The good news is that in the SEO world, it’s perfectly acceptable to cheat off a classmate’s test. 

What we mean by that is you can analyze your competitors’ websites to find new SEO opportunities and improve the performance of your own site. 

One of the best ways to pull this off is to learn how to do a competitor analysis in Semrush, which offers a suite of SEO tools perfect for peeking under the hood of competing websites. 

With their tools, you’ll be able to:

• Discover your competitor’s top traffic sources
• Analyze a competitor’s backlink profile to find new opportunities 
• Find any user experience enhancements that your site lacks (i.e., faster loading speed, responsive design, easy to navigate, etc.)
• Determine the effectiveness of their landing pages 

As you can see, analyzing your SEO competitors will yield many valuable insights for your own strategy, which is why learning how to do a competitor analysis in Semrush is worth your time – so stick around to learn more. 

What’s a Competitor Analysis in SEO?

SEO is a fiercely competitive space, as websites are constantly outranking and outperforming one another on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). 

In particular, websites fight for the coveted #1 organically ranked result, as well as landing SERP features like knowledge bars and the ‘local pack’ (a grouping of three local businesses complete with their address and location on Google Maps). 

Even when a website achieves stellar rankings for their most important keywords, they have to fight to maintain their positions – as there are always competitors out there eager to dethrone you at a moment’s notice. 

That means continuing to put out excellent content that’s optimized for search engines, which can be difficult to maintain after a while. 

That’s why so many SEOs look to their competitors for inspiration, especially for new content ideas and fresh link opportunities. 

Platforms like Semrush provide detailed data about virtually any website’s SEO and marketing activities, and taking a peek can provide invaluable insights. 

Therefore, you shouldn’t hesitate to analyze your competitor’s SEO profiles, as they’re likely doing the same to you. 

During a competitor analysis, you should pay attention to things like:

• Their total organic traffic
• Whether their audience is growing or declining
• The channels that drive the most traffic 
• Their backlink profiles (especially where they’re getting their links from) 

Analyzing your competitors isn’t something you can only do just once, either. You can and should make a regular habit of auditing your top competitor’s websites. 

How Do You Identify Your SEO Competitors?

Before you can analyze your competitors, you need to know who they are – which isn’t always straightforward. 

Sure, you can search on Google for the keywords you’re targeting and see who shows up, but that won’t give you a comprehensive overview of your top competitors. 

That’s where Semrush comes in handy. 

Its Organic Research tool will take all the mystery out of identifying your competitors. Simply enter your URL in the search bar, and then navigate to the Competitors tab. 

Voila, you now have a complete list of the websites competing for the same traffic, keywords, and target audience. 

You’ll also get to view key metrics like how many keywords they rank for, their total organic traffic, any keywords that you share (common keywords), and more. 

Semrush’s Traffic Analytics Tool 

Once you know who your top competitors are, you can do head-to-head comparisons between their site and yours using Semrush’s Traffic Analytics tool. 

First, enter a competitor’s URL into the tool to see a breakdown of their traffic, bounce rate, dwell time, market share, and other important metrics. 

This will give you a detailed overview of the competitor’s current SEO performance. If you scroll further down the page, you’ll find a graph displaying the same metrics as above but over a period of time. 

The graph is useful for spotting competitor trends, such as certain times of the year when they experience dips in traffic (like during the holidays). 

Besides analyzing a competitor’s metrics by themselves, you can also plug in your URL to do a direct comparison between SEO metrics and user experience. 

Under Root Domain, you’ll see four blank competitor slots. Add your URL into one of them, and hit the Compare button. 

This is extremely effective for visualizing the gap (if there is one) between you and a competitor. In the example provided, you can see that Vrbo trails behind AirBnB in nearly every category except for Pages per visit and bounce rate. 

That could mean that while AirBnB is generating more traffic, users are interacting more with Vrbo’s site. Since the bounce rate is lower and the pages per visit metric is higher, it’s a sign that users are continuing on to other pages on Vrbo’s website instead of ending their session after visiting one page. 

If you were AirBnB, it would be worth looking into Vrbo’s content and internal linking structure to see what’s engaging users so much. 

Analyzing a Competitor’s Backlink Profile 

Once you’ve done an in-depth analysis of a competitor’s content and traffic sources, it’s time to look at their backlink profile. 

You should never complete a competitor analysis without looking at their backlinks, as they often provide the most valuable insights and opportunities. 

Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool is perfect for checking out a competing site’s top backlink sources. 

Enter a competitor’s URL into the tool, and you’ll be able to see an overview of their backlink profile, including their total number of referring domains and backlinks. 

Under the Backlinks tab, you can view a competitor’s complete backlink profile, which will help you uncover new link opportunities to pursue. In particular, pay attention to their source pages. 

Are they getting links from directories you don’t know about? Or are they using websites in your niche that accept guest posts? Either way, you could be a few outreach emails away from lots of new backlinks. 

Claim an Exclusive 14-Day Trial of Semrush Pro Today 

Analyzing competitors is one of the best ways to mix up your SEO strategy – especially if you’ve been a bit stagnant lately. 

If you’re fresh out of engaging content ideas and can’t seem to move the SEO needle anymore, your competitor’s websites should be your first stop. 

Are you ready to enjoy all the powerful SEO tools that Semrush offers?

Then, don’t wait to take advantage of our exclusive extended 14-day trial of Semrush Pro. The standard trial only lasts 7 days, so don’t forget to use our special link to snag an extra week for free!    

The post How to Do a Competitor Analysis in Semrush to Find SEO Ideas appeared first on The HOTH.

You probably also know that in the SEO community, there are a few different opinions on what it takes to find a high-quality guest post placement.

Luckily, here at the HOTH, we’ve seen how content marketing and search engines have changed over the past 12 years for clients and constantly analyze our data.

We’ve worked with thousands of websites and blogs for guest posting placements. We know link building.

You could say that we know what makes for good link building opportunities.

That’s why in this article, we are going to cover 9 important red flags and criteria that we use when finding high-authority sites for high-quality guest posts.

9 Red Flags to Look for when Vetting Guest Posting Sites

You want your backlinks to come from good-looking sites that add value in Google’s eyes. The point is to show Google that you can be trusted and that you deserve to rank higher in Google Search results.

Here are 9 actual red flags and criteria that we look for when vetting a site from to consider for link outreach.

Metrics: Website Authority vs. Traffic

When it comes to good guest posts, Google is looking for links from sites that have established authority or organic traffic from Google.

The more quality links you have, the better your content (and domain as a whole) looks in Google’s eyes.

Google is very upfront with this.

One of the biggest things that Google is looking for when it comes to your backlinks is the authority of the linking site.

Here at the HOTH we use two of the most common metrics in the SEO industry: DR and DA. When ordering guest post links, you can select your preferred criteria

The minimum DR and DA requirement of sites that we work with is 20.

On top of that, each DR 20-39 and DA 20-39 placement must have a minimum of 150 traffic/month.

Guest Posts with a DR or DA of 40+ require a minimum of 500 traffic/month.

Why? 

Because this prevents getting links from sites with artificially inflated authority that don’t actually provide any value for users. 

In other words, if Google is sending organic traffic to them, you can bet that a backlink from that site will be valuable in Google’s eyes.

What’s the difference?

Why do we use DR from Ahrefs and DA from Moz? 

Because they are such widely used metrics and are standard in the SEO industry when identifying authoritative domains.

DR is used solely to indicate the relative strength of your backlink profile.

DA is calculated using a variety of different factors. Some of the most important ones according to Moz are:

• Age of the domain
• The mobile-friendliness of the site
• Quality of backlinks
• Quality and quantity of unique content
• Social share signals
• Various on-page, and technical SEO elements

Both are relative metrics, meaning that the scores are based on how you stack up relative to all other sites.

Other metrics like TF/CF from Majestic can be helpful in a granular sense, but they don’t matter much to us when it comes to standalone metrics. Ultimately, we see Google is looking for established authority or established organic traffic and preferably, both.

Traffic

Organic traffic is one of the biggest signals that Google likes a website.

Think about it. If Google trusts a site enough to send traffic to it and rank it, then it makes sense that a backlink from that site would look good in Google’s eyes.

We set a minimum requirement of 1000 estimated monthly organic traffic according to SEMRush when finding backlinks for our clients.

Both?

If you can find a site with established authority and organic traffic, you’re getting the best of both worlds!

A contextual backlink from a site that has a good track record in the eye’s of search engines and currently brings in visitors from Google provides maximum value. 

From thousands of campaigns on our managed service, HOTH X, we found that a mixture of website authority and traffic-based links is an effective link-building strategy. 

It’s also a great way to ensure a variety of different referring domains to your money pages.

This led us to experiment with stricter criteria…

We recently launched a tier of our link outreach service that guarantees a link from a DA 30+ and 5k/month minimum traffic site or a DA30+ and 15k/monthly minimum traffic site and the results have been out of this world!

Eye Test (How does it look?)

Look at the website. You don’t want something that has formatting issues or is not easy to navigate.

Spammy websites, forum sites, dead sites, all of them can often be eliminated with a general eye test.

That being said, keep in mind that the aesthetics of a DA 10 site will probably be different than the aesthetics of a DA 50 site.

Ultimately, you want an easy-to-navigate website header and well-organized sections on the website according to topic/niche.

Here is an example of a site that DOES NOT pass the eye test:

Too Many Ads

Nothing is worse than a website littered with ads. It’s a sure sign of a spammy site and doesn’t provide any real value to users or Google’s eyes.

Sites that are hard to navigate due to too many ads are a MAJOR red flag when looking for link outreach sites.

Here is an example:

Updated Content

How often is the domain posting new content?

If it’s a dead domain that hasn’t posted in over a year, it might not be the best choice for a guest post submission. 

The more content they post, the more Google will crawl their website.

Irrelevant site categories

If the site you want to guest post on has a variety of site categories about topics that are completely irrelevant to your niche, that’s a red flag. 

That being said, here’s a little secret…

General sites are ok!

If I run an eCommerce business that makes fishing equipment, Google isn’t looking for JUST fishing blogs to link to me. That might actually look a bit unnatural.

Let’s say there is a general online magazine that creates a variety of content for readers. 

If it’s an authoritative website in Google’s eyes, why wouldn’t I want it to link to my business? As long as content is well written and you are using proper anchor text strategies, it will result in a contextually relevant and juicy backlink. 

Do-follow vs No-follow

When paying for a backlink, you want a the followed link to be the most powerful.

Check out a few of the articles on the website. Use Moz‘ toolbar extension or any other extension/SEO Tools to check if there is a do-follow link within the article.

You can also use Ahrefs site explorer.

First, put the URL of the domain into site explorer

Next, scroll down and click “linked domains”:

From here, you can select the type of link and see the total number of each type coming from this domain.

This is a great way to make sure that your link will be do-follow.

Additionally, you should confirm that your link will be do-follow with the webmaster when doing outreach.

Sponsored Tags/Sponsored Messages

Some websites have guest posts but with sponsored messages or sponsored tags on the posts.

In 2019, Google introduced the rel=”sponsored” attribute which identifies links that are sponsored content or promotional in nature. Think of it as a type of “no-follow” link

It’s basically telling Google that you’ve paid for the link and that it is promotional content.

There isn’t anything inherently bad about that for SEO purposes, but it doesn’t carry the same weight nor does it look as organic as a genuine guest post.

These sites will often mark all of their sponsored content with a “Sponsored” tag, which makes it easy to find:

Even if they don’t use the sponsored link attribute or use a sponsored tag, they might have sponsored messages before or after the content on their blog.

Any site that has a blatant “Write for Us” section is a red-flag.

PBNs

If you’ve been in the Search Engine Optimization world for a while, you are probably familiar with this outdated marketing strategy. 

You can spot PBN’s because they just look spammy and unnatural which makes it easy to see that they are just churning content for the purpose of getting a link back to their other websites.

Many of these sites have a “Partner” section that is full of spammy links and walls of random text. Out of all of the backlink guidelines we have at the HOTH, this one is the easiest to spot.

Homepage and sidebar links are a HUGE red flag. Oftentimes they will be at the bottom of the page and link to completely irrelevant sites with exact match keywords. It just LOOKS bad.

No Forum-only sites

Forum-only sites are websites that allow anyone to create an account to become a contributor.

Let’s be clear, sites that allow you to create an account to see certain content is absolutely fine. It is only a problem if the site allows ANYONE to publish content.

Extra tips:

2 extra tips when you find a good opportunity for link outreach:

Make sure YOUR content is quality

In digital marketing in general, you need to have quality content. 

Keep in mind that big websites can get dozens, sometimes hundreds of guest blogging and backlink requests per week, so you need to make sure you are creating content that will actually add value to their website. Many of these sites have guidelines that you need to follow.

If I own a website, why would I want to litter my website with pages that don’t help anyone?

Do lots of outreach (and follow up)

If you found a relevant website that you want a link from, it’s not guaranteed that they will want your post or that they will even RESPOND.

We make sure to follow up ASAP with webmasters we work with if we haven’t heard back from them for a few days.

Check out our complete guide and for more information on how to do quality manual outreach.

Conclusion:

There it is! We’ve shared our process of how we determine if we can work with a site for backlinks. Our team thoroughly checks each site to make sure they meet all of these guidelines.

It’s a lot of effort to vet websites for link opportunities and keep up with quality manual outreach at scale.

That’s why we’ve spent so much time building out our vetting and outreach process at the HOTH. Our team is full of experts at vetting websites and manual outreach for link placements.

Trust US with your link outreach so that you can know that the sites you get placed on will be quality.

You can sign up for a free HOTH account here.

The post How to Identify Quality Backlinks appeared first on The HOTH.

These aren’t the type of cookies that your grandma makes, either. 

Despite the innocent-sounding name, third-party cookies are small files that collect analytics, track browsing behavior, and personalize online ads. 

In other words, cookies are the reason why YouTube and Amazon ads all display things you’ve searched for online recently (like a YouTube ad for mattresses playing shortly after visiting mattress websites). 

While third-party cookies have been invaluable for digital ad agencies to gather precious consumer data, they’ve long been viewed as a violation of user privacy. 

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that hackers can use cookies for nefarious purposes, such as stealing a user’s personal information or financial data. 

That’s why Google plans to eliminate third-party cookies, as they feel it will provide a safer, more private browsing experience. 

Not everyone is celebrating the news, though. 

Lots of ad tech firms rely on third-party cookies to inform their advertising strategies, and as soon as Google gets rid of cookies entirely in Q3, they’ll lose their data collection abilities. 

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though. 

Stay tuned to learn more about Google’s campaign against cookies (including their plan for the future of ad tracking) and how focusing on SEO will help you kick the cookie habit. 

1% of Chrome Users are Now Cookie-Free 

While 1% of Google Chrome users may not seem like a lot, it’s crucial to remember that Chrome is the most popular online web browser. 

As of December 2023, a whopping 62.85% of online users cite Chrome as their preferred browser. Their closest competitor is Apple’s Safari, which accounts for 20.04% of users, so Google has an immense lead. 

That means that 1% of Chrome users translates to about 30 million online users, which is pretty significant. 

Google chose to start with 1% to enable small-scale testing of the Privacy Sandbox tools during Q1 of this year. 

Once they’re done tweaking and refining the Tracking Protection feature, it will roll out to the rest of Chrome users in Q3 2024. 

This change has been a long time coming, as competing browsers like Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple Safari already phased out third-party cookies by 2020. 

Google planned to follow suit shortly after, but its plans to phase out cookies have been postponed twice already. Initially scheduled for 2022, the implementation was postponed until late 2023 and then again to early 2024. 

The reason for the delay?

Privacy Sandbox vice president Anthony Chavez claims the delays were necessary to test and refine the technologies involved with the process. 

Since Safari and Firefox have already kissed cookies goodbye, third-party cookies will basically become a thing of the past as soon as Google’s implementation is complete in Q3 2024. 

Cookie-Free Advertising: The Way of the Future 

The writing is on the wall for third-party cookies, so the last thing you should do is plan to keep using them in 2024. 

Instead, it’s time to audit your cookie usage to find ways to collect user data without them. 

This is easier said than done for lots of ad tech agencies, and they remain wary of Google’s proposed alternatives (more on this in a bit). 

As a result, some ad publishers may see an initial decrease in revenue from the removal of tracking cookies. They will only recover from the loss if they adapt and find a new solution to track user data. 

The good news is there are plenty of ways that ad agencies can get ahead of the curve and preserve their business – one of which is Google’s suggestion to switch to APIs. 

Weaning off cookies with Google’s API alternatives

Google isn’t giving digital ad agencies the cold shoulder during the cookie phaseout, as they have developed alternative ways for advertisers to collect user data. 

In particular, Google has several application programming interfaces (APIs) that mimic the invaluable functions of third-party cookies for online advertisers – albeit while preserving user’s anonymity. 

But can you really kick your cookie cravings with one of Google’s API patches?

The Topics and Protected Audience APIs provide advertisers with limited information about user’s interests. Chrome discovers these interests by analyzing browsing history data that it stores on user devices instead of external servers for better security. 

From there, websites can choose ads based on these user interests, although the API won’t track cross-site activity as third-party cookies do. 

Still, these two APIs provide advertisers a way to collect valuable user data without violating their privacy (hence the name ‘Protected Audience’ API). 

Since these APIs don’t fully replicate the tracking capabilities of third-party cookies, some advertisers may view them as watered down. 

There are also ID-based solutions that advertisers can flock to if they aren’t a fan of Google’s APIs. These cookieless solutions use anonymized email addresses instead of third-party cookies, and they provide cross-site tracking. 

Got No Cookies? Focus on Organic SEO Instead 

If you don’t want to see a significant revenue dropoff once cookies fall by the wayside, you should start focusing on organic SEO sooner rather than later. 

With search engine optimization, you can generate tons of traffic, leads, and sales – and no third-party cookies (or expensive ad bidding) are required. 

As long as you have outstanding content and an impressive backlink profile, you’ll always appear at the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages), Google will trust your content, and you’ll enjoy lots of referral traffic. 

The prevalence of AI, Google SGE, and other factors are significantly changing the online advertising space, so you need to find ways to stay ahead of the curve – and SEO is the best way to do that. 

Moreover, SEO is a form of inbound marketing, so you don’t have to disrupt user experiences with ads. Instead, your informative and engaging content will draw your audience to your front door, making it far easier to land conversions. 

If you need help adjusting to a cookie-less internet, don’t wait to sign up for HOTH X, our renowned managed SEO service run by experts.    

The post An Empty Cookie Jar: Google Phases Out Third-Party Cookies appeared first on The HOTH.

Our guess is that you wouldn’t go anywhere near it. 

Yet, that’s what it’s like shopping at an online store that doesn’t use SSL/TLS encryption (HTTPS). 

That’s why HTTPS has become the norm for virtually every website online – and you need to get an SSL certificate to use it. 

It’s largely replaced HTTP, although there are still PLENTY of websites online that have yet to make the switch.

How do you know if a website uses HTTP or HTTPS?

All you have to do is check for the tiny padlock symbol in your browser bar next to the URL. 

Besides the padlock, the URL will also begin with ‘https,’ which is how you know your connection is secure. 

If there’s no padlock and you see ‘http,’ your connection isn’t secure. 

HTTP has become so frowned upon that popular web browsers like Google Chrome will flag sites using it as ‘not secure,’ complete with a warning message for users to continue at their own risk.

If you’ve recently started a website or blog, you DEFINITELY want to get an SSL certificate, lest ye be shunned by the internet at large. 

As a bonus, HTTPS is a lightweight ranking factor, so using it will help your SEO. 

Read on to learn how you can get an SSL certificate for your website without paying a dime. 

Understanding SSL, TLS, and HTTPS

Given all the acronyms, it’s easy to become confused when discussing things like SSL certificates, TLS encryption, and HTTP/HTTPS.

Here’s a quick breakdown of each term:

• SSL (Secure Socket Layer). A secure socket layer makes it possible to establish a secure connection between a website and a browser by encrypting the data (scrambling it so it doesn’t make sense). It can also securely connect two servers. With all the data encrypted, hackers won’t be able to access sensitive personal or financial information. 
• TLS (Transport Layer Security). TLS is an updated version of SSL that’s even more secure. However, since SSL is such a common term, everyone still calls them SSL certificates (even though they all use TLS now). 
• HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). HTTPS is the transfer protocol used whenever a website has an SSL certificate, and it appears at the beginning of a URL. Users can also click on the padlock symbol to view more information about the SSL certificate (try it out on this web page if you want). 

To summarize, SSL is now outdated, and all SSL certificates use TLS instead. Since TLS hasn’t entered the lexicon yet, people still stubbornly call them SSL certificates.

Why Do SSL Certificates Matter?

We’ve already mentioned that browsers like Chrome display a warning message before directing users to HTTP websites. 

Despite this, there are still websites that use HTTP even now, especially lots of international websites. 

For example, China’s most popular search engine, Baidu, does not use a secure connection. Whenever you visit the website, you’ll see a padlock with a red line through it next to the URL – meaning that your data is not secure. 

Google doesn’t like HTTP at all, which is why HTTP sites almost never appear on its search engine results pages (SERPs).

They even use what they call default HTTPS indexing, which means if a site has two versions using two different protocols, Google will always index the HTTPS version above all others. 

So, if you want your website to stand a snowball’s chance in hell of ranking in the top 5, an SSL certificate is an absolute necessity. 

Besides improving your SEO, there are plenty of other ways having an SSL certificate will benefit your website.

They’re invaluable for eCommerce stores

Since SSL/TLS ensures a secure connection between your server and your users’ browsers, all their sensitive information gets encrypted. 

That means if a mischievous hacker tries to take a peep at one of your transactions, all they’ll see are scrambled numbers and letters. 

For your own sake, you should never shop at an online store unless you see the padlock symbol next to the URL. Otherwise, any data you enter into the site (credit card numbers, email addresses, social security numbers) is at risk. 

Whenever shoppers see that your connection is secure, it’ll put their minds at ease, and they’ll be far more likely to trust your brand. 

If you try to build an eCommerce store without an SSL certificate, you’ll practically vanish from the SERPs, and your users won’t want to put their data at risk to buy whatever it is that you’re selling. 

Added protection against hackers 

As a site owner, you need to protect your login credentials with your life. Should a hacker uncover your username and password, they could enter your website and do whatever they please. 

Luckily, an SSL certificate drastically reduces the chances of this happening due to encryption. 

If a hacker tries to take a peek at your sensitive information, the TLS encryption will jumble the data to the point that it’s indecipherable. 

Meet PCI standards 

Any website that wants to enable card payments (debit and credit) must first meet the requirements laid out by the PCI (Payment Card Industry) Security Standards Council. 

One of these requirements is that each website must have an SSL certificate for a secure connection. 

If you aren’t using HTTPS, you won’t be able to accept card payments on your website, which is a huge downside. 

Ways to Get an SSL Certificate for Free

Now that you know why SSL certificates are necessary, it’s time to learn how to get one. 

The good news?

Since HTTPS is so widespread now, it’s extremely easy to get an SSL certificate for free. 

While there are still commercial SSL certificates that cost money, they aren’t necessary for most website owners. That’s because the level of encryption you get with a paid SSL certificate is exactly the same as a free one. 

Wait, why would anyone pay for one, then?

Some sites pay for SSL certificates due to other perks, such as better customer support, the ability to secure more complex systems, and more validation options. 

Using CloudFare 

At The HOTH, we use the free SSL certificate we got from CloudFare.

They were actually the first-ever company to offer free SSL certificates, as they launched their Universal SSL back in 2014. 

To claim your certificate, all you have to do is sign up for a free CloudFare account, which will also provide your site with the following performance benefits:

• Protection from DDOS attacks
• Filters out most spam attacks 
• Protects against comment spam (VERY useful for your forum and blog comments section)
• SQL injection protection 

Here’s what you need to do to snag your free SSL certificate. 

First, head over to the CloudFare website and click the Sign Up button. 

Once you’ve created a basic account, it’s time to add your website to CloudFare. 

From there, CloudFare will scan your website to uncover your IP information. 

Next, you’ll need to select a package (select the free version if you don’t want to pay anything).

Lastly, CloudFare may give you some settings that you need to change with your registrar or hosting company for the platform to work correctly. 

Once that’s done, voila! You now have a free SSL certificate, as well as protection from most spam attacks and a rock-solid CDN (content delivery network).

We feel this option is the best for most site owners, as it’s completely free and provides an overall security boost to your website. What’s not to love about that?

Other methods besides CloudFare 

If you don’t feel that CloudFare is a good fit for you, or if you’re already using another CDN – there are other ways to obtain SSL certificates for free. 

Services like ZeroSSL and LetsEncrypt both offer free SSL certificates, and they work with most hosting providers. 

If your website is hosted on cPanel, you’ll get a free certificate from them using AutoSSL. 

You won’t have to worry about filling out forms or copying certificates into place. Instead, AutoSSL takes care of everything for you, including installation and renewal. 

All you have to do is enable AutoSSL, and you’ll automatically have a free, domain-validated SSL certificate for your website. 

The website SSL For Free is another option, and all you have to do is enter your domain name to get started. Their site also contains lots of tutorials covering SSL certificate verification, installation, and renewal – which is a helpful resource. 

It really doesn’t matter which method you use as long as you wind up with a verified SSL certificate for your website. 

Once you have one, you’ll enjoy better visibility on search engines. Also, Google Chrome won’t warn users about your site, and the secure connection will protect your data from hackers. 

Start Protecting Your Website’s Data for Free 

That’s all it takes to start using an SSL certificate on your website, and the benefits of doing so are almost too many to count. 

HTTPS is by far the norm these days, so using HTTP will make you stick out like a sore thumb. Most users won’t trust your site, and there’ll be an unsightly red line through the padlock symbol. 

That’s why it’s worth taking the time to install a free SSL certificate. 

If you need help with the technical side of your SEO strategy, including site security, don’t wait to check out our five-star Technical SEO Services.      

The post Why You Need an SSL Certificate (and How to Get One Free) appeared first on The HOTH.

Illyes touched on many topics during the session, including Google ‘un-launches’ (which apparently happen more than we think), AI content, user click data and algorithm updates. 

Yet, it was the claim he made about link-building that has the SEO world buzzing with speculation right now. 

In particular, someone from the crowd asked if links were still one of the top 3 ranking factors on Google, and Illyes claimed, “I think they are important, but I think people overestimate the importance of links. I don’t agree it’s in the top three. It hasn’t been for some time.”

This is nothing new, as Illyes made a similar claim during a keynote speech at another Pubcon event in February, stating, “Links are important, but not as important as people think.”

In fact, Google has been downplaying the importance of links for several years now. 

In November, Duy Nguyen of Google’s Search Quality Team said links don’t matter as much for SEO as they did when Google first launched. 

Back in 2020, John Mueller proclaimed, “Links are definitely not the most important SEO factor.”

So what gives?

Why is the search platform that invented the concept of links as citations to improve the quality of search results suddenly backing off their importance? 

Do backlinks really not matter as much, or is something else going on? Read on to learn more. 

The HOTH’s Argument on Link-Building for Authority 

As one of the world’s leading SEO companies, we do our fair share of link-building here at The HOTH. 

Our Link Outreach and Link Insertions services are among our most popular (and successful) products. 

In fact, we’ve propelled hundreds of clients to the top of the SERPs by exclusively using link-building tactics. 

As such, we can attest first-hand that links are still a significant ranking factor for Google Search. 

The proof?

Here are metrics for our HOTH website proving that links and traffic still go hand-in-hand:

That’s not to say that Illyes’ claim has no merit or basis in reality, just that you shouldn’t abandon your link-building campaigns anytime soon. 

Also, it’s crucial to note that he didn’t say that links aren’t an important ranking factor, just that he doesn’t feel it’s in the top 3. 

In reference to Duy Nguyen’s comments, it’s definitely true that link-building is a different game than when Google Search first launched, but so is SEO as a whole. 

In the early days, every link counted as a ‘vote,’ making it easier for webmasters to manipulate search rankings by accumulating lots of links from any website they could find.  

Countless algorithm updates have come and gone since then, including many focused on eliminating link spam. 

As time went on, quality came to beat quantity, meaning that links from high-quality, trusted websites mean a lot more than links from subpar domains. 

So it’s not that links don’t matter for SERP rankings anymore, just that link-building as a practice has evolved. 

Content and On-Page SEO as Top Ranking Elements 

Something that no one debates is that content is the #1 most important ranking factor on Google, followed shortly by on-page SEO factors (optimized metadata, headers, readable layout, keywords, etc.). 

Illyes was quick to point out during the AMA that “Without content, it literally is not possible to rank. If you don’t have words on the page, you’re not going to rank for it.”

What’s interesting is that this is nothing new either, as content and on-page SEO factors have always been more important ranking factors than links. 

After all, if you don’t have any content to link to, then links aren’t going to matter anyway. 

On-page SEO and content factors have been more important ranking factors for a long time

The best thing you can do for your website’s search rankings is create engaging, relevant content that your audience wants to consume. 

At the same time, you can’t ignore vital on-page factors like:

• Proper keyword placement (first 100 words of the copy, title tag, several times in the body copy, H1 tag, etc.)
• Engaging headers that summarize each subtopic and follow a logical structure (H1, H2, H3 under H2, H4 under H3, etc.) 
• Meta descriptions that summarize the content and encourage users to click with a CTA
• Keyword-rich metadata 
• Structured data to quality for rich results 
• Internal linking to other relevant pages on your website
• Stellar page content that features short, readable sentences and paragraphs 
• Lines of alt text (containing keywords) that describe all images 

So yes, content and on-page SEO have long been the most important ranking factors for Google Search. 

But does that mean that you can dominate your niche’s SERP rankings with only content and on-page SEO?

No, it does not. 

It’s easy for Google to say “For SEO as a whole, links are not in the top three factors.” because that makes sense. 

However, assuming your site is great, “What are the next biggest factors?” is really the bigger question. There is no specific list that Gary is referring to, but for example:

If the list was:

• SSL
• Site Speed
• Clear title tags
• On Page Content
• Links

It would surprise no one because we take some of those for granted with just following webmaster guidelines.

Trust us, we’ve dealt with countless clients who have had top-tier content and flawless on-page SEO, but they were still getting outranked by competitors (even ones whose content wasn’t as fantastic). 

Why were they getting outranked? How were we able to close the distance?

It was because their competitors had stronger backlink profiles and, thus, more authority in the eyes of Google. 

Only through strategic link-building tactics were we able to close the competitor gap and reach the top of the SERPs. 

Google’s Motivations for Downplaying Links in Search Results 

As mentioned in the intro, Google has been downplaying the importance of links in SEO for years now. 

Yet, as we’ve pointed out, link–building is still one of the most effective ways to bridge the competitive gap and reach top-ranked positions. 

Just to reiterate that point, here’s one of our clients that’s seen massive benefits (more traffic and better SERP rankings) from just using our link-building services (no content creation):

HOTH Client Case Study:

One of our clients, who has been on our managed link-building service, HOTH X since May of last year, runs an e-commerce shop with over 400 different pages, all properly optimized with e-commerce Onpage SEO best practices. 

The consistent link-building is really what allowed them to grow their authority and overall trust in Google’s eyes allowing them to outrank their competitors in the long run.

As we built consistent links to their pages every month, they began to rank for more keywords and get more organic search traffic to their product pages. 

This specific page (screenshot above) went from 0 referring domains and about 50 organic visitors in October of 2022 to over 18 referring domains and almost 1,100 monthly organic visits.

Now take a look at the entire domain:

So why do the folks at Google keep telling us that links matter less and less with each passing day?

Is it possible they could have some sort of ulterior motive?

Yes and no. 

We’ve learned something over the years when dealing with statements from Google regarding SEO, and that’s to take what they say with a grain of salt (make sure it’s sea salt, though, for your health).

In other words, they have an incentive not to be entirely truthful when speaking to the public about SEO, and the reason stretches back to when they first began hiding PageRank data. 

Google’s attempts to prevent the manipulation of search results 

PageRank is the algorithm Google uses to rank websites based on user queries, and the data for it used to be public in the very early days of the company. 

However, they quickly discovered that many site owners were using the PageRank data to manipulate the search rankings using less-than-favorable tactics (i.e., link spam, keyword spam, and the like). 

Let’s not forget that Google’s ultimate goal is to match user queries with the most relevant, highest-quality results (literally the reason behind every algorithm update). 

That’s why they now hide PageRank data and why their webmaster guidelines frown on just about every SEO tactic. 

Accordingly, Google has a bit of a love/hate relationship with search engine optimization as a whole. 

If it were up to them, nobody would ever intentionally try to improve their search rankings, and every search result would show up based on its merit and quality alone. 

We live in the real world, though, and Google knows that’s not possible, so they do their best to crack down on spam through algorithm updates – and by not always being completely forthcoming with the public. 

That doesn’t mean that everything out of Google’s mouth is an outright lie, but they have a tendency to be… cagey when it comes to topics about SEO.

Examples of Effective Link-Building Strategies 

During our work with our clients, we can vouch that link-building continues to yield impressive results for our clients every day. 

It’s not by accident, either. 

Through our years of practice, we’ve discovered the most effective ways to build high-authority links, and our tactics are always changing and evolving. 

Here’s a look at some of the link-building strategies we currently utilize:

• Link Outreach. (formerly known as Guest Posts.) A classic technique, the effectiveness of guest posting continues to this very day. The trick is to focus only on writing for trusted, high-quality websites that are relevant to your target audience. 
• Link Insertions. This is a newer technique that involves less outreach than guest posting but still provides excellent results. It involves placing one of your backlinks into an existing piece of content on an authoritative website. 
• Press Releases. We use our massive network of over 300+ media and news outlets to get the word out about new developments at your business, all while accruing valuable backlinks. 
• Article Syndication. Similar to airing repeats of your favorite sitcom, our syndication service involves posting your ‘greatest hits’ to other relevant websites around the web. 

How Link-Building Can Still Improve Your SEO 

While some may misinterpret Illyes’ comments to mean that links don’t matter for SEO at all, don’t forget that he still said they’re important, just that he doesn’t think they’re in the top 3. 

Another interesting comment he made was, “There’s no universal top 3. Every site will have something different as the top 2 or 3 ranking factors.”

If that sounds confusing, don’t worry (it’s likely meant to be anyway). 

At The HOTH, we have one ultimate determining factor for any SEO technique – and that’s the results it’s able to yield. 

The numbers don’t lie, and link-building continues to work its magic for our clients. 

If you want to see drastic improvements in your website’s SERP rankings, referring domains, and organic traffic, don’t wait to check out our Link Outreach services today.

P.S. If you’re still unsure that your site would benefit from Link Outreach services, schedule a free no-pressure 15-minute demo with me here.    

The post Google’s Claim on Link-Building – What Does it Mean for SEO? appeared first on The HOTH.

Their reasoning?

According to Canel, Bing’s AI is now sophisticated enough to understand the context and intent of links, as well as their levels of trustworthiness and authority.

He says, “We can now differentiate between natural and unnatural links, and we can ignore or discount the latter without affecting the former.”

This is great news for webmasters, as this change eliminates the need for manual link profile audits. 

Currently, site owners must use the disavow tool to nullify spammy or unwanted links that could potentially harm their search rankings. 

Next month, Bing will shut down the disavow tool along with its corresponding API. It’s part of the company’s attempt to streamline its services, provide a better user experience, and save resources. 

A question on the minds of many SEO professionals is, “Will Google follow in Bing’s footsteps?” 

After all, Google has been downplaying the need to disavow links for a while now, so getting rid of the tool seems like a natural next step. 

Read on to learn more about this significant change to Bing’s Webmaster Tools, including what we think Google will do next. 

What is the Disavow Tool, Anyway?

First released in June 2012, the disavow tool gives webmasters a way to tell Bing’s search algorithm which inbound links they don’t want it to consider when evaluating their website’s quality, relevance, and trustworthiness. 

It was a necessary tool at the time because, without it, webmasters had no way to distance themselves from low-quality links pointing to their content. 

These undesirable links often come about organically, meaning low-authority websites simply choose to link to a website without contacting the webmaster (meaning the spammy link isn’t due to any of their intentional link-building efforts). 

With the disavow tool, webmasters had a way to control which links would contribute to their search performance and which would not. 

The tool was also crucial for stopping negative SEO attacks. 

What are those?

That’s when an entity (usually a direct competitor) intentionally creates or buys tons of spammy backlinks and points them all at your website in an attempt to wreck your rankings. 

You can imagine the shock if you were to one day check your Bing SEO metrics only to discover thousands of spammy links suddenly pointing at your site. 

The disavow tool is the remedy, as you can tell Bing’s algorithm to simply ignore all those awful links. 

Yet, this requires site owners to perform regular link profile audits, which is a time-consuming task that will no longer be necessary next month. 

Does Google Have a Disavow Tool?

Only a few months after Bing’s unveiling of their disavow tool, Google would follow suit in October 2012. 

However, Google’s disavow tool didn’t have the same warm reception as Bing’s, and it’s been quite a controversial topic over the years. 

For one, Google always viewed its disavow tool as a last-ditch resort for websites to get rid of bad links whenever all other efforts fail. 

In fact, Google’s Help Center at the time stated that “most websites will not need to use this tool.”

Still, that didn’t stop most webmasters from thinking that the disavow tool was a way to negate the painful effects of the infamous Penguin update (AKA the Link Apocalypse) that occurred in 2012. 

The misconception was that they could use the tool to get rid of spammy links and, therefore, rank higher on Google’s search results. 

The only problem is that Google’s disavow tool doesn’t work that way. 

Dispelling link myths that have persisted since Penguin in 2012

The source for all this confusion comes from the lingering effects of the dreaded Penguin update. 

If you weren’t doing SEO in 2012, you may not remember, but it was a BIG deal at the time. 

Google decided they’d had enough of spam, so they cracked down on violations of their guidelines in a big way. They began handing out penalties left and right, so much so that it actually negatively affected the quality of their search results. 

Since their ‘scorched Earth’ policy backfired so hard, they decided to take a different approach to dealing with link spam. 

In particular, they decided to abandon penalizing sites and settled on devaluing them instead. 

That means if you have a ton of spammy links pointing at your site, there’s no need to panic or disavow them – they simply won’t count. 

Remember the malicious SEO attacks we mentioned earlier?

Most Google users never have to worry about those because as long as your site is at least decently secured. Since low-quality links don’t count, there’s no risk of incurring a penalty or losing position rankings if they point at your site. 

The danger of listening to third-party tools 

Many SEOs still use the disavow tool because their automated third-party tools say that they need to. 

The key word there is ‘third-party,’ as these tools are not from Google. 

Yet, that doesn’t stop webmasters from freaking out whenever they see the flashing red sirens and alerts telling them that spammy links are pointing at their site and ruining their domain authority (which is another third-party metric that Google doesn’t use). 

Will Google Get Rid of its Disavow Tool?

Now that Bing’s AI is fully capable of determining which links are natural and which aren’t, webmasters will no longer have to perform manual audits. 

After all, SEOs using the disavow tool are likely eating up Google’s resources, especially when disavowing a link isn’t necessary. That means deleting the tool could free up some resources, but it’s unclear if Google will follow in Bing’s footsteps again. 

The last thing Google wants is for webmasters not to fear buying spammy links, which is why they may choose to keep their disavow tool. 

If you need top-tier link-building services for your business, don’t wait to check out our Link Outreach Service.   

The post Bing Will Nix Disavow Tool in October, Should Google Do the Same? appeared first on The HOTH.

These two statistics alone prove the need for search engine optimization, which is why companies spend more than $79 billion on SEO services each year. 

Without a strong presence in the organic search, companies are missing out on tons of potential revenue, leads, and exposure to new audiences. 

Yet, even organic SEO isn’t free, and convincing decision-makers and stakeholders at your company of its value can be a hard sell. In particular, they’ll want to know that SEO will produce a positive return on investment (ROI) for them. 

As such, calculating SEO ROI is a necessary skill to have, especially for agencies, consultants, and marketers wanting to incorporate it into their company. 

Your stakeholders will want to see a hard bottom line – solid proof that the cost of SEO is worth it, which can be tricky. 

Why is that?

It’s due to the nature of organic SEO, as there’s no direct dollar value tied to it. Also, SEO is notorious for taking a long time to start working, with the general consensus being it takes around 6 – 12 months to start seeing a positive ROI. 

If SEO ROI calculations have you scratching your head, you’ve come to the right place. 

Read on to learn the proper way to uncover the true ROI of SEO. 

The Basic Way to Calculate SEO ROI 

In theory, calculating the ROI for SEO is no different than calculating it for any other type of business. You simply need to deduct the cost of SEO from the revenue you gained. 

Here’s what the formula looks like:

• The value of SEO conversions – SEO costs/SEO investment costs 

Seems simple enough, right? So why is there confusion surrounding SEO ROI?

Well, it primarily has to do with calculating the value of the conversions that you can directly attribute to SEO, as that can get tricky. For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward to determine the total cost of your SEO investments. 

What’s more difficult is determining whether a customer converted due to your SEO efforts or another reason. For example, it may be that a prospect spent weeks reading content about your products that they found in the organic search results. 

Yet, when it comes time to make a purchase, they convert after clicking on a social media ad – which will take full credit for the conversion (despite the obvious attribution your SEO content had on the sale). 

This is nothing new, as attributing conversions to marketing channels has always been a confusing and polarizing issue, but more on that in a bit. 

For now, let’s cover some essential KPIs you can use to come up with the true ROI for your SEO campaign. 

Calculating your SEO strategy costs 

While generating organic traffic through search engines is seen as the ‘free’ way to do SEO (as opposed to pay-per-click (PPC campaigns), the old economics adage rings true here; there’s no such thing as a free lunch. 

While it’s true there’s no direct dollar value tied to ranking in the organic search results, organic SEO is by no means free. Even if you do all the work yourself, there’s still the massive time investment it takes to create and release regular content, make technical SEO tweaks, and conduct keyword research. 

All that SEO work adds up, which is why you need to keep track of your expenses. 

Here’s a common breakdown of the costs associated with organic SEO:

In-house employees 

If your employees handle blog writing, content creation, and other marketing efforts, you need to factor their wages into your costs. 

Besides people directly involved in SEO, don’t forget to include any web developers or designers that you use for image creation/web publishing/technical SEO tweaks. 

SEO agency 

If you outsource your SEO services, you need to include the monthly/annual fees you pay your agency. 

Freelancers

Don’t forget to include the wages you pay any freelance writers, developers, or graphic designers for your content marketing efforts. 

SEO tools

Then there are the monthly subscription fees you likely pay to use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. 

To be accurate, make sure to include fees from programs that aren’t specifically for SEO but are still used for it, such as HARO or PR software. 

Link building and distribution

There are also costs involved with distributing and promoting the content you release. Not only that, but if you pay for your links, you need to include those costs too. 

Besides uncovering all your costs, you’ll also need to choose a time for the calculation. If your stakeholders ask for a specific period, do your best to accommodate them. Yet, monthly comparisons don’t work well for SEO, so try to avoid them if you can. 

Determine the value of your traffic conversions 

Now we get to the tricky part, determining the conversions you can directly attribute to SEO. 

If you aren’t already, you need to set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics (GA) or a similar program. Also, ensure the tracker is set to ‘organic’ and not ‘paid’ search results. 

This will provide you with a figure for how many conversions Google believes occurred due to your SEO efforts. Carefully go over each conversion to make sure you can attribute it to SEO. 

Bear in mind that the type of conversions and their values will differ from business to business. 

For e-commerce websites, it’s pretty straightforward as they automatically send sales conversion data to GA. 

Yet, the goal of every business isn’t always a sale. Lead generation businesses, for example, often have a hard time nailing down their traffic conversions, as they aren’t so black and white. For these companies, assigning dollar values to sales-qualified leads can serve as a solution. 

SEO KPIs that convey its value 

Besides traffic conversions, there are some specific KPIs you can measure to prove the value of your SEO campaign. 

Search engine rankings 

Your rankings are arguably the most critical KPI to pay attention to. The higher you rank, the better, and improving your rankings is tangible proof that your optimization efforts are paying off. 

Organic visitors

The number of organic visitors is another way to monitor the effectiveness of your efforts. While more organic visitors don’t always lead to more revenue, they improve brand awareness. 

CTR (click-through-rate)

Your click-through rate refers to how many visitors saw your organic listing and decided to ‘click through’ to your landing page. A high CTR proves that you’re appealing to the right audience. 

Soft conversions

In addition to hard conversions (see above), there are also soft conversions, which usually result in picking up a new lead. 

Examples of soft conversions include newsletter sign-ups, social shares, and downloading content. It’s essential to pay attention to both hard and soft conversions to take in the big picture of your marketing ecosystem as a whole. 

Pages per session

Another SEO KPI is pages per session, which is how many pages a user viewed before exiting your website. 

Multiple pages per session mean you’re engaging with your audience, which is a good thing. 

Organic impressions 

An impression refers to how many times your content showed up in the search engine results. A high number of impressions is excellent for improving brand awareness. 

While these metrics don’t relate to SEO ROI outright, they’re still evidence of its effectiveness, so they’re worth bringing up to stakeholders. 

The value of assisted conversions 

Here’s where it starts to get tricky. It can be challenging to determine which marketing channel scored the traffic conversion. 

Traditionally, conversions were counted by the ‘last non-direct click.’ 

As stated before, it could be that your blog content does the brunt of the heavy lifting, only for a social media ad to take all the credit in the end since it was the closest click to the conversion event. 

Enter assisted conversions, the primary remedy to this frustrating issue. 

This model aims to give each marketing channel its fair amount of credit for each conversion instead of using the ‘last non-direct click method. 

The fact is that visitors will land on your website at all stages of the buyers’ journey, and each piece of content can affect multiple stages of the sales funnel. For example, if a customer is only looking for information at first, your blog content will steal the show. 

With some clever CTAs and product highlights, that can motivate the user to decide to move on to product pages and blogs. 

Then one day, they decide to make a purchase and do so through a retargeting ad, which will receive 100% of the credit for the conversion. Yet, we know that’s not true, as the customer went through an extensive buyer’s journey, all guided by your carefully crafted SEO content. 

So if your blogs aren’t getting any credit for direct conversions, that doesn’t mean they didn’t contribute to the sale. 

That’s why the shift to a data-driven attribution model (DDA) with Google Analytics 4 took place. 

Google Analytics 4 and the data-driven attribution model 

Google’s DDA model uses your existing data for conversion events to attribute a conversion to multiple marketing channels. 

It uses machine learning algorithms to distinguish between conversion paths and non-conversion paths. 

What are those?

A conversion path is a series of touchpoints (ads, clicks, interactions, exposure, and more) that eventually leads to a conversion event. The DDA model will then attribute partial credit to each channel in the path. 

Non-conversion paths are the same, but the touchpoints don’t lead to customer conversion, so the data gets ignored. 

Using conversion paths, the machine algorithm is able to piece together what could have happened that led to the conversion. 

If you’re already using GA4, it uses this data-driven model by default, so the value of your conversions will already have the assists factored into the equation. You can also view an Assisted Conversions Report within Google Analytics by going to Advertising > Attribution > Conversion Paths. 

Here, you can see a detailed breakdown of what Google views as the essential touchpoints for each conversion path. The touchpoints include:

• Organic search
• Referral 
• Email 
• Paid search 
• Organic social 

For each touchpoint, you’ll get to see a graph representing the amount of impact each had on the conversion during each stage of the sales funnel (early, mid, and late). 

For SEO, you only need to pay attention to the organic search for each of the stages to see how impactful it was for each conversion. 

Difficulties of Measuring SEO ROI 

Despite the advancements of the DDA model, calculating SEO ROI still has many gray areas and challenges facing it. 

Here are some of the top challenges you’ll face when attempting to put a concrete number on your return from SEO investments. 

SEO ROI takes a long time to materialize 

Time periods are a tricky issue for SEO ROI due to the nature of the work itself. In today’s age, search engine algorithms have become incredibly complex and sophisticated. 

As a result, tweaks to websites and new content takes a while to materialize in search engine results. New content has to be crawled and indexed, and there’s no shortage of fierce competition out there trying to rank for the same keywords you want. 

In other words, SEO is a long-term marketing strategy, which is why the standard ROI calculation method of comparing investments to monthly gains falls flat on its face with it. 

Since it can take six months or more to start seeing a return, calculating ROI monthly isn’t possible for the first few months. 

The lengthy timeline is a significant factor why SEO can be a hard sell for some, as no one wants to hear that something will take six months to start paying off. Yet, the benefits of SEO are significant once they begin, and they tend to compound with time. 

It has limited testing capabilities 

Running experiments on the effectiveness of SEO is a bit limited in that you can’t test it like you can other channels. 

For instance, if you want to test how effective your PPC ads are, you can simply turn them off for a while and compare your revenue. 

If you stop it for a few months and there’s little to no change to your bottom line, it’s clear that your PPC campaigns aren’t working, and you don’t need to waste money on them anymore. 

You just can’t do that with organic SEO, as removing your website from search engines is not something you can do in today’s age. Not only that, but you’d have to noindex your site for at least six months to see if there’s a change. 

That’s not to say that you can’t run experiments on the effectiveness of SEO, just that they’re more limited than other channels. 

Attribution is flawed by nature 

Even with Google’s DDA model, marketing channel attribution is still inherently flawed, and it’s not just for SEO, either. 

Some go as far as saying that attribution is pointless, as touchpoints are often far more complex than analytical software makes them look. As stated before, one piece of content can have relevance for every stage of the sales funnel for different users. 

As such, it’s near impossible to pinpoint which channel caused the conversion. 

The DDA model is a much-needed advancement in this area, but it’s still far from perfect. For example, there are data from sessions that you’ll never see because the tracking code wasn’t fired. That could be due to an ad blocker, or the user might have bounced before the tracking code got a chance to go off. 

No way to measure retention or the effect of brand-building 

Lastly, SEO metrics can’t measure retention or instances where users were looking for a brand they already knew about. 

On the retention side, SEO content can increase customer lifetime value if they become regular readers. 

Let’s say you regularly blog about digital marketing strategies, and you’ve built up a regular reader base. Therefore, a majority of your blog visits are from your existing customers/readers. While this is a significant benefit of SEO content, it’s impossible to measure. 

Brand awareness is another unmeasurable factor. For instance, if a user already knows about a brand or learned about it elsewhere, SEO shouldn’t get the credit, but it will because they searched for it online. 

For additional help, try out HOTH Technical SEO. 

The Most Valuable Metric for SEO ROI 

Beyond using the ROI formula to get a concrete number, there’s another metric that’s a more accurate predictor of the success of your SEO campaign – search visibility. 

Using a rank tracker, you’ll get to see the search visibility of your website on a graph. If the line starts moving up a few months after starting your SEO efforts, you’ll have clear evidence that they’re paying off. 

Search visibility is similar to the share of voice, which is a metric marketers use to gauge their market share. 

In addition to sharing your ROI, showing decision-makers and stakeholders your search visibility will also show how effective your efforts have been. 

Closing Thoughts: SEO ROI 

By now, you should better understand how to calculate SEO ROI, as well as the challenges involved with it. 

Due to the nature of search engine optimization, it’s hard to encompass all the impact it has on your bottom line. Technical SEO tweaks, user experience enhancements, and helpful user content all have effects that are hard to quantify yet are definitely real. 

By calculating your traffic conversion values and subtracting your investment costs, you can uncover your SEO ROI. Yet, it’s also a good idea to pair that number with specific KPIs, such as search visibility. That will give your clients and stakeholders a more accurate snapshot of the bigger picture. 

Do you need expert help formulating a winning SEO strategy for your company?

Then don’t wait to check out our excellent managed SEO services at HOTH X. Our seasoned experts will handle every aspect of SEO for you, including calculating your ROI, so don’t wait to book a call today.    

The post SEO ROI: Why It’s So Hard to Pin Down (And How To Do It) appeared first on The HOTH.

Whether you want to share a group of statistics or need to teach your audience how to do something, infographics are an extremely diverse content medium that can convey just about anything.  

They’re excellent for breaking up long walls of text, and they add extra visual appeal to your posts (which will boost user engagement). 

In fact, research shows that infographics boost website traffic by 12%, and they’re 30 times more likely to be read than a written article. 

However, today we’re going to discuss one of the major reasons why SEOs love infographics – which is their effectiveness at generating organic backlinks. 

Infographic link-building is where you create alluring infographics with the goal of generating as many backlinks as possible. 

These links are especially valuable because they’re generated entirely on merit instead of outreach efforts (which is what Google prefers, anyway). 

If you’ve conducted a link-building campaign before, you’ll know that organically generated backlinks are very hard to acquire, which is why infographics are so powerful. 

In this article, we’ll cover:

• Why you should use infographics
• The different types of infographics 
• How to create an infographic step-by-step 
• Link-building techniques for infographics 

There’s a lot to unpack here, so stay tuned to learn more.   

What Are Infographic Links?

Have you ever found a video or image online that was so good you had to share it with friends or post it on your own site?

That’s the principle behind creating infographics to acquire backlinks. 

What’s an infographic link?

It’s where another website embeds your infographic on their website, in turn linking back to your website as the source. 

They get to share your awesome infographic, and you pick up a backlink to improve your search engine rankings. 

Whenever an infographic is particularly compelling or useful, it has the potential to generate hundreds of backlinks from relevant websites. The key is to create an infographic that touches on something particularly important to your target audience. 

That’s why statistical infographics are among the most popular, which are infographics that list statistics in a visually compelling way. Bloggers, copywriters, and content creators are constantly on the hunt for accurate statistics to use. 

Instead of using a boring hyperlink to a study or research paper, content creators prefer to capitalize on the visual magic provided by infographics. That’s why statistical infographics have the potential to generate backlinks like mad. 

Here’s a brief breakdown of the infographic link process:

1. Create an infographic that’s A) visually pleasing and B) contains valuable (and sought after) information for your target audience. 
2. Generate a code snippet that lets other websites embed your infographics into their content. 
3. Gain backlinks. 

Why Use Infographics For Your Link-Building Campaign

Conducting cold outreach is infamous for being one of the most difficult aspects of link-building (and SEO in general). 

Generic pitches that lack personalization to individual website owners are unlikely to stand out from the crowd from the plethora of pitches site owners receive each day. 

Even if you provide a unique, stand-out pitch – there’s still no guarantee that it will lead to a backlink. 

This is the main reason why it’s worth using infographics for your link-building campaign, as virtually no outreach is required. 

At the same time, many businesses and site owners lack the know-how or internal resources to create high-value infographics. Therefore, if you are able to produce infographics, you’ll cut out a majority of the competition you’re dealing with on the cold outreach front. 

Besides that, visually appealing, informative infographics are:

• Highly shareable on social media platforms (which means more referral traffic) 
• Naturally attract backlinks 
• Boost your SEO efforts (backlinks, referral traffic, brand awareness, etc.) 

You can also use infographics to bolster your outreach efforts. Instead of asking for a guest post or a link insertion, why not craft a pitch asking a site owner to share your infographic? After all, if it’s a truly valuable infographic, the site owner will benefit from hosting it on their site via more traffic.

But how do you create infographics that generate backlinks?

Today, we’re going to dive into the specific techniques SEO professionals use to craft engaging infographics and personalized outreach pitches to secure high-value backlinks. 

Let’s get to it!  

Types of Infographics That You Can Use

As stated before, infographics are an incredibly diverse content medium. 

There are countless styles and formats you can use depending on your needs, so you’re bound to find the type that’s perfect for your next project. 

Let’s take a look at the most common types of infographics. 

Informational Infographics

An informational infographic is a visual representation of data designed to educate or inform the viewer on a specific topic.

It typically includes graphics, charts, and other data visualizations to simplify complex information into small, digestible bites.

You should create an informational infographic if you have complicated information you need to communicate to your audience. It could be that you need to explain a topic, dispel common myths, or inform readers of new developments. 

While your goal is to inform, remember that infographics are a visual medium. Do your best to keep text sparse while using plenty of engaging graphics in between.

Process Infographics

Do you need to teach your audience how to complete a specific process?

If so, then a process infographic is what you need. It’s a visual representation of a process broken down into individual steps. These infographics make heavy use of arrows, icons, and other graphics that help guide the reader’s eyes through the various steps of the process. 

You can think of a process infographic like an assembly line in a factory. 

This style of infographic is popular for instructional materials, user guides, and workflow diagrams. Process infographics are also highly shareable since they teach users how to do something. As long as your infographic covers a process that your audience cares about, you should start raking in backlinks.  

List Infographics

List infographics visually represent information by presenting it in a list format. Statistical infographics are list infographics, and so are infographics that provide tips or features of a product.

You can also use list infographics to provide readers with certain materials they’ll need for a project (like construction materials for a home renovation). 

These types of infographics are easy for readers to scan, which is why they’re so popular. According to the NN Group, 79% of people scan web pages first, with only 16% opting to read something word-for-word. 

That means concise list infographics will appeal to scanners, which are the majority of online users.

Hierarchical Infographics

As the name implies, a hierarchical infographic follows a visual hierarchy – with the most important/overarching concepts appearing at the top and more detailed/less important concepts branching out from there. 

You should opt for a hierarchical infographic if you need to present interconnected or overarching ideas, like the structure of an organization or a particular decision-making process.

9 times out of 10, a hierarchical infographic will take the form of a pyramid, with visually engaging colors, icons, and headings. 

How to Create a Compelling Infographic

It’s worth investing time and effort into crafting your infographics, as subpar offerings won’t cut it. 

Your audience will only link to your infographics if they’re truly engaging and contain valuable information. 

An example would be creating an infographic breaking down the components of a guitar (head, neck, body, etc.) to appeal to beginner guitarists. 

Let’s take a look at what it takes to create an engaging infographic that attracts shares. 

Step 1:  Determine your objective

Ask yourself, what’s the purpose of this infographic?

In other words, do you want to inform, educate, or promote a specific product/service? Answering this question will inform the rest of your infographic’s design, so you should address it first. 

Regardless of your objective, you need to make sure your infographic content is unique. 

One of the best ways to ensure your content is 100% original is to take a look at other infographics covering the same topic (if there are any, that is). 

Take notes about what they cover the most, including any key points that they leave out. That way, you’ll know what to include and what to avoid whenever you create your infographic. 

Also, people hate reading because it takes work and brain power. The human brain prefers pretty pictures over long, tedious walls of text.

To get ideas on what type of infographic you should create, I recommend using Pinterest to find infographics that are already popular in your niche:

For example, if I do a search for “marketing infographics,” Pinterest will show me results that boast heavy engagement numbers, meaning people are already sharing and naturally linking to it (which is your goal, too).

Now, you just need to find an idea that works for your content.

Step 2: Know your audience and choose a topic for them.

Once you know your objective, it’s time to choose a topic that’s relevant to your target audience. 

In particular, consider the needs of the site owners when you pitch your infographics. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine what they would find valuable in an infographic. 

To go beyond the imaginary, check their websites to see if there are any existing infographics to give you an idea of what they like. If there aren’t, hang around their site for a while anyway and consume some of their content. This will also help you get a feel for their preferences, which can help you determine the types of infographics they like. 

Beyond site owners, the needs of your target audience matter more (which will likely align with site owners’ needs since they’re in the same niche as you). 

One way to brainstorm relevant topic ideas is to make use of Ahrefs, a popular SEO platform containing a suite of helpful tools. 

Its Content Explorer tool lets you search the web for specific types of content, including infographics. Sticking with the guitar example from before, here’s what pops up when we search for ‘guitar infographic.’

As you can see, the tool provides a list of guitar-based infographics, including useful metrics like their domain rating, referring domains, and page traffic. 

Referring domains is an especially important metric here, as it lets you know how many websites are linking to the infographic. The first result, ‘9 Amazing Infographics for Guitar Freaks,’ has the highest number of referring domains, so it would be a great resource to review for ideas. 

You can also filter the list for referring domains to only view infographics that generate lots of links. 

Try to find four or five successful infographics to use for inspiration, both for topic ideas and layout. 

Also, you can use Ahrefs or our free keyword planner tool to do keyword research. Ideally, your topic should center around a popular, trending search keyword to ensure you generate as much traffic as possible. 

We usually merge two or three concepts into a single high-impact infographic to improve the effectiveness of link-building infographics. After all, the most successful infographic on the list above is the one that included 9 infographics into one post – so don’t limit yourself (without going overboard, either). 

Consider what data types would be the most visually exciting and how you can communicate that information clearly and concisely.

• Do they need statistical data summarized?
• Do they need a comparison between the two methods of writing?
• Do they need a geographic map chart or an infographic for data visualization?

Step 3: Conduct research and gather data

Now that you have a topic, it’s time to start researching and gathering data. 

Look for reliable sources of information and ensure that you are collecting accurate and relevant data for your topic.

Next, organize the information in a way that makes sense and is easy to understand. Ways you can do this include being sparse with text and using color schemes that are easy on the eyes. 

Consider the visual elements you might want to use to communicate your data, such as graphs, charts, or maps.

This will help you to determine what kind of data you need to collect to create an effective infographic.

Craft a compelling story

The best infographics tell a story, whether it’s explicitly obvious or not. Here are some storytelling tips:

• Clear Narrative: What’s the central message you want to convey? Outline a logical flow that includes a beginning, middle, and end. 
• Headline: Create a catchy, attention-grabbing headline that hints at the infographic’s value.
• Subheadings: Break down information into digestible chunks with clear subheadings.

Design your infographic

If you have access to an internal graphic designer, have them put together your infographics for you. We can’t stress enough the importance of sound design principles when creating infographics. 

In other words, you’ll be much better off hiring a decorated freelance designer if you lack in-house resources than you would trying to create infographics with no experience. 

If you do go the outsourcing route, you’ll need to develop a strong creative brief to ensure the designs you wind up with match your objectives. Here’s what goes into a solid brief:

• Clear Scope and Requirements: Communicate the project goals, audience, and expectations.
• Provide Key Data: Supply the thoroughly researched data points the infographic will visualize.
• Include Visual Inspiration: Share other infographics you like to guide the style.
• Emphasize Clarity: Stress the need for a clean, easy-to-read design.

Also, here are some key design elements to keep in mind when working with designers:

• Visual Hierarchy: Use contrasting font sizes, colors, and placement to guide the viewer’s eye through your information.
• Branding: Incorporate your brand’s color scheme and logo subtly.
• Charts & Graphs: Select the best chart types to visually represent your data (bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, etc.).
• Icons & Illustrations: Enhance the visual appeal and help explain concepts quickly.

Here is a great example of a compelling infographic that’d be perfect for generating backlinks:

This infographic is concise, pleasant on the eyes, and very easy to follow. It flows from beginning to end, and it’s sparse with text. 

Conversely, here’s an example of what NOT to do.

It’s far too cluttered and uses clashing color schemes, which makes it exceptionally difficult to read or make sense of. 

For even more examples and ideas, check out this post.

Optimize your infographic for sharing

Once your design is complete, there’s only one step left – and that’s to make your infographic shareable for other websites. Here’s how to make it happen:

• Embeddable Code: Generate a code snippet that allows others to easily embed your infographic on their websites.
• Social Sharing: Include prominent social sharing buttons to encourage distribution.
• Mobile-friendly: Ensure the design adapts well to smaller screens.

How to Run an Effective Link Outreach Campaign Using Infographics

By now, you should have a solid grasp on how to create stellar infographics. Yet, if you want to use them to build links, we’ve only covered half the equation.

While you’re bound to generate some links without even trying, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t make efforts to promote your infographics. 

Here’s what you’ll need to develop a true infographic link-building campaign. 

Elements of an infographic link-building campaign

Most website owners get dozens if not hundreds of spammy outreach emails of either people asking for a backlink or trying to sell links from other sites that anyone can post on.

So, if you’re doing link-building outreach, you need to stand out in order to get people to open your email, let alone respond to it.

That’s where a strategic and calculated infographic link-building strategy can help.

A few of the techniques in this strategy include:

1. Determine your topic and research other infographics used for link-building
2. Design a unique and captivating graphic
3. Post with a valuable piece of blog content
4. Share the infographic on socials
5. Share on infographic directories
6. Reach out to relevant websites/bloggers and build a relationship

Also, in order to build links with infographics, you need to create a completely unique infographic that will motivate people to link to it naturally (i.e., without any encouragement on your part besides providing some embeddable code or a social share button).

For example, if you create a comparison infographic about how fresh, canned dog food is better, you should cite data points from studies that prove your point.

If that data has never been presented in a visual format like an infographic, you found a great opportunity to generate some juicy backlinks with a truly helpful piece of content.

Here’s a look at some other popular promotional methods for infographics. 

Send to infographic directories

Online directories play a massive role in traditional link-building, and infographic link-building is no exception. 

However, instead of uploading your business’s NAP (name, address, and phone number) to a directory like the Yellow Pages, you’ll focus on infographic directories and image-sharing sites like:

• Reddit
• Pinterest
• Visual.ly
• Visualistan
• Slideshare
• Infographics Archives
• Infographic Journal
• Infographic Bee
• Graphs.net
• Flickr
• eLearning Infographics
• Cool Infographics
• Daily Infographic
• Behance

You never know when someone may come across one of your infographics on one of these sites and decide to link to it, which is why it’s worth submitting them. 

Share your infographic on social media

Once you’ve created a great infographic, get it out there! 

Don’t hesitate to upload it to all your social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Reaching out to bloggers and influencers who have written about the same topic can also be effective. Give them a brief pitch on why they should link to your infographic. 

Finally, don’t forget to link back to your website when sharing – as this will help drive traffic back to your site, which is great for SEO purposes, too!

Publish the infographic to your website

Releasing your infographic on your website is a great way to drive traffic and get quality content noticed. 

Ensure it’s optimized for SEO by including keywords in the post title, URL, and content. Don’t keyword stuff; make it relevant and natural.

This will help make it easier for search engines to index your page, increasing the chances of appearing in relevant Google searches.

Reach out to relevant websites

Just creating the infographic and posting it won’t be enough to generate backlinks brimming with link juice.

You’ve got to do some dreaded outreach, but the fact that you have an infographic automatically makes it easier. 

Start by looking for relevant influencers and bloggers who would find your infographic valuable.

Reaching out to other relevant websites can be a great way to get links back to your website. Look for websites related to your infographic’s topic and contact them about including it on their website. 

Offer a short description of the infographic and explain why it would be beneficial for their audience, and provide them with an embed code or link back to your site.

Here are some outreach tips:

• Personalize. Take some time to peruse your prospect’s website and social media channels to get to know them. From there, heavily personalize the email to let them know that you’re familiar with and appreciate their content. 

• Harp on the infographic’s value. The bottom line for any outreach email is “what will it do for the site owner?” Don’t waste time in bringing up the value your infographic will provide, such as simplifying a complicated process or teaching a new skill. 

• Don’t get pushy. Hard sell tactics rarely work in the digital marketing/SEO world, so be chill. Focus on offering something of value instead of aggressively demanding a link. 

Here’s a brief example of an infographic outreach email:

Hey (first name) 

I just wanted to say I’m a big fan of (content piece) and the way you broke down (complicated topic). I’d been looking for guidance on the topic, and I greatly appreciate it.

I’m writing because I have a new infographic that covers (important topic). It teaches your audience the new skill/provides relevant statistics they’ve been dying to learn/know. I’m sure this infographic will provide a boost in traffic, and I would greatly appreciate a link. 

(Share embed code). 

Thanks, 

(Your name) 

Follow-up with prospects

Finally, don’t forget to follow up with prospects you’ve sent outreach emails or messages to. 

Keeping them engaged is important as they may not have responded immediately but could be interested in a gentle reminder. A polite follow-up message can often be enough to secure a link back!

Using Ahrefs to find outreach targets 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use Ahrefs to find possible opportunities for a backlink outreach campaign.

1. Use the “Content Explorer” tool to search for topics related to your infographic, such as “marketing recession trends.” This will give you a list of articles and websites about this topic.
2. Look for websites relevant to your infographic and with a high DR or amount of traffic. These are potential targets for outreach that will help get some nice authoritative links.
3. Create a list of potential targets and start contacting them with your infographic. Personalize your outreach emails and explain why your infographic is relevant and useful to their audience.

By following these steps, you can use Ahrefs to find potential opportunities for link outreach and increase the number of backlinks pointing to your website.

Infographics For Link-Building – A Summary

Creating infographics is one of the best ways to naturally generate backlinks and spice up your outreach efforts. 

As stated before, this technique can boost your website’s traffic by 12%, which will help you convert more prospects and earn more revenue. 

Creating an original infographic that’s visually appealing, informative, and entertaining will make your content stand out in a crowded marketplace.

In summary, an effective link-building strategy should include both organic and non-organic techniques to generate backlinks.

Organic techniques are used to gain naturally occurring links from other websites without manual outreach or link buying.

Non-organic techniques use manual outreach (asking) for backlinks from relevant websites or influencers.

Infographics represent a great opportunity for both organic and non-organic link-building strategies.

To ensure your infographic demands your audience’s attention, you have to create something interesting, unique, and engaging that people will want to share on social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, and Pinterest.

This will help boost its visibility and increase the chances of gaining valuable backlinks.

Do you need help with your link-building campaign?

Our Link Outreach service will take over your outreach process, and HOTH X takes the entire process of your hands. Our team knows how to simplify your SEO success, so don’t wait to book a consultation today.    

The post Infographic Links: Your Secret for More SEO Success in 2024 appeared first on The HOTH.

If web bots aren’t able to properly crawl & index your web pages, your online visibility will take a serious blow. In fact, you may disappear from the SERPs altogether. 

That’s why technical SEO is equally as important as your on-site and off-site SEO efforts. 

Not only does it ensure your website is optimized for search engine crawler bots, but proper technical SEO will also improve your user experience, page loading times, internal linking structure, and mobile-friendliness. 

Yet, your technical tweaks won’t get far if you don’t have the proper technical SEO tools in place. 

For instance, you need to be able to do the following:

• Conduct SEO audits 
• Check your website’s page loading times
• View crucial SEO metrics 
• Check how Google views your website content 
• Fix broken links 
• Find duplicate content 
• Create & upload XML sitemaps 
• Replace 404 pages with 301 redirects 
• Clean up messy Javascript & CSS 
• Test schema structured data markup
• Optimize your website for mobile devices 

These are just a few of the tasks associated with technical SEO, and you’ll need some free tools to help you complete them all properly. 

Read on to discover the top 11 technical SEO tools that you need to start using today.

Why Do Technical SEO Tools Matter?

Technical SEO involves knocking out a myriad of complicated tasks that are near impossible to complete without helpful testing tools. 

For instance, how are you supposed to know how fast your pages load without using a tool to check them? It’s not something you can eyeball, as you need specific numbers to know if you’ll pass Google’s Core Web Vitals test or not. 

Without using a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to uncover your speed metrics, you’ll just be shooting in the dark. 

That’s why technical SEO tools are necessary because they remove all guesses from the equation. 

The best technical SEO tools will provide you with in-depth metrics that you can use to refine your strategy without leaving anything to chance. They also provide essential functions like creating XML sitemaps, uncovering duplicate content, and fixing indexing errors. 

In short, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from using technical tools, especially since most of them are either free or have free versions. 

The Top 11 Technical SEO Tools Available Right Now

There is no shortage of SEO tools online meant to help fix technical issues, but they aren’t all of equal quality. 

Some tools require expensive memberships yet only provide basic SEO services that you can easily replicate with free tools. 

That’s why we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the 11 highest quality and most useful tools to bolster your technical SEO strategy. 

These tools will handle everything from improving page speed to testing your structured data markup and everything in between – so don’t wait to check them out. 

#1: Google Search Console (GSC)

GSC is an excellent tool for any SEO strategy, and technical SEO is no exception. 

Google Search Console is so useful because it gives you a first-hand view of how Google views your website. 

It also points out any crawling errors that Google bots are experiencing with your pages. 

The Index Coverage Report is one of many helpful performance reports you can run in GSC, and it points out the indexing status for every one of your web pages. 

There are a few statuses available, including the following:

• Error. This means that Google wasn’t able to index your page due to an error, and clicking on the error will identify it and provide suggestions for resolutions. 
• Valid with warnings. Google has indexed these web pages, but there’s still a pressing issue that you should deal with (it’s likely related to essential ranking factors or Google’s policies). 
• Valid. This means that the webpage was successfully indexed and will appear in the SERPs. 
• Excluded. This status appears for web pages with noindex tags, which tells Google that you don’t want the page to appear in the SERPs. 

Another invaluable performance report for technical SEO is the Page Experience Report. 

Running this report will ensure your website can pass the Core Web Vitals test, has HTTPS set up, and is optimized for mobile devices. It’ll also let you know how many pages on your website have an optimal page experience, which will help you improve your UX. 

In short, GSC is an essential tool for its ability to point out indexing errors & problems with your page experience, which will help you refine your technical SEO. 

#2: Google Analytics (GA)

Another one of Google’s essential free tools (there will be many on this list) is Google Analytics. Just like GSC, GA is valuable for your technical SEO due to its reporting capabilities. 

Not only that, but it’s an excellent tool for monitoring your performance in organic search, which is definitely a plus. 

GA will notify you if you’ve incurred any penalties or are experiencing any traffic issues – such as an unexpected dip in organic traffic. 

The great thing about Google Analytics is it provides a real-time view of what’s happening on your website. While website audit tools are excellent (there are a few on this list), they tend to point out problems well after they’ve occurred. Conversely, GA will notify you of important SEO issues as soon as they happen. 

If you do notice a steep dropoff in traffic when you check GA, it’s usually a sign that you have an indexing or tracking issue – which you can use GSC to pinpoint and fix (which is why it’s worth using both tools in tandem). 

Besides traffic issues, keeping an eye on essential metrics like your bounce rate & dwell time will also provide insights into your website’s technical performance. 

For instance, if you notice users are bouncing as soon as they view your page, it’s likely a sign that you have page loading issues. 

Another clue is if your dwell time is extremely short, which could also mean your content isn’t as engaging & hard-hitting as it needs to be. 

#3: HOTH SEO Audit Tool 

Next up is our free SEO Audit Tool from The HOTH, which will provide you with tons of valuable technical SEO insights. 

To run a report, you only need your website URL, name, and email address. From there, you’ll receive a comprehensive report covering the strength of your SEO profile, including essential technical aspects like page speed, performance, and usability. 

You’ll receive an overall grade for your website, as well as individual scores for the following SEO elements:

• On-Page SEO
• Links
• Usability
• Performance 
• Social 

In addition, the reports feature detailed breakdowns of noticeable issues, such as duplicate H1 tags, images missing alt text, Javascript errors, the presence of schema markup, and hreflang attributes. 

Other features of the report include:

• Checking for canonical tags
• Whether your meta descriptions are the optimal length (between 70 and 160 characters)
• Making sure your website isn’t using unwanted noindex tags
• Checking for a robots.txt file
• Ensuring your site uses HTTPS & SSL
• Checking for the presence of an XML sitemap 

As you can see, our site audit tool will inform you of key technical SEO issues, like not having a sitemap or accidentally no-indexing pages that you want to appear in the SERPs. 

You can also check your current keyword rankings, backlink profile, Moz domain authority score, and total organic traffic generated from the search. 

#4: Google PageSpeed Insights 

This tool is one of the best ways to ensure you’ll pass the Google Core Web Vitals Test and that you’ll have an optimal page experience for your users. 

It’s no secret that lightning-fast internet has spoiled everyone for many years now, and modern internet users are anything but patient when it comes to loading times. 

So if your web pages are struggling with their loading speed, users won’t hang around past a few seconds – which will cause your bounce rate to increase & dwell time to go down. 

Google’s PageSpeed Insights provides detailed metrics for your loading times, including how fast your website loads on desktops and mobile devices, which is a plus. 

There is one important note to make about PageSpeed Insights, though. 

It does not use the exact loading speed of your website; it uses approximations instead. 

While these approximations are undoubtedly accurate, you should use more than one tool to get a clearer picture of your loading times. 

However, a stand-out feature of PageSpeed Insights is its ability to point out and recommend potential solutions for problems with your loading times. There will even be a link under each issue it points out that says, “Show how to fix.”

That’s why this tool makes our list, as it’s an excellent way to find & resolve the top errors that are holding your loading times back. 

PageSpeed Insights also provides the specific metrics that the Core Web Vitals test will measure, including your First Input Delay (FID), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Largest Contentful Paint (LCF). 

#5: Screaming Frog 

Do you need a tool to help you uncover duplicate content and improper URL structures?

Then look no further than Screaming Frog, one of the best web crawlers online. It crawls many aspects of domains that affect SEO, including URL structures, canonical tags, page titles, meta descriptions, meta keywords, and images. 

After crawling your website, you’ll know precisely where to focus your technical SEO efforts, which is a huge benefit. 

Screaming Frog will help you quickly identify the following technical issues on your website:

• Images that are too large (which can affect loading speed) 
• Errors in your URLs 
• Canonical tag issues (i.e., more than one canon tag)
• Missing meta descriptions & meta keywords 
• Missing page titles 
• Response code errors 
• Pagination issues 
• Uncovering international SEO issues 

These are all issues that can potentially tank your SEO profile, so it’s worth crawling your website regularly. 

Many SEOs use crawlers like Screaming Frog every single day so they can quickly fix any technical SEO errors as soon as they arise. You can also use it to take a deep dive into your website’s architecture, which is invaluable for your technical SEO. 

Why is that?

It’s because using a flat site architecture is the best way to avoid technical errors, and Screaming Frog can help you understand your current architecture so you can optimize it. 

Not only that, but using Screaming Frog can also pinpoint inconsistencies in your URL structure, which is another no-no for technical SEO. Your URLs need to follow a rigid structure to make it easier for Google’s bots to crawl your site, and Screaming Frog is an excellent tool for spotting any errors. 

#7: Google Webmaster Tools (Google Search Central) 

Next is Google Search Central, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools. It’s another free offering from Google that you can use to bolster your technical SEO efforts. 

Key features include the ability to quickly pinpoint 404 errors, which are disastrous for your SEO and user experience. To fix them, replace any 404 errors with 301 redirects to pages that have similar content (or that can serve as a substitute). 

Without a tool like Google Search Central, you’d have no way of knowing about your 404 errors, which is why it’s worth using. 

It will also check your XML sitemap for errors, which is a unique feature that’s enormously helpful. 

If your sitemap is riddled with errors, it’ll confuse search engines & provide a subpar experience for your users. 

Google Search Central will highlight these errors, such as allowing you to remove duplicate page titles and descriptions. 

You can also check your robots.txt file by using the tool, which will help you avoid no-indexing pages that you want to appear in the SERPs. While it’s crucial to noindex pages that you don’t need to generate organic traffic (i.e., admin pages, thank you pages, log-in pages, etc.), you’ll want to ensure that one of your blogs or product pages isn’t on the list by mistake.  

#8: Google Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool 

Google practices mobile-first indexing, meaning your site needs a responsive design or a mobile version to appear in search results. 

Not only will that ensure that your content displays correctly on mobile devices (which is excellent for your UX), but it’ll also help your SERP rankings. Since Google prioritizes indexing the mobile version of websites, having a site that only works on desktop computers won’t cut it. 

Your best bet is to incorporate a responsive design, where you have one site that’s able to display on both desktop computers and mobile devices. It works by using a combination of flexible grids & layouts that are able to adapt to different screen sizes in real time. 

Google rolled out mobile-first indexing in 2015, and they released their Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool to go along with it. 

Using the tool is an excellent way to determine if your website is properly formatted for mobile devices, which will help you out in the SERPs. 

A great feature of the tool is that it will provide recommendations for fixing any issues your site has with mobile optimization. Since the tool is straight from Google, passing its mobile-friendly test is a must. 

Even if you’re confident in the reliability of your website design, double-checking that you pass the test is worth it. Otherwise, you may experience lower rankings than you would have if your website was fully responsive. 

#9: Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool 

Targeting SERP features is a popular SEO strategy, but it requires proper structured data to pull off. 

SERP features (also called rich results) are experiences that go beyond traditional blue hyperlinks, such as image carousels, eCommerce products, local businesses, and featured snippets. 

Rich results appear above the organic search results in what’s called position zero. 

It’s the holy grail of SERP rankings, which is why so many SEOs target rich results as part of their strategies. 

However, if you don’t format your structured data properly, you won’t qualify for any rich results – meaning you’ll have wasted your efforts. 

The solution?

Make use of Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool, which will let you know which SERP features can be generated (if any) from the structured data markup on your page. 

After you input your data, the tool will let you know how many valid items it detects that are eligible for Google’s rich results. Additionally, the tool lets you preview how the rich results will look when they show up in Google search, granting you control over the appearance of your SERP features. 

The primary reason to use the tool is to confirm with no uncertainty that you’ve formatted your structured data properly – and that your content has the potential to generate rich results. Without taking this step, you’ll leave your ability to appear in position zero up to chance. 

While the Rich Results Testing Tool is Google-specific, the company also offers generic schema validation through its Schema Markup Validator, which is useful for validating Schema.org-based structured data embedded in web pages across the internet. 

#10: Siteliner 

Do you have a serious problem with duplicate content that you’re trying to fix?

Then Siteliner is the tool to use, as it specializes in uncovering duplicate website content. Enter your domain, and the tool will crawl up to 250 pages at once, notifying you of all the duplicate content that it finds. 

Duplicate content is a huge detriment to any SEO profile, as it confuses crawlers on which version they need to index & include in the SERP results. 

Siteliner will help you quickly & easily identify duplicate pages that could cause such confusion, and it even allows you to analyze each page to determine what you need to do to avoid duplications. It could be that you need to designate specific pages as ‘canon’ by using canonical tags or get rid of the duplicate pages altogether. 

Besides uncovering duplicate content, Siteliner has other useful features for technical SEO. 

The Broken Links tab will help you uncover any broken links on your website at the click of a button. You’ll get to see a complete breakdown of all the broken links on your site, as well as page summaries for each (where the broken links are highlighted). 

Once you uncover them, you can fix them by either adding a new hyperlink or using a 301 redirect. 

You can also use Siteliner as a way to double-check your loading times & page sizes. Siteliner will display your average page speed and average page size in comparison to other websites – which is a great way to see how you stack up with the competition. 

#11: HOTH SSL Certificate Checker 

Do you run an eCommerce store or sell goods through your website?

Then an up-to-date SSL certificate is a must, not only for the security of your customers but also for your SERP rankings. 

Google announced HTTPS as an official ranking factor in 2014, which uses SSL certificates as its protocol. Having an SSL certificate means all the data moving between your web server and browser stays private and secure. 

That’s why websites that handle sensitive user information (like credit card numbers and medical files) need SSL certificates to keep their websites safe. 

As a bonus, websites that use HTTPS/SSL certificates enjoy higher rankings on Google. 

Even if you don’t run an eCommerce store or handle sensitive medical information, using HTTPS with an SSL certificate is still a good idea – as it’s a great security practice. SSL certificates will protect your websites from hackers, which is why they’re worth your time. 

Yet, you need to make sure that your SSL certificate is still valid, which is where our free SSL Certificate Checker comes into the picture. 

Enter your URL to quickly discover if you have an up-to-date SSL certificate or not. Google announced that they’d shut down any expired SSL certificates, which is why using this tool is a must. 

Wrapping Up: The 11 Best Technical SEO Tools 

The tools on this list will make performing an in-depth technical SEO audit on your website far easier. 

From identifying duplicate content to fixing indexing errors, these tools will ensure all the technical aspects of your SEO strategy work flawlessly – making it effortless for web bots to crawl your website. 

Do you need help with the technical SEO at your company?

Then don’t wait to check out our extensive technical SEO services at The HOTH. Our digital marketing gurus know everything there is to know about technical SEO. Book a call today! 

The post 11 Integral Technical SEO Tools You Need to Use  appeared first on The HOTH.

Two of the most prominent tools used to measure the authority and quality of websites are Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR).

Although both of these tools provide insights into the overall performance of a website, it’s essential to know the differences between them to make well-informed decisions.

…and how they come up short sometimes.

In this blog post, we will dive deep into the key aspects of Moz Domain Authority and Ahrefs Domain Rating, comparing their functionalities and discussing how you can leverage these metrics to bolster your SEO campaigns.

The problem is, these metrics alone are flawed

When you are trying to determine how much other search engines, like Google trust certain websites, it’s useful to use third-party metrics.

This is because Google will never reveal the direct factors that influence ranking websites, so it became necessary for SEOs to create some sort of standard to differentiate the ranking power of a website.

That’s where metrics like Moz’ DA and Ahrefs’ DR come into play. They are wonderful metrics that help us everyday as SEOs

But keep in mind that just like Google, these companies have bots that crawl the internet and collect data from websites and SERPs (search engine result pages).

The crawlers are not perfect nor how DR/DA is calculated.

So until we elaborate on how these scores are calculated and how to responsibly use these metrics to improve your own site’s ranking, take them with a grain of salt:

Domain Authority (DA) – What is it and how is it calculated?

Domain Authority (DA) is calculated by Moz based on a website’s link profile, while also taking into account factors such as the number and quality of links pointing to the site, the age of the domain, and the size of the website.

The score is then presented on a logarithmic scale of 0 to 100.

It was first introduced by Moz in 2004 as a way to predict how well a website would rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).

The HOTH has been around since 2010, so I have witnessed the evolution of Moz DA firsthand.

When Moz first introduced DA, it was a relatively new metric that was not widely adopted by the SEO community.

However, as more and more SEO professionals began to use it, it quickly gained popularity as a useful tool for evaluating the strength of a website’s backlink profile.

Moz DA became a key metric for SEO professionals to use in their link building strategies.

Over the years, Moz has made several updates to the DA algorithm, which has made it a more accurate measure of a website’s authority. In 2011, Moz introduced the concept of “Linking Root Domains,” which meant that links from the same domain were no longer counted multiple times.

This helped to reduce the impact of link spam and made DA a more reliable metric.

In 2015, Moz introduced another major update to the DA algorithm, which incorporated machine learning. This update made the algorithm more sophisticated and better able to distinguish between high-quality and low-quality spam links above.

It also made the algorithm more resistant to manipulation, which further improved its reliability.

Today, Moz DA remains one of the most widely used metrics in the SEO industry.

While it is not a perfect metric by any means and should be used in conjunction with other metrics, it remains a valuable tool for SEO professionals to evaluate the authority of a website and make informed decisions about their link building strategies.

How to increase a website’s Domain Authority (DA)?

As an SEO professional who works for a company that sells backlinks, I understand that backlinks are one of the most important factors that can influence a website’s domain authority.

However, it’s important to note that not all backlinks are created equal, and there are certain strategies that are more effective than others when it comes to increasing domain authority.

Here are some of the best ways to increase a website’s domain authority:

Build high-quality backlinks: As mentioned, backlinks from authoritative sites are crucial to increasing domain authority. However, it’s important to focus on only building links with high-quality backlinks from reputable and relevant websites.

These links should be from sites with a high domain authority themselves. You also want to focus on do follow links, which will give more power to your web pages by passing that sweet old “link juice”.

You can utilize a link-building provider like the HOTH to help with this and scale your SEO campaign, site authority, and, ultimately, your rankings.

Improve on-page optimization: On-page optimization is also an important factor that can influence domain authority. Ensuring that your website has high-quality content, relevant keywords, and a well-optimized site structure can help to improve your website’s domain authority scores.

Remove toxic backlinks: Toxic backlinks can negatively impact your website’s authority, so it’s important to regularly audit your backlink profile and remove any toxic links that could be hurting your website’s authority.

Increase social media engagement: Social media engagement can also play a role in improving your website’s domain rating and authority.

By creating high-quality content and engaging with your audience on social media, you can build a following and increase the visibility of your website, which can ultimately lead to more backlinks and higher domain authority.

Utilize internal linking: Internal linking can also help to improve domain authority by distributing link equity across your website.

By linking to high-quality pages within your own website, you can help to boost their authority, which can in turn improve the authority of your entire website.

When it comes to buying backlinks, it’s important to ensure that you are getting high-quality links that are relevant to the client’s website and are not spammy or low-quality.

Additionally, it’s important to be transparent with clients about the risks and potential downsides of buying backlinks, and to educate them about the importance of building high-quality backlinks naturally.

(If you’re looking for help with this, book a call with me to talk about HOTH Link Outreach.)

What is a good DA score?

A good Domain Authority (DA) score depends on a variety of factors, including the industry, niche, and competition level of the website.

For example, our website, thehoth.com, has a DA of 61.

In general, a DA score of 50 or above is considered “good”, while a score of 60 or above is considered excellent.

But what do you actually mean by “good” or “excellent”?

Good question, reader.

DA is a RELATIVE metric, meaning that it should be used to compare websites within the same industry or niche.

Additionally, it’s important to remember that high DA score is just one of many third-party metrics that can gauge how likely a website will rank on search engines.

While a higher DA score can indicate a stronger link profile, it does not guarantee that a website’s pages will rank higher in search results.

Ultimately, the best way to determine whether a website has a good DA score is to compare it to other websites in the same industry or niche and to evaluate its overall link profile and search engine rankings.

What you should actually care about is how you stack against your competitors and where they are relative to your website in the SERPs

After all, that’s what DA was originally created to measure.

How Does Domain Authority (DA) Impact SEO?

While Domain Authority (DA) is a useful metric for evaluating a website’s ability to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs), it’s important to note that DA does not directly impact rankings. Instead, it’s a measurement of the website’s overall authority and link profile, which can influence its ability to rank well in search results.

For example, having a low DA score does not necessarily mean a website won’t rank well in search results.

Think about it like a rookie NFL quarterback making a great play. Just because he is new doesn’t mean it kind wipe the floor with his competitors.

There are many other factors that can impact search engine rankings, such as the relevance and quality of the website’s content, the website’s technical SEO, and the competition level for the targeted keywords.

However, a higher DA score can indicate that a website has a stronger link profile and is more likely to rank well in search results.

This is because search engines view websites with higher authority as more trustworthy and credible, which can lead to better visibility in search results.

Ultimately, while DA is an important metric for evaluating a website’s authority and potential to rank well in search results, it’s just one of many factors that can impact SEO performance.

Businesses should focus on building a strong, high-quality website with relevant, engaging content and a well-optimized technical structure in order to improve their chances of ranking well in search results.

Domain Rating (DR)

Ahrefs DR (Domain Rating) is a metric that measures the authority of a website’s backlink profile on a scale of 0 to 100. It was developed by Ahrefs, a popular SEO tool provider, and was first introduced in 2016 as an alternative to other domain authority metrics like Moz’s Domain Authority.

Ahrefs DR is based on the number and quality of external backlinks pointing to a website. The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the higher its DR score will be.

A website’s DR score is updated on a regular basis to reflect changes in its backlink profile.

Since its introduction, Ahrefs DR has become a popular metric among SEO professionals and website owners for evaluating a website’s link profile and authority.

It’s often used as a benchmark for comparing websites within the same industry or niche, and can be a useful tool for identifying link building opportunities and evaluating the competitiveness of specific keywords, just like DA.

However, again, it’s important to note that Ahrefs DR is just one of many metrics that can be used to evaluate a website’s authority and potential to rank in search results.

While a higher DR score can indicate a stronger link profile, it does not guarantee that a website will rank higher in search results.

Other factors, such as the relevance and quality of the website’s content, the website’s technical SEO, and the competition level for targeted keywords, can also impact SEO performance.

Overall, Ahrefs DR has become a widely-used metric for evaluating a website’s link profile and authority, and has helped many SEO professionals and website owners to improve their search engine rankings and visibility.

How To Increase Domain Rating

As a seasoned SEO professional working for the HOTH, a white-label SEO solutions provider, there are several effective strategies that can be used to increase a website’s Ahrefs DR:

1. Create high-quality, relevant content: Creating high-quality, relevant content that provides value to your audience can help to attract natural backlinks from other websites. This can help to improve your website’s authority and increase its Ahrefs DR.
2. Build high-quality backlinks: Building high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites in your niche is one of the most effective ways to increase your website’s Ahrefs DR. This can be achieved through tactics such as guest blogging, broken link building, and outreach to other website owners in your industry. Or you can use a paid service like the HOTH to build high-quality backlinks.
3. Improve the quality of existing backlinks: It’s not just about the quantity of backlinks, but also the quality. Improving the quality of existing backlinks by removing low-quality or spammy links can help to improve your website’s Ahrefs DR.
4. Optimize on-page SEO: Optimizing your website’s on-page SEO, including elements such as meta tags, header tags, and internal linking, can help to improve the relevance and quality of your website’s content, which can in turn improve its authority and chance of generating natural backlinks, and in turn, Ahrefs DR.
5. Monitor and track progress: Regularly monitoring your website’s backlink profile and Ahrefs DR can help you to identify areas for improvement and track the effectiveness of your link building and content marketing efforts.

Overall, by implementing these strategies and focusing on building high-quality backlinks, creating valuable content, and optimizing on-page SEO, you can improve your website’s Ahrefs DR and enhance its overall search engine optimization performance.

What is a good Domain Rating (DR)?

A good Domain Rating (DR) will vary depending on the industry and niche of the website. In general, a higher DR score indicates a stronger link profile and more authoritative website, which can lead to better visibility and higher search engine rankings.

According to Ahrefs, a DR score of 50 or above is considered to be strong, while a score of 60 or above is considered to be excellent.

However, it’s important to note that DR is just one metric among many that can be used to evaluate a website’s authority and potential to rank in search results.

Other factors, such as the relevance and quality of the website’s content, the website’s technical SEO, and the competition level for targeted keywords, can also impact SEO performance.

Therefore, it’s important to use DR as a benchmark for comparing websites within the same industry or niche, rather than as an absolute measure of a website’s overall authority. Ultimately, the goal should be to continually improve a website’s link profile and authority over time, regardless of its current DR score.

How Does Domain Rating (DR) Impact SEO?

While DR doesn’t directly impact SEO, it can be a useful tool for evaluating a website’s potential to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs).

A higher DR score generally indicates a stronger link profile, which can improve a website’s search engine visibility and rankings.

Other important factors that impact SEO include the relevance and quality of a website’s content, its technical SEO, user experience, and the competition level for targeted keywords.

Therefore, while a higher DR score can be a positive indicator of a website’s authority and potential to rank, it’s not a guarantee of success in search engine rankings.

For example, Google.com itself has a much higher DR than TheHOTH.com, but we are outranking them for keywords like “google rank website”

In order to improve a website’s SEO performance, it’s important to focus on a holistic approach that includes creating high-quality, relevant content, building a strong link profile, optimizing for technical SEO factors, and providing a positive user experience for visitors.

The difference between DA vs DR

Many people use the terms Domain Authority and Domain Rating interchangeably, but they are two very different metrics from two different companies.

Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) are both metrics used to evaluate the authority of a website, but they are calculated differently.

DA is a metric developed by Moz that measures the overall authority of a website based on its link profile.

DA is calculated by evaluating factors such as the number and quality of links pointing to a website, as well as other factors such as the age of the domain and the size of the website. DA is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a stronger link profile and more authoritative website.

DR, on the other hand, is a metric developed by Ahrefs that measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale of 0 to 100.

DR is calculated based on the number and quality of backlinks pointing to a website, as well as other factors such as the diversity of the backlink profile and the strength of the referring domains.

While both metrics are used to evaluate a website’s authority, they are calculated differently and can sometimes provide different results.

For example, a website may have a high DR score but a lower DA score, or vice versa, depending on the specific factors used in each calculation.

It’s important to use both metrics in conjunction with other SEO factors to gain a more complete picture of a website’s authority and potential to rank in search engine results pages.

Similarities Between Domain Rating vs Domain Authority

Your domain authority score and domain rating might have a correlation, but the odds of them being the exact same is pretty small. As discussed, they are calculated very differently.

That being said, there are some similarities.

1) BOTH DA and DR are relative metrics based on the entire databases that Moz and Ahrefs have, meaning it’s important to note that a change in other websites’ DA and DR can have an effect on your DA and DR as well.

For example, if Facebook.com were to get a billions of new backlinks, the DA/DR of every other website would drop in relation to Facebook’s DA/DR.

2) Neither are direct ranking factors as previously discussed in this article.

3) They are on logarithmic scales. This means it’s harder to get from a DA 50 to DA 260 compared to going from a DA 10 to Da 20.

Under the Hood: How Moz Domain Authority and Ahrefs Domain Rating are Calculated

Let’s take a look under the hood to see how these metrics are calculated.

Moz Domain Authority is based on a machine-learning model that considers over 40 factors, such as the number of total backlinks, the quality of backlinks, and the overall linking root domains.

This information is used to calculate the likelihood of a website’s ranking potential.

It’s important to note that Moz DA is a relative metric, meaning that it should be used for comparing websites against each other rather than aiming for a specific score.

Ahrefs Domain Rating, on the other hand, primarily focuses on a website’s backlink profile. The metric takes into account the number of other unique domains’ backlinks, the quality of linking websites, and the overall strength of the site’s backlink profile.

Like Moz DA, Ahrefs DR is also a relative metric, and should be used to gauge the performance of websites against competitors.

Applications: How to Use Moz Domain Authority and Ahrefs Domain Rating

Both Moz DA and Ahrefs DR can be used to perform competitor analysis and identify potential backlink opportunities.

By comparing your website’s own DA scores or DR against the scores of your competitors, you can gauge your website’s performance and identify areas for improvement.

Back in 2018, we started making even more of a coordinated effort to work on our DR:

Now in 2023, we are at at 75 and still growing:

The point I’m trying to make here is that these metrics are a great tool, but don’t obsess and be patient.

Additionally, these metrics can help you uncover high-authority websites in your niche, presenting opportunities to build high-quality backlinks and improve your search engine rankings.

Limitations: What Moz Domain Authority and Ahrefs Domain Rating Don’t Tell You

It’s important to remember that both Moz DA and Ahrefs DR are third-party metrics and do not directly influence search engine rankings.

Furthermore, these metrics only provide a partial view of a website’s SEO performance, meaning other factors such as on-page optimization, content quality, and user engagement should not be ignored.

While it’s useful to know your website’s DA or DR score, obsessing over these numbers can be counterproductive.

Instead of aiming for a higher score, focus on building a diversified and high-quality backlink profile that caters to your target audience and drives your organic traffic growth.

In other words…

Neither Is a Direct Ranking Factor

As mentioned earlier, Domain Authority and Domain Rating are both third-party metrics developed for SEOs in order to measure how strong a website’s popularity is in Search Engine’s eyes in comparison to other websites.

So take them with a grain of salt, please. I gave you some earlier in this post.

Most SEOs who have been in the game for a while care about much more than these metrics.

Think about it, Google has thousands of ranking factors that are not available to the public eye. There is no way that one (or two metrics) developed by a third-party can 100% accurately replicate how strong a website is and how likely it will show up in the SERPs.

Confusions Regarding These Third-Party Metrics

Here are some common confusions regarding Domain Rating (DR) and Domain Authority (DA):

Confusing DR and DA: Many people confuse DR and DA, thinking they are the same metric. While they are both used to evaluate a website’s authority, they are calculated differently and can sometimes provide different results.

Believing that DA and DR directly impact SEO rankings: While DR and DA can be useful metrics for evaluating a website’s authority and potential to rank, they do not directly impact SEO rankings.

There are many other factors that impact SEO performance, such as the relevance and quality of a website’s content, technical SEO, user experience, and the competition level for targeted keywords.

Focusing too much on DR or DA: Some people focus too much on DR or DA as the sole measure of a website’s authority and potential to rank.

While these metrics can be helpful, they should be used in conjunction with other SEO factors to gain a more complete picture of a website’s authority and potential to rank.

Assuming that a high DR or DA score guarantees success: While a high DR or DA score can be a positive indicator of a website’s authority, it does not guarantee success in search engine rankings.

SEO success requires a holistic approach that includes creating high-quality, relevant content, building a strong link profile, optimizing for technical SEO factors, and providing a positive user experience for visitors.

You know what they say about assuming:

Not understanding how DR or DA are calculated: Many people do not fully understand how DR or DA are calculated, leading to confusion about what these metrics represent and how they should be used.

It’s important to have a clear understanding of how these metrics are calculated and what factors are included in the calculation to use them effectively.

Looking beyond DA and DR

Alright, so you might be thinking:

“Jake, you just told me these are great metrics to use as tools, but you also said they are flawed. So what actually matters for SEO?”

Great question. I can’t say for sure.

No one can.

Besides an event like the Yandex leak that happened in early 2023, we don’t have much insight into EXACTLY what exact ranking factors are and how much they actually influence rankings.

The original purpose of DA was to measure how a website stacks up against its competitors and where it ranks relative to them in the SERPs. Therefore, it is important to focus on this aspect rather than solely on your own DA score.

That’s why through testing and observing data and trends, we use tools like DA and DR to improve the functionality of the internet by creating useful, intuitive and accessible content to connect searchers with information and businesses that offer solutions to their queries.

That’s what being a real SEO is all about.

So besides DA and DR, what other metrics can we use to determine if search engines like a website?

Well, an easy one is the amount of traffic that Search Engines actually send to that website monthly.

Think about it.

If Google is showing a website for users in search results and people are visiting that website, that’s a pretty good clue that Google likes the website and its content.

So, it makes sense that a backlink from that site to yours would help Google view your website as more authoritative and trustworthy, right?

That’s why we also provide our link outreach product based on the minimum amount of estimated organic traffic a domain gets.

The Bigger Picture: Integrating Moz Domain Authority and Ahrefs Domain Rating into Your SEO Strategy

Both Moz DA and Ahrefs DR are valuable tools that can help you understand the performance of your website and identify opportunities for improvement. To effectively harness their potential, align these metrics with your overall SEO strategy, consider other key SEO factors, and stay up-to-date with industry trends and algorithm updates.

DA Vs DR: Final Thoughts

Moz Domain Authority and Ahrefs Domain Rating are powerful tools that offer insights into the authority, performance, and backlink profile of a website.

But by no means are they an end-all, be-all of how search engines prefer websites.

By understanding the differences between these metrics, you can make informed decisions that will help elevate your website’s SEO performance.

Remember to view these metrics as just one piece of the larger SEO puzzle and pair them with a comprehensive, ongoing SEO strategy to truly unlock your website’s ranking potential.

And if you need help from an expert in scaling your link-building strategy, book a call with me today.

The post Moz Domain Authority Vs. Ahrefs Domain Rating: Decoding the Metrics appeared first on The HOTH.