Do you know how much traffic you are losing if you are ignoring content optimization?
This post shows how Linkody nearly doubled its blog’s traffic in one month.
Most of us tend to produce content, do some quick marketing and then forget about the content we worked so hard on.
That’s a lot of traffic down the drain.
What if I told you that a simple content optimization process is the
missing piece of your content strategy?
What Will I Learn?
How We Doubled Traffic With A Content Optimization Process
After discovering the potential hiding under the bonnet of the Google Search Console and connecting a few dots, we @ Linkody HQ realised that content optimization has huge potential and we ended up doubling our traffic.
We noticed that the keywords that bring the most traffic, were not the ones we originally targeted and optimised while writing the articles.
Even if you carry out keyword research with due diligence and pick topics based on that, you will sometimes find that an article has a better ranking potential for other keywords.
We realised we were leaving a huge source of traffic on the table and that we could generate a lot more visitors to our articles, using proper on-page optimisation every once in awhile.
So, we decided to give it a go!
Fast forward one-and-a-half months, and we have nearly doubled our blog traffic since we began actively optimising Linkody’s blog! ;)
There is more: ever since we made this hack part of our content strategy, traffic has been steadily growing.
Moreover, we have noticed that together with the increase of website’s overall authority, the traffic to Linkody’s backlink monitoring tool has been growing faster than before.
Sounds interesting, right?
Let’s dig in.
Step #1 – Content Optimization With Google Search Console
Before we start: Just so we are on the same page, I need to make sure you have Google Search Console set up & ready. This video guide will get you there.
After that’s done – you will need to wait a while before the data is imported.
For those already familiar with the Search Console – congrats, that was the most complicated part of this process.
Here’s the part where you will learn how to find the keywords which will bring the most traffic, for each of your posts.
Step 1
Head over to Search Traffic (1) > Search Analytics (2).
There you will be able to see:
- The queries by which people find you
- All your pages
- Countries
- Device usage (Desktop, mobile or tablet)
- Search Type (web, image or video)
Step 2
Select all the necessary metrics (1) – in this case, we selected all four.
Then click on pages (2) to see the site’s content neatly organised.
Step 3
In this case, you will need to organise all the pages according to the clicks (1) – a.k.a according to the traffic.
Then, go ahead and click on one of the articles (2).
As an example, we will select the “niche-sites-case-studies” post we optimised exactly one month ago. Let’s try to see if there are already any optimisation opportunities.
Step 4
Afterwards, you should click on the queries (1) to see all the keywords by which people can find your article.
It gets better, at the bottom of the page you can export all these queries (2).
This will give you a CSV file holding a list filled with all the keywords that have ever got an impression from a browser.
Step #2 – Analyzing Keyword Opportunities to Rank
Keyword search volume will change over time and your focus keyword might be replaced by a trendier query. KW Planner is here to save the day.
Note: To access the main functionality of KW Planner you have to set up 1 ad on AdWords. It can be turned off after the signup so you don’t have to worry about getting charged. Quick video guide here.
Now, let’s learn about spotting new traffic opportunities.
Step 1
Head over to Keyword Planner and click on Get Search Volume Data and Trends (1).
Then, upload the CSV file (2) you got from our friend, the Google Search Console.
Optionally you can open up the CSV from Google Search Console and copy the keywords to paste into Google Keyword Planner.
Step 2
After you hit “get search volume”, you can organise all the queries according to average monthly searches (1), to see what’s trending at the moment.
And then download the list of all the KWs (2).
Top Secret Step
This is where the magic happens.
I have created an amazing Google Sheet that identifies content optimization opportunites for you automatically!
All you have to do is copy and paste!
At the moment you should have two CSV files:
- One from the Search Console with the data from your website.
- Another from the Keyword Planner with Google’s search volume.
- Copy paste your Search Console data in the second sheet (1).
- And the info from Keyword Planner goes in the third sheet (2).
Step 4
After that’s done, head over to the first sheet where you will see the chart with similar looking data-
In this case, you can see the following:
- Which keywords have the highest search volume
- And which queries bring blog.Linkody the most traffic
At the beginning of a blog post’s life cycle, keywords that bring the most traffic and have the highest search volume rarely match.
And when we look at our blog the query that brings the most clicks is not always the keyword we originally tried to optimise for.
This is the optimisation opportunity you should be looking for.
You should generally target the query you find with the highest clicks as your focus keyword.
But also keep in mind that it’s worth investigating whether there is a potential to rank for keywords with a bigger search volume.
Note: 99% of the time high search volume means high difficulty to rank.
The probability to rank, for the keywords with the highest search volumes increases with time as your blog post matures by accumulating backlinks.
You can also give it a further boost by making significant updates to the content.
Nevertheless, be realistic about your chances to get organic traffic from high-end queries.
Step 4
In our example above most of the clicks were generated by the keyword “niche website examples” so we will select this as our focus keyword.
After checking the blog post, we realised that this specific term appears in the article only once.
That means there is great opportunity to optimise for this keyword with some simple on page SEO tweaks.
It’s also important to find 3-4 LSI keywords (semantic keywords) as well.
Then you want to sprinkle these keywords throughout your article along with your target keyword.
To find LSI keywords run a Google search for the selected focus keyword, scroll to the bottom of the page (1) and you will see the related searches (2).
Step #3 – On Page SEO Optimization
Once we know the focus keyword and LSI keywords for the specific post, it’s time to optimise the post.
Step 1
Head over to your blogging platform and find the post you want to optimise.
In this example, we will be using WordPress.
Step 2
We prepared a checklist for you to know how SEO on-page optimisation should happen. It’s 9 steps – take one step at a time and do the following for each of your posts:
- The headline should start with (& include) the focus keyword (make sure the headline is under 70 characters).
- Add a clickbait KW to your Headline – best, epic, awesome, deal of the year/month, etc.
- Make sure there is an image in your post with the focus keyword as the alt-tag
- Drop your focus KW in the first paragraph.
- Add 3-4 similar LSI keywords in the content.
- For us it was straight forward, we just added a couple of similar keywords from the list that Google Search Console produced.
- Make sure your focus KW appears from 0.5% to 1% from the total content.
- Add KW at the beginning of the URL. Important: If you edit the URL, make sure to create the redirect
- Add a Meta-description that includes your focus keyword.
- Use sub-headings with your focus keyword.
If you are running Wordpress you can make this process a lot easier by installing the Yoast SEO plugin and setting a focus keyword when you are editing your post-
This is a long process but it’s one of the most important elements, without which content optimization won’t really work.
Step 3
It is important that you track your progress so please make a copy of this excel sheet
Just click on File > Make A Copy to grab a copy for yourself.
It’s fairly basic and self explanatory but make sure you fill it out each time you optimise a post for a new keyword so you can track your progress.
Step #4 – Tracking Results With Google Analytics
Knowing you have a problem is the first step towards fixing it.
You cannot know if you’re improving without data – so you’ve gotta measure it.
For A/B testing we use Google Analytics. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s free and gets the job done (here‘s a great video guide on how to set it up).
Step 1
Head over to Google Analytics and select your domain.
Step 2
It will take some time before you find the right content recipe that works so content optimization should be carried out every ~1-2 months.
With that in mind the data should be monitored regularly at the end of each month.
Step 3
To monitor only the organic traffic head over to Acquisition (1) > All Traffic (2) >Channels (3) > Organic Search (4).
Then click on the Landing Pages (1)
And you will be able to see all your website’s content. Find the post you optimised and click on it.
Google Analytics compares the traffic & different metrics for each month so you know the effect of your actions and what to improve the next month.
At the end of the day, content optimization is a game of A/B testing – test, see what works and optimise.
Discovering what works is also the hardest part and requires the most work.
Wrapping It Up
By following this framework, you can make sure that your content (no matter its forms: article, listicle, multimedia etc…) performs better.
For us, it was an amazing discovery. As with many other blogs out there, our posts enjoyed a couple of good months of traffic and then started slowly losing attention.
Well, not anymore:
Now we keep our posts fresh each month and traffic is growing faster than ever before.
I hope this guide can help you to do the same.
If you are struggling, make sure to share your issues or concerns in the comments section below. I will do my best to help you out.
And finally, here are a few questions to harness our collective wisdom:
How have you previously dealt with the loss of traffic? Do you have a content optimization strategy in your organisation and how is it different from this one?
Happy content hacking!
119 Responses
I love this platform so much
Thanks very much
Hey there terrific blog! Does running a blog like
this require a massive amount work? I’ve virtually no understanding of computer programming but I was hoping to start my own blog in the near future.
Anyways, should you have any suggestions or tips for new blog owners please share.
I know this is off subject however I simply wanted to ask.
Thank you!
Running a blog can be done as a hobby or as an income. So the amount of work depends on which one of these you want to do and how successful you want it to be. I have been working 60plus hour weeks since Christmas.
As a Newbie, I am always browsing online for articles that can help me.
Thank you
Glad you found me blog :)
Hi fantastic blog! Does running a blog such as this require a large amount of work?
I’ve very little expertise in computer programming however
I had been hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyway, if you have any suggestions
or tips for new blog owners please share. I understand this
is off topic but I simply wanted to ask.
Thank you!
Yes it requires a lot of work but if done right it’s totally worth it. You’ll find all the information you need to do this successfully across my blog.
This is my first time pay a visit at here and i am in fact
impressed to read everthing at alone place.
Welcome!
It’s actually a great and helpful piece of info. I’m glad that you shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Dez, will do
Hi,
great article.
Thanks very much :)
WOW!! It’s really awesome and helpful article.thanks for sharing with us.I’ll surely bookmark your site and look forward for your upcoming contents.
Sounds good to me
Great post because I learn a lot, it was only last week I discover about you but I’m far well learned about SEO with the help of your tutorials now I believe and I’m confident that I’ll be successful on internet marketing. Thank you very much mathew
You can learn a lot if you know where to look :)
Awesome tutorial Matthew!
Step #2 was the best part!
Google sheet worked for me after changing “true” to “false” in DC sheet’s VLOOKUP (cell C).
I’m glad I found you!
I am glad you found me too Thodoris
Thank you for sharing this bro. I have now new perspective to look google console and keyword planner. I am going to use your trip. Hope things go great.
Thanks Sujan, hope you put that new perspective to good use
Really Really Thanks For Sharing This Post.It Is Very Helpful
No problem Deepak!
I tried the process, but I’m getting urls instead of keywords on the bottom of the google docs chart. Any ideas why? Or is it just me :)
Very informative. Following your blog regularly now. Learn a lot from your articles. Thanks for good work!
No problem Anng
Great post, Helvis. Thanks for all the details.
One thing I am wondering about is the on page SEO enhancements. You write:
>>Add a clickbait KW to your Headline – best, epic, awesome, deal of the year/month, etc
>>>
Why the headline? ( tag I assume) and not the meta title tag? Isn’t the clickbait for the benefit of the organic listings and I thought those are more likely to be taken from the meta tag.
(<lh1> tag I assume)
Hey there,
Do you think it is necessary to go for additional backlink work on the optimized content?
Yes that always helps!
Could you please suggest some of important steps I should follow after starting a blog. I have started entirely new website just 2 weeks before.
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/blogging/how-to-start-a-blog/
Thanks that post was really helpful!
thanx matthew is very usefull for me…..
No problem!
This post is really helpful for a blogger like me. Definitely, I will implement this strategy to my website. Nicely crafted article! Thanks, Matthew.
No problem!
Very nice I hope it will help me to improve my blog. Thanks again.
No problem Nabeel!
Thanks matthew …
I got a new trick here ..
I will immediately try it .. Thanks again. :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Got this at the right time. Many thanks.
No problem!
Can I use Ahrefs tools for the keyword? because ahrefs also provide top pages keyword list.
Yes you can
The article is really helpful for me and this one article make me to subscribe your blog.
The steps and examples are really good.
Thanks,
No problem Ayan glad you enjoyed it :)
Really great idea to optimize the content with keywords and then track the results. A/B testing is great way to test and optimize. Thanks for the interesting post.
No problem :)
Thank you very much for helping with your ideas. I have been following every post you share and followed on social medias so that I can find out new post soon it gets update and every-time you come up with awesome ideas.
Glad to be of service :)
Hi Matthew Woodward!
Really best article whose want to learn SEO.
Thanks to shear such great knowledge.
No worrys!
Hi Matthew, the first tab is missing from the excel sheet when I download it. I see the first tab in the web browser but it is not there on download. Can you please check it and update the file?
Great Stuff! Thank you for sharing.
No problem!
Hi Matthew,
You are at it again with a powerful content hacking strategy. Honestly, I must say that this is a good one. So deep and full of insight.
I was about adding that Yoast SEO plugin was a good to help get some of the strategies you mentioned here sorted out before I read it here too. Yes, since I began using it, my traffic and those of my clients increased. Right now, using what I learnt using it, I have been able to replicate same ideology on blogger blog.
One more new thing I learnt in this blog post which I’m so impressed with is the idea you shared on using Google Keyword Planner. So I can stop the ads after setting it before being charged? Haha.. I never knew. Thanks for that information.
Now I’m better prepared to double my traffic again. Thanks once again.
Emenike Emmanuel
Nice guide Helvis,
I am aware about the initial steps you explained but content optimisation spreadsheet is new for me.
Normally, I put Google Console’s keywords into practice and this way I have increased the blog traffic. Content editing is also an important step in order to uplift the traffic. You can get idea what is missing in your content based on the keywords displaying in Google search analytics.
I have added reviews when I have seen the keywords related to reviews for my blog page. I have added a paragraph that contains 3-4 lines content about customers review and below to that para, I have placed an image that displays 3 reviews from the customers.
Great content put together, You are fantastically and undisputedly a genius. I have to start applying this techniques in my blogging career. Thanks alot.
Happy to help you out!
Hi! Matthew,
This one was like a magic trick.
I never cease to find seo gems on your blog. Thanks a lot.
No problem :)
Thanks for sharing. Thanks to Vladimir for sharing extra tips o same topic. I was searching for more on page technique.
My question – I have seen using below meta details apart from title & description. can anyone explain if they are really helpfull?
Yeah, we will test KeyWordsEverywhere extension as well – it seems great.
If I get your question right, you are asking if optimizing meta details affect ranking?
It’s hard to say which part of On-Page optimization has the biggest effect on your rankings and if meta details are that helpful. We saw that all those 9 on-page optimization steps are boosting the traffic as a whole.
If you go ahead and test which on-page factors affect the ranking the most – I bet there would be a lot of people who would like to read about your insights ;)
This is an insightful tip for me. I like the idea that use the CSV file and import in keyword planner tool to get the keywords search data for content optimization.
Glad you enjoyed it Dennis!
Feel free to share your before & after numbers. Interested to see how it goes ;)
I think the Google doc range was wrong, you were asking it to lookup from columns B-C (2 columns) but then telling it to return the value in the 3rd column. You got the error because the 3rd column was outside the lookup range you specified, just need to change it to 2nd column and it works :)
I am glad you found the solution. James ;)
Just checked and it works for me. Nevertheless, will keep an eye on it.
Hi James, I have the same issue as you, how did you fix it? I dont quite understand from your reply above.
Great blog. I only get the clicks coming up and not the search volume – is this because there are no matches?
Is there a way to workaround this?
In which part?
Keyword Planner takes the nearest match for all the keywords but Vlookup function in the Google Sheet tries to find the exact KW matches. So, in the end, there might be a mismatch.
Vladimir, in the comment section, suggested a cool Chrome Extension that gives search volume of each keyword right in the Search Console – that might be a solution for your problem. Have a look and let me know how it goes ;)
You can find the extension here -https://keywordseverywhere.com/
Hi Helvis,
Great write up and easy to follow tutorial. I’m always looking for ways to better improve the content that I write. You’re definitely correct about blog posts getting traction when you first publish them then dying off after a while.
I am always open to learning how I can get more from the content I have already written on my blog. This definitely looks easy to do, I may have to take some time this weekend and apply it to some of my top posts.
I’ll be sure to grab the Bonus Google sheet to automate the process. I’m all about making things easy for myself.
Thanks for sharing these tips and I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.
Have a great one :)
Susan
No problem Susan, I hope it helps you to grow!
Glad you like the article, Susan.
If you need help with anything, I can be found in the comment section ;)
Hey,
Thanks for the awesome write up and helpful guidance. I never thought of using SC with KP that way, it’s brilliant!
The only issue I’m having is with the graph, it only shows 1 click for every keyword instead of the actual amount in the cell listed in the DC tab.
Hey Mark, Glad you like the post.
As Google’s Keyword Planner gives “very approximate” search volume data DC tab was created to take the average search volume for each query. It’s not accurate, but once you check the tab called “Your Graph” it gives you the idea in which direction you should go with your content optimization.
If you have more questions – you can find me in the comment section ;)
according to me these whole strategy is helpful for you if your content is awesome. Either your all hardworking is totally waste
Have to agree with you – these days you have to write incredibly detailed guides to stand out.
If you are lacking the time to write 1000++ word articles, one thing you can do is – write something that is considered a niche content and build layers of content throughout the time.
Moreover, this content optimization technique would help you to understand how your readers find the post and what angles/topics your post might be missing.
Hi
I am new in blogging sector and blogging from 2 month. This tutorial is very beneficial for me.
I followed you step by step and understood the process.
But i have very problem in interlinking post to post. Please suggest any article which will help me in.
Thanks,
What problem do you have interlinking posts?
If you could be a bit more specific I could point you to an exact article where you can find an answer.
Nevertheless, Matthew’s content is very useful and you should find answers to all your questions. The same goes for blog.linkody ;)
Hey Helvis,
You are simply made it very easy, I’m so thankful of you, Helvis :) You are so intelligent to share the tip on perfect content optimization. Really this is very necessary and it comes to mind reading the valuable post on it. Very happy to know the step by step process to improve websites contents rank and tracking progress using google Analytics.
The secret steps to analyze keyword opportunities to rank is brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing an information post for content optimization. You made easy adding screenshots of each steps.
Have a nice day. :)
– Ravi.
Glad you liked it, Ravi.
If there is anything else I can help you with – you can find me in this comment section ;)
Yeah, his strategy is one of the best in the industry.
OMG. This is one of the best methods I ever found to find related keywords that I already ranked before. This is really great. Thanks Helvis for sharing.
Glad you found it useful ;)
Great Guide! I love the way and i’ll try the excel file for sure today! Thanks a lot! One thing: Do you really compare 1 month of data? Does it affect the Ranking that fast? i would check the search console again after a month.
Quick question: Would it be allowed to translate your blog in german and republish it on my blog? With backlink for sure :)
Best Regards
Sandro
Hi Sandra,
The data change depends on your site’s traffic. If it’s over 1k per month there are high chances that the most popular KW will be different 30 days later.
If translating & republishing the content is fine by Matt Cutt (awkward Google joke) it’s also fine by me ;)
Let me know how your readers like the post.
Hey Helivis, Great way to find gems and optimise. But can not past in the google spreadsheet. It does nt have any edit permissions, its a view only file.
Did you click on File > Make A Copy like the instructions say?
Yeah, like Matthew said – you will have to make a duplicate for the whole Google Sheet Document.
Unfortunately, we had to make it “View Only” just so everyone has the chance to access the whole functionality and it doesn’t get compromised.
If there is anything else you are struggling with – feel free to ask ;)
Might sound dumb but how do you do the redirect if you edit the url? (step 2, part 7)
Great question ;) At first we struggled with this as well.
If you are using WordPress there is a plugin that can automate all this process, it’s called – Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin.
Once you change the page URL – OLD page will be redirected automatically to the NEW page.
I hope this helps and if there is anything else I can help you with – I can be found in the comment section ;)
Very good.
This I did not know, we can export the CSV file and import in keyword planner tool to get an search volume idea.
Thanks Helvis.
Yeah, it’s pretty cool what all the Google tools can do for site’s SEO.
Good luck with the content optimization and if there is anything I can help you with – I will be hanging out in the comment section ;)
It’s too informative and helpful post for me, thanks Helvis for sharing this amazing post…………I learn lots of new things from it.
Glad it’s helpful – let me know how it goes with your content optimization ;)
Great, as always :)
I’ll give it a try
Let us know how you get on!
What perfect timing! I have been agonizing over the lack of traffic and wondering what I can do for a couple weeks. This article has some great answers for my dilemma. Thank you!
Cool trick!
If you want to do this even faster you can use “Keywords everywhere” Chrome extension to display search volumes right in webmaster console and highlight high volumes like in this screenshot:
http://prntscr.com/f5ls9u
This tool also shows volume right in search results, it’s my favorite extension :)
https://keywordseverywhere.com/
Great extra tip thanks
Awesome tool – definitely testing this. Thanks for sharing it, Vladimir.
Hi Matthew, i will try this. Awesome post, like ever.
Let me know how it goes ;) & if you need help with anything – I am here to help.
What to do with the old page after creating 301 redirect?
Are you wondering what will happen with the old page once you changes the URL?
If that’s the case, once you change the OLD URL you should create a redirect to the NEW URL.
If you are using WordPress there is this plugin that we are using – it automates this process – Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin.
Once you change the page URL – OLD page will be redirected to the NEW page.
I hope this helps ;)
found it! duh :/
Awesome, good luck with the process.
If you need any help at all, I will do my best to assist you ;)
hi
I love your stuff… this is great.. but I got lost trying to work out where on sheets to paste? ;(
I’ve got the 2 downloads… but.. lost now
Well did matthew and really informative post to write contents with full optimized content.
Peace \/
I cant take credit for this one
Simple but very effective trick. This is why I never miss an article on your blog. Couldn’t make a copy of the Excel Sheet though!
Glad you found it useful.
Can you let me know what was the issue with the Excel Sheet? Will try to do my best to assist you ;)
Hey Matthew
Once again you have shared very informative post. I have never used google analytics, Kw plannerand search console in that way as you described in this post.
Learnt a new thing today and I will try out this.
Thanks
Lokender
Glad you found it useful, mate. Let me know how it goes ;)