SEO has changed; long gone are the days of keyword stuffing working like magic, now search engines prioritise content that actually understands what people are looking for. Context is key, and a comprehensive, thorough understanding of topics will get you noticed by Google. In other words, SEO really is a matter of semantics these days.
But what does this all mean in practice for us SEOs and content writers? Maybe youโre aware of the notion โsemantic SEOโ but donโt have a clue how to action it. I have good news for you, this blog will cover exactly that – practical tips and pointers to get you optimising your site with semantic SEO in mind. Weโll begin by giving you a quick dummyโs guide to semantic SEO, before explaining why itโs quite so important to increase your conversions and lastly, providing you with our practical guidance on how to do it.
Whoโs this blog useful for? If youโre struggling to get your small business noticed online, writing blogs but failing to rank on page 1, or simply want to increase your companyโs conversions, you wonโt want to skip out on semantic SEO.
However, we know that time is of the essence, and if you donโt have a whole five minutes to listen to us rant about semantics, here are the key takeaways in advance:
๐Post โHummingbirdโ, โRankBrainโ and the Helpful Content Update, Google is prioritising understanding what users are really searching for. Your content needs to anticipate their questions and address a topic comprehensively.
๐Create high quality, long, in-depth content that gives the user everything theyโre after. This will keep them and Google happy, reducing your bounce rate and improving conversion rates.
๐Donโt be afraid to enlist the help of tools like Salient to assess content relevance, or Answer The Public to accurately discover what users are asking.
What is Semantic SEO?
Semantic SEO, in a nutshell, is the practice of optimising content for meaning, not just keywords. As SEOs, itโs about adjusting our process a bit, considering what users are searching for, and thinking about the overall context of a page. Itโs a smarter and more comprehensive approach that goes deeper to ensure that Google understands our content and that it meets user intent.
Now Iโm not here to give you a full lecture on search engine history, but there are a handful of developments to be aware of that might just help clarify semantic SEO.
โก๏ธIn 2013, the โhummingbird algorithmโ was launched, changing the way Google worked. It was a major deal, ushering in an era of prioritising user experience and actually understanding the meaning behind search queries. No longer was Google only looking for keywords, now it was also understanding the relationships between words.
โก๏ธThen, 2015 saw another major leap with the introduction of RankBrain, a machine learning model that could analyse vast amounts of search and user behaviour data. Like Hummingbird, it was looking to understand the intent behind what they type into the search bar.
โก๏ธThe last update relevant to semantic search is BERT, arriving in October 2019 and using a new machine to better understand the relationship between words.
โก๏ธSo, fast forward to today, Google is in its prime of understanding queries. With the rise of Siri and voice search, the algorithm now delivers pages of relevant results from just a couple of idiomatic words said into a phone. And when itโs scanning our sites, itโs specifically looking for content that addresses a topic comprehensively. In response, our content needs to match the algorithmsโ human-like understanding of meaning – foreseeing and answering all the related questions people will have.
Whatโs in it for you (and your business)?
We get it, this might all seem like a bit of a faff, and chucking a few keywords into your blog is far less complicated. But, we promise that it pays to put the time and effort into semantic SEO. Hereโs why:
โ The biggest advantage of focusing on semantic SEO is that itโs a proven way to rank in the search results! From the algorithm history you just endured, it should be clear that drumming down on this semantic approach gets you in Googleโs good books.
โ Not only will you rank high, but youโll end up ranking high for more keywords. By covering a topic in-depth, you naturally weave in related keywords, making your content show up for lots more searches, and therefore reaching a wider audience of potential buyers.
โ Semantic SEO is also the secret to the coveted โPeople Also Askโ spots at the top of the SERPs. With a semantic strategy, youโre anticipating user questions by covering all angles of a certain topic. This hugely increases your chances of appearing in those answer snippets.
โ Once the users have found your page, you want them to stay. And yes, you guessed it, semantic SEO also works in your favour here. Content that tackles a topic comprehensively keeps users engaged, so youโll see a lower bounce rate. Consider this, if youโre answering every question they have and providing everything they need, they wonโt be bothered about clicking off to go elsewhere.
โ Plus, this also sends positive quality signals to Google. With the recent Helpful Content Updates, Google knows if your content is helpful and you canโt trick the system Iโm afraid. By focusing on semantics, you show Google that our content is not only relevant to the search query but also informative, engaging and worthy of those top positions.
โ But techy waffle aside, all this matters because increased user traffic, and lower bounce rate leads toโฆ (drumroll please) conversions and sales! And thatโs what youโre all ultimately after, right?
How to actually do semantic SEO
You work in marketing so I can already tell that you love your actionable takeaways – do not worry, the next section will be painfully practical. Letโs crack on with what your SEO team should be tackling day to day to tick the semantic boxes.
Work on understanding user intent
Not to be dramatic but if you donโt understand your target audienceโs search intent, you might as well throw in the towel now. Google prioritises addressing user intent as closely as possible so, essentially, you need to become a mind reader. Put yourself in their shoes, picture your target audience, what do they wear, what do they eat for breakfast. Seriously though, what problems are they trying to solve and what questions might they have after reading your content.
Letโs say youโre targeting the keyword โhow to grow tomatoesโ for your greenhouse business. Not only will they be searching this question and similar semantically-related terms, but also:
~Ideal planting conditions for tomatoes.
~Tips on watering and fertilizing tomato plants.
~Common tomato plant pests and diseases, and how to control them.
~Information on harvesting and storing homegrown tomatoes.
~Recipes that use fresh tomatoes.
You need to provide content tackling all of these areas of the topic, or the user will simply click off and find the answers elsewhere!
Create high-quality, in-depth content
Semantic SEO means creating in-depth, detailed and complex content. I hate to break it to you, but a 500 word, blog post is just not going to cut it. Youโre likely going to need a couple thousand words to cover the topic comprehensively. I promise itโs not as scary as it sounds – begin with a substantial brief to ensure youโre addressing every angle, and to get a digestible structure planned. It might even be worth hitting up ChatGPT for some help here (gasp), just to help you spot anything youโve missed. But please leave the actual writing to the humans in your team, quality trumps quantity and a long but AI-generated blog post is not going to do you any favours.
What you should and shouldโt be including in this content
Focus on creating comprehensive content that incorporates related terms naturally but donโt sweat worrying about every long-tail variation. With Semantic Search, the algorithms recognise connections between similar long-tail keywords (like โhow to tell when tomatoes are ripeโ and โare my tomatoes ready to be pickedโ). Google gets that these terms fall under the same topic.
Prioritise in-depth content that meets usersโ needs and donโt forget to answer those People Also Ask questions. According to a study of 2.5 million search queries, this feature now shows up for almost half of all search queries, and this is often above position 1!
Schema
Schema, also known as structured data markup, acts like a translator, providing Google with a better understanding of your content. With schema, youโre essentially labelling the different elements to make it easier for search engines to understand the context. This could include things like โbrand nameโ, โlocationโ, โpriceโ.
It paints a clear picture for search engines; semantic SEO focuses on the meaning behind the words on your page, but search engines still rely on code to interpret information. Schema bridges this gap by providing a structured way to communicate the meaning of your content.
Tools to help you out with Semantic SEO
There are a number of tools out there that come in handy with semantic SEO. Here are our tried and tested top 3:
This tool measures the relevance of your content for certain target keywords, using a technology that replicates search engine algorithms, to show you what theyโre likely to be picking up. It analyses the use of synonyms, related terms, and concepts within your content to assess if it comprehensively addresses the topic. Plus, the text comparison tool lets you see how edits impact your contentโs relevance score. So, instead of relying on what you โthinkโ might work, this tool is your best bet to get a realistic idea of how relevant your content is.
Answer The Public compiles data from search engines to show you the most searched questions around your topic or keyword, usefully grouped into categories like โprepositionsโ and โcomparisonsโ. This is great for semantic SEO because it lays the userโs intent out plain to see, allowing you to tailor your content to directly answer their questions and provide the most informative page for them. It will also help with showing you long-tail, less competitive keywords and by incorporating these, you can reach users who might be using different phrasing but have the same intent.
Similar to Answer The Public, Also Asked pulls together data directly from Google searches to show you themost asked questions around a topic – all presented in an easily digestible mind-map format. Understanding your audienceโs issues and questions is essential not only for semantic SEO, but for any successful marketing strategy – you wonโt regret giving this tool a go.
So there we have it, your ultimate guide to semantic SEO that should leave you prepped and ready to create comprehensive, contextual, and converting content. Google wonโt know whatโs hit it.
Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning SEO agency with a proven track record of boosting online traffic and conversions for both small companies and large corporations. Want to leave it to the pros? We donโt blame you – drop us a line at [email protected].
In the dynamic world of digital marketing, the crossover between SEO and Digital PR is becoming increasingly vital. SEO and Digital PR are both crucial if you are looking to increase your brand visibility and online presence, and even though they can be viewed as separate roles, collaboration is absolutely essential. By collaborating your SEO and Digital PR strategies, you can successfully achieve brand awareness, increased visibility and more sales.ย
In the past, Digital PR agencies and SEO have been seen as completely separate entities, both completed by separate teams with no involvement. However, as high quality links and brand reputation have become more important for improving organic search results, collaboration between SEO and DPR is now extremely valuable. By integrating the two, both elements work together to increase each otherโs impact.
Why Is Integrating SEO And Digital PR Essential?
โก๏ธ Enhanced Online Visibility
SEO and Digital PR both aim to increase a brandโs online visibility. While SEO efforts focus on on-page efforts, DPR focuses on off-site but both can have a massive impact on driving more organic traffic to a website. When SEO and DPR teams work together, they can target the same areas of a website, and produce on-site and off-site content to increase rankings and visibility.
When SEO and Digital PR teams work together, they can identify high-value opportunities and target these together to increase visibility. Quality backlinks from Digital PR efforts can enhance domain authority, making it easier for SEO initiatives to achieve better results in the SERPs, alongside on-site optimisations, this can have a huge impact on SEO performance.
Successful Digital PR strategies can also drive targeted traffic to your website and this is a great opportunity for SEO teams to provide Digital PR teams with information about high intent traffic which will be valuable for the brand and the Digital PR team can then use this data to inform their strategies and create campaigns that will attract the right type of traffic. This collaboration can work really well and generate high intent users for your website. Product placements are an example where this can be extremely effective.
โก๏ธ High Quality Content
Combining SEOโs data driven approach to keyword research with PRโs storytelling expertise can result in content that ranks well and engages readers. Both teams can ensure that the content is interesting for users, but also optimised for search engines, and this can also make it compelling enough to attract media attention. Sometimes, you donโt even need to outreach your Digital PR work, you can make the journalists come to you – by targeting relevant keywords and providing data hubs within your content, you can gain natural backlinks without the need for any contact with journalists. However, in order for this to work successfully, it is absolutely imperative that the SEO and Digital PR experts are working together. You can read more about this reverse digital pr strategy in our blog talking all about reverse Digital PR and how it works.
High quality content is a must for SEO and Digital PR, and by working together, you can create content that is fit for both SEO and Digital PR purposes.
โก๏ธ Building Brand Authority And Trust
Building brand authority and E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) signals is essential for organic performance and one of the many ways to do this and potentially one of the most direct crossovers between SEO and Digital PR is link building. Gaining high quality backlinks from reputable sites is key for SEO performance – it will make the brand more trustworthy in the eyes of search engines and consumers and it can significantly boost the websiteโs authority and online visibility. This therefore makes Digital PR an essential part of all modern SEO strategies and when both teams work together seamlessly, it can make this process much more effective.
โก๏ธ Measuring Success
Having a unified approach between SEO and Digital PR will also allow for a more comprehensive set of metrics to measure campaign success. By combining SEO and Digital PR data and analytics, you can gain deeper insights into how both efforts are performing together and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Overall, incorporating your SEO and Digital PR strategies goes much further than immediate online visibility but it helps build a strong foundation for long term success in the online space. By understanding these benefits, you can effectively collaborate your SEO and DIgital PR efforts to create an extremely strong online presence.
How Can Digital PR And SEO Teams Collaborate?
โก๏ธ Align Strategies
The first step when Digital PR and SEO teams are collaborating on any project or account is to start working together from the very beginning. Both teams should align their objectives and these can be increasing organic traffic, enhancing brand awareness and visibility, or boosting engagement – whatever the goals and objectives are, it is important that both teams are on the same page so that all strategies and projects moving forwards are focused on the same outcomes.
โก๏ธ Share Keyword Research and Insights
SEO teams should consistently share keyword research and insights with the Digital PR team so that they can be aware of topics that are newsworthy and have a high search potential. This can help to inform strategy for Digital PR campaigns and ensure they are relevant, but it can also help ensure that all Digital PR content is optimised for SEO from the outset so that it can be uploaded to the website for SEO purposes as well as outreached for Digital PR.
โก๏ธ Coordinate Content Creation
High quality content takes time to write, and with both SEO and Digital PR teams having expertise in content creation, these teams should definitely be sharing their content with each other. Digital PR teams will often be creating data hubs of content that would be absolutely perfect for the website, by sharing this content, the SEO team can ensure it is targeting the right keywords and once this has been uploaded to the website, it can attract traffic and potentially even receive natural backlinks – a win win situation which would have potentially have been missed if there was no crossover between the two teams. Likewise, SEO teams will also be creating highly targeted content that the Digital PR team can utilise for their benefit as well.
โก๏ธ Cross Team Collaboration
Overall, creating collaboration between SEO and Digital PR teams needs to focus on consistent communication and teamwork between both teams. This can be achieved through joint training sessions, regular check-ins, collaborative brainstorming and shared tracking tools to ensure everyone is at the same stage throughout the whole strategy.
Summary
For any business looking to enhance their online presence, it is absolutely essential that Digital PR and SEO teams are working together. When these two teams collaborate, they can create a cohesive strategy that will amplify the impact of both efforts. High quality backlinks from reputable media sources can significantly impact SEO results, and SEO insights can guide DPR efforts to target topics that will drive high intent traffic and engagement.
The synergy between Digital PR and SEO will not only maximise brand exposure and authority, but will also ensure a strategic approach to content creation and online marketing, ultimately leading to increased visibility, traffic and conversions for the business.
At Cedarwood Digital, our SEO and Digital PR teams are constantly working together to drive online visibility for a range of businesses. If you are looking to boost the online presence of your business through Digital PR and SEO, make sure to get in touch with us today.
Thereโs no question that e-commerce is thriving; e-commerce sales are forecasted to make up a huge 23% of global retail sales by 2027. Weโre seeing social media platforms increasingly integrating shopping features and live shopping experiences gaining traction on platforms like TikTok. Weโre certainly in a new era of e-commerce but how can traditional e-commerce sites still ensure theyโre getting seen? The answer is link-building. Itโs an absolute necessity for e-commerce businesses aiming for growth and brand recognition.
This guide is going to explain exactly what youโre missing out on if digital PR isnโt yet part of your e-commerce strategy and give you the techniques our experts canโt live without.
Why your e-commerce site needs digital PR
In this saturated market, customers now, more than ever, need to really trust a brand to want to purchase from them. In fact, according to Edelmanโs Trust Barometer, Gen Z exhibits the highest need for brand trust, with 79% saying it is more important to trust the brands they buy today than in the past. Digital PR is the key to building that trust and establishing your brand as an authority.
But alongside this, digital PR helps strengthen your brand image, attract relevant traffic and boost your organic search ranking for competitive keywords. When high-quality external sites link to your e-commerce store, search engines perceive your website as more authoritative and trustworthy. This translates to improved rankings for relevant keywords in search engine results pages – bingo.
A well-crafted digital PR strategy will secure backlinks not just to your homepage, but also to product and category pages. This “deeper link building” helps you rank higher for specific products and high-intent pages in the SERPs.
If your e-commerce site has physical stores, digital PR will also work in your favour. Press releases can be outreached to specifically target local publications, building brand awareness in your local community.
Plus, the benefits of digital PR extend to your paid campaigns too, enhancing their performance and maximising your return on investment. This is because digital PR can generate positive brand mentions and reviews online and, by incorporating reviews into your landing pages, you add social proof and enhance the credibility of your paid ads.
Whilst things like brand awareness and credibility are important, what weโre all ultimately after in e-commerce is a boost in sales. Digital PR goes beyond vanity metrics – each link, brand mention, and boost in authority helps an e-commerce site outrank their competitors, and get customers on their side. In other words, you significantly increase your conversions!
How to do digital PR for e-commerce: our tips
๐งทProduct placements
On the topic of trust, product placements are your golden ticket. If a trusted reviewer (say GQ or Vogue) features your new sandal range in their โ22024 summer holiday must-havesโ list, thatโs a powerful way to earn trust and stand out – in a natural way. These high-authority platforms have thousands of readers, and therefore, just as many potential customers for your products.
Focus on reaching out to publications and review websites that resonate with your brand values. And remember that product placement isnโt just a transaction – you want to build a relationship. Offer journalists early access to new products, and provide valuable industry insights alongside your product details.
We leveraged this technique successfully with our garden furniture client, Hayes Garden World. We used a mixture of media monitoring, and proactive outreach to get our products featured. With this approach, we landed over 65 linked product placements in a year, with ยฃ47,000 in referral sales generated! Told you product placements work. Make sure to have a Dropbox file of high-resolution images ready to go, so you can jump on trends and turn a product placement around quickly.
๐งทInternal data
Due to the online interactions on an e-commerce site, they have a far bigger pool of internal data compared to traditional stores. This is because e-commerce sites can track every click, search and product interaction, which provides heaps of insight into browsing habits and product preferences. Additionally, e-commerce platforms often collect customer information like their demographics and purchase history.
Why does this matter? Sales data and customer behaviour patterns can be the foundation for compelling digital PR stories that will stand out in journalistsโ inboxes and secure you those valuable links. This is completely unique data and analysis that only you have access to and will attract outlets looking for fresh, data-driven content. Itโs also worth analysing customer data anyway to help you tailor your digital PR messaging. Internal data can help you understand your audienceโs wants, needs and pain points, which will inform more effective campaigns.
๐งทContent marketing
Great content is a magnet for backlinks and serves as a relatively low-maintenance technique to help attract customers and journalists to your site. We call this approach โreverse digital PRโ and hereโs how it works:
Start by analysing your website to identify areas where you could establish yourself as a data hub. This could be through informative blog posts, buying guides, in-depth industry reports, or even infographics. Consider what information your target audience is after and what content gaps exist within your niche.
Whilst not essential, incorporating data into your content will boost its authority and newsworthiness. You can leverage internal sales data, customer behavior patterns, or commission external surveys, all to produce content thatโs unique and engaging.
Present this information in a clear and visually appealing way, then optimise your content with keywords to ensure it ranks well in the SERPs. If it isnโt ranking, how are journalists and customers going to find it!
Now, you can sit back and watch as you attract backlinks naturally, without the need for constant outreach. Journalists and other websites looking for insightful information to add credibility to their articles, will come across your data and (hopefully) link back, boosting your siteโs authority and visibility.
๐งทGuest-posting
Guest posting allows you to share your expertise and build valuable backlinks to your e-commerce site. The way this works is you contribute an informative article to relevant industry publications with larger audiences. Youโll then ideally receive a do-follow backlink within the guest post, which acts as a vote of confidence, boosting your siteโs authority and ranking. Equally, guest posting exposes your brand and products to a wider audience, and this increased visibility leads to more traffic and potential sales.
๐งทKeep your eye out for unlinked mentions
Even mentions of your brand that donโt link to you are valuable – identifying them using a tool like Google Alerts allows you to then reach out to the site owner or article author. Offer additional information or propose a content collaboration, and this could potentially lead to a backlink. Even if you donโt secure a link, this mention is still increasing your brand awareness by getting your name in front of a new audience, so donโt discount it!
Whether you sell dog bowls, windshields, or Bakewell tarts, youโre setting yourself up for success by following the steps in this guide. In 2024, prioritising digital PR within your e-commerce digital marketing strategy is a need and a must. Without it, youโre missing out on valuable links, traffic, and most importantly, paying customers!
Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning digital PR agency specialising in landing reputable links and coverage for e-commerce businesses. If youโre looking for a hand with your digital PR, go ahead and drop us a message – weโd love to hear from you.
When carrying out SEO keyword research, youโll probably start with high search volume, low-competition keywords – and thatโs great because these are popular keywords covering topics that users want to know about. So why should you bother targeting low volume keywords?
Zero volume keywords can often be overlooked in your SEO strategy, however targeting these low volume keywords can be very strategic and beneficial. In this blog we will be discussing what zero volume keywords are, why you should be targeting them within your SEO strategy and how to effectively incorporate them.
What Are Zero Search Volume Keywords?
Zero search volume keywords are search terms that, according to keyword research tools, have little to no monthly search volume meaning these particular keywords are not frequently searched for by users. However, despite their apparent lack of popularity, they can be highly valuable for your SEO strategy.
Why You Should Target Zero Volume Keywords
According to Google, 15% of searches that they see every day are brand new searches, never seen before. There are trillions of searches on Google every year so 15% is an extremely high number, and all of these keywords will have zero search volume but could still be extremely valuable to target and hereโs why:
โก๏ธ Less Competitionย
One of the biggest benefits of targeting zero volume keywords is the significantly reduced competition. A large proportion of zero volume keywords will be low competition as well as low volume meaning you will be more likely to rank highly for these terms.
โก๏ธ High Intentย
Often, low search volume, low competition keywords are long-tail keywords that are more specific and relevant to users. For example, the term โgarden furnitureโ has a monthly search volume of 141,000 and is deemed โhardโ to rank for. However, if you take this keyword and make it more specific, for example โbrown wooden garden furnitureโ which has a monthly search volume of 0-10, you are targeting a much more specific item and the user is more likely to be a high intent user if they are searching for that term rather than a generalistic term.
While โgarden furnitureโ has a lot more search volume, and you will likely gain more traffic, if you are selling brown wooden garden furniture, you will want to be targeting users who are looking for that specific product. With the right high intent keywords, you could see your conversion rate and revenue increase even with less traffic.
Zero volume keywords often do reflect very specific queries with high intent, and users searching for these terms are often looking for very particular information, products or services. It is likely that these users are going to be further down the sales funnel and by targeting these keywords, you can attract a highly targeted audience that is more likely to convert.
โก๏ธ Future Trendsย
Zero volume keywords can sometimes indicate emerging trends and as new topics gain popularity, search volumes will naturally increase. By targeting these keywords early, before any of your competitors, you can use your expertise and position yourself as an authority in your niche before your competitors catch on. By creating authoritative, helpful content and getting it to rank well before search volume increases, you can have already gained valuable traffic and be in the best position when more users start searching for the same queries.
How To Find Low Volume Keywords
The first step in utilising zero volume keywords in your SEO strategy is to find them. Below are some tips for conducting keyword research for these low volume search terms:
โก๏ธ Use keyword research tools
Keyword research tools such as Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush can help you to identify zero search volume keywords. These tools allow you to filter keywords based on their search volume and keyword difficulty and can help you to identify potential zero volume keywords to target in your SEO strategy.
โก๏ธ Look for long-tail keywordsย
Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad search terms and they can often have lower search volumes but be extremely relevant to your target audience. Looking for these long-tail keywords will allow you to target your content to match high intent keywords.
โก๏ธ Analyse your websiteโs search queriesย
Analysing queries that are driving traffic to your website will be a great way to find keywords that are extremely relevant for your users. You can use Google Search Console to look at queries that are driving traffic to your website and you can then look for the queries that have low search volume but drive a high click through rate to find relevant, high intent, low volume keywords that you should be targeting within your SEO strategy.
โก๏ธ Conduct a competitor analysisย
Analyse your competitors’ websites to see what keywords they are targeting and look for any gaps or opportunities where you can target zero volume keywords that you may have missed.
Once you have compiled a list of zero volume keywords, you can then start optimising your website to target these keywords and bring in high intent traffic to your website.
How To Incorporate Zero Volume Keywords When Optimising Your Website For SEO
Now that you have a thorough list of zero volume keywords that are extremely relevant to your offering, you can incorporate them into your SEO strategy.
The following tips will help you when optimising your website for targeting zero volume keywords:
โก๏ธ Use keywords in your contentย
In order to target the zero volume keywords from the previous list you have created, you should use these keywords naturally throughout your content. You can create blog posts answering specific queries, or include keywords in product descriptions. Including zero volume keywords naturally in your content will help you to target and rank for these highly relevant and targeted keywords, just ensure you donโt keyword stuff.
โก๏ธ Optimise meta data
Incorporate your keywords into your page titles and meta descriptions to help Google and other search engines understand the relevance of your content for specific keywords, queries and topics.
โก๏ธ Focus on quality contentย
When creating content that is targeting zero volume keywords, it is important to create high quality content that is helpful for your users. While it is likely going to be easier to rank for low volume keywords because they do typically have a lower keyword difficulty, it is still vital to create quality content that is answering your users questions and meeting their needs.
โก๏ธ Use internal linksย
Use internal linking to connect content throughout your website. This can be particularly useful when you are creating blog content that is targeting long-tail keywords that are giving users further information about your product or service – linking these blogs to the main service or category page can not only act as a great CTA for users but it will also help distribute link equity to your important pages.
โก๏ธ Monitor performanceย
Once you have optimised your website and targeted your list of zero volume keywords, you should regularly monitor the performance of how these keywords are performing. Use tools like GA4 and Google Search Console to track traffic, engagement, conversions and revenue to see how your webpages are performing and which zero volume keywords are bringing in high intent, converting traffic. This will help you to adjust your strategy based on the data to continuously improve your SEO performance.
Summary
Targeting zero volume keywords can be a game changer for your SEO strategy. By focusing on low volume, low competition, high intent keywords, you can attract targeted users and potentially increase conversions and revenue for your business. Targeting zero volume keywords shouldnโt be your entire SEO strategy but by incorporating them in your strategy and focusing on only relevant keywords, you can easily boost your overall SEO performance.
To find out more or to receive help with incorporating zero volume keywords into your SEO strategy, get in touch with us today and our team of SEO experts can help take your SEO game to the next level.
At Cedarwood, we use a tried and tested technique to build links and drive site traffic without the need for any outreach at all. Yep, you heard that right – we like to call it Reverse Digital PR and itโs our secret to low-maintenance link-building. Stay tuned for a run-down of what exactly reverse PR is, why itโs so valuable and a couple of case studies where weโve used it successfully.
So, what is Reverse Digital PR?
As PRs we spend most of our time crafting content we think journalists will love, outreaching it and hoping for the best. But, with reverse digital PR weโre inviting the journalists to come to us. With this strategy, you create a data piece for your website, with the intention that journalists find it when looking for a resource, and link back to it. This works because journalists often search for data and statistics online to back up their articles and add credibility. It flips the traditional PR approach on its head; instead of chasing journalists, you create valuable data hubs that attract them to your content. The benefits are countless, it saves you time and energy, whilst being a great way to organically attract links, drive links, and boost E-E-A-T signals.
How does it work?
Well it sounds good in principle, but how does reverse digital PR actually work in practice?
๐First, identify areas of your brand where youโre hoping to gain additional visibility and where you could feasibly create a high-quality data hub of facts or stats. For example, if your company is a travel agency and youโre hoping to increase search engine visibility for accommodation pages, a data hub comparing the average accommodation costs across popular destinations could be an effective reverse digital PR strategy.
๐The next step is to then make the hub! You can gather the data in a few ways. To make your piece unique and fresh, so that journalists couldnโt find this information elsewhere, it can be a good idea to gather your own internal data. This can be done by:
>>Commissioning surveys, although an additional cost will come with this
>>Analysing your own sales data to identify customer trends or popular products
>>Using tools like Google Analytics to determine user demographics or conversion rates in your customer base
>>Analysing the social media data to understand how audiences are interacting with your brand
You can also gather external data from various public data sources online. Take a look at Statista, ONS, Centre for Cities and NHS digital for free data.
๐Once youโve sourced the data, nowโs time to present it in the best way possible. You want the piece to be easily digestible, laid out in a clever format, and also optimised for search engines – a lot to ask I know. But this is all crucial to ensure you rank well so that the journalists can actually find the page!
Why is Reverse Digital PR so valuable?
You should have gathered by now that reverse digital pr is a pretty good idea. But what are the specific advantages it offers in comparison to traditional methods like newsjacking?
๐ Instead of constantly chasing down journalists, reverse digital PR lets your content do the heavy lifting. By providing valuable data journalists actively seek out, you attract coverage organically.
๐A well-crafted data piece on your website can generate ongoing value. Unlike a one-time press release, this content continues to attract journalists and relevant traffic over time.
๐A good piece of reverse digital PR will also work wonders for the good old E-E-A-T signals. Presenting original research or analysis solidifies your expertise, and is made more credible by the data or statistics. To make extra sure that the page contributes to E-E-A-T, ensure your data comes from credible sources, and is presented clearly. Also, itโs a good idea to update the information regularly to keep it relevant and accurate.
A couple of examples
1)Using Reverse Digital PR to naturally attract links to Patient Claim Lineโs website
Patient Claim Line is a leader in the medical negligence field, which is increasingly competitive and sitting within the Your Money, Your Life category. Within these verticals, itโs especially important to display E-E-A-T signals so we decided to create a valuable data hub on their website. We focused on cosmetic surgery statistics as this was an area of the site we were looking to boost visibility for. Previously, weโd relied on creating journalist-friendly content and outreaching it as a traditional campaign, but here, the plan was to simply create a hub and wait for the journalists to find us.
The page was designed to inform the user of information and up to date statistics around cosmetic surgery in 2022. We included fresh data from our own survey to ensure the information was as useful and unique as possible. Then, we presented it in a user-friendly format and optimised it to rank well.
As a result, the page ranked in position #3 for โcosmetic surgery dataโ, and has attracted thousands of visitors since its inception. We keep it updated regularly and receive a number of great links, from publications we wouldnโt usually reach.
2)Using the same strategy to drive links to our own website
Back in Valentines 2020, we created a hub of seasonal trend data. We included data around valentines day keywords, compared different types of searches e.g. โgift for boyfriendโ vs. โgift for girlfriendโ and fun facts like the increase in searches for โbridget jonesโ on valentinesโ day.
The aim was to create a hub of information that users and journalists might be searching for, but for it to also be an article of genuine interest around the when and how of user search intent. The idea was that journalists might be keen to pick it up as a topical interest article – and even now, four years later, we still attract seasonal traffic to the page at the same time of year.
All thatโs needed is to refresh the content each year and the page continues to bring in traffic and links, with very little maintenance required. This same concept can then be applied to other seasonal trends, for example we produced a similar hub in March looking at the most popular easter eggs.
Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning digital marketing agency based in Manchester. If you like the sound of a reverse digital PR strategy or you want to enquire more about our white label digital pr service, why not get in touch with us to find out how we can help get you media coverage for your business. Fill in our quick form here.
Creating blog content has many benefits when it comes to SEO including providing E-E-A-T signals, increasing organic traffic, generating brand awareness, and increasing engagement. However, another extremely important reason is to increase conversions. Creating blog content that not only attracts customers but also converts them, is therefore a skill that is definitely worth mastering. After all, according to HubSpot, more than one in three marketing leaders cite conversion rates as a top KPI that they prioritise tracking.
In this blog, we will explore how to create SEO blog content that converts your users.
Understanding The Userโs Buying Journey
The first step when creating blog content that converts is understanding your userโs buying journey. This is a crucial step and will likely consist of the following stages:
Awareness – during the first stage, the user has become aware of a problem or need that they have and they are looking for information and solutions.
2. Consideration – the next stage is consideration, and during this stage the users are evaluating different options and looking at the benefits and drawbacks of potential solutions. They are researching products and services that would meet their needs.ย
3. Purchase – during this stage, the user is ready to make a purchase, they have narrowed down their options and are now looking to convert.ย
Understanding each stage of the buying journey will help you tailor your SEO blog content to meet the needs of your users at every stage. By providing valuable information, addressing concerns and offering support throughout the whole process, you can address all the needs of your customers and therefore increase the chance of conversions.
Within understanding the user’s buying journey, it is also important to understand your target audience and who is going to be buying your products or services. Think about demographics, struggles and pain points, knowledge gaps, and objectives. This will allow you to create a persona that you are writing for and every piece of content that you create can be completely targeted to your audience who will likely have a high intent.
Keyword Research
Once you have figured out the userโs buying journey, you need to see what they are searching for when they are looking for your product/ service. Keyword research forms the foundation of all successful SEO strategies, but in order to create content that resonates with your users at each stage of the buying journey, you must categorise your keywords into the buying journey.
Awareness – these keywords will be informational keywords that users are typically searching for when they are in the awareness stage. For example: โhow to solveโฆโ, โtips for โฆโ, โwhat is aโฆโ and โwhat are the benefits ofโฆโ.
2. Consideration – these keywords will be focused on helping users weigh up their options. For example: โwhat are the bestโฆโ, โreviews ofโฆโ and โwhat are the differences betweenโฆโ.
3. Purchase – these keywords will be much more specific and will have a strong purchase intent. For example: โbuyโฆ.โ and โ… near meโ.
By sorting your keywords into categories, you can make sure that your blog content is tailored to your users and it will be addressing their needs and preferences at every stage of their buying journey. Keyword research can be done in a variety of ways and you can read our guide to keyword research here to find out how you can effectively carry out keyword research for SEO. However, as well as the traditional ways of carrying out keyword research, it can also be extremely valuable to speak to your customer service team and find out what your actual customers are asking, because the chances are, other users will want the same information and you will be able to provide extremely valuable information, and this could make users more likely to convert if they have that important information easily available to them.
Competitor Research
Another important step when creating blog content that converts is to research what your competitors are writing about. Researching and analysing your competitors’ blog strategy can provide you with valuable insights and inspiration for your own blog content. It is important to identify competitors within your industry and have a look into the following:
โก๏ธ What topics they are coveringย
โก๏ธ How they are targeting keywords that are closely related to the buying journeyย
โก๏ธ What sorts of content formats they are using (guides, reviews, tipsโฆ)
โก๏ธ If there are any gaps or opportunities that you can capitalise on
Competitor research and analysis can provide you with inspiration on what you should be focusing your content on, but it can also allow you to see areas where you can outperform your competitors. If there is an area of need that you have identified your users are looking for but your competitors are not writing about it, this does not mean that you also shouldnโt write about it, you absolutely should! These can be niche areas that can bring in valuable, high intent traffic and can give you that edge over your competitors.
Using tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush can be extremely helpful when conducting competitor research and can give you plenty of actionable insights for your SEO blog content strategy.
Internal Linking
If you are creating blog content that you want to convert, internal linking will be your best friend and you need to ensure you do not abandon it. Internal linking plays a crucial role in SEO and can be instrumental to your blogs. You should always incorporate internal links to your blog content to guide users to relevant pages or resources within your website, and to establish a logical hierarchy and structure for your content.
Including CTAs
Including Calls to Action (CTAs) in your blog content is essential, particularly when your goal is to convert readers into customers. Including CTAs can:
โก๏ธ Guide user behaviour: CTAs provide a clear direction to your users, guiding them towards a desired action, whether that action is making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting your company. Without a CTA, users may be unsure of what steps to take next or how to navigate to the next step, potentially leading to a missed conversion opportunity.ย
โก๏ธ Create a sense of urgency: effective CTAs often include persuasive language that can create a sense of urgency or excitement for users, potentially increasing the likelihood that users will act more promptly.ย
โก๏ธ Increasing conversion rates: ultimately, well-crafted CTAs can significantly impact conversion rates by encouraging users to take action. By strategically placing CTAs throughout your blog content, you can encourage users to move further down the sales funnel and ultimately convert users into customers. Strategic CTAs coupled with helpful content can be the best way to convert your blog content.ย
Utilising AI
When creating blog content, AI can be extremely helpful, and although I do not believe you should get AI to write your blog content for you, I do believe that it can help with the process of creating blog content that converts. In fact, according to HubSpot, 43% of content marketers report using AI to help them generate ideas and one in two writers use AI tools to boost the performance of their content. These statistics show that AI can be a positive tool in the online industry and below are some of the ways you can use AI effectively:
โก๏ธ Generate content ideas based on trending topicsย
โก๏ธ Gain insights into how to optimise your contentโs structure and readability
โก๏ธ Automate tasks including meta title creationย ย ย
Be Authentic, Honest And Unique
When creating blog content, it is important to create content for the benefit of your users. Authenticity, honesty and uniqueness are qualities that will resonate with your users and create a sense of trust. When you are creating blog content for SEO, it is important to be genuine and transparent within your content and avoid overly promotional or salesy language. Make sure you are providing content that is offering valuable insights, expertise or solutions that are genuinely helpful for your audience and will address their needs or challenges. By creating this type of content, you will actually be helping your users address their issues and needs, and they will be more likely to convert if you have answered an issue that they are experiencing.
Measure, Learn And Refine
Effective blog content creation is a process that requires ongoing monitoring, analysis and refinement. There are many different analytic tools that you can use when tracking your blog content including GA4 and Ahrefs. Key metrics to monitor include:
โก๏ธ Usersย
โก๏ธ Bounce rateย
โก๏ธ Session lengthย
โก๏ธ Engagementย
โก๏ธ Conversions
Based on your analysis, you can find any areas for improvement and optimisation and this can really help to improve your content and ultimately gain more traffic and conversions.
Be Patient
The final point I am going to suggest is to be patient. Patience is so important when it comes to SEO blog content creation because, as Iโm sure youโre aware, SEO is a long-term strategy that takes time to see results. Be patient and consistent in your efforts, knowing that you are creating high quality content that will gradually acquire traffic and conversions as you increase your visibility in the SERPs.
Summary
To conclude, creating SEO blog content that converts requires a strategic approach that will be informed by an understanding of the userโs buying journey, keyword research, competitor analysis, content planning, internal linking, authenticity, measurement and patience (just a few thingsโฆ). But, by implementing these best practices discussed above and continuously improving and refining your content, you can elevate your blogโs performance, attract qualified leads and actually drive conversions that will contribute to your businessโs growth and success.
If you need any help with your SEO blog content strategy, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us today and our SEO experts can provide you with insights on how to create blog content that will actually convert.
Iโm sure we can all agree that a solid media list is by far the most important part of any digital PR campaign. Itโs the difference between the success or failure of your outreach, and will often take up the bulk of a PRโs time. If youโre new to digital PR strategy, you may be wondering if you need a media list and how to build one thatโll work. This guide will answer all your questions and help you to create a valuable press list that gets the results youโre after – with tips thatโll be useful to PR pros too.ย
Whatโs a media list?
Letโs begin by taking it back to the basics – what even is a media list? It does what it says on the tin – an organised list of your media contacts, and additional info like their contact details and news outlet. This may include journalists, bloggers, influencers etc. and is normally collated into a big spreadsheet for easy reference.
Essentially, itโs a collection of relevant people that might be interested in covering your story. Media lists are usually created for each individual campaign youโre outreaching, and targeted for that specific industry / and or location. Itโs key for efficient digital PR as it allows you to approach the right journalists, and get a wider media pickup.
Why is it so important?
You might have gathered by now that a good media list is the real foundation of your strategy. But why exactly is that, and how is a media list better than alternative techniques?
๐A media list goes beyond just identifying journalists, it helps you research their interests, define your target audience, and cultivate lasting relationships with relevant contacts – all in one place.
๐Previously, sending out blanket press releases to a huge list of contact was a popular method, but that technique could damage your reputation and alienate journalists who arenโt interested in your story. Building genuine relationships with the right media contacts through a well-crafted media list will see you get far better results.
๐Buying pre-built media lists is tempting, but short-sighted. These generic lists will often contain outdated information or irrelevant contacts. Creating your own list from scratch will mean you find journalists who cover your exact niche, increasing your chances of coverage.
A step-by-step guide to creating a media list
1.
Begin by setting up a spreadsheet and adding your chosen focus areas. As a basic starting point, start with the journalist’s name, โemailโ, โpublicationโ and โprimary niche as columns. Other useful columns could include: links to social media accounts, topics covered, writing style etc and you can build this to be more detailed the more you do
2.
Youโll want to find journalists whoโve covered similar topics to your story; start by searching the title of campaigns similar to what youโre working on in Google News and filter by โpast yearโ. Then, take relevant journalistsโ names and copy them into the sheet. Avoid publications that do their own research, like โYouGovโ, and play around with the terminology of the search to find all relevant results.
The key is to be super honed in on relevancy here. If you are writing a story about backpacking for students, thereโs no point targeting all journalists who write about backpacking – writers on backpacking for retired couples wouldnโt be interested for example.
๐กAn additional tip is to look for sites that like to reference Digital PR links and data.
3.
Next, find a similar story from your competitor and input them into a backlink checker. See which publications and journalists are linking to this story, and add these names to your list.
Wondering where to find competitor campaigns? Email newsletters are a good starting point to find successful, recent competitor campaigns. The PR Insider and The Grapevine are conveniently organised by category, making it nice and easy for you to locate stories in the same vein as the release youโre working on. Itโs also worth looking at Twitter and LinkedIn because one thing PRs love is a humble brag about a campaign thatโs done well.
4.
Once youโve got a decent amount of names, go back and fill in the โnameโ and โemail’ column for each link. Journalists will sometimes have their email on their online author profile, or you can use a tool like Vuelio, or Prowly to find their details.
5.
Finally, download and export the file into an outreach tool like Buzzstream or CisionOne, and thatโs good to go.
Itโs important to remember that a media list is never really completed! The most effective lists are actively maintained and updated with new contacts, and updated contact information.
Guarantee media coverage for your business with Cedarwood Digital
Weโre Cedarwood Digital, a digital PR agency based in Manchester, with a proven track record of delivering earned links for brands – even those in the trickiest verticals!ย Weโre proud to say that we donโt buy a single link and you can see the coverage weโve landed in our case studies here. If youโre looking for a hand with your digital PR strategy or you want to explore white-label digital PR agency options, go ahead and get in touch with us today, weโd love to hear from you.
Newsjacking has been a buzzword in the digital PR space for a while now and I often think of it as akin to E-E-A-T in the SEO space – itโs something that everyone knows about and if you get it right it can have a significant impact on your clientโs results. Knowing where to start with newsjacking can be tricky especially if you’re doing it for the first time so let’s take a look at how we approach newsjacking and what we need to do to ensure that we get the best results for our clients and land those all-important placements.ย
So What Is Newsjacking?
Chances are you are probably already familiar with the term newsjacking as it’s a pretty common term that gets used in day-to-day language but for those who aren’t familiar, the concept of newsjacking involves jumping on a trend or something that is topical in the news and adding to the conversation that might be through adding an expert comment or sending over some data that’s relevant to the conversation and can add value to a piece that a journalist might be currently covering.
The reason newsjacking is such an effective digital PR technique is that combines two of the most important elements that go into a great story, that is relevancy for the journalist – you’re jumping on something that’s happening right now, and also adding value to the conversation through data or expert opinion, you’re adding real value to a story that journalists already writing and that’s a surefire way to get coverage for your client.
Newsjacking comes in two formats, thatโs proactive and reactive depending on when in the story you add your comment or expertise, both can be really effective from a link acquisition perspective and if you’re prepared, then chances are that it can be quite a quick turnaround project. So let’s take a look at how we can approach newsjacking to ensure that we get the best results for our clients and land some great placements and coverage across the board.
Preparation
Preparation is absolutely key when it comes to newsjacking as you want to be able to jump on a trend as quickly as you possibly can. This means putting some time in to gather images that they might want to use, look at areas of expertise and understanding who the best person to be the spokesperson is, and also any additional resources that they have available which you might be able to use to supplement their comments.
Stockpiling all of this information beforehand can help to make your newsjacking experience a lot smoother – we recommend having a sit down with your client to run through the newsjacking process and gather this information before you start your outreach – this will help you to improve your turnaround times and make sure that you’re able to jump on that emerging story as quickly as you possibly can.
News Listening
One of the most important elements of an effective newsjacking campaign is understanding what is topical and trending, finding topics that journalists are likely to cover – this means looking at what’s trending in the news and finding something that’s relevant to your client that you can add value to.
There are a number of different ways that you can conduct news listening but we’ve included some of the most popular options to get you started:
X (Twitter)
X is a great place to start when you’re looking for new ideas and the trending hashtags are a great place to get your inspiration from. This can give you a good idea of topical issues that people are talking about, topics that are trending across the UK and also internationally, in addition to topics that people like to talk about and are maybe in the public interest.
X has a โtrendingโ section where you can understand what people are talking about – this can also be broken into areas such as โNewsโ, โSportsโ and also for your local area. Additionally, if you are looking to research into a specific area, you can research specific hashtag data to understand how many people are talking about a specific topic.
X is a great way to get a feel for what people are talking about – and also what is topical in the news – so itโs worth keeping this open throughout your day. Additionally, using hashtags like #journorequest and #prrequest can help you keep on top of what journalists are looking for – another great way to get an idea of relevant topics you might want to cover.ย
2. TikTok
TikTok is another great way to find out what is topical and trending and you can trendjack really quickly with the user generated content – getting a great idea of topical stories that are in the public interest by also looking through engagement metrics.
If you have a TikTok Business account then you will also have access to some of great hashtag data and trends information that is available and you can find this across two main dashboards to help your news research – the first one is the general trending dashboard which goes through all of the trends from the last seven days:
You can also drill down into further detail around each of these specific hashtags to understand where they are trending and with which audiences (as well as their related interests which is great for helping you to build your media lists!). This information can give you great regional insights as well as tell you more about their age range and demographic information:
You can also just use TikTok generally to research data around a given topic by monitoring hashtag data and getting an idea of how people are approaching the topic / what they find of most interest. This is particularly valuable if you are looking to create content that targets Gen-Z who are usually avid TikTok users.
3. Google Alerts
Google Alerts provides a great way to stay on top of topics that are trending around your client and have them delivered straight to your inbox. By setting up notifications within Google Alerts it will email you every time there is news around a particular topic, your client name or something that is related to. This is a great way to stay on top of breaking issues that are topical to or related to the services or products that your clients sell.
It’s relatively easy to set Google Alerts up, but we would recommend setting them up in a subfolder of your email inbox to avoid being inundated with alerts as they are coming in throughout the day. Set these up separately and spend some time running through them to see if they are relevant for your client, over time you’ll become accustomed to the types of news that this is pulling out and you can adjust your filtering to make this more relevant as you need to. This is a great way to jump on something that is topically relevant for your client without having to sift through an entire news site to find the information.
4. Upcoming Reports
Upcoming reports can be a great way to get ideas for newsjacking particularly if it’s proactive. there are a wide range of industry bodies who published reports on a regular basis ranging from weekly through to daily, and jumping on these reports and putting your client into the centre of the conversation, is a great way to newsjack and really add that element of expertise and relevancy to the links you are building through to the website.
If you aren’t sure where to start with reports then try some popular industry bodies – places such as the NHS and the ONS are frequently reporting on a wide range of topics and you can easily find a way to link please through to your clients. In many situations these bodies will also have a calendar that you can access which showcases the types of reports that are coming up, this allows you to plan in advance so that you can support to ensure that you’re able to quickly jump on this trend once the report comes out.
Reports are really effective way to newsjack because they’re topical and they’re data-led – something which journalists love, so if you’re looking for ideas for your newsjacking then have a look at relevant industry bodies that are related to your client and the types of reports that they have coming up to see if there’s somewhere that you can add expert commentary and topical value.
5. Event Calendars
Event calendars are a great way to undertake proactive newsjacking and we often find that many publications publish their upcoming calendars for the year in advance,so this is a great way for us to prepare for upcoming events and to plan ahead some ideas for proactive newsjacking.
Keep up to date with your favourite publications and don’t be afraid to reach out to editors to ask them if they have a publication calendar in advance, this can help to give you an idea of the topics that they are looking to cover and the type of content that they might be more likely to include within their pieces.
As a result it is valuable to use this to guide your newsjacking because it already gives you an idea of what journalists think is relevant and what readers are likely to engage with, therefore making it more likely for your content to be picked up if it is relevant to this topic
6. Colleagues
Often in Digital PR we find ourselves the victims of trying to come up with all of the ideasย ourselves and it’s hard for everyone to always be on top of what’s in the news and what is a trending topic – so why not use your colleagues?ย We set up a group chat where we encourage our colleagues to post something that they’ve read that is newsworthy or trending – that could have been something that they’ve read in the newspaper that morning or something theyโve seen on TikTok or read on X.ย
By encouraging our colleagues to contribute in this way we are getting a much bigger pool of information that we can use to take ideas from and chances are that many of us are reading different publications or fall into different TikTok algorithms, so this can be a great way to get a wide range of newsjacking options.
Research
Once you have undertaken your news listening it’s important to thoroughly research an idea before you start as you want to make sure that the idea hasn’t been done before and that someone else isn’t currently working on it. You also need to ensure that any information you are bringing to the table is offering a new opinion or something that hasn’t been published before, after all, that’s what journalists are looking for – a new angle on an existing story.
The research is important to ensure that you’re bringing something fresh to the story – so how do we go about undertaking research to understand topics and areas that journalists have covered before? Here are a couple of ideas for tools that can help you:
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is a great way to get an understanding of topics that are covered recently or topics that are popular with the press. You can use this tool to understand the types of content that journalists have covered recently, which journalists have covered which types of content and also in what volume so you can really start to understand how many people are covering a particular topic and therefore a) has it been done before and b) is it likely to be picked up by a particular journalist.
One of the other important metrics that was talking give you if social shares and while this isn’t a direct impact on SEO performance, what it can help to show you is how engaged a particular article is and therefore potentially how many people are likely to read that article and how much it is in the public interest – this is a valuable analysis before you start investing your time into creating content around that topic.
Using tools like Buzzsumo allows you to understand how well your content is likely to land as well as to ensure that hasn’t been covered before and therefore that you’re not wasting your time.
Google News Search
Google News search is another great way to understand how content is landing and this can give you an idea again of topics that have been covered before, the types of journalists that are likely to cover your content and also any angles that you could potentially pursue that haven’t already been done.
We often use Google News to understand what is topically trending when we pitch to new digital PR clients – that helps to give us a overview of the market and understand what types of stories have been covered in recent times, but as a client you can also use this to understand if a topic has been done to death, even a bit or if there is opportunity to add a new angle into a pre-existing trending topic.
Use External Tools
In addition to Google alerts and external tools that you can also use to help with your research. One example of this is semrush and you can use this tool to understand topics which are trending and also at the types of search volumes around specific keywords or topics that you might be looking to cover.
You can also use tools like the Topic Research tool to understand popular trending topics and how they are evolving over time. This allows you to type in a particular keyword/topic and evaluate topics around this that are currently being covered/talked about – this is another great way to check that your topic hasnโt already been covered, or to help analyse a new angle or approach.
Research is key to ensure that you donโt waste your time undertaking a campaign which has already been done and that you are able to bring a fresh angle and approach to the story.
Ideation & Creation
The ideation and creation stage plays an important role in any newsjacking campaign and this is where you pull everything together. So you take the information you found within your research, you take anything that’s topical and trending and relevant to your client and you can bind it all together to create a great story, piece of data or angle that delivers great coverage for your client and also insightful information to a trending topic.
The ideation stage has a number of different parts to it and this includes:
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is when you put your heads together and come up with some great ideas as to how you can get your client coverage in a story. Brainstorming can take a number of different formats but it’s a great idea to get the whole team together. If the client has time this is also a great opportunity to get them involved so that they can lend their expertise and showcase this.
Try and come up with a number of different ideas and angles and run them past your client to see what they are comfortable with and which best showcases their expertise and their data. Once you have a couple of ideas, start to narrow them down until you’ve selected the options that you want to go for.
Identifying Your Angle
An idea is nothing without an angle that adds value to the article or the story – this is often more important than anything else, you need to bring something fresh to the article, so identifying your angle and making this clear early on is important to getting coverage.
Look at what has already been done and hone in on the value that your data or expertise can add – do you have something new to bring to the conversation? Do you have data that showcases an additional angle on a regional/international level? Identifying your angle plays a key role in ensuring that journalists feel that your content adds value to their article.
Tapping In On Expertise
Make sure to tap into the expertise of your clients if possible, this will of course give you a great angle when you’re approaching a story and will help you to identify how you can add value very quickly.
Feel free to sit down with your clients to really understand the areas of expertise or to conduct an interview with the spokesperson to understand the types of angles that you could look for, tapping in on the expertise will really help you to showcase this through the content that you’re creating and also to add real value to the article.
Creating The Right Content
Creating the right type of contact is also really important whether this comes in quote format, whether it’s a piece of data or whether itโs simply a couple of lines having a new angle to an existing story.
Having a look at the types of content that journalists are covering and the format this is in will help you to identify how to best approach the content that you want to create, to ensure it’s the right type of content that the journalist would like to cover. Having the right content and the right angle will help to get your content placed and is an important part of the newsjacking process.
Creating The Right Format
Creating the right format for your content is also very important, this means how you display the content and the type of content that you’re sending to journalists.Make sure to include any assets that will help support the story this could be high resolution images or associated data tables and always remember to clearly state your methodology for any data analysis pieces that you’re doing this is important to ensure that the journalist is comfortable to cover your content and also that you explain where you’ve got the data from and at what time.
Outreach
Once you have the idea and youโve pulled it together into a press release with the supporting information now comes one of the most important parts – the outreach. Using the right tagline, contacting the right journalists and creating a killer press release are all important parts of this process and to ensure that you get your coverage landed weโd recommend the following steps:
Research Your Journalists
Researching your journalists is super important to ensuring that you are sending your content to people who are likely to cover it and who have a genuine reason to cover it/interest in the topic. Thereโs a number of different ways that you can research journalists and these include:
Using tools like Buzzsumo to understand which journalists are covering similar content or similar topical areas
Researching on X – most journalists announce moves on X, make a note of these and start to follow these journalists – they will often do a shoutout if they are looking for a specific type of content to cover
Manual research through Google News – looking through Google News and other web indexes to understand journalists who have covered the topic recently and any articles where you could reach out and add a new angle
Look at specific topic journalists i.e. journalists who cover soaps, finance, travel etcโฆ add these to your list for the topical coverage
By researching journalists in advance you are more likely to build a list of journalists who are more engaged with your content, therefore leading to better overall results and avoiding sending unrelated content to journalists who may find this annoying.
Build An Effective Media List
An effective media list plays a key role in ensuring that youโre giving your content the best chance of getting covered, so taking time to build your media list is time well spent. When pulling the list together, call on your journalist research to understand which journalists you want to include on your list, you can then follow this up by using a journalist database tool (we use Vuelio) to source relevant emails and start to build out your list. Remember that relevancy here is key so you need just enough journalists to ensure you get a good reach, while at the same time you donโt want to flood journalists who arenโt interested in your content.
Monitor Opens & Trends
Data plays an important role in an effective newsjacking campaign so make sure that you monitor your opens and trends to understand how journalists are engaging with your content. Using tools which allow you to track open rate will help you to understand how journalists are engaging with your content, over time this will help you to understand which journalists engage with which type of content and will naturally make your content more effective – using data in this way can help you to streamline your outreach is very effective.
Follow Up
Itโs important to follow up your content and press releases – donโt just do one push, always follow up with a couple of different pushes at different times. It might be that you caught a journalist when they were particularly busy, or that they already have a full news roster for the day, by doing follow ups you can ensure that youโre continuing to push your story out and you may find that in many instances it lands on the second or third push.
Itโs also valuable to follow up when something particularly relevant has landed in the press – send your press release along with some updated comments or information on something which is trending topically, this can be a great way to get it included in a news round up or timely news story.
Rework Content Where Needed
Donโt be afraid to rework your content where you need to. You might find that you actually need it in a different format, that itโs a little outdated or that you need to use a new angle. You always have the opportunity to update your content, so donโt be afraid to launch it at different times of the year with new, up to date information, or a slightly more relevant/different angle – reworking content can often be a great way to land content which perhaps didnโt place the first time round.
Review
Once weโve completed the outreach process, it doesnโt end there and the review stage is perhaps one of the most important stages – this is where we analyse what went well, what type of content was covered and how we could leverage this for future campaigns. Key areas that we review and look into include:
Open Rate
Open rate plays a key role in our reviews as it gives us a great idea of how journalists have engaged with our content – who has engaged with it and at what rate. Over time this becomes a very valuable metric and one that we can use to understand which journalists are likely to engage with which content, to better inform our outreach process
Publications Covered
Reviewing which publications have covered our content also plays an important role in informing our outreach strategy moving forwards. Itโs important to review who has covered what type of content and when, which journalist has covered the content and how it has been covered – these are all vital pieces of data to understand how we can best tailor our newsjacking efforts to the right publications.
Journalist Feedback
This is also a good time to review any feedback that youโve received from journalists, this could include journalists asking you to remove them from your mailing list, or alternatively journalists who have fed back on what they liked about an article, or what could have been improved/what they needed to support the article. All of this information is super valuable and should be noted to improve the outreach process moving forwards.
Conclusion
Newsjacking isnโt just a buzzword, itโs an important facet of any effective Digital PR campaign and itโs a great way to get your clients at the forefront of the conversation, quickly. To find out more about how newsjacking works, check out our Digital PR services or case studies.
For us SEO professionals, itโs well known that Google notoriously loves a good algorithm update, throwing rankings up into the air and sending everyone on LinkedIn into a frenzy. Whilst in the early days, Google only made occasional updates, they now make thousands of changes each year – and recently itโs felt as if new algorithms are rolling out practically every other day. This, understandably, can be stressful for those responsible for maintaining client rankings or their own website’s performance. With so many updates, it’s easy to feel lost in the sea of changes and unsure how to maintain strong SEO.
This blog post will break down the key updates implemented in recent months, explaining their impact on your SEO strategy and offering actionable tips to keep your rankings climbing amidst the algorithm shifts.
What is a Google Algorithm Update?
Google’s search engine relies on complex algorithms to sift through its massive index and deliver the most relevant results for every user query. These algorithms consider a multitude of ranking factors to determine which web pages deserve the top spots on SERPs. While Google constantly tweaks these algorithms, most changes are so subtle they go unnoticed. However, Google occasionally rolls out major updates that significantly impact the SERPs.
These major updates, referred to as core updates, are designed to improve the overall quality and user experience of search results. So, they may be irritating but they come from a good place! However, because they often involve significant changes to how Google evaluates websites, this can cause fluctuations in rankings across the board. Even the biggest and most established websites are affected by core updates, experiencing shifts in their ranking positions and visitor traffic.
Why you should care:
So, weโve established that Google algorithm updates can significantly impact your websiteโs traffic and ranking – bringing new visitors or temporary dips. Understanding each update and how it impacts your SEO strategy allows you to adapt and adjust your strategy to regain lost ground. Itโs crucial to keep up with the updates so you can align your content accordingly if necessary. This proactive approach will ensure you keep your website visible to its target audience.
2024 updates
Without further ado, letโs take a look at the updates weโve seen in the past 6 months. Weโll work through them in reverse chronological order and provide some pointers for dealing with each one.
โ๏ธThe March 2024 Core Update
You must be living under a rock if youโve missed this huge update; as the longest-ever core update, it only finished rolling out on April 19th and was said to reduce unhelpful content by 45%! It marked a big shift in Googleโs ongoing fight against low-quality content and signalled strong recognition of the wave of AI-generated content thatโs hit the web in the past year. The update further refined Googleโs ability to identify and penalise content deemed unhelpful, particularly targeting unoriginal AI content.
What did Google have to say? A spokesperson said this update has refined how it understands which webpages are โunhelpful, have a poor user experience or feel like they were created for search engines instead of people.โ This โcould include sites created primarily to match very specific search queriesโ. As a result, websites with content that lacked value, originality, or depth may have seen ranking declines.
What does this mean for you?
This just means more of what we already know – we need to be writing helpful content for people, and not just to rank in search engines. There are no big new changes you should implement, or secret hacks to rank well in this update – just more of what youโre (hopefully) already doing.
The algorithm update also means that you should see better quality results when youโre using search engines. The web has recently seen a surge of AI content that lacks accuracy and authenticity. This update should cut down on that and improve the overall quality of what we see on the SERPs.
Been hit by this update? Approach recovery by, first and foremost, working on the quality of your content. If youโre experiencing a traffic loss for queries you used to rank for, thereโs probably an issue with your content (if youโve already confirmed thereโs no technical problem). Look at the competitor pages now ranking for this content and work out why Googleโs seeing it as preferable. Is it more relevant? Longer-form? Demonstrating expertise through author profiles? Video or image content rather than written?
Whilst Google hasnโt given us a lot of new advice in the aftermath of this new update, it might also be useful to look at their previous list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update. Work your way through and identify the areas where your content could be improved.
โ๏ธThe March 2024 Spam Update
At the same time as we faced the March Core Update, Google also rolled out a hefty Spam Update, taking 15 days to complete. It took action against new types of spam, particularly scaled content abuse and expired domain abuse, which weโve been seeing an increasing prevalence of.
Scaled content abuse is a tactic where spammers create vast amounts of AI content aimed at manipulating search rankings and tricking Google into thinking they have the answers to popular searches. Whilst Google has always fought against this practice, the advancements in AI have called for a revamp of their strategy.
Then, expired domain abuse is where someone exploits the reputation of an expired domain. They purchase the domain and repurpose it to boost the rankings of their low-quality content. It misleads Google and users into believing that the new content is associated with the older, more reputable website.
It goes without saying that if youโve seen a change to your traffic or rankings after this update, ensure youโre not violating any of Googleโs spam policies, even accidentally.
Other recent updates
โ๏ธNovember 2023 Core Update: This was the final core update of 2023, beginning on November 2nd and completing on November 28th. Like most core updates, it resulted in many sites seeing ranking volatility – particularly in โYour Money, Your Lifeโ verticals.
โ๏ธOctober 2023 Core Update: With this core update, Google began handling backlinks differently. The reputation and relevance of the linking site was more important than ever before and a single link from a high-authority site now carried much more value than lots of lower-quality links.
โ๏ธOctober 2023 Spam Update: October also saw the release of a spam update, designed to clean up several types of spam that Google community members reported in Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi and Chinese.
Are any more updates heading our way?
In the past week, weโve seen the beginning of a site reputation abuse update rolling out. This will target something often referred to as โparasite SEOโ; sites found to be practicing site reputation abuse will face drops in rankings and even deindexes of pages.
But what exactly is site reputation abuse? This is when websites with significant authority exploit their trust to push low-quality, irrelevant content. According to Google, the update will be going after โthird-party content produced primarily for ranking purposes and without close oversight of a website owner to be spam.โ They used the example of a third party publishing payday loan reviews on a trusted educational website to gain ranking benefits from the site:
โSuch content ranking highly on Search can confuse or mislead visitors who may have vastly different expectations for the content on a given website.โ
Has your site been hit? We can help
Cedarwood Digital is an award-winning SEO agency based in Manchester and we have extensive experience helping our clients to prepare for and recover from algorithm updates. Our team of experts has an advanced understanding of what Google wants to see, and possesses the strategies to help you rank in the top positions, and stay in them.
Get in touch with us today to learn how we can optimise your SEO for long-term success.
Link building has long been a popular part of SEO campaigns and is the process of building links from other highly authoritative websites to your own to highlight to Google the value and authority that your website represents, and to build your own authority.
Why does it matter?
Links can significantly improve your websiteโs performance as they contribute to your key E-E-A-T signals, which can play a crucial role in search engine rankings across many sectors. In some instances, they are seen as a vote of trust and are a way of building your reputation and showcasing your expertise. This can potentially lead to higher rankings for your target keywords which means more traffic and more conversions – the good stuff.
The benefits stretch beyond SEO. Link-building will also directly increase your site traffic by sending visitors your way, and improve brand awareness by exposing your site to a wider audience. Essentially, itโs gold dust if you want to give your site a boost in visibility. But, link-building hasnโt always looked like this. Itโs undergone a drastic transformation in the past 5-10 years, driven largely by Googleโs efforts to combat dodgy tactics.
A quick link-building history
In the early 2010s, when ideas of SEO were just beginning to be thrown around, marketers focused on securing as many backlinks as possible, regardless of their quality. Building a large backlink profile was pretty easy – anyone could boost their ranking by buying links or using techniques like blog commenting.
Googleโs Penguin Update in 2012 put a stop to all this, penalising websites with a suspicious link profile. This forced SEOs to shift their focus to acquiring high-quality backlinks through creating valuable content.
Now, in 2024, it’s more important than ever to have a solid strategy for link building to support SEO – and – itโs important that these links have direct relevance to your clients. This is because:
๐Googleโs algorithms are getting scarily good at identifying high-quality content. As youโll know, it feels like theyโre undergoing updates every other day, and their recent โhelpful content updatesโ place a huge priority on relevant and trustworthy sources, over merely the number of backlinks.
๐Itโs getting harder and harder to stand out. If you know about link-building, that means all your competitors probably do too. Your strategy now needs to be bigger and better if you want to win those backlinks over your competitors.
๐Online brand awareness is playing an increasingly vital role. A strong brand presence helps you cut through the noise and establish yourself in a crowded marketplace. Plus, social media platforms are now a key place for consumers to discover new brands. For the first time, online content has the power to not just grab readers’ attention, but also nudge them directly towards a purchase.ย Consumers are way more receptive to positive online influences that guide their buying decisions.
The different types of Link Building
Deeper linking
Building links to your website is a crucial SEO strategy, but simply acquiring links isn’t enough. To maximise the impact, you need a strategy focused on where those links land. Many people prioritise building links to the homepage, but this often misses out on valuable opportunities.
In most cases, the pages with the best user intent match and the ones you truly want users to visit, reside deeper within your website. These are typically product or service pages โ the areas that directly impact conversions and revenue. Link equity passed from the homepage to these sub-pages can be valuable, but it’s far less effective than linking to them directly.
This is where deeper page linking comes in as a popular solution. By building links directly to these relevant sub-pages, you signal to search engines that these pages are valuable, boosting their rankings in search results. Improved ranking can in turn lead to increased organic traffic, conversions, and ultimately, revenue.
E-E-A-T link building
Google has over 200 ranking factors but the increasingly most important factor is E-E-A-T or โexpertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthinessโ. For Google to see your site as valuable and send organic traffic your way, you need to be sending out these signals. This is especially important for websites falling into the โYour Money, Your Lifeโ category, which deals with topics that can significantly impact usersโ lives. For YMYL sites, building strong E-E-A-T signals is extra important to establish credibility in the eyes of Google.
The good news is that E-E-A-T link building is not rocket science! If you’re already utilising Digital PR tactics to acquire links, you’re likely on the right track. By nature, effective Digital PR generates genuine, high-quality links that showcase your website’s expertise. However, there are specific link-building tactics for building E-E-A-T friendly links and maximising their impact on your siteโs organic trafficโฆ.
Newsjacking to put your client at the centre of the conversation
Newsjacking offers a great approach to building external E-E-A-T signals and driving organic traffic. This technique involves capitalising on trending news stories and offering fresh insights from your in-house expert. This valuable content can then be pitched to journalists for inclusion in their articles, or used to create a standalone piece showcasing your client’s expertise.
By providing authoritative commentary on a trending topic, you position your brand as a thought leader in the field, attracting high-quality backlinks that boost your website’s SEO and signal trustworthiness to Google.
For example, we recently newsjacked the Easter tablescaping trend, outreaching expert tips on decking out your table from our spokesperson at Alliance Online. This content was then distributed to relevant journalists, resulting in backlinks from authoritative outlets. Each of these links sent a positive signal to Google, indicating that our client’s website deserves a higher ranking in search results.
Thought-leadership to showcase expertise
Similarly, thought-leadership content is a powerful tool to build trust and add organic value to your site. Itโs pretty straightforward; leverage in-house experts from your client’s business to share their expertise through interviews. Having readily available bios that highlight their credentials and experience is also crucial to demonstrate their authority to journalists and Google alike.
Beyond reactive approaches like newsjacking, a proactive strategy is essential. Stay informed about upcoming events and special days for opportunities to strategically position your client’s experts in front of the media. This can lead to features in high-profile publications, generating valuable backlinks that significantly help out your website’s E-E-A-T signals and organic reach.
Another thought-leadership tactic is guest blogging on relevant sites within your clientโs industry – this involves creating informative and valuable content for other established blogs or publications. The blog post would ideally include a bio of the author and a link back to their website. This not only establishes credibility, boosting your SEO, but also drives valuable referral traffic.
Analysing data for expert content
By gathering your own data, or analysing publicly available datasets, you can create valuable content that demonstrates your clientโs expertise and understanding of the field. This data-driven approach not only positions your client as an expert but also generates valuable resources that journalists are likely to reference. Combine your data analysis with clear visualisations to make your piece super linkable for journalists who want to provide their readers with reliable and engaging information.
Beyond individual data pieces, consider employing a Reverse Digital PR strategy. This involves creating content hubs on your client’s website โ comprehensive resources fit to burst with data and analysis. These content hubs are the gift that keeps on giving, becoming valuable destinations for journalists seeking information. They have the potential to attract numerous backlinks over time that significantly boost both E-E-A-T signals and on-site SEO. Plus, a well-designed data-hub will not only drive traffic by attracting backlinks, but also through boosting your on-site SEO.
Let’s wrap up with some key takeaways:
โก๏ธLink-building matters more than ever in 2024, if itโs not prioritised in your SEO strategy, it should be! Itโs a golden ticket to build a strong online reputation and help Google understand why it should rank your website.
โก๏ธWithin your strategy, focus on building links to deeper, user-focused pages like product or service pages.
โก๏ธAnd to get those links? Implement E-E-A-T link-building practices:
->Newsjacking: offering expert insights on trending topics
->Thought-leadership: share expertise through interviews, guest blogs and data-driven content
->Data-hubs: build resources rich with data to attract valuable backlinks
Need a hand getting started? Cedarwood Digital are an award-winning Link Building Agency with the media contacts and techniques to land you top tier, 100% earned links. Drop us a line today.
Having attended Brighton SEO for over a decade now, I can safely say that itโs one of the best, if not the best SEO conference in the world, so I was absolutely delighted when asked to speak on the main stage this year covering the topic โSEO For YMYL Websitesโ
For those of you that donโt know what YMYL is, it stands for โYour Money Your Lifeโ and itโs a term that was coined by Google to cover websites that can have an impact on someoneโs money or life. At Cedarwood, we specialise in working with companies like this and with years of experience building links in particularly tricky industries i.e. gaming, vaping, medical, legal so it was great to be able to share some knowledge about this with the community.
So what were some of the key takeaways from the talk?
User intent is key – matching user intent plays a huge role in the YMYL space and itโs really important that we are keeping this in mind. This ties in really well with the idea of creating a โsatisfying amount of contentโ – that is the right amount of content for a user, not a certain number of words, to answer the questions/queries they might have and allow them to make an informed decision
Reputation is important –ย in particular your external reputation. Google yourself – see what people are saying about you and make sure that you work to build your reputation with effective Digital PR – this will go a long way to helping what people have to say about you and also what Google are seeing being said about you
Showcase your trust signals – whether itโs through industry accreditations or simply by telling people why they should trust you, showcasing this on your website and on external websites plays an important role on building those all important E-E-A-T signals
And on the topic of E-E-A-T, making sure that it shines through in everything that you do. Google have openly stated that for YMYL websites they place a heavier weight on E-E-A-T signals so itโs important that those are showcased at every opportunity
Finally, making sure that the look and feel of your content matches the expertise of it – thereโs no point having great content only for it to look โamateurishโ – take time to consider the way content is displayed and that it matches the expertise you are showcasing.
I had a great time in Brighton, got to meet some fantastic people and hear from some thought leaders across the industry.
Six months ago, I entered the marketing world as a slightly terrified graduate who thought engagement was something that happens before a wedding and long-tail was a type of monkey. These days, I like to think Iโm a bit of a copywriting whizz (on a good day). If, like me, youโve entered your first SEO copywriting role with little marketing experience, Iโm here to help. I spend an inordinate proportion of my life putting words onto paper and have picked up some tips along the way.
So, without further ado, letโs get into the SEO copywriting lessons Iโve learnt in my first six months thatโll make your content impress your manager and Google.
SEO copywriting is unlike anything else youโll have ever written
Something I gathered days, if not hours, into my new role is that SEO copywriting is unlike anything youโll have ever written. Itโs drastically different from academic writing and pretty dissimilar to press releases and journalistic style content. It requires a far more analytical approach and is definitely a skill that has to be developed. But I think, 6 months in, Iโm getting thereโฆ just.
It will all feel like a foreign language at first, and youโll spend many hours removing jargon and complex sentence structures. But practice makes perfect, and itโs crazy how quickly SEO copywriting becomes second nature.
Itโs all about the prep
Thereโs a lot more to copywriting than just getting the words down. A vast proportion of my time is spent doing the necessary research required for SEO content – scouring search volumes, analysing the SERPs, determining user intent, and deciding on headings and subheadings.
Take your time for keyword research and SERP analysis before you even think about writing. You need to get inside the target usersโ heads โ what are they searching for and what are they clicking on? What do I need to address to make sure Iโm producing genuinely useful content that answers their queries? It can be easy in the content world to lose track of what really matters – the customers and what they need. Remember that blogs arenโt just for brand awareness, and product descriptions are more than just a keyword dump.
Copywriting is hard and some days it just wonโt happen
SEO copywriting is tricky! Alongside the analytical skills required in the research process, the actual writing requires a lot of creativity – and itโs impossible for us to be creative 24/7. Every day will be different. Some days I can knock up a thousand words in an hour, and on others it will take me all day to get a mere couple of hundred out.
On those days, donโt push it – move over to research tasks and leave the more creatively demanding work for another day. Itโs a good idea to take this into account when structuring your time. Give yourself plenty of time for a big piece of writing, to allow for those writerโs block days where itโs just not flowing.
Write for humans
When you do get down to the actual writing, write for humans. I know everyone says it but itโs so important if you want to produce content thatโs engaging and SEO-effective.
Ask yourself, would you enjoy reading this piece of content? Would you find it useful? Would your best friend? Itโs easy to get lost in all the technical details of keyword research and search volumes but at the end of the day, what is your average Joe going to want to read? Write for humans and Google will reward you as a side effect.
Something I learnt that really stuck with me is that the average reading age in the UK is 9! And remember that your audience will have different levels of reading ability – ensuring that your content is accessible is crucial. Not everyone is a copywriter like you; in fact, the vast majority wonโt have read a book in the last year. As much as itโs fun to add in niche vocab and fun sentence structures, your content needs to be digestible and readable. Use short words, sentences, and paragraphs and save the rambles for your Instagram captions.
Make use of AI! (Itโs not out to steal your job)
Iโll admit, I used to be a real ChatGPT hater – rolling my eyes when people raved about what it could do. โThereโs no way writing can be automated, and why should it be?โ But I confess, itโs been growing on me. AI can be super useful as a little personal assistant. Itโs great for giving you alternative words or phrases if you canโt remember exactly what youโre after – and super useful if you need a more concise header.
However, be careful not to rely on it too much! The capabilities of these tools may well be very impressive but do not rely solely on AI to write your copy – as tempting as it might be. Everyone can see through it, and it will kill off your creativity; you got this job for a reason, keep exercising and developing that skill.
My favourite tools for SEO copywriting
There are so many tools and software now for all things SEO and when youโre new to the scene it can be tricky to work out which to choose. Lucky for you, Iโve narrowed down my favourites over the last six months:
๐Ahrefs
A jack of all trades, Ahrefs should really be your go-to as an SEO copywriter. Keyword research, content gap analysis, user intent, it does it all.
๐AlsoAsked
Youโll have seen the โPeople Also Askโ list that appears in Googleโs search results – it shows you the, often amusing, top queries the population are asking. Well, AlsoAsked puts all that data in one place. You enter a topic or question and receive a full mind-map of the most asked queries. This is a goldmine for writing FAQ sections, coming up with headings, or simply to get a better sense of what the target audience is wanting to know.
๐Salient
This tool emulates Google, showing you whatโs being picked up as the most important features of the page. Itโs helpful to show you if your copy is successfully targeting the relevant topics, giving you a clue into how Google will rank it.
๐Grammarly
An absolute classic, and a must for copywriters. Add this extension to your browser and it will make sure every piece of work, every email, and every LinkedIn caption is error-free and perfectly punctuated. Because is there anything more icky than a copywriter with incorrect grammar?
๐Gemini
ChatGPTโs lesser known cousin, Gemini is Googleโs own AI assistant and I find it to be a better alternative. One thing itโs great for is proofing. Simply insert your piece of work and it shows you any errors, places for improvement and even some โwhat went wellsโ. Got to love some validation from a chatbot.
How to upskill in SEO copywriting
If youโre new to marketing and SEO, youโll want to be catching up fast. Thereโs a lot to learn so hereโs how I got up to speed:
> Consume lots of writing, and make it good writing. Follow copywriters on LinkedIn, subscribe to newsletters, rediscover the joy of reading that got sidelined at university. If you want to write great content, you need to read a lot of great content.
> Attend webinars and marketing events. Thereโs so much going on, particularly here in Manchester, and many of these events are free! Thereโs no one better to learn from than the leaders in our industry – and the free pizza never goes amiss.
> Want to feel slightly more productive on your commute? Choose an educational podcast rather than your favourite Made in Chelsea Stars. Here are some of my faves:
โAlways Take Notesโ = each episode interviews a diverse range of established novelists, journalists and publishers. They have fascinating conversations and itโs a great place to mine writing tips and seek inspiration.
โMozPodโ = with the tagline โlearn best practices from real SEOsโ this is a podcast focused on sharing lessons from SEO experts.
โGirls in Marketingโ = a fun one for women new to the industry, offering advice to help you get started.
My top tips for SEO Copywriting
Iโll finish with some quick-fire top tips to send you on your way into the world of SEO copy:
Want to be a good copywriter? Competitor analysis is essential. I spend so much time on competitor sites Iโm probably responsible for half of their page views โ try to really work out why theyโre ranking and how you can do the same but better.
Donโt be afraid to ask questions. If you havenโt been given a style guide by a client, ask! This will save you all time in the long-run.
Study the clientโs work closely, immerse yourself in it and know their tone of voice inside and out. You need to be able to mimic their style exactly, no matter how niche it may be. I like to make a document of โstock phrasesโ and general comments on tone for each client, to refer back to every time I write.
You will receive criticism, and some of it might hurt, but try to reframe it as a learning opportunity. Itโs easy to take feedback on our writing personally but just see it as a chance to improve and get closer to writing exactly what the client wants.
Sleep on itโฆ then proof. For every piece of work, Iโll schedule a quick proof the morning after. With a fresh outlook Iโm able to spot errors I completely overlooked the day before, and can often think of additional points to add.
So there we have it, the diary of an amateur copywriter who knows slightly more than she did six months ago. Hopefully these tips can help you to avoid the rookie mistakes and get you creating top-tier content.
Need some help with your SEO strategy? Weโre happy to assist. Get in contact today to find out how we can help you improve your online visibility.
Shopping Basket
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
