What SMBs Want From Their Websites

 SMB owners say increasing search visibility is the top website improvement they want to make over the next year, according to recent research from Duda.

The report was based on data from a survey of 300 owners of small and midsize businesses (firms with between 1-99 employees) in Europe and the United States.

Respondents say their biggest website priorities over the next year are improving visibility on search engines (31% cite that as a Top 3 improvement they want to make) and boosting lead generation (30%).

SMB owners say their top priorities for enhancing the customer experience on their website are improving social sharing, advanced support, and personalized recommendations.

SMB owners say the top ways their website contributes to their business are lead generation, information dissemination, and direct sales.

SMB owners say the top challenges they face when trying to improve their website are training and implementation issues, content creation and management issues, and limited budgets.

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey of 300 owners of small and midsize businesses (firms with between 1-99 employees) in Europe and the United States.

https://tinyurl.com/wft8rr9z

Do Google Searches Still Lead to Clicks in 2024?

 What share of Google searches deliver clicks to the open Web (organic results that aren't paid ads or that aren't owned by Google)? Does that proportion vary by region?

To find out, SparkToro analyzed Datos 2024 clickstream panel data from the United States and Europe (see the full research methodology and limitations here).

The researchers found that out of every 1,000 US Google searches, only 360 lead to clicks to the open Web, on average.

Some 58.5% of the US Google searches analyzed did not lead to a click, and 41.5% led to a click. Among searches that led to a click, 70.5% led to open Web (unpaid, organic) results, 28.5% to Google-owned properties, such as YouTube, and 1% to paid results.

The researchers found that out of every 1,000 European Google searches, 374 lead to clicks to the open Web, on average.

Some 59.7% of the European Google searches analyzed did not lead to a click, and 40.3% led to a click. Among searches that led to a click, 74.6% led to open Web results, 24% to Google-owned properties, and 1.4% to paid results.

The researchers found that over time a steadily smaller share of Google desktop searches has been leading out to the open Web in both the US and Europe.

The researchers also found that the share of Google desktop searches leading to Google properties has increased over time in the United States.

About the research: The report was based on SparkToro's analysis of Datos clickstream panel data from the United States and Europe.

https://tinyurl.com/2cesz4h6

How Long Does It Take To Rank on Google?

 

SAM NELSON

Ah, the almighty Google search box.

Website developers spend a lot of time trying to make sure their pages show up directly beneath that box, at the top of Google’s first page of search results.

Reaching the top of the search rankings does not happen overnight, especially for small businesses with little or no existing web presence.

According to multiple sources, the average time for websites to rank on Google through optimization (SEO) techniques is about three to six months.

That’s right – jumping to the front of Google’s results usually takes between 90-180 days, depending on the competitiveness of your industry and popularity of your keywords. For several reasons we’ll discuss below (competition, domain age, content accumulation, etc.) a high ranking may take as much as a year in competitive fields.

This can be frustrating for developers and clients alike. We just put weeks into building a new site! It looks great and no one is seeing it! Why isn’t Google recognizing us?

Don’t worry. In this case, doing everything right doesn’t mean immediate results. Ranking on Google is a process, not a magic trick.

To understand which websites appear at the top of Google‘s rankings, first, we need to dive into how Google finds those pages and adds them to your search results.

How Does Google Find My Page?

Software programs called “Googlebots” (also known as bots, robots, or spiders) move or “crawl” through billions of web pages, collecting and cataloging information that is added to Google’s index of the web. For your webpage to reach Google’s index, the spiders must be able to crawl and read the information on your site.

This video from Google explains in more detail how the search function works:

Like the nice man in the pink shirt says, when you search through Google, you are actually searching the Google index, not the whole Internet. Google uses an algorithm to match your query to the bazillion pages it has on file.

The algorithm considers more than 250 factors, including keywords, titles, and content tags. The algorithm also incorporates PageRank, a separate program that measures each page’s importance according to the amount and quality of traffic from other sites.

How Are Websites Ranked?

When you type a search into Google, pages are selected from the index according to how well they match up to your specific query.

There is no exact formula for placing your website at the top of a Google search. However, the following factors play a key role in the ranking process:

• SEO. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ensures that your website is visible to Googlebots and other indexing programs. This includes things like titles, keywords, headings, and ALT image text.
• Domain age. A web domain less than six months old is considered a “new” site, and therefore less trustworthy or reliable than an older website that has been thoroughly verified. New sites can still be ranked, but rankings are more likely to increase after the six-month window.
• Keyword competition. Words or phrases that are searched often are highly competitive, and more established sites in your industry have a head start on ranking for popular searches. If your site is new, it will be easier to build trust and rankings through keywords with lower levels of competition before moving on to more popular searches.
• Content quality. The Googlebots are designed to identify characteristics like how often new content is published, whether the content is original, as well as the length and overall quality of your posts. Regularly adding new, original, high-quality content to your page will keep the search bots looking at your page, and could lead to higher rankings as time passes.
• Clean domain. Google’s algorithm is also designed to spot when websites try to cheat the system with tricks like keyword stuffing or buying inbound links. These schemes may work for a while, but when Google catches on, your site will be penalized. Your ranking will suffer until you correct the problem, which can be a lengthy and difficult process.

(Hat tip: reliablesoft.net)

So if you’re maintaining your page with good content, keeping your domain clear of any shady shortcuts, and focusing on low-competition keywords that will build your online authority… be patient.

You’re on your way.

https://websitemuscle.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-on-google/

How long does it take to rank in Google? (A study by Ahrefs)

Tim Soulo

If you’re doing client SEO, I guess every new client, without any exceptions, will ask you this question: 

“How long till my website (page) ranks on top of Google?”

The common response to this question is obviously, “It depends,” because there are just too many variables to consider: website strength, competition, budget, skills, etc.

But here at Ahrefs, we decided to sift through the petabytes of historical ranking data that we have and give you a slightly more quantifiable answer, something more concrete than simply, “It depends.”

How old are the top-ranking pages?

For starters, we identified how old the current top-ranking pages are.

We took 2 million random keywords and pulled data on the Top10 ranking pages for each of them. Which resulted in this beautiful graph:

SIDENOTE.

 The “age” is calculated from the date when Ahrefs crawlers first saw the page. But since we crawl the web at a pretty staggering speed, the actual age of the page should be very close, if not identical, to our records. 

As you can tell from this graph, the average Top10 ranking page is 2+ years old. And those that rank at position #1 are almost 3 years old (on average).

In fact, only 22% of pages that currently rank in the Top10 were created within 1 year:

So the next thing we wanted to know is what percentage of pages at each ranking position were less than 1 year old:

This doesn’t look too promising, right? The SERP is clearly dominated by “old” pages.

How long does it take for a page to rank in Google?

To answer this question, we randomly selected 2 million pages that were first seen by Ahrefs crawler a year ago.

We then tracked the position history of each page for any keyword it’s ranked for.

Which resulted in this graph:

Only 5.7% of all studied pages ranked in the Top10 search results within 1 year for at least 1 keyword.

Pages from websites with a high Domain Rating (DR) performed way better than those with a low DR. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise, because Ahrefs’ Domain Rating metric (shows the strength of a website’s backlink profile) correlates well with Google rankings.

We then zoomed into these 5.7% of “lucky” pages to see how quickly they got from nowhere to the Top10.

The majority of them managed to achieve that in approximately 61-182 days.

By looking at this graph, you might think that, on average, it takes a page anywhere from 2-6 months to rank in Google’s Top10.

But that conclusion isn’t valid here, because this data only represents the 5.7% of pages that were lucky enough to rank in the Top10 within a year — while almost 95% of all the pages we studied didn’t make it to the Top10 within that timeframe.

We also re-calculated the numbers based on monthly search volume of the keywords:

Only 0.3% of pages ranked in the Top10 for a high-volume keyword in less than a year.

And here are the dynamics of these 5.7% “lucky” pages, broken down by search volume of the keyword that they ranked for:

Clearly, you can rank for low-volume keywords in a very short time, while the high-volume ones take almost a year to get into the Top10.

But again, don’t forget that this data only applies to 5.7% of “lucky” pages that ranked in the Top10 within a year. The vast majority of pages don’t perform that well.

What does this all mean?

Did our study give a definite answer to “how long does it take to rank” question?

No.

But at least we’ve shown that almost 95% of newly published pages don’t get to the Top10 within a year.

And most of the “lucky” ones, which do manage to get there, do it in about 2-6 months.

Actually, I shouldn’t be framing these pages as “lucky,” because the reason they got to the Top10 in less than a year is most likely hard work and great knowledge of SEO, not luck.

Check out these tips from Sam Oh if you want to rank #1 in Google quicker:

Here’s to hard work and dedication!

https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank/

Top 40 Content Writing Statistics in 2023

 

Figure 1. The relatively increasing popularity of the keyword “content writing” on Google over the last five years

BLISHED ON DECEMBER 11, 2022    |    4 MINUTE READ

Written by Begüm Yılma

The content writing industry has been gaining popularity over the last five years ( Figure 1). Content writing includes creating, editing, and publishing content that brings organic traffic and increases brand awareness. This makes content writing integral to marketing success.

But investors might be hesitant to invest in the content writing industry. So, we have gathered 40+ statistics about 

• Content writing industry 
• Blogging 
• Content marketing 
• Audience behavior

to make a data-driven presentation about the current state of the content writing industry as a whole. This will help business leaders analyze how investing in this market can help their businesses.  

Content writing industry statistics

1- Marketers expect the content marketing industry’s revenue to exceed $135 billion by 2026.

2- It is estimated that the AI-powered content market will exceed $250 billion by 2022.

3- Research shows that 70% of B2B marketers were expected to increase their content marketing budget in 2022, as it brings leads three times more than traditional marketing strategies.

4- ~50% of companies were expected to grow their content team in 2022.

5- 75% of large companies outsource content writers.

6- Only 17% of B2B buyers spend most of their time meeting with the suppliers, compared to 83% who spend most of their time researching supplier companies (e.g., reading about them online).

To learn more about the top web content writing vendors, check our benchmarking study of the top 6 content writing services.

Blogging statistics

Best practices

Source: HubSpot

Figure 2. Results of a survey featuring  1,600+ B2B and B2C marketers on the future of content marketing.

7- Polls, games, augmented reality, etc., are the most popular content marketing trends that companies followed in 2022 (Figure 2).

8- ~80% of blog posts are “how-to” articles.

9- “How-to” articles bring 1.5x more organic web traffic than other content types.

10- Publishing 2-6 times a week gets 50% more clicks.

11- Thought leadership is a crucial part of the content writing process. Coupled with omnichannel interaction with the audience, it increases sales by ~20%.

12- In creating quality content, ~75% of writers find case studies the most helpful.¹

13- Increasing the appeal of an article by adding visual content (i.e., images, short videos, or graphs) brings 94% more clicks.

Multimedia content creation

14- Internet users share video content with their friends x2 more than other types of content, such as blog posts, e-mails, etc.²

15- 87% of marketers stated that creating video content increases their website traffic.³

Source: Wyzowl

Figure 3. Social media platforms preferred by marketers to share video content.

16- More than 80% of marketers prefer Youtube as their most preferred medium of publishing video content (Figure 3).

Blogging/content writing challenges

17- More than 40% of content writers view producing high-quality content as their biggest challenge.⁴

18- Only 40% of web content is updated regularly, while the remaining articles are outdated.

Sponsored

Clickworker is a content writing service provider, working with a pool of international Clickworkers who have expertise in content writing and developing SEO-friendly texts in various languages and more than 70 markets. 

To explore how their content writing services work, watch their video:

Audience research statistics

Purchase behavior

19- 77% of Internet users do research (i.e., reading content online) before making a purchase-related decision.

20- ~30% of local searches on the Internet turn to purchases.

21- ~35% of customers make purchase decisions after reading engaging content that provides valuable insights about a good/service.

Reading habits

22- Readers spend ~40 seconds on a blog post.

23- Engaging with the target audience by putting mini quizzes, thought experiments, etc., into the written content makes them spend 4-5x more time on pages with interactive content, thus increasing website traffic.

24- Pages with more than 1000 words correlate with getting more clicks. 

25- 94% of readers only check the results on the first page, and ~65% click only the first three links.

Content marketing statistics

Best practices

Source: Content Marketing Institute 

Figure 4. How do content marketers benefit from content writing, and how did this change from 2021 to 2022?

26- Companies use content writing the most to build trust, followed by ensuring brand loyalty, nurturing leads, and generating sales (See Figure 4)

27- 97% of marketers think content writing is a crucial marketing strategy.

28- ~60% of marketers report attracting new customers through content marketing efforts.

29- Marketers, in making budget allocation forecasts, claim that ~30% of the total marketing budget can be dedicated to content marketing for lead generation and increasing brand awareness.

30- B2B marketers benefit most from content writing for creating whitepapers and use cases.

31- B2C marketers use content writing as a marketing tool for creating podcasts and short-form video content.

Learn more about the top 10 content writing best practices.

SEO statistics

32- SEO has been considered a “great” content marketing strategy as it increases product awareness.

33- B2B marketers state that SEO investments bring better ROI, while B2C marketers get more positive ROI for short-form content (e.g., posts on social media platforms) compared to other forms of content marketing trends.

34- The organic search traffic is ~9x more for SEO than traditional marketing strategies.

Learn more about SEO in content creation and its business benefits.

Here is our article on SEO content service pricing for those who are considering investing in SEO services and want to know how much to pay.

Social media statistics

Source: Content Marketing Institute

Figure 5. The distribution of the preferred social media platforms by B2B marketers for content creation.

35- %77 of companies use social media platforms as their top channel to share content.⁵

36- LinkedIn is the most preferred social media platform for B2B marketers (See Figure 5).

Content marketing challenges

37- ~35% of marketers view ensuring content quality as “challenging.”

38- B2B marketers struggle to provide high-quality content more than B2C marketers.

39- 40% of B2B companies do not have solid, well-documented content marketing strategies.

40- Only 35% of marketers surveyed have tangible KPIs in content writing.

You can read the top challenges in content marketing and our solutions.

 We also have a  data-driven list of content-writing services for those interested.

https://cutt.ly/TwqSWX7W

How AI Will Affect Delivering Relevant Search Results

 Most professionals who work in roles focused on online search say artificial intelligence will be extremely or very important to delivering relevant results in the future, according to recent research from Lucidworks.

The report was based on data from a survey of 100 search practitioners (people whose jobs include some responsibility for online search, such as engineers, data scientists, and digital commerce experts).

Some 52% of search practitioners say they believe AI will be extremely important in the future for delivering relevant search results, and 36% say they believe it will be very important.

Some 40% of search practitioners say delivering relevant search results will require more effort in the future, 32% say it will require less effort, and 28% say it will require the same amount of effort.

Some 36% of search practitioners cite collecting quality signal data as the most important factor for delivering relevant search results, 34% cite data analysis, and 30% cite taking the correct actions with data.

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey of 100 search practitioners (people whose jobs include some responsibility for online search, such as engineers, data scientists, and digital commerce experts).

https://cutt.ly/O6WWI8t

Top 9 SEO Copywriting Tools in 2023

 In today’s digital landscape, writing compelling copy is only half the battle and optimizing it for search engines is equally important. With the help of sophisticated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools, you can ensure that your content reaches the right audience and generates results while staying ahead of the competition.

In this article, we explore the different capabilities of SEO copywriting tools and how they can help companies improve their search rankings and readability. We also list the top SEO copywriting tools to help businesses choose the best SEO tool that tailors their needs.

What is SEO copywriting?

SEO copywriting refers to producing high-quality, engaging, and informative text that is search engine optimized. It entails carefully incorporating relevant keywords and phrases into the content, increasing the likelihood of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and being noticed by the target audience.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Figure 1. Which SEO initiative is used most by the marketers?

The primary goal of SEO copywriting is to improve the visibility of the content while maintaining its readability and value for the reader. A recent survey shows that while implementing SEO in copywriting, marketers’ top priority was technical SEO, followed by keyword research and SEO strategy & planning (See Figure 1).

Top 10 SEO copywriting tool capabilities to help your find the right fit

SEO copywriting tools are critical in assisting SEO copywriters in creating search engine optimized content, user-friendly and engaging content. These tools’ essential capabilities include the following:

1- Keyword research

Keyword research helps identify and analyze the most relevant keywords for a specific topic, industry, or audience. SEO copywriting tools should provide data on search volume, competition levels, and long-tail keyword variations, helping users optimize their content for search engines and target the right audience.

2- Tagging

This capability refers to optimizing title tags, meta tags, header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.), and image alt tags. A good SEO copywriting tool should provide suggestions and best practices for optimizing these tags to improve search engine indexing, rankings, and user experience by providing relevant tags with the search intent of readers.

3- Link building

Link building is acquiring high-quality and relevant backlinks from other websites to your own. SEO copywriting tools should provide recommendations for building a solid backlink profile, including identifying potential link-building opportunities and monitoring the health of your existing backlinks.

On the other hand, tools can also help in internal linking, which refers to linking pages within your website. It helps:

• Improve site navigation
• Distribute link equity across your site
• Provide context to search engines for better indexing and ranking.

4- URL optimization

URL optimization involves creating SEO-friendly URLs that are easily readable and understood by search engines and users. SEO copywriting tools should offer suggestions for optimizing URLs, such as using hyphens instead of underscores, including relevant keywords, and keeping the URL structure concise and relevant.

Examples would be:

• Poor: example.com/blog/seo_tips_tricks_techniques
• Better: example.com/blog/seo-best-practices

5- Readability analysis

The tool should analyze the content’s readability, providing suggestions to improve clarity, sentence structure, and overall flow. This makes it easier for users to understand and engage with the content, whether a blog post or a social media post, and helps edit any unnoticed errors in the writing process.

Sponsored

Clickworker is an SEO content writing service provider, working with a pool of international Clickworkers with expertise in content writing and developing SEO-friendly texts in various languages. They serve 4 out of 5 US-based tech companies and provide services in more than 70 markets.

To explore how their SEO content writing services work, watch their video:

6- Duplicate content finder

A duplicate content finder scans your website and analyzes the content on each page, comparing it to other pages to identify similarities or exact matches. Once the tool detects duplicate content, it provides a report outlining the affected pages and the extent of the duplication.

Using a duplicate content finder as part of your SEO strategy can help you maintain a high-quality website, avoid search engine penalties, and improve your rankings.

7- Content performance tracker

A content performance tracking feature monitors the success of your content over time, including metrics like search engine rankings, organic traffic, user engagement, and conversions.

For more on measuring content performance and reporting, check out our article.

8- Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to optimizing a website’s technical aspects, such as:

•  Site structure
• Indexing
• Crawling
• Page speed
• Mobile-friendliness
• Security. 

These factors contribute to search engine rankings and user experience, making them crucial to a website’s success.

9- Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis helps users understand the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors’ SEO strategies, allowing them to identify improvement opportunities and capitalize on market gaps.

10- Integration with other SEO tools

The tool should integrate with other popular SEO tools and platforms, such as Google Analytics, Google Docs, Google Search Console, or other keyword research or link-building tools for seamless workflow and better insights.

Top 9 SEO copywriting tools

After identifying whether the tools provide the capabilities above, we narrowed our vendor list based on some criteria. First, we focused on the tools that are specialized in content optimization. Then, we used the number of B2B reviews on several platforms and employees of a company to estimate its market presence because these criteria are public and verifiable.

Therefore, we set certain limits to focus our work on top companies in terms of market presence and selected companies:

• Specialized in content optimization
• With more than 50 reviews on various software review platforms such as G2, Trustradius, Capterra
• With 25+ employees

The following companies fit these criteria:

1. Semrush
2. BrightEdge
3. Surfer
4. Siteimprove
5. seoClarity
6. Ryte
7. SEO PowerSuite
8. MarketMuse
9. Conductor

The data is gathered from the websites of vendors and review platforms such as G2, Trustradius, and Capterra. As all tools offer keyword research, content performance tracker, and competitor analysis, we didn’t include these capabilities in the table.

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Vendors	Free version	Price	Tagging (meta, title, header)	Link building	URL optimization	Readability analysis	Duplicate content finder	Integration with other SEO tools
Semrush	Available	Starts from $119.95 monthly	Available	Available	Available	Available	Available	With Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google My Business
BrightEdge	N/A	Starts from $119.95 monthly	Available	Available	Available	N/A	Available	Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Google Search Console
Surfer	7 day free trial	Starts from $49 monthly	Available	N/A	N/A	Available	N/A	Google Docs and WordPress
Siteimprove	Available	Not announced	Available	N/A	Available	Available	Available	Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Adobe Analytics
seoClarity	Free demo	Starts from $750 monthly	Available	Available	Available	Available	Available	Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Adobe Analytics
Ryte	10 day free trial	Not announced	Available	N/A	Available	Available	Available	Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Data Studio
SEO PowerSuite	Available	Starts from $299 annually	Available	Available	Available	N/A	Available	Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google AdWords
MarketMuse	Available	Starts from $149 monthly	N/A	N/A	N/A	Available	N/A	Google Docs and WordPress
Conductor	Available	Not announced	Available	N/A	Available	N/A	Available	Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Google Search Console, and Salesforce

Begüm Yılmaz

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