Anchor Text: Everything You Need to Know to Boost Your Rankings

How important is anchor text when it comes to page rankings? If you’re uncertain about the answer to that question, you’re not alone. 

Anchor text is a multi-faceted and often misunderstood element of on-page SEO. And grasping it fully will give you a distinct benefit when it comes to developing an effective search engine optimization strategy. 

Let’s take a closer look at anchor text: what it is, why it’s important, and how to adhere to best practices. 

What Is Anchor Text? 

The term “anchor text” refers to a snippet of clickable text that takes a user to a web page. Anchor text masks hyperlinks—the “naked” address of the page that is linked to. It is distinguished from other words in a block of content by its color, which tends to be blue. 

For example, “Mobilegeddon” is the anchor text in the following sentence: Google rolled out Mobilegeddon on April 21, 2015. 

If you look at the HTML code, you will see the following:

<a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobilegeddon”>Mobilegeddon</a>

Why Is Anchor Text Important? 

Anchor text is important because Google and other search engines use it to determine what pages are about, which in turn affects the terms they rank for. And this isn’t just speculation. A survey of Google patents reveals numerous references to anchor text.

Along with other factors, Google analyzes the anchor text of inbound links to a page to categorize it by subject matter. This process impacts which results are served in response to a particular search query. 

For example, imagine you create a webpage about dog treats, titled “Best Dog Treats.” Among generic anchors like “click here” and “more information,” other sites will likely use text along the lines of “dog treats,” “dog snacks,” and “snack tips for pet owners” when linking.  

Analyzing these terms helps Google categorize your page by topic. Non-related anchors (i.e. anchors unrelated or partially related to your primary keyword) used to link to your content may even result in rankings for terms you hadn’t anticipated or targeted. 

For example, third-party web admins may decide that your content also covers “healthy dog treats” or “inexpensive dog treats” and use these anchors to link to your page. When somebody types “inexpensive dog treats” into Google, your content may appear for that term even though you didn’t directly target it. 

Types of Anchor Text: An Overview

Here is a quick rundown of the different types of anchor text: 

  • Rich anchor text: Any link that contains the primary target keyword of a page or a close variation.
  • Exact match: A word or phrase that exactly mirrors the central subject of a page, usually in the form of its primary keyword. For example, “artificial grass” linking to a page about artificial grass. 
  • Partial match: A phrase that includes some of the words from a page’s primary multi-word keyword. For example, “not all grass is natural.”
  • Phrase match: A broader phrase that includes the complete primary keyword of a page. For example, “how to use artificial grass.” 
  • Naked: An exact copy of a page’s URL hyperlink. For example: https://site.com/artificial-grass.
  • Brand: Anchor text that refers to the brand name of a website. For example, “Get in touch with the friendly folks at BrightEdge for all your SEO needs.”
  • Generic: A word or phrase that is unrelated to a web page’s primary keyword. For example, “click here,” “this link,” “here.”
  • Image text: The alt text of an image that is also a link. 

It’s also worth mentioning that some link anchors don’t fit into any category. If you run an anchor text analysis of your site, you will likely find lots of random, often incomprehensible, examples.

Anchor Text Best Practices: 

Follow the steps below to ensure your anchor text strategy is in line with best practices: 

1. Avoid Manipulating Anchor Text on Third-Party Sites

The long and short of the matter is that you have no control over how the vast majority of sites link to your content. And this is a good thing. It will result in a natural, balanced anchor text profile that sends all the right signals to the search engines. 

Actively manipulating anchor text, on the other hand, is risky. You are much more likely to incur the wrath of Google if you attempt to artificially shape your link profile. 

2. Use a Suitable Length for Links on Your Site

There is a lot of advice floating around the web that link anchor text should be short. But there’s scant evidence for this claim. 

The idea that all links should be succinct goes against a comment made by Google Search Advocate John Mueller in 2020:

“I don’t think we do anything special to the length of words in the anchor text. But rather, we use this anchor text as a way to provide extra context for the individual pages. 

Sometimes if you have a longer anchor text that gives us a little bit more information. Sometimes it’s kind of like just a collection of different keywords.”

Instead of aiming for arbitrary terseness, think about how you can make anchor text for internal links relevant. Opt for anchors that provide context and clarity when describing the page that is being linked to. 

3. Prioritize Visitor Experience 

Recent algorithm updates strongly suggest that Google is increasingly viewing user experience as a primary metric—perhaps even the primary metric. From responsive design to EAT (expertise, authority and trust), the search giant is putting searchers first. And there’s no reason to think that this trend will change anytime soon. 

When picking the anchor text that you do have control over, you should be guided by one central question: “How can I make this most relevant for my site visitors?” In most cases, users want the anchor text to be relevant. Anchors should provide information, clearly and succinctly where possible, about the linked-to page. 

That said, if you believe that a more generic anchor will improve the user experience, don’t be afraid to use one.  

4. Check for Broken Links

Broken links contribute to a poor site experience. As a result, they can be detrimental from an SEO perspective. Regularly check for broken links and update them accordingly. 

5. Set the Color of Links to Blue

Studies show that blue links generate more clicks. Ever wonder why Google opts for blue in its search results?

If you have to go with another color because of the design of your site, pick one that stands out. 

Conclusion

Anchor text is an unusual topic. In the vast majority of cases, the best strategy from an SEO perspective is to do nothing. You have no control over how other sites link to you. And attempting to interfere can quickly backfire. 

For the links that you do have control over—internal links, select media mentions, the occasional guest post, etc.—following a simple strategy that prioritizes relevance and customer experience is likely to serve you best. 

So there you have it. Everything you need to know about anchor text. Below you’ll find some more resources and guides for you to check out. Just click on the links—ahem, perfectly-written anchor text—below. 

Related Resources From BrightEdge
An SEO for Beginner’s Guide
Four Imperatives for Successful SEO Execution in 2022
A Beginner’s Guide: Understanding SEO Keywords 101
Long-Tail Keywords: A Comprehensive Guide

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 9, 2022

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Does dropping content within tabs improve your chances to rank better in Google? Google says no, some SEOs say yes. Google’s Danny Sullivan tried to correct famed Andrew Yang and Ramesh Srinivasan on how Google Search works. Google is showing two or more people also ask in the search results on the same page. Microsoft Advertising Editor gained audience network support. Google will open registration for the Google Search Central Virtual Unconference on March 17th and the even will take place on March 23rd.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google People Also Ask Displaying Two Or More Times On A Page
    Over the past couple of weeks, I had a number of people show me examples of the people also ask box coming up two times on a single page. At first, I thought it was not new, then as more people asked me, I thought maybe it was new but maybe it was the infinite scroll loading it on page two. But now, I am thinking it is new and I am old.
  • SEO Claims Higher Rankings Without Content Hidden In Tabs Again
    A few years ago, we reported that Google said despite some of the SEO case studies, content collapsed and hidden within expandable tabs (accordions) will be indexed and ranked fully. Well, Dan Shure tested it again and he said no, it is not.
  • Google’s Danny Sullivan Corrects Andrew Yang & Ramesh Srinivasan On How Search Works
    Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, responded to Andrew Yang, the businessman, attorney, lobbyist and political candidate and Ramesh Srinivasan, UCLA professor, that they are wrong on how Google Search works. It is actually shocking how wrong Ramesh Srinivasan is and how confident he was when describing it.
  • Microsoft Advertising Editor Gains Audience Network Control
    Microsoft announced that the Microsoft Advertising Editor now works with the Microsoft Audience Network. Previously, you were only able to manage your audience network campaigns within the web console or API, but now you can use the Microsoft Advertising Editor.
  • Google Search Central Virtual Unconference Registration Begins March 17th
    Google seems like it will open the registration for the Google Search Central Virtual Unconference on March 17th. The Google Search Central Virtual Unconference will then take place the following week on March 23, 2022 between 12:00 PM EDT – 3:00 PM EDT.
  • Google Mural Central Park Theme
    Here are some photos I found on Instagram of a new set of murals that went up at the Google New York City office that is themed around Central Park. This photo above is of some of the team members who

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

  • 10 Inspiring Women Shaping SEO Today, Conductor
  • Are 301 Redirects Bad For SEO?, Dan Rich
  • Enterprise SEO Analysis: SEO Report Card for Amazon.com, I Love SEO
  • Fintech SEO: Strategies Proven to Succeed, Siege Media
  • SEO for Beginners, Semrush
  • SEO ROI Calculator, Dan Rich
  • The 8-Step SEO Project Checklist to Get You Started on Your SEO Program, BruceClay
  • Want more Google traffic? This (surprisingly) won’t help, SuccessWorks
  • Yoast SEO 18.3: More fixes and enhancements, Yoast
  • Does forwarding to a subfolder penalize SEO?, Reddit
  • Robots.txt for SEO (SEO Basics), RankRanger
  • The feature that almost made it, Yoast Developer Blog

PPC

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 8, 2022

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google is testing multiple shades of URLs in the search ads snippets. Microsoft Advertising launched professional service ads units. Google Business Profiles now integrates with Woo. Is Google showing more indented results for subdomains? Google has relaunched Shabbat Jewish times and information.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Can You Gain More Intended Google Search Results With Subdomains?
    When it comes to “dominating” the search results, most SEOs define that as taking up as much of the search results on page one as possible. Sometimes that means on one domain, sometimes subdomains and sometimes different domains completely. Jonas Sickler shared on Twitter indented Google results with subdomains and then Ahmed Alaa showed four indented results.
  • Google Ads Testing Lighter Parts URLs
    This is a weird one, Google is testing using a lighter font color for parts of the URLs displayed in the search ads in the search results. So the main domain is a solid dark font, but the parts around it is a lighter gray font.
  • Connect Your Google Business Profiles To Woo Promo
    Google is sending out a notice via Google Business Profiles that you can connect your business profile on Google Maps to Woo. Ben Fisher spotted this the other day and shared a screenshot of this notification on Twitter.
  • Google Search Adds Jewish Shabbat Times Again
    Back in 2011 Google first launched prayer time rich results but then a year later Google sunset those results. Then in 2018, Google relaunched native prayer times for Islamic prayer times. Now, in 2022, Google has launched partial prayer times for Judaism – to tell Jews when Shabbat (Shabbos) starts, ends and what the weekly Torah portion is.
  • New Microsoft Advertising Professional Service Ads For Bing Search
    Microsoft Advertising announced yet another set of vertical ad formats for Bing Search – professional service ads for insurance services, real estate services and tax services. “Professional Service Ads aim to do just that for anyone that’s looking to get connected with a certain agent, advisor, consultant, or any sort of professional,” Microsoft wrote.
  • GIF Of Noogler Propeller Hat Spinning
    A Noogler, new Googler, posted a video on Instagram of his Noogler propeller hat spinning around. So I naturally made it into a GIF and shared it below.

Other Great Search Threads:

  • The page experience update finished its desktop rollout yesterday. If your traffic is down, keep in mind that with the war in Ukraine, ppl may be consuming content about that rather than yours-and also some SERPS wil, Dr. Marie Haynes on Twitter
  • Anyone else notice that “entities” are getting more Image Thumbnails (desktop) lately? This wasn’t the case when searching for people in the recent past. Def seen a shift here- there was s/t that updated in the K, Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
  • Apple has disabled Apple Search Ads in the App Store in Russia until further notice https://t.co/cNRk2bsmUZ, Barry Schwartz on Twitter
  • I found a great post in a black hat SEO forum couple of years ago, about finding low competition keywords. I wrote it to myself in a note, and I’ll make it available for you now., DylanSeoSmasher on Twitter
  • If you have a lot of these, I’d just do a cleanup on how text is displayed. Rewriting them manually seems like a recipe for adding bias. “I’ll fix the casing” / “I’ll fix the spelling” / “I’ll use synonyms”, John Mueller on Twitter
  • It looks like you are getting some impressions, just not a lot. Perhaps you’re targeting something with low activity, or your content is not “competitive” enough., John Mueller on Twitter
  • There is no fixed time – for rendering we cache aggressively, not like in the testing tool. That said, if your pages rely on a lot of resources to be loaded (content not visible otherwise), it would be good to, John Mueller on Twitter
  • XML Sitemaps & crawling -> Via @johnmu: Sitemap files are not crawled at the same time… Google tries to figure out how often each sitemap changes, & how often they provide useful information, & then it will crawl them at dif, Glenn Gabe on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 7, 2022

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google may have pushed out another unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update on Friday, May 4th. Google made the SafeSearch filter classification system faster. Google Cloud is having issues with getting its translated pages indexed. Google says indexing issues can be spam related but probably not adult related. Google Shopping added a filter to buy from smaller stores. Google search has revamped the search results for the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. And I posted part two of my vlog with Taylor Kurtz on the topics of AMP, Apple Search and video SEO.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On March 4th – Unconfirmed
    This past Friday, March 4, 2022, I noticed that the chatter within the SEO community started to heat up and then the day later, the automated search engine tracking tools started to show volatility. There may have been a Google search ranking algorithm update on March 4th.
  • Google SafeSearch Filter Can Now Update Faster
    Historically, the Google SafeSearch filter, i.e. the filter that weeds out adult content from the search results, was very slow in removing the SafeSearch label for a site or specific portion of the site. John Mueller of Google said this Friday that Google’s team took efforts to make this faster.
  • Google Cloud Translated Pages Not Indexed By Google Search
    Google Cloud’s web site is having issues being indexed in Google Search, specifically the translated pages. Last week, I reported about a webmaster asking about issues with translated content not being indexed by Google. It turned out that this was someone from the Google Cloud team asking John Mueller of Google for help.
  • Google: Indexing Issues Can Be Old Spam Related But Likely Not Adult Content Related
    Having issues with Google indexing your web pages? Google’s John Mueller said while Google may not index pages that are spammy, it will index pages that are adult oriented. John said if your domain had old spammy content on it and you took it over and removed the spam, you can still see your new page not being indexed as fast. But if the site had old adult content, you probably would not see indexing issues related to adult content.
  • Google Shopping Filter By “Smaller Stores”
    Google Shopping has a filter to show you products sold in “smaller stores.” I believe Google announced this back during the Google Marketing Live event last year but now it seems to be live where you can filter products in Google Shopping by stores that are classified as smaller.
  • Google Search Results For Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
    If you do a search for variations of Russia and Ukraine keywords together, Google will show you a search result page that seems to be tailored specific to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The search results not only include web results and news and videos, but it also has a section on the right for the estimated losses, photos and some more factual data around when it started and where it is taking place.
  • Vlog #162: Taylor Kurtz On Google AMP & Apple Search & Video SEO
    Taylor Kurtz (@realtaylorkurtz) is the Founder of Crush the Rankings and he stopped by my office to talk SEO. In part one, we spoke about his background in search, the gratitude he has in the industry and getting up early to work. In part two we speak about AMP…
  • Scootering In The Google Washington DC Office
    Here is a video I found on Instagram from the Google office in Washington D.C. where this Googler is scootering around the office. I made the video into a partial GIF, you can see the full video on In

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

If You Care About User Experience, Invest in SEO

And, if you care about SEO, invest in User Experience. Aligning SEO and UX offers too many mutual benefits to ignore.

Ahead of our March 15th webinar, let’s explore the importance of aligning of SEO and UX and 5 steps to get you there. 

Why is SEO and User Experience Alignment Important? 

Alignment is no longer a “nice to have”. It must be viewed as a requirement for any brand that heavily relies on organic search as part of their marketing strategy. Google’s Page Experience and the Core Web Vitals that help the search engine measure it, are now used to rank pages for both mobile and desktop search. At the heart of Page Experience is a focus on improved user experience.

In effect, this is Google saying: Hey, it’s no longer enough to have good, authoritative information on your page, and it’s no longer enough to have optimized titles and tags, because if your page loads too slowly or your ads are overly intrusive, for example, the user suffers. You still need good information and optimized page structure, of course, but the user experience is now critical in determining whether Google is willing to recommend your content (with a high search rank).

The hallmark of an optimal search-originated user experience is seamless continuity. In other words, the promise of the search result is fulfilled by a click that returns the expected information without requiring the user to wait long for it, dig for it or clear away pop-ups, interstitials and other detritus to access it. The best experience is usually the one the user doesn’t notice. Easy enough. 

Creating a seamless user experience is far from easy, though. A big part of that is because the user experience is the combined efforts of SEO, IT, content, brand, monetization and other folks whose goals and priorities, when not in direct opposition, are not always aligned. Without that alignment, however, the user experience suffers, and a lousy user experience tallies its costs in lost business. With SEO more directly influencing and dependent on the user experience, the stakes of alignment are higher than ever. 

How Do We Align SEO and The User Experience? 

The good news is that with a coordinated and committed approach, alignment is achievable. We’ve identified 5 keys to successfully aligning SEO and user experience teams: 

  1. Align on measurement goals 
  2. Establish and speak a similar language 
  3. Coordinate priorities 
  4. Connect UX initiatives to SEO benefits and vice versa 
  5. Evangelize mutual successes 

Join us for a webinar on Tuesday, March 15 at 11 am PST / 2 pm EST where we’ll dive deeper into the 5 keys to alignment with strategies to leverage SEO insights to both improve your rankings and visibility while elevating the customer experience. We’ll further qualify the benefits of aligning SEO and the user experience, zero in on the primary barriers to alignment and explore specific actions organizations can take to achieve alignment. Finally, we’ll demonstrate how BrightEdge users can leverage the BrightEdge platform in support of SEO / User Experience collaboration. 

REGISTER NOW

Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On March 4th – Unconfirmed

Google Core Update

This past Friday, March 4, 2022, I noticed that the chatter within the SEO community started to heat up and then the day later, the automated search engine tracking tools started to show volatility. There may have been a Google search ranking algorithm update on March 4th.

Let me start by saying it is likely unrelated to the rollout of the page experience update for desktop which started on February 22nd and ended 9-days later on March 3rd. We also saw an unconfirmed update on February 24th and since then, it has been pretty quiet and stable.

But like I said, I saw a spike in SEO chatter on Friday, which was supported by the tracking tools.

SEO Chatter

Here is some of the chatter I found in the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread related to a possible, but yet, unconfirmed, update on March 4th:

Are any of you guys who are losing traffic seeing your avg position drop as well?

Inevitable fluctuations this week however yesterday was busy and it’s continued into today and with 10 hours of my Googleday to run I’m at a surprising 95.4% for my global site.

UK sites are down however also surprising at 82% with usually busier hours to come.

Since monday drop followed by drops. This morning seems to have some signs of recovery. Too early to say anything. Just wait…

Kicked while you’re down. Down 20-40%.

This Monday to Friday I have seen 108.7% PVs which has surprised me, today after 14.5 hours I’m at 28.7% which is way below average. Genuine business enquiries have all but dried-up except for the MOST expensive products!.!.!

UK sites are down across the board from 10-30% depending on the niche.

Considering my post of yesterday I was extremely surprised this morning:
PVs: 87.33% of weekday average and well above an average weekend.
58.4% of traffic from the USA which is 50+% more than normal.
Today forward? Not a clue!

Tracking Tools

Virtually all the tracking tools showed a pretty big swing up in volatility on March 4th. Here are screenshots from all the tools.

Semrush:

click for full size

RankRanger:

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Mozcast:

click for full size

Cognitive SEO:

click for full size

Accuranker:

click for full size

Advanced Web Rankings:

click for full size

SERPwoo:

click for full size

Algoroo:

click for full size

So it seems like there was a disturbance on Friday, March 4th, in the Google search results.

Did any of you notice it?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Page Experience Desktop Update Live, Search Console Errors, IndexNow Growing, Local Map Interactive & Ads Paused In Russia

This week in search, I reported how the Google page experience update for desktop has been fully rolled out. I also posted my monthly Google webmaster recap, for you all to check out and catch up with. Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool is erroring out for some folks. Alan Kent from Google said no worries on merchants trying to fake the Shopping experience scorecard metrics, Google has ways to verify the metrics and will penalize merchants that try. IndexNow has grown with integration from Duda and a couple new SEO plugins but Yoast’s founder is not too optimistic about it. Google said it does not use the disavow files to discover link networks. Google spoke about the issues with translated content and garbage parameters in URLs. If you block users in the US, you need to block Google as well. Don’t forget, there are not more eligibility requirements for showing up in top stores. Google’s local pack map is now an interactive map. Google is showing how the business details are confirmed in the local listings. Google business profiles may require double verification. Google is testing a search bar filter at the top right section. Google is testing dropped the estimated results. Google has an upcoming SEO workshop with its internal SEOs and the Search Central unconference is coming later this month. Most people think Google will remain dominate over the next ten years. Google has pauses all ads from serving in Russia temporarily. Anton Shulke, a beloved SEM, is in Kyiv, Ukraine, trying to live a normal life but also making badges out of bedding – praying for you all. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by BruceClay who has been doing search marketing optimization since 1996 and also has an amazing SEO training platform.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast player to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:


For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe on YouTube or subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don’t forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 4, 2022

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

The Google page experience update for desktop is now fully live but it didn’t seem to impact rankings, as expected. Google said it has ways to verify that the Google Shopping merchant experience scorecard metrics are legit and if they are faked, those merchants will be penalized. Google temporarily paused as from serving in Russia. Google may one day crawl from outside of the US, maybe. Google does not have a demo account for Search Console. Plus, I posted the weekly video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google Page Experience Update For Desktop Done Rolling Out
    That is a wrap – the Google page experience update for desktop is now fully rolled out – as of yesterday, March 3rd. If you are counting, that is a 9-day roll out, which began on February 22nd and ended on March 3rd.
  • Google: We Mechanisms To Verify Merchant Experience Scorecard Metrics
    A couple of weeks ago we reported that Google has a new set of ranking factors specific to the Google Shopping tab named the Shopping experience scorecard program. The concern was that merchants are asked to feed these metrics to Google and that the merchants will only feed positive scores, potentially manipulating the metrics and thus their rankings.
  • Google Temporarily Pauses All Ads In Serving In Russia
    Last night Google announced it is temporarily pausing Google ads from serving to users located in Russia. This is due to the “ongoing war in Ukraine” according to the Google statement.
  • Google: Googlebot May One Day Crawl From Outside The U.S.
    The other day I reported again how blocking US based users would require you to also block Googlebot, Google’s crawler. And that would be devastating to a site’s search rankings in Google. But John Mueller of Google said it is not out of the question that Google one day may decide to crawl from outside of the US.
  • There Is No Google Search Console Demo Account
    Some folks are asking why there isn’t a demo account for Google Search Console like there is for Google Analytics. John Mueller said Daniel Waisberg and the Google Search Console team looked into it but it is “super hard, and requires constant maintenance.” That is why they have not done it yet.
  • Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Page Experience Desktop Update Live, Search Console Errors, IndexNow Growing, Local Map Interactive & Ads Paused In Russia
    This week in search, I reported how the Google page experience update for desktop has been fully rolled out. I also posted my monthly Google webmaster recap…
  • Anton Shulke In Kyiv Making Bandages Out Of Bedding
    Many of you may know the loved Anton Shulke from the SEM industry. Well, he is based in Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine, and he decided to stick it out during this invasion. He is sharing a number

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 3, 2022

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Yoast’s founder says that IndexNow is not more efficient and does not lead to more search traffic. Google local panels are showing “confirmed by phone call” to tell searchers how recently Google knew the details were accurate. Google said it does not have quotas on how much a site can rank for. Google is testing dropping the estimated number of search results metric. Google is bringing back the Search Central unconference later this month.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google Local Panel Showing Confirmed By Phone Call (Duplex Related)
    Google is now showing how long ago it confirmed a phone number and hours were accurate for a local business. Google can now write in a business local panel “confirmed by phone call” followed by how long ago it was.
  • Yoast Founder: IndexNow Doesn’t Lead To More Traffic Or Improved Crawl Efficiency
    Some of you may be wondering why Yoast or WordPress have not integrated the Microsoft backed IndexNow protocol. Well, Joost de Valk, the founded of Yoast said he has seen zero evidence that IndexNow helps sites gain more traffic or reduces crawling or improves crawl efficiency.
  • Google Tests Removing Estimated Number Of Search Results
    Google Search is testing removing the estimated number of search results figure you typically see under the search bar after you conduct a search query. Google tested this back in 2016 and I guess Google is testing it again.
  • Google Ranking Quotas Do Not Exist
    Google’s John Mueller said again that websites do not have some form of quota where they can only rank for a limited number of keywords. He said on Twitter “there’s no hard limit for how many pages we show from a site, subdomain or not.”
  • Google Search Central Virtual Unconference Back Returns For 2022
    Martin Splitt from Google announced on Twitter that the Google Search Central Virtual Unconference is returning at the end of this month for the 2022 event. Google held an Unconference 2021 and 2020 and I guess has decided to host one again this year.
  • Google Buenos Aires Office
    Here is a photo I found on Instagram from the Google Buenos Aires, Argentina office. This is one of the views, but the office looks amazing. I’ve embedded more photos from this Instagram post for yo

Other Great Search Threads:

  • I see in your later tweets that you understand how featured snippets work and why sometimes the snippeted passage might not be best. For others, the background is here. I’m passing this along for immedia, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
  • A sitemap file is not a normal web page, it’s a specific format made for machine processing. There’s no notion of “nofollow” for sitemaps, there are no “links” in a sitemap file. Using x-robots-tag n, John Mueller on Twitter
  • What makes good SEO great? The part that comes after the technical checklist has been completed, after the pages have been optimized, and the client asks, “what now?” That’s the part that can’t always be taught – the cre, Lily Ray on Twitter
  • @amywhodigital I’ll pass the feedback on, but there doesn’t appear to be any single designated organization in charge of the day. From what I see, the UN is certainly a major proponent. But even the UN site that thread poin, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
  • Does “Located In” affect GBP rank?, Local Search Forum
  • I’m pretty sure that’s a unique situation where it looks like you are advertising for jobs at Indeed near your own search location, so we’re listing your own job openings first. I’m not in that loca, Danny Sullivan on Twitter
  • Ukrainians looking for work, gigs or something: https://t.co/JW4iNX7Ayr Filling in another one with those who may offer jobs or gigs for Ukrainian digital specialists, Olesia Korobka on Twitter

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How to create B2B content that ranks and drives sales


How to create B2B content that ranks and drives sales

Content is crucial for just about any B2B business as it drives traffic and convinces your leads to become your customers. No wonder, most B2B businesses are increasing their content marketing budgets every year.

But do they use content marketing to its full potential? How do you create content that serves several goals, like traffic acquisition and rankings?


The big challenge with B2B content

While being extremely valuable to business success, B2B content is also extremely challenging for marketers to execute properly. The problem is twofold: Targeting.

Unlike B2C content where you usually target a single human being, in B2B you have to keep the whole group of decision-makers in mind. This group is usually referred to as a DMU (a decision-making unit) and, depending on your platform and your target organizations, it can include the head of marketing, CEO, IT representative, CTO, etc.

In other words, B2B content targets a group of decision-makers and normally takes more time (and more steps) to convert.

Creating convincing content that appeals to every single person within a DMU is hardly possible:

  • CEOs may need to know how your product will save them money
  • Head of marketing will need to make sure that your product solves an existing problem without making their department redundant. In this case, the best interests of the CEO may be in conflict with the best interests of the marketing team, and yet, the latter is likely to be the final decision maker, so you will need to keep their needs and challenges in mind.
  • The IT team will have to ensure your platform is technically possible (it is possible to integrate into their technical environment).

Before you start creating your B2B content strategy for traffic generation, you need to know your decision-makers and be able to plan your content around possible conflicts.

In other words, plan your content assets that convey value and then decide which keywords you can optimize for.

Knowing your decision-makers

So what is the best way to know who you are targeting? You already know your target businesses in mind (those you created that B2B product for) but how to better understand their internal decision-makers?

B2B audience research is different from B2C audience research: You can hardly apply your web analytics demographics info because you have to keep all those intra-organizational levels and politics in mind.

To better understand your target DMU, try several of these options:

  • Talk to your sales and customer support teams. They already interact with your potential and current customers on a daily basis. Let them describe their contacts and who those report to. Get all the details they can share, including their frequently asked questions and common challenges.
  • Survey your customers. Using on-site and on-registration surveys will help you collect more data on the size of companies you are dealing with and your actual users’ roles within those companies. There are a variety of plugins allowing you to integrate surveys with your content.

Additionally, inbox Insight offers a handy checklist for you to organize your data and better understand your target DMUs.

From there, start creating a list of problems each person within a DMU may have and how your product may solve all of them. This is where matching those problems to searchable keywords is the required next step.

Planning your keyword strategy

It is not often easy to identify how people may be searching for solutions and answers to relevant problems. While there’s no such a thing as an ideal word count which would work in every niche, try and create a resource that will answer several related questions.

Google is now mature enough to steer your search into a more popular direction, so I suggest starting your keyword research by simply searching Google. Type the search terms as you yourself would use them, and pay attention to:

  • What Google Autocomplete suggests in the search box
  • People Also Ask” boxes and featured snippets
  • Words Google shows within search snippets in bold (on desktop)
  • Google’s “Related Searches” and (on a mobile device) Google’s categories that usually appear below organic search results:

Rich results

All of these will help you collect the core terms your target B2B customers are using when searching for solutions to their problems.

From there, use keyword research tools to extend your core terms and discover even more related terms.

Keyword clustering is a good way to better organize your keywords by intent and identify some common searching patterns. Here’s a good guide on using those identified keyword clusters to create a content strategy that will apply in both B2B and B2C.

Promote and repurpose your B2B content

Publishing your content is a good first step to start generating some organic search visibility. But unless you promote your content, you will not achieve much as search engines need more signals than just useful copy.

Promoting your content is a whole new topic that has already been covered in much detail. A lot of content promotion ideas apply to both B2B and B2C content, including social media sharing, email marketing, and more.

When it comes to the B2B niche, some of the more effective content and link acquisition methods include:

  • Organic promotion via email messages. Emailing is the main source of communication for most B2B businesses, so including your recent or most important content assets in your email signature will get you some clicks and possibly even backlinks. Wisestamp will help your employees create a cool signature that can pull your recent articles. They offer some cool email signature examples for you to get inspired.
  • Content repurposing. With so many complicated DMUs in mind, you will need different content formats to cater to all of them. Making your content possible to download as a PDF file (to make it shareable within a company) is the first step. You can make that happen using Google Docs. Another idea is to turn your content into a video format which is pretty easy using Movavi. This would expand your reach to video-only platforms, like Youtube. Additionally, consider reusing your visuals (graphs and screenshots) in a PowerPoint format to create content to promote on Slideshare and Linkedin. Venngage makes it very easy. In other words, turn your content into lead magnets!
  • Webinars make excellent B2B content because they can be used at every step of the sales funnel. You can live stream them, turn them into many videos, transcribe to create text content, enable lead generation forms to engage your prospects. There are lots of platforms that allow you to do all of that.
  • Use email marketing. Email automation is an integral part of any B2B pipeline. Here are a few examples of email marketing campaigns to get you started with yours.

Creating optimized content that targets different roles and comes in different formats will require a lot of organizational efforts. 

Conclusion

Content planning and creation take a ton of time, so it makes sense to set up a content marketing strategy that serves several goals, like organic traffic and sales generation. Hopefully, the above tools and steps will show you some direction. Good luck!


Ann Smarty is the Founder of Viral Content Bee, Brand and Community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. She can be found on Twitter @seosmarty.

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