SEO News

World Cup hub pages and Google rankings

The screenshot below shows that, while the top few slots are taken by FIFA and Wikipedia (which would be almost impossible to shift), the BBC, Telegraph and Guardian all managed to rank on page one for ‘World Cup’. 

For these news sites, the pages that rank are their World Cup hub/landing pages, containing tables, fixtures, latest news, links to other related content, and so on. 

These pages allow the publishers in question to direct traffic to one page over time, allowing it to rank more consistently and make the most of the extra search traffic before and during the tournament. 

One major news site is missing: Mail Online (The Sun and Times are too, but we know why). It ranks so well for many other terms, so why isn’t it here? 

Given the sheer interest in the tournament (the spike peaks here around June 18) this represents a missed opportunity for the paper. 

Using charts provided by the PI Datametrics SEO platform, we’ve looked at the Google rankings of the Mail and Guardian in the four months up to and including the World Cup. 

The results reveal the importance of a co-ordinated SEO strategy which uses internal links and hub pages, and explain how the Guardian and others succeeded where the Mail failed. 

Mail Online and its failed World Cup hub page

The chart below shows the various pages on Mail Online which ranked on Google for the term ‘World Cup’ between February and June this year. 

The page labelled ‘C” on the chart is the Mail’s World Cup hub page, which is the one the publisher would want to rank for consistently. 

(Click on image for larger version)

The chart below shows how the Mail’s Google rankings for ‘World Cup’ fluctuated over the four month period. 

Essentially, each new article published on the World Cup usurped the main landing page (shown in pink).

This landing page didn’t manage to rank above page four on Google in the run-up to the World Cup which, as we know, is essentially nowhere. 

What’s happening here is that Google is seeing lots of pages from Mail Online for this search term, and is unsure of which one should be ranked the highest.

Essentially, every new piece of content published on the World Cup is cannibalising the search ranking of other pages, and the hub page in particular. 

Mail Online is compounding the issue by failing to give any signal to Google to tell it which page it wants to rank for the search term in question. 

This has a lot to do with internal linking, or rather the lack of it. 

Mail Online could have linked back to the hub page from every article it wrote on the World Cup, which would have indicated to Google that this page was significant. 

However, despite many opportunities to link on that term (see below) the Mail didn’t do so. 

The upshot is that, though it had a useful World Cup hub page, it just didn’t manage to rank highly enough in the run up to the tournament. 

It is, of course, a very competitive term, but it wouldn’t be hard for a publisher with the resources of Mail Online to rank for this, given the right strategy. 

According to Sam Silverwood-Cope, Director at PI Datametrics: 

What our intelligence shows is that The Daily Mail got the strategy right by publishing a landing page for the World Cup early in the year, but got the tactics wrong by not giving that page (and a subsequent canonical one) enough internal links and strength.

Daily tracking shows that the landing page was usurped by individual articles which, due to the Daily Mail’s inherent strength, gained many external links as soon as they were published. This created significant and daily cannibalisation where Google was not sure which was the central World Cup page for the newspaper instead returning many different pages throughout the build-up to the tournament for that search term.  

So how did the Guardian succeed? 

It’s about internal linking. In contrast to Mail Online, the Guardian links repeatedly to its hub page from World Cup related articles. 

The publisher clearly had a plan in mind when it created the hub page, and all subsequent content on the World Cup worked towards this plan. 

Here we can see a link in the opening paragraph of the article. This pattern was repeated elsewhere, a tactic the Guardian uses with success for many other topics. 

In we look at the chart for The Guardian’s rankings for ‘World Cup’ over the same period as Mail Online one shown earlier, the effect is obvious. 

(Click on image for larger version)

This is almost the complete opposite of the Mail’s chart. Its World Cup landing page dominates over all other pages on the site for this term.

The Guardian also achieves a consistent page one ranking on Google, which would have made a massive difference to traffic on what would have been one of the most popular search terms of the year. 

Mail Online had the same opportunity to rank for this term. The difference is that The Guardian had a co-ordinated SEO and content strategy. 

The importance of hub pages and internal linking

The stats and charts shown here are revealing, and do back up some of our own strategy, while also showing areas where we can improve. 

We do place an emphasis on internal linking, to help and encourage our readers to explore other content and products that we offer, and also to help our SEO strategy. 

To this end, while we don’t have hub pages for all of the topics we cover, we do try to link consistently to one or two pages on a given term.

For example, for a generic term such as ‘email marketing‘, we’ll link to our best practice guide on the subject as this is the page we’d most like people to visit (and ideally go on to buy the report). 

In other cases, perhaps where we have no obvious paid content, we’ll link to a particular blog article which we judge to be the most useful for searchers. 

The types of links used are important here. We do mix up the anchor text we use, and don’t want links to seem at all contrived. 

The overall lesson is that a co-ordinated linking strategy where articles are produced not just for SEO, but with Google in mind, allows the articles we write to be given the best possible chance of success. 

In summary

These examples highlight a potential problem for publishers and other sites (ecommerce for one) which create multiple pages and content on the same topics. 

The Mail example shows that publishing lots of articles around the same topic can have the effect of cannibalising search rankings from other pages on its site. 

The lesson here is not to stop producing articles, but instead underlines the importance of a clear content strategy which is executed with a firm eye on SEO. 

In this situation, and for generic terms like ‘World Cup’ hub pages are vitally important, as they allow publishers to rank more consistently. Every article serves to boost or sustain the rankings of the hub page for that particular topic.

At the heart of this is an effective internal linking strategy in which writers and editors understand the SEO goals that the site is working towards. The rewards, for a high traffic term such as ‘World Cup’ are worth the effort. 

This is a lesson that websites of all types can learn from. Indeed, we’ve seen similar patterns from retailers, and our own site. This is something we’ll look into in future posts. 

Posted by Nick_Sayers

The onset of fall sharpens the air. Kids laboriously lug stacks of books and binders to class. Teachers puzzle over their lesson plans for the year. Lockers that were once empty now overflow with paper, and quiet hallways fill with the chatter of eager minds. School is finally back in session. In the spirit of fall and the start of school, we think it’s a perfect time to open up Moz Academy to our community!

If you’ve never heard of Moz Academy, let me give you an earful! At Moz, we really want people to be awesome marketers so they can use our products in fun ways and make the Internet way cooler, with less spam and garbage content. We’ve got a ton of terrific instructors at Moz, but Moz Academy has so much SEO knowledge that it’ll make teachers out of all of you!

Over the past year we’ve added more than 30 videos to Moz Academy. One of my favorite lesson plans shows off how you can use Moz Pro to help with your day-to-day marketing. We’re also proud to offer a comprehensive
Local SEO section that we built with our good friends over at LocalU.

To give you a sense for what we’ve got, we wanted to show you some of our favorite Academy lectures!

First up: Listen to Steve Martin look-alike Cyrus Shepard tell you how to size up your competition in Moz Pro—like a pro.

Next, listen to the mustached master of SEO, Rand Fishkin, instruct us on how to correctly implement redirects.

If you’re into advanced filtering in Google Analytics, listen to Tim Resnik’s explanation of how to segment your search traffic into verticals by pulling a parameter from the URLs in the SERPS.

Our own Jen “Don’t call me J-LO” Lopez, gives us a crash course on measuring your social media efforts.

Finally, Mike Ramsey from Nifty Marketing can help you get a handle on creating local content.

Now that school is back in session we hope you’re excited to start learning again. Please enjoy Moz Academy and share the lessons with folks learning SEO or trying to get a nice refresh.

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Posted by neilpatel

I used to perform keyword research in the typical, perfunctory way—go to the Keyword Tool, type in some words, and punch out a list of terms.

Easy. Quick. Simple.

Today, things are different. The much-loved
keyword tool has been replaced, long-tail keywords have the ascendancy, and it’s harder to figure out what users are actually searching for.

The rules have changed, and so have the ways of playing the game. I still use the
Keyword Planner, but I’ve also discovered a medley of not-so-obvious ways to get keywords that improve my organic traffic.

1. Wikipedia

Do you think of Wikipedia as just a massive encyclopedia? Think again.
I use Wikipedia for keyword research.

Image from Search Engine Journal.

My process is pretty simple.

Step 1: Google inurl:Wikipedia and my topic. Or just Google the topic or head term. Wikipedia is often the first organic result.

Step 2: Look at the SERP to identify the most relevant terms and possible keywords within a Wikipedia entry.

Step 3: Open the entry in Wikipedia and identify the most relevant terms from the first few paragraphs, morphing them into longail iterations.

Step 4: Identify other relevant terms from Wikipedia’s table of contents on the topic.

Step 5: Link to other associated Wikipedia to see related subjects, and identify even more keywords.

Wikipedia is the world’s
sixth most popular website, and ranks it at number #4 on Google’s list. It boasts 310,000,000 unique visitors (20% of its traffic), and has 7,900,000,000 pageviews. All of this with absolutely no advertising.

In other words, Wikipedia has one of the best organic SEO strategies on the planet. Obviously, these are keywords that matter. Wikipedia’s popularity shows us that people want information. It’s like the greatest content marketing strategy ever, combining user-generated content with prolific publishing on a grand scale.

Do what Wikipedia does. Use the terms that people search for. You won’t outrank Wikipedia, but you will start to rank organically for the longtail varieties that you discern from Wikipedia.

2. Google autocomplete

When you type stuff into Google’s search bar, Google predicts your query and types it out for you. The feature has been around
for a long time. The more time that goes by, the more intelligent the autocomplete algorithm becomes.

These autocomplete suggestions are all based on real user queries. They vary based on geographic location and language. However, in spite of the variation, autocomplete provides a fairly accurate representation of what people are looking for.

Here is why autocomplete is a killer source of keywords:

Step 1: It indicates some of the most popular keywords.

Step 2: It provides longtail suggestions.

Step 3: The keywords are ranked according to the “freshness layer” algorithm. That means that currently popular search terms will rank higher in the autocomplete list.

How do you use autocomplete for keyword research? Well, you can go about this the good old-fashioned spade and shovel way, like this:

Step 4: Open Google. To prevent Google from autocompleting previously-searched for terms, log out of Google or open an “incognito” window (Chrome: Shift + Cmnd + N).

Step 5: Type in your main keyword or longtail keyword E.g. “lawnmower.”

Step 6: Write down the suggestions that appear in autocomplete.

Step 7: After you type in your main keyword or head term, type in “A” and write down the autocomplete suggestions.

Step 8: Repeat Step 7 for rest of the alphabet.

Or, you can do it the easy way, with Übersuggest. It’s called”suggest on steroids.” It will do all the work for you. The only downside is that it doesn’t suggest keyword extensions based on search popularity.

If you can get past the eye-popping UI, Übersuggest is a pretty awesome tool.

Keep in mind that Google is not going to provide suggestions for everything.
As quoted in Search Engine Land, here is what the algorithm will filter out:

• Hate- or violence-related suggestions
• Personally identifiable information in suggestions
• Porn & adult content-related suggestions
• Legally mandated removals
• Piracy-related suggestions

3. Google Related Searches

Since Google is the biggest search engine, we’ve got to take our cues from its mighty algorithm, imperfect and agonizing though it may be.

Google’s related searches is a really easy way to snag some instant keyword research.

Step 1: Search for your keyword in Google.

Step 2: Scroll to the bottom, and ignore everything in between.

There, at the bottom is a harvest of keywords, ripe for the selection:

The idea is similar to Google suggest. However, instead of providing autocomplete suggestions, Google takes the keyword and mixes it up with other words. These other words may be at the end, at the beginning, or sprinkled throughout. These related searches might not even include the actual keyword, but are simply connected in a tangential way.

Whatever the case, you will undoubtedly find some keyword ideas from this list.

4. MetaGlossary.com

Not a whole lot of people know about MetaGlossary.com. You won’t find a lot of information about the company itself, but you will find a ton of keyword ideas.

Here are the instructions. Not too hard.

The whole point of the glossary is to provide definitions. But along with the many definitions, you’ll get “related terms.” That’s what we’re looking for.

When I type in “Search Engine Optimization,” my head term, here’s what I get:

All of those are potential keywords.

I can take this a step further by looking through the definitions. These can provide even more keyword fodder:

For this particular term, I found 117 definitions. That’s enough to keep me busy for a while.

5. Competitor keywords

Another great way to get keyword ideas is to snag them from the competition.

Not only are you going to identify some great keywords, but you’ll be able to gain these keywords ideas from the top-ranking organic sites in the SERPs.

Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Google your top keyword.

Step 2: Click the first organic result.

Step 3: View the page source (Chrome: Cmnd + Alt + u)

Step 4: Search for “<Title>”. Identify any non-branded terms as possible keywords.

Step 5: Search for “<h1>”. Identify any potential keywords in the H1 text.

Step 6: Search for “<keywords>”. Identify any potential keywords that they have identified as such. Some websites have this, such as specific Wordpress themed sites, or WP sites using an SEO plugin. Most websites don’t.

Step 7: Look at all the content and locate any additional longtail keywords or keyword variations.

The competitors that are first in the SERP for a given head term or longtail query are ranking high for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is their keyword selection. Sure, they may have good link profiles, but you can’t rank for a keyword unless you actually have that keyword (or some variation thereof) on your page.

6. Amazon.com

Amazon.com is king of the ecommerce jungle, no questions asked.

Part of their power is that they have total domination of the organic search results for just about any purchase-related keyword. When your audience circles closer to a transactional search query, Amazon is ranking somewhere.

Why? They’ve got keywords—lots of them. And they have reviews—lots of them. This means one thing for you: Lots of keywords ideas.

Let me make a quick clarification. Not everyone is going to find keyword ideas on Amazon. This works best if you have a physical products, and obviously only if Amazon sells it.

Here’s how to skim the cream off of Amazon’s great keywords.

Step 1: Google your keyword.

Step 2: Locate the Amazon entry in the SERP.

Step 3: Click on the result to see the product/landing page on Google.

Step 4: Locate keywords in the following places.

-“Show results for” menu

-Main header

-Text underneath main header

-“## Results for” text.

-Breadcrumb

-Items listed

Here’s a quick survey of where you can find these keywords. Notice the highlighted text.

You’ll find even more keywords once you dive into individual products.

Pay special attention to these areas on product pages:

-“Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”

-“Product Description”

-“Product Ads from External Websites”

-“Customer Questions & Answers.” You’ll find some nice query-like longtail keywords here.

-“Customer Reviews.” Again, this is a great source of longtails.

Let Amazon be your guide. They’re the biggest e-retailer around, and they have some great keyword clout going for them.

Conclusion

Keyword research is a basic skill for any SEO. The actual process of finding those keywords, however, does not require expensive tools, formula-driven methods, or an extremely limited pool of options.

I’ve used each of these methods for myself and my clients with incredible success.

What is your favorite source for finding great keywords? 

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