This comprehensive guide will show you 19 ways to increase organic traffic to your website.
If you're looking for:
Actionable step-by-step processes you can implement today.
Supporting templates and videos to aid execution.
Working examples to follow along with.
More organic traffic.
Then this step-by-step guide is for you.
To help make this post as actionable as possible, I have included a downloadable toolset below. It contains a bundle of supporting videos and templates for many of the tactics outlined in the post.
I have included as table of contents below. There are also jump links at the end of each section in the post that will bring you back up to the top of the guide.
Here's 19 actionable ways to get more organic traffic:
- Prevent (and remove) keyword cannibalization
- Eliminate "organic anchors" with a data-driven content audit
- Find quick-win keyword opportunities
- Perform subfolder keyword analysis
- Target the long tail for faster gains
- Use modifiers to find high-value keyword opportunities
- Piggyback on existing list posts
- Expand your organic footprint with secondary keywords
- Boost authority with internal linking
- Scale question-based keyword research
12. Improve SERP click-through rates (with Console data)
13. Identify lost link equity in 404 pages
14. Create Content Silos and AVOID Orphaned Pages
15. Identify high-volume keyword gaps
16. Use โBarnacle SEOโ to boost SERP visibility
17. Perform on-page gap analysis
18. Use โParasite SEOโ to Rank for Ultra-Competitive Keywords
19. Propel backlink acquisition (3 simple tactics)
Disclaimer๏ปฟ๏ปฟ: This article does contain some affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of my links I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for the support.
#1: Prevent Your Website from Competing with Itself by Identifying (and Removing) Keyword Cannibalization
The video will walk you through the free keyword cannibalization checker that will automate the process of finding potential issues on your site.
โKeyword cannibalizationโ occurs when two or more pages on your website are competing for the same keyword.
Hereโs why this can be a problem:
- Google will struggle to figure out which one of your pages actually deserves to rank, so theyโll often choose to rank neither of them.
- Links/shares/etc will be split between two or more pages, leading to less authority for each page (this is bad, as pages with higher authority tend to rank better).
To put it simply, because your website is effectively competing with itself, youโre significantly diluting the chances of ranking at all!
Keyword cannibalization should, therefore, be avoided.
This process captures the โMERGEโ aspect of the content audit covered above in greater detail.
Hereโs how you can identify (and fix) keyword cannibalization issues in 3 simple steps:
- Use Semrush (aff) to see which keywords your website is ranking for
- Look for keyword duplication (i.e. multiple pages ranking for the same keyword)
- Solve the issue by either merging the two (or more) resources together, OR deleting/404 one of them (note: only do this if there are zero links/traffic to that page!)
Let's walk through the process:
To begin, enter your domain (e.g. www.robbierichards.com) into the Organic Keywords report in Semrush, then select โPositionsโ from the sidebar:
This will show you every keyword your website is ranking for. It also tells you which page ranks for each keyword and the position in which it ranks:
Export this entire report to a .csv:
Next, copy/paste all the exported data into the sheet named โ1. SEMRush Exportโ in this Google Sheet.
It should look something like this:
Finally, navigate to the โDONEโ tab and it will show you all keyword cannibalization issues on your website:
Hereโs are a couple of ways to solve these issues:
- If the two pages competing for the same keyword are very similar, and both offer unique value, consider merging them into one canonical resource. Just make sure to 301 redirect one of the pages to the new canonical resource (especially if it has links pointing towards it!)
- If the competing page offers no unique value, delete it. If the deleted page has links pointing towards it, add a 301 redirect to the competing resource, otherwise let it 404.
#2: Eliminate "organic anchors" with a data-driven content audit
Lots of low-quality pages = bad news for SEO.
Why?
Because they weigh down the rest of your website. This causes (better) pages to underperform in the SERPs.
The solution?
Pruning.
In simple terms, pruning involves auditing and removing โdead weightโ content from your site.
I.e. any pages that have ZERO links, ZERO traffic and ZERO conversions (and/or contain irrelevant/tin content) are prime candidates to be deleted.
These types of pages offer nothing of value to your site, and are actually weighing down other important assets by eating up precious crawl budget (meaning new or updated content gets crawled less often).
Note: There are some outliers in the pruning process. For example, if you have an important resource on your site that gets little traffic or inbound links, but does get a lot of internal links, you might want to still keep it.
Hereโs an example:
One of the working examples from the Content Audit module in my training course, The SEO Playbook, increased organic traffic by 30% in 60 days, and grew their organic traffic from 64,205 monthly organic visits to 106,785 organic visits after implementing the audit recommendations:
At a high-level, here are the three core steps in the content audit process:
Step 1: Use Screaming Frog to crawl all the site's indexable content.
Step 2: Map organic traffic, engagement, backlink and conversion data to each URL using Screaming Frog's built-in API integrations.
Step 3: Use the data points to assign one of the following four page-level action items to each URL:
Keep content that is relevant and getting a traffic and conversions.
Improve content with the potential to either get more traffic (tactic #4), or more conversions from the existing traffic.
Merge content with backlinks that is competing for the same keywords as another higher ranking piece of content on the site.
Remove content that has no links, traffic or conversions, and doesn't serve as another type of important internal resource.
At the end, you'll emerge with a data-driven audit dashboard with action items and strategies assigned to each URL:
Editor's note: If you want to learn this, and other step-by-step SEO processes, check out my training program, The SEO Playbook.
#3: Uncover Quick-Win Ranking Opportunities
The video will walk you through the free Google Sheet template you can use to automate most of the existing keyword research process.
Improving rankings for keywords youโre already ranking for is the quickest and easiest way to get more traffic to your website.
Want proof?
I increased organic traffic 402% to this post 30 days after implementing this strategy:
It went from position #8 to #2 overnight, which is why the traffic shot up like a rocket!
Here's another example of an article getting an 86.88% boost in organic traffic month-over-month:
And this was after optimizing ONE page! Imagine if you were to scale this across multiple content assets.
Hereโs how to do it:
- Identify โlow-hangingโ keyword opportunities (i.e. those that youโre already ranking for on page two of the SERPs, or low down on page one)
- Optimize the pages and relaunch for near-immediate traffic growth
Hereโs the process:
In Semrush (aff):
- Select SEO Toolkit.
- Click on Organic Research from the side menu.
- Enter your domain โ e.g. โwww.robbierichards.comโ
- Click on the Positions tab.
This will show you every keyword youโre ranking for, along with the ranking position.
But, weโre not interested in every keywordโwe want to focus on the ones with the most potential. To do that, apply these filters to the report:
Note: Set the search volume threshold to something that makes sense for your industry. i.e.
You may need to lower it a bit more to find more opportunities.
Export the results to a .csv, then copy/paste the data into the sheet labelled โ1. SEMRush Exportโ in this Google Sheet.
Now, go to the next tab labelled โDONEโ and you should see something like this:
All of these keywords are low-hanging opportunities, but the rows that are the most green are the opportunities that are likely to yield the best results with the least amount of effort.
After you've found keywords that have (1) search volume, (2) existing rankings, and (3) can be realistically ranked for in the next 60-90 days, you need to prioritize.
When I do this final part of the process, I always rely on a bottom-up view of the funnel.
(i.e. start with the "money" keywords at the bottom of the funnel , and work my back up to the top):
(Source)
Here is a quick overview of how I would optimize these posts to move up the rankings:
- Update existing tactics with new screenshots and additional information
- Add 3-5 new strategies to the post
- Run a final on-page scan with a tool like Surfer SEO
- Re-promote the post across social media
- Run a paid social media campaign to build social signals
- Launch a light outreach campaign to capture additional backlinks
- Add internal links from several other related posts on the site
To find the best internal linking targets, navigate to the Semrush Indexed Pages report and sort by either Backlinks or Domains to surface the most authoritative pages on your site:
For example:
Since this post is about increasing organic traffic, you bet I'm going to add a few internal links from this post and this post.
#4: Perform Keyword Research at the Sub Folder Level (and Find Your Highest Value Targets)
Not all keywords are created equal.
A site that monetizes through AdSense revenue will prioritize high volume informational intent keywords to drive more ad impressions and clicks:
Check out the search volume and traffic numbers for this article:
An affiliate website like Wirecutter will prioritize investigational intent keywords searched when people are evaluating different solution for a specific problem or need.
Think: โbest tool for xโ, โproduct x vs product yโ or โproduct x alternativesโ:
Ecommerce stores will prioritize transactional terms since these have the highest degree of direct buying intent.
Because different business models will prioritize different search intent, it makes sense to mirror this during the keyword research process to ensure you are only focusing on the search terms that have greatest potential bottom line impact.
This applies for both new and existing websites.
One of the easiest ways to perform this type of laser-targeted research (for both new and existing sites) is to analyze keywords at the subfolder level.
Hereโs how to do it:
1) Find your highest value existing keyword opportunities
In the previous step, we looked at how to find all the quick-win keyword opportunities for your site across all intent buckets.
This approach works great if you only publish content with a single form of intent. For example: a blog that only publishes high volume informational content to monetize through AdSense revenue.
But, if you have an eCommerce site, youโre going to be publishing informational, investigational AND transactional intent keywords across assets like blog content, comparison pages and top-level product/category pages.
While each level of intent serves a specific purpose for this business, its the investigational and transactional keywords that drive direct bottom line value.
Therefore, it makes sense to prioritize the keyword research process around commercial intent terms. And, this is where subfolders come into play.
For example:
Most eCommerce sites are going to house products under some type of top-level URL subfolder:
So, instead of starting the keyword research process by looking at ALL the keyword opportunities (like we did in the previous strategy), start with the keyword opportunities inside commercial intent subfolder(s).
Hereโs how to do it for an existing site:
In Semrush (aff):
- Select SEO Toolkit.
- Click on Organic Research from the side menu.
- Enter your domain โ e.g. โbeardbrand.comโ
- Click on the Positions tab.
Youโll see all the keywords your site is ranking for in the top 100 search results.
Since youโre only interested in the existing keywords with commercial intent, enter the subfolder โ e.g. beardbrand.com/collections/ โ and add a position filter for the top 20:
Now, youโll have a list of all the commercial intent keywords your site is currently ranking for in the Top 20.
But, once Beardbrand was done with the commercial intent terms, they could then move onto the higher volume informational terms by analyzing the keyword opportunities housed inside the /blog subfolder:
Which would return hundreds of high volume informational keyword opportunities:
Bottom line: use subfolder to focus in on your highest intent terms, when possible.
2) Mine competitors for new high value keyword opportunities
Subfolder research can also be used to find new high value keyword opportunities.
The process is exactly the same, but instead of entering your site youโll drop in the commercial intent subfolders from 3-5 direct competitors:
For example:
Scotch Porter is one of Beardbrandโs top organic search competitors. All their products are housed under the /products subfolder:
On the other hand, a competitor such as Beardaholic has all their products housed on the shop.beardaholic subdomain:
So:
Beardbrand would enter the subdomain โ e.g. /shop.beardoholic.com/ โ and add a position filter for the top 20 to see the top-ranking commercial intent keywords their site is ranking for:
Repeat this process for 3-5 of your top organic search competitors and export the results into a aggregated master excel file.
This is one of the fastest ways to find loads of high-value keyword ideas that align directly with your siteโs monetization model.
3) Mine a competitors affiliate site review directory
OK, letโs imagine youโre running an affiliate site about coffee products.
You can also use the subfolder analysis technique to mine your competitorโs review directory and find high-value keywords.
For example, the Wirecutter has loads of reviews about coffee products:
And these are all housed in the โ/reviews/โ subfolder:
In Semrush (aff), enter the subfolder: www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/
To find the coffee-related review keywords, add filters using keyword modifiers such as โbestโ and โcoffeeโ and exclude โwirecutterโ:
So, now you have 150+ long-tail, coffee-related, review-based keywords, such as โbest affordable coffee grinderโ and โbest coffee maker for coffee snobsโ (whoโd have guessed that?) that you can use for your affiliate site.
#5: Target The Long Tail for Faster Organic Traffic Gains
Tired of going after high-competition keywords that you struggle to rank for?
Then itโs time to focus on the long tail and increase your traffic.
Long tail keywords have a low monthly search volume, but a higher probability of conversion. They get their name from the โlong tailโ of the search demand graph:
Here are two ways to quickly find long tail keywords.
Tactic #1
In Semrush (aff):
- Navigate to the SEO Toolkit and enter a competitorโs domain โ e.g. healthline.com.
- Select โOrganic Researchโ.
- Click the โPositions tabโ.
- Filter by Top 20 positions for the most relevant terms.
- Filter for 2+ keywords to show long tail terms.
Now from your list of results check the long tail terms that are driving the most traffic:
Note: You can click the โ+โ icon next to any keyword and add it directly to your master list within Semrush.
Tactic #2
In Semrush:
- Stay in the SEO Toolkit
- Select the Keyword Magic Tool
- Enter a seed term โ e.g. โbeard oilโ
- Use the advanced filter โWords countโ to include keywords with 3 or more words:
Now you have a list of additional long tail keyword opportunities related to โbeard oilโ:
You can add more filters (e.g. Volume, Keyword difficulty, etc.) to drill down further.
#6: Use Modifiers to Find High-Intent Organic Traffic Drivers
Keyword modifiers are great for finding investigational mid-funnel keywords to use in your content.
Letโs take a look at a couple of tactics.
1) Investigational Keyword Modifiers
This is where you enter a product, feature, or service terms into the Keyword Magic Tool (aff), and then filter by modifiers to find the high-intent opportunities.
For example, a SaaS company or even an affiliate site could enter a seed topic, and then use modifiers like "best,โ โcompetitor,โ โalternatives,โ or โsoftware" to find top tool lists, or position themselves against the competition.
In Semrush:
- Go to the SEO Toolkit
- Select the Keyword Magic Tool
- Enter a seed term โ e.g. โecommerceโ
- Use the Include Keywords filter, select โAnyโ, and add 5 keyword modifiers โ โbest, top, software, tools, platformโ:
Now you have a list of investigational keywords related to โecommerceโ with the keyword modifiers you entered:
In our example, you can see โbest ecommerce platformโ, โtop ecommerce companiesโ, etc.
2) Comparative Keyword Modifiers
Similar to investigational keyword modifiers, you can also search for comparative keyword modifiers.
As an affiliate, you could compare similar products or solutions using keyword modifiers like โalternatives, competitors, versus, vsโ to find topics to write.
For example, Similarweb is a competitor to the Semrush Traffic Analysis toolkit, so as an affiliate, you can search for comparative keywords around Similarweb, like this:
In Semrush:
- Go to the SEO Toolkit
- Select the Keyword Magic Tool
- Enter a seed term โ e.g. โsimilarwebโ
- Use the Include Keywords filter, select โAnyโ, and add 3 keyword modifiers โ โvs, alternatives, competitorsโ:
Now you have a list of comparative keywords related to โsimilarwebโ with the keyword modifiers you entered:
In our example, you can see โsimilarweb competitorsโ, โsimilarweb alternativeโ, โsimilarweb vs semrushโ, โcomscore vs similarwebโ, etc.
Using comparative keyword modifiers, you could write a comparison-style blog post, such as 6 Best SimilarWeb Alternatives and Competitors or Ahrefs vs SEMrush: Which is the Best Toolset for Your Business?
#7: Piggyback Off Ranking List Posts
Sometimes it just doesnโt make sense to target a term on your site.
Say youโre trying to position your product as the top solution for a specific need, it may come across as too self-promotional if you write about it on your site; e.g. โBest XX Toolsโ. Plus, youโre drawing attention to competing products in the list.
So, another way to get quick brand or product exposure is to piggyback on existing list posts. For instance, you could find other third-party posts already ranking for mid-funnel investigational terms and see if you can get featured there.
For example:
I wanted to get some quick exposure for my SEO training course. Rather than promote the course on my site โ alongside a bunch of other competing courses โ I reached out to this site that was already ranking for loads of terms such as โSEO certificationsโ:
I offered a free license in exchange for a possible feature, which they accepted. And now Iโm listed number 5 in their post.
Bottom line:
Every month I get targeted referral traffic from that post that results in sign-ups for my course waitlist:
Sometimes it makes more sense to leverage the rankings of external assets, instead of target terms on your own site.
#8: Expand Your Organic Footprint with Secondary Keywords
One of the fastest ways to increase organic traffic is to get your content to rank for more keywords.
Wirecutter is a site that reviews a bunch of tools and gadgets. It ranks for over 3.0M organic keywords and brings in 10.3M organic visits a month:
The founder, Brian Lam, sold the site to The New York Times for $30M in 2016:
One of the reasons this site was able to scale its organic footprint so much was because most of the articles on the site ranked for thousands of secondary keywords.
For example:
The siteโs highest organic traffic page on โthe best humidifiersโ ranks for 5.7K different keywords:
Editor's note: The primary keyword โhumidifierโ (368,000 monthly searches) only brings in 2.32% of the pageโs overall monthly organic traffic. The remainder comes from the other 5,662 semantic and long-tail secondary keywords.
Using long-tails and semantics helps Google see the post as being relevant to a range of queries.
Ok:
So, how do you expand the organic footprint of your content?
The first step in the process is finding a list of secondary keyword targets with some kind of search volume.
Here are a couple quick ways to do this:
1. Mine competitor articles
The Organic Research Positions report in SEMrush allows you to enter a competitorโs URL and see all the keywords the page ranks for.
For example, say you were in the coffee products niche and wanted to write a post on coffee grinders, you could check which keywords the Wirecutter uses.
In Semrush (aff):
- Select SEO Toolkit.
- Click on Organic Research from the side menu.
- Enter your competitorโs URL โ e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-coffee-grinder/
- Click on the Positions tab:
Now you can see all the terms that page ranks for:
If I was going to equip myself with affiliate links and write a post comparing coffee grinders, Iโd know to include sections on burr grinders, coffee bean grinders, hand coffee grinders, etc.
Without mentioning these kinds of grinders in the post, Iโd be missing out on thousands of extra visits when the post started to rank.
Before you hit publish (or ideally before you start writing), run the top 10 competing posts through Semrush and add their best long-tail keywords to your master list by clicking the โ+โ icon.
Export all the secondary keywords and remove any duplicates.
Editor's note: This strategy is not only good for finding secondary keywords to include in on-page elements such as a title tag, headings, and body copy, but they can also give you ideas for new sections or topics to cover in the content too.
2) Perform URL-level content gap analysis
The Semrush Keyword Gap Tool allows you to see which keywords your competitors are ranking for, but youโre not. For example, I can see that Alexa is ranking number 1 for โhow to increase organic trafficโ in the Keyword Overview report:
So, how do you quickly identify all the keyword gaps?
Hereโs how to do it:
In Semrush:
- Navigate to the Keyword Gap tool
- Enter your Exact URL - e.g. https://www.robbierichards.com/seo/increase-organic-traffic/
- Enter your competitorโs Exact URL - e.g. https://blog.alexa.com/how-to-increase-organic-traffic/
- Click Compare
Note: You can compare up to 5 competitors.
Now, scroll down the page and select the Missing tab to see which keywords youโre missing out on:
Click the โ+โ icon to add any of the missing keywords to your master list.
Finally - export the keywords and remove any duplicates.
How to quickly incorporate secondary keywords into your content
Youโll probably find a handful of secondary keywords were naturally included in the article as it was written.
But, itโs always good to revisit the content and make sure all the bases are covered.
With your secondary keyword list in hand, make sure to include them in headings.
Headings -- wrapped in h1, h2, and h3 tags -- are essential for signaling content relevance to Google.
โWe do use H tags to understand the structure of the text on a page betterโ - John Mueller, Google
Looking back at the earlier coffee grinder exampleโฆ
You could derive the entire article structure - including headings - from that list alone:
- What is a grinder?
- Best burr grinder
- Best espresso grinder
- Best manual coffee grinder
- Etc.
Next, go back through the post once itโs written and CTL+F secondary keywords and words that comprise them (โgrinderโ, โcoffee grinderโ) -- youโll find you can vary the wording to cover more keywords in the body copy and still keep a smooth content flow.
(Source)
Finally, consider updating older content to include entirely new sections (or subsections) targeting the new secondary keyword/topic opportunities.
Again, work the keywords into the headings (one H2 and a few H3s should do the trick) and weave into the body copy where it makes sense.
Editor's note:
If you want to automate a lot of the manual analysis, you can try a tool like Surfer SEO (aff) that will analyze the on-page content of your top-ranking competitors and provide semantic and second keyword recommendations. I use the tool a lot for content relaunches.
#9: INSTANTLY Boost New Pages by Linking to Them from Existing High-Authority Pages
Want to give EVERY new piece of content you publish an INSTANT boost!?
As soon as you publish your new post, add a link to that post from an existing, related piece of content on your website that already has a TON of authority (i.e. a high UR).
This is tactic was briefly mentioned above. Below, we will outline several ways to mine solid internal link sources for your new content.
Example:
Because this page is clearly about increasing organic traffic, it would make perfect sense to link to it from this SEO case study on the date of publishing.
Why? Because that post is also related to increasing traffic, and already has some authority and backlinks, as you can see in the Domain Overview report:
Linking to my newly published post from that one would be sure to give it a nice boost!
So, how do you find worthy pages from which to add internal links?
Here are a couple of methods:
1. Use the Semrush Indexed Pages report to show you every page on your website ordered by the number of inbound links.
- Go to the SEO Toolkit
- Select the Backlinks Analytics
- Enter your website โ e.g. โwww.robbierichards.comโ
- Click the Indexed Pages tab
- Order the results by the number of backlinks or referring domains:
Now, work your way down the list and find a relevant post to add your link!
2. Use the โtop pagesโ report in Google Analytics โ this will show you the pages with the most traffic on your website. This can be accessed via: Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.
You know pages getting a lot of organic traffic are ranking highly in the search engines, which is a good indicator they have authority (and links) attached to them.
3. Use search operators to find solid internal link sources. While tools can make this process easier, you don't need them to find some good targets.
Hereโs a workaround:
Search for the following:
site:yourdomain.com + keyword
Basically, just replace the โkeywordโ with a keyword related to the content youโve just published.
So, if I wanted to add an internal link to this page, I could use the following Google search:
site:www.robbierichards.com + increase traffic
This will show me the pages on my website that are most related (in Googleโs eyes) to increasing traffic:
Add a link from one or two of these pages (note: donโt force it in, make sure itโs natural!) and youโll see a nice boost to your new post.
#10: Scale Question-Based Keyword Research (and Drive Targeted Traffic)
Every question is a problem.
Understanding which specific questions (and keywords) users are searching for online provides an opportunity to:
- Drive more brand awareness (and traffic) at the exact moment your ideal customer is experiencing a pain or need.
- Boost conversion rates by identifying (and overcoming) objections at the point of conversion.
Question-based keywords can be used for many different mediums, including blog posts, videos and FAQ sections on ecommerce product pages. Not to mention, they are the most common types of queries that trigger featured snippets:
(Source)
So, how do you find all the questions your ideal customers are searching for online?
Here's a simple method:
Scrape โPeople Also Askโ
The first thing youโll need to do is install the SEO Minion Chrome extension.
Editor's note: A quick hat tip to Steve Toth over at the SEO Notebook. I first found out about this extension from his SEO Notebook email list.
Next, type a keyword related to your product or service into Google and scroll down to the People Also Ask box. Once youโve installed the SEO Minion Chrome extension, youโll see this box at the top right of the SERPs:
Click the โAll Organic Resultsโ dropdown and then select how many records you want to export. For example, you could export the top 100 or 200 results from the People Also Ask box.
Down the data and you'll see a .csv file containing the question, answer, URL and URL title:
Next, copy all of these keywords from Column A and paste them into the Semrush Keyword Overview report:
Semrush will provide the search volume and keyword difficulty percentage for each URL:
Repeat this process for several of your main product or service keywords, and you'll surface a number of targeted question-based keyword opportunities.
Bonus resource: 4 Ways to Find Question Keywords (With Examples)
#11: Land Featured Snippets and Win More Traffic from the SERPs
A featured snippet is the โspecial resultโ that appears at the top of the SERPs. It bypasses the Top 10 organic positions to claim whatโs known as Position #0.
The snippets come in different formats. The three most popular are:
Paragraph
Bulleted List
Numbered List
But whatever format they have, the snippets look more appealing at the top of SERP, and as a result, they get a lot more impressions and clicks:
How to find existing & new snippet opportunities with Semrush
Tactic #1 - Existing featured snippet opportunities
The quickest way to get a featured snippet is to target the keywords youโre already ranking for on the first page that contain featured snippets.
In Semrush:
- Go to the SEO Toolkit
- Select Organic Research
- Enter your domain โ e.g. nytimes.com/wirecutter/
- Click on the โPositionsโ tab
- Open the โSERP featuresโ filter and select โFeatured snippetโ:
Now you have a list of all the keywords your site ranks for on the first page that contains a featured snippet. These are your "quick-win" opportunities.
For example, the keyword โbidet toiletโ is in position 3, but Brondell (in pos 1) has the Featured Snippet:
Tactic #2 - New featured snippet opportunities
In Semrush:
- Enter a seed keyword into Keyword Magic Tool โ e.g. โbeard oilโ.
- Click on โPhrase matchโ.
- Open the SERP Features filter and select โFeatured snippetโ:
From the results, click the SERP list icon to open the SERP and reveal the site currently occupying the Featured Snippet:
In this example, Tools of Men has the Featured Snippet for the keyword โbest beard growth oilโ:
Editor's Note:
Hereโs how Semrush users can also find their competitorsโ Featured Snippets, and then optimize content to steal Position #0 from them.
- Enter a competitor domain in the Organic Research report โ e.g. healthline.com.
- Select the โPositionsโ tab.
- Use the โAdvanced filtersโ to find โFeatured snippetโ opportunities:
Now you have a list of all your competitorโs featured snippets content plus the keywords to target.
Note: For more information on the different types of featured snippets, plus how to optimize your content to land more of them and increase your organic traffic, check out this in-depth guide.
#12: Boost Traffic by Increasing SERP CTRs (with Search Console data)
Not only is SERP click-through rate (CTR) a proven ranking factor, itโs also super-important for translating rankings into traffic:
Example:
Letโs assume you ranked on page 1 for the term โBest SEO Toolsโ (btw, I do rank for this!):
According to Semrush, this keyphrase has 1,600 searches/month:
But, this doesnโt mean Iโm going to get 1,600 visitors a month from that search term โ it all depends on CTR:
In the search engines, you'll see around 2/3 of all the clicks going to the top 3 positions. Anything outside the top 3 and you're looking at a single digit CTRs.
Back to our example:
If 10% of searchers click my website in the SERPs, Iโll receive roughly 150 visitors/month.
However, if only 2% of searchers click through to my website, Iโll receive a measly 30 visitors/month.
So, the question is: how can you increase your CTR?
Two ways:
- Improve rankingsโpages that rank higher are generally clicked more. For example, most searchers will click the 1st or 2nd result in the SERPs, and virtually nobody will click through to the second page of results.
- Sell your content in the SERPsโuse your title and description tags to effectively โsellโ your content in the SERPs and entice a click through.
The second method is the one I want to focus on right now, as itโs super low-hanging fruit most SEOs never think about!
Hereโs how to do it:
- Identify pages on your website receiving below average CTRs for their ranking position.
- Change your title/description tags to entice more people to click through to your website from the SERPs.
OK:
The first task is to identify the pages getting lower CTRs than they should beโthis can be done by analyzing search console data.
Go to Google Search Console > Search Traffic > Search Analytics, then set up the filter to match this:
Download the results (note: the download button is at the bottom of the page).
Copy/paste the data into the sheet titled โ1. Search Console Dataโ in this Google Sheet:
Finally, go to sheet labelled โDONEโ and you should see something like this:
Basically, this shows you the CTR for each page (column B) ranking in position 10 or under. It also shows the Average CTR for rankings in that position (note: these numbers were taken from here).
If the row is highlighted green, the CTR for the page is better than average for webpages ranking in that position. LEAVE THESE ALONE!
If the row is red, the page is performing worseโconsider optimizing the title/description tags for these pages.
Hereโs a guide on exactly how to do that.
#13. Identify lost link equity in 404 pages
Links have a HUGE impact on rankings:
If you want to rank for any keyword, you need page authority. And, the way you get authority is by building quality links.
Now, there are a million and one ways (depending on your niche) you could go about building backlinks to your website.
And, itโs tempting to dive right into a new campaign and go after the big wins.
Big wins are great! Everyone loves them - clients, boss, the team. Nothing better than landing a massive link from a site like Huffington Post or NBC.
While those links really move the needle, and should be a focal point, they require a lot of time and hard work.
So:
Before you start directing all your energy into landing BIG links, make sure you are first collecting all the โquick linksโ. This will get you some quick wins for your client, and help build trust at the beginning of your campaign.
One of the easiest ways to do this is reclaim lost link equity from 404 pages.
Websites change over time. Products come and go. Information is updated. URLs are modified. Pages are edited, shifted, and moved.
While all this sounds like on-page SEO, it affects off-page SEO as well โ specifically links.
For example:
If youโve ever landed quality links to a piece of content on your site and then updated the URL or folder structure, youโve just affected that link.
Where it hurts you is when you make such a change and donโt put in the right 301 redirects. Basically - the links you worked hard to get are still pointing to the old URL.
The result is lost link equity.
So, one of the best things you can do when starting a new link building campaign is ensure there arenโt any dead/404 pages with external links pointed at them.
Reclaiming even a few of these links can give your content a nice bump, and provide a significant win that builds trust with your clients.
Hereโs how to do it:
In Semrush:
- Navigate to the SEO Toolkit
- Select Backlink Analytics
- Enter your website - e.g. shopify.com
- Click the Indexed Pages report
- Check the โTarget URL Errorโ
Now, you can see the 404 pages with links pointing to them:
The first result in this example has 1328 backlinks / 989 referring domains pointing to a 404 page โ โhttps://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy.โ But unfortunately, there is a period (โ.โ) at the end of the URL, which is causing the 404 error.
Click on the backlinks figure to find out where they are coming from:
- elevance
- Page quality
- Link placement
- Anchor text
The first link is from Virtus Studios and has an Authority Score (AS) of 47, so itโs well worth following-up and asking them to change their link to point to the correct URL: https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy/
Ok:
Once youโve identified the linking pages and verified they are safe to reclaim, you have a couple options:
- 301 redirect the 404 page to another relevant piece of content on the site
- Contact the author of the page linking to your site and notify them your page has moved. Ask them to update the link.
I usually go for the first option!
#14. Create Strong Content Silos and AVOID Orphaned Pages
Google dislikes messy, disorganized websites.
Why? Because it makes it very difficult for them to understand what a webpage is about. And if they donโt know what itโs about, they probably aren't going to rank it highly!
So, how do you solve this?
Silos.
In simple terms, "siloing" is nothing more than the act of grouping content into distinct categories, ensuring a clear hierarchy that makes sense, and linking logically between the pages.
Hereโs a simple example of a silo structure for a yoga website (taken from this post):
You can see thereโs a clear content hierarchyโthe pages are grouped into main categories (i.e. silos) and linked-to from the main category page.
This is commonly referred to as parent and child hierarchy.
In this example, the โnew yorkโ, โchicago, โdallasโ, and โorlandoโ pages each have the same parent: โyoga studiosโ. Theyโre all children of the โyoga studio'sโ page:
Note: Itโs good practice to link back to the parent category from child pages, too.
This hierarchy will help dictate the URL structure.
Example:
http://www.yogawebsite.com/studios
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/studios/new-york/
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/studios/chicago/
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/studios/dallas/
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/studios/orlando/
http://www.yogawebsite.com/classes
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/classes/yoga-rx/
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/classes/pilates/
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/classes/vinyasa/
- http://www.yogawebsite.com/classes/hot-yoga/
Note: It is best practice to have support pages linking back up to the silo landing page (as shown by the red links above in the Yoga studio silo).
Cross-links between silo sub pages should be avoided because they weaken the โthemingโ, and relevance of the silo:
This graphic from Search Engine Land further illustrates how content silos can help better organize site content:
A couple more reasons why siloing your content can improve the user experience, and help boost your organic traffic:
- It increases relevancy: Siloing ensures all topically related content is connected, and this in turn drives up relevancy. For example, linking to each of the individual yoga class pages (e.g. Pilates, Yoga RX, etc) from the โYoga classesโ page helps confirmโto both visitors and Googleโthese pages are in fact different types of yoga classes. Google can then feel more confident ranking these pages for related terms, as it is clearer the pages are relevant to the search query.
- It helps the flow of โlink juiceโ around your website: Because youโre creating a hierarchical structure, siloing ensures authority flows around your site more efficiently. (i.e. links to blog posts and sub service/product pages can flow up through the website to the "money" pages.
But, what happens if you donโt implement content silos?
Youโll end up with โorphaned pagesโ:
(Source)
An orphan page is a page with zero incoming internal links, and thus canโt be reached by users or crawlers while navigating your website. This usually hurts UX and ranking performance.
If you have a page that is underperforming, itโs worth running it through Search Console to check for internal linksโhereโs how:
Search Console > Search Traffic > Internal Links > enter your page URL:
It will then show you the number of internal links the page has; it even shows you exactly where these links come from:
If the page has no internal links, check to make sure the relative URL paths are not being used on the site.
Bonus tip: You can use a tool like Semrush to scale the process of identifying orphaned pages across your website.
Go to the โSite Auditโ report and enter your domain:
Wait for the website to be crawled.
Go to the โIssuesโ tab and click the โSelect an Issueโ button. Check the โNoticesโ section to see whether any Orphaned Pages have been detected on the site:
You can also use the tool to detect Orphaned Pages through your XML Sitemap or Google Analytics data. Check out the full tutorial on how to do that here.
Ok:
In a nutshell, hereโs how you can silo your website:
- Identify the overarching topic groups of your website. What content do you have, or plan to have? What products or services do you plan to promote on your website? What are the main categories on competitor sites? Your keyword research should help flush this out.
- Plan your link structure. Start with the main navigation and decide how to best connect pages both physically (URL structure) and virtually (internal links) to clearly establish your content themes. Try to include at least 3-5 quality subpages under each core silo landing page. Link internally between the subpages. Link each subpage back up to the main silo landing page.
- Strengthen silos with relevance and authority. Continue to add contextual content into your silos. One of the easiest ways to do this is add related blog categories. Add content into the categories, build links to the content, and channel it back into the silo subpages through targeted internal linking.
#15. Identify Keyword Gaps (and Quickly Scale Organic Traffic)
Keyword research is the foundation of most successful SEO campaigns.
Rank for the right keywords, and youโll drive a passive stream of targeted traffic to your website.
But, keyword research is a MASSIVE topic. I mean, just google it and youโll get 16M results!
So, where do you start?
The competition.
Or more specifically, all the keywords your competitors are ranking for, but your are not.
Hereโs how to do it:
Open up Semrush, and go to the Keyword Gap Tool.
IMPORTANT: Enter your website first, and then up to 4 competitors.
Once youโve entered your top organic competitors into the tool, click the green Compare button.
At the top of the results, you get a quick overview of the top missing keywords โ e.g. โgoogle page speedโ โ plus a Venn diagram showing the keyword overlap.
Scroll down further, and click the Missing tab, to highlight all the keywords your competitors are ranking for, but you are not:
In our example, you can see there are quite a few top-ranking, high-volume keywords that might be worth targeting, such as โgoogle page speedโ (27K), โrobots txtโ (8.1K), โyoutube seoโ (3.6K), and โfree seo toolsโ (2.9K).
You can click the โ+โ icon to add any missing keywords to your master list.
This insight is extremely valuable because if one or all of your competitors can rank for those keywords, then thereโs a high probability you can, too (provided each site has a comparable authority).
#16: Use โBarnacle SEOโ to Align Your Brand with Authoritative Sources for High SERP Visibility
โBarnacle SEOโ is a term coined by Will Scott of Search Influence.
He describes it as: โattaching oneself to a large fixed object and waiting for the customers to float by in the current.โ
But, what does this mean in relation to SEO?
Rather than competing with the BIG sites that dominate your niche, you instead attach your own brand to them.
That way, you can effectively piggyback on their success!
For example:
Letโs assume you were a lawyer in Brooklyn, NYC.
You would probably want to attach/associate your business with sites such as:
- Avvo.com
- Superlawyers.com
- Justia.com
- Etc.
This is because the websites absolutely dominate local search:
So, whenever anyone is looking for the services you offer, chances are theyโll end up on a website like Avvo.com.
In this case, it'd be better to simply piggyback on the authority of the larger sites to rank for highly competitive keywords, at least in the short term.
Here are some of the big brands that dominate search in other verticals:
Real Estate: Zillow, Rent.com, Trulia, Zoopla (UK), RightMove (UK), etc:
Hotels: TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Timeout.com, etc.
Obviously, some of these websites are more difficult to associate your own brand with than others.
For example, TripAdvisor rankings canโt really be manipulated (unless youโre providing EXCELLENT service), but you can easily post on forums like Warrior Forum or Quora; you just have to sign up and post an answer.
Thatโs why I recommend looking for keywords in your niche where forums (e.g. Quora) or niche directories dominate the SERPs.
Hereโs a quick process for doing this:
First, go to Semrush (aff), enter quora.com in the search box, then go to the โPositionsโ report (located under โOrganic Researchโ on the sidebar):
This will show you each of the 27.8 million keywords Quora.com ranks for.
But, most of these keywords will be completely irrelevant to your niche; thatโs why you need to use the filtering options to find keywords that fit the bill.
For example:
Letโs say you were a lawyer. Just filter for threads containing the word โattorneyโ that also rank in the top 5:
This will result in a TON of threads that rank well for industry related queries:
Itโs then a case of plucking out the ones most related to your business, signing up for a Quora account, and answering the questions:
In industries dominated by aggregator sites, my advice is to leverage them, not fight them. They have already done all the hard work to rank for you:
You just need to "attach" yourself to the appropriate category of the site, and optimize your profile for high placement.
If you can get your profile ranking in the aggregators, you can quickly build visibility for a lot of your "money" keywords.
Here are the listings on Avvo for "personal injury attorney" in Boise:
This keyword is a ultra competitive in both local and organic search. Plus, you could be paying up to $100 per click in Google Ads.
Take a close look at how businesses in ultra competitive markets are optimizing their profiles to rank. It might even make sense to pay for top placement in some of the niche directories.
The most critical things to consider are:
#17. Perform On-Page Gap Analysis
One of the quickest ways to increase organic traffic can often come from making minor on-page edits to your existing content rather than starting from scratch.
Surfer SEO (aff) is a tool that makes it incredibly easy to optimize your current assets.
For example, Matt Diggity shared a couple of case studies where Surfer SEO helped him rank higher.
#1 - Surfer SEO suggested his SEO coaching landing page was too long. So, he followed the recommendation, reduced it by half, and now the page ranks #1 again!
#2 - Matt turned his Affiliate Networks page into an article, and adjusted the densities of relevant phrases based on Surferโs recommendations. The next day, when he checked his keywords, he could see his article was now in the Top 3:
You can use Surfer SEO to quickly see how your content performs against hand-selected assets for a given topic.
Simply enter your keyword, go to the content editor (aff), and click customize. Select only the competing URLs that have a similar content type and ranking in top 10.
Then, paste your content into the editor, and see how your article compares for word count, question-based topics, and primary, secondary, and semantic keyword use in the article.
Make the necessary edits, and then relaunch.
I now run all my personal content and clientsโ existing assets through the Surfer Content Editor. I usually get the same rank improvements by making these minor on-page optimizations, as I do when making more extensive content updates.
Itโs way more efficient to get quick gains, scale content revisions, with the data-backed insights.
Editor's note: You can also use the SERP analyzer (aff) tool to create data-driven content briefs for new content topics. Plus, you can also use the Google Docs extension to do all the analysis on drafts too.
#18. Use โParasite SEOโ to Rank for Super-Competitive Search Terms
Ranking for BIG โmoneyโ keywords isnโt always possible with your own website.
Thatโs because the BIG keywords are often super-competitive and ONLY super-authoritative brands stand a chance at ranking for them.
Example:
Take a keyword like โSEO tipsโ...
According to Ahrefs, it has a KD score of 60:
And unsurprisingly, the SERPs are dominated by big brands:
Bottom line: you probably ainโt going to stand a chance at ranking for this keyword with a DA30 website....no matter how great your content is!
So, whatโs the solution?
Parasite (or Tenant) SEO.
In simple terms, parasite SEO is where you piggyback on the authority of other websites to rank for super-competitive, โmoneyโ terms.
But wait, how is this different from Barnacle SEO?
With Barnacle SEO you are basically adding profiles or comments to top ranking aggregators, directories and forums in your industry/market.
With Parasite SEO, you're publishing new content (i.e. blog posts, not profiles) on high ranking sites and publications.
Hereโs how it works:
- Identify key industry publications that accept guest posts
- Pitch an article targeting a money keyword
Example:
Letโs go back to the โSEO tipsโ keyword I mentioned earlier.
You might remember that one of the pages ranking in the top 3 was this post on the Ahrefs blog.
Hereโs the interesting thing about this post...
Itโs actually a guest post!
Yes, guest posting means youโre effectively ranking for the keyword on their website (rather than your own), but itโs still a great tactic for the following reasons:
- Itโll send a ton of referral traffic your way
- Itโll generate leads/sales
- Itโll help you build a name for yourself (i.e. authority by association)
Want proof?
Ryan Stewart wrote this post (which now ranks #1 for the value search term โSEO servicesโ) a couple of years back and it still generates leads for his business:
Here is another example:
Steve Webb wrote this SEO audit article on Moz to rank for the highly competitive search term โSEO auditโ.
This article has been ranking #1 for over 4 years!
Matt Barby used parasite SEO to rank his client for the keyphrase "app makers" (22,000 monthly searches).
The Business News Daily article generated 74,783 referral visits and almost 4,300 user registrations:
Hereโs how to do it:
- Find a list of websites in your niche accepting guest posts
- Pitch them posts relating to competitive keywords you want to rank for
#19: Propel Organic Growth with Ongoing Backlink Acquisition (+ 3 Simple Tactics)
As mentioned earlier in the post, links are MEGA important when it comes to ranking.
(Google actually confirmed this a few months back!)
And both domain-level and page-level backlink factors consistently top the ranks in Mozโs search engine ranking factors survey:
But, you aren't going to rank by acquiring a few backlinks and leaving it at that.
You need to be acquiring backlinks on an ongoing basis!
Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of what most people do.
Most people focus all their time and effort into content creation and ZERO effort into link building.
It looks something like this:
No authority is being built to help rank all the content being produced.
So, what should you be doing?
Simple. You need to put most of your resources into acquiring links in the early stages of a website because without building some authority, you aren't going to rank for anything (not even low competition keywords!).
Hereโs a great illustration by Matthew Barby showing how every SEO campaign should begin:
(Source)
The initial focus is seeding site authority in parallel with content creation efforts.
Here are 3 โquick winโ link building strategies to get you started:
- Steal your competitor's links
- Keep a database of people likely to link to you (with custom search engines)
- Perform outreach
OK, letโs start with the first link building tactic...
1. Steal Your Competitor's Backlinks
There are TONS of ways to steal links from competitors (I even wrote a full post about it here) but hereโs a quick tactic to get you started:
Go to the SEMrush Backlink Gap tool and set it up with your domain first, followed by your competitors:
The results table shows you all of the referring domains that send backlinks to your competitorsโ websites.
Reach out to these people, build a relationship, and see if you can get them to link to your website, too!
2. Keep a database of people likely to link to you (with CSEs)
People who have linked to you before will probably be open to doing so again in future.
So, wouldnโt it make sense to keep a database of these people, then reach out to them whenever you publish something that may be of interest to them?
Hereโs how to do it:
- Go to the Semrush Backlink Analytics tool
- Enter your own domain โ e.g. www.robbierichards.com
- Select the Referring Domains report
- Sort in descending order for the Authority Score
- Export the results:
Next, import all the domains into a Google Custom Search Engine (CSE).
Note: You can find instructions, along with a bunch of templates for automating this process in this post.
Once youโve done this, you will have a custom search engine that searches ONLY the websites that have linked to you in the past.
So, whenever you publish a new blog post, you can simply go to your CSE and search for a keyword related to the post (e.g. if I published a SEMrush review, I would type โSEMrushโ into the search engine):
You can then reach out to these people, tell them about your post, and ask if theyโd be happy to link to you!
3. Perform large scale competitor link outreach
This strategy is designed to scale the traditional approach of analyzing competitors to find quality backlink opportunity.
Specifically, it piggybacks off the concept of Brian Dean's popular Skyscraper technique.
Here are the basic steps:
- Find a piece of content with a lot of links
- Make something even better
- Reach out to websites linking to the old piece of content, tell them about your new improved piece, and ask them to change the link
Simple, right!?
Doesn't sound too different from normal competitor link analysis.
But, here's the kicker:
Instead of trying to steal links from just one piece of content, you instead steal links from many pieces of competing content. And, this is how we scale the competitor link building process.
Let's go through a quick working example...
I published this in-depth Semrush tutorial/review.
A quick search in Google shows lots of other (much less comprehensive) Semrush reviews:
And according to Semrush, a lot of these pages have a good number of backlinks.
- Go to the Semrush Keyword Overview report
- Enter your keyword โ e.g. Semrush review
- Scroll down to the SERP Analysis at the bottom of the report
- Click Get Metrics to see the URL referring domain counts for the top 10 posts:
But, I believe my review is more comprehensive than all of these other reviews.
So, I can use this outreach approach to steal links from all of these pages.
I've been using this tactic to build links to several of my articles over the last few months:
I'm seeing about a 3-4% conversion rate.
Here's how to do it:
- Export the backlinks for ALL the pages your improved content is better than
- Find the contact details for each of the websites
- Reach out to them and ask them to replace the old link with a link to your new and improved content.
Ready to Get More Organic Traffic?
There you have it - 19 actionable strategies to get more short and long term organic traffic growth.
Always start with the quick win opportunities - content audits, removal of keyword cannibalization, link reclamation and quick keyword wins. Then, build on the moment to scale up for long term organic traffic increases.
Also, make sure you leverage the bonus templates and videos to get a quick start on things.
Now:
Which strategies are you going to implement first?
Let me know in the comments below.
Ian says
Woah, Robbie. AWESOME article! I will definitely be coming back to read it over again several times as I implement these strategies on my sites.
Thanks for always producing epicly-delicious content! I’m always excited to receive your emails!
Robbie says
Yes!! Love to hear this type of feedback. Glad you enjoyed the post. Please shoot me an email or comment here again if you have any questions about the material.
Isaac says
Epic post dude, I just added 5 new things to my monthly SEO workflow. How would you deal with a situation where there was keyword cannibalization happening between the homepage and the product page?
Robbie says
Hey Isaac! Great question. Before I answer that one, what type of keyword is being cannibalized – informational, buyer etc? What are the respective ranking positions?
Sam Thomas Davies says
Outstanding content, Robbie. I’ve bookmarked it in Instapaper and made notes. One to return to again and again for sure.
Robbie says
Awesome – thanks Sam!
Akash Srivastava says
Keyword cannibalization is very bad, agree with you, Robbie!
ashok says
Hey Robbie,
Thanks for this awesome case studies on organic traffic, really loved the way your explain everything.
I have a question for you : Which one is your top 5 link building strategies that to focus on in 2018.?
Many Thanks once again
Ashok
Robbie says
Hey Ashok! Good question. I work with clients in a lot of different industries, so the tactics I employ are often quite different depending on the client. In general though, creating killer resources around popular topics, or tools related to client services. This provides a ton of outreach opportunity. For example: We had a client build a tool that allowed webmasters to quickly run SSL scans on their sites and identofy non-secure resources. We reached out to people writing about SSLs, Https migration etc and pitched it as a value-add. We built ~50 links to that tool in 45 days. Not a massive total, but they were pretty much all DR 40+.
Iulian Grecu says
Pure Gold! So many useful information in just one article, Robbie! Loved all examples/case studies and had no idea crawl budget is so important for SEO, especially because old techniques were all about creating hundreds and hundreds of pages of content. Seems like Content isn’t King anymore ha ha.
Robbie says
Cheers mate! Yeah, performing content audits have provided massive results for my clients this year. Not only do you get rid of the garbage on your site, but often you’ll surface a lot of “quick win” opportunities too.
Anil Agarwal says
Hi Robbie, another killer post.
Stealing your competitors backlinks is one of the most PROVEN methods to quickly find and build quality links to your site. You just need to make sure your content is 10 times better than all the top 10 ranking pages. Also make sure to carefully compile and analyse the link sources from your competitors.
Find out ways to get those links as you can use blogger outreach, guest posting etc to steal your competitors links. Itโs not a quick method though as youโll need to master the art of writing captivating emails to get links from other sites.
Create monster blog posts also helps you get a ton of links from other sites as Iโve personally used this tactic to generate links. Iโve written SEMrush review on my own blog which can also be seen in one of the illustrations that you used in this post and I always find new ways to generate links to particular posts.
Thanks for sharing all your insights Robbie, much appreciated.
Jamie Gemmell says
Great read and I learnt loads from this guide, i’m signing up for the SEO Playbook right now. good on ya robbie!
Robbie says
Awesome – thanks Jamie! Just sent out a course update. Hope to hear your input ๐
Daniel says
What a massive post! thanks for publishing such detailed post! Can I have a suggestion – please include “table of content” on top of the post? So I can skip to that specific section because I will be using this post for many future references.
Robbie says
Good feedback, Daniel! I’ll add that in the near future ๐
Harsha says
I’ve printed out every post of you because they’re pure gold!
I’ve a question though, all the examples in your post are related to blog posts. Will I be able to apply the same strategies to corporate websites and typical client websites as well?
Robbie says
Yes!! Love to hear that, Harsha! Yes, running content audits, removing cannibalization, finding keyword gaps etc…these are all strategies that can, and should, be used to improve performance on any site. I work mostly with lead gen sites now, but they work great with ecommerce etc.
Bennie says
Thank you Robbie. My VA’s are currently making SOPs of your strategies. Brilliant!
Robbie says
Awesome, thanks Bennie! Hope you get a lot of value from it ๐
angga says
Awesome post man!
About keyword cannibalization I have a question.
let say there’s 2 different posts blabla/complete-guide-seo-strategy and blabla/keyword-research-a-to-z, both of them ranked for “keyword research” what would you do with this?
Robbie says
Thanks mate!
If both page are closely related (lots of topical overlap), I would merge the unique content from the lower ranking article into the top ranking one, then 301 redirect the lower performing article into the top ranking one. This will make the canonical version more relevant, and give it an immediate authority boost. I would also fetch it right away, do some link building, and possibly a little paid promotion to seed some engagement. Update the time stamp.
Robbie says
But, if one is more directly geared towards general SEO strategy, and the other is more keyword research focused, it might make sense to leave them. I’d have to see the content to say for sure.
Al says
Hey Robbie,
Amazing post. Just curious, why did you skip #11?
Thanks
Al
Robbie says
Thanks for the heads up, Al. I’ll get it updated.
Derric says
Really great post! What happened to tip #11?
Robbie says
Woops! I better get in there and update it. Thanks for the heads up!
Christopher Chorley says
Super post Robbie! never seems to amaze me the amount of effort and details going into your blog posts, you and Brian Dean provide actionable resources we can use straight away.
Thank you so much.
Robbie says
Thanks Christopher! Appreciate it.
Bizstim says
What an amazing resource. This is a grand slam! I would like to talk to you Robbie about a new software tool available that takes connecting with influencers and authority linkers to the next level.
It could cut down on hours of emailing and trying to get in contact with individuals. We think it will be a game changer for anyone, including SEO firms, actively promoting their websites.
If you have time, please take a look. I’ve provided the link with the website field. I’d appreciate any feedback you may have. Cheers.
Robbie says
Cheers! I’ll take a look ๐
Rich says
Hi Robbie,
I have been attempting to use the content audit template that you provided for tip 1 to remove, consolidate or improve URLs.
I have copied your template to my google drive and have populated the sheets as instructed, but not receiving any data in the DONE sheet.
Has anyone else had this problem? Any idea of what I am doing wrong? Can I share the sheet with you to ask?
Thanks,
Richard
Stalin Rijal says
Iam also facing the same problem. It asks for permission to edit the google sheet. Iam unable to paste my data to get result.
If anyone has solution, please do reply. Thank you ,
Robbie says
Stalin,
Did you make a copy of the template to edit it?
Sarah Carter says
This certainly makes the optimisation that I need to do a heck of a lot easier. Sometimes I just need a todo list, so thanks for the detailed instructions!
Robbie says
Thanks Sarah! Glad it helped ๐
Richard says
Hi Robbie,
Great article, thank you!
I am excited to implement your strategies, a question about the content audit sheet: when I go to the DONE sheet, the pageviews of GA Export sheet are not picked up.
Has anyone else run into that?
Thanks,
Rich
Robbie says
Hi Richard,
Thanks for reaching out. Yes, a few people have reached out. I’m looking into it this week.
Jon Ferraro says
Hello Richard,
Yes, I have had the same problem. @Robbie We will Appreciate your help on this Please.
Thanks
Robbie says
Bummer – not sure what it going on here. I thought it was fixed. I’ll take another look.
Laurra Nicecreame Media says
What an amazing article! Thank you for the very interesting read. Keep up the great work you are doing!
Richa says
Cant thank you enough for this excellent article. I am all set to try each of the many strategies listed by you on my parenting website. Thanks a lot Robbie, God Bless You!
Robbie says
Thanks Richa! Glad you enjoyed the content ๐
tech4uonline says
awesome post sir, such a useful guide I am going to use these awesome tips.
can you please guide me how to do content promotion if I have the low budget
Robbie says
Give before you ask. Start commenting on, linking to, and sharing influencer content. Let those folks know as soon as you done one of those things. When they re-engage, ask if it is ok to share something of yours with them (has to be awesome). If they respond favorably, you can then get them to share it.
Stella says
Wow Robbie, you’re a gem man!! this article is very clear and hats off to you for your efforts in gathering the information to spread the knowledge.. cheers man.. keep rocking..!
Robbie says
Thanks Stella ๐
Patrick says
What an epic post this is, Robbie.
Tbh, my SEO and content game in general hasn’t been the same since I discovered your site a few months back. Heck, most paid courses aren’t even close to being as comprehensive and actionable as your articles are.
Like the rest I have read, I have bookmarked this one for constant reference.
I absolutely dig your stuff.
Thanks for sharing.
Robbie says
Awesome – thanks Patrick! Pumped to hear that.
If you want to go even deeper, check out my training course here: https://www.robbierichards.com/seo-course/ (launching again soon).
Manu says
This is one of the best, tactically-oriented SEO blog posts I’ve ever read full of actionable ideas that anyone can implement. Thanks, Robbie!
Robbie says
Thanks Manu!!
Tushar Dey says
Really nice post!! your post is easy to read and I like the way you explain the topic. Thanks, mate for your awesome article.
Robbie says
Thanks Tushar!
Equity Service says
Nice article & the best part of your post is you have included case study examples. Keep up the good job…
Ravina Gupta says
Great article for organic search!! Thank you
Adeyemo Adewale says
One of the best articles has never read online.
Thanks for sharing Man.
Robbie says
Thanks Adeyemo!
Louis says
again. drumroll – a super post by Robbie. I really liked point 14 (3) – scaling link building.
Robbie says
Thanks Louis! Appreciate it!
Alison says
Awesome content – not all something will do or have time for as local business but great info to get me started on some of these hacks.
Robbie says
Thanks Alison!
Ailsa lena says
I have always admired your site, Thanks for the great tips and work .
Physical Scale Model says
This post is totally mind-blowing. Man, I imagine the amount of work you put into it. If I’m right, if never read a post on this topic before that is as detailed and indepth as this one.
Sunil Kumar says
Hi Robbie
Really you have written very nice. I was searching this information over the internet since last week but I couldnโt find anywhere. But today I got more than expectations.
Thank you very much Robbie.
Robbie says
Thanks Sunil! Appreciate it ๐
Alison says
Hello,
I am a long time reader of your blog. I really enjoy when I read your posts. Thanks
Robbie says
Thanks Alison!
Aditya says
Some of your points match my own personal SEO strategies.
Such as stealing competitors backlinks, I call it a sweet steal technique. One more thing I do is I make a better version of content than other’s
Anyways, Thanks for the post. Keep Sharing
Robbie says
Thanks Aditya!
Jay says
This is PURE gold – I’m prepping for an interview presentation and some of these tips are clear and digestible so I’ve got lots of things to talk about!
Robbie says
Glad you enjoyed the content, Jay! Let me know how the presentation goes ๐
Jandre de Beer says
Hi Robbie.
Just found this blog! Loving it.
Super in-depth and practical thanks so much! Keep up the good work!
Robbie says
Thanks Jandre!
Jonathan says
Monster point mate, good one! Thanks, on behalf of the SEO community
Robbie says
Thanks Jonathan!
Peter says
Holy crap! That is one monster guide!
Thanks for sharing! Lots of useful information here! ๐
Robbie says
Thanks Peter! ๐
John @ Marketalist says
What a detailed post Robbie,. You nailed it man. If one can control keyword cannibalization then organic rankings can be improved very rapidly because you are removing competition for your own other page on website. We did this practice and trust me we got good results for our clients. Other points you have mentioned are worth considering.
Robbie says
Cheers John!
Jekesh Kumar Oad says
Awesome.
Robbie says
Thanks Jekesh!
job abhi says
Amazing man, really impressive!
Eco Friendly Cart says
I love your blogs on your website. I always share your post on Social Media and all my followers like it.
Please keep up the good work.
Robbie says
Awesome – thanks Lynell!
Mudassir says
Hey Robbie!
First of all i’d like to appreciate you for the blog’s clean design.
You just nailed it with the advanced SEO tips that helps newbie bloggers like us. Please keep writing such informative articles.
However as a new blogger i’m working a lot to place the informative content with the right keywords.
I have bookmarked this article to implement for my blog!
Cheers!
Mudassir
Robbie says
Thanks Mudassir! Glad you’re enjoying the content ๐
Steve Last says
Great post. My blog has been online for 10 years now, and I suspect that I have a keyword cannibalization problem.
I have been relying on the YOAST SEO plugin to inform me if I already have pages optimized for a keyword when I create each new post.
I think I shall go through the method you describe to detect duplicate keyword posts, because it has led me to think that relying on YOAST to warn me, isn’t going to be working for keyword cannibalisation on older pre-YOAST days posts.
Many thanks.
Robbie says
Cheers Steve!
ifsc says
very useful article. I like ahref and semrush tool.
thank you
Enzo says
Thanks for this is much more informative and has more ‘thinking outside’ the box tactics than other sites I have visited on SEO. I especially like how it continually builds on the theory of too many pages can be dead weight. I am going to try the following after reading this.
1. Rank my most read to least read articles
2. Make sure i’m using long-tail keywords only main and secondary (basically in google anything under 1 million in search)
3. Internally link biggest viewed pages to smaller viewed pages
4. I already took 120+ articles out of 500 out of my index. And am looking at some of the material in Ebook format which I will then sell.
Izzah Kamal says
I am confused between semrush and Ahref. Which is better. Semrush is updating my site’s data faster than Ahref.
Robbie says
Comes down to personal preference. I like SEMrush for both keyword and PPC research. I think Ahrefs’ link database and UI are stronger at the moment. Go with whichever ones fits your specific needs the best.
Roshan Samuel Ambler says
Thanks for sharing your SEO insights Robbie, a much needed ‘No BS’ article, much appreciated.
Floyd says
Great Post Robbie.
When It Comes on to actionable Organic Traffic and SEO Strategies this Blog is a go-to for me…
Technique # 6 really stood out to me as a Quick Win of getting rankings of super competitive keywords… Will be executing this strategy from now on.. a lot of insights I never thought about.
Keep up the awesome work.
Robbie says
Thanks Floyd!
Marek says
Nice man! I have read only half of your post, couse my break in work is going to end, but I must go back here to ๐ Thanks for great job with You did here.
Robbie says
Thanks Marek ๐
Manoj says
Hello Robbie,
Great article. My blog was ranking in top SERPs and getting a good amount of traffic earlier. But it declined for the past some months. I was looking for the solutions and finally found your post. Thanks for explaining everything in detail with case studies. It’s really helpful.
Best wishes,
Manoj
Robbie says
Thanks Manoj! Hope it helps. Since when has your traffic been dropping? Does it align with any algorithm updates?
Tyler says
Just what I’ve been looking for! Thanks!
Robbie says
Glad to hear it! Thanks Tyler ๐
Ryan says
Thanks for taking the time to put this together! The SEO community thanks you ๐
Robbie says
Thanks Ryan!
Codepilot says
Nice article Robbie, definitely will read more of your blog!
No #7 is one of the main steps we take to try drive up traffic from the low hanging fruit.
Thanks again
Robbie says
Cheers Andrew!
David M says
I have a question and perhaps you can quickly answer. Maybe it also warrants its own post in the future:
If we have a blog that gets decent traffic (100k+ visitors a month), should we accept guest posts if they fit the blog theme? Under what conditions does this help our e-commerce site?
Robbie says
Yes – I’d be open to it. But, it sounds like you can be very selective and demand very high quality for access to a large audience. I’d have the writers provide samples, and be very clear in the level of expectation.
Ryan says
I have read several articles on this very topic. Yours takes the cake! The real-world pictures as examples and the steps to implementation of ALL the material are amazing. You, sir, have outdone yourself. Thank you for this valuable resource.
richa says
I love your blogs on your website. I always share your post on Social Media and all my followers like it.
Please keep up the good work.
Blue Cabin says
Great content as always MR Robbie! Thanks so much
Mark Menor says
Very good insights. It’s my first time to read your article and this is new information for me. I’ll definitely put these strategies to the test. Thanks!
Robbie says
Glad you enjoyed the post!
shegowandering says
OMG! Why I didn’t find this article sooner??? I’m using Semrush since March, but I was always trying to learn all the tools one by one. Since I understood the keyword magic tool, how many times to use keywords, and to use more keywords (long-tail ones) in 1 post, I managed to build a website in 5 months from 0 to 37K traffic. But! You just shared so much information about all the tools that I still didn’t try, such as the Keyword Gap! I think I’ve got my plan for the weekend!
Robbie says
Thanks Helga! I’m glad you enjoyed the post ๐