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Dear Reader, My heart remains heavy with sorrow. I continue to proudly bear witness to the enduring bravery of the masses of people whose names I don’t know as they persist in showing up day and night across my country to demand change. “…There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” — Niccolò Machiavelli These people represent the true diversity and strength of this great country of mine. They belong to various races, countries of origin, physical ages, economic circumstances, levels of education and sexual orientations. In addition to congregating in major cities like Minneapolis, Washington DC, New York City and Los Angeles, people have turned out in record numbers in towns and villages too small to attract … Continue reading

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11 Content Marketing Trends That Will Affect Your SEO Strategy

The digital marketing industry is continuing to evolve, and you need to keep up with the content marketing trends that appear. SEO and content marketing should always be best friends, one should not live without the other. 

 

That’s how we come to the idea of searching the trends in content marketing which influence SEO so you know what to expect and how to place yourself on the wave and not against it.

 

We’ve talked about the importance of content on our blog on multiple occasions, especially since Google started to focus their ranking signals on content. We even researched how you can rank on top Google positions without links with a proper content strategy in place. 

 

With so many trends to choose from the content marketing area, we had a hard time narrowing down the ones that will have a high impact on SEO, but nevertheless, here they are:

 

1. Natural Language Search & Voice Search Content
2. Optimized Content for User Search Intent
3. Personalized Content Experiences
4. Content Creation Process Has Reconfigured Its Steps
5. Content Marketing Will Be Written Only for Content Marketers
6. Context Is the New Era of SEO
7. Influencer Marketing Has More Power
8. Customers Expect Full Transparency 
9. Video Content Is the Most Preferred Type of Content
10. Native Advertising Is Rising Rapidly
11. Bite-Sized Content Revolution

 

Having such a handful list of goodies, it’s time to make the content marketing strategy, prepare our tools and get to work. Now that we are passed the springtime and we’re heading into the sunny summer, we have to be prepared, otherwise, we risk getting burnt. We don’t need just suncream but also our bag of knowledge and the life ring to help us stay above the water.

 

Content has been a highly debated topic since Google said it is one of top three ranking signals. Especially if your brand is focused on the strategy direct to consumer and you sell directly to the end customers then your content is an asset. Your website content needs to be correctly optimized and highly accurate to drive content traffic and then sales. That’s why you need be aware of the trends to make your content stand up.

 

 

1. Natural Language Search & Voice Search Content

Voice search is one of the content marketing trends that is increasing viciously. According to Google, 20% of mobile searches are now voice searches. Moreover,  voice-activated content has constant growth. 

 

 This trend has a high influence on SEO. In the screenshot below you can see how much the voice search accounts from all the searches performed on the search engines.

 

 

The printscreen is taken from a study on the effect of voice search on SEO we conducted some time ago. You would be surprised what we discovered!

 

An increasing number of people in the United States are using voice to conduct searches. An Emarketer study shows that one-third of the US population uses voice search. A comparison beside search typed queries and. 71 percent of consumers prefer to use voice searches (PricewaterhouseCoopers).

 

 

We performed some searches in Google trends to understand the evolution and to have a clearer understanding of how voice search can revolutionize the SEO world (and if that’s a true fact).

 

 

We then added some other search terms to compare. We wanted to see if there is a difference between an organical growth and an explosive one.

 

 

We discovered that SEO was on the safe side, but not for long. We can still use our SEO and digital marketing knowledge as the voice revolution might be close but not yet underway.

 

As a recommendation, I would suggest using natural language and create relevant content that is easy to read, just like you are talking with somebody and not over-optimizing for the sake of SEO “success”. Build a content strategy optimization for voice search and use conversational marketing. 

 

For example, if you want to use chatbots make sure they have a natural language (conversational marketing) and they are easy to implement and relevant to your website.

 

When asking a question in your article, try to respond to it in a full sentence, giving a specific response, make it easy to skim and invest in building trust. Try using a conversational tone in your content and optimize for long phrases or even questions. Keyword tool has an option that allows you to receive a recommendation based on your search terms. And you can choose to see all the questions and the metrics attached to them.

 

 

Some other thing you should do is optimizing for local searches since they started to take a hike in searches. As you could see from our study on voice search, there were a lot of “near me” searches.

 

 

 

2. Optimized Content for User Search Intent

 

Content and search engines together changed the way they work.  They are now in sync, have strict rules are are definitely content marketing trends you should follow. The trend in content shifted the focus on the user, and Google is trying to deliver better optimized and personalized content to each user – hence the user search intent. 

 

To understand the user search intent you need to perform a lot of keyword research. If you understand what your users want and what their intent is when they are searching for a specific query, half of the job for ranking on that keyword is done.

 

To better understand your audience, perform keyword research, look through analytics and conduct studies to find out what is their paint point, if they find what they need on your website. If the bounce rate is high that means they don’t find what they are looking for (based on the keyword they search and got on your page). Then check your content and see if it is misleading, answers to the title/topic you’re targeting. 

 

See what keywords do they look for on your website search box, then follow their path through the pages they navigate and design the customer journey map. There are lots of ways to better understand your audience and optimize your content for user search intent. We’ve conducted a thorough guideline on how to identify & best optimize for user search intent based on three types of user search intent: informational, navigational and transactional. 

 

 

3. Personalized Content Experiences

 

Personalized content is the new buzzword in the content marketing trends world. Studies have shown that this year we’ll have more content than before, and this story has been around for some years. Several dozens of pieces of content might be published until the end of this year.  

 

For example, Domo, the American software company which specializes in business intelligence software, performed their research and shared the results through their Data Never Sleeps 7.0 project (the fifth year since it started). In the graph below you can see how much data is flooding the internet every minute of the day.

 

 

Personalized content creates a connection between the brand and the customer and has lots of benefits. According to Evergage’s 2019 Trends in Personalization Survey Report respondents saw that personalized content delivers better customer experiences.

 

 

That being said, with all the data coming around and bombarding the reader with information from all sides, your content must stand out. That’s how the personalized content appeared. The readers feel important when you address them in person.

 

Studies show that personalized content is more effective and powerful and website visitors convert better when they are targeted through customized content.

88% of U.S. marketers reported seeing measurable improvements due to personalization.
	Evergage

 

Personalization has started to become critical in the future of content marketing. It is a content marketing trend that has a big influence on SEO. That means more appropriate content for each user, based on their last searches on site, on their last activity on social media, on the actions taken on-site and so on.

 

For example, one user downloads an e-book from your site. Next time you could offer similar e-books, or you could welcome them by name on your site. Go further, and send them personalized emails. It is more personal, and you get a chance to fulfill your readers’ needs. Creating personalized experiences through adaptive content can increase your results and bring more conversions.

 

Adidas used the personalization technique to send different emails to women and men, which was very smart and appealed better to each gender. Below you can see an example:

 

Source: www.campaignmonitor.com

 

Personalized emails experienced an increase of 26% open rate. And the nice part is that everyone can take advantage of this technique. And this is just one example. 

 

 

You can create content only for your users, or you can offer special prices for them, depending on your digital business. For example, Answer applies special discounts in the checkout step for users who are the in VIP club, meaning those who passed their first purchase.

 

If you’re using personalized content, you’ll have higher scores and in the end, a strong and good impact on SEO. Not to mention you’ll improve the user experience. You’ll need to rely on automatization and create segments, and collect behavioral data to maximize your SEO efforts.

 

4. Content Creation Process Has Reconfigured Its Steps

 

We all know that people used content creation by starting with a keyword they wanted to rank for (usually a long tail one, to get a high volume of traffic) and creating content around it. The deceiving part of this content creation process was that it started to attract a lot of thin content just for the sake of ranking high in Google, with no intention of serving the user.

 

The content creation process changed and now follows a more natural and more user-friendly path. Now you have to start with finding a content gap or a problem and getting the answers to that through your content. Then perform a keyword search for your topic, optimize it, promote it and so on.

 

If a few years ago people started with the keyword, now they are beginning with the topic by looking on social media sites; forums or client’s questions, reviews, feedback, comments or support questions. There is a lot of content at the moment, and having an article that addresses a pertinent question and has answers to readers’ needs, will secure you a safe place in Google. It is a necessity. Following high rankings in Google with no value content is no longer an option.

 

Google trends is an option for following popular topics, based on their searches. Follow popular websites in your industry, or follow trending hashtags on Twitter.

 

 

Another way to get ideas would be to steal the spotlight from your competitors. BrandMentions can you where your competitors are mentioned, what influencers endorse them, top website and resources where they are featured.

 

 

The new content creation process can bring you lots of benefits if you try to respond to the questions and needs of your audience, instead of following keywords to rank for with no value-added. 

 

5. Content Marketing Will Be Written Only for Content Marketers

 

We are living hard times, especially in the content marketing world. Unfortunately, content marketing is starting to be addressed to content marketers. How will this affect SEO you might ask? Tremendously.

 

The Marketoonist said the evolution of content marketing is simple: we write content for content marketers. 

 

 

We got to the point where there is so much content written from one minute to another, that I’m sure a lot of content is rewritten in some parts. Let’s think of it this way. You go to a conference where lots of experts gather and start talking on a topic, and for sure multiple ideas will pop-up and at least 5 people will write about what was discussed. Each has a unique style, that’s for sure, but inevitably some ideas will be similar. You can’t avoid it.

 

On top of that, there are a lot of people who use tools for rewriting content that already exist on the web. That falls into the dark hat category. We all know that article spinning is not accepted.

 

If you are using this technique, you are putting your website in danger. Instead, if you’re trying to offer valuable content and write content for the content marketers, you must keep up with it. There is a high competition out here, you must have information that educates the audience and offers engaging content. Attract and retain your potential customers. You must be prepared to play in the big league. Don’t write what is already there. Make it personal and talk from your experience.

 

6. Context Is the New Era of SEO

 

A new content marketing trend is embracing the content culture and the knowledge-sharing industry. It is about the patents that talk about context and how search will change its form. The trend started with the saying “context is king”. After all the time we heard content is king, now the times changed and a new concept will rule the whole kingdom.

 

Google’s attention on the user intent when searching started to have a high significance because context is something beyond keywords. Now, Google is trying to focus on user intent to offer more accurate and personalized results. We discussed previously the patents that concern the context topic and we discovered the role it has and if it can impact SEO.

 

Through context, Google aims to show topical search results, which is very well exemplified in the next screenshot:

 

 

After we explored the patent and tested out ourselves to see how search results look like, we thought of the implications it might have on search engine optimization.

 

We should focus on lots of other indicators, besides keywords. We need to create a relationship between terms and concepts in content. For example, if we are writing about “Volleyball rules”, then you need to think of all the keywords and phrases that are related to your topic and include them there. Make sure you think of the users’ intent. What are they trying to find out? What are their questions? And try to offer responses in a friendly tone, depending on your topic.

 

The content must answer to the title. You should use synonyms of your title, and not repeat the focus keyword hundreds of times.

 

7. Influencer Marketing Has More Power

 

 Influencer marketing is a popular tactic and a growing trend. According to a study by Nielsen, 83% of consumers trust recommendations from their peers over advertising. People trust recommendations from individuals over brands. Another research on the same topic by NoGre, a graduate education community, says that 88% of consumers trust online recommendations as much as personal ones. 

 

Moreover, Celebrity Intelligence conducted a study where they saw that the ROI generated by influencer marketing is 11x times higher than banner ads. Another study says that influencer marketing yields a $6.50 return on investment for every dollar spent.

 

Lots of brands already use influencers for promoting their services, because influencers influence the decisions of the people who follow them. Besides that, they bring a lot of benefits, such as:

• Influencers can produce more shareable content for brands;
• Brand-influencer relationship can be a long-lasting partnership;
• Influencer campaigns can spread across multiples platforms to achieve a wider range of influencers;
• Influencers sharing qualitative images and original content;

 

Gal Gadot has become the CEO (Chief Experience Officer) of Huawei; she is also the ambassador of the latest handset. She appeared in their video marketing campaigns and she published social media content from Huawei smartphone as you can see in the next screenshot:

 

 

Visual content is highly appreciated by users and due to the type of product, they had a lot to gain from their collaboration with the actress. 

 

Another interesting campaign we’ve discovered from Huawei was in a collaboration with the presenter of Asia Express in Romania. Asia is a place with lots of beautiful and intriguing experience and Huawei Mate 10 Pro was the great companion for taking the best shots of the show through the eyes of the presenter on Instagram. You could follow the path of the competition by following the hashtag #huaweimate10pro (and #asiaexpress).

 

Below you can see some screenshots:

 

 

Lots of the pictures were part of the Huawei campaign and all of them had the hashtag #huaweimate10pro.

 

 

The marketing tactic Huawei follows, by collaborating with influencers, leads to fulfilling their marketing purposes by driving traffic and sales. These examples are well-known and effective practices and they can give high flexibility to the brand to promote the product or service through an influencer. It generates quality content, and you can offer related information and accurate digital content through content curation. 

 

SEO can have a lot to gain from the influencer marketing trend because you can create articles and content to support your campaign and explain what you did and create a story around it. Not to mention, if you have an innovative idea, you can create word-of-mouth and lots of links will “flood” your backlink profile.

 

8. Full Transparency for a Beter Customer Experience

 

The Global Trust in Advertising survey by Nielsen shows that Europe has the lowest trust rate in advertising compared with the other continents. That explains, on the other side, the reason of the GDPR existence. This change can improve people’s trust and create a better world on the web.

 

Below you can see the results of the research:

 

 

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) created a lot of fuss. We are still new to this change and how it affects the website and business owners. Until 25 May 2018, all websites had to update their policy for transparency and let users know what & how their data would be used by publishers.

 

Lots of webmasters sent emails to users to give their consent to continue using the website. Also, when accessing the site for the first time, you had to give your consent before reading the content.

 

 

The fact is that customers expect transparency and feel safe knowing what information you are using, whom you give it to and what they can share or not.

 

9. Video Content Is the Most Preferred Type of Content

 

As you probably expected, video consumption has tremendously increased in volume in the last year and it’s one of those content marketing trends that is here to last. Here are some interesting stats to understand the dimension of the idea:

• YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users;
• 87% of online marketers use video content (OutBrain);
• Having a video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80% (EyeView);
• Demo viewers of a product are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-viewers  (Mill For Business);
• 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the content format with the best ROI (Insivia).

 

And these are only a few numbers. There are lots of other studies and analyses that show video is one of the most effective and engaging types of content. Video content has become the most preferred forms of content, for sure. According to a study by Outbrain, 86% of marketers prefer video and livestream, instead of blog posts, slideshows, articles or others.

 

We already took advantage of this trend, as lots of other experts and brand did, by creating podcasts and learning videos for those who want to know more about SEO and marketing.

 

cognitiveSEO talks are interviews with experts on the industry that we tackle with on lots of ideas on how to create a better company, to increase traffic, to become better specialists and follow insights on their success story.

 

 

If you’re a Facebook user or Twitter user, then create video content there and share it with your target audience. Make sure your video has a high quality and the message is easy to understand. Look at your competitors to see what they are doing (wrong or right).

 

Use live videos. They are so popular right now. And the great thing about them is whenever you post a live video as a brand on Facebook, it automatically sends a notification to all of your fans that you are live and they can view your video. Take advantage of that.

 

 

Try to talk about what interests your users. Invite them to tell what questions they have. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk’s has the “Ask Gary” live streams on Periscope regularly where he gathers 5-6k simultaneous viewers. Kindly ask them to subscribe or like the video at the end, as that is a common practice.

 

10. Native Advertising Is Rising Rapidly

 

Native advertising is known to take the lead and grow faster in the years that will come. Just like personalization had a great impact on the audience, native advertising has a higher chance to convert the viewers.

 

A research by Native Advertising Institute says that more publishers are adopting native advertising. 51% of them already have. In the same research, it is stated that an overwhelming number of publishers (82%) are positive toward native advertising.

 

 

All these numbers can work very well for you and can bring you revenue if you decide to use a native advertising campaign. There are platforms that can help you share high-quality content and increase the number of traffic through content amplification. Outbrain and Taboola are two examples of content distribution platforms where content sharing is very easy to implement.

 

A good example of a successful native advertising campaign is the one from CNN. They used a native advertising campaign that helped them increase their revenue by 60%. Create was the team that was responsible for the development, production, and delivery of all branded content for CNN International Commercial clients.

 

Branded content and native advertising has exploded in the last couple of years. It is an upward trend that other publishers are also experiencing.
	James Hunt
	Vice President Create Group, CNN International Commercial’s in-house marketing and global brand studio

 

11. Bite-Sized Content Revolution

 

The length of a piece of content has always been a topic of discussion. Bite-sized content changed the way we consume media. We are bombarded with information from lots of channels and our attention span has changed because of that. We can get easily distracted.

 

Twitter revolutionized the way information was distributed. You had a limitation of 140 characters so that tweets could fit into single SMS messages. Then they increased to the limit to 280 characters. It was the only time the company increased the number of Tweets, for parity in language. According to their researchers, 9% of tweets reach the character limit in English compared to the Japanese, which was only 0.4%.  

 

The way we write and use social media marketing to share information changed the way we read and consume content, as well. And that’s got a strong effect on content marketing and content marketers. Bite-sized content has lots of advantages such as fighting against boredom, and it is easier to remember because it is the essential, and it is adaptable to the readers.

 

Bite-sized content works very well for those who are avid users of social networks and newsreaders or those who are used to find chunks of information at their fingertips. Millennials are maybe the biggest consumers of such type of content.

 

You should follow the “bite-sized content” trend if you want to attract other categories of readers. Or in case you are used to serve long content with lots of points and topic of discussion, such as listicles and cover a larger audience.

 

If you want to nail this trend down and explore it to get the wave of readers, you should try to cover the news and other information that is fresh, by offering more value and more information in an easy-to-read article. Start investing your time in bite-sized content if your target audience consumes this type of content. 

 

Conclusion

 

Content marketing is a changing industry just like any other. We were witnesses at the video content that changed the rules of how we see content nowadays, becoming at one point of the most preferred type of content. Influencer marketing comes quickly in the forefront and if you use the right influencer and concept you have a high chance to craft great content around it and create word-of-mouth that will mean: brand awareness, more content, higher visibility, and increased traffic. 

 

The content marketing trends focus will fall on the personalization, context and natural language in your articles. Everybody is looking for experiences. That’s one of the reasons why native advertising has increased so rapidly and will grow even higher. Paid advertising can be an excellent choice if you are using it for content amplification to promote various content formats you have available on your website. All editorial calendars should include content distribution.

 

The recommendations from our article will help you get started with making your content trend-approved. Kick your marketing approach a notch. Follow the guidelines and implement a better content strategy to achieve your marketing goals. Your content marketing efforts will pay off. 

 

Investing in content is better when you’re thinking smart and strategic. Content marketing trends can show some directions.

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How To Get The Best Out of Marketing Companies in Hawaii

Are you making the most of marketing companies in Hawaii? Chances are that the leading business in your niche or industry is getting the best out of marketing companies in Hawaii to stay ahead of the pack. You can do the same to become a leader in your niche or become the business with the … Continue reading “How To Get The Best Out of Marketing Companies in Hawaii”

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The future of analytics in an opt-in world

It feels strange to be writing about consent in 2020, not least because the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) just celebrated its second birthday (over a Zoom call most likely) and America introduced the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) last year. But there is still a large amount of debate around what “strictly necessary” means, […]

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The Unique SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with Zero Links

We keep hearing that content is king. Write great content, content here, content there. But how true is that statement? Is there such a thing as an SEO Content Strategy that you can use to rank #1 with zero backlinks?

 

 

Like most answers in SEO, this one is also ‘it depends’.

 

Keep reading and I’ll explain exactly why.

 

While you might not be able to get to position one without any backlinks for a highly competitive keyword, you’ll definitely be able to increase your rankings in Google just by optimizing your content and having in place a great SEO content strategy. 

 

By the end of this blog post, you’ll have a better understanding of how Google treats links and content and you’ll get the SEO Content Strategy that might help rank #1 on Google with zero backlinks.

 

1. Can I Really Rank #1 with Zero Links?
2. Why Is Google Pushing More Weight to the Content Ranking Factor?
3. Step-by-step SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with Zero Links
   1. Identify Your Primary Audience and Their Pain Points
   2. Perform an In-depth Keyword Research & Audit
   3. Make a List of the Keywords You Can Realistically Dominate
   4. Analyze the Search Intent of Your Keywords
   5. Optimize Landing Pages / Per Keyword & Per Search Intent
   6. Write Content That Stands Out and Is Share Worthy
   7. Launch & Share Your Content with Key Influencers
   8. Monitor How Your Content Is Performing
   9. Update Your Content Once in a While
4. Conclusion

 

1. Can I Really Rank #1 with Zero Links?

Not long ago we performed a lot of searches for pharma, gambling and skincare keywords, in a nutshell on highly competitive keywords and niches. 

 

Our bet was to figure out if there are pages within these niches ranking based on high quality content only. 

 

As you can see in the screenshot below taken from cognitiveSEO’s Content Optimizer, you can see that there are many pages with no or just a few links but highly optimized content, that rank really well. 

 

Of course, we cannot answer to this question with a simple yes or no, yet, with Google giving so much weight to content lately, we might say that a good SEO content strategy can help you out big time.

 

Of course, it depends based on what you mean by rankings and it depends on what you mean by links.

 

For example, someone might claim they rank without any links, but what are they ranking for?

 

Are they ranking for a high competition, high search volume keyword, or a long tail, low competition and low search volume one?

 

Some time ago, Steven Kang started a contest in the SEO Signals Facebook Group, with a prize pool of $1000, to whoever could find or pinpoint a website that ranked #1 on Google with no backlinks.

 

 

However, the rules for this contest were very specific:

 

1. There can be no external backlinks present. Any single external backlink to the domain discovered will disqualify the site.
2. The site can have internal links since some claim internal linking shouldn’t count for such claim.
3. The site must be written in English.

 

One year after, the contest is still available. Nobody has won it yet.

 

 

By the looks of it… it seems that it’s difficult to rank on Google without backlinks.

 

However, in one case a website was eliminated and it had backlinks only from Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

 

 

While those are indeed backlinks, almost every website has them and they don’t pass as much value as a contextual link from a high quality, relevant website.

 

Other contestants have said that the contest is not fair, as they did not buy or build the links, but they simply came naturally, just as Google wants.

 

However… they’re still links, aren’t they?

 

The contest therefore excludes all links, not only purchased, built or bought ones. Considering this, Social Media is also excluded and probably any other form of online promotion.

 

So when it comes to ranking with zero links… Are you talking about links to that specific web page, or links to the entire domain?

 

Are you talking about a made-up keyword with no search volume whatsoever, or about a profitable, competitive, highly searched for keyword with a great market value?

 

If you’re trying to rank for a very competitive keyword, where the top-ranking domains have thousands of backlinks pointing to them… tough luck!

 

The truth is that beside a solid SEO content strategy, links still matter and if your competition is building, buying or obtaining backlinks naturally, you’ll have a difficult time ranking #1 with zero backlinks.

 

But if the competition doesn’t have many backlinks either, it is possible to outrank them, even without links, in some cases.

 

There are many examples of websites which outrank their competition with fewer backlinks.

 

For example, we’re outranking Moz for the keyword “does meta description affect seo” although we only have 23 referring domains, while Moz’s page has over 1500.

 

For another similar phrase, “does meta description matter”, another website is ranking very well, with only 1 referring domain.

 

However, in both cases the results are an answer box. If you remember, some time ago you could have the answer box position and another spot. 

 

Luckily, when Google changed this and only let you keep one or the other, they let us have the answer box.

 

 

These are pretty specific keywords and for the most competitive phrase, “meta description”, Moz still dominates the top spot.

 

Ranking with just a few backlinks to a web page is possible, if you have the right content.

 

But it’s probably necessary to have at least some backlinks pointing to your domain.

 

The internet doesn’t really work well without links. Search engines use links to crawl the entire web.

 

It’s also true that without any backlinks pointing to your domain, Google will have a hard time crawling and indexing your site.

 

However, keep in mind that backlinks on their own won’t do very much if the content doesn’t satisfy the users. They can even do harm.

 

After the Penguin updates, it was pretty clear Google was set to fight back against link spam.

 

Maybe the top spot isn’t achievable with absolutely zero links, but you don’t need the top spot to increase your search traffic.

 

You can greatly improve rankings in Google simply by optimizing your content even for competitive, high search volume keywords.

 

Many other SEOs and content marketers have improved their rankings following this OnPage SEO technique.

 

If you stick around, I’ll show you exactly how you can do it, too.

 

But first, let’s see why Google is pushing away from backlinks and more towards content.

 

2. Why Is Google Pushing More Weight to the Content Ranking Factor?

 

Back in 2017, during our numerous tests, we found a big correlation between the Content Performance score we had developed and rankings.

 

We repeated the test after 2 years, in 2019 and it seemed that content is even more important now.

The algorithm we use is complex, using a mix of AI technologies and things such as LSI and Flesch–Kincaid to determine what makes a piece of content rank high.

Attempts to remove backlinks from the algorithms have been made before.

 

Why? Mostly because of spam. As long as backlinks are a ranking signal, people will try to abuse them.

 

In 2013, Yandex, the Russian search engine, removed backlinks from their algorithm in an attempt to stop link spam.

 

Although it only took effect in the Moscow local search results and only for commercial queries, the change was short lived, as they brought links back only a year after.

 

Officials at Yandex stated that the change was “quite successful technologically”, but people still bought links and spammed the web regardless, so they decided to bring them back.

 

However, they brought them back with a substantial change: The links would not only be a positive ranking signal, but also a negative one, just like with Google’s Penguin update.

 

Could it be that the officials at Yandex are not willing to admit their failure? Maybe, who knows.

 

But if it was a success, couldn’t they just use spammy links as a negative signal only? Without using other links as a positive one?

 

Google has also tested rankings without backlinks in their algorithm.

 

 

However, they came to the conclusion that the results look much better when backlinks are a ranking signal.

 

Unfortunately, there are other issues with backlinks other than buying them.

 

Take a look at Negative SEO, for example. Google claims they can spot and ignore these types of links with Penguin 4.0, but is it really possible?

 

I’m not convinced. I’ve seen many cases in which websites have a drop in traffic immediately after an unnatural spike in backlinks clearly built by others.

 

You’d think that people engaging in Negative SEO will try to mimic link building… but that might also result in positive results for the target.

 

So, these attacks are usually very obvious. Pure spam. And Google still penalized the site.

 

So, it’s obvious they have a hard time dealing with all this link trading and spam.

 

This, combined with the constant effort from SEOs to obtain backlinks in unnatural ways, has pushed Google into wanting to back away from backlinks.

 

Backlinks are something you don’t have much control over. Yet, an SEO content strategy you can control.

 

With algorithm updates such as Penguin (which penalizes spammy links) and Panda (which penalizes spammy content), Google shows us it’s putting more weight on content.

 

 

But although search engines don’t like them, it seems like links are still going to stick around for a while, as Matt Cutts states in the video above.

 

However, with AI software that can also write content like humans getting better and better every day…

 

It’s hard to tell where this will go.

 

We might have the same issue as with links, with AI written websites constantly trying to compete to the top.

 

It would be a battle of the algorithms… one in which users won’t have a say.

 

We could bring the law into the equation, but that would spark a whole new lot of bigger and more complex issues.

 

However, I could see how in the future, the law would require you to specify that the content is written by a robot and not by a human.

 

While AI written content can be used for good, it can also be used for harm, from the relatively harmless blackhat SEOs to the highly harmful fake news outlets.

 

 

We’ve known for a long time that content was an important ranking factor, but now we also wanted to know why.

 

Google was moving away from backlinks (our tool and marketing strategy was mostly built around backlinks) so investing in this was in our own interest.

 

So let’s take a look at how exactly you can improve your rankings in Google without any link building, only by optimizing your content.

 

3. The Step-by-Step SEO Content Strategy to Rank #1 with No Links

 

OK. Now you know that it’s possible to rank without links in some situations and also why Google puts more and more weight on the content side of SEO.

 

You also know that backlinks are something you don’t have complete control over.

 

But how exactly do you rank without links? What step-by-step SEO content strategy can you apply to succeed?

 

Here are the steps you need to follow to have a chance on ranking without links.

 

3.1. Identify your Primary Audience and Their Pain Points

 

The first think you should do before writing anything is identifying your target audience.

 

You can start with what’s top of mind and build from there.

 

Who would be interested in your content and how can you make your content appeal to them?

 

Who are your clients? How old are they? Who are their friends? Where do they hang? How do they talk?

 

It’s easier to do this when you already have some clients or readers. Just look at your best clients and readers so far.

 

Who’s buying from you? Who’s reviewing on products? Who’s commenting on your blog and social media profiles?

 

If you’re just starting out and have no idea… then consider doing a market research.

 

I know it sounds complex, but you can start by simply creating a Google Form and sharing it on a couple of Facebook Groups, asking for help.

 

Sure, it’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.

 

 

Don’t focus on features with your product but on benefits. Don’t think in terms of needs but in terms of wants. Want is stronger than need.

 

And don’t seek answers from your research but feelings and emotions which you can then use to convince them to buy.

 

That’s what you want to ultimately address and that’s what will get you sales / engagement.

 

This step is probably more useful for products and commercial keywords and less for informational queries.

 

However, you can still address things such as the tone of voice for your audience.

 

You can also try to create a persona of your ideal customer / reader and try to write as if you were speaking directly to that person.

 

3.2. Perform an In-depth Keyword Research & Audit

 

The really important step when trying to optimize content is always keyword research.

 

What are you targeting now?

 

You can use the Google Search Console to easily determine the keyword you’re already ranking for.

 

 

Can you improve this existing content? Or should you target new keywords? These are questions you should ask yourself when putting together your SEO content strategy. 

 

You can also use the CognitiveSEO Keyword Explorer to identify new topics you can target.

 

 

Once you’re done, map out these keywords into an excel file and sort them out by relevance and importance.

 

3.3. Make a List of the Keywords You Can Realistically Dominate

 

Now comes the more difficult part.

 

For which of those keywords can you realistically rank better?

 

After you’ve determined a list of keywords you’ll go after, you have to take a look at two things:

 

Content Performance and Domain Performance.

 

You can use the Ranking Analysis section of the Content Optimizer Tool.

 

 

While the Content Performance is something that we have control over and will improve in a future step, backlinks aren’t something we have that much control over.

 

So you want to see websites with as few referring domains as possible compared to your site (which you can check with the Site Explorer).

 

Of course, if you see a lower content score and/or word count, those are also good indicators that it will be easier to improve your content.

 

3.4. Analyze the Search Intent of Your Keywords

 

Search intent and user experience are very important. It’s the key metric in 2020 and onward.

 

If you don’t match the search intent well, users will have a bad experience on your website.

 

One of the best examples of search intent is transactional vs. informational.

 

Given the keyword “men’s running shoes”, eCommerce websites will tend to rank better.

 

However, for a keyword such as “best running shoes for men”, reviews and buyer’s guides will tend to rank better.

 

People are simply looking for different types of content on each of those keywords.

 

What you ultimately want to figure out is what your user is looking for when searching for a particular query and accessing your website.

 

For this blog post I know that there are two possible intents that are very closely related to one another: “can you rank with zero backlinks” & “how to do it”. My article simply appeals to those needs.

 

Knowing my audience in general, I know that I want to provide proof for the first group, and step-by-step tutorials for the second.

 

A good way of analyzing search intent is to look at what’s already ranking well.

 

You know they’re already doing something well, since they’re ranking.

 

If you can spot some gaps you can fill, such as questions asked in the comments that remain unanswered in the content itself, that’s even better.

 

Did you know?

 

The Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool from cognitiveSEO automatically classifies the search intent for you. 

You just need to type in the keyword you are interested in optimizing for, and the tool does most of the job for you. The tool performs keyword research, it will tell you what is the user search intent, how popular is that keyword, how difficult it is to rank on it, and cream of the crop: what it takes to rank on that keyword, meaning, what are the exact keywords and links that boosted that page in the top of the search results. 

 

 

3.5. Optimize Landing Pages / Per Keyword & Per Search Intent

 

On with the actual optimization. Don’t worry, it’s probably the easiest step.

 

First, consider that it’s always best to optimize for a single main keyword and a single search intent per page.

 

You can sometimes combine very similar keywords, but try as much as possible to stick to the same search intent.

 

Remember, if the search engine results are similar for these keywords, they probably have a similar search intent as well.

 

You should keep in mind that writing naturally is the best way to go.

 

Open the Content Assistant section and hit Start Optimizing.

 

It’s easier to work on something you’ve already written, but you can also start from scratch. However, you’ll have to write at least a title for the tool to work.

 

You can also import a URL if your content is already live.

 

Then, just click Check Score, the tool will analyze your content, tell you the score and recommend you some keyword ideas.

 

 

The idea is to add those keywords into your blog post. However, don’t just throw them in, or else you’ll end up with a Keyword Stuffing warning.

 

The keywords with dots on their left are the most important ones. You should be using them multiple times throughout your content.

 

The idea is to think of these keywords as subtopics or areas of interest that you should cover in your content.

 

If a keyword that the tool recommends doesn’t seem to fit or has grammar mistakes in it, don’t force it in.

 

You don’t need a 100% score. The tool will pinpoint how much you need to reach.

 

However, you can also try doing it in phases. First, optimize for a few points above the average, then update your content after a few weeks to the recommended score.

 

3.6. Write Content That Stands Out and Is Share Worthy

 

A great way to do this is to write content about complex questions that are very often asked in your industry, or case studies.

 

For example, this article about meta descriptions affect SEO or not has been linked to multiple times by other SEO blogs trying to make a quick point without getting into too much detail.

 

Also, make sure you have great Titles, Headlines and Descriptions.

 

Optimize your titles with keywords for SEO, but also keep them catchy for Social Media.

 

You can use the Open Graph property to set different titles for SEO and Social Media

 

Long content tends to perform better in organic search results.

 

When people search for something, you already know they are interested in it. That’s why SEM has such a high conversion rate and people spend time reading in depth articles.

 

You can look at the top ranking search results for your keyword in the Ranking Analysis section of our Content Optimizer Tool.

 

 

For this particular keyword, you can see that the top ranking content is between 2500 and 5000 words on average, although we can even see articles with only 1800 words in top 10.

 

Usually, it’s a good idea to go for at least the top 10 average plus a few hundred words, just to be sure. But it’s not really about quantity, it’s about quality.

 

However, you’ll probably not be able to fit all the depth required for this particular topic in just 200 words, at least compared to the competitors.

 

Nevertheless, take this content length thing with a grain of salt. While long form content performs better in search, shorter content might perform better on social media.

 

On Social Media, people are browsing different things and not really looking for a particular topic, so they might prefer things straight and to the point.

 

3.7. Launch & Share Your Content with Key Influencers

 

Once you’ve written and published your content, it’s time to promote it. This should be an important part of your SEO content strategy.

 

We made a study a few years ago on weather social signals influence rankings and it seems that a strong presence on social networks is correlated with better rankings.

 

 

Once you have your content live, it’s time to share it with the appropriate influencers.

 

Who are these influencers? Well, people who have a following which matches your target audience.

 

If they don’t hear about your content… they can’t share it or talk about it.

 

It’s also a good idea that the influencers themselves are interested or resonate in the topic and the way you present it.

 

One of the even more advanced SEO strategies is to plan your content ahead.

 

And by this I don’t mean having an editorial calendar, but actually targeting influencers beforehand, analyzing them and writing something that you already know they will be willing to share.

 

You’ll have to be persuasive and it’s also a good idea to build trust with them beforehand, by sharing their content and commenting on it or engaging with them.

 

I know it sounds evil and manipulative and you can be if your sole interest is only to get what you want, but being genuine and truly offering value in exchange usually works best.

 

I can recall the easiest response I have ever got. It was from a person named Reiner, which reminded me of a character in the anime show Attack on Titan.

 

 

Luckily, he did see the anime, so we how now had a personal connection and he was willing to give me a hand.

 

 

Another easy-to-implement technique is to ask for quotes from experts in your industry or take interviews.

 

Two examples are my article about SEO mistakes and my colleague Andreea’s article about SEO tips from 22 experts.

 

While we offered a lot of value, it’s true that we also used the guests’ reputation to leverage our content’s reach.

 

Of course, it’s not guaranteed to work, but most of them will gladly share the content on their social profiles or blogs.

 

To find influencers, you can use a tool such as Brand Mentions.

 

You can spy on your competitors and see which influencers have mentioned their content.

 

 

Then, engage with them and try to build relationships.

 

3.8. Monitor How Your Content Is Performing

 

You should make sure you’re able to track your progress if you want to know how successful your modifications were.

 

The Google Search Console is a great way of monitoring organic search traffic and positions.

 

However, the data there might sometimes be a little confusing and hard to filter.

 

You might also be interested in a third party tool, such as our Rank Tracker.

 

 

Moreover, not all traffic comes from Google, so you might also want a tool such as Google Analytics to monitor other traffic sources.

 

You can also try a tool such as Brand Mentions to monitor mentions about your brand and content on Social Media and the internet.

 

To precisely monitor the effectiveness of this OnPage SEO technique, make sure you don’t make any other major changes to the website.

 

3.9. Update Your Content Once in a While

 

Google loves fresh content. That’s why updating it from time to time should be part of your SEO content strategy.

 

Our method works really well for old content as well, so don’t just focus on new content.

 

We’ve improved many of our old blog posts using the Content Optimizer Tool.

 

In fact, we did it on a mass scale, with pretty good results.

 

Although some of the articles did lose a couple of rankings instead of gaining them, the overall process was a success, both in terms of rankings and traffic.

 

 

One of the articles we’ve constantly updated over the time is our Google Easter Eggs article, which is one of our top performing piece of content, although not directly related to SEO. 

 

It’s a good idea to check the content’s score from time to time to see if it’s still in good shape.

 

The Content Performance score is relative. This means that as other articles improve, your score might drop over time.

 

However, even if the score is still really good, don’t try to trick Google by simply changing the date to make your content look fresh.

 

It’s best if you actually review the content and make a few improvements / modifications.

 

Conclusion

 

To get high ranks, the focus shouldn’t be on backlinks, but on a solid SEO content strategy. Get your content under the right people’s eyes, and you’ll see the links pouring in.

 

Applying this SEO content strategy can help you easily rank without going through the hassle of obtaining links. Attack the content creation and promotion from the right angle and backlinks will come naturally.

 

The truth is, you don’t need backlinks for every article. You just need a handful of articles that bring in the links to grow the authority of your domain.

 

Then you can use those links to pass that authority to all your articles, making it easier to rank everywhere.

 

So, let us know in the comments section below: Do you consider it’s possible to rank a page without any backlinks? Have you every managed to rank one on a decent search volume keyword? Do you know any content marketers at all able to rank websites on Google without backlinks? What other marketing strategy have you used to rank your content except building links?

 

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