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The Simple (But Complete) Guide to Video Marketing

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The Simple (But Complete) Guide to Video Marketing

We hopped onto the video bandwagon in 2018 and never looked back.

Today, we have more than 300,000 subscribers and 14 million views, and that has led to thousands of new customers.

No. of Ahrefs subscribers on YouTube

For a “boring” industry like SEO, I’d like to think that’s pretty impressive.

In this article, we’ll show you how to use video marketing to grow your business.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCgDIhvFkCM

Video marketing is using videos to promote and educate your target audience. It’s also used to increase brand awareness and social engagement, allowing you to reach new and bigger audiences.

Why is video marketing so powerful?

In other words, why is video marketing effective? Why should you do video marketing? Here are a few reasons:

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1. Video is accessible

You watch it. I watch it. We all do. Videos are everywhere. Go to any major metropolitan area like New York or London, and you’ll see videos playing on massive billboards.

Not only that, today, you can literally watch them on any device—your smartphone, tablet, PC, TV, and so on.

In fact, in a 2018 study, 85% of U.S. internet users watched online video content every month. (And that’s not even the highest penetration for video content.)

Bar graph showing percentage of people in various countries who watch online video content every month

That’s how ubiquitous video is.

2. Video allows you to demonstrate concepts faster and more clearly

Watching a video is an interactive experience. You’re using both your senses of hearing and sight. Viewers can actually see something in action, be it a product or a concept.

Compare that to text-based content. Not only are you limited to just sight, but you also can’t see something in action. You have to imagine it.

For example, one of my hobbies is breakdancing. So let’s say I wanted to learn the windmill and had to learn how to do it from this text-based description:

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We’re going to start off by kicking into our backspin. And when we get to this position, we’re going to turn onto our head and my left hand.

I would have given up on my dreams of becoming a Red Bull BC One champion within seconds of starting. But everything will be clear if I watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swId_MFHywI

3. Video allows you to create a personal connection with viewers

The same interactive elements that make it easy for you to demonstrate concepts also make it easy to create a personal connection with your viewers.

Watching a video—especially a talking head one—can feel as if the speaker is having a conversation with you, even if it has been watched by millions of other people.

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Sam Oh, who runs our YouTube channel, is beloved by our subscribers. In fact, because he appears on screen so often, he is regarded as a mentor by many of them:

YouTube commenter saying they like the video and Sam is their mentor

YouTube commenter saying they like the video content about niches and Sam is their mentor

YouTube commenter saying they like Sam's teaching style and that he is a great mentor

Creating this effect through text is much, much harder. For example, the Ahrefs blog team has created hundreds of articles. Yet no one has ever called us “mentors.”

Sometimes, people even get our authors confused. They may think that an article written by our Michal Pecánek was written by me instead. This never happens with video, as it is impossible to watch one and confuse Sam with our head of content, Joshua Hardwick, for example.

4. Video allows you to reach audiences on major platforms like YouTube

YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users. The only way to reach them is to produce videos.

TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users. The only way to reach them is to produce short videos.

You get my point—there are untapped opportunities in the space, and you lose out if you don’t even try.

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Types of marketing videos

We mainly produce tutorial-style videos on our YouTube channel. But it’s not the only type of marketing video you can create. Here are more options you can consider:

1. Product demos

This type of video shows your product in action. It can be done by yourself (e.g., a tour of your software) or done by others (e.g., an influencer unboxing your product).

Here’s an example of a “tutorial-style” video we made that is basically a product demo:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oU8lclN114

2. Tutorials/how-tos

This type of video teaches your audience how to do something. Here’s an example from our channel where Sam teaches how to scale content creation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQmH8LH9p20

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3. Brand videos

The purpose of brand videos is to raise awareness around your brand, products, or services. You’ve probably seen plenty—a lot of them are ads on YouTube. Here’s an example from Monday.com:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l‑7awVpecvU

4. Animated videos

As its name suggests, this style of video uses animations to explain something, be it a concept, product, or more. While we don’t do full-fledged animated videos, we do typically utilize animations in our tutorials.

But here’s an example of a fully animated video:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN6g2mr0p3Q

5. Event videos

This type of video showcases the highlights of an event. It can also feature interesting talks, presentations, or speeches that took place at the event itself.

Here’s an example from the Chiang Mai SEO conference:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqisePhYD2Q

6. Talks

If you (or anyone in your team) give talks regularly, the speech can be recorded and uploaded as video content too.

GaryVee often does this:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHHl35TBHQc

7. Entertaining/storytelling videos

Tell a story about your product or make your videos entertaining. Here’s one from ClickUp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9JiY0mdfNo

8. Expert interviews

Pick the brains of the experts, thought leaders, and influencers in your industry. Get them to share their knowledge with your audience.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRr-wdE0RlA

9. Case studies/testimonials

Get your satisfied, loyal customers to share how your product or service helped them with their problems.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2GB7avRrIE

10. Webinars/livestream

The purpose is to either share knowledge or teach an audience (usually live) how to do something. The video can later be uploaded as a form of video content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn2XCFqREbU

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How to get started with video marketing

Ready to market your business with video? Here’s how to get started.

1. Define your audience

You can’t just create a video and hope that someone will be interested in it. You need to know who should be consuming your content so that you can create content for them.

If you have an existing list of customers, start there. Define who they are, what kind of problems they face, how they found you, and why they choose you over your competitors.

Don’t assume you know the answers. You should actually talk to them. Reach out to your customers and ask if they are OK with jumping on a call with you. Ask them those specific questions and get to know their business. If calls are out of the question, customer surveys work too.

If you don’t have an existing list of customers, then start by thinking of who your product or service serves. Feel free to keep it broader for now.

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For example, as providers of SEO software, something like this makes sense for us:

People who want to drive more traffic to their website(s).

It’s somewhat oversimplified, but it can get us started on the right foot and prevent us from creating content around topics that don’t make sense.

2. Define your primary objective

There are three main categories for objectives.

A. Brand awareness

The goal here is to create videos that make people aware of your existence. After watching your videos, your audience should know your brand name and have an idea of what exactly it is you do.

B. Education

The goal here is to create videos that teach your customers how to solve their problems, especially those that your products help with.

This is basically what we do with our channel: We create tutorials on SEO and marketing strategies, then show our viewers how our tools make the processes easier and more effective.

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C. Entertainment

This is pretty self-explanatory. If you are subscribed to Netflix or Disney+, you already know what this looks like.

For example, the Red Bull YouTube channel does a great job of creating series and videos around extreme sports, effectively drawing in its target customers.

3. Create the video(s)

Since your audience, goals, and creative process will differ from us (and everyone else), it is almost impossible to tell you exactly what to create or how to create it.

But we can discuss a few subcategories that may guide you in the right direction.

A. Planning the video

Before you begin recording or filming the video, you need to plan it out. Specifically, you need to know the topic you’re creating content about.

This depends entirely on your goal.

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If your goal is to create a brand video, ad, or storytelling series, then it’s really up to your creativity and the concept you want to show. There’s no model answer here.

If you’re creating educational content—like what we do—then you can do keyword research to see what kind of topics or questions people are searching for on YouTube.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
  2. Switch the tab to YouTube
  3. Enter a relevant keyword or keywords
  4. Go to the Matching terms report
  5. Switch the tab to Questions

Matching terms report results

Here, we can see over 6,700 questions we can potentially create videos about. Look through the list and pick out those that are relevant.

Recommended reading: How to Do YouTube Keyword Research in 3 Easy Steps

B. Video length

The length of your video is usually determined by your primary objective.

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For example, a brand awareness video can be as short as 15 seconds and usually won’t exceed a couple of minutes. Educational content is usually anywhere from five to 120 minutes. Our videos are around 7–20 minutes long, while a webinar can be up to an hour.

Entertainment-style videos can also vary in duration. This can range from 10 to 180 minutes, depending on the format.

C. Scripting your video

Unless you’re blessed with incredible improvisation skills like Dave Chappelle, we highly recommend that you script your video.

This will make your video recording smoother, prevent bad speaking habits like “ums” and “ahs,” and so on. The last thing you want to do is to go off on a random tangent or click the wrong link in your screencast and end up losing the attention of your audience.

For educational videos, we’ve found a script format that works well for us:

  1. Problem – Lead with the problem your video is solving
  2. Teaser – Show that there’s a solution to the problem without giving it away
  3. Solution – Teach how to solve the problem

For brand and entertaining videos, again, there’s no fixed way of doing things. It’s up to how you want to tell your story. If you’re stuck, I recommend watching this video from YouTuber Casey Neistat on his process of filmmaking:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLSUrTxquyE&ab_channel=CaseyNeistat

D. Recording the video

I asked Sam about a few aspects of the video-making process. Here are his tips:

Location

Sam recommends choosing a location where you can control the environment, specifically the amount of echo and light.

An example is to not film right beside a window because the changing amount of sunlight can affect how your videos look.

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Sam records most of his videos at home:

Sam recording his video behind a black backdrop

Whereas our very own Tim Soulo and Rebekah Bek record their videos in the Ahrefs office:

Rebekah recording her video in Ahrefs' office

Camera

You can start with any modern-day smartphone. If you’re looking for something more “advanced,” you can’t go wrong with a DSLR camera.

Teleprompter

According to Wikipedia, a teleprompter is a display device that prompts the person who is speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script.

Use it if you’re scripting your videos.

Audio

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In Sam’s opinion, this is even more important than the camera equipment you’re using.

While this depends on the type of videos you’re recording, here are Sam’s suggestions based on using a DSLR:

  • Shotgun mic – Good if the subject is in one place (i.e., a “talking head” video)
  • Lavalier mic – Works well if you have multiple subjects or you’re moving around a lot

Lighting

Some people prefer natural lighting, but Sam finds it hard to control. He recommends a key light and a fill light.

Learn how to set up lighting for your YouTube videos here:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXe3rEWrDVg

Soundproofing

When recording, you’ll want to prevent additional or random sounds from affecting your video quality.

For example, you can use furniture to dampen the sound. Sam uses two rugs and a couch; others may use thick moving blankets.

If you have the budget, you may even opt for foam or acoustic panels.

E. Editing the video

Once you’re done with all the recording, it’s time to edit the video. Watch this video to learn how we edit our videos for high engagement:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5EOWffq-gk&ab_channel=Ahrefs

Overcoming common roadblocks and struggles

Making videos does not come naturally to everyone. There are many people who feel awkward in front of the camera. But these roadblocks can be overcome.

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Here are some common struggles and how to overcome them:

1. I’m not good in front of the camera

Watch our videos, and Sam may look like a complete natural in front of the camera. But that only came after years of practice. And still, Sam feels awkward when he has to record.

Don’t feel like you have to be “natural” or get it right the first time. The “trick” to making videos is actually in the editing.

B‑rolls like screencasts, animations, and text screens help to take the attention off Sam while creating a better educational experience.

Another way to combat the jitters is to use the teleprompter. This helps you deliver information without worrying about going off on various tangents.

2. I don’t have equipment or the budget to buy it

You already have one of the most powerful cameras with you. It’s right in your pocket, and it’s called your smartphone.

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In fact, there have been tons of movies made just from phone filmography. You’re overthinking it if you think your smartphone isn’t good enough.

Plus, when we first started our YouTube channel in 2015, Tim, our chief marketing officer, recorded all his tutorials on a GoPro. No fancy cameras, no microphones, and no backdrops—but our channel grew from 0 to 2,600 subscribers in five months.

Line graph showing Ahrefs' subscribers going from 0 to 2,600 in 2015

3. English is not my first language/I have a strong accent

Tim is Ukrainian. English is not his first language. In fact, Tim was worried about this in the beginning and even asked GaryVee how to overcome it.

Watch GaryVee’s advice to Tim on accents:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8CiFPwLOIs&t=303s&ab_channel=GaryVee

How to promote your videos

Don’t publish your video and wait for someone to discover it. Actively promote it to your target audience.

Here are some video promotion tactics you can use:

1. Rank your videos on YouTube and/or Google

One of the best ways to promote your video is to have it rank on YouTube and Google. For as long as your video ranks, you’ll be able to get views continuously over the long term.

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To do this, you need to target video topics people are searching for.

We’ve already shown you how to find these topics for YouTube, so let’s look at how to find these topics for Google.

To rank your video on Google, you need to find topics that have “video intent.” That means that when someone is searching on Google, they will prefer to watch a video about the subject than read something.

Here’s how you find these topics:

  1. Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
  2. Run this search site:youtube.com inurl:watch title:topic
  3. Sort the results by Page traffic
Content Explorer search results

For example, “Beginners Eye Makeup Tutorial” gets around an estimated 15,500 clicks from organic search every month. If you have a beauty channel, it may be worth creating a video on this topic.

Once you have a list of topics, watch this to learn how to create a video that’ll rank:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY3y0V9UDwM

2. Embed your videos on your blog or landing pages

In the past year alone, our YouTube videos got around 275,000 views from our website:

Table showing data for Ahrefs is 275K

This is because we embed our videos almost everywhere—on relevant blog posts, landing pages, and even our homepage:

Ahrefs' video on "what is SEO" embedded on its homepage

Embedding your videos can also help you win a spot in the “Videos” tab on Google:

Google SERP for "how to do affiliate marketing"

The easiest way to begin is to use common sense. If you have a blog post and a video on the same topic, then simply embed the video in that post.

Another option is to look for high-traffic pages that can drive views to your YouTube videos:

  1. Go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
  2. Enter your domain
  3. Go to the Top pages report
Top pages report results

3. Share it with your audience

If you have an existing audience, then you should share your newly published videos with them. This is what we do every time we publish a video.

For example, we share it on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook:

Shared post on Linkedin about DoorDash's landing page; below, picture of Sam riding a bike while carrying a food pack

We also share it in Ahrefs’ Digest, our weekly newsletter:

Article on DoorDash's landing page featured in our newsletter

4. Repurpose your videos

Making a video is hard, hard work. So don’t let it end by just hitting the “publish” button. Make your content go the extra mile by repurposing it.

For example, you can turn your video script into a blog post. We do this often at Ahrefs. In fact, this blog post you’re reading was originally a script (with some additions) from one of our videos. We’ve also done this for other videos too—this post was originally a video.

You can also turn your video into multiple shorter videos. With YouTube Shorts, this can be done quite easily. Just hit “Clip” on any of your videos:

Clipping videos to create a YouTube Short

You can then take this short video and repost it on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

If you’ve created a bunch of videos, you can consider repackaging them into a course. This is exactly what we’ve done with our “Best of AhrefsTV” course:

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"Best of Ahrefs TV" page on Ahrefs Academy; below, Sam holding a logo of YouTube

Finally, if your video is an expert interview or a presentation, you can extract the audio and turn it into a podcast. Many popular podcasters have done this, including Tim Ferriss (YouTube channel/podcast), Peter Attia (YouTub channel/podcast), and more.

Recommended reading: The Complete Guide to Content Repurposing

5. Create “sequels” that keep people hooked

Leave people wanting more by creating a connected series of videos. At the end of your first video, hook them in by leaving some things unsaid and get them to follow your series (or even your channel, if it’s on YouTube).

For example, we did a case study on building links to a statistics page. Rather than give away the entire process in a long video—which people may not watch—we decided to create a series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTF6OBwidhc&list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2u_ABxIRO6RVK3ucKyzn96Y&index=1&ab_channel=Ahrefs

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Then, at the end of each video, we left a call to action (CTA) to tell people to subscribe so they won’t miss out on the next video:

Frame of Sam's video where he does a CTA, telling viewers to check in next week for the next video

6. Run ads

If you have the budget, the best way to get more views for your videos is to pay for them. And you can do that using YouTube ads.

Here are some tips from Sam to get your ads running:

Here are some examples of businesses succeeding with video marketing.

1. Ahrefs

I’ve already discussed a lot about our channel, videos, and results. We’ve used video marketing with great success and have acquired thousands of customers.

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Data on search results for YouTube; below, "29K" appears next to "Messages"

Number of people who have signed up for Ahrefs and indicated that they found us via YouTube.

The strategies and tactics that I’ve talked about in this post are from our experience. If you want to hear from the horse’s mouth, aka Sam, then listen to this podcast that he did on the Growth Marketing Today show.

2. Slidebean

Slidebean is a pitch deck design platform for startups and small businesses. Its YouTube channel covers topics related to startups.

I actually reached out to Caya, Slidebean’s CEO, two years ago to ask about the platform’s YouTube strategy. From what he told me, the strategy was twofold:

  1. A recurring video series about startups that targeted startup-related keywords.
  2. A series called “Company Forensics” focused on targeting topics higher up the marketing funnel and, therefore, generating brand awareness.
"Company Forensics” playlist on YouTube

3. ClickUp

Unlike both Slidebean and us, ClickUp has taken an approach that is more creative. Rather than produce educational content, ClickUp has decided to go for the entertainment angle. Its videos, especially those targeting remote workers returning to the office, are like comedy skits designed for virality.

And it’s working because its videos get millions of views:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olMlR9Mf0I0&ab_channel=ClickUp

This approach is interesting, but it may not be for everyone. ClickUp’s videos seem relatively high-budget, and the main purpose is likely to raise awareness of its brand.

Its space is extremely competitive, with entrenched brands like Monday.com, Asana, Trello, and so on. So this strategy works in the sense that it puts ClickUp’s brand in the minds of its target customers.

Final thoughts

I hope this guide has served as a good primer for understanding and executing video marketing. It should be a decent foundation for learning more about the topic.

Did I miss out on anything important about video marketing? Let me know on Twitter.

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The Most Engaged YouTube Fans For NCAA Basketball Teams

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The Most Engaged YouTube Fans For NCAA Basketball Teams

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

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

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

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

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

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Keep reading, there is method in the madness.

Cognitive, Emotional, And Behavioral Metrics

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

Image from IAB, March 2024

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

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

That’s why this hypothetical assignment is so hard.

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

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

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

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

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

Here are six behavioral metrics worth exploring to measure engagement:

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

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

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

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

They did – and it appears below.

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

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

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

The timeline is February only.

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Men’s Basketball

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

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

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

Men's basketball engagement dataImage from Pixability, March 2024

Women’s Basketball

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

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

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

Women's basketball engagement dataImage from Pixability, March 2024

Men’s Vs. Women’s Teams And YoY Stats

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

Views By Popular Basketball Players

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Engagement Data for PlayersImage from Pixability, March 2024

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

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

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Hey, you make the call.

How Marketers Can Use Insights Into The Most Engaged Fans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How SEO Pros Can Use This Information, Too

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

Well, I’m sad to say that some won’t.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But, as Google has said,

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

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

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

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

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

More resources:


Featured Image: adriaticfoto/Shutterstock

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7 Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses

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7 Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the basics of optimizing your profile:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Search Google

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

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

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

Find the directories your competitors are listed on

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

Here’s how to do it in Ahrefs:

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

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

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

Not sure who your competitors are?

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

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How to find competitorsHow to find competitors

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

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

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

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

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

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

Example of a 404 page issueExample of a 404 page issue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s how to do it:

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

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

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

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

Sidenote.

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

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

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

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

My process went a little like this:

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s how you can do that in Ahrefs:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can this also help you rank higher?

In all likelihood, yes.

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

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

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

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

Here are a few ideas:

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

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

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

Sidenote.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FAQs

What is small business SEO?

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

What are the benefits of small business SEO?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A Comprehensive On-Page SEO Checklist for 2024

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A Comprehensive On-Page SEO Checklist for 2024

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

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

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

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

Let’s run through everything real quick.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Few best practices to keep in mind:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sidenote.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How? By optimizing our page for search intent.

Here’s what the page looked like before:

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

Here’s what it looks like now:

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

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

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

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

But how did we know what searchers wanted?

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

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

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

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

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

There are a few ways you can do this.

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Manually check the top-ranking pages

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

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

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

Check the keyword rankings of top-ranking pages

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

Here’s how to find these keywords:

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

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

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

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

Find subtopics with the help of AI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flash your credentials

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

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

Put your uniqueness front and center

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sidenote.

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

Here are a few more tips to improve readability:

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

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

Featured snippets in search resultsFeatured snippets in search results

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

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

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

Here’s what happened:

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

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How to find featured snippet opportunitiesHow to find featured snippet opportunities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filenames are descriptive

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

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

Alt text is present and descriptive

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

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

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

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

Images are compressed

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

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

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

To find relevant opportuntities, use Ahrefs’ Site Audit:

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

Sidenote.

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

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Pay attention to these columns:

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

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

Example of an internal linking opportunityExample of an internal linking opportunity

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

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

This is something we regularly do on the Ahrefs blog:

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

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

To find relevant opportunities, use Ahrefs’ Site Audit:

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

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

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

Example internal linking opportunityExample internal linking opportunity

If we search that page, this is the mention:

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

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

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

What rich results look likeWhat rich results look like

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

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

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

Keep learning

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

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