions in the SERPs have over 1,450 words on them.”
It would be quite easy for someone to take this information in isolation and assume it means that pages need approximately 1,500 words to rank on Page 1. That isn’t what the study is saying, however.
Unfortunately, this is an example of correlation, not necessarily causation.
Just because the top-ranking pages in a particular study happened to have more words on them than the pages ranking 11th and lower does not make word count a ranking factor.
John Mueller of Google recently dispelled this myth:
Verdict: SEO myth
9. LSI Keywords Will Help You Rank
What exactly are LSI keywords?
LSI stands for “latent semantic indexing.”
It is a technique used in information retrieval that allows concepts within the text to be analyzed and relationships between them identified.
Words have nuances dependent on their context. The word “right” has a different connotation when paired with “left” than when it is paired with “wrong.”
Humans can quickly gauge concepts in text. It is harder for machines to do so.
The ability for machines to understand the context and linking between entities is fundamental to their understanding of concepts.
LSI is a huge step forward for a machine’s ability to understand text.
What it isn’t is synonyms.
Unfortunately, the field of LSI has been devolved by the SEO community into the understanding that using words that are similar or linked thematically will boost rankings for words that aren’t expressly mentioned in the text.
It’s simply not true. Google has gone far beyond LSI in its understanding of text, for instance, the introduction of BERT.
For more about what LSI is, and more importantly, what it isn’t, take a look at Clark Boyd’s article
Verdict: SEO myth
10. SEO Takes 3 Months
It helps us get out of sticky conversations with our bosses or clients.
It leaves a lot of wiggle room if you aren’t getting the results you promised.
“SEO takes at least 3 months to have an effect.”
It is fair to say that there are some changes that will take time for the search engine bots to process.
There is then, of course, some time to see if those changes are having a positive or negative effect. Then more time might be needed to refine and tweak your work.
That doesn’t mean that any activity you carry out in the name of SEO is going to have no effect for three months. Day 90 of your work will not be when the ranking changes kick-in.
There is a lot more to it.
If you are in a very low competition market, targeting niche terms, you might see ranking changes as soon as Google recrawls your page.
A competitive term could take much longer to see changes in rank.
A study by Ahrefs suggested that of the 2 million keywords they analyzed, the average age of pages ranking in position 10 of Google was 650 days. This study indicates that newer pages struggle to rank high.
However, there is more to SEO than ranking in the top 10 of Google.
For instance, a well-positioned Google My Business listing with great reviews can pay dividends for a company.
Bing, Yandex, and Baidu might be easier for your brand to conquer the SERPs in.
A small tweak to a page title could see an improvement in click-through rates. That could be the same day if the search engine were to recrawl the page quickly.
Although it can take a long time to see first page rankings in Google, it is naïve of us to reduce SEO success just down to that.
Therefore, “SEO takes 3 months” simply isn’t accurate.
Verdict: SEO myth
11. Bounce Rate Is a Ranking Factor
Bounce rate is the percentage of visits to your website that result in no interactions beyond landing on the page. It is typically measured by a website’s analytics program such as Google Analytics.
Some SEOs have argued that bounce rate is a ranking factor because it is a measure of quality.
Unfortunately, it is not a good measure of quality.
There are many reasons why a visitor might land on a webpage and leave again without interacting further with the site. They may well have read all the information they needed to on that page and left the site to call the company and book an appointment. In that instance, the visitor bouncing has resulted in a lead for the company.
Although a visitor leaving a page having landed on it could be an indicator of poor quality content, it isn’t always. It, therefore, wouldn’t be reliable enough for a search engine to use as a measure of quality.
“Pogo-sticking,” or a visitor clicking on a search result and then returning to the SERPs, would be a more reliable indicator of the quality of the landing page. It would suggest that the content of the page was not what the user was after, so much so that they have returned to the search results to find another page or re-search.
John Mueller cleared this up in a Google Webmaster Hangout in July 2018 with:
“We try not to use signals like that when it comes to search. So that’s something where there are lots of reasons why users might go back and forth, or look at different things in the search results, or stay just briefly on a page and move back again. I think that’s really hard to refine and say, “well, we could turn this into a ranking factor.”
Verdict: SEO myth
12. It’s All About Backlinks
Backlinks are important, that’s without much contention within the SEO community. However, exactly how important is still debated.
Some SEOs will tell you that backlinks are one of the many tactics that will influence rankings and not the most important. Others will tell you it’s the only real game-changer.
What we do know is that the effectiveness of links has changed over time. Back in the wild pre-Jagger days, link-building consisted of adding a link to your website wherever you could.
Forum comments spun articles, and irrelevant directories were all good sources of links.
It was easy to build effective links.
It’s not so easy now. Google has continued to make changes to its algorithms that reward higher quality, more relevant links, and disregard or penalize “spammy” links.
However, the power of links to affect rankings is still great.
There will be some industries that are so immature in SEO that a site can rank well without investing in link-building, purely through the strength of their content and technical efficiency.
That’s not the case with most industries.
Relevant backlinks will, of course, help with ranking, but they need to go hand-in-hand with other optimizations.
Your website still needs to have relevant copy, and it must be crawlable.
Google’s John Mueller recently stated, “links are definitely not the most important SEO factor.”
If you want your traffic to actually do something when they hit your website, it’s definitely not all about backlinks.
Ranking is only one part of getting converting visitors to your site. The content and usability of the site are extremely important in user engagement.
Verdict: SEO myth
13. Keywords in URLs Are Very Important
Cram your URLs full of keywords. It’ll help.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite as powerful as that.
John Mueller has said several times that keywords in a URL are a very minor, lightweight ranking signal.
If you are looking to rewrite your URLs to include more keywords, you are likely to do more damage than good.
The process of redirecting URLs en masse should be when necessary as there is always a risk when restructuring a site.
For the sake of adding keywords to a URL? Not worth it.
Verdict: SEO myth
14. Website Migrations Are All About Redirects
It is something that is heard too often by SEOs. If you are migrating a website, all you need to do is remember to redirect any URLs that are changing.
If only this one was true.
In actuality, website migration is one of the most fraught and complicated procedures in SEO.
A website changing its layout, CMS, domain, and/or content can all be considered a website migration.
In each of those examples, there are several aspects that could affect how the search engines perceive the quality and relevance of the pages to their targeted keywords.
As a result of this, there are numerous checks and configurations that need to occur if the site is going to maintain its rankings and organic traffic.
Ensuring tracking hasn’t been lost. Maintaining the same content targeting. Making sure the search engines’ bots can still access the right pages.
All of this needs to be considered when a website is significantly changing.
Redirecting URLs that are changing is a very important part of website migration. It is in no way the only thing to be concerned about.
Verdict: SEO myth
15. Well-Known Websites Will Always Outrank Unknown Websites
It stands to reason that a larger brand will have resources that smaller brands do not. As a result, more can be invested in SEO.
More exciting content pieces can be created, leading to a higher volume of backlinks acquired. The brand name alone can lend more credence to outreach attempts.
The real question is, does Google algorithmically or manually boost big brands because of their fame?
This one is a bit contentious.
Some people say that Google favors big brands. Google says, otherwise.
In 2009, Google released an algorithm update named “Vince.” This update had a huge impact on how brands were treated in the SERPs.
Brands that were well-known offline saw ranking increases for broad competitive keywords.
It’s not necessarily time for smaller brands to throw in the towel.
The Vince update falls very much in-line with other Google moves towards valuing authority and quality.
Big brands are often more authoritative on broad-level keywords than smaller contenders.
However, small brands can still win.
Long-tail keyword targeting, niche product lines, and local presence can all make smaller brands more relevant to a search result than established brands.
Yes, the odds are stacked in favor of big brands, but it’s not impossible to outrank them.
Verdict: Not entirely truth or myth
16. Your Page Needs to Include ‘Near Me’ to Rank Well for Local SEO
It’s understandable that this myth is still prevalent.
There is still a lot of focus on keyword search volumes in the SEO industry. Sometimes at the expense of considering user intent and how the search engines understand it.
When a searcher is looking for something with “local intent,” i.e., a place or service relevant to a physical location, the search engines will take this into consideration when returning results.
With Google, you will likely see the Google Maps results as well as the standard organic listings.
The Maps results are clearly centered around the location searched. However, so are the standard organic listings when the search query denotes local intent.
So why do “near me” searches confuse some?
A typical keyword research exercise might yield something like the following:
- pizza restaurant manhattan – 110 searches per month
- pizza restaurants in manhattan – 110 searches per month
- best pizza restaurant manhattan – 90 searches per month
- best pizza restaurants in manhattan – 90 searches per month
- best pizza restaurant in manhattan – 90 searches per month
- pizza restaurants near me – 90,500 searches per month
With search volume like that, you would think “pizza restaurants near me” would be the one to rank for, right?
It is likely, however, that people searching for “pizza restaurant manhattan” are in the Manhattan area or planning to travel there for pizza.
“pizza restaurant near me” has 90,500 searches across the USA. The likelihood is that the vast majority of those searchers are not looking for Manhattan pizzas.
Google knows this and, therefore, will use location detection and serve pizza restaurant results relevant to the searcher’s location.
Therefore, the “near me” element of the search becomes less about the keyword and more about the intent behind the keyword. Google will just consider it to be the location the searcher is in.
So, do you need to include “near me” in your content to rank for those “near me” searches?
No, you need to be relevant to the location the searcher is in.
Verdict: SEO myth
17. Better Content Equals Better Rankings
It’s prevalent in SEO forums and Twitter threads. The common complaint, “my competitor is ranking above me, but I have amazing content, and theirs is terrible.”
The cry is one of indignation. After all, shouldn’t the search engines be rewarding their site for their “amazing” content?
This is both a myth and, sometimes, a delusion.
The quality of content is a subjective consideration. If it is your own content, it’s harder still to be objective.
Perhaps in Google’s eyes, your content isn’t better than your competitors’ for the search terms you are looking to rank for.
Perhaps you don’t meet searcher intent as well as they do.
Maybe you have “over-optimized” your content and reduced its quality.
In some instances, better content will equal better rankings. In others, the technical performance of the site or its lack of local relevance may cause it to rank lower.
Content is one factor within the ranking algorithms.
Verdict: SEO myth
18. You Need to Blog Every Day
This is a frustrating myth because it is one that seems to have spread outside of the SEO industry.
Google loves frequent content. You should add new content or tweak existing content every day for “freshness.”
Where did this idea come from?
Google had an algorithm update in 2011 that rewards fresher results in the SERPs.
This is because, for some queries, the fresher the results, the better likelihood of accuracy.
For instance, search for “royal baby” in the UK in 2013, and you would be served news articles about Prince George. Search it again in 2015, and you would see pages about Princess Charlotte.
In 2018, you would see reports about Prince Louis at the top of the Google SERPs, and in 2019 it would be baby Archie.
If you were to search “royal baby” in 2019, shortly after the birth of Archie, then seeing news articles on prince George would likely be unhelpful.
In this instance, Google discerns the user’s search intent and decides showing articles related to the newest UK royal baby would be better than showing an article that is arguably more rank-worthy due to authority, etc.
What this algorithm update doesn’t mean is that newer content will always outrank older content. Google decides if the “query deserves freshness” or not.
If it does, then the age of content becomes a more important ranking factor.
This means that if you are creating content purely to make sure it is newer than competitors’ content, you are not necessarily going to benefit.
If the query you are looking to rank for does not deserve freshness, i.e., “who is Prince William’s second child?” a fact that will not change, then the age of content will not play a significant part in rankings.
If you are writing content every day thinking it is keeping your website fresh and, therefore, more rank-worthy, then you are likely wasting time.
It would be better to write well-considered, researched, and useful content pieces less frequently and reserve your resources to making those highly authoritative and shareable.
Verdict: SEO myth
19. You Can Optimize Copy Once & Then It’s Done
The phrase “SEO optimized” copy is a common one in agency-land.
It’s used as a way to explain the process of creating copy that will be relevant to frequently searched queries.
The trouble with this is that it suggests that once you have written that copy, ensured it adequately answers searchers’ queries, you can move on.
Unfortunately, over time how searchers look for content might change. The keywords they use, the type of content they want could alter.
The search engines, too may change what they feel is the most relevant answer to the query. Perhaps the intent behind the keyword is perceived differently.
The layout of the SERPs might alter, meaning videos are being shown at the top of the search results where previously it was just web page results.
If you look at a page only once and then don’t continue to update it and evolve it with user needs, then you risk falling behind.
Verdict: SEO myth
20. There Is a Right Way to Do SEO
This one is probably a myth in many industries, but it seems prevalent in the SEO one. There is a lot of gatekeeping in SEO social media, forums, and chats.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
There are some core tenants that we know about SEO.
Usually, something is stated by a search engine representative that has been dissected, tested, and ultimately declared true.
The rest is a result of personal and collective trial and error, testing, and experience.
Processes are extremely valuable within SEO business functions, but they have to evolve and be applied appropriately.
Different websites within different industries will respond to changes in ways others would not. Altering a meta title, so it is under 60 characters long might help the click-through rate for one page, and not for another.
Ultimately, we have to hold any SEO advice we’re given lightly before deciding whether it is right for the website you are working on.
Verdict: SEO myth
Conclusion
Some myths have their roots in logic, and others have no sense to them.
Now you know what to do when you hear an idea that you can’t say for certain is truth or myth.
Featured Image Credit: Paulo Bobita
SEO
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.
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.”
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.
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.
In fact, I even ended up booking a cat sitter through one of these websites:
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
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:
- Go to our Competitive Analysis tool
- Select the “referring domains” mode
- Enter your site in the “Not linking to target” field
- Enter the sites of a few competing businesses in the “But linking to these competitors” fields
- Hit “Show link opportunities”
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.
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.
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:
For advice on what the issues mean and how to fix them, hit the tooltip:
For example, Site Audit found eight 404 pages on our blog during a recent crawl:
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.
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.
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.”
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:
- Brainstorm all the products or services you offer
- 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:
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.
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:
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:
- Go to Keywords Explorer
- Search for your product or service (e.g., “boiler repair”)
- Go to the Matching Terms report
- Go to the “Cluster by terms” tab
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:
I also see mentions of different types of boilers, like oil, gas, and electric:
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:
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:
- 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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
For my favorite local craft bottle shop, niche review sites like RateBeer and Untapped seem more important:
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.
SEO
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.
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
.
It only takes a few seconds to change this in most content management systems:
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:
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 thandomain.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. Sodomain.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 specificdomain.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.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for title tags, but the ABC formula is a decent starting point for blog posts:
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.
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:
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:
But when people search for “best snow blower,” they just want a recommendation—so that’s what Wirecutter gives them in the first paragraph:
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:
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.
If you suspect the same might be true for your subheadings, try this: ask ChatGPT to rewrite them 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”:
Make sure your subheadings have proper hierarchy, too. It helps Google to understand the structure and makes it easier to skim for readers.
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:
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:
Here’s what it looks like now:
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!
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:
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.
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:
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:
- Go to the Competitive Analysis tool in Ahrefs
- 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.)
- Enter the URLs of a few similar top-ranking pages in the “But these competitors do” fields
- 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:
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”:
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:
Ryan interviewed three B2B marketers for unique insights 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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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):
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:
So… I added a similar paragraph to our post (using our data instead):
This quick big of on-page SEO won our page 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.
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.
Most content management systems have a place to add alt text in the UI, so there’s no need to mess around with HTML:
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:
- Go to the Internal Link Opportunities tool
- Enter the URL of your newly-published page in the search box
- Choose “Source page” from the dropdown
Sidenote.
Site Audit needs to have crawled your site since you published the new page, otherwise this won’t work.
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:
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:
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:
- Go to the Page Explorer tool
- Enter your target keyword (or part of it) in the search box
- Choose “Page text” from the dropdown
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”:
If we search that page, this is the mention:
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.
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.
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:
SEO
Marketing Calendar 2024 With Template To Plan Your Content
Setting yourself and your organization up for successful marketing means understanding the interesting dates, holidays, and events throughout the year that you can leverage for your brand.
Pulling that information together takes time and effort, so we’ve done the legwork for you.
Our complete marketing calendar for 2024 with a template gives you all the information you need to plan your content.
You can customize this easily referenceable table and pull out the relevant dates for your business to create your own 2024 marketing calendar.
For planning content and social media campaigns, using a marketing calendar gives you insights and opportunities to tie your content into well-known events in engaging ways.
These range from big sporting events to awareness months that you can plan content around, to public holidays so you can leverage them for engagement.
Free Marketing Calendar And Template For 2024
Below, we have listed some of the major holiday highlights for 2024. We have also compiled a free spreadsheet that lists many obscure awareness days to help you plan content in any niche.
The full 2024 marketing calendar and template are available at the end of the article, with a breakdown of each month.
This calendar focuses mainly on the U.S. and Canada, with some major international and religious holidays included.
Your 2024 Holiday Marketing Calendar
January
January is a time of resolutions and fresh starts, with many picking a goal for the year or looking to make a change.
It can be a slow start, given that many people are still recovering from the end of last year, but that gives you time to plan your calendar and ease into a new year of content.
There are plenty of broad activities to lean into, like Veganuary and National Hobby Month, to connect with audience lifestyles.
Events in January always have all eyes on them, too, like the Golden Globes and Winter X Games, so content around them can kickstart your 2024 engagement.
Monthly Observances
- International Creativity Month
- National Blood Donor Month
- National Braille Literacy Month
- National Hobby Month
- Dry January
- Veganuary
Weekly Observances
- January 1-7 – New Year’s Resolutions Week
- January 1-7 – Celebration of Life Week
- January 1-7 – Diet Resolution Week
- January 8-14 – Home Office and Security Week
Days
- January 1 – New Year’s Day
- January 1 – Mexican Independence Day
- January 1 – Global Family Day
- January 2 – National Science Fiction Day
- January 4 – World Braille Day
- January 6 – Epiphany
- January 7 – Orthodox Christmas
- January 10 – Golden Globes
- January 13 – Korean American Day
- January 13 – Stephen Foster Memorial Day
- January 14 – Orthodox New Year
- January 14 – Ratification Day
- January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- January 15 – Civil Rights Day
- January 17 – Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day
- January 17 – Benjamin Franklin Day
- January 18-28 – Sundance Film Festival
- January 20 – World Religion Day
- January 24 – Tu BiShvat
- January 26-29 – Winter X Games
- January 27 – International Holocaust Remembrance Day
- January 28 – Data Privacy Day
Popular Hashtags for January:
- #NewYearsDay
- #ScienceFictionDay
- #NationalTriviaDay
- #NationalBirdDay
- #NationalStickerDay
- #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
- #CheeseLoversDay
- #MLKDay
- #NationalHuggingDay
- #PieDay
- #NationalComplimentDay
- #PrivacyAware
February
Despite being the shortest month, February is full of interesting events you can leverage for your marketing campaigns.
The colder days can leave people looking for things to get involved with from the comfort of their homes. So, make sure your content is working in line with popular days to attract people to your organization’s content.
Spread the love on Valentine’s Day, celebrate the Lunar New Year, and embrace Black History Month as we enjoy a slightly longer February with 2024’s Leap Year.
Monthly Observances
- Black History Month
- American Heart Month
- National Heart Month
- National Weddings Month
- National Cancer Prevention Month
- National Library Lovers Month
- Celebration of Chocolate Month
Weekly Observances
- February 7-13 – African Heritage and Health Week
- February 9-14 – New York Fashion Week
- February 11-17 – Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
- February 11-17 – International Flirting Week
- February 11-17 – Random Acts of Kindness Week
- February 18-24 – Engineers’ Week
- February 19-25 – National Pancake Week
- February 28-March 5 – National Eating Disorders Awareness Week
Days
- February 1 – First Day of Black History Month
- February 1 – National Freedom Day
- February 1 – National Change Your Password Day
- February 2 – Groundhog Day
- February 4 – Rosa Parks Day
- February 4 – World Cancer Day
- February 4 – The Grammy Awards
- February 7 – National Girls and Women in Sports Day
- February 10 – Lunar New Year
- February 11 – Super Bowl Sunday
- February 11 – International Day of Women and Girls in Science
- February 12 – Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday
- February 12 – Red Hand Day
- February 12 – Georgia Day
- February 12 – Darwin Day
- February 13 – Mardi Gras
- February 13 – International Pancake Day
- February 14 – Valentine’s Day
- February 14 – Ash Wednesday
- February 14 – Arizona State Day
- February 15 – Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday
- February 18 – NBA All-Stars
- February 18 – Daytona 500
- February 19 – Presidents’ Day
- February 22 – George Washington’s Birthday
- February 29 – Leap Day
Popular Hashtags for February
- #GroundhogDay
- #WorldCancerDay
- #NationalWeatherpersonsDay
- #SendACardToAFriendDay
- #BoyScoutsDay
- #NationalPizzaDay
- #ValentinesDay
- #RandomActsOfKindnessDay
- #PresidentsDay
- #LoveYourPetDay
March
March marks the beginning of spring, and the days start to get longer. Whether March Madness turns up the heat or Easter is on its way, there are plenty of exciting events to get your content involved with.
Some of the monthly observances, such as Women’s History Month or The Great American Cleanup, can serve as great causes for regular engagement this month.
Monthly Observances
- Women’s History Month
- Nutrition Month
- Music in Our Schools Month
- Craft Month
- American Red Cross Month
- The Great American Cleanup
- Ramadan begins on March 10
Weekly Observances
- March 10-16 – Girl Scout Week
- March 10-16 – National Sleep Awareness Week
- March 17-23 – National Agriculture Week
- March 24-30 – National Cleaning Week
Days
- March 1 – Employee Appreciation Day
- March 1 – Zero Discrimination Day
- March 1 – Global Unplugging Day
- March 3 – World Wildlife Day
- March 3 – National Anthem Day
- March 4 – International HPV Awareness Day
- March 8 – International Women’s Day
- March 10 – Daylight Savings
- March 10 – Ramadan
- March 12 – 96th Academy Awards Ceremony
- March 14 – Pi Day
- March 15 – The Ides of March
- March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
- March 17 – NCAA March Madness
- March 17 – World Sleep Day
- March 18 – Global Recycling Day
- March 19 – Nowruz
- March 19 – Spring Equinox
- March 22 – World Water Day
- March 24 – Palm Sunday
- March 24 – Purim
- March 26 – Epilepsy Awareness Day
- March 27 – World Theatre Day
- March 28 – MLB Opening Day
- March 28 – Maundy Thursday
- March 29 – Good Friday
- March 30 – Holy Saturday
- March 31 – Easter Sunday
Popular Hashtags for March
- #PeanutButterLoversDay
- #EmployeeAppreciationDay
- #ReadAcrossAmerica
- #DrSeuss
- #WorldWildlifeDay
- #NationalGrammarDay
- #BeBoldForChange
- #DaylightSavings
- #PiDay
- #StPatricksDay
- #FirstDayofSpring
- #WorldWaterDay
- #NationalPuppyDay
- #PurpleDay
- #NationalDoctorsDay
- #EarthHour
April
April is probably best known for April Fools’ Day, and a chance to get creative with parody and spoof content for your calendar that can make your customers smile.
Earth Month also means you can make more eco-friendly posts about your organization’s commitment to reducing its impact on the planet.
You also might want to get your cape out of storage on April 28th for National Superhero Day.
Monthly Observances
- Earth Month
- National Autism Awareness Month
- Parkinson’s Awareness Month
- Celebrate Diversity Month
- Stress Awareness Month
- Ramadan ends on April 8
Weekly Observances
- April 15-21 – Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week
- April 21-27 – National Volunteer Week
- April 21-27 – Administrative Professionals Week
- April 22-26 – Every Kid Healthy Week
Days
- April 1 – April Fool’s Day
- April 1 – Easter Monday
- April 2 – World Autism Awareness Day
- April 2 – International Children’s Book Day
- April 5 – Lailat al-Qadr
- April 6 – National Walking Day
- April 7 – National Beer Day
- April 7 – World Health Day
- April 8 – Total Solar Eclipse
- April 10 – Eid-Al-Fitr
- April 11-14 – Masters Tournament PGA
- April 11 – National Pet Day
- April 12-21 – Coachella Music Festival
- April 13 – Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday
- April 13-15 – Songkran
- April 15 – American Sign Language Day
- April 15 – Tax Day
- April 15 – Boston Marathon
- April 15 – Patriots’ Day
- April 16 – Emancipation Day
- April 21 – World Creativity and Innovation Day
- April 22 – Earth Day
- April 22 – Passover starts
- April 26 – Arbor Day
- April 27 – World Design Day
- April 28 – National Superhero Day
- April 30 – National Honesty Day
- April 30 – Passover ends
Popular Hashtags For April:
- #AprilFools
- #WAAD
- #FindARainbowDay
- #NationalWalkingDay
- #LetsTalk
- #EqualPayDay
- #TaxDay
- #NH5D
- #NationalLookAlikeDay
- #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay
- #DenimDay
- #EndMalariaForGood
- #COUNTONME
- #ArborDay
- #NationalHonestyDay
- #AdoptAShelterPetDay
May
May brings a lot of variety with it as there are plenty of good causes to raise awareness for, plus major sporting events and unique celebrations you can join in with.
Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby, and Memorial Day are just a few examples of events that will have lots of people paying attention and can make for great marketing themes.
Monthly Observances
- ALS Awareness
- Asthma Awareness
- Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
- Jewish American Heritage Month
- National Celiac Disease Awareness Month
- Clean Air Month
- Better Sleep Month
- Lupus Awareness Month
Weekly Observances
- May 5-11 – National Pet Week
- May 19-25 – National Travel & Tourism Week
- May 5-11 – Drinking Water Week
- May 6-12 – Nurse’s Week
- May 12-18 – Food Allergy Awareness Week
Days
- May 1 – May Day
- May 1 – Law Day
- May 1 – Lei Day
- May 2 – World Password Day
- May 4 – Star Wars Day
- May 4 – International Firefighters Day
- May 4 – Kentucky Derby
- May 5 – Cinco De Mayo
- May 5-10 – French Open
- May 6 – National Nurses Day
- May 6 – Yom HaShoah
- May 8 – World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
- May 10 – World Lupus Day
- May 11 – World Fair Trade Day
- May 12 – Mother’s Day
- May 13-19 – PGA Championship
- May 14 – Yom Ha’atzmaut
- May 15 – International Day of Families
- May 17 – NASCAR Day
- May 17 – Malcolm X Day
- May 17 – Internet Day
- May 19 – HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
- May 20 – World Bee Day
- May 20 – Victoria Day (Canada)
- May 21 – World Meditation Day
- May 25 – Geek Pride Day
- May 26 – Trinity Sunday
- May 26 – Indianapolis 500
- May 27 – Memorial Day
- May 28 – World Hunger Day
- May 29 – Memorial Day
Popular Hashtags For May:
- #RedNoseDay
- #MayDay
- #WorldPasswordDay
- #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou
- #InternationalFirefightersDay
- #CincoDeMayo
- #MothersDay
- #BTWD
- #MemorialDay & #MDW
June
Once June has arrived, it’s finally starting to feel like summer. Everyone wants to make the most of the sunshine, and the positive energies are flowing.
Given that June also marks Great Outdoors Month, this is a great opportunity to make your brand a must-have companion for planning a beachside vacation or hosting a cookout.
You can also show your support for LGBTQ+ Pride, Flag Day, and Father’s Day, along with all the other events listed here.
Monthly Observances
- LGBTQ Pride Month
- Caribbean-American Heritage Month
- Great Outdoors Month
- Men’s Health Month
- National Safety Month
- National Zoo and Aquarium Month
Weekly Observances
- June 2-8 – National Garden Week
- June 2-8 – National Headache Awareness Week
- June 10-16 – National Men’s Health Week
- June 16-22 – National Roller Coaster Week
Days
- June 1 – Global Parents Day
- June 5 – Hot Air Balloon Day
- June 5 – World Environment Day
- June 6 – D-Day
- June 8 – Belmont Stakes
- June 8 – World Oceans Day
- June 8 – National Best Friends Day
- June 9 – Donald Duck Day
- June 10 – Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
- June 11 – Kamehameha Day
- June 12 – Shavuot
- June 13-16 – Bonnaroo Music Festival
- June 14 – Flag Day
- June 14 – Flag Day
- June 16 – Father’s Day
- June 16 – Tony Awards
- June 13-16 – U.S. Open PGA
- June 19 – Juneteenth
- June 20 – Summer Solstice
- June 23 – International Widows Day
- June 29 – July 21 – Tour de France
- June 30 – International Asteroid Day
Popular Hashtags For June:
- #NationalDonutDay
- #FathersDay
- #NationalSelfieDay
- #TakeYourDogToWorkDay
- #HandshakeDay
- #SMDay
July
July presents lots of opportunities for savvy marketers, from the 4th of July to the International Day of Friendship.
As we enter the summer slow-down period, there’s lots to celebrate that can help to feed your social media content to keep customers engaged.
So celebrate your independence, indulge in a little ice cream, and bring people together with one of the many events in July.
Monthly Observances
- Family Golf Month
- Ice Cream Month
- National Parks and Recreation Month
- National Picnic Month
- National Independent Retailer Month
- National Blueberry Month
Weekly Observances
- July 15-21 – Capture the Sunset Week
Days
- July 1 – International Joke Day
- July 1-11 – Wimbledon
- July 2 – World UFO Day
- July 4 – Independence Day
- July 6 – International Kissing Day
- July 7 – World Chocolate Day
- July 8 – National Video Games Day
- July 11 – World Population Day
- July 12 – Pecan Pie Day
- July 16 – Moon Landing Anniversary
- July 16 – MLB All-Star Game
- July 17 – World Emoji Day
- July 17 – Ashura
- July 18 – Nelson Mandela International Day
- July 20 – International Chess Day
- July 20 – National Moon Day
- July 21 – National Junk Food Day
- July 24 – Amelia Earhart Day
- July 26 – Aunt and Uncle Day
- July 26 – August 11 – Summer Olympics
- July 28-30 – Summer X Games
- July 28 – Parents’ Day
- July 28 – World Hepatitis Day
- July 30 – International Day of Friendship
- July 31 – World Ranger Day
Popular Hashtags For July:
- #NationalPostalWorkerDay
- #WorldUFODay
- #WorldEmojiDay
- #DayOfFriendship
August
We’ve hit the hottest days by August as back-to-school looms, and we welcome the return of football.
While many are topping up their tans and making the most of the final Summer days, August still provides lots of opportunities to align your content with wider events.
Make sure you’re using your marketing calendar to the fullest extent to post any sunny seasonal content promptly before fall arrives.
Monthly Observances
- Back to School Month
- National Breastfeeding Month
- Family Fun Month
- Peach Month
Weekly Observances
- August 1-7 – International Clown Week
- August 4-10 – National Farmers’ Market Week
- August 25-31 – Be Kind to Humankind Week
Days
- August 1 – National Girlfriends Day
- August 1 – NFL Hall of Fame Game & Preseason
- August 2 – International Beer Day
- August 4 – National Friendship Day
- August 7 – Purple Heart Day
- August 8 – International Cat Day
- August 9 – Book Lover’s Day
- August 11 – National Son and Daughter Day
- August 12 – Victory Day
- August 13 – Left Hander’s Day
- August 15 – Assumption of Mary
- August 17 – National Honey Bee Day
- August 19 – World Humanitarian Day
- August 19 – Raksha Bandhan
- August 20 – National Radio Day
- August 21 – Senior Citizens Day
- August 26 – Women’s Equality Day
- August 30 – Frankenstein Day
- August 30 – National Beach Day
Popular Hashtags For August:
- #InternationalCatDay
- #NationalBookLoversDay
- #WorldElephantDay
- #LefthandersDay
- #WorldPhotoDay
- #WorldHumanitarianDay
- #NationalLemonadeDay
- #NationalDogDay
- #WomensEqualityDay
September
As fall begins, some of the bigger events happening in September are Hispanic Heritage Month, Grandparents Day, and, of course, Labor Day.
There are also plenty of other events to inspire you, from Oktoberfest to National Yoga Month. Plus, a National Coffee Day for those who struggle to start their day without a caffeine fix.
Monthly Observances
- Wilderness Month
- National Food Safety Education Month
- National Yoga Month
- Whole Grains Month
- Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15)
Weekly Observances
- September 8-14 – National Suicide Prevention Week
- September 15-21 – National Indoor Plant Week
- September 16-22 – Pollution Prevention Week
- September 24-30 – National Dog Week
Days
- September 2 – VJ Day
- September 2 – Labor Day
- September 4 – National Wildlife Day
- September 5 – International Day of Charity
- September 6 – National Fight Procrastination Day
- September 8 – Pardon Day
- September 8 – National Grandparents Day
- September 11 – 9/11
- September 11 – Patriot Day
- September 12 – Video Games Day
- September 13 – Uncle Sam Day
- September 15 – Greenpeace Day
- September 17 – Constitution Day
- September 21 – Oktoberfest Begins
- September 21 – International Day of Peace
- September 22 – World Car-Free Day
- September 22 – September Equinox
- September 24 – World Bollywood Day
- September 24–29 – Presidents Cup PGA
- September 27 – Native American Day
- September 27 – World Tourism Day
- September 29 – National Coffee Day (US)
- September 29 – Confucius Day
- September 29 – World Heart Day
Popular Hashtags For September:
- #LaborDay
- #NationalWildlifeDay
- #CharityDay
- #ReadABookDay
- #911Day
- #NationalVideoGamesDay
- #TalkLikeAPirateDay
- #PeaceDay
- #CarFreeDay
- #WorldRabiesDay
- #GoodNeighborDay
- #InternationalPodcastDay
October
It’s that time of year when pumpkin spice lattes roll around again.
While October is known as the spooky season to many, there’s much more to this month than just Halloween – there’s Teacher’s Day, World Mental Health Day, and Spirit Day, to name a few, around which your organization can look to create content.
Monthly Observances
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month
- Bully Prevention Month
- Halloween Safety Month
- Financial Planning Month
- National Pizza Month
Weekly Observances
- October 8-14 – Fire Prevention Week
- October 13-19 – Earth Science Week
- October 20-26 – National Business Women’s Week
Days
- October 1 – International Coffee Day
- October 1 – World Vegetarian Day
- October 3 – National Techies Day
- October 5 – World Teacher’s Day
- October 6 – Oktoberfest Ends
- October 7 – Child Health Day
- October 10 – World Mental Health Day
- October 11 – National Coming Out Day
- October 12 – Yom Kippur
- October 14 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day
- October 14 – Columbus Day
- October 14 – Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
- October 16 – World Food Day
- October 19 – Sweetest Day
- October 20 – Spirit Day (Anti-bullying)
- October 22 – Make a Difference Day
- October 24 – United Nations Day
- October 30 – Mischief Night
- October 31 – Halloween
Popular Hashtags For October:
- #InternationalCoffeeDay
- #TechiesDay
- #NationalTacoDay
- #WorldSmileDay
- #WorldTeachersDay
- #WorldHabitatDay
- #WorldMentalHealthDay
- #BossesDay
- #UNDay
- #ChecklistDay
- #Halloween
November
During the month in which we all give thanks, there is also a wide range of causes you can help out with or raise awareness for, like Movember and America Recycles Day.
You should also mark your marketing calendar for arguably the biggest sales events of the year – Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) – which are sure to be on everyone’s radar.
Monthly Observances
- Native American Heritage Month
- Movember
- World Vegan Month
- Novel Writing Month
- National Gratitude Month
Weekly Observances
- November 11-16 – World Kindness Week (second week: Monday – Sunday)
- November 18-22 – American Education Week
- November 18-24 – Game and Puzzle Week
Days
- November 1 – Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos
- November 1 – All Saint’s Day
- November 1 – World Vegan Day
- November 2 – Melbourne Cup
- November 3 – Daylight Savings Time Ends
- November 5 – Election Day
- November 8 – STEM Day
- November 9 – World Freedom Day
- November 10 – Marine Corps Birthday
- November 11 – Veterans Day
- November 13 – World Kindness Day
- November 14 – World Diabetes Day
- November 15 – National Entrepreneurs Day
- November 24 – Evolution Day
- November 28 – Thanksgiving Day
- November 29 – Native American Heritage Day
- November 29 – Black Friday
Popular Hashtags For November:
- #WorldVeganDay
- #NationalSandwichDay
- #DaylightSavings
- #CappuccinoDay
- #STEMDay
- #VeteransDay
- #WKD
- #WDD
- #BeRecycled
- #EntrepreneursDay
- #Thanksgiving
- #ShopSmall
December
December is here, and the end of the year is in sight.
Although 2025 is right around the corner, and you might want to start planning your content calendar for next year, don’t neglect your content in the run-up to the holidays.
Send your year off in style with marketing campaigns dedicated to events like Nobel Prize Day, Rosa Parks Day, Green Monday, and more.
You can even do a content wrap-up of your best moments from the year – and make sure to get your 2025 marketing calendar sorted early before the post-Christmas wind-down.
Monthly Observances
- Human Rights Month
- Operation Santa Paws
- Safe Toys and Gifts Month
- World Food Service Safety Month
Weekly Observances
- December 9-15 – Human Rights Week
- December 25 – January 2 – Hanukkah (Chanukah)
- December 26 – January 1 – Kwanzaa
Days
- December 1 – World AIDS Day
- December 1 – Rosa Parks Day
- December 2 – Cyber Monday
- December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
- December 6 – St. Nicholas Day
- December 7 – Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
- December 7 – National Letter Writing Day
- December 8 – Feast of the Immaculate Conception
- December 9 – Green Monday
- December 10 – Nobel Prize Day
- December 10 – Human Rights Day
- December 11 – UNICEF Anniversary
- December 15 – Bill of Rights Day
- December 18 – National Twin Day
- December 21 – Winter Solstice
- December 22 – Forefathers Day
- December 23 – Festivus
- December 24 – Christmas Eve
- December 25 – Christmas Day
- December 25 – Hanukkah
- December 26 – Kwanzaa
- December 26 – Boxing Day
- December 31 – New Year’s Eve
Popular Hashtags For December:
- #IDPWD
- #NationalCookieDay
- #NobelPrize
- #WinterSolstice
- #NYE
The Complete Marketing Calendar And Template To Plan 2024
You can find the link to our complete marketing calendar and template for 2024 right here.
By having a content plan set out months in advance, you can rest assured that you’ll have great ideas to work with throughout the year.
And just because you have a plan doesn’t mean you can’t adapt if something interesting happens later in the year.
Simply rearrange your calendar and work your trending content around key dates.
Keep track of what ideas work throughout the year and use them to help guide your marketing calendar for 2025, so you can double down on successful content ideas.
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