SEO - Express Writers

How to Win with Zero-Click Search SEO Adaptation

July 22, 2025July 18, 2025 by Rachel Moffett

The rise of AI-powered search engines and zero-click results is reshaping the online space, forcing marketers and content strategists to rethink how they measure success. You’re not alone if your website traffic is dipping, but your conversions and on-site engagement are increasing. And you’re not doing anything wrong. That’s what you can expect in the era of zero-click search SEO adaptation. We’ll explore zero-click searches, why they matter, and how to optimize your content for this evolving search environment. We’ll also discuss why traditional metrics like click-through rates (CTR) are becoming less relevant and what marketers should focus on to stay competitive and drive meaningful results. Zero-Click Searches: Explained What are zero-click searches? Let’s break it down. Zero-click searches are queries answered directly on the search engine results page (SERP), so the user doesn’t need to click through to a website. Think of Google’s featured snippets and the AI-generated answers now populating the platform. These days, a majority of Google searches result in zero clicks. The data above shows that, in 2024, 58.5% of Google searches in the U.S. and 59.7% in Europe did not generate clicks. In other words, zero-click searches often mean users get their answers instantly, and usually don’t need to go further. It’s convenient for the user, but potentially frustrating for the publisher who invested in that content. Yet here’s the twist: this shift isn’t necessarily bad. It just requires a change in strategy. The New SEO Strategy: Adaptation Is a Must Traditional SEO focused heavily on driving clicks. There’s nothing wrong with still wanting to generate traffic. However, with AI-generated summaries and snippets giving users instant answers, we must adopt a new strategy: zero-click search SEO adaptation. This approach acknowledges that success can’t be measured solely by traffic volume anymore. Instead, it looks at other metrics to determine how your content is performing. This includes: Time on Page: How much time are they spending on a single page? Scroll Depth: Are they scrolling to the bottom of the page or stopping halfway? Conversion Rates: How many people convert by completing a form or purchasing? On-Site Engagement Metrics: How many people are engaging? How many are returning visitors? How many pages are being viewed per session? Why would we want to track these metrics? When traffic is low, we want to learn about the behavior of the users visiting your site. Those who click through are often further down the funnel. They’re more informed, curious, and ready to act. The Reality of Declining Top-of-Funnel Traffic With AI surfacing top-level queries right on the SERP, fewer users visit your website for basic information. Before you panic, it isn’t all bad news. This means your site may see: Lower traffic overall Higher engagement per visitor Lower bounce rates Higher conversion rates This isn’t a decline, necessarily. You’re reaching people who are further along in their decision-making process. As a result, you may see people exploring your website more or making purchases. Your Guide to Zero-Click Search SEO Adaptation How can you adapt your strategy to zero-click search optimization? Let’s break it down. Step 1: Restructure Your Content Strategy If most zero-click search results address the top-of-the-funnel questions, you need to invest more in middle and bottom-of-funnel content. The way to pivot is to create content for different search intents. For example: Top-level content (e.g., “What is X?”) should still exist but can be shorter, more concise, and optimized for AI or snippet capture. Middle-funnel content should answer comparative or evaluative questions like, “How does X compare to Y?” or “What features should I look for in X?” Bottom-funnel content should target purchase-related or decision-making keywords like “Best X for [use case],” “Where to buy X,” or “[Product] reviews.” It’s also smart to use a pillar-cluster model. Create pillar pages exploring high-level topics, then link to more focused cluster pages with specific keywords and subtopics. This helps AI and search engines understand the depth of your expertise. Step 2: Focus on Conversion-Ready Users Remember: not all traffic is created equal. One engaged, ready-to-buy user is worth more than 100 casual browsers. So, you’ll want to use on-page signals to nurture leads. You can do that by: Including clear calls-to-action (CTAs) based on visitor intent Offering downloads, checklists, or calculators to encourage engagement Embedding videos or interactive content to increase time on page Rather than focusing on impressions and CTR alone, you should start prioritizing: Engagement Rate: How many users engage with something on-page? Dwell Time: How long are they staying? Lead Conversion Rate: How many take the next step? These are the accurate indicators of content success in a zero-click world. Step 3: Make Peace with the AI Layer AI isn’t going away. It’s becoming the first touchpoint for many users. That means your top-level content isn’t wasted, but it’s being repurposed by AI to answer questions. That visibility still builds trust, even if you don’t get the click. For example, if your content is used in a featured snippet or quoted in an AI-generated summary, users may recognize your brand and return when ready to engage more deeply. To optimize for AI, try: Using clear headers and structured content Answering questions in the first few lines Writing with a natural, conversational tone Providing concise, factual, and trustworthy information Step 4: Reevaluate Your Keyword Strategy AI search is increasingly semantic and contextual, meaning it’s not just about matching keywords. It’s about understanding intent and creating your content with that in mind. Instead of stuffing the page with exact-match keywords repeatedly, try using variations naturally throughout the text so you don’t get penalized. Also, structure content in a way that answers a question, offers an opinion, or presents data. Let’s use this blog post as an example: Overusing the “zero-click search SEO adaptation” keyword would turn off Google and readers. So, it helps to use similar keywords such as “zero-click search” and “what are zero-click searches.” This post is also formatted with H2s and H3s, as well as bullet … Read more

How Many Keywords Should I Use for SEO Without Being Penalized?

February 6, 2025January 21, 2025 by Sarah Damron

You probably know how essential keywords are to your website traffic. Keywords help search engines crawl your website and rank it highly, letting your website appear on the first page for search queries related to your website content. Considering this, it only sounds logical to stuff your content with as many keywords as possible. However, this goes against SEO best practices and may lead to your website being punished and ranking lower. This might sound counterintuitive, but there is a method to the madness. In this article, we help you understand the intricacies of keywords and how to avoid ending up on the second page or, worse, being removed from the search engine’s index. Understanding Keywords: What Are They? There is little to take away from the literal meaning behind the word “keyword.” It might be misleading to some. As the name suggests, a keyword is essential to website content. However, keywords can sometimes be “key phrases.” By definition, a keyword is a word or phrase that defines the topic of your content. In other words, a keyword is a word or phrase that users would use to find information in your content. For example, the keyword that might have brought you to this article would be “How many keywords should I use for SEO?” How Many Keywords Should You Use in SEO? When it comes to search engine optimization with keywords, how many are too many? There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to how many keywords should be in any content. As a general rule of thumb, it is largely accepted that SEO keyword density should amount to between 1-2 percent of the total content word count. This translates to around five keywords for every 500 words. However, it is essential to remember that content quality trumps keyword density. Search engines prioritize the human experience, so keyword stuffing should be avoided. For highly technical articles, it may be impossible to try to avoid heavy keyword usage throughout the length of your content. This is because they may often be descriptive or integral in conveying the critical intent of your chosen topic. In such cases, as a marketer or website owner, you should focus on writing high-quality and engaging content that effectively answers the user’s search query. This will indicate to search engines that your content is relevant and consequently avoid hurting your ranking and visibility. How Many Keywords for SEO Count as Keyword Stuffing? Keyword stuffing is a practice that manipulates search engines into ranking content highly simply because it is chock-full of keywords. This black hat technique could lead to your website being punished. You might have encountered content that barely sounds logical while attempting to find an answer to your search query. “Are you looking for a home in NY that is more than a house in NY? Then this home in NY is just what you need.” The previous statements target the keyword “home in NY,” but they make no sense to the reader and are an excellent example of keyword stuffing. Consequently, keyword stuffing is less of a numbers game and more of a technique that prioritizes keywords over the user experience. The consequences of keyword stuffing are explored further in this article. Keyword Diversity: Exact Match vs. Variations Keywords funnel users to your website through search engine rankings. However, several keywords exist depending on their relationship to the search query. Exact match keywords match the search query verbatim. Exact match keywords appeal to search engines by signaling high relevance for a specific search query. One downside of exact-match keywords is that the user’s search query must match your keyword’s meaning, translating to a narrow reach (the very high relevance may offset this). On the other hand, variation keywords may retain the SEO keyword’s meaning with slight changes in article usage, contain similar phrases, or be closely related to the keyword. Variation keywords have the advantage of having a broader reach with a slight compromise on relevance. Keyword Diversity: Best Practices Exact-match and variation keywords have their shortcomings. Pairing both keyword types ensures your website content ranks highly without over-optimizing, which may contribute to keyword stuffing. Additionally, your content reads naturally, which helps with SEO and prevents your content from sounding generic, which may be off-putting to users. Keyword Semantics vs. Keyword Synonyms As you might have noticed, an SEO strategy is the safest way to ensure you stay on the right side of search engine rankings. Understanding the differences between keyword semantics and synonyms is crucial to drafting a winning strategy. So, what is the difference between the two? Keyword Semantics Keyword semantics are variations of the keyword that meet the user’s search query. Taking this article as an example, the keyword “how many words for SEO” can be replaced with keyword semantics such as “keyword density,” “keyword optimization,” or “keyword count.” In simple terms, keyword semantics target the same idea with different languages. Google and other search engines have extremely advanced algorithms that can identify keyword synonyms and semantics with pinpoint accuracy. These algorithms allow you to create high-ranking content for your website without risking keyword stuffing. Keyword Synonyms Keyword synonyms are SEO keywords with the same or nearly the same meaning as the search query or the target keyword. For this article, the keyword synonym of “SEO keywords” could be “SEO terms.” Keyword synonyms allow you to diversify your content and rank for multiple search queries without overusing a single keyword. Why Over-Optimizing Can Lead to Penalties Search engines crawl websites to determine their relevance to users when answering a search query. Consequently, they tend to prioritize user-friendly content while punishing any attempts at keyword stuffing. Google and other search engines use complex algorithms to determine keyword density and can pick out keyword stuffing by referencing keyword usage with other high-ranking content. Additionally, keyword stuffing tends to increase a website’s bounce rate and engagement, indicators that are picked up by search engines for low-quality content. Ultimately, this causes … Read more

Competitive Gap Analysis: What Is Your Competition Telling You?

February 6, 2025January 2, 2025 by Sarah Damron

You’ve planned and prepared and put in the work on your unique product. You’re aligned with customer needs. You’re on top of your game. Then… you’re knocked out by a competitor you didn’t even see coming. One of the universal business owner experiences is losing to the competition. Maybe they released a new product before yours was off the production line. Or they launched a stellar marketing campaign that won over some of your customers. The trailblazing tennis champion, Billie Jean King, once said, “For me, losing… isn’t failure, it’s research.” If you are losing to the competition, put down the tissues and voodoo dolls. And do some research instead. Use your losses to gain some competitive intelligence and refine your business strategies. Here are three words to give you a jump start — competitive gap analysis. What Is Competitive Gap Analysis? Most businesses conduct some form of strategic analysis. The most common practice is standard gap analysis. This process compares your business’s expectations to its results. It can help you close the gap between them. Competitive gap analysis expands on this tactic by factoring in competing businesses’ results as well. Analyses can center on many aspects. These include product design, business structure, advertising, and website performance. Based on your needs, competitive gap analyses can be broad or focused. Refining your analysis by focusing on either a content gap or a product gap can help you pinpoint your weak spots. A content-focused competitive gap analysis looks at competitors’ SEO advantages. In comparison, a product-focused analysis shines a spotlight on how a competitor meets their customer’s needs. Why Does It Matter to Your Business? The 2023 State of Competitive Intelligence Report found that over half of stakeholders said their industries are growing more competitive. They also said that competitive data is vital to their success. Competitive gap analysis is a key method in gathering competitive data. By examining competitors’ successful tactics — things like product, process, market share, marketing strategies, and customer experience — you can gain crucial insights into your industry and unlock opportunities to improve your performance. A competitive gap analysis can support key business tasks. Here are a few: Proactive Risk Mitigation: More data allows for more informed decisions. By assessing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you gain crucial insights. This can help you plan for risks and divide resources better. Long-Term Strategic Planning: Comparing your performance to competitors shows your successes and areas to improve over time. Understanding your competition’s successes can help you build a better planning framework. Adaptation to Industry Changes: Studying other businesses in your industry helps to identify market shifts and stay ahead of changes. A competitive gap analysis can reveal opportunities like untapped demographics and unmet needs. It’s important to know what competitive gap analysis is and why it matters to your business. But, before you can do any competitive research, you must identify who to research. That is, you need to know your competition. Identifying Your Direct (and Indirect) Competition You can’t conquer an invisible monster. To win, you must know who you’re up against. Identifying your competition is the prerequisite to performing a competitive gap analysis. In the business world, there are two main types of competition — direct and indirect. Knowing the distinct types of competition can help you identify them in your market: Direct Competition: Direct competitors are businesses that target the same audience and sell comparable products and services. For example, if you run a local movie theater, your competitors are nearby theaters. Indirect Competition: Indirect competitors sell different products and services than you but serve the same customer needs. A prime example of a movie theater’s indirect competition is at-home streaming services. Other indoor venues, like bowling alleys and skating rinks, are also in indirect competition with movie theaters. A Google search with your business’s keywords will show top competitors. Use tools like Google Trends and SEMrush to discover who’s ranking for similar keywords. Studying social media influencers and trending topics in your industry can also help you target your competition. Understanding direct vs indirect competitors helps you tailor your analysis strategies to yield more deliberate results. Ensuring you gather data from both types of competition helps you finely hone your competitive edge and top the competition. 5 Steps to Performing Competitive Gap Analysis Gathering effective competitive intelligence requires a systematic approach. Here are five steps to help you get started. 1. Understand Your Customers’ Needs Using a competitor’s product as your only metric for what the customer wants will get you somewhere… But it’s like trying to decipher an entire cake recipe by eating one slice. You’ll get an idea of what’s needed, but it will be impossible to isolate specific details. Truly knowing what a customer needs will only come from one place. The customer. Talk to your customers and get their direct feedback. What do they like or dislike about your product/service? What do they think of your competitors? What would they most love to see from you? Offering surveys on your website and social media accounts or sending questionnaires to your virtual mailing list are excellent ways to collect this valuable data. 2. Gather Your Competitors’ Data You already understand the types of business competition and how to identify them from the previous section. Once you find a competitor, it’s time to start gathering intel on them. Focus on the following areas: Website and SEO Analysis: Evaluate their website design, user experience, and content strategy. Use tools like SEMrush or Google Analytics to assess organic search traffic, keyword rankings, and backlink profiles. Product Analysis: Pull product data from item description webpages and technical manuals. Study the company’s past sales trends and market share. Use the Statistics of U.S. Businesses website to find applicable information. Social Media Presence: Analyze their social media engagement, follower counts, and content strategies. Which posts generate the most engagement? Are they dominating any platforms? Customer Opinions: Explore reviews on platforms like Yelp, Google My Business, and social … Read more

How to Generate Backlinks That Will Boost Your Website Search Engine Ranking

February 6, 2025December 26, 2024 by Rachel Moffett

If you build it, they will come. This may be true for magical baseball fields in Iowa. But to boost your website’s search engine ranking, you need to do more than just build a site and wait. Search engine ranking, or where your website lands on a search engine results page, is inherently linked to website traffic volume. The higher you rank, the more traffic you tend to see. Many factors play into how well your site is ranked, including quality of content, page authority, and even URL length. One of the most important, and often overlooked, elements of achieving a desirable ranking is generating high-quality backlinks. A backlink is created when another website links to yours. Search engines view these links as recommendations or votes of confidence for your site. The more authority a linking site has with a search engine, the more valuable that backlink is to your authority. Below is a simple diagram depicting types of hyperlinks. Read on to learn how to generate backlinks to your website like an SEO expert. Why You Should Generate Backlinks Because the cool kids are doing it. No, really. Envision a quality backlink as that popular friend at school who will introduce you to the people you want to know. Generating backlinks is a way of networking your website to gain audience and authority. And much like when you network in person, the more people who link to you, the stronger your industry presence becomes. Rank Higher on Search Engine Results Pages A recent SEO study conducted by Backlinko found that the “#1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10.”. Additionally, sites with backlinks from many different domains ranked higher than sites with less diversity in their links. The following chart depicts the correlation between backlinks and ranking. See an Increase in Referral Traffic A high-quality backlink, from a trusted source with a solid web presence, can provide a steady stream of new traffic for your site. Even “no follow” links, or those that don’t directly count toward search engine ranking, can ultimately benefit your website’s SEO by increasing traffic to your site and adding diversity to your backlink portfolio. Get Indexed by Web Crawlers Faster Search engines use website crawlers (also known as spiders) to gather and parse internet content. These search engine bots scan a website’s pages and index its information. Then, when you perform an internet search, an algorithm is applied to this index and the websites with relevant content appear on the search engine results page (SERP). Given that there are billions of web pages, the spiders start with a list of known sites and look for hyperlinks to add to the crawl list. More popular and authoritative sites tend to get crawled first. Getting a backlink from a quality source can put you on the fast track to getting noticed on SERPs. Increase Authority and Brand Awareness Think back to the school metaphor. If a friend you trust and admire introduces you to a new person, you might immediately feel more positive toward them given the common ground. Similarly, when someone clicks on your link from a site with authority, it can help improve your authority through association. Website backlinks from popular companies can also help increase your brand awareness. It’s like distributing your product through a major retailer versus selling it at a local market. The more people who see your name, the more potential customers you have. 4 Website Backlink Strategies That Will Boost Your Ranking An experienced backlink generator knows that link building can yield bountiful results, but they also know it can be a long and arduous process. Luckily, there are many ways for you to successfully generate quality backlinks and rank higher on search engines. A little bit of hard work and patience will go a long way in helping you develop a robust backlink portfolio for your website. Here are four industry-proven backlinking methods. 1. Generate Foundational Links on Social Media and Business Review Sites Aptly named, foundational links are some essential building blocks of an SEO strategy. These types of backlinks are a natural step forward after publishing your website and they’re the first chance for your site to gain traffic and get crawled. The links that you place on your business’s Facebook page or LinkedIn profile to direct people to your site are two common examples of foundational links. Social media links don’t technically count in page ranking, but they’re still a valuable contribution toward your internet presence, especially when first starting your SEO campaign. Guest posting for websites in your niche is also a good starting point. In these posts, you can include relevant links to your website that help build your backlink portfolio and boost your domain authority. Bonus — you get the benefit of building professional relationships with your peers. Internal links, though they’re not technically backlinks, can be considered foundational as well. They are hyperlinks on one part of your website that link to another part of your site. These early internal links can help you begin to rank on SERPs for low-competition keywords in your niche that you highlight with anchor text. 2. Pack Your Pages with High-Quality Content People Want to Share While this should be a no-brainer, you’d be surprised how many website owners leave their pages devoid of good content. A sparse number of blog posts or a lot of poor-quality posts can equally work against your domain authority. Consistently publishing content that’s of high value to your industry, combined with an effective backlinking strategy, is a surefire way to get noticed. Start by doing industry research into trending topics and keywords and studying the content of popular competitors to get an idea of the type of well-ranking web pages. Note that content format also affects ranking. For example, “why” posts and infographics tend to get more clicks than listicles and general posts. Once you’ve compiled your research, write similar (but still … Read more

5 White Hat Link Building Practices Essential for Ethical SEO

June 11, 2024May 26, 2024 by Adam Oakley

When you’re in a crowded conference room, there are usually two types of introductions. You might be wandering about and see someone you greatly admire. You pluck up the courage to approach them and introduce yourself with a statement like, “I love your recent book on marketing, especially your thoughts on the future of AI in marketing.” Then you wait. The other person may strike up a conversation or respond politely and move on. Another type of introduction is when a mutual friend introduces you to someone they already know. These are truly valuable introductions because the other person is much more likely to respond favorably, thanks to the reputation your mutual friend built with them already. Link building is much like networking, except instead of a crowded conference room, you’re wandering the world wide web. External and internal links for SEO connect you to other sites, growing your network and reputation based on the linking website’s established reputation. While link building can create valuable networks and boost your ranking, unethical practices can cause your ranking to plummet. Traditionally, marketers refer to these SEO strategies as white hat link building and black hat link building. What Is Link Building? Link building practices create a network of SEO links pointing to your website. These links are like introductions from friends. They can build bridges to bring traffic to your website, and they recommend you go to Google. When another site links to your site, they give their stamp of approval for your brand and content. If that site is already well-established and an authority brand, you can benefit from that site’s authority. Think of it like shopping for toothpaste. You have generic brand toothpaste that blends in with the competing brands. However, you also have toothpaste with stamps that say “Recommended by dentists.” Because you trust your dentist, you trust their recommendation and may be more inclined to trust that brand. In the same way, when brands link to your site, readers and Google see it as their recommendation stamp on your site. The more links you generate from outside sources, the more Google will see you as an authority. Quality links can increase your search visibility by as much as 534%. When you establish yourself as an authority in Google, you are more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages, generating more traffic. SEO link building is just one of several factors Google’s algorithm uses in ranking. It is also one of the most critical factors for building authority and trust with Google and your readers. Image from Stan Ventures White Hat vs. Black Hat Link Building Because link building plays a crucial role in ranking, content creators are always trying to crack the code. This often leads to unethical marketing practices that generate more links, but hurt the site in the long run. Traditionally, marketers define ethical and unethical link-building as white hat and black hat practices. When you watch an old-time cowboy movie, you can always identify the good and bad guys by the color of their hat. The good guys always wear white hats, while the bad guys tend to wear black hats. No one knows if this is the true source of the terms, but it’s a fun way to remember the phrases. Today, marketers are starting to move away from those terms and simply refer to white hat link building as ethical SEO and black hat link building as unethical SEO. While we are about to cover some of the best ethical backlink practices, you should first understand some of the unethical practices to avoid at all costs. Buying Links This practice has existed since the beginning of search engine optimization, when links started playing a role in ranking. Content creators realized they didn’t need to wait for others to link to them. They could simply purchase fake spam links and automatically jump in ranking. That didn’t last long before Google penalized spam links while rewarding high-authority links. If you do this practice today, you can easily find yourself cut from Google search rankings. Joining a Private Blog Network A private blog network is a connected group of websites or blogs that all agree to link to each other. Websites do not always offer valuable content. Instead, they exist only to link to other blogs and increase authority. Google might not always identify private blog networks, but if the algorithm suspects you are requesting or purchasing links rather than earning them, it will penalize your search engine ranking. Using Unnatural Link Profiles Google looks for patterns when analyzing websites for authenticity. Websites with unnatural patterns often signal unethical practices. A natural link profile will be varied since each person linking will have unique content. However, if you pay for links or create all your links yourself, your anchor text tends to sound similar, or most of the links come from the same place, signaling that all the links were not naturally generated but created to boost your brand authority. If you do want to link to your own site from third-party sources, be sure to create a variety of link sources and anchor text. Gray Hat Link Building Not all link-building practices are black and white. Occasionally, you’ll stumble upon gray areas. For example, link swaps are considered a gray hat method. You aren’t purchasing links in link swaps, so it doesn’t fall entirely under black hat practices. However, you also aren’t earning those links since you are making a trade, which isn’t entirely ethical either. While gray hat practices are easy to ignore and continue using, we highly recommend not using these methods. Even if Google doesn’t penalize them yet, it may catch up one day. To be prepared for that day, always focus on the most ethical practices. 5 White Hat Link Building Best Practices Switch out unethical link-building practices for these five ethical, white-hat link-building strategies for your SEO content. 1. Target High Authority Sites When creating a link-building … Read more

How To Write Meta Descriptions And Titles: A Nutshell Guide

May 21, 2024May 21, 2024 by Adam Oakley

How to Write a Meta Description In the race to build a formidable online presence, most businesses have their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts down pat. They employ efficient SEO strategies to secure a coveted position on Google’s front page. But getting to the top of the search results is only half the battle. You still must convince prospects to click through to your website. How do you make your website stand out in a sea of sameness, given that everyone is giving it their best? That’s what makes compelling meta descriptions a game-changer. When properly executed, these one to two-sentence snippets can skyrocket your click-through rates (CRTs) and drastically grow your sales. Dig in and learn how to leverage the power of meta description for your business. What is a Meta Description? A meta description is a descriptive summary of your web page. It appears as a snippet below your page title and URL on the search results pages. A properly written meta description informs the reader what the page is about and entices them to open the web page. Simply put, a laser-targeted meta description that’s optimized to perfection gives the reader a reason to pick your website. As such, it helps to match your meta description to the search intent. Consider these snippets an elevator pitch. They should be compelling enough that people make the split-second decision to visit your website. Is Meta Description Important for SEO? Meta descriptions are essential for SEO but not in the traditional sense. For starters, search engines don’t consider them a ranking factor — at least directly. Failing to include a meta description may not hurt your chances of getting to the front page of Google. But it may affect your chances of topping the search results page. Google considers user behavior when ranking pages on the SERPs. If more people are clicking on your website, the search engine will reward your pages with higher rankings. That’s because high click-through rates send a clear signal that readers value your content and find it helpful. Google is constantly tweaking its algorithms to match web users with the content that best suits their needs. The search engines may bolden the keywords and other relevant information matching the search query in the meta descriptions. That helps readers click on the website that best meets their needs, growing your CRT. In the latest update, dubbed Helpful Content Update (HCU), Google rewarded websites that met its trust signals with higher rankings while removing those that didn’t from the SERPS. Does Google Rewrite Meta Descriptions? Yes, Google rewrites meta descriptions—but only 70% of the time. Essentially, meta descriptions are merely suggestions. Google may auto-generate snippets based on the information on the page or user queries. So why bother writing meta descriptions at all? Google generally rewrites meta descriptions if it believes they don’t satisfy the searcher’s intent. But that’s because you can’t possibly address all the angles surrounding a keyword — so it’s a good thing, too. Still, Google is unlikely to rewrite the snippets for your high-volume keywords. Google will likely show your compelling and perfectly structured meta description for the most profitable keywords. Therefore, writing excellent snippets for your highest-volume keywords gives you an edge. The compelling descriptions will appear as you wrote them and galvanize prospects into action. How to Write Compelling Meta Descriptions To the uninitiated, writing compelling meta descriptions can seem daunting. These tips can help you level up your snippets and grow your click-through rates. Consider Your Audience By the time you’re creating a blog post, you have incredible insights into your target audience. An accurate buyer persona helps you understand their needs, what makes them tick, and why. Use this knowledge to create great meta descriptions that compel them to click on your title tags. Ideally, your tags should clarify one thing — what that customer stands to gain by clicking through to your website. Use Compelling, Benefit-Driven Copy Always lead with the benefits when writing meta descriptions. Make it clear from the get-go how the reader stands to benefit by visiting your website. Painful as it may sound, customers don’t really care about your brand. But they care about what your brand or products can do to make their lives easier, better, safer, or secure. Naturally, the benefit depends on the problem and the keyword you’re addressing on the page. For instance, at Express Writers, we help clients crush their content marketing needs quickly and effortlessly. We make it abundantly clear on our home page. The meta description also reflects this: “Looking for high-quality content writing services? Look no further than Express Writers! Our team of skilled writers delivers engaging, SEO-friendly content…” Keep Under 155 Characters Meta descriptions are quintessentially elevator pitches. As such, you should keep them short and sweet. While there’s no technical limit when writing HTML meta descriptions, the sweet spot is under 155 characters. Google usually truncates snippets based on the display space available across multiple devices. That’s about 105 characters on mobile and 152 on desktop. An effective meta description leads with benefits to grab the reader’s attention. Keeping it under 155 characters keeps essential information from getting cut off. Include the Target Keyword It may seem counter-intuitive to include your target keyword since Google doesn’t use meta descriptions as a ranking factor. But having your primary keyword in the snippets pays off in droves. Google often bolds the search phrases that effectively address the search queries to help them stand out in the search results. Pages with boldened keywords have higher click-through rates and can effortlessly boost your website traffic. The bolding shows that your page explicitly addresses the prospect’s needs. It may, at least in the reader’s mind, double as Google’s seal of approval. Write a Unique Meta Description for Each Page You’re better off writing unique meta descriptions for each page on your website. In comparison, generic, duplicate meta descriptions are easy and convenient but can harm your CTR. Unlike … Read more

How to Do a Content Audit to Maximize Your SEO

April 9, 2024April 9, 2024 by Adam Oakley

You regularly visit the doctor for checkups, even if you aren’t sick. You go to the doctor to PREVENT you from getting sick. By keeping up with these visits, the doctor can give you a status report on your health and catch any issues while they’re still minor and easy to solve. Without those checkups, you might not receive medical care until an issue has begun wreaking complete havoc on your system and causing irreparable damage to your body. Your website also needs regular checkups, which marketers call content audits. They are a crucial website health checkup that gives you the status of your website’s performance while also alerting you to any issues before they cause more significant problems. Without a content audit, you’ll miss out on vital health updates and won’t know there are issues until your site shows severe damage, such as a drop in traffic or conversions. It also alerts you to what’s performing well and new opportunities to continue growing your site. Let’s unlock the secrets of the content audit through this guide so you can begin giving your site its much-needed regular checkups. What Is a Website Content Audit? A content audit is a complete check of your content. Content includes all the assets on your website, such as blog posts, landing pages, and web pages. Leave no page overlooked. Yes, that does sound like it takes time. That’s why most people perform these at least once annually. About 61% of marketers perform content audits two or more times in a year. But, it’s not a task you want to skim over as you may miss crucial signs of issues or new opportunites. What exactly are you looking for? Here are a few signs of issues: Errors Outdated content Repetitive content Poor content As you perform a content audit, you will decide what needs fixing, updating, or deletion. Ultimately, you’ll create a more positive user experience as readers encounter fewer errors and confusing or outdated content. The regular updates also keep your content relevant and running smoothly, boosting your search engine ranking. Why a Website Content Audit Is a Must Could you run a website without a content audit? Technically speaking, yes, you could. But that would be like living in a house without ever cleaning it. The house might remain standing, but the dust buildup and grime will scare away visitors and even cost you your health. A content audit keeps your website looking updated, active, and valuable to your target audience so they feel welcome and eager to explore further. Here are the top benefits of conducting regular content audits: Performance Insights: You’ll gain insights into your content performance. If you want a successful website that attracts monthly traffic, you need to create content with high-performance rates. Reviewing your analytics during your audit builds a clear picture of your topics and formats that generate the most traffic, engagement, and conversions. Audience Understanding: Knowing your audience drives your content, and your final goal is to connect and convert that audience. You want to understand their interests, pain points, motivating factors, and life changes. Understanding what content your audience engages with gives you glimpses into those details and what they might find most valuable. Improved Ranking: When you refresh and update content, it becomes more appealing to both your audience and Google. High-quality, valuable content ranks higher in search results, boosting organic traffic. These benefits offset the time and effort you invest in content audits. You’ll see better traffic, higher search engine ranking, and improved visitor impressions. One SEMrush report found that about half of those who regularly updated their content saw higher engagement and ranking. How to Do a Content Audit to Maximize Your SEO Are you excited to start enjoying those benefits on your website? Dive into the five steps of performing an SEO content audit to get you started. Because of the time a content audit takes, we highly recommend scheduling it in your calendar so you have enough time blocked out to dive into your content performance and make the most of your findings. If you’re a small site, a day may be enough. Larger sites will require several days to fully analyze. 1. Define Your Goals Before you invest a single dime or hour in your content audit, you need to answer the why behind the audit. Your goals will provide context to your audit and focus on what you hope to accomplish. Without goals, your audit would easily take several weeks rather than days because of reading through hundreds of articles and pages. You don’t need to read through everything. Just the data that’s most relevant to your goal. Some ideas to inspire you include: Improving your SEO Fixing technical errors Identifying missing content Understanding website visitors Boosting engagement Increasing conversions Once you have set one or more goals, you will also know what metrics to focus on so you don’t drown in all the data you’ll uncover during your audit. 2. Take Inventory of Your Site’s Content It’s time to roll up your sleeves and begin the hard work. To truly understand your content and its performance, you’ll want to inventory what content currently lives on your website. It’s the only way to ensure you review every page for quality, value, and optimization. The longer you have had a site with regularly published content, the longer this step will take. We use spreadsheets to keep your content organized. You can detail the key points you want to track on the sheet and easily share it with relevant parties. Start by adding these columns to your spreadsheet: URL Date audited Title Description Content type Keywords Alt tags Last updated Internal links Some other columns you might add, depending on your goal, include: Shares Comments Word count Content goal While you can type this information manually, we highly recommend exporting as much as possible. If you work with HubSpot, it can export much of your website content for you, … Read more

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines: What Does the E-E-A-T Update Mean?

January 18, 2024January 24, 2023 by Korilynn V.

Google is anything but transparent. As such, the inner workings of its algorithms have never been easy to interpret. This is especially true of Google’s search guidelines. So how do we properly interpret “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) if that’s the case? SEO experts dedicate themselves to a sort of “algorithm watch.” They spend countless hours pouring over search metrics. They write novel-length blogs analyzing the changes they can only guess happened and how these changes may or may not affect search rankings. In the SEO world, Google’s “Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines” give us a glimpse into what Google’s algorithms choose to prioritize. This large-scale document offers clarity on what Google looks for in their ranking algorithms. It’s where the SEO acronyms EAT and YMYL (Your Money and Your Life) come from. However, in late 2022, Google added another E to its guidelines turning EAT into EEAT. While the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines don’t lay out exactly what we need to know to jump to the top of the rankings, they do provide some valuable information: What kind of pages are viewed as high quality. Which factors influence high- and low-quality ratings (Important since these factors may be similar to how Google measures page quality for SERP rankings). We’ve taken an inside look at the guidelines to understand how they relate to your SEO and on-page site content, including the most recent updates. Read on to learn more about the crucial points from the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines for your online content marketing and writing needs. What Are Google’s Search Guidelines All About? Google’s search guidelines document is over 170 pages long and broken into an overview, an introduction, three parts, and an appendix. The major parts are as follows: General Guidelines Overview Introduction to Search Quality Rating Part 1: Page Quality Rating Guideline Part 2: Understanding Search User Needs Part 3: Needs Met Rating Guideline Appendix 1: Using the Evaluation Platform Appendix 2: Guideline Change Log In addition to focusing heavily on mobile search, Google’s search guidelines focus on the importance of building trust and a good reputation for websites and/or content creators. This isn’t hugely surprising – it’s simply a variation on what Google has been saying for years – the best websites deliver relevant, trustworthy, quality information to users. Google focuses heavily on experimentation and continual algorithm improvements to improve web quality. These guidelines provide specific instructions on what Google engineers want people to do to improve individual site quality. These guidelines are dense. They cover everything from important definitions to duplicate landing pages and all the places in between. Google’s E-E-A-T Update In recent years, Google has put more emphasis on who is creating the content. This is emphasized with the addition of Experience as a factor in quality. Experience: This new word adds another layer of quality to its search results assessments. As far as experience is concerned, Google is looking for content that “demonstrate[s] that it was produced with some degree of experience, such as with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place, or communicating what a person experienced.” There are many times when a searcher would benefit from content produced by someone with real-world experience. For example, if someone is looking for information about traveling to Paris, a blog written by someone with a lot of Parisian travel experience would be more beneficial than a blog written by someone who has never been there. Expertise: The expertise criteria considers how much relevant knowledge or skill the creator seems to have on the topic. For example, if someone was searching for advice for filing their taxes, an accountant with 20 years of experience would have more expertise than someone with a mild interest in tax laws. Authoritativeness: There are some creators or websites that have established themselves as a “go-to source” in their area. While there may not always be one official, authoritative source for every topic, if there is, Google will prioritize that site over all others for relevant searches. For example, if someone is looking for information on how to renew their passport, the official government site is going to have the most authority. Trustworthiness: Google views trustworthiness as the most important factor in E-E-A-T. All other attributes contribute to a page being “accurate, honest, safe, and reliable.” The amount of trust a page needs depends on what kind of site it is. For example, social media sites on entertainment topics don’t need as must trust as informational pages on YMYL topics. When used together Experience, Expertise, and Authoritativeness all contribute to the overall Trustworthiness of a page. Source: Google Search Guidelines 10 Key SEO Content Factors in the Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines This document offers an expansive guide to Google’s preferences and the future of SEO. The guidelines lay out specifics about Google’s algorithms and how SEO experts can better predict changes to them in the future. Beneficial Purpose In 2018, Google updated its guidelines with the concept of “beneficial purpose.” This term defines websites that are created, first and foremost, for the user’s benefit. On the other hand, there are many pages created solely for the purpose of ranking on Google or created with no intention of helping users. Sometimes these pages are designed to defraud users. From Google’s perspective, these pages have zero beneficial purpose. According to the guidelines, Part 1 Section 3.0, pages that provide no benefit may earn the lowest Page Quality (PQ) rating. Source: Google Search Guidelines In stark contrast, pages that fulfill their intended purpose will receive a higher PQ rating. So if your content does not help your readers in some way, your content will have little to no value to Google. 2. Page Quality (E-E-A-T) Page quality has always been somewhat of a mystery. Google uses hundreds of ranking factors, and it’s often unclear how they all related to one another. We’ve always known unique, relevant, well-written content is crucial to producing a high-quality page. However, the guidelines have … Read more

What Are Orphan Pages? How to Find & Fix Them for SEO

June 28, 2022May 31, 2022 by Adam Oakley

Whether you’re new to the SEO world or you’re a veteran, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about orphan pages. Or at the very least, you’ve experienced them even if you don’t realize it. These pages aren’t great for website visitors, as they can create a frustrating user experience. Additionally, search engine crawlers aren’t fond of them. Orphan pages create missed opportunities to engage customers and can cause your bounce rate to skyrocket. For those reasons, it’s wise to not only find any lingering on your website but to fix them as soon as possible. Luckily, that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this blog, so you don’t have to worry about orphan pages hurting your SEO ever again. Let’s dive into the tips. What Are Orphan Pages? Before we go any further, let’s talk about what orphan pages are so you’ll know what you’re looking for. Because it’s likely your website probably has at least a few. Essentially, orphan pages are pages on your website that do not link to any other page or section. That means someone who visits your website cannot access these pages without knowing the direct URL. So, if there’s high-quality, valuable content on these pages, visitors won’t be able to see it. And all that hard work you put in will be wasted. You’ll need to keep in mind that search engines like Google discover new pages because a crawler will follow a link from another page or the crawler will find the URL in your XML sitemap. This means search engines cannot find an orphan page because it fails to meet those two criteria for crawling and indexing. And as a result, it won’t rank in search results. Orphan Pages vs. Dead End Pages A “dead end” page is another common term in the SEO world. However, it’s important to note that they are different from orphan pages. Pages are considered a dead-end when they don’t contain any internal or external links. This means the only way to leave the page is to exit the site or hit the “back” button. It isn’t ideal because you want to give visitors plenty of reasons to stay on your site. And it helps keep your bounce rate low. Let this remind you that pages should have links. They need links sending traffic their way and need links directing traffic to other pages. It’s an easy way to set your site up for perfectly optimized success. If you ever see a page without a link, fix it as soon as possible! How to Find Orphan Pages Now that you know what orphan pages are, let’s talk about how to find them. This task will require patience and a tool to help make the process easier. Here’s how to get started: 1. Identify URLs That Can be Reached Through Crawling This first step is going to require the use of a crawler tool. Screaming Frog is a popular option, as it helps you improve onsite optimization by identifying common SEO issues. However, there are other tools available. You may already have an SEO tool in your arsenal that can assist you here. For example, SEMrush and Ahrefs have tools to list crawled pages. No matter which tool you use, make sure it’s set to crawl only the pages indexable by search engines. Now, you might be thinking that sounds counterintuitive. Don’t you want to find the pages that aren’t indexable by Google? Yes, you do. However, this is where you need to start. You see, crawlers have a hard time finding orphan pages because there’s nothing linking to them. So, if you’re using an SEO tool to find them, it likely won’t yield any results. Instead, you’ll begin by getting a list of all crawlable pages, which we’ll then use for cross-referencing in an upcoming step. 2. Use Google Analytics to Obtain a List of All Site URLs As a website owner, Google Analytics is a staple. Not only is it helpful for tracking page views and traffic sources, but it can provide tons of other valuable information as well. And today, it’s going to help you narrow down which of your website pages are deemed orphaned. You already have a list of crawlable pages. Now, you’ll need Google Analytics to give you a complete list of all your site’s URLs. It’s a good thing you don’t have to do that manually. Odds are, there’s some amount of traffic to every page on your website, meaning there’s a record of its existence somewhere inside your Google Analytics. But with orphan pages, their page views are likely pretty low since search engines aren’t sending traffic their way. Once inside Google Analytics, here’s what you need to do. In the sidebar, select Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. This will present you with a list of all the site pages that have received any amount of traffic. You can then sort this based on the least amount of page views. Those pages are likely orphaned since traffic is so low. Next, export this data to a Google Sheet or an Excel file. 3. Compare Both Lists of URLs This is where things get fun, but you’ll need to have some patience to get through this step. You’ll have to spend some time comparing both URL lists you’ve just generated. Look at your Google Analytics list and cross-reference to see if each of the URLs can be found in the list of crawlable links. If the link appears in both lists, nothing needs to be done. However, if the link doesn’t appear as being crawlable by search engines, it’s most likely an orphan page. 4. Analyze the Results of the Audit Next, you’ll want to take a moment to review each one of your website’s orphaned pages. Does the page still serve a purpose, and does it provide valuable content you’d like visitors to see? If so, you’ll want to make some changes to ensure the page can be … Read more