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How to Start a Blog: A Step-by-Step 12-Month Action Plan

2024-12-19 23:07:43

Blogging can be a fun pastime—or it can be a profitable side hustle.

For some, it can even turn into a lucrative, full-time job.

So, what separates the hobbyists from the high-earners?

An action plan.

Below, I’ll teach you how to start a blog that attracts and converts visitors.

Including a month-by-month timeline of exactly what to do and when to do it.

With actionable steps for each phase, you’ll learn how to go from initial planning to a thriving business in 12 months.

Plus, you’ll see how other bloggers successfully used this system to build steady blog traffic and revenue. Like Kayla, who used this framework to grow her food blog from zero to 90K monthly visitors in a few years.

Ready to build your blog the right way?

Let’s start with how to validate your blog concept.

Phase #1: Plan Your Blog (Month 1)

Focus on research and validation in month one.

Why?

Because it will set your blog up for sustainable success.

Define Your Goals

Your goals determine everything about your blog.

This includes your:

• Content strategy
• Monetization methods
• Target audience
• Publishing schedule
• Marketing tactics

But your goals should be more specific than “I want to start a blog and make money” or “I want to share advice on [insert topic].”

Break your goals into three parts: purpose, income, and growth.

This will define your “why.”

And clarify your strategy for long-term success.

Purpose Goals

• Core topic expertise you’ll share
• Problem you’ll solve for readers
• Unique angle that sets you apart

Example: “Help busy parents cook healthy meals in under 30 minutes.”

Income Goals

• Primary revenue stream (affiliate, ads, products)
• Target monthly revenue ($500, $5,000)
• Timeline for reaching income goals

Example: “Generate $1,000 per month through affiliate marketing within 24 months.”

Growth Goals

• Monthly traffic targets
• Email subscriber goals
• Content publishing schedule

Example: “Reach 25,000 monthly pageviews and 1,000 email subscribers in 12 months.”

Research Your Niche

Ideally, the niche you choose will be one you have an interest in long-term.

Maybe it’s something you’re already an expert in. Or at least have a serious desire to learn about.

It’s WAY easier to create quality content when you know your stuff and are passionate about the topic.

Plus, your content will feel more authentic to your readers.

Here’s how to pick the perfect niche:

• List your interests: Start by writing down five to 10 topics. These could be hobbies, professional skills, or areas you want to learn more about.
• Assess your expertise: For each topic, rate your knowledge level from one to 10. You don’t need to be a world-class expert. But some familiarity helps.
• Check market demand: Use Google Trends to see if interest in your topic is growing or declining. Stick to topics with steady or increasing interest.

Validate Your Idea

How do you know if your blog idea is any good?

It’s actually pretty simple:

Use Semrush’s Keyword Overview to assess its popularity and potential.

Type your topic into the search bar and click “Search.”

I used “dog training” for this example.

Then, take a look at two things:

Search Volume

This metric tells you how many people search for the specified term per month.

For example, “dog training” gets over 49,500 searches per month in the U.S., which means it’s a viable niche with active searchers.

If your niche has less search volume, don’t count it out.

Small but engaged niches can be really lucrative.

But if it’s substantially less—say 200 searches total per month—consider three things:

• Is this niche likely to grow in popularity? Check Google Trends to see if interest in this term is steadily increasing to get an idea of its growth potential.
• Do you plan to sign up for ad networks? Many ad networks have minimum monthly traffic requirements—something that can be tough for small blog niches to meet. For example, Mediavine requires publishers to have 50,000 sessions per month before they can apply, while Raptive requires 100,000 monthly sessions.
• Does the niche have revenue potential? Some niches with lower search volume can still be profitable if the audience is ready to spend. Consider what products, services, or digital downloads you could offer and the average cost of these items.

Keyword Difficulty (KD)

Next, look at keyword difficulty, a metric that tells you how hard—or easy—it’ll be to rank for the specified term.

“Dog training” has a “hard” KD score, making this niche a tougher one to break into.

Ranking highly will require optimized content and a strong backlink profile.

As you review various niches, use these keyword difficulty percentages as a guide:

• 0–29% = Perfect for new blogs
• 30–49% = Manageable with good content
• 50%+ = Requires serious search engine optimization (SEO) effort and high-quality content

Strike a balance between volume and keyword difficulty to find the right niche for you.

Assess the Competition

Before you enter a niche, it helps to know who you’re up against.

Do a Google search to see which competitors appear in the first five results or so.

Ignore any major sites that would be impossible to beat in search engine results pages (SERPs) for now.

Let’s say you want to start a blog on growing tomatoes.

Focus on the rivals you’d have a realistic chance of outranking.

Check each competitor’s traffic using a tool like Semrush’s Traffic Analytics.

For example, when I searched this term, The Old Farmer’s Almanac had one of the top spots.

But this site gets 4.1 million monthly visitors.

That’s a hefty amount of traffic.

Let’s cross this site off the list for now.

In comparison, another blog that appeared highly in the search results, The Maker Makes, gets 25,400 visits per month.

That’s still a lot of traffic, but it’s a much more attainable number.

Add them to the list.

Next, scroll down to see this blog’s top-performing marketing channels:

As you can see, The Maker Makes gets 99.93% of its traffic from organic search.

This is both good and bad news.

It means users actively search for this niche on search engines.

But it also means the SEO is strong with this one.

You’ll need to invest serious time learning optimization fundamentals to beat them in the SERPs.

(Don’t worry—I cover SEO basics in Phase 3.)

Next, check out their blog to get a feel for their content.

Study their top posts to identify what they do well and areas of improvement.

You’ll also want to review how competitors structure their sites—is the navigation intuitive? Does the site provide a good user experience?

Note your likes and dislikes to make your blog’s design a better experience for visitors and search engines.

Rinse and repeat the above steps for three to five competitors.

Phase #2: Build Your Blog (Month 2)

Month two is when you’ll make the technical decisions that set your site up for success—from choosing a domain name to designing your layout.

Select Your Domain and Hosting

Your domain name is your blog’s permanent address on the internet.

So, make it count.

The best domain names share four key features.

They’re:

• Short (3–13 characters)
• Easy to say and spell
• Related to your topic
• Memorable enough to build a brand

Examples include “Backlinko” for SEO and “NerdFitness” for health—they’re concise, clear, and instantly tell readers what to expect.

Make a list of possible names and use a site like GoDaddy to check availability.

Next, decide where your blog will live.

You’ve got two main options:

• Hosted platforms: The company handles everything—hosting, security, updates, and maintenance. Perfect for beginners who want simplicity over control. Examples include Squarespace, Wix, and WordPress.com.
• Self-hosted platforms: The main self-hosted option is WordPress.org, an open-source platform that powers 43.6% of all websites. You’ll need to choose a hosting company like Bluehost or SiteGround to install it, but you’ll get complete control over design, features, and monetization.

Hosted vs. Self-Hosted Platforms

Hosted platforms are undeniably the easiest option for new bloggers.

This is because they come with everything you need: hosting, domain name, templates, and basic SEO tools.

The big advantage?

Everything works right out of the box. You don’t need to think about technical setup or maintenance—it’s all handled for you.

But there’s a catch.

Hosted platforms make starting easy, but they also limit what you can do with your blog. This includes monetizing it with affiliate and ad networks.

Think of it like renting an apartment versus owning a house.

When you rent, you’re not allowed to change the paint color or make any other upgrades.

But when you own, you can do whatever you want.

Yes, you’ll need to get a domain name, find a host, and set everything up yourself. (Or hire someone to help you.)

But you’ll have MUCH more control over your blog.

You can customize everything about your site. Add any features you want. And scale without hitting platform or monetization restrictions.

It’ll take more setup time (many hosts will connect your domain to your site for you), but the flexibility and control are worth it.

The key takeaway here?

If you want more control over your blog, I highly recommend a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Design Your Blog

Your blog’s design affects everything from user experience to search rankings.

While it’s an essential foundation, don’t get caught up in unnecessary details like colors or custom fonts,

The faster you launch, the faster you can start driving traffic to your blog.

Choose a Clean Theme

A blog theme is a pre-designed template that controls your site’s visual elements and layout—including fonts, colors, navigation, and spacing—without requiring you to write code.

WordPress themes like GeneratePress, Astra, and Elementor are popular for a reason.

They’re:

• Lightweight, which means faster loading
• Mobile-responsive, so your site works on all devices
• SEO-friendly to help you rank better on Google
• Customizable, which makes it easy to tailor it to your niche or needs

Avoid themes packed with flashy animations, complex layouts, or built-in features you won’t use.

These can slow down your site and distract readers from what matters most—your content.

Focus on Readability

Don’t make your readers work to read your content.

(Because they’ll likely go elsewhere if you do.)

Follow these best practices:

• Use large, readable text (16 pixels minimum)
• Keep plenty of white space between paragraphs
• Stick to black text on a white background

Optimize for Speed

Your design choices affect your website’s loading speed.

So keep things simple:

• Compress images with a tool like TinyPNG before uploading
• Keep plugins to the essentials (SEO, security, caching)
• Avoid elements like sliders and animations that can slow down your blog

Phase #3: Launch Your Blog (Month 3)

Now comes the fun part.

Month three is when you’ll research topics and create content that will help you build an engaged audience.

Write (and post) at least five blog posts before you officially launch.

Why?

Because you want people to stick around when they land on your site.

If you only have one post… they probably won’t.

But if you have five+ awesome articles?

They’ll have a good sample to read (and share).

Research Topics

Instead of guessing what to write about, research relevant content ideas that’ll attract your target audience.

Start with Google’s autocomplete feature.

For example, if you blog about organic coffee, type this term into Google to see what people search for related to this topic.

Add “how to,” “best,” or “what” to get more targeted suggestions.

For example, typing “organic coffee what” brings up potential blog post topics like “Why organic coffee is important” and “Is organic coffee worth it?”

You can also use a content ideation tool to get targeted blog post ideas.

I used Semrush’s Topic Research for this example:

Type your topic into the search field and click “Get content ideas.”

The tool will reveal popular topics related to your term along with monthly search volume.

For example, searching “organic coffee” results in ideas like “Arabica beans” and “organic coffee syrups.”

Click any card to see a difficulty score, headlines, questions, and related searches.

Look for topics with solid search volume but reasonable competition.

Pay special attention to questions people are asking.

And topics your competitors haven’t covered yet or well. (Remember that competitive research I suggested in Phase 1? This is where that information will come in handy.)

Conduct Keyword Research

Once you’ve selected blog post topics, it’s time for keyword research.

Adding a target keyword to each blog post helps Google understand what your content is about.

It also helps you rank higher on search engines.

A target keyword is the primary phrase you want your post to rank for in search results—like “store coffee beans” or “coffee cocktail recipes.”

You’ll need a keyword research tool like Keyword Magic Tool for this task.

Type your term into Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool and click “Search.”

For example, I searched for “organic coffee,” and the tool returned over 11,000 potential keywords.

While this list has many great keyword suggestions, you can refine it to make the suggestions more relevant and targeted.

The trick—especially for a new blog—is to find keywords with decent search volume and low keyword difficulty.

Select the “KD %” filter and click “Very Easy” or “Easy.”

Now, you’ll see terms you’ll be likelier to rank for in the SERPs.

For example, “is organic coffee sprayed with chemicals” gets 1,900 searches per month and has an easy KD score of 22.

Not bad.

Next, check the search intent column.

Search intent is the reason behind a user’s search.

There are four main types:

• Informational: People want to learn something (“how to brew french press coffee”)
• Commercial: People are researching products (“best coffee makers”)
• Navigational: People want to find a specific site (“Starbucks near me”)
• Transactional: People are ready to buy (“buy Ethiopian coffee beans”)

Start with informational intent.

Content that solves your readers’ problems will boost your blog’s credibility.

As you build authority, expand into commercial and transactional (if relevant) keywords.

• Select the “Intent” filter from the menu
• Choose “Informational”
• Click “Apply”

This refines the list even further.

Now, you’ll only see keywords with low keyword difficulty and informational intent—perfect options for your first blog posts.

Optimize Your Content

By optimizing a blog post, you’ll help it perform well in search results while making it easy for readers to consume.

This means using your target keyword in the right places and structuring your content clearly.

H1

Every blog post (and page on your website) should have an H1 (aka headline).

The H1 should include your target keyword and be compelling enough to attract readers.

For example, if your keyword is “how to store coffee,” your H1 might be “How to Properly Store Coffee, According to a Professional Roaster.”

Subheads

Break up your content with descriptive subheadings.

Use H2s for main sections and H3s for subsections.

(H3s, H4s, and H5s nest under H2s in that order.)

So, your blog post’s structure might look like this:

• H1: How to Properly Store Coffee, According to a Professional Roaster
• H2: Coffee Storing Tips
• H3: Avoid Storing Coffee in the Fridge
• H3: Keep Beans Airtight and Cool
• H3: Buy Small Batches

You’ll find heading options on the WordPress editor:

Include keyword variations in your subheads if you can do so naturally, but focus on making your content easy to scan and skim.

Title Tag and Meta Description

Every time you search on Google, you see title tags and meta descriptions—you might just not have known that’s what they’re called.

• Title tag: The clickable headline your audience sees in search results. It should include your headline and range from 50 to 60 characters.
• Meta description: Appears under the title tag in search results and is what persuades people to click. Keep it under 155 characters, include the target keyword, and make it compelling.

Here’s what these elements look like on Google:

URL

Every blog post you write needs a unique URL.

Keep it short and keyword-focused.

Like this:

Remove unnecessary words like “the,” “and,” or “to.”

Focus on Quality

Optimizing your blog content can only get you so far.

Your content also needs to be high quality to rank and attract readers.

Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines are an important framework for creating content that delivers tangible value to readers.

E-E-A-T stands for:

• Experience
• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

Let’s say you’re starting a cooking blog.

Instead of just listing recipe steps, talk about:

• How you discovered the recipe
• The mistakes you made while making it
• Photos, videos, and screenshots you took to highlight recipe steps
• Tips you’ve learned from making it multiple times

That’s experience in action.

You don’t need to be the world’s leading expert to demonstrate expertise.

But you DO need to know more than your target reader.

Here’s how to show expertise:

• Address common questions and problems
• Feature your credentials prominently
• Consider having experts review your content
• Include detailed step-by-step instructions

While backlinks are a vital way to build authority, it’s also important to create blog content backed by solid research and real expertise.

Reference authoritative studies, add expert insights that support your points, and include author and team credentials in detailed author bios.

Focus on transparency and delivering consistent value to build trust with your target audience.

• Disclose affiliate relationships
• Keep your content up to date
• Include reliable sources and expert quotes
• Show real results
• Feature star ratings and reviews from users (if applicable)

Create Internal Pages

Before you launch, you’ll want to set up at least three core internal pages to look professional and build trust.

• About page: This is your chance to establish expertise in your niche. Share relevant experience like industry certifications, years working in the field, or results you’ve achieved. Help readers understand why they should trust your advice over someone else’s.
• Contact page: Keep it simple with a contact form and email address. This makes it easy for readers—and potential partners—to reach you.
• Privacy policy: If you collect any data about your web visitors, like emails or information from analytic tools, you’ll need a privacy policy. Use a template or free privacy policy generator to create one quickly.

Create a Lead Magnet

Don’t wait to build your email list until you get steady traffic.

By that point, you’ve already missed countless potential subscribers.

The solution?

Create a lead magnet that launches with your blog.

A lead magnet is a free resource you give away in exchange for email addresses. The key is making it so useful visitors can’t help but download it.

Focus on creating lead magnets that are quick to make but highly valuable:

• Templates
• Checklists
• Guides
• Calendars
• Email newsletter signup forms

For example:

At Backlinko, our main lead magnet is an email newsletter signup form:

You can also put relevant lead magnets on individual webpages and blog posts like HubSpot did with this free Ebook.

When users click “Download Now,” it prompts them to enter their email address.

Whether your lead magnet is sitewide or on individual pages (or both), what matters most is that it’s valuable to your target audience.

So, create something awesome your readers will love.

And start collecting email addresses from the get-go.

Once you’ve established your list, use it to:

• Promote blog content
• Advertise products or services
• Provide exclusive content
• Keep readers engaged with your blog and brand

Set Up Blog Analytics

You’ve spent a lot of time and energy getting your blog up and running.

Now it’s time to find out if your hard work is paying off.

Analytics tools can tell you:

• Which posts are getting the most traffic
• Where your readers are coming from
• How long people stay on your site

And that’s just scratching the surface.

Google Analytics and Google Search Console are two must-have analytics tools to track your website’s progress.

Even better?

They’re free.

Google Analytics (GA4)

Google Analytics helps you understand exactly how visitors interact with your blog by tracking key performance metrics.

This includes:

• Traffic sources: See where your readers come from, such as search engines, social media, email, or direct visits
• Content performance: Track your most-viewed pages, average time spent reading, and which posts keep readers engaged (and those that don’t)
• User journey: Learn how visitors navigate your blog, which pages they visit first, and where they exit
• Audience insights: Learn about your readers’ demographics, interests, devices used, and geographic locations

Installing Google Analytics requires adding a tracking code to your website or CMS.

Not technically savvy?

Follow along with our Google Analytics 4 Tutorial to get step-by-step setup instructions. (Or ask a friend to assist with setup.)

Google Search Console (GSC)

Google Search Console shows you how your content performs in Google search results (but it doesn’t provide data from any other search engines or traffic sources).

You’ll learn:

• Search performance: Monitor which keywords bring visitors to your blog, your average position in search results, and how often people click through to your content
• Technical health: Identify issues like broken links and security problems before they impact your rankings
• Loading speed: Track Core Web Vitals metrics that affect user experience and search rankings
• Indexing status: Ensure Google can find and index all your blog posts properly

Installing GSC requires uploading an HTML file to the root directory of your domain.

This is Google’s way of verifying you actually own the domain.

Sounds a bit too technical for you? Enlist someone to help.

Or read our Definitive Guide to Google Search Console for detailed setup instructions.

Phase #4: Grow Your Blog (Months 4–12)

By this point, you should have a solid foundation of content.

Focus on growth in months four through 12 by setting publishing goals and promoting your posts.

Establish Your Publishing Cadence

To determine how often you should post, refer to the goals you set in month one.

For example, say you want to have 50,000 monthly visitors in two years.

Determine how many blog posts you’ll need to achieve that goal, such as 50 posts total, each bringing in 1,000 visitors monthly.

Next, do some quick math: 50 posts ÷ 24 months = about two posts per month.

So, you’ll need to write around two high-quality posts per month to achieve your goal.

Factor in writing time to see if the publishing cadence is manageable with your schedule.

This will help you create a sustainable schedule that aligns with your goals and available time.

Most importantly?

Focus on quality over quantity.

One quality post per week beats five rushed ones.

Create a Simple Distribution Process

Want to get as many eyes on your content as possible?

Create a distribution plan.

The key to making this work for you (especially if you’re a solo blogger) is to keep it simple.

You can always expand later.

Focus on doing a few things well rather than spreading yourself thin across every platform.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to get your audience’s attention.

In fact, for every $1 spent on email marketing, marketers receive $36 in return.

That’s a mighty fine return on investment (ROI).

Once you’ve started collecting email addresses (you made that lead magnet in month three, right?), put them to work immediately.

Start with a simple email schedule, such as sharing new posts and exclusive tips weekly.

Pick one day (like Tuesday morning) and stay consistent.

Write your emails in the second person to connect with your audience.

And share specific tips rather than general advice to show subscribers the value of staying on your email list.

For example, Backlinko’s email newsletter is sent by the head of SEO, Leigh McKenzie.

In each newsletter, he talks directly to subscribers and uses compelling hooks to entice subscribers to read the featured blog post.

Like this:

“Want to know how we generate 722,000+ monthly sessions at Backlinko?”

Encourage engagement (and increase the chances of making it into subscribers’ inboxes) by asking readers to respond to you.

This is what Erica Schneider, founder of content marketing coaching business Cut the Fluff, does in their weekly emails:

Social Media

Pick two social media platforms (for now) where your audience spends time.

This way, you can focus on building a consistent online presence on these platforms. As you grow, consider adding more social media platforms to your distribution plan.

But don’t bite off more than you can chew at the beginning.

Here’s what works for different niches:

• Instagram: Great for lifestyle, fashion, and fitness content
• LinkedIn: Ideal for business, marketing, career, and professional topics
• X: Works well for tech, news, and trending topics
• Pinterest: Perfect for visual topics like food, DIY, home decor

Relationship Building

Build relationships with other bloggers in your niche to make valuable connections and promote your content.

The most important thing to remember about this tactic?

There needs to be mutual value.

So, how do you build these mutually advantageous relationships?

Creating a blogger outreach strategy is actually pretty simple:

• Make a list of 10–20 bloggers and industry leaders in your niche
• Follow them on social media
• Leave insightful comments
• Share their content

Do this consistently, and you’ll start building a network of bloggers who will also share and comment on your posts.

This drives more engagement and traffic for your blog. And it can also help you get more backlinks.

This is something Leigh knows well.

He often comments on posts from digital marketing bloggers and thought leaders on Linkedin.

This strategy helps build relationships and connects you with subject matter experts who can guest post on your blog or provide quotes to enhance your content.

Paid Ads

SEO can be extremely effective at driving blog traffic—but it takes time to see results—especially for new blogs.

A quick way to get traffic is by using paid ads.

Start with Facebook and Pinterest—they’re beginner-friendly options that allow you to quickly create ads and target specific audiences, even if you have no advertising experience.

Set a small budget to see how your content performs.

But don’t throw money at just any content.

Get more out of your investment by promoting:

• High-performing content (check analytics to see which posts have the most traction)
• Posts that contain affiliate links
• Blog posts with a lead magnet so you can capture your readers’ emails

Review Analytics for Year Two

Your first year of blogging has provided valuable insights.

Now, it’s time to use that data to fine-tune your strategy and achieve even greater results in year two.

Assess Your Top Content

You’ve hopefully already been looking at your content’s performance on a regular basis.

But you’ll want to review how things performed overall for the year.

Pull up Google Analytics and look at your top posts.

Go to Engagement > Pages and Screens.

Then, select the date in the upper right and change the filter to “Last 12 months.”

Look for patterns:

• Which topics performed best?
• What content length performed the best?
• Which titles got the most clicks?
• What content types (how-to, lists, case studies) drove the most traffic?

For example, you might find that your step-by-step tutorials got 3x more traffic than your roundup posts.

That’s pure gold for planning year two’s content.

Evaluate Traffic Sources

Next, look at your top traffic sources for the year.

Go to Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and change the filter to “Session / medium.”

Look at:

• Which social platforms drove the most engaged visitors
• What percentage came from search
• Which referral sources were most valuable

Then, ask yourself: “Where should I double down? Where should I pull back?”

Consider Advanced Analytics Tools

Now that your blog is growing, consider using analytics tools that provide deeper insights to reach your blogging goals.

Start with a rank-tracking tool like Semrush’s Position Tracking.

It tells you how your posts rank for each keyword, how those rankings change over time, and top keywords.

More importantly, it reveals ranking drops early so you can fix issues before they hurt your traffic.

A site audit tool is another helpful addition to your analytics arsenal.

These tools check for issues on your site and tell you how to fix them. Like missing meta descriptions, indexing issues, slow pages, duplicate content, and much more.

Platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush provide free, limited access to site audit tools.

Finally, consider using a heatmap tool.

These interactive tools are helpful (and fun to use) because they reveal how users interact with your content and blog.

You’ll learn the percentage of visitors who click on buttons and links.

And where on each page visitors stop reading.

This information can help you refine your blog’s content and layout to keep readers on your site for longer and improve your conversion rates.

Use a free heatmap tool like Microsoft’s Clarity or check out the budget-friendly paid options by HotJar and Mouseflow.

Bonus: 3 Blogs That Thrived in Their First Two Years

Want to see what’s possible in your first two years?

These bloggers built engaged audiences and steady traffic streams faster than most.

Below, I break down how they did it.

1. Broken Oven Baking

Kayla Burton loves baking.

So much so that she started a blog in 2020 to share her favorite recipes with the world.

After just two years of consistent blogging, Broken Oven Baking shot up the SERPs and attracted an engaged audience.

By January 2022, the blog had:

• 3.2K monthly organic visits
• $2.1K in traffic value
• 3K ranking keywords

This was enough for Kayla to start earning income from affiliate marketing.

But she also focused on growing her Instagram presence to promote her blog and recipes.

This led to lucrative brand sponsorships.

These collaborations provided enough income for Kayla to quit her job and start blogging full-time.

But quick wins don’t mean much if they’re not sustainable.

Luckily for Broken Oven Baking, success wasn’t fleeting.

By November 2024, Broken Oven Baking’s monthly visitors skyrocketed to 76,600.

So, what’s her secret to success?

From day one, Kayla read everything she could about blog SEO to help Broken Oven Baking rank highly in search engines.

Then, she implemented what she learned on her site by optimizing content and ensuring her blog theme was fast, responsive, and user-friendly.

And it paid off—Broken Oven Baking currently has over 3,000 keywords in Google’s top 20.

Kayla’s blog also displays clear E-E-A-T signals.

With step-by-step written instructions, videos, and visuals, it’s clear she tests each recipe before sharing them with readers.

There’s also an “Expert Tips” section where she provides helpful advice to help her readers perfect each recipe.

It also builds trust with her audience and search engines.

But one of the smartest things Kayla has done is diversify her blog’s income sources.

Today, Broken Oven Baking brings in revenue from multiple streams:

• Display ads through Mediavine
• Brand sponsorships
• Affiliate marketing programs
• One-on-one food blog coaching

Kayla’s recipe for success might have a lot of ingredients, but she never cut corners.

With a commitment to quality, thorough recipe testing, detailed instructions, and optimization, she’s been able to set her blog apart from the competition.

Key Takeaways:

• Focus on SEO fundamentals: Knowing how to optimize your content and blog is non-negotiable—read tutorials, take SEO courses, and apply what you learn
• Prioritize quality over quantity: Build a sustainable business by taking the time to create content that provides real value to your readers and stands out from the crowd

2. Drawings Of

Next, let’s look at a blog that proves you can turn your creative passion into a thriving business.

Lillie Marshall launched DrawingsOf.com in 2020 with a unique vision: teaching English through hand-drawn illustrations while making learning fun for kids, teens, and adults.

By December 2022—just two years after launch—Drawings Of had:

• 34.2K monthly organic visits
• $6.9K in traffic value
• 14.9K ranking keywords

With an impressive number of keywords bringing in targeted traffic each month, Lillie was able to quickly monetize her blog.

She created an ecommerce shop with clothes, classroom posters, printables, and more.

Drawing Of’s traffic has continued to grow at a rapid pace.

In November 2024, it had:

• 201.7K monthly organic visits
• $19.3K in traffic value
• 49.5K ranking keywords

So, how’d Lillie do it?

Instead of creating generic teaching content, Lillie leveraged her dual expertise as a teacher and artist to create something unique.

The blog attracts and retains readers through:

• Original hand-drawn artwork for every post
• Keywords that bring in targeted traffic each month
• Educational content from a teacher with 20 years of experience
• Clear author credentials and background

Lillie also has a smart monetization strategy that includes multiple income streams, from affiliate marketing to display ads.

The key to Lillie’s success was finding an underserved niche.

Creating content that serves teachers and students enabled Lillie to build a loyal audience that keeps coming back for more.

Key Takeaways

• Combine unique skills: Use multiple areas of expertise to create content that stands out in your niche
• Build diverse income sources: Start with strong content, then expand into various revenue streams like ecommerce, digital downloads, and ad networks

3. Malena Permentier

When Malena Permentier launched her self-named blog in 2020, she created a unique mix of practical and aspirational lifestyle content.

Instead of focusing on just one niche, she combined four topics that naturally complement each other: apartment living, decor, organization, and productivity.

By June 2022, the blog was attracting 6,600 organic monthly visitors.

With a decent amount of traffic coming in from search engines, she joined Amazon’s affiliate marketing program, Amazon Associates.

Every time someone buys a product through an affiliate link in Malena’s posts, the blogger earns money.

But you might be surprised to hear that search traffic wasn’t her goal.

While many bloggers focus solely on SEO, Malena took a different approach. She invested heavily in visual content, particularly on Pinterest.

Her secret?

Spending a significant amount of time learning how to create eye-catching Pinterest designs in Canva.

This helped her drive serious blog traffic from the social media platform.

In September 2024, Malena’s blog had 23,600 monthly visitors.

69.47% of this traffic comes from organic social alone.

So, how did she succeed in a competitive lifestyle niche?

This visual-first approach works perfectly for her lifestyle content, which is often full of eye-catching home decor tips and ideas.

Thanks to her blog’s lightning-fast growth, Malena was accepted into Mediavine’s ad network.

But that’s not the only way Malena’s blog brings in cash—the blogger created digital products her audience can download for a fee.

This includes a “Viral Pinterest Strategies” course and Pinterest templates.

Prices range from $9 to $120.

Malena claims to make over $20,000 per month from her blog monetization strategy, which now also includes YouTube and TikTok videos.

While I can’t confirm or deny this, her traffic numbers and various income streams certainly back up the potential.

Key Takeaways

• Find your audience online: Invest in platforms where your readers naturally look for content. Pinterest worked for Malena, but your niche might thrive on YouTube or Instagram.
• Break niche boundaries strategically: Combining complementary topics (like home decor with productivity) can create a unique value proposition—if the connection makes sense for your audience.

Start Building a Profitable Blog Today

This 12-month timeline isn’t set in stone.

You might spend less time on research and more time on blog design.

What matters most is focusing on three proven blogging fundamentals:

• Quality content
• SEO
• Diversified income strategy

These aren’t just nice-to-haves.

They’re essential for starting a blog that ranks highly and generates income.

Ready to advance your SEO knowledge?

Read our Ultimate SEO Tutorial to learn how to optimize your content for UX, build backlinks, and drive more qualified traffic to your blog.

The post How to Start a Blog: A Step-by-Step 12-Month Action Plan appeared first on Backlinko.

Top 14 Competitor Analysis Tools

2024-12-19 22:59:52

Need help analyzing your competition to find ways to outperform them?

You’ve come to the right place.

Check out our list of the top competitor analysis tools for 2025.

How to Choose the Right Competitor Analysis Tool

With so many competitive analysis tools out there, how do you choose the right one for your needs?

Consider the following:

• Features: Which aspects of your competitor’s business are you looking to analyze? This will help you determine which features to look for.
• Ease of use: Any tool you decide on should be fairly intuitive to use. You don’t want to waste your or your team’s time on learning how to use a complicated tool.
• Customer support: Look for software solutions that offer speedy customer support across multiple channels. Ideally, you’ll want to be able to reach a company’s customer support by live chat, phone, or email.

Usually, competitor monitoring tools focus on one aspect of competitor analysis (e.g., a social media competitor analysis). But there are also solutions like Semrush that offer a suite of tools for analyzing your competition.

Below, we’ve organized our favorite tools by category.

Best Competitor Keyword Analysis Tools

1. Organic Research

Semrush’s Organic Research is one of the best SEO competitor analysis tools to find out which keywords your competitors’ websites rank for. And how much traffic they could be generating through those keywords.

Here’s how to get started with it:

Enter a competitor’s domain in the search box, and the tool will generate a detailed report on your competitor’s website.

The “Positions” tab shows you all the keywords the entered website ranks for.

You can then filter the keywords by a variety of criteria, including search volume, keyword difficulty, and more. To find ones that meet your criteria.

There’s also an option to export the keyword list to an Excel or .CSV file.

What We Like

Organic Research allows you to see all the keywords competing websites rank for. Which provides you with plenty of data to improve your own organic search strategy.

It also lets you filter keywords based on a number of criteria. To help you find only the most relevant keywords for your website.

Pricing

You can try Organic Research (with limited access) when you sign up for a free Semrush account.

Access even more data with one of the paid plans:

• Pro ($139.95/month)
• Guru ($249.95/month)
• Business ($499.95/month)

2. Keyword Gap

Keyword Gap (also from Semrush) is a competitor keyword analysis tool that lets you uncover keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t. So you can find valuable terms you might be missing out on.

Compare your keyword profile against up to four competing websites. And review both organic and paid search keywords.

The tool will generate a report comparing all the keywords the entered domains rank for.

If you’re doing SEO keyword research, filter the report to only show organic search keywords.

To see keywords your competitors rank for but your website doesn’t, scroll down and select the “Missing” tab.

What We Like

The “Top Opportunities” section shows a quick overview of the top keywords you should be targeting. Which can help you prioritize your SEO and content marketing efforts.

Pricing

Keyword Gap is a part of Semrush’s suite of SEO tools, and you can try it out with a free plan.

More functionality is available with a paid plan:

• Pro ($139.95/month)
• Guru ($249.95/month)
• Business ($499.95/month)

3. Serpstat

Serpstat’s competitor analysis tools help you find out who you’re competing with in search engine results pages (SERPs). And allows you to uncover the keywords competing websites rank for.

You can use it to see which keywords competing websites rank for but yours doesn’t. And the platform has an option to set up position tracking for your competitors’ keywords too.

Serpstat supports tracking and analysis for both organic and paid search keywords.

What We Like

Serpstat gives you the ability to compare competing websites and pages on a per-keyword basis. To help you understand what it takes to rank for a specific term.

Pricing

You can use Serpstat’s free seven-day trial to test out the software.

If you’d like to continue using it after the trial period is over, you’ll need to opt for one of the paid plans:

• Individual ($59/month)
• Team ($119/month)
• Agency ($479/month)

Best Competitor Backlink Analysis Tools

4. Backlink Analytics

Semrush’s Backlink Analytics lets you examine your competitors’ backlink profiles in detail to see the number, type, and quality of backlinks for each competing website.

You can even filter for new and lost backlinks. And find websites linking to competitors that might be willing to link to you as well.

What We Like

Semrush’s Authority Score metric helps you understand the overall health of a competitor’s website. Which is largely influenced by its backlink profile.

The tool also lets you evaluate the quality of individual backlinks.

Pricing

You can try the Backlink Analytics tool with a free account.

Get more access with a paid plan:

• Pro ($139.95/month)
• Guru ($249.95/month)
• Business ($499.95/month)

5. Backlink Gap

Semrush’s Backlink Gap is a competitor backlink analysis tool that shows you which websites are linking to your competitors but not to you. And you can use this information to create targeted link building campaigns.

After you enter your own domain, enter the domains of your competitors (up to four), and click the “Find prospects” button. You’ll then get a list of link building opportunities.

What We Like

Backlink Gap’s filtering features help you prioritize link building opportunities by narrowing down to prospects that have the highest potential of driving a positive impact for your website.

Pricing

A limited version of Backlink Gap is available for free.

To unlock full functionality, you’ll need to opt for one of Semrush’s paid plans:

• Pro ($139.95/month)
• Guru ($249.95/month)
• Business ($499.95/month)

6. Site Explorer by Ahrefs

Ahrefs’ Site Explorer lets you review any website’s backlink profile. So you can learn how many backlinks your rivals have, which websites link to them, etc.

And you can analyze a subdomain or a specific URL.

There are also tools for things like finding a competitor’s broken backlinks, seeing which backlinks a competitor has lost, and discovering the anchor text a competitor’s backlinks use.

What We Like

Ahrefs’ backlink index gets updated every 15 minutes. So you’re able to get up-to-date information on competitors’ backlink profiles.

Pricing

You can try a limited version of Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool for free. Paid plans provide more functionality, starting at $99/month.

Top Competitor Content Analysis Tools

7. Domain Overview

Semrush’s Domain Overview tool lets you analyze your competitors’ domains in depth. And shows you growth trends, organic and paid search traffic, and backlinks for any domain.

To use it, enter a competitor’s domain and click the “Search” button.

At the top of the first report, you’ll be able to see some key metrics related to the domain.

If you scroll down, you’ll see the domain’s traffic distribution by country. Plus traffic and keyword trends over time.

Other information available includes a breakdown of branded versus non-branded keywords, the entered domain’s top organic and paid search competitors, and a summary of the entered domain’s backlink types.

What We Like

There’s a vast amount of data available on every domain in Domain Overview’s index.

Pricing

You can try a limited version of Domain Overview with a free account.

It’s also included in the paid plans:

• Pro ($139.95/month)
• Guru ($249.95/month)
• Business ($499.95/month)

8. Similarweb

Similarweb lets you perform a comprehensive competitive analysis of any website. Among other things, it can show you a website’s:

• Total number of monthly visitors
• Most significant traffic sources
• Top pages
• Audience demographics and geographic breakdown

These tools help you get a detailed overview of competing websites and allow you to uncover insights that you can use to improve your own performance.

What We Like

Similarweb’s Organic Competitors feature can help you uncover competing websites you didn’t even know about.

Pricing

Similarweb offers a free seven-day trial you can use to test out the platform.

Paid plans include:

• Starter ($199/month)
• Professional ($449/month)
• Team (custom pricing)
• Enterprise (custom pricing)

Top Paid Advertising Competitor Analysis Tools

9. Advertising Research

Advertising Research is another competitor analysis tool from Semrush that shows you the ads your competitors are using, the landing pages their ads lead to, and how much your competitors are spending on paid search campaigns.

To get started with Advertising Research, enter a competitor’s domain to get a report that shows that competitor’s activity related to paid search.

To see the keywords your competitor is targeting through paid search ads, visit the “Positions” tab and scroll down to the “Paid Search Positions” section.

To check out the copy they’re using for their ads, visit the “Ads Copies” tab.

You can even get a list of the landing pages each ad leads to. Along with metrics related to each landing page.

What We Like

Advertising Research lets you review your competitors’ ads and landing pages. To get insights that allow you to replicate what may be working for them.

Pricing

Get limited access to Advertising Research with a free account.

For more access, try a paid plan:

• Pro ($139.95/month)
• Guru ($249.95/month)
• Business ($499.95/month)

10. SpyFu

You can use SpyFu to learn which keywords competitors are bidding on in their Google Ads campaigns.

The tool can show you how many clicks competitors are getting on their ads. And how much they’re paying for each keyword.

You can use it to generate a list of keywords competitors are bidding on but you aren’t.

SpyFu can also provide suggestions for unprofitable keywords you should exclude from your campaigns.

What We Like

SpyFu’s ad database goes back to 2006. Which means it can show you nearly every ad a competitor has used on Google Ads.

Pricing

You can get limited access to SpyFu for free.

They also offer the following plans:

• Basic ($39/month)
• Professional ($79/month)

11. iSpionage

iSpionage lets you find your competitors’ keywords, ads, and landing pages. And it can help you estimate their monthly spend.

The platform has data on ads for Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

It allows you to review the journey users take from acquisition to conversion. And there’s also an option to set up alerts to get notified when competitors make any changes to their ads or strategies.

What We Like

iSpionage’s Keyword Effectiveness Index and Ad Effectiveness Index metrics make it easy to identify the most profitable keywords and ad copy for your campaigns.

Pricing

You can try iSpionage for free.

To make the most of the platform, opt for a paid plan:

• Starter ($59/month)
• Professional ($99/month)
• Advanced ($299/month)
• Enterprise (custom)

Top Social Media Competitor Analysis Tools

12. Social Tracker

Semrush’s Social Tracker lets you keep track of your competition’s social media content and performance across Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Plus, you can easily compare yourself alongside your rivals.

This provides you with information you can use to guide your own social media strategy.

What We Like

Social Tracker lets you perform an in-depth analysis of your competitors’ social media activity across platforms. Which saves time and consolidates your research in one place.

Pricing

Social Tracker is part of Semrush Social. Which starts at $29.99/month (on top of your monthly Semrush subscription).

13. Brand24

With Brand24, you can get notified anytime a competitor is mentioned on social media.

It supports mention tracking across popular social media platforms. Including Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.

You can review mentions from a single location and filter them based on sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral).

There’s also the option to track each competitor’s social media reach and benchmark it against your own.

What We Like

Brand24’s intuitive mentions feed allows you to review brand mentions from a single location and act on them with a single click.

Pricing

Brand24 has a free trial you can use to test out the software for two weeks.

After the trial period is over, you’ll need to opt for one of the paid plans:

• Individual ($149/month)
• Team ($199/month)
• Pro ($299/month)
• Enterprise ($499/month)

14. Mention

Mention lets you track your competitors’ brand mentions online. And allows you to measure your competition’s share of voice against yours.

The software provides you with detailed insights into your competitors’ social media content, including overall sentiment, engagement, and more.

There’s also the option to set up instant alerts and get notified when a competitor is mentioned online.

What We Like

Mention makes it possible to find brand mentions from up to two years in the past. So you won’t miss out on any important mentions of your competition.

Pricing

You can try out Mention free for 14 days.

Paid plans include these options:

• Solo ($49/month)
• Pro ($99/month)
• ProPlus ($179/month)
• Company Plan (custom pricing)

Streamline Your Competitive Analysis Process

Competitive analysis is essential to any business’s success. And the tools you use make a difference.

You may need a combination of the options we shared, but it’s possible to get access to multiple tools with platforms like Semrush.

It all comes down to doing your research and considering your needs to find out which options are right for you.

The post Top 14 Competitor Analysis Tools appeared first on Backlinko.

What Are Orphan Pages? (How to Find & Fix Them)

2024-12-18 02:07:15

Orphan pages are website pages with no internal links pointing to them. This makes them inaccessible through the site’s normal navigation, meaning users and search engines can’t find them by browsing or crawling your website.

However, users and search engines can still find them through external links or direct URL access. This means Google can still index them (more on that soon).

You can end up with orphan pages for lots of reasons, but the most common ones include:

• Poor internal linking: Forgetting to link new pages from existing content
• Site migrations: Losing pages during site moves (or any other URL changes without putting redirects in place)
• Deleted links: Removing internal links or pages that contained lots of them

For example, if you add a new product page but don’t link it from your main catalog, it becomes an orphan page.

Or imagine you have internal links between two blog posts, Post A and Post B, but then you delete Post A. If Post A was the only one linking to it, Post B might become an orphan page.

What Counts as an Orphan Page?

Strictly speaking, orphan pages have ZERO internal links from anywhere on your site. Including homepage, blog roll, category, and navigational links.

However, pages that contain internal links, but only from other orphan pages, are still orphans for all intents and purposes.

For example, let’s say you have two blog posts, B and C, that both link to each other and have links pointing to them from Post A. But these are the only links that point to them.

If Post A is an orphan page, Posts B and C are also orphans, at least in the context of the rest of your site:

While they have internal links pointing to them, they’re disconnected from the wider site structure. Users and search engines still wouldn’t be able to find them by following links from the homepage.

So, essentially, these are also orphan pages.

When Orphaned Pages Are Okay

You might leave some pages as orphans intentionally—and that’s okay.

These could be ad landing pages, exclusive offers for email subscribers, or private content you don’t want search engines or the public to find easily.

For example, you wouldn’t internally link to a newsletter subscription confirmation page. So you wouldn’t worry about that page being orphaned.

Can Google Index Orphan Pages?

Google can still index orphan pages if it finds them through your sitemap or external links.

For example, someone could find your orphan page by directly typing in the URL (or perhaps it wasn’t always an orphan, but now is). They could then link to your page, and Google could follow that link.

It can then decide to index the page, even though there are no internal links pointing to it.

But obviously you shouldn’t rely on sitemaps alone or other sites linking to yours to get Google to index your pages.

Why Orphan Pages Hurt Your SEO

Orphan pages hurt your SEO by making it harder for users and search engines to find your content. As a result, they can impact your rankings, traffic, and resources.

Let’s look at exactly how orphan pages might be holding your site back.

Poor Rankings

Search engines rely on links to find and index pages. With no internal links pointing to them, this makes it hard to find orphan pages. And if Google can’t find your orphan pages, it can’t index them and then rank them in search results.

But even if Google does index an orphan page, it might rank poorly because it lacks internal links that pass authority and relevance signals.

Lower Organic Traffic

If your site ranks poorly in Google search results, it won’t attract much organic (unpaid) traffic.

Your click-through rate (or CTR) is tied largely to your ranking position:

So if you rank lower, you’ll probably see less traffic. And if your orphan pages don’t rank at all, they won’t see ANY organic traffic.

Inaccessible Content

Users can’t find orphan pages through normal site navigation. This obviously has implications for your site’s performance, but it can also impact the user experience.

For example, a useful FAQ page that you haven’t linked to won’t help your visitors.

And a pricing page that they can’t find without searching for it directly likely won’t help your conversion rate.

Wasted Crawl Budget

Having many orphan pages can also waste your crawl budget.

While a few orphan pages might not be a huge problem, having hundreds or thousands of them can cause significant issues.

So for big sites with thousands or millions of pages (like large ecommerce stores), staying on top of your orphan pages is a MUST.

How to Identify Orphan Pages on Your Website

To fix orphan pages and prevent them from harming your SEO, you first need to find them.

But finding them reliably is a little tricky. After all, there are no links to them. And the main way search engines and crawling tools find pages is through links.

So you sometimes have to get a little creative.

I’ve outlined a few of the best ways to find orphaned pages below.

Use a Site Audit Tool

Various SEO platforms offer some sort of site auditing tool. These work in a similar way to Google’s crawlers, so they can be a great way to highlight technical issues–like orphan pages.

They all work in slightly different ways.

For example, Semrush’s Site Audit tool crawls your website to find all your pages, just like Google would.

It then looks at your XML sitemap and compares the list of URLs in there with the ones that have received traffic.

The tool labels pages that have received traffic but aren’t in your sitemap (or vice versa) as orphans.

To use it to find orphan pages, set up a new project and enter your domain. Configure the crawl settings, or leave them as their defaults.

After running the audit, navigate to the “Issues” tab. Then search for “orphan”:

By clicking on these issues, you can view the affected pages. (You may need to connect your site to Google Analytics first.)

The tool might flag some pages that you don’t need to worry about, like URLs with parameters or old URLs that you have since redirected or deleted.

But working through this list can help you isolate your site’s orphan pages.

Run a Screaming Frog Crawl

Screaming Frog is a powerful SEO crawling tool that can tell you A LOT about your website’s technical health.

This makes it a great option for identifying orphan pages.

To get started, head to the crawl configuration screen within the tool. Choose whether you want the tool to auto discover your sitemap, or submit it manually.

Next, head to the “API Access” tab and connect your Google Analytics and Google Search Console accounts.

(This is technically optional, but you’re more likely to find all of your orphan pages if you let Screaming Frog compare its crawls with pages found in these two tools.)

Make sure you select the correct Google Analytics data stream for the site you’re crawling, then check the “Crawl New URLs Discovered In Google Analytics 4” box in the “General” tab:

For Google Search Console, make sure you select the right property. Then, in the “Search Analytics” tab, check the box for “Crawl New URLs Discovered In Google Search Console”:

Run your crawl, and when it’s complete, head to the “Links” tab and look in the “Crawl Depth” column. Crawl depth (or click depth) is a measure of how many clicks it takes for users to reach any given URL from your homepage.

Any URLs with a blank crawl depth are orphan pages.

While you’re on this report, it’s a good idea to pay attention to pages with big numbers in this column. Not just those with a blank cell.

As a rule of thumb, you should aim to keep all pages within 5 clicks, but ideally within 3.

(Exceptions to this include the likes of paginated blog rolls and categories. Or subcategories of products on ecommerce sites.)

Why does this matter in the context of orphan pages?

Because if you have a page that only has one internal link—from page 130 of your blogroll—it’s going to be VERY deep in your site structure. Like 20+ clicks deep.

There’s a good chance Google and users will struggle to find this page. So, while you’re noting down your orphan pages, be sure to note down any that are quite far from the homepage too—even if they do have some internal links.

Install a WordPress Plugin

This method isn’t quite as foolproof as some of the others I’ve discussed. But if you’re using WordPress, there are a few plugins that can help you identify orphan pages and orphan posts.

One of the most popular free SEO plugins, Rankmath, can indicate which of your pages are orphans. Just head to the “Posts” or “Pages” area of your WordPress dashboard and look in the “SEO Details” column.

(You might need to click the “Screen Options” drop-down first and select it from there. And make sure to click “Apply.”)

In the “SEO Details” column, you’ll see a few symbols. Hovering over them shows a tooltip, and you’re looking for “Incoming Links.” Specifically, you’re looking for any posts with a zero next to that symbol.

These are posts (or pages) that have zero incoming internal links (i.e., orphan pages).

Now, there are a few caveats to this:

First, the tool only shows in-content links here. It won’t pick up navigational links or links in things like blog rolls.

This means these posts aren’t necessarily “true” orphans. Because users and search engines might be able to find the page through your homepage, blog roll, or category pages.

However, you want to build internal links beyond these areas of your site where possible anyway (i.e., in other relevant posts and pages).

Second caveat:

It would obviously take a long time to go through lots of posts and pages like this manually. It’s okay if you have a hundred or so, because it’s only a few pages you need to scan through.

But clearly this isn’t practical for those with thousands of pages. That’s when you’ll want to use one of the other methods I discussed above.

However, if you have the pro version of the plugin, there’s actually a filter for orphan pages to make this easier. So it can still be a viable option for bigger sites, albeit not a free option.

How to Fix Orphan Pages and Improve SEO

How you solve your orphan page issues depends on the reason you have the orphan page.

Here’s a quick flowchart to help you understand which method to use to fix your orphan pages:

Method 1: Add Internal Links

Use case: The orphan page is valuable for users, or you can update it to make it useful

Example: A new blog post that you haven’t added any links to yet

To fix orphan pages that are valuable and therefore shouldn’t be orphans, just add internal links to them.

Ideally, add internal links from relevant pages to these orphan pages (bonus points if the linking page gets a lot of traffic).

For example, if you have an orphaned article on “Eco-Friendly Home Tips,” you could link to it from a popular blog post about “Sustainable Living Practices.”

This helps users discover valuable content and signals to search engines that these pages are important.

We employ this kind of internal linking strategy at Backlinko. For example, our SEO guide links to our related article on SEO vs. SEM:

If your orphan page could become valuable with some updates, make these changes and then add the internal links.

Method 2: Merge and Redirect

Use case: The orphan page isn’t wholly valuable, but you can repurpose some of the content, or it gets traffic/backlinks

Example: An outdated roundup page from 2022 that has some content you can repurpose into a regularly updated evergreen list

If the orphan page isn’t all that valuable on its own in its current state, and you can’t meaningfully update it to become useful, consider merging it with another piece of relevant content.

For example, you could combine some of the content in an outdated list of “The Best Gaming Laptops 2022” post with your current best list. Then, redirect the old page to the new one.

But even if you can’t salvage the page, it could still be worth redirecting the URL anyway.

Why?

Because it might get traffic (either through rankings or referrals) and/or backlinks. And you don’t want to lose that traffic or the SEO benefits of those backlinks by just deleting the page.

Using a 301 redirect should transfer the “link juice” from the orphan page to another relevant page.

Method 3: Use a “noindex” Tag

Use case: The page is useful, but you don’t want search engines to crawl and index it

Example: An ad landing page that users should only be able to find through specific ads

There are a few different cases where you might want a page to be accessible, but not indexable.

In other words: you want certain people to find it, but you don’t want Google to show it in search results.

The typical example of this is an ad landing page. Many sites will use non-indexable landing pages specifically for visitors arriving via paid advertising.

This lets them tailor their messaging and page layout without having to worry as much about the SEO of the page (as it’s not designed to rank organically).

For example, here’s an ad for project management software from Monday.com:

As you can see, the page has a noindex tag:

This means the page probably doesn’t have any internal links pointing to it—making it an orphan.

But Monday.com doesn’t need to worry about that for this page.

Method 4: Delete the Page

Use case: The page is not useful, gets no traffic, and has no backlinks

Example: An old blog post on an outdated tactic with no repurposable content

Finally, if the orphaned page is not useful and doesn’t see any traffic (or backlinks), you might consider deleting it.

Another example of this could be an out-of-stock product page that isn’t coming back.

In these cases, you can delete the page and ensure it returns either a 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) status code.

Best Practices for Preventing Orphan Pages

Finding and fixing orphan pages can be tough, so ideally you want to avoid having any in the first place.

Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to prevent orphan pages. Just follow these best practices:

Make Internal Linking a Habit

Develop a process for adding new content that includes internal linking as a key step in the content creation phase. Whether it’s you writing the content or a team of writers and editors.

If you add internal links from the moment your team creates any new content, you’re adding them proactively. Rather than having to frantically add them in bulk across hundreds (or potentially thousands) of posts later down the line.

However:

It can be tough for new writers to get up to speed with a website’s existing archives to understand what to link to. We’ve had this issue at Backlinko.

That’s why we encourage new writers to use a site search operator to find relevant content to link to when they’re writing articles.

Here’s how to do it:

Think about a few keywords related to the piece of content you’re trying to add internal links within. Then, type the following into Google:

site:yourdomain.com “keyword(s)”

For example, if one of our writers was working on an article on social media marketing, they might type “site:backlinko.com social media” into Google.

Like this:

This gives them a bunch of articles and pages that they could link to within that post about social media.

This is a handy “hack” for finding relevant articles to link to. But in the context of eliminating and preventing orphan pages, you need a more precise approach.

Track and Monitor Your Internal Linking Efforts

One of the easiest ways to keep track of and prevent orphan pages is to create a spreadsheet of all your content. Have a column for the URL and a column for the number of internal links pointing to it.

How you gather this data will depend on the tools you use. If you use WordPress, you can use plugins like Rankmath like I discussed earlier. Although this is a more manual process and again only really practical for smaller sites.

If you use Screaming Frog, look at the “Inlinks” column in the “Links” view to see the number of internal links pointing to each crawled page. You can export this data to make it easier to put your spreadsheet together.

If you’re using Semrush, head to the “Crawled Pages” report in Site Audit and look at the “Incoming Internal Links” column (you might need to select it in the “Manage columns” menu).

Like with Screaming Frog, you can export this data too.

But no matter how you get the data, you’ll want to sort it into a spreadsheet with a column for the URL and a column with the number of internal links to that URL.

Then, apply a filter or otherwise sort the sheet by number of internal links, from smallest to largest (or A-Z in Google Sheets).

Obviously, start by prioritizing your orphan pages. But also try to add at least 2-3 internal links (or more) to every page.

You can go a step further by adding a second sheet with the same column headers (you can label this one “Sorted by Link Count” or something similar).

Then, add the following formula to cell A2:

=SORT(Sheet1!A2:D, 2,True)

It should look like this:

(You’ll need to adjust this if you have things in slightly different places. But if you just have a simple two-column setup like the one above, it should work.)

Then, any time you create a new post or page, you add its URL to the first sheet with “0” in the internal links column. In the first sheet, you then have all of your pages in the order you added them.

But in the second sheet, all posts with zero internal links (your orphan posts) will always automatically appear at the top. Making it super easy to find which posts you need to add links to.

You can download this spreadsheet here and input your own data.

Share this spreadsheet with your team so they can also understand which pages need internal links. This way, as they’re writing new content, they can refer to the sheet to find opportunities to add links.

This approach makes it easier to understand which pages need more internal links. But to learn how to add them in the right places and in the right ways, check out our full guide to internal linking.

Avoid Orphan Pages with SEO Best Practices

Orphan pages can impact your SEO and your user experience.

Both of these can have an impact on your rankings, traffic, and conversions. So you definitely want to avoid having any orphan pages on your site.

Want to learn more about improving your site’s SEO for better performance?

Check out our guide to SEO best practices that’ll help you move the ranking needle.

The post What Are Orphan Pages? <br>(How to Find & Fix Them) appeared first on Backlinko.

21 Up-To-Date Google Search Statistics

2024-12-14 01:32:42

Want to learn about the state of Google Search in 2025? How many Google searches are there? How popular is Google visual search? What’s the Google market share in the search engine market worldwide?

Keep reading as we will cover answers to these questions and more with a curated list of 21 recent Google Search statistics to know in 2025.

General Google Search Statistics

1. An estimated 6.3 million searches are conducted on Google every minute (Statista)
   

   

2. The size of Google’s search index exceeds 100 million gigabytes in size (Google)
3. An estimated 58.5% of Google searches across mobile and desktop in the US result in zero clicks (Search Engine Land)
4. 59.7% of Google searches in the EU end without any clicks (Search Engine Land)
   

   

5. The top position in Google’s organic search results has an average click-through rate (CTR) of 27.6% (Backlinko)
6. The world’s most popular search queries on Google were “YouTube” and “Facebook” (Backlinko)
7. Each day, 15% of search queries on Google are completely new (Google)
   

   

8. Google ranks as the most trusted platform for finding information about local businesses (BrightLocal)
9. In 2023 alone, Google launched 4,781 improvements to Search (Google)
   

   

10. Within the Google Shopping Graph, there are more than 35 billion product listings available (Google)

Google’s Search Engine Dominance Statistics

11. Google accounts for 89.33% of the search engine market worldwide across all platforms (StatCounter)
12. Google brought in $144.05 billion in revenue from search properties in the first nine months of 2024 (Alphabet)
13. 28.5% of US Google searches lead to clicks to platforms owned by Google (YouTube, Images, Maps, etc.) (SparkToro)
    

    

14. US accounts for 26.94% of Google desktop traffic worldwide (Statista)
15. In 2024, Google generates an average of 84.4 billion monthly visits (Statista)
    

    

16. Google accounts for 63.41% of US traffic referrals (SparkToro)
17. Google holds a 51.9% share of the search advertising market in the United States (eMarketer)
    

    

Google Visual Search Statistics

18. Over 20 billion visual search queries every month use Google Lens (image recognition technology) (Google)
    

    

19. The demographic of younger users, specifically those aged 18 to 24, engage with Google Lens the most (Google)

AI in Google Search Statistics

20. AI Overviews currently show up for 8.61% of U.S. search queries on mobile devices (Semrush)
    

    

21. Every month, more than 1 billion users worldwide utilize Google AI overviews (Google)

The post 21 Up-To-Date Google Search Statistics appeared first on Backlinko.

6 Step Content Distribution Strategy (for Maximum Reach)

2024-12-14 01:24:11

Content distribution is the process of sharing, promoting, and repurposing your content across a variety of marketing channels. These may include social media platforms, email marketing, paid ads, and other websites.

For example, Backlinko distributes content by sending new blog posts to email subscribers each week:

And sharing them on social media:

Content distribution can help you reach a wider audience with each piece of content you create. Leading to more traffic, engagement, and even conversions for your business.

Below, I’ll walk you through the main content distribution channels and the steps you can take to maximize your reach with each one.

The 3 Main Types of Content Distribution Channels

Knowing the differences between owned, earned, and paid channels is key to maximizing your content’s reach.

Within each type, there are individual channels:

Owned Distribution Channels

Owned distribution channels are the ones you own and have control over.

Like your website, blog, and social media accounts.

The good thing about owned channels is you can publish what you want, when you want.

For example:

When Masterclass adds new content to its site, it sends an announcement to its email subscribers.

And when B2B companies like ON24 release new reports, they share them on LinkedIn.

Plus, you can track your performance and results on these channels fairly easily. By using tools like Google Analytics to monitor website traffic and conversions, and social media analytics dashboards to keep track of engagement.

The main downside to owned channels is that your reach is limited to your existing audience. Whether that’s readers, followers, or subscribers.

This is especially true if your company is new and you don’t have much of an audience yet (that’s where earned and paid distribution channels can come in handy).

So if your audience is small, owned channels may not give you much visibility.

Earned Distribution Channels

Earned distribution is when your content “earns” visibility on other people’s channels.

Think social media shares, mentions, backlinks, and reviews.

Earned distribution can instantly expand your reach and boost your credibility. Since it involves other people recommending your content.

However, the visibility you achieve is often temporary. And (obviously) you don’t get to control it.

Paid Distribution

Paid distribution refers to all types of paid ads and platforms that distribute or promote your content for a fee.

These include boosted social media posts, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and paid influencer promotions.

Paid distribution gets eyes on your content immediately.

However:

It can get expensive. And it’s simply not an option for a lot of content creators.

Plus, as soon as you stop spending, you stop getting results.

How to Build a Content Distribution Strategy: Step-By-Step

A big part of building a winning content distribution strategy is going to be choosing the right channels.

To do that, you first need to know which channels your audience uses.

But before you can even do that, you need to understand who your target audience actually is.

Step 1: Define Your Target Audience

Understanding where your target audience hangs out will make it much easier to choose which distribution channels to use for your content. And it’ll likely make your efforts far more effective too.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Hopefully you have a decent idea of this already. However, going deeper on the details can make it easier to understand where to focus your distribution efforts.

For example, you should find out details like:

• The age range of your target audience
• Their income and education levels
• Where they are physically located

This information can help you pinpoint the most effective distribution channels to use.

But how do you find this information?

You may be able to use your existing analytics. For example, Google Analytics can tell you where your audience is located, their gender, age, and the languages they speak:

You can likely find this information about your social media audiences too. Like on LinkedIn:

You can use these insights to help you understand which platforms may be best. For example, younger audiences tend to use TikTok more often, while Facebook is ideal for audiences aged between 30-39 and 50-64.

What Content Do They Enjoy?

Understanding what content your target audience enjoys most will help you understand not only where to distribute your content, but also what format to use.

• Does your target audience prefer to learn through visuals?
• Do they like to consume more technical how-to guides?
• Would they rather watch videos than read blog posts?
• Do they prefer short-form or long-form content?

The type of content your audience consumes most will help you understand where to post yours.

For example, short-form videos are best for platforms like YouTube Shorts and TikTok. While a blog or email newsletter would be better for a target audience that prefers to consume longer-form written content.

Who Do They Trust?

Finally, think about who your target audience trusts.

Why is this important?

Because it can help you understand who you might want to partner up with to distribute your content.

This could be through earned channels, like getting backlinks and social shares from websites and accounts that they follow or engage with.

Or it could be through paid channels, like influencer marketing.

Step 2: Choose Your Distribution Channels

Obviously, which distribution channels you can use will depend on your resources, connections, and overall reputation in your industry.

For example, if you have a limited marketing budget, paid channels might be out of the question. And if your website authority is pretty low, it could be tough to drive organic traffic to a new blog.

But resources aside, you also need to choose distribution channels that fit your goals and target audience’s preferences.

Think About Your Goals

Starting with goals, if your primary aim is to drive traffic to your website, you won’t have much luck on platforms that don’t let you add links to posts. Like Instagram and TikTok.

But if your goal is brand awareness, those channels might be a great match.

If you need quick results, and have the budget for it, paid content distribution may be the way to go. Perhaps by working with an influencer that your audience already trusts.

But if you have more time than money, and want to generate sustainable growth, you could use search engine optimization (SEO) to bring organic traffic to your website as an owned channel. Or to earn backlinks from other sources to drive referral traffic (and improve your website’s authority).

This is exactly what we do at Backlinko, and we drive over 14K users every month from referring sites that link back to us.

This is an excellent source of earned distribution traffic.

Follow Your Audience

Next, use the information you found out about your audience in Step 1 to decide which channels are likely best for reaching them.

While demographics like age can help you get a rough idea of where your audience hangs out, there are tools that can tell you exactly which platforms your target audience uses most often.

One such tool is Semrush’s One2Target.

You just enter one of your competitor’s domains into the tool (their audience is likely very similar to yours).

Then head to the “Behavior” tab to see which platforms the audience uses most:

These are likely the platforms you’ll see the best results from when distributing your content.

Step 3: Choose the Right Content for Each Distribution Channel

You don’t need to distribute every piece of content to every channel. Some types of content will perform better on one channel than others.

For example, if you use email marketing, the people on your email list trust your business enough to give you their contact information.

This makes them a good segment to target with sales-focused content.

Why?

Because they’re much more likely to convert than someone seeing one of your social media posts for the first time.

But thought leadership content, or content designed to entertain, might perform well on social media. Where your target audience can share it with their own audiences and grow your brand awareness.

Step 4: Match the Format and Messaging to the Distribution Channel

You’ll often distribute one piece of content across several channels.

But you can’t just use the same format and messaging on every platform and expect it to perform well.

Someone on Instagram (a highly visual platform) is expecting different content from someone on LinkedIn (where written posts are more common).

For the best results, tailor your presentation to each channel.

For example, imagine you’re promoting a blog article titled “How to Get More Backlinks.”

On LinkedIn, you might share a carousel of graphics summarizing the main points from the article. Like this:

And if you were sending it to your email subscribers, you might instead tease them about what they’ll learn by checking out the full article.

Step 5: Create a Content Distribution Calendar

Your content distribution plan likely involves a few different individual channels. And you might have a lot of content (new and old) that you want to distribute.

Keeping on top of this can be tough. So, create a content distribution calendar to help you and your team understand:

• What you’re posting
• Where you’re posting it
• When it’s going live

You can do this with a simple spreadsheet, like our free content calendar template:

Or you can go a step further and use a tool like Semrush Social.

This lets you map out content in advance for multiple platforms, all in one place:

Step 6: Measure and Analyze Your Results

As you distribute content, you want to do more of what’s working, and less of what isn’t.

You can track a variety of metrics to understand your distributed content’s performance. Let’s break them down by channel type.

Owned Channel Metrics

Tracking the metrics for your owned channels is fairly straightforward.

If you’re using your website or blog to distribute your content, key SEO metrics to track include:

• Website traffic
• Conversions
• User engagement signals (like time on page)

You can track all of these using tools like Google Analytics.

It’ll show you how much traffic you’re getting:

How much of that traffic is converting:

And how your visitors engage with your content:

If you’re using social media, you’ll be able to track similar metrics. Although engagement (likes, comments, shares etc.) will also be worth tracking.

The specifics will depend on the platform. For example, here’s how it looks on Facebook:

And this is what it looks like on LinkedIn:

Finally, you’ll also get similar insights with many major email marketing platforms if that’s one of your distribution channels.

In this case, metrics like opens and clicks are the ones to track:

Earned Channel Metrics

Tracking results from earned channels can be a bit tougher than for owned ones. Although there are tools that help you track your backlinks and even mentions of your brand across the internet.

Like the Brand Monitoring app:

Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool can help you monitor your backlink profile:

To monitor your referral traffic (traffic from people linking to your content), use the “Traffic acquisition” report in Google Analytics.

You’ll need to add a filter for “Session Default Channel Group” and select “Exactly matches” and “Referral.”

Then, use the drop-down to change “Session primary channel group” to “Session source”:

This will show you all the sites sending referral traffic your way:

Paid Channel Metrics

If you’re using paid ads to distribute your content, you can likely track metrics like impressions, clicks, and conversions within the platform.

Here’s how this might look in Google Ads, for example:

If you’re writing sponsored content on another website, tracking referral traffic in Google Analytics might be the best way to monitor your performance.

And if you’re working with influencers, you can use parameters in the URLs they share to attribute any traffic or conversions to what they post.

Get Started with Content Distribution

Content distribution is not a one-and-done thing. It can boost the performance of individual pieces of content, of course. But for best results, make distribution part of your regular content workflows.

Following a content distribution strategy can skyrocket your content marketing results.

If you want to learn how to build the right foundations for success, check out our in-depth guide to content marketing. And to streamline your efforts, you’ll also want to arm yourself with the right content marketing tools.

The post 6 Step Content Distribution Strategy (for Maximum Reach) appeared first on Backlinko.

7 Powerful Semrush Free Account Features (We Tested It)

2024-12-14 00:25:06

You might be thinking, “What can I really do on the Semrush free account?”

I was asked to test the limits of the free plan. Admittedly, this was an adjustment after using the paid tier for many years.

But I was pleasantly surprised by what you can do.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through concrete examples of how you can squeeze all the juice from the Semrush free account.

All without entering your credit card details.

1. Uncover Valuable Keywords (10 Searches per Day)

Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool gives you 10 daily searches, each providing up to 10 keyword suggestions.

That’s 100 potential keywords every day to fuel your content strategy.

Here’s how you’d use this tool to research relevant keywords for free.

Let’s say you have an SEO blog.

Start with broad terms like “SEO” or “digital marketing.”

This will give you a bird’s-eye view of your niche.

Then, narrow down to more specific queries like “website optimization” or “digital marketing examples.”

This can help you find more targeted keywords with less competition.

For each search, focus on keywords with:

• Search volumes between 1,000– 10,000
• Keyword difficulty scores below 60
• Clear informational or commercial intent

You might discover gems like “SEO books” (6,600 monthly searches, KD 38) and “ai tools for website SEO” (1,600 monthly searches, KD 43).

Click any term, and you’ll be taken to the Keyword Overview tool, which provides an in-depth keyword analysis.

By strategically using your 10 daily searches, you can build a robust list of keywords throughout the week.

Once you’ve found keywords that match your criteria, create content that naturally incorporates these terms while solving your audience’s specific problems or questions.

2. Analyze Competitor Strategies (10 Domain Analyses per Day)

The Domain Overview tool offers a window into your competitors’ strategies. Even with the 10 daily analysis limit, you can learn valuable insights about your top competitors.

First, analyze your blog to benchmark your performance.

You’ll learn everything from your blog’s authority score and ranking keywords to monthly traffic volume.

For example, when I analyzed TrafficThinkTank.com, an SEO and blog community, I learned that it gets 14.2K in monthly organic search traffic and has 6.4K backlinks.

It also tells you who your main organic competitors are.

For Traffic Think Tank, it’s SpyFu and Style Factory Productions.

Choose a few of your competitors and run a report on each one.

Focus on:

• Authority score
• Organic keywords and search traffic
• Backlink profile and referring domains

For example, I discovered that Traffic Think Tank ranks for over 19,000 keywords while SpyFu ranks for over 35,000.

This shows the growth potential in this niche.

But it also reveals untapped opportunities to expand Traffic Think Tank’s online visibility.

3. Track Rankings for Key Terms (10 Keywords Total)

With the Position Tracking tool, you can monitor rankings for one URL and 10 total keywords.

Over time, you could see movements like:

• Keywords improving or declining in ranking
• Keywords entering the top 10 results
• Featured snippet position wins

For example, a site like Traffic Think Tank might track keywords like “best marketing tools for small business” and “competitive intelligence seo.”

This data can help you identify which content updates are most effective and where to focus your optimization efforts.

4. Identify and Fix Critical Website Issues (100 URLs)

The Site Audit tool lets you crawl your 100 most important URLs to uncover issues like:

• Broken internal links
• Pages with missing meta descriptions
• Duplicate title tags
• Images missing alt text
• 4xx errors

Fixing these issues can help you improve your site’s health score and increase organic traffic to the affected pages.

5. Boost Local Visibility (One Audit)

If you have a physical business, the Listing Management tool could be invaluable for local SEO.

You could start with a free audit of your local presence, which might reveal:

• How many directories list your business
• High-authority directories where you’re missing
• Inconsistencies in your business name and address across listings

By correcting inconsistencies and creating new listings on high-authority directories, you could potentially see increases in your Google Business Profile views and “Directions” clicks.

6. Create SEO-Optimized Content (10 SEO Idea Units Total)

The SEO Content Template and SEO Writing Assistant are helpful tools for content creation, even in their free versions.

Say you’re writing a post on “10 Internal Linking Best Practices Everyone Should Know.”

The SEO Content Template could provide:

• Semantically related keywords like “optimize anchor text” and “types of internal links”
• Recommended content length
• Readability score target
• List of potential backlink sources

Then, while writing your draft, the SEO Writing Assistant could help you:

• Maintain optimal keyword density
• Keep your content readable and engaging
• Ensure your tone of voice is consistent

Following these recommendations could improve your chances of ranking well for your target keywords.

7. Analyze and Improve Your Backlink Profile (10 Credits per Day/One Audit)

The free version of Semrush’s backlink analysis tools provide valuable insights into your link profile (or a competitor’s).

For example, I analyzed Traffic Think Tank’s domain in Backlink Analytics and learned it has 2,200 referring domains and an increasing Authority Score.

You’ll also learn:

• Traffic and backlink performance metrics, such as total organic traffic, monthly visits, and total backlinks
• New and lost referring domains
• Top anchors

These metrics provide valuable insights to shape and improve your link-building strategy.

This includes identifying top-performing content that naturally attracts links, spotting opportunities to reclaim lost backlinks, and understanding which anchor text is most effective for your niche.

Next, use Backlink Audit to get a snapshot of your backlink profile’s health.

You’ll learn:

• Number of non-toxic, potentially toxic, and toxic backlinks
• New, broken, and lost backlinks
• Personalized insights and recommendations to improve your backlink profile health

Based on these insights, you could take actions like:

• Disavowing toxic links to protect your site from potential penalties
• Reaching out to high-authority sites with personalized pitches

These efforts could help you secure new high-quality backlinks and potentially increase your domain authority, too.

Bonus: Leverage Semrush’s Free Apps and Resources

Beyond the main free account features, Semrush offers several completely free apps in their App Center.

These tools can further enhance your marketing efforts without any additional cost.

Here’s a quick overview of some standout free apps:

Buyer Persona Template

This tool provides a framework for creating detailed customer profiles.

Use it to define and understand your ideal customer to guide your marketing strategy.

For example, I used it to map out Traffic Think Tank’s ideal customer—documenting the audience’s bio, frustrations, and motivations.

Professional Reporting

Create SEO and marketing PDF reports in minutes for free.

Whether you prefer starting from scratch or using a template, you can easily pull in data from more than 20 platforms (like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush’s tools, and more).

Generate eye-catching visualizations that clearly—and professionally—highlight your campaign results.

You’ll also be able to set up automatic updates so you always have up-to-date reports ready.

Accessibility Scan and Monitor

Is your site accessible to all users? Find out with this free app.

Perform an accessibility compliance check to ensure your site meets WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards.

The app scans both desktop and mobile versions, identifies accessibility issues, and provides prioritized improvement recommendations.

Scan up to five pages per month for free.

Semrush Academy

To stay updated on the latest digital marketing trends, take advantage of Semrush Academy’s free courses.

From SEO basics to advanced content marketing strategies, these courses could help you continually improve your skills to grow your website.

By leveraging these free apps alongside Semrush’s main free account features, you can create a comprehensive, cost-free marketing toolkit for your website or blog.

Turn Your Free Semrush Data Into Rankings

Now you have the tools to gather valuable SEO data. But data alone won’t increase your traffic.

Learn how to turn these insights into higher rankings with our guide to creating an SEO-driven content strategy.

The post 7 Powerful Semrush Free Account Features (We Tested It) appeared first on Backlinko.