12 SEO Lessons I Have Learned After Examining Countless Competitors!
👉 Most links are utter garbage, so don't be intimidated by big numbers. When you start to break websites down, you'll find that most links are rubbish. So don't be intimidated by big link numbers in the tools. 👉 Most content is terrible. The chances are you can build far better content than what's ranking online. 👉 Internal links are still one of the best sources of links, no matter what anyone says. It's common sense to link to your own pages. Just don't overdo it. 👉 Content velocity is now what most SEO is about. Publish more content, more aggressively and do it as your life depends on it. If it's not written it can't rank.
👉 You don't have to publish perfect content the first time if you don't plan on promoting it. It's perfectly OK to publish lean content and when it ranks on page 2 or 3 in time, then upgrade it. 👉 Google is carving up the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), they don't want people to click on your site. But remember Google isn't the only search engine. While they only have a small % of the market DuckDuckGo handles an average of 98.79 million search queries a day and is growing fast. Expect other search engines to be launched soon, making SEO future-proof. 👉 Product pages can and should be sales pages. Most product pages are awful, yet we know that better pages rank higher and convert better. Invest in good product descriptions. 👉 Don't forget conversion and emails. Make sure you have a high-quality lead magnet and a follow-up email funnel. Grab those emails at every opportunity. 👉 Don't waste your money on dog shit Press Release (PR) link-building campaigns that generate links from nothing but foreign sites. Instead, invest in real PR. Be the expert, get featured on TV, get people talking about you. Know the difference between REAL PR and the terrible link building disguised as PR. 👉 Create expected content and unexpected content. If I Google tips for cleaning my computer, that's what I expect to get. But you must also create content that I don't expect, that intrigues me. It's this content I see after I read the expected stuff, and it's this content that makes me click on a second page. 👉 Leverage AI tools by asking yourself 'how can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help with this?' Even if it handles intros and conclusions, it saves a lot of time. 👉 Smash ideas together to get fresh content topics. For example, superheroes smashed with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) = "Stan Lee's Content Creation Template That Will Make You A Better Writer".
Any more lessons you learned in <year>? 134 💬🗨
rolenbolen #4 is why we have so much written garbage on the internet. And the fault lies, of course with Goolag.
How can a small business, that cares less about writing constant nonsense about their area of business, supposed to rank with their site that has only static content that never changes? If writing, and writing, and writing, nonstop is key to victory, then these businesses are screwed?
usethat ✍️ You can write content by not keeping Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind. Just write content that can either help a future client or attract a future client. There are many places out there to distribute that content. If your content is good, then it will rank automatically.
Take Backlinko blog for example. Sometimes he only writes 1 article a month and still gets huge clicks from the whole SEO community.
rolenbolen I understand that, but I don't want to produce content. The entire internet is getting spammed with content, I smell a backlash coming in the future to this kind of practice. usethat ✍️ Yup. I would rather start investing in good video content which is still easy to repurpose.
Charlie I would like to emphasize on the 6th point, Yes Google is now answering more than 15% of queries directly and the searchers won't have to click on link. For example, weather, time, songs lyrics, news, scores, calculations, currency conversions, tools, videos, images, details about several things, like calories, detailed charts, comparison details, shopping, travel, and many more. The thing is that Google has an immense amount of data about everything. They can built anything, quickly and it will be everywhere, For example, now the android phone has default Google calling and messaging, settings, Google preinstalled bloatware, browser, transcribe, translation, maps, who the hell in this worl is going to compete with this dominance.
usethat ✍️ The worst part is that they use our created data on places like Featured snippets and People Also Ask (PAA) so that people get their query answered on Google itself and won't ever reach our Call to Action (CTA).
kickit
2. Most content is terrible. The chances are you can build far better content than what's ranking online.
the big caveat to this is that the content most people try to produce is not great either, and most people can't even tell when their content isn't great… imo many SEO users would benefit from a course or two on writing, especially since it's a core competency
re duckduckgo or Bing or whatever, i've been a long time skeptic and so far i have been consistently right that these aren't going to take a sizable chunk of traffic from google. the wild card rn is apple, which already has its own web search engine cooked into ios….
usethat ✍️ I totally agree on the same. Writing is an art and we need to hire aspiring artists to create great content. I have purchased 4 courses so far to give to my writer's team (Even freelancers) to make it better.
superfli Nice list and I have a question about search engines in relation to one of your points. Do you know of any imminent or future search engine launches or is it a hunch? Be great if someone gave Google a run for their money.
usethat ✍️ Very hard to put a finger on anything but I do submit all my content on Bing webmaster as well. If something can beat Google in long run, it should be decentralized. Like the concept of brave browser where you get paid in Bat coins for seeing ads and all.
superfli I do the same with Bing as it can't do any harm but improve visibility., I heard of the Brave browser earlier this week so will check it out.
