How to Optimize Your Internal Linking Structure for SEO

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Internal linking is an often overlooked aspect of SEO, but it can be a powerful tool when used correctly. When done well, internal linking can help you improve your website’s search engine rankings, as well as keep visitors on your website longer. In this blog post, we will discuss how to optimize your internal linking structure for SEO, the basics of internal linking, as well as some advanced techniques that you can use to improve your website’s search engine rankings.

What Is Internal Linking and Why Is it Important?

Internal linking is the practice of linking to internal pages on your website from other internal pages. This helps search engines discover and index your content more quickly, as well as providing visitors with an easier way to navigate around your website. Additionally, internal links help establish the topical relevance of certain page topics and may even result in a boost in rankings if done correctly.

Internal Links vs. External Links

Internal links are created when a website links to another page within its own domain. External links are created when a website links to a website outside of its domain. It’s important to note that subdomains are often treated as separate entities in terms of SEO so linking from one subdomain to another is considered external linking, not internal linking.

There are several key benefits to internal linking. First, internal links help search engines find and index your website more quickly and accurately. When you link to other internal pages of your website, it signals to search engines that the content on those pages is related, which can give a boost in rankings. Additionally, internal links help visitors navigate around your website more easily, which can lead to increased engagement and a better user experience.

External linking can also be beneficial for SEO. When you link to other websites, it signals to search engines that your website is an authority on a certain topic — which can help boost your rankings. Additionally, external links help spread the word about your website and may result in more organic traffic from those sites. 

How Google Uses Links to Rank Content

The algorithms that Google uses to determine the order of search results takes into account the number and quality of links pointing to a given piece of content as ranking factors. The more links there are to a piece of content, the higher it will rank in the search results. This is because Google interprets links as votes of confidence in the quality of the content.

The quality of the links is also important. Links from high-quality websites are given more weight than those from low-quality websites. This is because Google wants to provide its users with the best possible results, and it knows that links from reputable sources are more likely to be indicative of high-quality content.

Google uses the anchor text to help it understand what a piece of content is about. For example, if a lot of links to a given piece of content use the anchor text “dog training,” Google will interpret that content as being about dog training.

Google takes into account both internal and external links when ranking content. They look at the quality of those links and use them to determine which pages are more relevant for certain search terms. For internal links, Google looks at the anchor text used in the link (the text that is clickable), as well as how many internal links point to a certain page. For external links, Google looks at the quality and relevance of the linking website. 

The 4 Main Types of Internal Links

Internal links are important for both navigation and search engine optimization (SEO).

There are four main types of internal links:

Contextual Links

Contextual links are links that are placed within the content of a page. They help to establish the topical relationship between different pieces of content on a website. For example, if you are writing an article about persuasive writing techniques, you might include a link to another article on your website about how to become a content writer.

Navigational Links

Navigational links are links that are placed in the navigation menu of a website. They help users to find their way around a website and access different sections of the site. If you have a website with three main sections – news, sports, and entertainment – you might have links in the navigation menu that take users to each of these sections.

navigational links

For example, on the Instantly website, they have 3 navigational links in the main header menu: Pricing, Reviews and Blog.

Footer Links

Footer links are links that are placed in the footer of a website. They are useful for guiding the visitor to broader sections off your website. They are usually less visible than other types of links, but they can still be useful for navigation and SEO. While footer links can be technically seen as navigational, they are often less powerful links than header or sidebar menu links.

footer links

In this example, we look at the footer of a personal website by Reginald Chan. It highlights main sections of the website but also top viewed blogs so that users can find them more easily.

Sidebar Links

Sidebar links are links that are placed in the sidebar of a website. They are helpful in highlighting similar pages and usually have images to attract visitors. Entertainment and sport websites are common places where sidebar links are used.

Step-By-Step: Optimizing Your Internal Linking Structure for SEO

Now that we know how important internal links are for your website, it is vital to understand how to optimize your internal linking structure for better SEO rankings.

Follow the steps below to understand internal linking structure optimization.

Make Sure Your Site is Properly Structured

Having a well-organized website with a clear hierarchy is the first step to create an organized website structure. Each page on your website should be easy to find and navigate to. If your website is not properly structured, it will be difficult for search engines to index your pages and rank them appropriately.

A good rule of thumb is that it shouldn’t take more than 2 clicks to visit any page of your website, so keep this in mind when designing your menu structure.

One way to organize your internal linking hierarchy is to use the SEO Silo structure (organizing pages on your website into categories using internal links).

Pick Quality Anchor Texts

Anchor text is the visible text that is clickable on a hyperlink. The anchor text should be relevant to the page you are linking to. For example, if you are linking to a page about best laptop chargers, your anchor text could be “best laptop headphones” or “click here for best laptop headphones”.

It’s also important that the page you’re linking from is contextually relevant to the page you’re linking to. If we continue the previous example of internal linking to a page about laptop chargers, it would make sense to only link from pages about laptops or computer hardware. It wouldn’t make sense to readers or to Google if you link to it from a page about top selling Nintendo Switch games or the latest Lil Uzi Vert song. 

Maximize Your Authority Pages

Authority pages are the pages on your website with the most traffic and/or highest rankings. These are typically your most popular pages that get the most traffic and engagement. It is important to link to these pages to boost the authority of a webpage and improve your SEO rankings.

Adding internal links to content from your authority pages is also a surefire way to improve your rankings as well as topical relevance of other pages on your site.

Find and Fix Broken Links

Broken links are links that lead to invalid, corrupt, or unavailable pages. Broken links can hurt your SEO because they make it difficult for search engines to view your website as trustworthy.

Consider Having a Related Post Section

Adding a section of related posts to the end of blogs is a best practice you should follow whenever you publish new content. This helps visitors discover more content on your website and keeps them engaged longer, which can lead to more conversions or sales. Additionally, this sends signals to search engines that certain topics are related, which can help boost rankings for those pages.

Add Navigational Links

Another internal linking strategy is to add navigational links in your website’s header, footer and sidebar. This helps visitors move around your website more easily and can lead to an increase in average pages per session and time on page. Additionally, these internal links send signals to search engines that certain topics are related, which can in turn help those pages rank higher.

Key Takeaways

Internal links are important because they help improve your website’s crawlability and Page ranking. Here is what we discussed in this article:

  • Internal links help search engines find and index your website more quickly and accurately through contextual relationships between pages.
  • Internal links can help improve many site performance metrics, including rankings on Google, average pages per session and even conversions.
  • Internal linking is a great way to improve the topical relevance of your website’s individual pages.

On-Page SEO Guidelines: Everything You Need to Know

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On-page SEO is the foundation by which Google understands your web pages. It can be especially frustrating to put in massive efforts into a blog post, only to have it not be indexed or ranked by Google. On-page SEO will help your website be picked up by the big G, improve chances of ranking higher in search results and attracting more impressions.

This guide will cover everything you need to know about on-page SEO, including how to optimize your title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and more! So whether you’re a beginner or an experienced SEO specialist, this guide is for you. Let’s get started!

What Is On-Page SEO and Why Is it Important?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your own website for search engines, allowing them to understand its purpose and content better. It includes altering page elements like meta titles, meta descriptions, alt text and headers in an effort to rank a page for specific keywords.

Why is on-page SEO important?

Because it helps search engines understand what your website is about and how relevant it is to the keywords people are searching for. If you haven’t done any on-page SEO, your website will likely be buried deep in the search results (page 2 and onward), where people will likely never see it.

How does on-page SEO differ from off-page SEO?

The main difference between on-page and off-page SEO is that on-page SEO focuses on optimizing a website’s internal factors, while off-page SEO focuses on promoting a website by external means such as backlink building, directories and third-party review sites.

On-page SEO includes optimizing a website’s meta titles, meta descriptions, header tags, images, and other elements contributing to its overall ranking in SERPs. Off-page SEO includes practices like link building and citation building, which aim to improve a website’s visibility, trustworthiness and authority.

On-Page SEO: 8 Essential Ways to Optimize Your Pages

Optimizing your pages takes several steps, all dependent on each other. We like to think of each on-page optimization as incremental contributions to ranking. What this means is that you don’t have to follow each and every optimization step by the book for every page, so use your best judgment. Sometimes it isn’t time-efficient to update everything for on-page SEO. For example, if you were missing alt text on 50 pages that aren’t indexed by Google, it’s unlikely that you’ll see significant improvements by doing so. However, if you were neck in neck competing for a search term with another website and you realized you’re missing alt text on your landing page, it might help level the playing field.

If you’re ever unsure if an on-page SEO effort is worth your time or not, feel free to contact me directly on Twitter @ctwtn. Happy to help give guidance when needed!

Before you ask for help, make sure you understand the on-page SEO tasks that contribute to your rankings. Let’s begin.

Use the Right Header Tags

Header tags are one of the essential elements of on-page SEO, yet they’re often overlooked. Header tags indicate the different content sections on a page and help search engines understand your site’s content structure.

There are six different header tags that you can use, ranging from H1 to H6. Most websites only use one or two-three header tags. Some SEO experts will claim that Google ignores header tags 4-6 anyway, meaning you can definitely get by using only h1, h2 and h3 tags.

Here’s an example of how header tags might be used on a page:

  • <h1>This is the main header or title of the page</h1>
  • <h2>This is a subheading</h2>
  • <h3>This is a smaller subheading</h3>

Have a Natural Keyword Density

A natural-looking keyword density is vital for appearing trustworthy in the eyes of Google. This means your keywords should appear naturally throughout your content and not be stuffed in unnaturally or used too frequently. Doing so can help search engines better understand what your page is about and ultimately lead to better Rankings.

There are a few things to keep in mind when aiming for a natural keyword density:

  • Never Keyword Stuff: This will not only make your content difficult to read, but it will also likely result in lower Rankings.
  • Find The Right Balance: Using too few keywords will make it difficult for search engines to understand your page while using too many can trigger spam filters. Semantic SEO operates on the principle that building topical depth will allow crawlers to understand your content more easily.
  • Vary Your Keywords: Using different variations of your keywords (e.g., “SEO tips,” “search engine optimization tips,” “how to optimize for SEO,” etc.) can help you avoid keyword stuffing while still getting your point across.

Following these best practices can help you ensure that your keyword density is natural, which won’t necessarily improve rankings but will prevent them from falling. Keyword stuffing looks and feels spammy, so Google penalizes pages with unnaturally high keyword density. It’s also worth noting that keyword density is no longer a ranking factor.

Create World-Class Content

Content is king when it comes to SEO.

Creating high quality, semantically-rich content is the best way to expand your website’s opportunities to rank on search engines. When you create content that search engines find helpful, you’re more likely to see your website near the top of the search results.

  • Write Quality, Keyword-Rich Content: Creating quality content is the first step to improving your presence on search engines. Make sure your content is well-written, informative, and provides unique value.
  • Use Unique Titles And Descriptions: When you create new pieces of content, include unique, descriptive titles and descriptions. This will help your content stand out from the competition and make it more likely to be found by searchers. Meta titles and descriptions that break the mold while still satisfying search intent are often high CTR, so consider how you can stand out from competitors.
  • Utilize E-A-T: E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google looks for these factors at a domain-level when determining whether or not to rank a piece of content. Make sure you establish yourself as a trusted source of information so that your content can outperform other websites.
  • Master Writing For Seo: You can’t optimize your page without applying the basics of SEO writing that consists of SEO best practices, topical knowledge and expertise, and deep writing knowledge.

Add Optimized Visual Assets

Most website owners are aware of the importance of on-page SEO. However, many don’t realize that optimizing your visual assets is one of the most important aspects of on-page SEO.

Visual assets include images, infographics, videos, and other multimedia content. Optimizing your visual assets for search engines can improve your chances of ranking higher in search results and getting more traffic to your site.

There are a few different things you can do to optimize your visual assets for SEO:

  • Use Descriptive Filenames And Alt Text: When you upload an image or video to your website, give it a descriptive filename and fill out the alt text field with a brief description of the content. This will help search engines match your content with relevant searches.
  • Optimize Your Thumbnails: Your thumbnail images are often the first thing people see when they come across your content in search results. Make sure your thumbnails are clear and descriptive, so people know what they’ll get if they click through to your page.
  • Use A Responsive Design: With more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it’s vital to ensure your visual assets are responsive. That means they should be able to resize and adjust automatically to fit any screen size.
  • Compress Your Images: Large image files can slow down your website, hurting your metrics across the board. Use an image compression tool to reduce the file size of your images without compromising quality.

By following these tips, you can optimize your visual assets for SEO and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results. Optimizing your images will also allow them to rank on Google Images better, an additional source of traffic when done right.

Write Compelling Titles and Meta Descriptions

One of the most important aspects of on-page SEO is writing compelling titles and meta descriptions. This helps your pages stand out in the search results and attract clicks.

Here are some tips for writing effective titles:

  • Keep it short and to the point.
  • Use keywords wisely.
  • Write for your audience, not just for the search engines.
  • Make the title unique but relatable.
  • Test, test, test! Try different versions of your title to see what works best.

The meta description is a short description of your article that appears in the search history and is a crucial factor in making people click on your page.

Here are some tips for writing compelling meta descriptions that will help you get more clicks:

  • Keep It Short And Sweet: Your meta description should be no more than 160 characters, so ensure you’re getting to the point quickly.
  • Use Keywords: Include relevant keywords in your meta description so that it appears in the search results for those terms. But don’t just stuff your keywords in there—use them naturally as part of a sentence or phrase.
  • Write for Your Audience: Your meta description is your chance to speak directly to your potential customers, so make sure you’re writing in a way that appeals to them. Use clear and concise language, and focus on the benefits of your product or service.
  • Include a Call to Action: Tell people what you want them to do once they get to your site–buy your product, learn about a topic, etc. A strong call to action will increase the likelihood of people clicking through. A little persuasive writing goes a long way!

By following these tips, you can write meta descriptions that are both informative and compelling, and that will help you get more clicks (and customers) to your site.

Improve Your Site Speed

A slow loading and lagging site drives customers away. A faster website means happier users and better search engine rankings. Your site speed standards should align with Google’s Core Web Vitals minimum requirement.

If you need to improve your site’s speed, there are a few different ways to do it.

One is to optimize your images. Ensure that your images are saved in the correct file format and compressed before you upload them to your website.

Another way to improve your site speed is to minimize your CSS and JavaScript files. This means removing unnecessary characters and code from these files so that they load faster.

You can also use a content delivery network (CDN) to improve your site speed. A CDN stores your website’s static files (like images and CSS files) on servers worldwide. When a user visits your website, they’ll be able to load these files from the server closest to them, which can help improve your site speed.

Optimize for Mobile

Mobile traffic has been steadily increasing year over year and now accounts for over half of all web traffic worldwide. Google has stated that they are increasingly using mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor in their search algorithm. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you could lose out on valuable organic traffic. 

Fortunately, optimizing your website for mobile considers only a few things. Here are a few simple tips: 

  • Use Responsive Design: Responsive design is the best way to ensure your website looks great on all devices. With responsive design, your website automatically adjusts to fit the screen size of the device it’s being viewed on. 
  • Use A Large, Easy-To-Read Font: In mobile design, simplicity is key. Make sure your website uses a large, easy-to-read font so that mobile users can navigate your site with ease.
  • Avoid Pop-Ups: Pop-ups can be very annoying on a mobile device and make it difficult for users to navigate your site. If you must use pop-ups, make sure they are small and easily dismissible.

Links, Links, and More Links

Links are essentially like votes from other websites—the more links you have pointing to your website, the more popular, trusted and relevant your site appears to search engines. In addition, links help search engines understand what your website is about and how it relates contextually to other websites on the internet.

There are a few different types of links that you should include in your content:

  • Internal links: These links point to other pages on your website. The search engine uses internal links to understand your site’s structure. It also helps visitors navigate your website more easily.
  • External links: These are links that point to other websites. External links show search engines that your website is connected to other relevant websites on the internet.
  • Image links: These links use images instead of text to link to another page. Image links can effectively get more people to click through to your website, but they provide less information to search engines than text-based links. When hyperlinking images on your website, keep in mind that the alt text will be used as the anchor text in the eyes of Google.

When adding links to your content, it’s essential to:

  • Use relevant and keyword-rich anchor text
  • Link to high-quality websites
  • Limit the number of outgoing links on each page
  • Include a mix of internal and external links
  • Use a variety of link types (text, image, etc.)

Key Takeaways

  • On-Page SEO is optimizing your webpage, allowing the search engine to understand and index it better so it can rank it accordingly.
  • On-page SEO includes optimizing website elements, including title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, images, and other elements contributing to its overall ranking in SERPs.
  • You can optimize your on-page SEO by using the right header tags, having natural keyword frequency, creating content that search engines prioritize, optimizing visual assets, writing compelling titles and meta descriptions, improving your site’s speed, optimizing your site for mobile, and adding a decent amount of links.

Guide to Startup Funding Stages: From Pre-Seed to IPO

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Most startups go through various funding stages as they grow and try to become successful. Each startup funding stage has different requirements, conditions, and maximum amount of investment. It can be difficult to understand the differences between these stages and what each entails.

This article will break down the different startup funding stages and explain what happens at each one. By understanding the various funding stages, you’ll be able to make better decisions about your business and its future.

Six Different Sources for Startup Funding

Getting investors to fund your startup can be challenging. Everyone has different ideas, and only a few people will risk their money into a new business. Below, we discuss different sources from where you can get your startup funding.

Friends and Family

Friends and family are often the most accessible source of startup funding. This type of funding can be informal or structured. Informal loans, such as a loan from a family member without any paperwork, do not need to be paid back immediately but still should have an agreed-upon repayment plan to avoid any hard feelings.

Structured loans involve paperwork and may come with a timeline for repayment. This can be beneficial as it provides legal protection in a disagreement between the lender and the borrower.

Regardless of your choice, it’s important to remember that borrowing money from friends or family is a serious commitment and should not be taken lightly. Mishandling can ruin relationships.

Angel Investors

Angel investors are also a great resource for startup funding. They are typically individuals with disposable income who provide capital and business expertise to entrepreneurs in exchange for an equity stake in the company. These investors have typically experienced businesspeople and take on a more active role in the venture’s success than other investors, such as venture capitalists or private equity firms.

Angel investors come with a wide range of benefits, such as providing mentorship and advice, giving companies access to valuable networks and connections, and sharing industry knowledge and expertise. These investors can be great resources for early-stage startups as they provide the necessary capital to move forward with their business plans.

A common example of an angel investor comes from the popular reality TV show “Shark Tank,” where the sharks listen to startup ideas to decide whether they want to become an angel investor for them.

If you’re raising funds, consider platforms like AngelList to seek angel investors for your startup.

Additionally, exploring services like Angels Partners could significantly enhance your ability to find startup investors. This platform is specifically designed to connect startups with a broad network of angel investors, streamlining the fundraising process and offering a dedicated space for entrepreneurs and investors to meet.

Venture Capital

Venture capital (VC) is an important source of funding for startups. It involves a specialized type of investment that provides financing to young companies with high growth potential. VCs typically invest in exchange for equity or ownership, allowing them to benefit from the success of their investments. The venture capitalist’s goal is to help the startup reach its full potential and generate returns for their investments. For startups, it can be the difference between success and failure.

Venture capitalists often have extensive knowledge of the industry they are investing in and many years of experience to draw upon.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is raising money by collecting small amounts from many people (the “crowd”). It’s an effective way for startups to get the funding they need without relying on traditional sources like venture capitalists or banks.

The crowdfunding process typically involves a startup creating a profile on a crowdfunding platform, setting funding goals and deadlines, and asking for donations from the public. The startup then shares this profile with as many people as possible to get the word out and generate interest in their project. The startup will reach its goal if enough people donate money within the allotted time frame.

Crowdfunding is gaining traction as a viable alternative to more traditional methods of startup funding. It allows entrepreneurs to secure financing without giving away equity or taking on debt. It can even serve as a way to validate a product’s market potential by gauging public interest.

Debt Financing

Debt financing can be a great way to help fund your startup venture, particularly if you have a strong credit history. It involves taking out a loan with a bank or other financial institution in exchange for repayment of the principal and interest over time. Unlike equity financing, debt financing does not require relinquishing any business owner and allows you to remain in full control.

Repayment of the loan can be structured to fit the current needs of your business and won’t dilute any existing equity ownership. Debt financing also typically provides a greater return in terms of ROI than equity financing, which is why it is often seen as an attractive option.

Grant Funding

Grant funding could be an option worth exploring if you look for another way for startup funding. Grants are typically awarded by the government or other organizations and can cover various expenses such as research and development costs, training programs, etc.

Applying for a grant may take longer than traditional forms of financing since they often have strict guidelines and criteria to be eligible. But, if you can meet the requirements, grant funding could help get your business off the ground.

Various grants are available depending on your field, so it’s important to do your research and see which one might be right for you. Grants are often non-repayable and don’t come with the same interest rates as a loan may require, so you won’t have to worry about taking on extra debt.

Startup Funding Stages: From Pre-Seed to IPO

Earlier, startups had a little window to raise funds. Now, startups can evaluate their standing in the market and prepare funding strategies accordingly. Below, we discuss the startup stages every entrepreneur should know to raise maximum funds for their business.

Pre-Seed Funding

Pre-seed funding is the earliest stage of startup financing. It typically involves angel investors and venture capitalists investing amounts ranging from $25,000 to $500,000 in exchange for equity in the company. This round of funding serves as a bridge between founders’ funds (friends & family) and the next round of seed or Series A funding.

With pre-seed funding, startups can hire a team and develop an MVP to demonstrate the product’s potential and attract future investment rounds. Pre-seed is also known as “pre-angel” or “pre-VC” financing, which shows how early it is in a company’s life cycle.

Seed Funding

Seed Funding is the second stage of startup funding. This round of financing helps to finance the early stages of product development and marketing, as well as help a startup reach its first customers. Seed funding provides startups with enough capital to start operations and develop a solid foundation for future growth. It can also bring in additional talent or secure strategic partnerships.

The amount of money raised in seed funding can range from a few thousand dollars to several million, and the financing usually comes from angel investors or venture capitalists.

By getting seed funding, startups can benefit from experienced guidance to help them navigate the business world and achieve their growth objectives. Businesses with a value of between three to six million dollars are eligible for seed funding.

Series A Funding

Series A funding is the third stage of startup financing. This round of funding helps startups take their products and services to market, build a customer base, and scale operations for higher profitability.

During this stage, investors seek evidence that the business will be successful and generate healthy returns on investment. The amount raised in Series A rounds is typically between three to twenty million dollars.

Investors at this stage are usually venture capitalists and established angel networks that want to be more involved in the business’s development. This can include providing access to resources such as mentors, advisors, and industry contacts.

Startups with series A funding are a great fit for SEO services because at this stage, you have enough resources to invest into a strong content velocity and backlink velocity. SaaS SEO is a powerful driver of signups, where buyer intent is often higher than other channels like social media.

Series B Funding

Series B funding is the fourth stage of startup financing. This financing round helps businesses expand their operations, increase revenue, and develop new products or services. The amount raised at this stage is usually higher than in earlier rounds since investors are looking for a greater return on their investment. Usually, Series B funding rounds can range up to $30 million.

At this stage, investors look for evidence that the business is on track to achieve success and generate long-term returns. These investors are typically venture capitalists or established private equity firms who want to be more involved in the company’s strategy.

Series C Funding

Series C funding is the fifth stage of startup financing. This round of financing helps businesses expand operations, increase revenue and develop new products or services. The amount raised at this stage is significantly higher than earlier rounds since investors are looking for a greater return on their investment. Usually, Series C funding rounds can range up to $100 million.

IPO

The final stage of startup financing is the Initial Public Offering (IPO). During an IPO, a private company’s stock is offered to the public, and investors can purchase shares in the business. This round of funding provides a significant amount of capital for companies and helps them achieve growth objectives.

For successful IPOs, startups need to demonstrate their potential for future growth and profitability and have a proven track record of success. Companies should also have a large customer base and generate sufficient revenue to make an IPO successful.

An IPO is the most lucrative form of financing, but it is also the most challenging and time-consuming. It requires a lot of preparation and planning, as well as the support of top-tier investment banks.

IPOs can provide a significant amount of capital for companies and help them achieve their growth objectives. With this funding, startups can use the money to expand into new markets, acquire other businesses or develop new products and services.

Key Takeaways

Understanding startup funding stages is important for entrepreneurs to know where the business stands and how much funding they can seek for growth and success. Here is what we learned from this article:

  • There are six different startup funding sources: friends and family, angel investors, venture capital, crowdfunding, debt financing, and grant funding.
  • The six stages of startup financing are pre-seed, seed, series A, series B, series C, and IPO funding.
  • Seed funding is for businesses worth three to six million dollars.
  • Series A funding is for businesses worth three to twenty million dollars.
  • Series B funding is for businesses worth ten to thirty million dollars.
  • Series C funding is for businesses worth thirty to one hundred million dollars.
  • The final stage of startup financing is the Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Why Long Form Content Improves Your Chances of Ranking

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It’s no secret that Google loves fresh, relevant content. They’ve stated time and again that content is one of their top three ranking factors. But what kind of content? Does Google prefer shorter articles or longer ones?

The answer may surprise you: Google actually prefers longer articles. In a study of one million search results, the average word count of a first-page result was 1,890 words. Additionally, long-form content gets an average of 77.2% more links than short articles.

Why is this? There are a few reasons that we’ll explore in this article.

What Exactly Is Long-Form Content?

Long-form content is defined as articles that are well over 1,000 words. It can be anywhere between 1,000 words to 5,000 or even higher.

Of course, length is one factor that defines an article as long-form. The content must also be well-researched, thoroughly thought out, and well-written. In other words, it must provide real value to the reader.

Long-Form Content vs. Short-Form Content

As a business owner, you’re always looking for ways to reach your target audience better and promote your product or service. A critical aspect of this is the type of content you create. Do you go with long-form content or short-form content?

There are pros and cons to both types of content. It’s essential to understand the differences between them so that you can make the best decision for your business.

As discussed, long-form content is typically defined as any content that is usually over 1,000.

The advantage of long-form content is that it allows you to really dive deep into a topic and cover it in-depth. This can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field and build trust with your audience.

Short-form content, on the other hand, is any piece of content that is under 1,000 words. This includes social media posts, infographics, and even some blog posts.

The advantage of short-form content is that it’s easier to consume and can be more engaging. Since people are often bombarded with content, short-form content can be a breath of fresh air. However, if your blogs are too short, they might be seen as thin content by Google: unhelpful and not satisfying search intent.

What Makes Long-Form Content Work?

As we’ve seen, long-form content has many advantages over shorter pieces. But what, exactly, makes it so effective?

There are a few key factors:

Offers Value

This is perhaps the most significant benefit of long-form content. You can cover a topic in greater detail when you have more space. This is especially useful for complex topics that require a lot of explanation.

Shows Authority

Long-form content also allows you to establish your authority on a given topic. Writing a detailed, well-researched piece shows that you know what you’re talking about.

Builds Trust

In addition to establishing your authority, long-form content also helps to build trust with your audience. When people see that you’re willing to take the time to write a comprehensive piece, they’ll be more likely to trust you and your opinions.

Increases Leads

Due to its greater depth and shareability, long-form content is also more likely to generate leads. If you include a call-to-action at the end of your piece, you’ll be able to turn readers into leads more effectively.

Opportunity to Rank for More Keywords

Providing value to your readers is one of the key ranking factors for Google, and longer pieces tend to offer just that. In addition, long-form content is more likely to be shared, which can help to increase your rankings.

Step-By-Step: How to Write Great Long-Form Content

writing long form content

You know the feeling. You’ve been staring at a blank screen for hours, trying to come up with something —anything—to say. The pressure’s on to produce something good, and all you can think of are tiny little things that wouldn’t even fill up a paragraph, let alone an entire article.

Don’t despair! Writing great long-form content is easier than you think. And once you get the hang of it, it can be surprisingly easy – and even enjoyable. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing great long-form content, regardless of your topic.

Step 1: Define Your Content’s Purpose

The first step to writing great long-form content is finding its purpose. What are you trying to achieve with this piece? Are you looking to educate your readers, entertain them, or convince them of something?

Your answer to this question will determine your article’s tone, style, and structure. If you’re writing for entertainment, for example, you’ll likely want to keep things light and breezy. On the other hand, if you’re looking to educate or persuade your readers, a more serious tone is probably called for.

Step 2: Work on a Story that Engages Users

Once you know what your article is supposed to achieve, it’s time to start working on the actual content. And the best way to keep your readers engaged is by telling a story.

People love stories. They’re easy to follow and make complex topics more relatable. So even if your goal is simply to educate or inform your readers, working a story into your long-form content will go a long way towards holding their attention.

Step 3: Write Enough Content to Make Your Point

One of the biggest mistakes people make when writing long-form content is not writing enough. They get to the end of their article and realize they need more material to make their point – or, worse, that they’ve run out of things to say entirely.

If you find yourself in this situation, you must resist the temptation to pad your article with filler content. This will only make your readers lose interest and leave them feeling cheated.

Instead, take the time to write enough content to make your point convincingly. This may mean going back and adding more sections or expanding on the points you’ve already made. But in the end, it’s worth it to have a well-crafted article that satisfies your readers.

Step 4: Use Images to Break Your Content

One of the best ways to make your long-form content more readable is to break it up with images. People are visual creatures, and adding pictures, graphs, or infographics can help them process information more effectively.

Not to mention, images are a great way to add some personality to your article and make it more engaging. So if you’re struggling to keep your reader’s attention, try adding a few pictures to your content.

Step 5: Promote Your Content

The final step to writing great long-form content is promoting it. Just because you’ve written a killer article doesn’t mean people will automatically find it. You need to make some effort to get your content seen by the right people.

There are a number of ways to promote your content, but some of the most effective include social media, email marketing, and guest blogging. By promoting your article on different channels, you’ll reach a wider audience and increase the chances that someone will actually read it.

Key Takeaways

Long-form content is well over 1,000 words and can even range up to 10,000 words. Here’s a quick recap of the most important things to remember about long-form content:

  • The benefits of writing long-form content include improved SEO, more social shares, and increased topical authority.
  • The difference between long-form and short-form content is that long-form content goes into more depth, providing readers with greater value.
  • To write great long-form content, start by finding a topic that interests you and that you’re passionate about. Then, work on a story that engages your readers and write enough content to make your point. Finally, promote your content on different channels to reach a wider audience.

Link Prospecting Explained: How to Secure Backlinks

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What is link prospecting?

Link prospecting is the process of finding potential link partners for your website. This can be done manually, by searching the web for relevant websites and then contacting them directly, or through automated tools that help you find and contact potential link partners at scale.

From a workflow perspective, this usually entails 2 tasks:

  1. Identifying Target Websites
  2. Finding Contact Information

Effective link prospecting will ensure that you have enough contacts to meet your backlink building goals, while factoring in average open rates, reply rates and conversion rates.

Here’s an example of a guest blog outreach campaign I ran recently for reference:

guest blog outreach campaign
Guest Blog Outreach Campaign via Instantly.ai

We sent out 211 emails and converted 10 to backlinks for an overall conversion rate of 4.8%. If we treat this as a benchmark, we’ll need roughly 200 link prospects per 10 backlinks, which is our average order size from clients. Operating on low ball metrics, we inflate this figure to 250 prospects because we don’t have long-term campaign analytics to average out from (yet). It’s better to have more prospects than you need than to fumble around late into a campaign.

How to Find Sites That Accept Guest Posts with Google

Using Google search operators, we can find some truly low hanging fruit guest post opportunities. Most blogs don’t explicitly advertise that they accept guest posts (and they really shouldn’t).

You can use any of the below search terms to find websites that accept guest posts, but I do not recommend doing things this way. 

  • “keyword” + “guest blog”
  • “keyword” + “guest post”
  • “keyword” + “write for us”
  • “keyword” + “submit an article”
  • “keyword” + “contribute to our blog”
  • “keyword” + “become a contributor”
  • “keyword” + “contributor guidelines”

This is such a common and obvious tactic that many of the results will be low quality.

Low quality websites that accept guest posts are often made solely to sell guest posts or make money off of advertising. Google considers this a link scheme, which may lead to your rankings getting nuked. Don’t risk your domain reputation over something so easily avoided!

Aside from explicitly saying they accept guest posts, some tell-tale signs of a link scheme include:

  • Multi-niche and multi-category websites that aren’t related to each other
  • Publishes content unrelated to website focus
  • Low topical authority (content is very loosely related)
  • Low trust flow (see Majestic)

So, how do you find high-quality websites that accept guest posts?

Simple: ahrefs Content Explorer.

Link Prospecting with ahrefs

Link prospecting with ahrefs is actually more time-efficient than just Googling websites that accept guest posts, so it’s really a win-win for you.

Let me show you exactly how it’s done step-by-step.

In this example, we’re looking for blogs that have written about “email outreach software” like Instantly. 

This query gives us 1,964 potential guest blog placements

link prospecting with ahrefs

Now that we have our base level search, it’s time for some quality control.

Let’s add a couple filters to find the sites ✨most likely✨ to accept guest blogs AND move the needle for us!

  • Minimum traffic: 1,000
  • DR 45 to 65

Go below these metrics and websites are unlikely to move the needle.

Go above these metrics and websites are unlikely to respond to your emails.

This narrows our search down to just 189 pages.

link prospecting with ahrefs

This view will show multiple pages from the same domain, so we switch to the Websites view and end up with 87 websites that are likely to accept guest posts in the email marketing niche.

link prospecting with ahrefs

Due Diligence

From here, we go to each and every website to do our due diligence. We want to make sure the websites we submit guest posts to are legitimate, trustworthy and authoritative. SEO metrics can be manipulated in various ways, so this step is extremely important. Without due diligence, you might find yourself reaching out to businesses that don’t actually exist or link schemes.

First, check if they post irrelevant content for a fee. You’ll want to avoid websites like this because they have low topical authority. They’re not only a risk to work with but they are less likely to move the needle for your website.

Do a search for each of these and see what comes up:

  • site:https://domain.com CBD
  • site:https://domain.com crypto
  • site:https://domain.com casino
  • site:https://domain.com insurance

Second, check if they have a Write for Us page in their main navigation. These sites are almost always link farms, so avoid these sites at all costs.

Finally, check their Overview 2.0 chart in ahrefs. You’ll want to look at where their traffic comes from. Many link farms have the bulk of their traffic coming from countries irrelevant to their site content.

ahrefs overview 2.0 report - traffic by country

Relevancy matters a lot when it comes to backlink building, so it’s important to check that their traffic comes from G8 countries or countries where your business operates in. Sites with 90%+ Indian traffic aren’t going to help a US-based business, for example.

Key Takeaways

I hope this guide helps you on your backlink building journey. If you have any questions at all, feel free to contact me on Twitter. For a quick recap, here’s the most important lessons from this short but sweet guide to link prospecting and guest blogging:

  • Make sure you build up a large enough link prospect list to hit your backlink building goals. Work backwards from your conversion rate.
  • Avoid link farms at all costs by doing your due diligence.
  • Find creative searches to find websites that have covered topics related to your industry using ahrefs and you’ll never be short on backlinks again.
  • Closed mouths don’t get fed.

How AI Copywriters Are Changing SEO

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Since the beginning of search engines, writers and companies have chased SEO — the slippery science of getting your results high up in Google’s search rankings to improve web traffic. More recently, however, the advent of cheap, easy-to-use AI copywriting tools enabled by GPT-3 has changed the game entirely. While AI-based copywriting has been steadily advancing for years, until recently it has never been good enough to be more than a party trick. We’re just now beginning to see the effects of companies using AI to produce written content en masse. 

Already, AI-generated copy is being used to produce SEO-driven content at scale, even as Google claims to penalize such content. However, there are more uses for AI tools than simply evading the tactical cat-and-mouse game that many companies and SEO specialists play with Google. Rather, I see a future in which AI copywriting tools will dramatically increase the productivity and, eventually, quality of copywriters — but where the rise of such tools will also heighten demand for skilled human writers and editors.

Today, the widespread adoption of AI tools like Jasper and CopyAI is sparking new questions: How do AI copywriters stack up against human writers? How is the increased use of AI writing tools impacting SEO and search results? And most importantly for companies and creators, how can you intelligently use this AI revolution to your advantage?

The rise of AI-generated writing, powered by GPT-3

GPT-3 is a neural network machine learning model created by OpenAI that is used to translate written commands and generate text. GPT-3 is effectively AI for the everyman: Though it has been trained with absurdly large datasets — almost 500 billion byte-pair encoded tokens — and conditioned using over 175 billion machine learning parameters,  GPT-3 can be used by almost anyone with ease.

GPT-3 requires only a small amount of input text to generate large volumes of relevant and sophisticated machine-generated output text. 

In response, numerous automated copywriting applications have emerged that claim to produce high-quality material. Now those tools are upending the quest for SEO.

For many years, the SEO industry has been outsourcing cheap content writing to India and the Philippines. Within the past couple of years, many freelancers from these countries have begun using AI to spit out massive volumes of content. Why wouldn’t they? Google ranks AI-generated writing in search results and increased industry demand means that higher output can make freelancers more money than ever before.

It’s important to note that while much of this content is mediocre, AI copywriters are not inherently inferior; in fact, AI tools can be used to generate content that is indistinguishable from human output. But while AI-generated content is typically grammatically correct, AI copywriters are not always factually accurate, increasing the likelihood of disinformation or fake news. While GPT-3 has the potential to revolutionize the way we create content, we are only beginning to scratch the surface of what this powerful tool can do. 

How to use AI copywriting tools as collaborators

Although AI is increasingly playing a role in content creation, there are new ways for human copywriters to remain relevant. GPT-3 promises unprecedented outputs at lightning speed, but the best results to date come from those using AI alongside specialized human editors and writers to produce content. AI-assisted copywriting will eventually impact more than just search strategy and SEO.

While the ways that AI copywriting tools work are many, here are the basic workflows:

  • Copywriting: Write a prompt for the AI that includes the document title, content brief, and suggested tone.
  • Blog content writing: Write a content brief for the AI that includes the document title, section headers, and tone. Add an empty line after each header and compose content for each section individually. 
  • Copy editing: Copy and paste text into the AI’s output field. Highlight this text and use the “fix grammar” tool or “rephrase” tool to edit it.

AI is a tool, and like any tool, it must be used correctly to be effective. Used properly, AI copywriting tools can be a valuable asset in any writer’s back pocket. Let’s generalize and say that without AI, an experienced writer can comfortably produce an average of 2,000 words per day. When trained to curate and edit AI-generated content, in my experience the writer’s output can quickly increase to 4,000 or 5,000 words daily, giving them the ability to be more productive with fewer false starts.

AI copywriters can also be used to help new writers learn the ropes by identifying grammatical errors and suggesting structural modifications to make writing more polished and conversational.

Over time, this helps writers improve their sentence structure, grammar, vocabulary, and overall value in the market.

Many different types of AI copywriting tools are available, including Copy.ai, Jasper, GrowthBar, Copysmith, and Writesonic, among others. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are better at grammar and spelling, while others can help with research and conceptualizing content at a high level.

Five common AI copywriting tools

One point remains across all tools: AI copywriters are not a replacement for human writers — they are best used as an assistant to improve on human efforts. This means that while they can help with some aspects of writing, they should not be solely relied on to produce content in their current state.

Google and the search for quality content

Of course, one of the primary uses for AI copywriting tools is to produce more content for less money, helping companies rank higher on key terms through Google Search. Given Google’s current dominance as a search engine, the company’s perspective on AI-assisted content can have a dramatic impact on the industry.

When the trade publication Search Engine Journal ran the headline “Google Says AI Generated Content Is Against Guidelines” in April, it struck fear in the hearts of SEO specialists worldwide. The article left many wondering what it meant for the future of their AI-assisted domains and the industry as a whole. 

But in fact, Google has been saying for years that it wants its search results to be populated by high-quality content and has been developing technologies to thwart spam content. It’s clear that Google is simply trying to discourage the use of low-quality, spun content — something that has been a problem long before AI copywriters were prevalent — so that high-quality, useful content is surfaced in search results. Back in 2011, for example, Google’s Panda/Farmer update killed off millions of cases of spun content, impacting 12 percent of all search results.

So, will you be penalized for using AI-written content?

Likely not — yet. Google’s algorithms aren’t able to automatically detect content generated by language models like GPT-3, according to Miranda Miller, senior managing editor of Search Engine Journal.

Even if Google considers all AI-written content to be spam, there have been many recent case studies of massively successful websites that pump out AI content. The latest Google broad core algorithm update in May 2022 seemingly penalized purely AI-written content, but AI-written content that is fact-checked and edited by humans still seems to avoid penalty and do just fine.

But while it’s safe to say that while Google may not be great at detecting AI-produced content today, that ability will inevitably improve.

Since an AI tool is trained a particular way using a specific data set, it will create homogeneity in content outputs at the macro level. For example, if Jasper AI was used to cover every keyword related to cooking, future articles using the same AI to cover the same topics might read similarly enough for Google to detect the use of AI more easily. At the very least, when there is a large enough data set to be analyzed by Google, patterns will emerge. That’s the core of its business model — indexing and analyzing the entirety of the internet — so this type of pattern recognition is inevitable.

But will Google penalize AI content? Assuming people act as opportunistically as they have in the past, and assuming history repeats itself, as it often does, it’s extremely likely. If a large portion of the internet becomes AI-generated and free from fact-checking, Google would be inclined to moderate search results for the greater good, just like it did with the Panda/Farmer update. This means that to avoid penalties, SEO specialists and founders alike will likely optimize their AI tools through collaboration with human editors and fact-checkers.

Looking ahead: What AI advances mean for the written word

What if AI-written content becomes indistinguishable from human counterparts?

This is less a question of if than when. For AI copywriters to bridge that technological gap, they will require stronger language modeling, larger datasets, and quality control checks baked into their platforms. The ability to fact-check text content is not far off based on advancements in technology used by social media platforms to prevent the spread of disinformation. It won’t be long before the content production economy sees drastic changes in the next two years.

Counterintuitively, however, I believe this shift will increase the demand for highly skilled human writers and editors going forward, for a number of reasons.

AI advances in the long term

First, as single AI copywriters become more popular, they grow closer to approaching homogeneity in outputs at a macro level. This will push Google toward developing more sophisticated detection algorithms and possibly implementing a wide-scale penalty. It will also mean that without human assistance, a large portion of the internet will read more uniformly than ever before. This is where specialized human editors become key.

Secondly, AI-generated content is most useful for educational content, not investigative reporting. The need for journalists and those doing independent research alongside human writers will persist as AI copywriters mature. Blue ocean content strategy will become more prevalent, resulting in a new generation of content specialists. As search results grow more competitive with the influx of AI-written content, content in knowledge areas that were previously untapped will be high in demand. The wide-open spaces where new interests, new niches, and new industries arise will become stomping grounds for content specialists.

Finally, in an effort to diversify writing styles and to improve how enjoyable content is to read, AI copywriters that specialize in certain fields, styles, and professions will emerge. We’ve already seen this to be true in different fields of marketing, where some platforms are better than others at, say, email marketing or sales copy. Writers and editors who work with these specialized AI copywriters will be a necessity for developing first-rate content. As AI copywriters become more specialized, there will be higher demand for human participation to fact-check and double-check AI outputs. The combination of AI for content scaling and human editors for quality assurance will likely become the industry standard.