What was the March 12 Update (Medic)?
The first Google Update of 2019 has caused major upheaval in the global search results. The update was a follow up to an existing update on August 2018 called Medic. This update directly affected websites that are considered a part of the Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) category.
Sites that fall under the YMYL categorization include sites that offer any kind of financial or health-related advice, products, or services. Google holds these sites to a higher standard because the content, products, and services on these sites will have a lasting effect on users.
In order to demonstrate to Google that the website is worthy of ranking for queries related to the health space, we must ensure that all technical aspects of the site adhere to the proper SEO guidelines and all content follows the rules related to Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E.A.T.)
You can learn more about E.A.T. and YMYL directly from Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (a guide Google provides to human website raters). This guide will also cover aspects of E.A.T. related to the company and an implementation guide.
June Core Update
Google never confirms what their updates are about. What is known about the update is that it directly affects content and the number of search results from websites that are displayed in SERPs (search engine results pages).
It’s believed that the update focuses on quality content, much like E.A.T. on a large scale.
Additionally, websites will be limited on the number of results that appear on a single SERP. For instance, where some companies may have appeared in 3 of the 10 results on page one for a search query; the algorithm will now limit that to 1 result. This means companies can no longer dominate on results for certain queries. It also means that companies have a higher chance to rank for more keywords.
E.A.T.
Expertise
– Establish expertise by developing unique content that highlights our knowledge in our target niche and related industries. Create blog posts that focus on providing niche insights while including citations from the perspective of a niche professional.
Authoritativeness
– Implement authorship to blog pages and credit posts to specific team members. Each author MUST have their own author page, similar to a LinkedIn page. Continue to write trending, timely blogs that focus on industry-related news. Ensure that all accreditation, sponsorships, and partnerships are on the site and clearly visible to users.
Trustworthiness
– Place additional focus on gaining links from trustworthy websites across the internet. This can include guest posts and quotes through HARO. All instances of NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) must be consistent across the internet and the website must be secure.
E.A.T. Best Practices (In order of importance)
- Ensure all content fully, clearly, and accurately discusses the topic
- Attribute resources and content to an author with credentials and experience
- Create an Author page for said author
- Add an “author blurb” to the bottom of the page (with links to social media)
- Add citations when discussing facts or making any claims whatsoever
- Link to valuable resources (internal and externally)
- Quote industry influencers (non-competitive niche sites)
- Outreach to gain links from valuable sources
Google Is Your Toughest Professor
Think of Google as the strictest, toughest, pain-in-the-ass professor you had in college. The professor that would nitpick EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of your essays and tear them apart writing things like: “this is fluff”, “this section does not make sense”, “not enough sources”, “try again”.
Google does the same kind of nitpicking. However, instead of an F on your paper, Google will not rank you. No ranking is an F.
When you write content, think to yourself: “What would that hard-ass professor say about this post?” And be honest with yourself. Because Google does not accept extra credit, but you can keep trying. So keep writing good content!
Defining an Audience
Interpretation
NOTE: Don’t just consider your current audience, consider the audience you WANT to read your blog, the audience you WANT to purchase your product/service. If the audience you want includes 45-year-old women with kids and an executive position, write for THEM. You can and should infuse your passion, but it must SPEAK to the audience you WANT. The audience you WANT are CUSTOMERS – they buy, they order, they need your product/service.
We must always be writing for a target audience. Our content should be relevant to that audience, should interest them, should flow in a voice that they can relate with.
Write content that appeals to the interests of your target market and/or answers their questions. Not all posts need to be about your product or service, but they all should be industry related (See Below: High Final Targeting). Assert yourself and your company as an expert in your industry by writing content that is interesting and informative and do it better than your competition.
When creating an audience, consider:
- Age
- Location
- Gender
- Race
- Family and relationship status
- Income
- Problems (this is what we want to solve!)
- Interests
- Favorite websites
- Favorite social media sites
You can have multiple target audiences for the business overall. Each product or service may have its own target audience. The most important things to identify are the needs and problems of your target audience in order to provide a solution.
Unique Selling Proposal
As you may already know, a “Unique Selling Proposition,” or USP, is one of the main ways a company can differentiate itself in any industry. To choose a great USP, you need to put yourself in the shoes of a specific customer. Identifying the needs, expectations, and problems of your target audience not only helps you to understand them better, but it also ensures that you’re creating a product or service that’s going to have a real impact on the marketplace.
Think about what problems your target customer suffers from in their day-to-day life, and how your product solves those issues for them.
Empathetic Journey Exercise
The following exercise can help you uncover more details about your audience. This exercise is also great to do BEFORE you begin writing an article.
- Get comfortable and try to relax. Close your eyes.
- Begin the day in the mind of someone in your target audience.
- “Wake up” in their shoes.
- Pay attention to what you see.
- Are they alone in bed?
- What kind of house are they in?
- Do they have kids?
- Do they immediately check their email on their phone?
- Do they immediately check their social media profile?
- What do they have for breakfast?
- What do they wear to work?
- Where do they work?
- What kind of car do they drive?
- Do they catch the bus?
- Are they heading to the airport to travel to a conference?
- What is their boss asking them to do today?
- What is stressing them out?
- What are they happy about?
- How are they communicating with coworkers or employees?
- What part of their day are they dreading?
- What part of their day can we improve?
Make notes where possible.
Profile Existing Customers
Do we already have information about our target audience? From other marketing sources, from other people within the business? Use Google Analytics to also look for indicators that help us define the audience. Look at “affinity” and “market section.”
NOTE: Remember, your current audience is not necessarily your target audience.
Competitor Check
Who are our competitors targeting? Read their content and get a sense of their audience. Focus on content that is ranking well for them.
Remember, this is also an opportunity to find their GAPS. If they are missing content or target audiences, that’s our opportunity!
EXAMPLE 1: I want to promote my wedding venue.
USP: It is a small venue, with a garden and the option to get in-house catering. It’s affordable compared to my competitors and its location in South Florida.
AUDIENCE: My audience is mostly female. Recently engaged, mother of the engaged, or wedding planners. My venue is affordable so I can target younger ages because they can afford it. I want to target ages 24 – 35. They are very money conscious because they cannot afford a lavish ceremony. My outdoor garden is beautiful and a big USP, so it will look great for their wedding pics and they will post them all over Instagram.
EXAMPLE 2: I want to promote my golf course.
USP: My golf course does not require a membership to play, unlike the businesses in the area. It is also an Eagle course designed by a world-renowned architect.
AUDIENCE: My current audience is made of mostly white males 45+, mid-tier income. They use the course to meet up with friends, escape from the family for a few hours and sometimes do business. Most of them use it as an escape for a few hours.
HOWEVER, this is not my desired target for this blog. Instead, I want to try and lure more millennials to the course. I want to go after this untapped resource. Here’s what I know about millennials and golf based on research:
- Most of them find golf boring – “it’s what my dad plays I guess”
- Most are money conscious!
- Most millennials do not have lots of leisure time, they are constantly bombarded, and they work too much. There’s no time for an ENTIRE day of golf every month.
- But, millennials do like to spend on experiences, they are not materialistic. Maybe golf is an experience?
- And hey, they are overworked and bombarded, maybe a day on the course is actually what they need.
- Most are on Instagram, taking pics of the fun they are having. This may be an opportunity for me to get free advertising. If they like the course, their friends will see.
- Golf is expensive at first, clubs are so much! They will never pay for them.
- Golf also takes a long time to master and millennials prefer instant gratification. This may be tough, but I really want to reach them. Let’s try.
There are lots of ways to target millennial golfers, but let’s start at the beginning. We should create a beginner’s guide to golf. That will cast a wide net which will include anyone who is unsure how to play, which include millennials.
Picking a Topic
Interpretation
Blog topics must be relevant to the niche, relevant to the users, provide value and be interesting. The best blogs are the ones that you would happily read. If you are happy when you reread your blog, then there’s a better chance the user will be as well.
Consider your own interests and passions but be sure to remain relevant and maintain a voice that speaks to your target audience. When you write passionately, the content will come alive and jump off the page.
NOTE: your topic doesn’t have to be about your service directly. Remember the sales funnel (see below: Sales Funnel). You can answer a question that your audience is asking and get them at the top of the sales funnel. You answer the question and they follow you back to your product.
Steps
1 – Use your target audience to identify a problem, find a relevant news piece or decide where they need valuable insight.
2 – Search for that topic on Google, Facebook, Quora, Reddit, etc.
3 – Create a Keyword list based on target, intent, volume, and competition (see below).
The best way to find topics is to immerse yourself in the industry. You should join groups on Facebook, join subreddits on Reddit, subscribe to newsletters, go to events, etc. When you immerse yourself in the industry you will find topics easily.
EXAMPLE 1: I want to promote my wedding venue.
Topics: what will these girls be searching for? Unique wedding venues, wedding venues with gardens, outdoor wedding venues. They want to find these beautiful venues, but they cannot afford some of the high-end places.
When I look on Reddit, most people are asking how to save money on wedding venues, DIY wedding backdrops (USP: hey, they won’t need that because we have an amazing garden!), the best small wedding venues in South Florida.
Ok, I’m going to write a blog about how to save money on weddings venues.
EXAMPLE 2: I want to promote my golf course.
Topics: I’m not going to be able to reach millennials by writing about golf directly. Most haven’t played golf and might be intimidated by the difficulty and the cost.
So I’m going to write a beginners guide to golf, filled with tips for millennials to get into the swing of it. This is broad but it will catch anyone who’s looking for advice. I will be able to instill a sense of trust, and maybe even promote our golf lessons too!
Sales Funnels & High Funnel Targeting
Interpretation
A sales funnel describes the journey your potential customers go through on their way to a purchase. You start with a lot of potential customers at the beginning. These are users who may have heard of your product or service. A smaller part of that group may want to learn more, and a smaller part of that group may actually contact you.
The further along in the sales funnel you travel, the fewer number of people you are talking to who are very interested in purchasing the product or service until you end up with the people who become customers. If you chart it out, it looks like a funnel.
What Does This Mean for Us?
Use this idea to craft topics and ideas. Think of blog topics in the awareness phase, what are users asking in this phase and how can we answer those questions? Then continue with interest. When users know about the service and they are interested, what questions will they ask next? Continue with this line of thinking all the way down to the eventual sale.
High Funnel Targeting
You can also target people who may not be aware of your product or service. For example: If I want to get more people interested in my diet supplement, I could write a blog that discusses 10 ways to stay healthy.
Finding Keywords – Target | Intent | Volume | Competition
Interpretation
NOTE: when determining target and intent, there is no wiggle room! You have to have the correct target and the correct intent in mind when picking a keyword. There is wiggle room for volume and competition. Lowish volume with low competition: YES! Medium volume with high competition: DEPENDS ON THE COMPETITION! Low volume high competition. HELL NO!
We have a limited amount of resources that we can dedicate to content every month, which means we should focus on high yielding results that we can achieve.
There are 4 important factors to consider when doing keyword research. Each much be considered and there must be a balance struck between all of them.
Break out an excel sheet and make 5 columns.
- Column 1 = keyword
- Column 2 = Does it match the target?
- Column 3 = Does it match the intent?
- Column 4 = Is there enough volume?
- Column 5 = Is the competition high or low?
Find keywords that hit the mark on all four. That’s your blog topic keyword right there!
Target
As mentioned before, we must choose keywords that relate to our target audience and to our niche. There’s no point writing about something that our audience is not interested in and does not relate to our industry. It doesn’t always have to be about our product or service, but it must relate to our industry.
Writing about timely topics and news is very important. Recaps for events, opinions about upcoming industry changes, national holidays, even entertainment news.
Start by thinking about your blog title and what keyword you can use in the title to get clicks.
Intent
What keywords are used to search for this topic? Think about the topics that your target audience may use to search to find this blog piece. AND think about what they will type in the search bar to find your blog.
Remember that your audience is probably not going to use words like explore, premiere, expedient – these are marketing terms that are great adjectives and that should be used! But they are not keywords. Most audiences will use words like best, easy, fast. This is true of sophisticated audiences as well as casual audiences.
Now Google it!
Take those keywords and Google them. Look at the results. Are those results similar to the blog post you want to write? (They don’t have to be, maybe you’ve found an opportunity to fill in the GAP). BUT you want to make sure that a user would expect to see your blog in those results.
Would you think it’s odd for your blog to show up surrounded by all these other results? That’s a sign that your intent is not correct. You need to change your keyword, add some more detail, descriptive words, etc. and try again.
Volume
So, you’ve got the topic that identifies a problem and the intent matches what users would expect to see, now we need to research and find out how many users are searching these terms.
Use BrightEdge, SEMrush, Ahrefs or SpyFu to find your keyword’s monthly search volume.
Reference the table you created and add all these keywords in order of highest volume to lowest. Find the keywords with the highest volume that also makes sense for our users and their intent. That is your primary keyword! All the variations with lower volume are your primary keyword variations (AKA secondary keywords)!
Competition
Google your primary keyword and look at all the results on page 1. What does your competition look like? If you are competing against Amazon, Bootbarn, eBay and Outdoor World, then you are going to have a helluva time ranking. Same goes for sites like Wikipedia. ALSO, what do the ranking pages look like: how much content, how many images, how many videos. You are competing with them so you have to match the quality of their content to a certain extent. Keep that in mind.
EXAMPLE 1: I want to promote my wedding venue.
My topic is “how to save money on wedding venues”
Target: It does reach my audience; these are young ladies who want an affordable wedding venue.
Intent: The intent is there! When I google “how to save money on wedding venues”, all the results are related to that search. They all include tips, tricks, hacks, and cost-cutting.
Volume: the volume for “how to save money on wedding venues” is 20 per month. DRATS! This is nowhere near the volume I want. Back to the drawing board.
Competition:
Buzzfeed, theknot, nerdwallet – these are difficult to beat.
But look, there’s hope! These sites are also ranking on page 1: lover.ly, valuepenguin, womengettingmarried, fool.com, mic.com. These sites are easier to beat and if they are ranking on the first page, so can we! BUT, look at the content on those pages.
WOW: most are over 1,000 words, include infographics, videos, charts, Instagram feeds. If we want to beat them, we need to up our game.
BASED ON VOLUME AND COMPETITION, THIS IS A DEAD END FOR NOW – WE WOULD NEED TO FOCUS ON BUILDING A BLOG LIKE THIS OVER MONTHS. ADDING TO IT EVERY MONTH. AND ALL THAT FOR 20 SEARCHES. WORTH IT? MAYBE NOT.
IF YOU REACH A DEAD END LIKE THIS, START AGAIN!!!! YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME AND YOUR CLIENTS MONEY BY CREATING USELESS CONTENT. EVEN IF IT TOOK YOU 12 HOURS TO RESEARCH THIS TOPIC, START AGAIN.
EXAMPLE 2: I want to promote my golf course.
My topic is “Beginners Guide to Golf for Millennials”
Target: This topic is focused on my target completely. I want to reach millennials that may be interested in golf but have no idea where to start.
Intent: The intent is right on the money! I’m looking for millennials who intend to learn about golf.
Volume:
- how to play golf for beginners = 260
- beginners guide to golf = 140
- golf swing for beginners = 720
- golf tips = 5,400
- golf for beginners = 1,900
- golf lessons = 12,100
The volume is there! All these keywords give me a range of topics to include in my post. The keyword that matches closest to my topic directly and has the most volume is “golf for beginners”
I will make my title: “Golf For Beginners – A Guide to Golf for Millennials”
Competition: When I google: Golf for beginners the first 2 results are sites I may never knock off the list: Golf Digest, Golf.com. BUT the next 8 sites are not too tough to compete with, including: realbuzz.com, deercreekflorida.com, golfinfluence.com
I would say I have high volume and medium to low competition.
SUCCESS!! This is my blog topic!
Keyword Placement Rules & Guidelines
Interpretation
Primary keyword: The keyword you want your page to rank for. Each page should have a primary keyword associated with it. Avoid using the same primary keyword on other pages, which leads to keyword vampirism. Those pages will compete for rank and will both lose!
Secondary keyword: these are keywords related to the topic. These will help our piece rank for the primary keyword we are targeting. Find secondary keywords when looking for intent. These keywords will typically be used as subheadings (AKA subtopics) to create sections within the content that explains it more or answer additional/related questions that users may have.
Primary keyword variations can also be considered secondary keywords.
LSI keyword: (Latent Semantic Indexing). These keywords are “expected” by crawlers and users. These are not keywords that you target necessarily, but they are present in content related to this topic.
Cornerstone Keywords (Client Keywords): These keywords are used as anchor text within the content to link to cornerstone pages. The cornerstone keyword is THE PRIMARY KEYWORD OR THE VARIATIONS OF THAT PRIMARY KEYWORD FOR THE PAGE WE ARE LINKING TO. We want that page we are linking to, to rank for that cornerstone keyword/anchor text keyword.
It will then rank that page for that keyword. Success, client happy, we happy. Beers. (see cornerstone section below for detailed explanation).
GEO Targeting: Local businesses must include a location within keywords. If you are targeting an area, your primary keyword should include that area. I.E. [primary service] in [area].
EXAMPLE: “Golf For Beginners – A Guide to Golf for Millennials”
Primary keyword: Golf For Beginners
Secondary keyword Variations: beginners guide to golf, how to play golf for beginners, golf tips, golf for beginners
Secondary keyword Subtopics: golf swing for beginners, golf lessons, what do golf clubs mean, putting tips for beginners
LSI keywords: club, swing, stance, slice, hook, practice, training, driving range
NOTE: Millennial should accompany most of these keywords to ensure we are still targeting our audience.
Rules:
This page MUST be the only one that targets THIS keyword (avoid vampirism: multiple pages that target the same primary keywords)
Each page MUST have only ONE primary keyword. Variations are secondary.
Primary keyword MUST make sense in terms of target and intent.
Primary keyword MUST be in the Title Tag when writing services and guides
Primary keyword MUST be in the content (look at guidelines for how often)
There MUST be at least 1 variation of primary keyword present on the page
Secondary keywords MUST relate to primary keywords, they are NOT necessarily client keywords
Content MUST be more than 400 words
Primary keyword must be in the first paragraph of page
Follow guidelines frequently. If you are never using the guidelines, you are doing it wrong!
When making a claim, directly quoting a source, or using a statistic, you MUST cite the source
When explaining difficult topics, you MUST include your research about the topic (links to information) for the editor to fact check and review
Guidelines
Primary keyword should be in the Title Tag when writing news, blogs, and parody
Primary keyword should be in the H1 header tag
Primary keyword should be in the meta description
Primary keyword should be in every 100 – 150 words in on-page content
Primary keyword should be in image alt tags on the page
Primary keyword should be in the URL
Primary keyword should make sense in terms of volume and competition
Secondary keywords should appear at least once, each
LSI keywords are guidelines
Content Organization P.A.S.T.O.R.
Here is something interesting developed by Ray Edwards: https://rayedwards.com/031/
Interpretation
When you are organizing content around a product or service, it needs to flow correctly in order to entice a user to purchase. Use the P.A.S.T.O.R. method to organize the flow of the content. Place CTAs (call to action) with links to packages strategically through content. No CTA should come before “S” (Solution), but you can have multiple CTAs through the content. Don’t just wait for the end to sell.
“P” is for PROBLEM
You must begin by identifying the problem that you are solving. The simplest, most effective way to do this is to describe the problem in great detail.
It’s a psychological principle: the more accurately you can describe your reader’s problem in terms they relate to, the more they instinctively feel that you must have an answer to that problem. So remember your audience and the Empathetic Journey Exercise!
Remember, you’re not judging their behavior, rather you are describing their experience as it currently is. This means you have to understand their experience as it currently is. You have to know your audience and what they are thinking.
“A” is for AMPLIFY
The next step is to amplify the consequences of not solving the problem. This is really the key to making sales, and it is probably the most neglected step in the process.
What will motivate people to buy your product, invest in your service, or accept your idea is usually not the beautiful outcome framed in a positive light. It is, rather, realizing the cost of not attaining that outcome. In other words: what is it costing them to not solve this problem?
“S” is for STORY and SOLUTION
Once you have described the problem and amplified the consequences of not solving it, it’s time to share the story of how the problem can be solved.
This will be different depending on your situation. It might be the story of how you yourself finally solved this persistent problem. It might be the story of how you helped a client or customer discover the solution on their own.
It does need to be more than simply a description of what the solution is: telling the story of Bob, the frustrated business owner who was on the edge of bankruptcy, whose family had lost faith in him, and who, out of desperation tried one last idea that saved his business, is infinitely more powerful than simply saying, “One day, Bob figured out the answer.”
It should go without saying, but I will say it just in case: the story must absolutely be true. Don’t make these things up. And if you’re thinking, “But what if there is no story?” I would suggest you just haven’t looked closely enough.
There is always a story to tell. NOTE: Remember to include your Unique Selling Proposal.
“T” is for TRANSFORMATION and TESTIMONY
The next key step in writing your copy is to remember that whatever you’re selling, whether it’s a home study program, a book, a seminar, your consulting services — anything at all — what people are buying is not the “stuff,” it’s the transformation.
When people buy the P90X workout program, they did not wake up one morning and say to themselves, “I sure hope today somebody tries to sell me a bunch of DVDs and a wall chart.”
Those things (the DVD’s, charts, etc) are the stuff. What buyers of P90X are actually purchasing is that lean, healthy, youthful physique they want for themselves. The transformation.
It’s also important that you offer testimony, real-life stories of people who have made the transformation that you are teaching, and who have done so successfully. Study the most successful infomercials, and you’ll discover that they consist of about 70% testimonials.
And while most of us will not be writing infomercials, it’s important to remember there are three questions people are asking when you sell them coaching, consulting, or instruction about anything. The questions are:
- Has this person been able to do what they are describing for themselves?
- Has this person been able to teach other people to achieve the results they are describing?
- Will this person be able to teach me how to achieve these results?
“O” is for OFFER
So far, you have defined the problem, clarified the cost of not solving it, told the story of the solution, and helped your reader visualize the transformation through testimonials from others just like themselves.
Now is the time to describe exactly what you are offering for sale.
This is the section of your copy where you lay out your offer. You can even create a subheading for the section called something clever like, “Here’s Exactly What You Get.”
Make certain that you focus 80% of your copy on the transformation itself. You do have to talk about the deliverables (the class schedule, the DVDs, etc.), but that should only occupy about 20% of your copy in this section.
Just remember that as you describe the deliverables in the offer section, you must keep tying them back to the transformation and benefits your buyers will receive.
“R” is for RESPONSE
This is one of the areas where copy tends to often be the weakest: the response request. We are asking the customer to buy.
At this point, you should not be shy about making this request. You should tell the customer exactly what to do in order to get your program, your consulting, your book, etc. You should remind them why it’s important to do so.
And then I will write very specific, directive copy telling them exactly what to do next: “Click the button below, fill out the order form, and we will immediately ship your entire package to you. It will contain everything you need to get started.”
Some people shy away from strong language like this, but the fact is if you truly believe that you have a solution that will solve a problem for people, why on earth would you not be as direct as possible in telling them how to get that solution? In fact, aren’t you doing them a disservice by not making the strongest case possible?
Citations
Interpretation
Google, Facebook, Instagram, the internet as a whole is trying to combat the spread of misinformation online. This is one of the reasons that Google is only ranking websites that adhere to the E.A.T. guidelines. We must demonstrate that we are credible, trustworthy, experts in our field. News sites are good at this! They consistently create and upload unique, valuable content. And they use citations or expert quotes when making any claims. So must we!
How
It is better to link to exterior sources at the bottom of the page and use superscript (1) in content. We do this because we don’t want users to click the links in content and leave our site. This is exactly how they do it on news site and Wikipedia.
When
Any claims, quotes or statistics MUST have citations. Think of the Google professor writing on your paper “CITATION NEEDED” or “Where’s your source?”.
There is no minimum or maximum citation needed per post.
What
Avoid linking to articles that are going to compete with your post, you’ll just give them all the credit and all the rank!
Also, be sure to cite the source! If you find an article on Forbes that references a statistic, then guaranteed Forbes has a source for that statistic. Don’t cite Forbes, cite their source directly.
Be sure to use credible sources!
Tip
Struggling to find a source? Use Google operators!
Put your Google query in quotes and you will get results that contain that exact query. Also try the site search operator, to look for sources on specific sites.
Example:
“smoking is the leading cause of cancer” = will only return pages that have that exact phrase
“smoking causes of cancer” site:nlm.nih.gov = will only return pages with that exact phrase on the NLM website and nowhere else!
Still struggling to find a source? Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Maybe your claim is not actually true. You can get it wrong too. This is why Google Professor wants you to check, to ensure you pass on credible information.
CornerStone
Interpretation
Cornerstone content plays a significant role in any SEO strategy by increasing the main page’s overall ranking for search terms that are very popular. Providing the correct internal link structure between your posts tells Google which article is the most important.
All your other posts about similar topics should link back to their corresponding cornerstone article so that page’s importance is clear from your site structure. This internal linking structure will increase the chance of your cornerstone content articles ranking in Google searches.
This strategy also aids in overall E.A.T. score.
How it Works
Google bots will read the anchor text, follow the link to the cornerstone page, and realize that the anchor text is explaining what that page is about.
Page 1 links to Page 2 using Page 2’s primary keyword. That means that Page 2’s primary keyword is actually in Page 1’s content. Page 2’s primary keyword (or secondary, mix it up!) is used as the anchor text which points to Page 2. Page 2 should rank higher for its primary keyword, which is the anchor text pointing to it from page 1.
Content Clusters
Interpretation
Clustering content allows for search engine crawlers to reach lower pages.
- Interlink to related drugs from each supplement page.
- Mimic the “people also searched for” section on each Amazon product. This will aid in indexing and ranking.
URL Structure & Best Practices
Interpretation
URLs should follow a clear and easily identifiable path that contains user-friendly and search engine friendly keywords. Consistency is key!
URL best practices:
- Top level directories should contain broad category, primary keywords
- Second level directories (subdirectories) should contain secondary, specific keywords
- Page names should contain very specific keywords that identify the purpose of the page
- URLs should all default to the lowercase version (.htaccess file)
- URLs should contain fewer than 80 characters, avoid anything over 120 characters if possible
- URLs should all default to trailing slash, or non-trailing slash
