Renogy approached Tuff to handle all of their SEO needs for their US and international websites. Tuff had previously been creating blog content for Renogy’s US website but was not managing technical SEO or anything else.

We analyzed all of their existing websites and put together a comprehensive SEO strategy to increase organic traffic and revenue. This is how we did it.

Technical SEO

When we first took over SEO implementation for all of Renogy’s international sites nobody had previously been maintaining their technical SEO. With that being said, it’s no surprise that there were quite a few errors that needed to be addressed.

This isn’t to say that the websites were in bad shape, they just weren’t SEO-optimized and there’s a big difference. So our first step was to make sure that all the international websites were SEO-optimized. This is how we did it…

International SEO (hreflang tags)

The first issue to tackle was the hreflang tags, and Renogy had about 16,000 of them. 

If you have multiple versions of a page for different languages or regions, hreflang tags are a way to tell Google about these variations. 

For instance, you may have a US and UK website and they’re both in English but one is in US English and one is in British English. Aside from having two different URLs – either uk.domain, domain.uk, or domain.com/uk – we need to specifically tell Google about the language differences.

The same goes for international versions with completely different languages such as German, French, or Chinese, etc.,

Some of the most common hreflang tag errors are:

1. Not having any hreflang tags
2. Having incorrect hreflang tags (Ex. having your French tags on your German site)
3. Hreflang tags being incorrectly coded
4. No self-referencing hreflang tags

The most common issue is not having any self-referencing hreflang tags, and that’s the issue that we were dealing with on Renogy’s websites. Fortunately, this can be solved programmatically so it’s not extremely time-consuming to fix all 16,000+ errors.

Meta Descriptions

Once the hreflang tags were fixed, one of the most common technical SEO errors across all websites has to do with meta descriptions. Whether it be missing or duplicate meta descriptions, this is something that commonly goes unnoticed.

Sometimes these fixes can be done programmatically by pulling the first sentence on the page and setting it as the meta description but for a variety of reasons, this wasn’t possible for Renogy. One of those reasons is that their website is hosted on Big Commerce and this makes it more difficult. Another reason is that the first sentence wasn’t ideal for a meta description.

So long story short, I began manually fixing and creating hundreds of meta descriptions so that there weren’t duplicate or missing meta descriptions across all of their international websites. 

Internal Linking & Broken Internal Links

Internal links are a very important part of technical SEO, whether it be improving the internal linking throughout the website or fixing the broken links. We did both, starting with the broken links. 

Having broken internal links on your website is another common SEO issue that can not only harm your organic performance but also your user experience and revenue. 

When fixing the broken links, my initial focus was on top-performing product pages to make sure we weren’t losing revenue due to users not being able to purchase the product. 

This is another manual fix so some of it was done in unison with the meta description fixes since I was already going through the pages manually.

No-indexing Pages

It’s important to remove low-quality pages from Google’s search engine. 

Most of us have a habit of wanting all pages to be indexed in Google and I understand it. But when we think about how Google ranks a website, it doesn’t make sense to have our blog tag archives, author archive pages, and other similar pages indexed in Google, for a few reasons. 

1. When you search for something in Google, you are presented with its search engine results page (SERP) and for that reason, Google doesn’t like to direct traffic to another SERP, even if it’s your own website’s SERP. 
2. This typically isn’t a good user experience. If someone is searching for 
3. For these reasons, Google won’t rank these pages very well and if you have a lot of low-quality pages, it will eventually harm your whole website.

For these reasons, we no-indexed any low-quality archive pages that were on the Renogy website. 

Content Creation

Now that the technical SEO is all done, let’s talk about the SEO content strategy and content creation that we executed. 

We began by creating a few pillar pieces of content that we could build a cluster strategy around. We defined a few high-traffic keywords that were essential to the business and created high-quality content around those topics. These pieces of content live at the top of the Renogy blog. 

We then created 3 to 4 pieces of related content that we used to link to these hub pages as well as internally linked dozens of existing content.

Aside from the hub pages, we consistently produce one new blog post each week for each of Renogy’s website properties. 

The other main piece of content that we created was what we refer to as customer service content.

E-commerce Customer Service Content

E-commerce Customer Service Content is essentially FAQ data that is specific to the page that it is on. Not only is it helpful for SEO, but it’s also helpful for the user experience. 

You can find this content on all the major ecommerce websites. 

Ex. Amazon

Ex. Best Buy

Renogy was missing this content on their core category solar panel listing pages, including their solar panel kits listing page, and by adding it, it helped us increase organic rankings of these pages and in return, drive more sales.

We’ve seen the most significant organic improvements to the pages that we added this customer service content to.

Results

After all of these improvements and about 6 months’ time, we are ranking #1 in Google for ‘solar panel kits’ – outranking Amazon and Home Depot when we previously weren’t ranking in the top 100. We also rank #4 for ‘solar kit’ when we previously weren’t ranking in the top 100.

In addition to that, we increased our ranking for ‘solar panels for sale’ from position 12 to position 5.

We’ve also seen significant improvements in tons of other organic keywords that are essential to Renogy’s business and bottom line. 

As I write this, organic traffic is up over 32% from when we finished our implementations and organic revenue is steadily increasing and growing about 37% quarter over quarter.

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post How We Outranked Home Depot for the #1 Position appeared first on Tuff.

Understanding the Migration Landscape

Navigating a site migration requires a nuanced understanding of its various forms and the unique challenges each presents. A site migration, broadly defined, can encompass anything from changing a site’s domain to fundamentally altering its platform or structure. Each type carries potential risks and impacts on SEO performance that need to be managed carefully.

Types of Site Migrations

1. Domain Migration: Changing a website’s domain name is often driven by business decisions such as rebranding or company mergers. The challenge lies in maintaining the site’s authority and trust, as the equity built up in the old domain needs to be effectively transferred to the new one without losing ranking power.
2. Platform Migration: This involves moving a website to a different CMS or e-commerce platform. It poses substantial risks as it can affect the underlying code and URL structure of a site. Such migrations require meticulous mapping to ensure that all redirects are properly established and that the new platform supports all SEO functionalities as before.
3. Site Structure Changes: Revising the architecture of a website can improve user experience and SEO but also poses risks if not done correctly. Changes must be logical, enhance the navigability of the site, and ensure that no existing content is orphaned in the process.

For Gympass, a website with more than 500,000 pages spread across more than a dozen subdomains – some of which are user-generated content (UGC) – this involved a brand and domain migration along with multiple CMS migrations.

Impact on SEO Performance

Site migrations often result in short-term losses in traffic and fluctuations in rankings. The primary reason for this is that search engines need time to process the new configuration and re-evaluate the site’s relevance and authority. Key to mitigating these effects is ensuring that all changes are correctly mapped to the new site, from URL structures to meta tags.

Migration Risk Factors

The concept of “migration risk” involves several critical components:

• Broken Links: If the new site structure leads to broken links, it not only degrades user experience but also impacts the flow of link equity throughout the site.
• Content Gaps: Failing to replicate content accurately on the new site can result in lost keywords and ranking opportunities. Ensuring content is matched or improved in the migration is vital.
• Indexation Issues: New content structures and URLs may confuse search engines, leading to delays in indexing or the indexing of outdated pages.

Google’s Algorithms and Migration

Google’s algorithms prioritize websites that provide a great user experience and accurate, valuable content. Migrations that enhance site speed, mobile responsiveness, and security (e.g., HTTPS) are generally rewarded. However, migrations must be managed to ensure Google can effectively crawl and index the new site. Informing Google through tools like Search Console about the changes can help expedite this process and minimize negative impacts.

Understanding these elements and preparing for them can vastly reduce the risks associated with site migrations, thereby maintaining SEO performance and even setting the stage for improved rankings post-migration.

The Gympass Journey: A Strategic Brand Migration

Our recent partnership with Gympass, a well-known player in the fitness and wellness industry, showcases the need for strategic SEO during a website migration. Gympass faced a common challenge: how to maintain and enhance their online presence during a domain migration. As they prepared to move their website to a new domain, they sought our expertise to ensure a smooth transition without sacrificing organic traffic.

Why Organic Traffic Matters

Organic traffic was one of the main sources of traffic for Gympass and reaching their target audience – fitness enthusiasts, gym-goers, and wellness seekers – hinged on maintaining visibility in search engine results. Whether users were searching for workout tips, gym memberships, or wellness programs, Gympass needed to be front and center.

Pre-Migration Planning

Successful site migration starts long before the actual shift in domains or platforms—it begins with meticulous pre-migration planning. For our collaboration with Gympass, a clear understanding of their current website’s performance was paramount, as was preparing for the potential SEO impacts of the migration. This section details the critical steps we took in the initial stages, setting the stage for a smooth transition.

Analyzing Current Website Performance and Traffic

The first step in any site migration plan involves a thorough analysis of the existing website’s performance. For Gympass, this meant diving deep into their analytics to understand traffic sources, user behavior, and key performance indicators such as page load times, bounce rates, and conversion rates. Utilizing tools like ScreamingFrog, Google Search Console, and SEMrush, we were able to gather a comprehensive picture of the site’s health and areas where improvements were needed.

This initial analysis serves multiple purposes:

• Identifying High-Value Pages: Ensuring that pages with the highest traffic and engagement are prioritized during the migration to preserve their SEO value.
• Benchmarking: Establishing performance benchmarks helps in measuring the impact of the migration and setting realistic recovery goals.

Predictive Modeling of Traffic Dips and Recovery Post-Migration

Understanding that site migrations often result in temporary traffic dips, we employed predictive modeling to forecast these changes for Gympass. This involved analyzing historical data from previous migrations, industry benchmarks, and the specific changes being implemented. Our model took into account various scenarios, from best-case to worst-case, enabling us to develop a robust contingency plan.

The predictive model helped in:

• Setting Expectations: Clear communication with Gympass about potential traffic impacts and recovery timelines.
• Resource Allocation: Planning the necessary resources for immediate post-migration actions to mitigate any negative effects.

Preparing a Comprehensive SEO Audit Checklist

A comprehensive SEO audit was crucial to ensure that no stone was left unturned. This audit included checks for:

• Technical SEO: Ensuring that the website’s architecture was conducive to search engine crawling and indexing. This covered aspects like URL structure, the use of canonical tags, redirects, and the implementation of XML sitemaps.
• On-Page SEO: Analyzing content relevance, keyword optimization, and meta tags to ensure that all pages were optimized for maximum visibility.
• Off-Page SEO: Reviewing the site’s backlink profile to safeguard against losing valuable backlinks during the transition.

The SEO audit checklist served as a roadmap, guiding every step of the migration process to ensure that SEO best practices were adhered to, thereby minimizing risks and setting the stage for a successful transition. With these preparations in place, Gympass was not just ready for a domain change but was positioned for success in its aftermath, leveraging enhanced site performance and improved SEO strategies.

The Audit Spreadsheet: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

We’re sharing the very spreadsheet we used to run the technical SEO audit – a comprehensive spreadsheet that allowed us to build a map of all website URLs, identify issues, and develop mitigation strategies. 

Spreadsheet

Running the Numbers: Modeling Scenarios

Our analysis focused on Gympass’s three key international markets: Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. We dissected the percentage of organic traffic attributed to branded versus non-branded search terms and found that the overwhelming majority of organic traffic originated from branded search queries. Since the brand name would be changing, we factored this into our organic traffic predictions.

Armed with this insight, we rolled up our sleeves and dove into the data. By modeling potential scenarios based on the expected dip in traffic during the migration, we could anticipate the impact on Gympass’s online presence and how to best prepare. 

Behind the Scenes: Audits, Redirects, and Best Practices

Our tactical approach involved:

• Auditing Subdomains and Main Domain: We audited all 13 subdomains and the main domain. Our goal? Identify pages with high organic traffic and uncover any technical SEO issues.
• Redirect Maps: We meticulously crafted redirect maps for every subdomain and the main domain. Ensuring smooth transitions from source URLs to final destinations was paramount.
• Loop-Free Redirects: No tangled webs here! We identified redirect loops and chains and built the redirect maps from the source URL to the final URL, ensuring users seamlessly reached their desired content.
• CMS-Specific Best Practices: Each subdomain had its unique content management system (CMS) – HubSpot, WordPress, Storyblok, Unbounce, etc.,. We tailored migration guidelines to suit each platform.
• Robots.txt and XML Sitemap: A new Robots.txt file and an updated XML sitemap were essential for search engine crawlers.
• Technical Redirects: We followed best practices – server-side redirects, testing with 302, and then making them permanent 301 redirects.
• Collaboration with Developers: Our close partnership with Gympass’s development team ensured flawless execution.

Key Takeaways and Best Practices

From our extensive work with Gympass, valuable insights emerged that not only refined our approach to SEO but also provided us with a blueprint for future migration projects. Understanding the nuances of each step, from planning through execution and beyond, is crucial for maintaining the SEO value and ensuring the digital growth of any business.

Key Learnings from the Gympass Case Study

The Gympass migration underscored several critical elements:

• Thorough Preparation: Meticulous planning and testing helped anticipate potential issues, and minimizing disruptions in user experience and search rankings.
• Communication: Keeping all stakeholders informed at every phase ensured that any unforeseen challenges were swiftly addressed without significant delays.
• Flexibility: Adaptability in response to real-time data and feedback was essential for optimizing the migration process and outcomes.

Essential Considerations for Site Migration

Regardless of the industry or business goals, certain considerations remain paramount during any site migration:

• Risk Management: Identifying and managing risks proactively can significantly mitigate potential negative impacts on SEO.
• User Experience: Ensuring that the site remains user-friendly post-migration is vital for retaining and growing traffic.
• SEO Continuity: Maintaining SEO performance requires careful handling of all site elements that impact search visibility.

Actionable Best Practices

For companies planning a site migration, adhering to the following best practices is essential:

1. Conduct a Comprehensive Technical SEO Audit Before Migration: Assess your current SEO landscape to identify strengths and weaknesses. This audit should guide the migration strategy to avoid losing any SEO equity.
2. Develop a Detailed Content Migration Plan: Ensure all valuable content is accurately migrated to the new site. This plan should prevent any loss of content that could affect your site’s information hierarchy and keyword rankings.
3. Implement Server-Side 301 Redirects for All Old URLs: This is crucial for transferring the existing SEO value to the new URLs and for providing a seamless user experience by redirecting visitors to the appropriate content on the new site.
4. Update Your Sitemap and Resubmit It to Search Engines: Quickly updating and resubmitting the sitemap helps search engines discover and index the new structure more efficiently.
5. Monitor Performance Closely Post-Migration: Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to monitor the site’s performance. Quick identification and resolution of issues like traffic drops or page errors can prevent long-term negative impacts.

The Ongoing Importance of SEO After a Site Migration

Post-migration, continuous SEO efforts are necessary to solidify and enhance the site’s position in search rankings. Regular content optimization, proactive link building, and ongoing technical checks ensure the site remains competitive and relevant. This ongoing commitment to SEO not only helps in recovering from any short-term losses during migration but also in capitalizing on new opportunities for growth and visibility.

By integrating these insights and best practices into your migration strategy, your business can navigate the complexities of site migration while preserving and enhancing its online presence.

Ready to Elevate Your SEO Strategy?

At Tuff, we understand that the landscape of digital marketing is continuously changing. With increasing advertising costs, it’s more crucial than ever to invest in sustainable SEO practices that not only preserve but enhance your digital footprint. Whether you’re contemplating a site migration or looking to tweak your SEO strategy to align with the latest Google updates, our team is equipped with the expertise and experience to guide you through.

We’re eager to help you uncover the full potential of your website and ensure that your SEO strategy is robust, responsive, and results-oriented. If you’re considering any technical changes or simply want to learn more about how recent Google updates might impact your site, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post Minimizing Risk in a Site Migration: A Data-Driven Approach to Sustainable Growth appeared first on Tuff.

In this blog post, we’ll unravel advanced technical SEO techniques, exploring everything from the intricacies of headless CMSs to the complexities of React and beyond. Read on for more! 

Technical SEO for Headless CMS & Single Page Applications (SPAs)

First, let’s zoom in on the rise of headless Content Management Systems (CMS) and how it has revolutionized how we think about content delivery on the web. Unlike traditional CMSs, headless CMSs provide greater flexibility in how content is presented, catering to the needs of different channels. However, this flexibility and the lack of built-in SEO features can present unique challenges for SEO.

First and foremost, we have to consider metatags. This may seem obvious, but these metatags (SEO title tags, meta descriptions, canonical tags, robots tags, etc.,) aren’t inherently built into headless CMss. It’s important to analyze your pages and see which tags are and aren’t present.

Another critical aspect is managing structured data. Structured data is vital for search engines to understand the context of your content. Implementing structured data in a headless CMS requires a careful approach, ensuring that the JSON-LD scripts are correctly placed and the content is accurately represented.

Finally, ensuring technical seo agency and indexing is paramount. With headless CMSs, it’s essential to regularly audit your site to make sure that search engines can access and index new and updated content. The surest way to do this, especially for JavaScript-heavy websites, is to implement server-side rendering.

Implementing Server-Side Rendering for JavaScript-Heavy Websites

In modern web development, JavaScript-heavy websites — particularly those built with frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue.js — offer dynamic user experiences but pose challenges for SEO. Implementing server-side rendering (SSR) is a key strategy to overcome these challenges, ensuring that search engines can effectively crawl and index content.

Understanding Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

The Basics of SSR

SSR involves rendering web pages on the server before they’re sent to the client’s browser. This process generates the full HTML for each page on the server, ensuring that the content is immediately available for search engine crawlers on page load. Unlike client-side rendering, where content is dynamically generated in the browser, SSR provides a complete, indexable page version from the get-go.

SEO Benefits

The primary benefit of SSR for SEO is enhanced crawlability. Search engines can easily access and index the content, as the fully rendered pages are easier for their crawlers to process. This leads to better visibility and potentially higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). Additionally, SSR can improve page load times, contributing to a better user experience and Core Web Vitals, which are key factors in Google’s ranking algorithm.

Implementing SSR in JavaScript Frameworks

Framework-Specific Approaches

Each major JavaScript framework provides its own methods for implementing SSR:

• React: Libraries like Next.js provide an SSR framework for React applications. Next.js simplifies the process of turning a client-side React app into one that renders from the server.
• Angular: Angular Universal is Angular’s solution for SSR, allowing developers to pre-render Angular applications on the server.
• Vue.js: Nuxt.js is a higher-level framework built on Vue.js that provides SSR capabilities out of the box.

Challenges and Considerations

While SSR enhances SEO, it also introduces some complexities:

• Server Load: Rendering content server-side can increase the load on your servers, especially for high-traffic websites.
• Development Complexity: Implementing SSR might require architectural changes in how your application handles data fetching, routing, and rendering.
• Hydration: Once the server-rendered content is delivered to the browser, it needs to be “hydrated” into a fully interactive application. This process must be handled smoothly to maintain user experience.

SSR Best Practices

Optimize Server Performance

To mitigate the increased server load, optimize your server’s performance by implementing caching strategies. Consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute the load.

Monitor Core Web Vitals

Keep an eye on Core Web Vitals such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Input Delay (FID) to make sure that SSR is positively impacting your site’s performance.

Continuous Testing and Iteration

Regularly test your application for both SEO performance and user experience. Use tools like Google’s Lighthouse to assess the effectiveness of your SSR implementation.

SEO Considerations in Website Architecture Design

The architecture of a website lays the foundation for its SEO success. Three critical components in this regard are URL structuring, internal linking, and sitemap creation.

Effective URL structuring is a cornerstone of SEO-friendly website design. URLs should be concise, descriptive, and include relevant keywords where appropriate. This not only aids search engines in understanding the content of the page, but it also enhances the user experience. A well-structured URL is easy to read and understand, both for users and search engines.

Internal linking is another crucial aspect of successful SEO. It helps search engines discover new pages and understand the hierarchy and relationship between different pages on your site. Strategic use of internal links, with relevant anchor texts, can distribute page authority throughout your site, boosting the SEO performance of individual pages.

XML Sitemaps

Lastly, sitemaps are vital for SEO. An XML sitemap acts as a roadmap for search engines, guiding them through all the important pages on your site. This is especially important for large websites or those with a complex structure, as it ensures that search engines can find and index all your content. Regularly updating the sitemap and submitting it through Google Search Console is a best practice every site should follow.

XML sitemaps become even more important when you’re dealing with programmatic SEO. In this case, it’s best to create an XML sitemap that programmatically populates based on new URLs that are saved in the database. 

Robots.txt Management

The robots.txt file plays a crucial role in any SEO toolkit, especially for large or dynamic websites like ecommerce platforms. Proper management of these files can significantly impact how search engines crawl and index your site.

The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which parts of your site should or should not be crawled and indexed. Proper configuration of this file is critical. It should be used to prevent search engines from accessing irrelevant or duplicate pages, such as admin pages or temporary pages, which can waste crawl budget and negatively impact SEO. However, it’s crucial to make sure that no important content is inadvertently blocked from search engines.

Both XML sitemaps and robots.txt files require careful management and regular updates to align with the ongoing changes and updates of your website. Their correct implementation ensures efficient crawling and indexing by search engines, thereby supporting your overall SEO strategy.

International SEO and Localization

Expanding your startup’s reach to international markets requires a nuanced approach to SEO. International SEO and localization are about more than just translating content. They involve optimizing your website for different languages and cultural contexts to effectively engage diverse audiences.

Understanding International SEO

Cultural Nuance and Relevance

Localization goes beyond direct translation. It involves adapting your content to resonate with local cultures, customs, and preferences. This may include modifying visuals, color schemes, and website layout to suit different cultural sensibilities.

Local Keyword Optimization

Conduct thorough keyword research for each target market. Keywords that work well in one language or region might not be effective in another. Understanding local search terms and phrases is crucial for optimizing your content for international audiences.

Structuring Your Website for International Audiences

Consider whether to use country-specific domains, subdomains, or subdirectories. Each has its advantages and implications for SEO, and the choice depends on factors like target audience, budget, and technical capabilities.

Implementing Hreflang Tags

The Role of Hreflang Tags

Hreflang tags are a critical element of international SEO. They signal to search engines what language and regional targeting a page is intended for, helping to serve the correct content version to users based on their location and language preferences.

Accurate Implementation

Incorrect implementation of hreflang tags can lead to SEO issues. Make sure that each language version of your site is correctly tagged and that these tags are consistently implemented across all pages.

Security and SEO: The Importance of Security Headers and Safe Practices

Search engines prioritize user safety in their ranking algorithms, which means website security directly influences SEO. Implementing robust security measures — including the use of security headers and avoiding unsafe practices — is crucial for maintaining both user trust and search engine rankings.

HTTPS as a Ranking Signal

The Shift to HTTPS

Google has confirmed that HTTPS, which encrypts data between the user’s browser and your website, is a ranking signal. Sites using HTTPS are generally considered more secure and may receive a ranking boost.

The Role of Security Headers in SEO

1. HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)

HSTS is a response header that tells browsers to only communicate with your website over HTTPS. Implementing HSTS is crucial for protecting against protocol downgrade attacks and cookie hijacking. It also reinforces your commitment to secure browsing, and search engines like that.

2. Missing X-Content-Type-Options Header

This header prevents browsers from interpreting files as something other than their declared content type. Without this header, your site could be vulnerable to MIME type confusion attacks, potentially leading to security breaches. Making sure this header is in place is a good security practice that indirectly benefits SEO by maintaining a secure site environment.

3. Content Security Policy (CSP)

CSP is a powerful tool for preventing various types of attacks, including Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and data injection attacks. By defining which dynamic resources are allowed to load, CSP significantly improves website security. Search engines prefer secure websites because they maintain a safe user experience. 

Avoiding Unsafe Practices

Mixed Content Issues

Websites using HTTPS but loading HTTP resources (mixed content) can be seen as less secure, leading to warnings in users’ browsers. This not only affects user trust but can also lead to search engines devaluing your site. Make sure all resources are loaded over HTTPS to maintain site security and SEO integrity.

Unsafe Cross-Origin Links

Links to external sites can pose a security risk if not properly managed. Adding ‘rel=noopener’ to external links ensures that the new page does not gain access to your page’s context, preventing potentially malicious scripts from accessing your site. This practice contributes to overall site security, indirectly impacting SEO by maintaining the integrity of your site.

Implementing Best Practices for Security and SEO

Regular Audits and Updates

Conducting regular security audits helps identify and rectify vulnerabilities, like missing headers or mixed content issues. Keeping your site’s security measures up to date is essential for safeguarding against attacks and maintaining search engine rankings.

Educating Your Team

Make sure that your team is aware of best practices for website security. This includes developers, content creators, and anyone else involved in your site’s maintenance. A collaborative approach to security can significantly reduce risks and help maintain SEO performance.

Staying Competitive on Search

The journey to mastering technical SEO is ongoing. It demands a blend of technical know-how, an understanding of evolving search engine algorithms, and a keen eye for user experience. By implementing these advanced techniques, startups can significantly improve their organic search rankings, providing them with a vital edge in the competitive search landscape.

At Tuff, we’re committed to staying at the forefront of these developments, continuously adapting our strategies to make sure that your startup not only keeps up, but stands out. Remember, in the world of SEO, staying still is falling behind. Continuously testing, iterating, and staying updated with the latest developments is key to sustained success. Embrace these techniques and watch your organic performance improve significantly.

Ready to take your startup to the next level? Reach out today and let’s discuss how to boost your SEO and drive sustainable growth.

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post Advanced Technical SEO Techniques to Propel Your Startup’s Organic Rankings appeared first on Tuff.

Page speed is one of the most important factors for scaleup brands’ growth in the digital era–especially SaaS brands. It not only affects your SEO rankings but also your conversion rates–which means your bottom line is, well, on the line.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how page speed impacts SEO and conversions, and share some practical tips and tools to optimize your website performance.

Understanding the Connection: Page Speed, SEO, and Conversions

Page speed is the time it takes for a web page to load and display its content. It can be measured by different metrics, known as Web Vitals, the most important web vitals being the Core Web Vitals.

Core Web Vitals

Google defines Core Web Vitals as the subset of Web Vitals that apply to all web pages, should be measured by all site owners, and will be surfaced across all Google tools. Each of the Core Web Vitals represents a distinct facet of the user experience, is measurable in the field, and reflects the real-world experience of a critical user-centric outcome.

In other words, each Core Web Vital looks at a different part of how people use a website, and they show how well a website serves its users in the real world. The four Core Web Vitals (one soon to be replaced) are:

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a pending Core Web Vital metric that will replace First Input Delay (FID) in March 2024. INP assesses responsiveness using data from the Event Timing API. When an interaction causes a page to become unresponsive, that is a poor user experience. INP observes the latency of all interactions a user has made with the page, and reports a single value which all (or nearly all) interactions were below. A low INP means the page was consistently able to respond quickly to all—or the vast majority—of user interactions. 

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures loading performance. To provide a good user experience, LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of when the page first starts loading.

First Input Delay (FID) measures interactivity. To provide a good user experience, pages should have a FID of 100 milliseconds or less.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual stability. To provide a good user experience, pages should maintain a CLS of 0.1. or less.

These Core Web Vitals are all ranking factors and can either help or hurt your rankings in SERPs, especially mobile searches.

How Page Speed Affects User Experience (UX)

A faster page speed can not only improve your website’s visibility and organic traffic, but can also enhance your user experience by reducing bounce rates, increasing engagement, and building trust. According to Google, 

“53% of mobile users abandon a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.”

Page speed also has a correlation with conversions, whether it be sign-ups, subscriptions, purchases, or downloads. A faster page speed can increase your conversions by reducing friction, improving satisfaction, and creating urgency. 

According to a study by Akamai, a 100-millisecond delay (or one-tenth of a second) in website load time can hurt conversion rates by 7%.

When we look at real-world examples of brands benefiting from page speed optimization, we can see just how impactful these improvements can be.

Examples of Brands Benefiting From Page Speed Optimization 

In 2015, Pinterest improved mobile website performance, increasing page speed by 60% and sign-up conversions by 40%. 

• They revamped the entire site, introducing metrics like user-perceived wait time (UPWT). 
• Optimizations encompassed the front end, network, and back end. 
• They reduced data loading for faster page rendering, adopted React for efficiency, improved their CDN, and streamlined data fetching. 
• These changes reduced user wait times by 40%, boosted search engine traffic by 15%, and increased sign-up conversions by 15%. 
• In 2016, this became Pinterest’s most significant user acquisition success.

Netflix reduced page loading time by 50% for the logged-out homepage by minimizing JavaScript usage and switching to vanilla JavaScript.

• This change also cut the JavaScript bundle size by over 200kB. 
• Netflix improved time-to-interactivity by 30% through prefetching techniques for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 
• By carefully managing JavaScript and optimizing resource loading, they enhanced the sign-up process, leading to a better user experience and increased sign-up rates. 

These improvements show the importance of performance in website design, ensuring faster loading and smoother interactions for users.

Vodafone determined that optimizing for Web Vitals generated 8% more sales.

• They ran an A/B test on a landing page (where version A was optimized for Web Vitals and had a 31% better LCP score in the field than version B), and studies have also shown the negative impact poor performance can have on business goals.

• For example, the BBC found they lost an additional 10% of users for every additional second their site took to load.

Transitioning from examples of brands benefiting from page speed optimization, let’s now explore some key tips for improving website performance and securing faster page speeds.

Optimization Tips for Faster Page Speed

There are many ways to optimize your website performance for faster page speed. Here are some of the essential tips that we’d recommend:

• Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This means removing unnecessary spaces, comments, and characters from your code to reduce its size and improve efficiency.
• Compress images and videos and serve images in next-gen format. You’ll want to reduce the file size of your media without compromising its quality. You can convert your images to WebP, which are lossless images that are 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs. When it comes to video, you can use a tool like HandBrake to compress files.
• Use a content delivery network (CDN). This will distribute your content across multiple servers around the world to deliver it faster to your users based on their location. You can use services like Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront to set up a CDN for your website.
• Enable caching. This means storing some of your website’s data on your users’ browsers or servers to reduce the number of requests and load times for subsequent visits. If you’re using WordPress, you can use plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache to enable caching.
• Optimize your fonts. Choose fonts that are web-friendly, lightweight, and compatible with different browsers and devices. You can use tools like Google Fonts or Font Squirrel to optimize your fonts.

Essential Tools for Page Speed Improvement

Image Source: PageSpeedInsights

To measure and improve page speed, utilize reliable tools that can help you analyze and identify areas for improvement. Here are some of the tools we recommend:

• Google PageSpeed Insights. This is a free tool from Google that evaluates a website’s performance on both mobile and desktop devices, providing a score out of 100. It also provides suggestions on how to optimize your website for faster page speed.
• GTmetrix. This is another free tool that analyzes your website’s performance and gives you a comprehensive report on various metrics, such as PageSpeed Score, YSlow Score, Fully Loaded Time, Total Page Size, and Requests. It also offers recommendations on how to improve your website performance.
• WebPageTest. This free tool tests your website’s performance from different locations, browsers, devices, and connection speeds. It gives you detailed information on various aspects of your website performance, such as First Byte Time, Start Render Time, Speed Index, First Contentful Paint, Largest Contentful Paint, Time to Interactive, Cumulative Layout Shift, etc.

The Growth Impact

Optimizing your website performance for faster page speed can have a significant impact on your brand’s growth. With better SEO rankings, you can attract more organic traffic to your website and increase your brand awareness and authority.

Improving conversion rate means generating more leads, sales, and revenue from your website, plus growing your customer base and loyalty. 

By improving your user experience, you can enhance your brand reputation and customer satisfaction and reduce your churn rate and customer acquisition cost.

According to a study by Google, a one-second improvement in mobile page speed can increase conversions by up to 27%. According to another study by Aberdeen Group, a one-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% loss in conversions, 11% fewer page views, and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.

As you can see, prioritizing website speed optimization not only drives immediate gains in conversions but also lays a strong foundation for sustained brand growth, bolstering your online presence and setting the stage for ongoing customer loyalty.

Wrapping it Up

If you’ve made it this far, we hope one thing’s clear: page speed is your growth navigator. It’s not just about SEO rankings; it’s about multiplying your conversions.

When you fine-tune website performance and speed, you’re not tinkering; you’re scaling your online presence. Think of it as boosting visibility, engagement, and revenue–giving you that competitive edge that keeps working in the background.

If you need any help with page speed optimization or any other aspect of growth marketing, feel free to reach out. 

We are here to help you grow your brand faster and smarter. 😊

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post The Impact of Page Speed on SEO and Conversion Rates: Optimization Tips and Tools appeared first on Tuff.

Data-Driven SEO: 5 Data Points for Your 2023 Marketing Plans

• 88% of marketers who have an SEO strategy will increase or maintain their investment in 2023. [Source: HubSpot]
• 73% of clicks now going to organic web listings—up from 65% just last year [Source: Brightedge]
• Consumers are searching 20% more than in 2021 [Source: Brightedge]
• Organic Search Outperforms Paid Ads: Higher CTRs (27.6% vs. 3.17%) [Sources: Backlinko & WordStream]
• 82% of Customer Experience (CX) leaders expect their program budgets to rise within the next 12 months. [Source: Forrester]

Intro

In today’s inflationary economy, marketing professionals face mounting challenges as they navigate budget constraints and the pressure to deliver results. As CFOs scrutinize media budgets, the need for cost-effective marketing strategies has never been more crucial. 

Enter SEO, a high-yield channel that remains relatively unaffected by market fluctuations. In fact, 88% of marketers who have an SEO strategy will increase or maintain their investment in 2023, and for good reason. 

Brightedge, a leading enterprise SEO tool, data reveals that consumers are searching 20% more than in 2021, and according to Gartner, CMOs are focusing more on channels that create efficiencies – SEO is one of those channels. 

With a staggering 73% of clicks now going to organic web listings—up from 65% just last year—there’s no better time for businesses to leverage the power of SEO to maintain growth and stay competitive in the face of economic uncertainty.

As a growth marketing agency, that’s exactly what Tuff is helping our partners do and I’ll explain just how in this article.

Table of contents

• The Current Marketing Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
• Understanding SEO as a High-Yield Channel in Challenging Economic Conditions
• Building Trust with Customers through SEO
• SEO Strategies for Success in an Inflation Economy
• How to create high-quality, relevant content through audience research and persona building
• Measuring SEO and Content Marketing Success and ROI
• Key Takeaways

The Current Marketing Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities

As inflation continues to put a strain on the global economy, marketing budgets are among the first to be impacted. Companies are tightening their belts, and this puts immense pressure on CMOs to deliver results despite shrinking resources. In this environment, it is crucial for marketing leaders to not only understand the challenges posed by inflation but also recognize the opportunities that arise from focusing on the right marketing strategies.

According to data from Backlinko, the top position in Google’s organic search results receives an average click-through rate (CTR) of 27.6%. In contrast, WordStream data reveals that the average CTR for paid search ads across all industries on Google is only 3.17%. 

More importantly, this trend extends beyond the top organic search result. According to Advanced Web Metrics, pages ranking in positions 1-5 in Google search results all surpass the 3.17% average CTR for paid search ads.

In this challenging economic environment, it is essential for marketing leaders to prioritize channels that provide the highest return on investment while demanding minimal additional costs. Among the various digital marketing strategies, SEO has emerged as a particularly powerful and cost-effective solution.

CMOs are increasingly focusing on SEO to drive traffic, generate leads, and achieve long-term, sustainable growth. By prioritizing SEO, businesses can tap into new customer segments and stay ahead of their competition. With the majority of consumers relying on search engines to find products and services, a strong SEO strategy becomes indispensable for maintaining visibility and capturing valuable organic traffic. 

By focusing on and investing in SEO, businesses can create efficiencies, establish a strong online presence, and ultimately weather the economic storm. As a result, companies that can effectively leverage SEO will be better positioned to thrive amidst the challenges presented by the current inflationary economy.

Understanding SEO as a High-Yield Channel in Challenging Economic Conditions

SEO’s evolving role in digital marketing strategies

In the current economic climate, marketing leaders are more focused than ever on deriving maximum value from their SEO efforts. Organizations are prioritizing SEO to ensure cost-effective marketing solutions amidst budget constraints. According to HubSpot, 88% of marketers who have an SEO strategy will increase or maintain their investment in 2023.

For experienced SEO professionals, this means staying informed about the latest algorithm updates, such as the recent Google March 2023 Broad Core Update, which emphasizes the importance of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) in content.

SEOs need to be aware of changes in Google’s ranking systems, as illustrated by the removal of several search ranking algorithm updates from its ranking systems page. By staying ahead of the curve and capitalizing on emerging opportunities, marketers can maintain and improve their search engine rankings and make the most of their SEO strategies.

Adjusting organic search tactics for driving traffic and conversions

While experienced marketers recognize the importance of organic search in driving traffic and conversions, it is crucial to adjust tactics to maximize results. The SEMrush State of Content Marketing report emphasizes the need to focus on comprehensive keyword research, including long-tail keywords and semantic search optimization, to capture user intent more effectively. 

In order to effectively capitalize on user intent, marketers should prioritize audience research and persona building, topic clusters, and pillar pages to create a cohesive content strategy that caters to users’ needs, pain points, and search engine preferences. By continuously adjusting organic search tactics, marketers can gain a competitive edge and drive better-qualified traffic and higher conversion rates.

Leveraging technical SEO and data-driven insights for long-term ROI

Given the potential for substantial long-term ROI with SEO, marketing leaders must continuously refine their strategies to stay ahead of the competition. The State of Technical SEO report (2023) by Search Engine Land suggests that marketers should prioritize technical optimizations, such as Core Web Vitals, structured data, and advanced schema markup, to improve their site’s visibility and user experience. 

Integrating data-driven insights from analytics, user behavior analysis, and CRO can help marketers identify areas for improvement and tailor their SEO strategies for maximum impact. 

Building Trust with Customers through SEO

This image was AI-generated

Creating high-quality, relevant content

The importance of high-quality, relevant content that aligns with users’ search intent and preferences, cannot be overstated. This involves developing data-driven content strategies that address user pain points, answer questions, and provide valuable insights. By consistently delivering top-notch content, marketers can position their brand as an industry authority and build trust with their target audience.

Ensuring a user-friendly website experience

A seamless and user-friendly website experience is critical in fostering trust with customers. In fact, 82% of Customer Experience (CX) leaders, surveyed by Forrester, expect their program budgets to rise within the next 12 months. Technical aspects, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and accessibility, play a significant role in customer experience. By prioritizing these factors and implementing best practices, marketers can reduce bounce rates, improve engagement, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Developing a strong brand presence and reputation online

The impact of trust on customer lifetime value (LTV) and retention

Building trust with customers through effective SEO strategies can significantly impact customer lifetime value (LTV) and retention. When customers perceive a brand as trustworthy and authoritative, they are more likely to become repeat customers and recommend the brand to others. Marketers should focus on continuously refining SEO efforts to maintain customer trust, which in turn leads to increased loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and long-term revenue growth. 

SEO Strategies for Success in an Inflation Economy

Embracing the shift towards user-centric SEO

This Forrester report highlights the evolution of search marketing towards a more user-centric approach. To succeed in an inflation economy, marketers should prioritize user intent, experience, and satisfaction in their SEO strategies. This involves analyzing user behavior, search patterns, and feedback to create content and optimize website elements that cater to users’ needs and expectations. By embracing user-centric SEO, marketers can drive more targeted traffic and improve conversion rates.

Leveraging AI and automation for efficiency and scale

Incorporating AI and automation into SEO strategies can help drive efficiency and scale. Businesses can capitalize on AI-powered tools and platforms to automate tasks like keyword research, content optimization, and competitor analysis. By streamlining these processes, marketing professionals can save time and resources, allowing them to focus on strategic decision-making and long-term growth initiatives.

Integrating SEO with content marketing and PR efforts

The economic downturn and shift in marketing strategies emphasizes the need for marketers to break down silos and integrate SEO with content marketing and PR efforts. By aligning these disciplines, businesses can create cohesive, consistent messaging that strengthens their brand presence and authority in organic search. Collaborating with content creators, PR, PPC, and CRO can help marketers amplify their reach, improve backlink profiles, and drive higher levels of engagement.

Adapting to SERP changes and emerging trends

The ever-changing landscape of search engine results pages (SERPs) presents both challenges and opportunities for marketers. Businesses need to stay informed about SERP changes, algorithm updates, and emerging trends, such as voice search, AI chat responses, and visual search optimization. By adapting to these developments and incorporating them into their SEO strategies, marketers can maintain a competitive edge and continue to drive growth in the inflation economy.

How to create high-quality, relevant content through audience research and persona building

Audience research

This image was AI-generated

To create truly engaging content that resonates with your audience, it’s essential to have a deep understanding of who they are and what they care about. Incorporating audience research into your content creation strategy can help you better tailor your messaging and ensure your efforts hit the mark. Here are some steps to help you connect with your audience on a deeper level:

1. Dig into Customer Data – Kick things off by examining your existing customer data for insights about your audience, such as demographics, behavior, and preferences. This might include information from customer databases, CRM systems, or website analytics.
2. Get Personal with Surveys and Interviews – Engage your target audience through surveys or interviews to learn about their needs, motivations, and pain points. If you’ve already done this, review any internal data you have, like customer support logs or sales data, for additional insights.
3. Chat with Sales and Customer Service Teams – Connect with your sales and customer service teams to gather feedback on customer interactions and identify common questions or issues customers face. This can help you better understand your audience’s needs.
4. Explore Social Media and Online Communities – Investigate social media channels, forums, reviews, and online communities where your audience engages to uncover insights into their behavior, preferences, and opinions. This will help you understand how your audience interacts with your brand and related topics.
5. Pinpoint Audience Segments and Priorities – Use the insights you’ve gathered to identify audience segments and prioritize them based on their value to your business. Consider factors like profitability, growth potential, and ease of reaching them.
6. Craft Detailed Personas – Create detailed personas representing each audience segment, including demographics, behavior patterns, and pain points. Use a template to structure your personas and add realistic details for accuracy.
7. Validate and Refine Personas – Share your personas with stakeholders, conduct additional research, or test them with your audience to validate their accuracy. Refine your personas based on feedback and new insights to ensure they truly represent your audience.
8. Apply Personas to Marketing Strategies – Leverage your personas to guide your marketing strategies, including messaging, content creation, and campaigns. Develop targeted content and messaging that resonates with your audience segments and aligns with their needs and preferences.

Persona building

This image was AI-generated

Building detailed customer personas is crucial for creating targeted content that resonates with your audience. When developing customer personas, try to include the following elements:

Demographics:

• Age
• Gender
• Income level
• Education level
• Occupation
• Location (urban, suburban, rural, region, country)

Psychographics:

• Values
• Beliefs
• Attitudes
• Lifestyle
• Interests
• Hobbies
• Personal goals
• Aspirations

Behavioral Patterns:

• Purchasing habits
• Online browsing behavior
• Social media usage
• Preferred communication channels (email, social media, phone, etc.)
• Brand loyalty and preferences
• Customer journey stages
• Pain points and challenges
• Decision-making criteria

Online Presence:

• Preferred social media platforms
• Online communities or forums they participate in
• Influencers they follow
• Blogs or websites they frequent
• Types of content they consume and share (articles, videos, podcasts, etc.)

Emotional Triggers:

• Fears
• Desires
• Motivations
• Emotional needs
• Anxieties
• Expectations

The Problem or Need:

• Specific problems they’re trying to solve
• Needs that your product or service can fulfill
• Gaps in their current solutions

Unique Selling Proposition (USP):

• How your product or service stands out from competitors
• The benefits your product or service provides to the persona
• What makes your brand the ideal choice for them

Quotes and Testimonials:

• Actual quotes from customers or prospects that embody the persona
• Testimonials that demonstrate the success stories of customers similar to the persona

Persona Name and Visual Representation:

• Assign a name to each persona for easy reference
• Create a visual representation (e.g., stock photo, illustration) to bring the persona to life

Segment-Specific Considerations:

• Industry or niche-specific factors
• Cultural or regional differences
• Any other unique characteristics relevant to your target audience

By incorporating these elements into customer personas, you can create a comprehensive and accurate representation of your target audience. This allows you to craft content and marketing strategies that effectively resonate with each persona, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Measuring SEO and Content Marketing Success and ROI

As experienced marketers, you understand the importance of demonstrating the value and ROI of your SEO and content marketing efforts. To effectively measure success, it’s crucial to establish a data-driven approach that goes beyond surface-level metrics. Here’s how you can achieve this:

1. Set Clear Goals and KPIs – Start by establishing well-defined, SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for your SEO and content marketing campaigns. Align these goals with your organization’s overall objectives, and then determine the KPIs that will help you gauge progress. For instance, you might choose to measure organic traffic growth, keyword ranking improvements, the number of leads generated from organic search, or impact on customer LTV.
2. Leverage Attribution Models – Adopt a comprehensive attribution model, such as data-driven or multi-touch attribution, to gain a better understanding of how SEO and content marketing contribute to customer acquisition and revenue generation. This will help you allocate resources more effectively and prioritize high-impact strategies.
3. Integrate SEO and Content Data – Integrate your SEO and content marketing data with other marketing and sales platforms, such as CRM and marketing automation systems. This enables a unified view of your customers’ journey, providing valuable insights into how SEO and content marketing impact lead nurturing, conversion, and customer retention.
4. Implement A/B Testing and Iteration – Utilize A/B testing to refine your SEO and content marketing strategies. By experimenting with different approaches, such as content formats, headlines, and calls-to-action (CTAs), you can identify the tactics that resonate best with your audience and generate the highest ROI.
5. Establish a Continuous Improvement Process – Create a culture of continuous improvement by regularly reviewing your KPIs, analyzing performance data, and adjusting your strategies accordingly. This will enable you to stay ahead of industry trends, capitalize on emerging opportunities, and maximize the ROI of your SEO and content marketing efforts.

Key Takeaways

In conclusion, the current economic uncertainty demands marketing leaders to be more strategic in their approach. As experienced professionals, you understand the importance of SEO in maintaining growth and driving cost-effective results. 

By leveraging advanced SEO tactics and focusing on long-term ROI, you can not only weather the storm but also strengthen your brand’s online presence and improve customer LTV. As you navigate these challenging times, remember that a robust and data-driven SEO strategy is an essential component of your marketing arsenal. 

By staying agile, optimizing your approach, and capitalizing on emerging opportunities, you can continue to drive significant value and growth for your organization, even in the most volatile market conditions.

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post Leveraging SEO to Maintain Growth in the Inflation Economy appeared first on Tuff.

Marketing teams are constantly searching for innovative ways to streamline processes, optimize campaigns, and drive business growth.

Well, what if I told you there was a way to do all of that?

Please welcome, 🥁ChatGPT and the AI Revolution! 💥

As a growth marketer, ChatGPT is an incredibly powerful tool that you can use to help drive engagement and conversions. By crafting the right prompts, you can create personalized experiences that speak directly to your target audience. 

In this post, we’ll explore the art of crafting effective prompts and walk you through tips and best practices for writing prompts that will help you take your growth marketing strategy to the next level.

Importance of crafting thoughtful prompts

In the age of AI-powered marketing, crafting thoughtful and precise prompts is critical to unlocking the full potential of generative AI tools. 🤖As growth marketers, it’s important to remember that AI is the doer, not the thinker. 💡Our role is to be the strategic masterminds, guiding the AI with well-constructed prompts to help us streamline processes, optimize strategies, and achieve growth goals.

AI is the doer, not the thinker.

The importance of prompt writing has become so apparent that companies are now hiring dedicated ‘AI prompt engineers’ and offering up to $335,000 a year. 💰💻

To write an expert prompt, start by being clear and specific about your intentions. Remember that AI will do what you want it to do, as long as you explain it thoroughly and accurately. Avoid using ambiguous language or overloading the prompt with unnecessary details, which can lead to confusion and subpar results. 😕 Instead, focus on providing concise and direct instructions to maximize the AI’s ability to understand and execute the task.

Ultimately, the success of AI-driven growth marketing strategies hinges on the collaboration between humans and machines 💻🤝 – sounds like we’re in a Sci-Fi movie, right? We’re certainly getting closer… 

Let’s dig into certain types of prompts and how you can interact with generative AI.

Open-ended vs close-ended prompts

Open-ended prompts encourage more creative and extensive responses, while closed-ended prompts typically yield brief, specific answers. Choose the type of prompt based on your desired output.

Example:

Open-ended prompt

“Can you suggest some ways to improve our marketing strategy?”

Assuming you’ve provided detailed specifics on your marketing strategy prior to asking this question. 

This prompt encourages ChatGPT to generate its own thoughts and ideas on how to improve the marketing strategy without limiting it to a specific set of options or ideas. The response may be more varied and generate broad suggestions that may or may not be what you’re looking for.

Closed-ended prompt

“Which social media platform is the most effective for reaching a younger audience?”

This prompt provides a specific set of options for ChatGPT to choose from and limits the response to one choice. This type of prompt is useful when seeking specific information or opinions, but may not provide as much insight or variety in responses compared to open-ended prompts.

Role-based Priming

Define a specific role for ChatGPT to adopt during the conversation.

If you leave this up to chance, the AI will make too many assumptions.

e.g. “You are a world-class software developer.”

By tailoring prompts to my specific role, ChatGPT can provide more relevant and accurate responses. This approach helps to ensure that the conversation stays focused on my needs and interests, ultimately leading to more productive and effective interactions.

Knowledge & Task-based Priming

Specify the knowledge level or expertise you expect from ChatGPT. As you can see in the example prompt above, I specifically asked for beginner-friendly, step-by-step instructions. I combined knowledge and task-based priming by asking for specific tasks – the names of the files, which files to paste which code into, and how to export and upload the code into WordPress.

I’ve defined AI as the world-class expert and me as the beginner. The roles and tasks are very clear and as things progress and I start to ask more questions, the AI will remember its role as well as mine. 

Utilizing personas in prompts

Defining a Persona. Provide a specific persona to ChatGPT to enhance the conversation’s depth and consistency.

Persona: 🙋Jennifer, a 35-year-old marketing manager at a B2B SaaS company.

Prompt: As a marketing manager for a B2B SaaS company, Jennifer needs to generate high-quality leads for the sales team. Can you suggest some strategies that are effective for reaching decision-makers in the tech industry, particularly those who are actively researching solutions in our market?

In this prompt, the persona “Jennifer” is clearly defined by her role, company, and target audience. The prompt is specific to the challenges she faces and the desired outcome, which is to generate high-quality leads. By utilizing this persona and providing specific context, ChatGPT can generate more relevant and effective strategies for Jennifer’s specific situation, leading to a more productive and valuable conversation.

Segment your asks

Most requests in ChatGPT fall into 1 of 3 buckets:

• Research
• Creation
• Improvement

Research prompts can have less context.

Creation prompts need the most context.

Improvement prompts require the most back and forth.

Break your request into smaller parts

If you ask for a whole blog post at once, it won’t be as good.

If you break the request into parts, you can get great content.

A good rule of thumb?

Ask for a max of 150 words at a time.

Make AI ask you the questions

Maybe the most underrated tip here.

If you’re stuck or want to look at a problem from different angles…

Make AI think of all the angles for you.

Working from a list of questions helps you generate more ideas yourself.

Reference books or well-known marketing frameworks and tell it what to avoid

Priming ChatGPT with references to reputable sources or well-known marketing frameworks can significantly enhance the quality and relevance of its output because you’re guiding it to generate insights that align with established theories and strategies.

Fun fact. When one of our SEO strategists thought that the invoice from their CPA was unreasonably expensive, they asked ChatGPT to write an email using principles from “How to Win Friends & Influence People” and they were able to get a reduced fee! 🫰

Go heavy on context

Bad prompt, bad result.

Simple as that.

The more context you give, the better your responses will be.

Trying giving basic context like:

• Tone
• Length
• Target audience
• Desired outcome
• Where the content will go

Build this all into a repeatable template

The last step is to bring it all together and build a repeatable template that you can use time and time again. 🔁

Creating a repeatable template with these suggestions streamlines the interaction process, ensures consistent, high-quality results, and saves you time on future tasks.

Key Takeaways

Leveraging ChatGPT’s full potential requires thoughtful and strategic interactions. 

Use effective prompts that are explicit, concise, and specify the desired output format. Priming AI with context, such as “You are a world-class content marketer,” can guide responses toward a desired expertise. 

Employing personas can further refine AI-generated content by instructing it to emulate a specific tone or style, for example, “You are an enthusiastic fitness coach.” 

By mastering these techniques and continuously refining your approach, you can significantly streamline marketing processes, optimize campaigns, and drive business growth. 

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post Level up your growth marketing strategies with ChatGPT: how to write AI prompts to get the best results appeared first on Tuff.

This post is #2 of a 2-part series on how to conduct a content analysis. In the first post, we focused on using quartiles to find the top-performing content. Today, we’ll focus on analyzing content by its publish date and SEO performance over time.

Conducting a time-based content analysis can be an invaluable tool for content marketers. It allows you to audit your existing website content and determine which content is performing the best at a particular time.

It can also help you identify content gaps and ensure that your website is up-to-date with the latest industry trends. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to conduct a time-based content analysis and the benefits it provides.

What is a time-based content analysis?

A time-based content audit and analysis is an in-depth review of a website’s content efforts across a specific timeframe. It involves reviewing website content from the standpoint of accuracy, relevance, consistency, and performance.

The audit and analysis involve looking at the content on the website, analyzing performance metrics such as page views and referring domains, and making changes to the content strategy based on the findings.

The goal of a time-based content audit and analysis is to find the top-performing piece of content at a certain point in time.

Similar to our previous content audit, we won’t concern ourselves with SEO title, meta description, focus keyword, keyword density, or any of the other SEO metrics that we typically focus on.

What are the benefits of a time-based content analysis

As you build up your brand and create more content over time you will hopefully start to get more and more traffic and engagement to each blog post. So, eventually, all of your blog posts will naturally get more traffic and engagement than they did–say a year ago.

At a quick glance, you may think that content is performing great, but maybe it’s just “a sign of the times”. Let’s see how it stacks up against other content that was published around that time.

How to conduct a time-based content analysis?

Export and organize data

First, you’ll need to export all of your URLs along with their published date and the main KPI or KPIs that you’re looking to track. 

If you’re analyzing content on your own site then you can typically export blog post URLs and publish dates from your CMS. If you’re analyzing a competitor’s website it might be tougher to get the actual publish date of the blog post or landing page. XML sitemaps will contain the last modified date and this is typically what SEO crawlers will pull as well, such as ScreamingFrog. 

And nowadays, you know, everyone’s constantly updating their content, so it’s tough to get a competitor’s actual publication date. 

I used the WP all export plugin to do this. And then I pulled in the all-time organic traffic from Google Analytics.

I chose to analyze all-time organic traffic because for this particular exercise it’s the most accurate growth metric for calculating a proper SEO score. This will differ for every business.

Calculate the median of your KPI

Once we’ve got all our data organized in chronological order, we can begin to calculate the time-based index and measure performance. We’ll begin with the following formula–assuming that your data is in column C:

=C2/MEDIAN(C$2)

What this formula is doing is dividing the number in cell C2 by the median. Since C2 is the first cell and there is no previous data, the time-based index for the first piece of content will always be 1. We use the median rather than the average because it factors out any outliers that might skew the average.

So the first piece of content is compared only against itself, and all proceeding content is compared against all historical content. So this is how the formula looks at cell 10:

=C10/MEDIAN(C$2:C9)

With conditional formatting added to the template, it should be easy to quickly spot your top-performing content.

You can copy the time-based index column and paste the values only so that you can sort by the highest score.

Template

The template linked below is slightly different than the one I walked through in the video because it’s tracking referring domains rather than organic traffic. I also left the formula out of the spreadsheet so that you’ll get a bit more familiar with it when you manually input it.

Time-based content analysis template

Conclusion

A time-based content audit is an incredibly effective way to review and optimize your content. Not only does it help you identify the topics you should focus on, but it also gives you the ability to track the performance of your content over time. With this free template, it’s easy to get started and make sure your content is performing at its best.

You can combine this template with the template from the previous post to get a more comprehensive understanding of your content.

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post How To Conduct A Time-Based Content Analysis [Free Template] appeared first on Tuff.

As a content marketer, it’s essential to know the ins and outs of your website content in order to create a successful content strategy.

Content audits are a great way to take stock of what content does and doesn’t exist, so you can better understand your site’s strengths and weaknesses. Using quartiles and a composite score, you can identify the content that is most powerful and worth building upon. 

In this blog post, we’ll walk through how to conduct a content inventory audit using quartiles to uncover the most powerful content on your website.

What is a content inventory audit?

A content inventory audit is an analysis of your content marketing strategy. It involves taking an inventory of all of your content assets, such as blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and other forms of content.

It is helpful for content marketing because it allows you to identify what content is working, what isn’t working, and what content needs to be improved or removed. It also helps you identify any gaps in your content and plan a strategy for filling those gaps.

Additionally, it allows you to track the SEO performance of each piece of content, so you can better understand what content is driving the most engagement and conversions.

What is the goal of a content inventory audit?

The goal of a content audit is to be able to identify the best-performing content on your website or a competitor’s website so that you can figure out how to improve on it. This will make it easier to find content gaps between you and your competitors.

How to conduct a content inventory audit

The first step in building a content audit spreadsheet is gathering data on your existing content—KPIs of blog posts and landing pages—and organizing it in Google Sheets.

The KPIs will differ for everyone but I’ve listed a few common ones below. Keep in mind that you may have to pull this data from multiple analytics tools and use a Vlookup to merge it together in a spreadsheet depending on what KPIs you’re pulling. I pulled my data from SEMrush, Google Search Console, ahrefs, and Google Analytics. If you’re using a content management system like WordPress with the appropriate plugins then it may be possible to export all the data from there. If you’re crawling a competitor’s website then ScreamingFrog is a great options as well. 

• Webpage URLs
• Shares
• Referring domains
• Organic traffic
• Keyword rankings

Be sure to track KPIs that you’re actively optimizing for. This doesn’t work well if you have a lot of cells with a value of 0 in the spreadsheet and it will skew your data. So if the majority of your blog posts get 0 shares, don’t include it as a KPI. 

Unlike most SEO exercises, we’re not too concerned with the SEO page title or meta description in this auditing process.

Once you have all your data, the next step is to build quartiles. 

Building Quartiles

If you’re familiar with statistics and the five-number summary then you’re familiar with quartiles. If not, here’s a quick explainer. 

Quartiles are the three points that divide a data set into four equal parts. The first quartile (Q1) is the middle number between the smallest number and the median of the data set. The second quartile (Q2) is the median of the data set. The third quartile (Q3) is the middle number between the median and the highest value of the data set.

• Quartile 1 starts with the bare minimum—0 and creates an upper bound of X, based on historical KPI data. Anything in quartile 1 is your lowest-performing data—unless you haven’t done a time-based analysis on it yet, which I’ll get into later.
• The upper bound of quartile 2 will be your median. 
• Quartile three is above average and quartile 4 is your best-performing content. 
• This gives you more perspective and allows you to quickly compare and benchmark your KPIs at the page level.

Building quartiles is essentially calculating, benchmarking, and grouping your content into four different buckets based on key performance metrics. These performance metrics will vary depending on which KPIs you’re tracking. 

Benefits of quartiles

Quartiles give us a better way of tracking content performance without obsessing over the numbers. For instance, whether a post gets 120 clicks or 130 clicks is not what is most important but being able to consistently produce content that ranks in quartiles 3 and 4 is what your goal is and what is most important.

Having quartiles for different metrics helps you filter out the outliers. A page might look like a top performer because it has hundreds of backlinks, but if the traffic doesn’t match then most likely those are low-quality backlinks. 

What can you see in the data

So now that we have quartiles, what can we derive from the data? Let’s take a look. 

By analyzing the referring domains quartile and traffic, we can calculate how many referring domains we have per visit. The higher the number, the lower the quality of referring domains. This can be really helpful when looking at competitor content and deciding which content generates the most healthy backlinks.

How to find the most successful content?

All of this still doesn’t tell us what the most successful content is yet. So, how do we find that? 

The template includes a composite score and allows you to change the weight of each KPI so that you can weigh your backlinks as more important than your social shares, and vice versa.

The composite score is based on the four different quartiles and the referring domains per visit. The template also gives you the ability to weigh each metric to get a more accurate rating of what is most important to you. 

Content audit template

Since I couldn’t find a content audit tool that handles this work for me, I found the next best thing—a template. And I’m sharing it with you! Click the link below and make a copy.

Content audit template

Takeaway

A website content audit using quartiles and composite scores can be a powerful tool for discovering the most impactful content on your website. By tracking the performance of each piece of content over time, you can identify the content that is driving the most traffic, engagement, and conversions. By leveraging this data, you can focus your content strategy on the content that is working and create more of the kind of content that will have the greatest impact on your website.

Next Steps

What to know how you can take your content audit to the next level? You might notice that something is missing. Something that can improve the accuracy of this template. What is it? Time!

Stick around for part 2 of this blog post where we walk through how to conduct a time-based content analysis. 

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post Conducting A Content Inventory Audit With Quartiles [Free Template] appeared first on Tuff.

As a growth marketing agency, when we work with fast-growing startups like Pathstream, a VC-backed startup that offers certificate programs to help people advance their careers, we often hit the ground running on paid acquisition strategies to hit short-term growth goals. 

But for long-term success, it’s important to invest equally in long-term wins like content. For Pathstream, our team focused on optimizing their existing site and creating new SEO content to improve their position in non-branded search results.

Here’s the story of how we increased non-branded organic traffic to account for ~23% of all organic traffic, up from less than 1%, driving a 486% YTD increase in weekly non-branded organic clicks, and helped to drive down Pathstream’s overall CAC.

SEO & Non-Branded Traffic

When we first created the SEO strategy for Pathstream, they had no blog on their website, just a Medium blog, and nearly 99% of all organic traffic was coming from branded search terms. There was so much opportunity to improve their site, and we started with the basics – a technical SEO audit, migrating the blog to their root domain, optimizing existing content, and creating new content based on a strategic list of focus keywords.

Technical SEO

We started by analyzing and optimizing the technical SEO aspects of Pathstream’s website to make sure we were in a good place before we began with the rest of our strategy. 

Pathstream’s core website pages run on a JavaScript application which was causing issues when crawlers tried to scrape the metadata. The metadata wasn’t loading asynchronously, so when the crawlers attempted to scrape the content, it was all empty. 

Of course this was a problem because Pathstream’s pages weren’t being indexed in SERPs with the correct SEO titles and meta descriptions that were present in the source code. 

We worked with Pathstream’s developers to get the metadata to load asynchronously so that these pages could start ranking in SERPs for their target keywords. This was a fairly quick win with a huge potential impact.

Migration

The next step was to get more value out of the original content that Pathstream was creating on their offsite Medium blog. This meant not just migrating it, but migrating it to Pathstream’s main domain as a subdirectory rather than a subdomain. 

This involved installing a new WordPress instance on a subdirectory of Pathstream’s domain, migrating the content, and internally linking it throughout the website. 

This was a team project that involved our CRO and UX team creating beautiful mockups for the blog homepage and blog category pages.

Keyword Research

Once we had a solid technical SEO foundation, we narrowed in on our competitive analysis and keyword research. 

The most crucial part of keyword research is nailing down your 5-10 focus keywords that you’ll build pillar page content for. Once we got those keywords we were able to build out a list of semantically-related secondary and tertiary keywords to build our high-quality content strategy around.

Keyword Mapping and On-Page Optimization

This keyword research equipped us with enough ammo for the next few months of content creation. 

But before we start creating new content, we want to make sure we’re getting the most value out of the existing content. 

We do this through keyword mapping. ScreamingFrog is a great tool for keyword mapping, it extracts the URL, SEO title, and meta description of each page on your website. Your job is determine the target keyword of each page based on that information and then decide if you need a new target keyword or not.

We take a look at all of the existing pages on the website and we map them back to a target keyword. 

This helps us find pages that aren’t optimized for any specific target keyword, pages that are targeting the wrong keywords, pages that should be no-indexed, and more.

We then cross-reference that list of keywords with our keyword research to determine if it’s a keyword that we want to target and what it’s going to take to rank on page one for that keyword. 

Will we have to create additional content and is this the best page that we should be attempting to rank with?

Content Creation

Once our foundational technical SEO and on-page SEO was complete, we launched our content creation machine.

We utilized our optimized landing pages as our pillar pages and created supporting blog content to build out the cluster strategy. This allowed us to build comprehensive content throughout the whole website with landing pages, blog posts, and additional types of content. 

We also tapped our UX and Creative team to include original images in all of our blog posts, which helped increase the average time on page.

Keyword Movement

We primarily use SEMrush, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics to track non-branded keyword movement. 

We analyzed Pathstream’s top pages and non-branded keywords at the beginning of our partnership and continuously monitored them week over week and month over month. 

After just a few weeks, we started getting great results from our strategy and seeing significant positive keyword movement for our target keywords. 

Organic Traffic – Weekly Organic Scorecard

We saw significant increases in non-branded organic clicks to Pathstream’s website in our weekly and monthly organic scorecard. We just recently had our two highest back-to-back weeks of non-branded organic clicks ever, according to Google Search Console, with 722 and we’re on pace to beat it next week. 

According to Google Search Console, we’ve seen non-branded organic clicks increase YTD by 1,180% with an increase in average CTR and average position. According to SEMrush, we saw a 258% MoM increase from February to March, alone and at the time of this writing, July 2022, we’ve seen another 194% MoM increase in non-branded organic traffic, and we’re not slowing down.  

Interested in learning how Tuff can help skyrocket your organic search traffic? Hit us up! 

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post Compounding Growth: How We Increased Pathstream’s Non-Branded Organic Clicks 486% appeared first on Tuff.

In most true SEO stories involving newer websites, results don’t come quickly. Sure, there was that one time we increased organic traffic by 117% in just 90 days, but this wasn’t one of those times. 

As a newer website with few blog posts and an average domain authority, we stumbled in the dark a bit before we found our footing. But once those results began trickling in, it started to downpour. Here’s the story of how we increased AKKO’s non-branded organic traffic by 659% in just 6 months, after months of lackluster SEO performance. 

Overview 

First, let me explain what AKKO does and what industry they’re in. AKKO specializes in gadget protection a.k.a insurance. They cover your phone, laptop, electronics, and other vital personal items against costly damage and theft – all for just $15 a month.

“Great people and team to work with who produce top notch quality and results!” – Eric Schneider, Co-Founder at AKKO  (see all Google Reviews here)

When we first started working with AKKO, their past SEO efforts were heavily focused on cell phone insurance keywords. Those were just about the only non-branded keywords driving organic traffic to their website. And while their branded keywords were driving a few hundreds clicks per month from search engines, it wasn’t a match for the industry behemoths that they were up against – Verizon, AT&T, and Apple to name a few. 

Technical SEO

Fortunately, AKKO’s website didn’t have a ton of technical SEO issues when we began working with them. 

With just a few small fixes, we were able to get their overall site health to over 90% in SEMrush. Once that was done, we found additional ways to improve the technical SEO by adding structured data where possible, improving internal linking, and improving the CRO on AKKO’s core pages.

Now we could move on to the next step in our SEO strategy, keyword research, and planning. 

Keyword Research

Just like all great SEO content strategies, it begins with keyword research. We do this by conducting competitive analysis on industry leaders, direct competitors, and search competitors. We see which strategies are working for them, what their top pages and keywords are, what they’re doing well and what they’re not doing well. We then conduct a topic and keyword gap analysis to find our biggest areas of opportunity. 

Once equipped with all of this data, we map it back to our partner’s website and determine what makes the most sense for them and what we have the best chances of ranking for. 

We look at a lot of different metrics when determining what are the most appropriate keywords to target. The most common ones are monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, and searcher intent. Then we ask ourselves, will this keyword drive conversions if we rank in position 1?

Along with those metrics, we analyze the existing website content, search competitors, and domain authority to see if it’s the right fit for us. No one metric in itself is enough to determine the quality of a keyword, so it’s important to look at several different metrics when choosing your focus keywords. 

More than 90% of AKKO’s organic traffic was coming from branded searches. Of the less than 10% of non-branded traffic, the majority of it was coming from cell phone insurance keywords. I took a closer look and noticed that almost 100% of this non-branded traffic was going to two places: the homepage and one particular blog post.

In the initial research phase, I identified this as an opportunity and began working on ways to leverage AKKO’s brand recognition for cell phone coverage while expanding to other products that they cover.

Building our SEO Content Strategy

Our initial SEO content strategy began with strengthening AKKO’s existing rankings by building comprehensive coverage around their cell phone protection service. They had some non-branded keyword rankings on pages two and three of SERPs that I identified as low-hanging fruit. 

I worked with our dev, UX, and CRO teams to build a few targeted high-quality landing pages that would give us a better chance of ranking for these high keyword difficulty terms. We also build comparison landing pages that compare AKKO against all of their top competitors – Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and more. 

Unfortunately, in such a competitive industry, these keywords were extremely difficult to rank in the top 3 for and they weren’t driving as much organic traffic as I had hoped. 

After our initial organic efforts didn’t get the results that I had hoped for, I spent some time going through all of the pages on the website and making some changes to the on-page SEO. AKKO only had a few pages on their website when we began, so we didn’t build a full keyword mapping spreadsheet as we typically do for larger partners.

Our main goal was to improve the internal linking throughout the website, especially to the new pages we had just created. 

We did this by including all of our comparison pages in the footer of the website so that they were readily accessible and properly linked.

Content Creation

Once we had pillar pages built for our focus keywords, we used blog posts to create topical relevance around secondary and tertiary keywords and create a cluster strategy of knowledgeable informative content. 

I quickly expanded from cell phone insurance keywords to laptop insurance, camera insurance, tablet insurance, and many others. 

After a few months of tracking our SEO performance, I knew that we needed to pivot. Overall organic traffic had increased but it was mainly due to our other marketing efforts from our social and PPC campaigns. 

Search queries related to gadget insurance were proving extremely difficult to rank for, even though this wasn’t apparent in the keyword data, and we were up against industry behemoths every which way we looked. If it wasn’t Apple or AT&T we were competing against it was AllState or Progressive with their homeowners insurance. 

Content Strategy Pivot

It had been almost 5 months since we began our SEO strategy at this point and I was getting antsy for some good results. I was checking Google Search Console and other performance reports but the SEO impact was minimal no matter how I looked at it. Branded terms still seemed to be dominating our organic search traffic. 

Then I tried something new. 

When conducting new keyword research, I noticed that there were thousands of monthly searches for Xbox warranty but hardly any searches around Xbox insurance. Not only that, but the keyword difficulty was much lower than the keywords I had been targeting previously. 

I did some Google searches to understand searcher intent and noticed that other than Xbox’s own manufacturer warranty pages, which were written in very high-level legal jargon that very few understand, there wasn’t much competition. 

So I tested out a few warranty keywords. We wrote content about the Xbox and Playstation warranty along with the controller warranties and the advantages of having AKKO coverage. 

The results were amazing. 

In just a few weeks we had the Featured Snippet and the #1 rank in Google for Xbox warranty and a few keyword variants. A few more weeks later and we were ranking #1 for more than twenty Xbox warranty keywords.

For the first time, we were driving non-branded organic traffic from keywords with high search volume.

I wasn’t sure if this was just a fluke though or if this was enough to build our content strategy around. We also saw some good results for PlayStation (PS5) warranty keywords, but it wasn’t until a few months later that they started driving significant traffic. 

I also knew that I couldn’t rely on just these keywords alone to drive quality organic conversions so I build out a list of other high-volume, low-keyword-difficulty warranty keywords and took stock of just how large the playing field was. 

To my surprise, there are a lot of people searching for these warranty keywords and there wasn’t much content out there other than the manufacturer’s legal pages. 

After seeing those initial results and building out the keyword list of other devices with high search volume that AKKO covers, I decided to pivot from insurance keywords to warranty keywords. 

This was a game changer. 

New Content

In the next few months, we wrote content on all of the top gadgets and devices and saw results similar to what we saw with our Xbox warranty keywords. 

We were ranking much quicker than I ever expected, we were driving more traffic than ever before, and non-branded keywords are now accounting for about 70% of all organic traffic, up from less than 10%.

Below are just a few of the more than 4,000 non-branded keywords that we’re ranking for today along with the monthly search volume and the position that we’re ranking in. Maybe you’ll be as surprised as I was at the amount of monthly search volume these keywords receive. 

This has helped us create comprehensive coverage on our website and ultimately improve our rankings for the very difficult insurance keywords. Here are a few of our current page one rankings for some insurance keywords. 

How we measure branded vs non-branded organic traffic

Tracking branded and non-branded organic keywords

Tracking branded and non-branded organic keywords and traffic is something that I was doing from the beginning and this was the first time that non-branded traffic started to gain traction on branded organic traffic and direct traffic. 

We use a few different SEO tools to periodically pull a performance report and accurately pinpoint how our SEO campaign is performing. The tools we use the most for this are Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and SEMrush. 

SEMrush gives us daily updates on keyword movement and estimated monthly organic traffic but it’s not as accurate as Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

Using Google Search Console and Google Analytics, we’re able to filter strictly for clicks from branded traffic and non-branded traffic.

In the screenshot below from Google Search Console, you can see the number of monthly clicks and impressions received from non-branded keywords in December 2021 compared to the number of monthly clicks and impressions from non-branded keywords in June 2022. 

In 6 months, we were able to increase non-branded traffic by 659% with 648 organic conversions (sign-ups) and a CVR of 2.72% in June 2022.

We were able to do this for a few reasons. 

One of the biggest reasons is that we have a partner that understands the value of SEO and fully trusts us to do what we do best. They could have given up after the first few months of lackluster performance and shifted their budget to paid campaigns but they didn’t. 

I also have to thank the rest of my growth marketing team for providing exceptional results across multiple different channels and buying me some time to put together a fully optimized search strategy that not only drives traffic but also new customers.

Another huge reason is that our partner has a truly amazing product offering that beats the competition no matter where you look. I was able to write content on just about any popular gadget or device because AKKO covers it. Not only that but no matter how good the manufacturer warranty is, it doesn’t beat AKKO’s pricing when you consider that you can insure up to 20 devices. We were able to add this CTA to all of our blog posts and increase organic sign-ups exponentially. 

Conclusion and Next Steps

Our next steps are to continue to double down on warranty keywords while improving CVR and expanding to B2B search terms.

We’ve had such great success with warranty keywords and there is still so much more to write about that there is no reason to stop. At the same time, we want to make sure we’re constantly optimizing and increasing our CVR and expanding into new territory. 

AKKO’s business is increasing and I know it will be a new challenge to try and dominate search results for B2B keywords and I welcome that challenge. 

Derek Coleman

Derek is a digital marketer based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost a decade of hands-on SEO experience. He finds it meaningful, challenging, and exciting to develop, test, and implement new SEO strategies. When he’s not auditing websites and optimizing content he’s usually backpacking and exploring new cultures.

The post Small Pivot, BIG Results: How We Generated a 659% Increase in Non-Branded Organic Site Traffic for AKKO appeared first on Tuff.