WHERE CAN YOU REALISTICALLY RANK FOR YOUR TARGET KEYWORDS?

BY: NICK EUBANKS

@nick_eubanks

HI, I’M NICK EUBANKS

@nick_eubanks

Me in 30 seconds• Engineered first email campaign

for Morgan Stanley • Founded first company in 2008

sold in 2010 • Created Japanese company in

2010 sold in 2012 • Joined TrafficSafetyStore.com

grew to 8 figures • Founded I’m From The Future in

2014 • Sold SEONick.net in 2015

WHAT IS RANK POTENTIAL?

AN ANALY T IC AL APPROAC H TO UNDERS TANDING WHERE A G IVEN URL C AN RANK IN ORGANIC

SEARC H WITH RESPECT TO T IME AND INVES TMENT

@nick_eubanks

WHY SHOULD YOU UNDERSTAND SEO POTENTIAL?

1. UNREAL I S T IC SEO C AN WAS TE T IME & $$$

2. THERE ARE RANK ING OPPORTUNI T I ES IN H IGHLY COMPET I T IVE VERT IC AL S

3. SEO I SN ’ T A LWAYS ABOUT RANK ING F I RS T - AT L EAS T NOT WITH YOUR URL

4. SEO I SN ’ T ABOUT RANK ING F OR H IGH VOLUME TERMS

@nick_eubanks

WHERE RANKINGS MATTER MOST…

INTENT = CONVERS IONS

@nick_eubanks

INTENT PRIMER

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1. NAV IGAT IONAL [ BRAND TERMS]

2. INF ORMAT IONAL [ TOFU]

3. COMMERC IAL INVES T IGAT ION [MOFU]

4.TRANSACT IONAL [ BOFU]

HOW INTENT MAPS TO CONVERSIONS

@nick_eubanks

HOW INTENT MAPS TO CONVERSIONS

@nick_eubanks

INTENT EXISTS IN *ALL* VERTICALS

@nick_eubanks

1. ECOMMERCE 2. SOFT WARE

3. T EC H SERV ICES

4. PROFESS IONAL SERV ICES 5. EDUC AT ION

6. F INANCIAL SERV ICES

7. AND EVERY TH ING E L SE

LET’S LOOK AT SOME CLOUD HOSTING DATA

@nick_eubanks

MAP INTENT TO YOUR KEYWORDS

@nick_eubanks

WITH OUR SEARCH INTENT MAPPED

@nick_eubanks

TOP 5 RANKING OPPORTUNITIES

@nick_eubanks

WHAT MAKES THESE OPPORTUNITIES?

@nick_eubanks

LACK OF POSITIVE SIGNALING

@nick_eubanks

1. NO USE OF KEYWORDS IN META ATTR IBUTES

2. NO KEYWORDS IN CONTENT ON THE PAGE

3. TH IN CONTENT ( L ESS THAN 500 WORDS )

4. TOO MANY OUTBOUND L INKS

5. DOMAINS WITH L ESS THAN 1,000 L INKS

6. PAGES WITH ( SOMET IMES ) NOT EVEN 1 L INK

7. LOW TRUS T AT THE DOMAIN L EVE L

8.LOW L INK S TRENGTH AT THE DOMAIN L EVE L

WHAT MAKES THESE OPPORTUNITIES?

@nick_eubanks

LET’S DIVE INTO ONE SPECIFIC EXAMPLE

@nick_eubanks

• Position 3 • Informational search intent • 110 average searches per month • $64.08 average CPC • Monthly commercial value = $7,048.80

LET’S LOOK AT THEIR SEO ELEMENTS

@nick_eubanks

Keyword in Title = NO Keyword in URL = NO Keyword used in Headings = NO Keyword occurs on page = NO Word count on Page = 3,712 Outbound page links = 7 Inbound page link = ZERO

LET’S LOOK AT THE SERP

@nick_eubanks

AND SOME SERP DATA

@nick_eubanks

Wikipedia Position = 5 Links to page = 122,489 Words on page = 7,568 Keyword use in headings = yes

Wired Position = 1 Links to page= 42 Words on page = 1,287 Keyword use in URL = yes Keyword use on page = yes

TechTarget Position = 2 & 4 (w/ Featured Snippet) Links to page = 449 Words on page = 1,139 Keyword use anywhere = no

Not going to outrank

Could be stolen

Losing relevancy, as query matures to have commercial intent

A LOOK AT OUT TARGET’S LINK VELOCITY

@nick_eubanks

Well, that’s scary!

WE NEED TO DIVE DEEPER

@nick_eubanks

NOW LET’S PRETEND WE’RE IN STRIKING DISTANCE

@nick_eubanks

Page Stats Position 17 Page relevance = low Links to page = 65 from 18 LRD’s Words on page = 781

BUT Only one site on the first two pages is targeting our term

WHAT’S A REALISTIC PLAN OF ATTACK?

@nick_eubanks

Create a new page for Cloud as a Service Target at all meta attributes:

Page Title URL Headings On-page copy

Write at least 1,000 words Add internal links from site with varying keyword anchors Add to XML Sitemap & resubmit

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

Realistic SEO - Understanding Rank Potential [Medium]

Understanding & Explaining A Realistic SEO Timeline [Search Engine Land]

No Hype SEO: A Realistic Formula for Making SEO Work for Your Business, Part 2 [Search Engine Land]

@nick_eubanks