You’ve completed your audience analysis – you know exactly who you’re targeting.

You’ve done your keyword research – you’ve mapped out your blog topics and what keywords to include in those posts.

You’ve completed your competitive research – you know which pages are ranking in the top three positions of Google, what information they cover within them and their word count.

You’ve outlined your blog post – you know what you want to say to your audience.

These few steps lead the way for reputable blog creators.

But sometimes, even the most effective blog writers fail to focus on sales data – where are these visitors in the sales funnel?

These visitors typically represent three levels:

• Newbies (at the top of the sales funnel) don’t know much about your product, services, industry or business.
• Intermediates (in the middle of the sales funnel) are educated but crave more knowledge.
• Experts (at the bottom of the sales funnel) are, well, experts and seek something new.

Before the writing begins, you need a blogging strategy that targets these different levels. A three-tier blogging strategy can help influence and persuade the basic levels of prospective customers within the sales funnel.

A tale of three buyers

Consider where your prospective customers are at in the sales cycle when formulating your blog strategy and creating content for each buyer’s persona tier. When creating content for your business, regardless if it’s product- or service-based, the blog strategy will do best initially by representing content rationed as follows:

• 50% created for newbies at the top of the sales funnel who need as much education as possible.
• 25% for intermediates who have some base knowledge but are seeking more.
• 25% for experts ready to buy but thirsty for an innovative look at your industry, products, or services.

Here’s a quick example of how this would work for a ghostwriting agency:

• 50% for those who know nothing or little about ghostwriting, including how it works. This content is built to get these readers into the business universe and influence them to learn more.
• 25% for those who have a deeper understanding of ghostwriting but search for new techniques and reputable help.
• 25% for those who have used ghostwriters in the past are looking for one with a particular edge over the competition.

Again the 50/25/25 is common. But if you have an exclusive product directed toward knowledgeable people, you may want to focus on intermediates and experts. You’ll learn more as you collect data and test.

This blogging strategy is not just for prospective customers. You can also use this information to continue influencing and building your reputation for existing clients – something that is especially effective for your intermediate- and export-focused blogs highlighted in newsletters sent to existing customers.

How to create a three-tier blogging strategy

To create this three-tier blogging strategy, begin with a deep analysis of your current traffic and sales demographics, which hopefully your company or client’s company has available.

Imagine someone who sells only high-performance parts for Ducati motorcycles, primarily for racers but used by Ducati enthusiasts. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll call it the Ducati Shop. The target audience consists of professional race teams with a higher budget and Ducati owners who like to splurge on their exclusive machines.

Regarding traffic demographics, Google Analytics provides much to get you started, such as age, gender, location, and acquisition metrics (e.g., which social network did visitors come from).

With this knowledge available, you can then tweak the focus of your blog strategy on your most frequent visitors.

In our Ducati Shop example, say 80% of the traffic was males in their 40s located in California, and most of them are arriving on your website through Facebook traffic.

That provides some baselines for topic ideas that will influence, which you can explore deeply. For example, the research would include motorcycle-specific events or locations in California that would attract a Ducati owner. And the place to find them? Facebook.

That would start some high-level thinking of topics, such as:

• Top Nine California events for Ducati owners in 2022
• Are you prepared for your next Laguna Seca Track Day? (Laguna Seca is a track in California)
• Follow these five Ducati Facebook groups if you live in California

Next would be some sales data. For example, what are the highest ROI services/products you sell? And what is the top-selling product, and how can you market it better?

You can then mention those products/services within your blogs with various anchor text pointing toward your main selling pages. This will naturally help your overall SEO strategy and influence the readers about what you’re marketing without making a direct selling statement.

Much more data will be available as you monitor your content, including what type of messaging/voice, length, or CTAs convert best within each piece of content. This is where it’s wise to set up goals in analytics to track your blogging strategy’s progress directly.

More data helps you better influence future blogging strategies and tweak older blogs based on this new knowledge. And a bonus exists with tweaking older content: search engines want to provide searchers with fresh, useful information. If it’s good for searchers, it’s good for your audience.

You can split your content into the 50/25/25 blend, which again may change based on your testing of ongoing content strategies.

Tier 1: Blog strategy tips for newbies

When writing for the newbies’ portion of your content, begin with a 50% share of your blogging strategy. Create a sharp focus here on creating pillar or skyscraper pieces that you can continuously use as a focus for internal and external links.

This content is for those just entering the sales funnel, which means you want to educate them and influence them to return to you for information. Most of these readers won’t be first-time buyers, but your influence as the authority on the subject will influence them – a reason why you must create much high-level content that talks to these beginners.

You want to chase rankings for long-tail keywords on the broader spectrum. Businesses with a sharp focus will have easier ranking due to the lack of search volume in the “broader” target keywords. Rather than “Ducati Parts,” which would be tough to rank for due to its 1,000 monthly search volume (according to Semrush data) and some established websites owning the top positions, including Ducati itself holding the top spot.

Instead, optimize the 50% of newbie blogs on longer-tail but still broad keywords such as  “Ducati parts online” (390), “Ducati scrambler aftermarket parts” (320), and “Ducati performance parts” (210).

This is also where an attractive title will help influence click-throughs, especially when these blogs are amplified through social media, newsletters and paid ads.

For these blogs targeting newbies, “how-to” titles work, and those that show a promise, such as increasing revenue by using a three-tier buyer’s persona blog strategy.

Tier 2: Blog strategy tips for intermediates

Next, focus 25% of your blogging strategy on creating content for the intermediate crowd in the sales funnel. These readers are educated but not experts and need that extra boost of influential content to either return to your website for more or become a client.

When creating these topics, you can dig deeper into your knowledge base as a content creator. Here’s where you can exploit the meaning behind a case study that relates to your business or take a deep look into your industry’s history or past successes.

Here the Ducati Shop would create content around a deep history of a particular motorcycle model, such as a 916 Superbike or a Monster. This blogging strategy would help provide reputable and quality content about these models and soft-sell the performance parts available for the models through both internal links and in-text CTAs.

Here you can get more granular on keywords, chasing even longer-tail keywords. The strategy would be to add extensions for each motorcycle model for the Ducati Shop, such as “Ducati Panigale parts online” or “Ducati Monster parts online,” etc.

It’s all about adding value to the reader’s intent. This 25% of readers know the subject matter and want deeper knowledge. Giving this audience what they want may influence them to return to your website or (even better) become a customer or client.

Tier 3: Blog strategy tips for experts

Here’s where you can focus on super long-tail keywords – only ones that typical experts within a field would know. These readers are ready to buy now. They are knowledgeable but are looking for the perfect product or partners, contingent on your business.

If the online Ducati shop sells complete racing parts that only expert mechanics or racers would understand, such as flashing an ECU for a V4 Panigale, offer content that explains the available benefits and options. Those low-volume keywords can drive thousands in sales with less effort than ranking a blog for newbies.

Here’s a wise place to expose your highest-priced items. If you’re an SEO agency with a $25,000 monthly enterprise campaign with proven case studies, use those case studies to find a super-focused audience searching for longer-tail, super low-volume keywords.

Summary

Understanding your audience demographics and sales data is the first step to driving the three-tier blogging strategy. Visualize these clients. Separate them by their education about your industry and products/services.

• Are they newbies who know nothing?
• Are they well educated but crave more knowledge to join your universe of frequent content?
• Or are they experts looking to buy now?

Experiment with creating a three-tier blogging strategy with a 50/25/25 blend of focuses. Influence at each of these stages in the sales funnel. Continually test to see where you’re most successful. The 50/25/25 blend is only a starting point; keep tweaking as your revenue grows.

The post How to create a three-tier blog strategy to increase revenue appeared first on Search Engine Land.

SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it thing, even if you or some of your clients wish it were. But all parties need to stay engaged in the project from start to finish for success.

That means communication is key. Having a plan for how you will communicate with your clients throughout the engagement is an important part of SEO project management.

Often when things go wrong, it’s not the work that’s the problem, it’s the client relationship. This is true not just of marketing projects. The Project Management Institute (PMI) reported that one out of five projects is unsuccessful due to ineffective communications.

In our experience working with clients, a good communications plan keeps projects on track. Plus, having frequent touchpoints can uplevel your brand and service and make for happier clients all around.

Here are eight communication touchpoints you can build into your client engagements.

1. Kickoff calls

I cannot stress enough the importance of having a productive kickoff call. Even though you may already know what to do — and even though you may have had many conversations leading up to the client signing on — you still need the kickoff call.

Here, everyone involved in the project (on your side and the client’s) gets up to speed on the scope of the work and what to expect. How often will you meet? What turnaround times will you need on deliverables and approvals? The kickoff meeting is your chance to lay out these procedural details.

Expectations are key to a successful project. The project team must understand the client’s expectations before starting their work and vice versa.

2. SEO training

Training your clients on SEO is a fantastic way to keep the lines of communication open as you discuss their projects’ details. How will they know what questions to ask if, for example, they have no idea what a meta tag is? Speaking the same language is very important, so make sure you have consistent training shared by all project members. The SMX Master Classes series can be a great step here.

If clients are already well-versed in SEO, your training is still key because it reinforces your approach to SEO — no two SEO vendors operate in the same way.

SEO training also helps familiarize clients with everything that goes into your SEO services. They’ll know, for example, that you’re not just waving some magic wand behind the scenes and *poof* rankings appear. Education builds value in the eyes of the client.

Conducting your training separately from your regular calls will allow you to keep the project work focused. Otherwise, you will spend more time explaining concepts during every touch-base call than you may have planned.

3. Status calls

Some people dread standing meetings, but they are essential for project management. And they don’t have to be pointless.

It is beneficial to have some structure and consistency for the project or it falls apart.

Make sure you have an agenda ready to go ahead of time for each meeting so that the client knows what to expect on the call.

And then take only as much time as you need. Make sure that everyone gets their concerns or questions answered, their next steps laid out, etc. After the call, you can send notes from the meeting, so it is documented, and everyone has a record.

4. One-off emails

Have you ever received an email from a service provider with a helpful note just because they thought it would be of value to you? Remember the impact that left? It’s these little touches that can go a long way in strengthening your client relationships.

Think about how you can touch base with your client outside your regularly scheduled meetings. Maybe something in the SEO industry happened that pertains to your client. Or maybe something in their industry happened that could impact their SEO.

Send a quick email to give them the details, why it matters and how it might impact them.

5. In-house resources

Any time you create a useful resource that your client might benefit from, send it to them. Think ebooks, webinars, videos — really, any content marketing asset.

Sure, you could send out an email blast to all your clients with a link to that ebook you did. But a more personal touch would be to send it to select clients that are struggling with the issue in the ebook along with a personal note.

6. Progress reporting 

A more official client-communications must-have is your SEO reports.

Make sure you have a schedule for when and how you will report progress. And make sure the client knows when to expect that. For example, it might look something like this:

• Often: Update the client on progress on agreed tasks between calls.
• Monthly: Generate a report that shows progress for the month. We usually run this in 4-week sprints.
• Quarterly: Create a report that shows quarterly wins and concerns and quarter-over-quarter progress.
• Project end: Create a summary with an overview of the project that includes wins, losses and next steps.
• Yearly: When you have long-term clients, show year-end progress and year-over-year success.

7. Client feedback

At some point during the engagement, give your SEO clients an opportunity to give feedback on how they feel the project is going, what’s working, what’s not working and how you can improve.

If it feels like you’ll only get honest feedback if it’s done anonymously, then send out a survey to your clients and make their answers anonymous. This is the format for an NPS score.

You might do this at regular intervals during the engagement (recommended), or you might wait until the end of the project. What you learn from this feedback can be built into your client engagements moving forward.

8. Your blog

Make sure your clients know about your blog! Better yet, ask if you can add them to the subscriber list when they first engage.

It’s not uncommon for clients to never visit your company blog and miss that amazing resource for them. Once they’ve subscribed, your blog updates serve as an easy touchpoint to help keep your brand top of mind.

So, make this a resource that you are sure your clients know about.

Use communications to uplevel your service

According to PMI, high performers create formal communications plans for nearly twice as many projects. In your SEO project management, take the time to review your communication plan to incorporate as many touchpoints as possible.

The post How to keep your SEO clients engaged: 8 communication touchpoints appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Was the meta description for this article written by Google? Or a human editor at Search Engine Land?

You can’t tell, can you? That’s how far machine learning has come. Read on the learn the “shocking” truth.

Auto-generating content summaries. Earlier this year, Google started automatically generating content summaries for Docs users. Google explains the technology behind how it works in this blog post if you want to dive into the natural language understanding (NLU) and natural language generation (NLG) of it all.

In short, based on the text of your document, Google will suggest a summary for you. You can choose to use the summary if it looks good to you, or you can edit the summary to be more to your liking.

This was interesting news because if there’s one thing I know from editing for 20+ years, it’s that people – even some great content writers – have a hard time condensing 1,000+ words into one or two short sentences or ideas that are optimized for search and act as a teaser to entice clicks (without giving away everything). 

Testing out Google Docs summaries. I was curious to see how good Google Docs is at generating summaries, so I looked at my five most recent articles. 

In short, Google Docs is surprisingly good at generating summaries. It’s by no means 100% perfect – but it’s at a level you’d expect from Google. I’m sure you already have seen Google’s intelligence at work in Gmail, offering responses to an email or suggesting how you should finish a sentence as you’re writing it.

Here are the summaries Google Docs suggested for my articles:

Facebook warns publishers to avoid ‘watchbait’ tactics

Human: These tactics will result in fewer recommendations, less views and limited ranking. Learn how to avoid what Facebook considers watchbait.

Google: This article is about how to avoid watchbait in your videos. It’s important to know what Facebook considers watchbait and what you should do to avoid it.

Google’s is slightly long – and I’m not personally a fan of starting any meta description with “this article”. But this is pretty accurate. Swap “Learn” for “This article is about” and you’ve got a serviceable meta description. Thanks, Google.

TikTok testing search ads

Human: Many brands already know TikTok drives sales. TikTok search ads could help attract qualified traffic (and get valuable keyword data).

Google: This is a big deal. TikTok is testing search ads, and it’s a big opportunity for brands to attract qualified traffic.

This is probably the strongest summary of the bunch – the most “human” sounding. Also, it’s interesting that Google somehow determined this was a “big deal” because the words “big deal” never appear within the text. 

Twitter adds keyword search to Direct Messages

Human: Good news for brands and businesses who use Twitter for customer service: you can now find DMs by searching for keywords.

Google: This is a long time coming. Twitter has been working on a DM search feature for some time, and now you can search your inbox by keywords.

Google’s summary is not the best ever. It’s long and feels a bit repetitive (e.g., using the word “time” twice). But at least it’s not wrong. 

PPC salaries: How much in-house and agency search marketers make in 2022

Human: This data will help give you some bargaining power, whether you’re negotiating salary for a new role or seeking a raise from your employer.

Google: This survey looked at the median salaries for PPC specialists in the U.S. and the U.K. It was based on responses from 715 respondents.

This was easily the worst summary by Google. It’s boring. But more troubling: it’s inaccurate. 

The survey itself didn’t look at only the median salaries. That’s just what I wrote about. Also, my article didn’t mention the UK, so I have no idea where it pulled that from. The survey actually was global. 

So this one is a failure on Google’s part. The median salary issue is a “bigger context” issue that’s understandable – it can only output a summary based on what the author (me) has input. But the input/output theory wouldn’t explain the UK mention. That is just an oddball. 

Meta rebrands automated ad products, shopping campaigns coming soon

Human: Meta is consolidating its products into the Meta Advantage suite, which allows advertisers to automate part of a – or an entire – campaign.

Google: This is just a simple rebrand and making clear which of its products are automated. However, the company is also coming out with a shopping campaign later this year.

Again, not awesome, not terrible, and fairly accurate. With a few tweaks, you’d have a decent meta description. 

Why we care. I use Google Docs all the time to write content. But never have I considered it a tool for SEO. Until now. If you struggle to write compelling meta descriptions (or excerpts or summaries) for your website content, simply hit the + button next to Summary in Google Docs. Those auto-generated summaries aren’t perfect, but it is generally a great “rough draft” that can help you write a compelling meta description. 

And even if you don’t use the summary Google generates (e.g., because it’s inaccurate, long, or has some other issue), that may be a big hint that you need to give your content another, deeper review. (You may also consider asking a friend, your editor, or someone else to review it.) Does it actually say what you meant or want it to? Because if Google (Docs) can’t understand it, it’s quite possible that when it publishes, neither will Google (search). 

Wait! Who wrote the meta description for this article? I did. Google’s was just too long: 

“This is a big deal. Earlier this year, Google started automatically generating content summaries for Google Docs users. The idea is to help content writers write compelling meta descriptions for their website content.”

But good to know that Google Docs thinks that this technology is also a big deal. 

Summary, take two. The above summary generated by Google was on my rough draft version. After making my final edits, I deleted the summary from Google Docs, curious to see if it would generate a new summary, based on my revisions. It did:

“This is a pretty interesting technology that’s making its way into Google Docs. Google Docs automatically generates content summaries for you. I tested it out with five articles I’ve recently written and it was surprisingly good.”

First problem: too long. Second problem: the technology is already in Google Docs. If we delete the first sentence, it’s good. 

And that seems to be the overall pattern for these auto-generated Google Docs summaries: good, but not great. 

So, yes, Google Docs can help you write your meta descriptions, but more as a first attempt. Don’t expect Google Docs to generate a great meta description for you (you may have as much luck with a million monkeys banging on keyboards – eventually one of them is bound to produce a meta description worthy of Shakespeare). For now, anyway, human review, analysis, intuition and creativity are still essential job requirements.

The post Google Docs can write your meta descriptions appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google Search has reduced the irrelevant results shown in Google Search by over 50% in the last seven years, the search company announced. With that, Google also dropped another nugget of information saying they have seen a more than 60% increase in natural language queries.

Irrelevant results. Google is constantly making changes to Google Search. In 2021, Google said it made more than 5,000 improvements to search and ran more than 800,000 experiments. For comparison, in 2020 Google revealed it made 4,887 changes to search.

Google’s changes and experiments are all aimed at improving search quality and relevancy. Google said that the 50% decrease in irrelevant search results over the past seven years is measured based on internal metrics based on quality rater data. There is no independent source for this metric, but these are internal metrics Google uses to measure the relevancy of its own search results.

Natural language queries. The other metric, that there is over a 60% increase in people entering queries into the Google search box using natural language is interesting. Google said that they have “seen people’s search queries evolve, too.” “Since 2015, we’ve seen a more than 60% increase in natural language queries in search,” Google wrote.

So if you write your content, like people normally write and speak, then you should do well in Google Search. Google wrote “this means people can find what they need more easily, and using language that’s closer to the way we normally write and speak.”

Why we care. One thing we can expect from Google is constant change. This change is not for the sake of change itself but rather for improving search quality and relevancy. That means the bar for ranking your site high in Google Search continues to be raised.

SEO and search have evolved over the past 25 years, shortcuts are hard to come by these days. Working hard on quality, writing like humans are reading that content and providing the best user experience and content is something that should not be laughed at in 2022.

The post Google claims it reduced irrelevant search results by over 50% in seven years appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google has begun the rollout of the third version of the products reviews update, a search ranking algorithm update targeted at ranking product review related content on the web that is most helpful and useful to searchers. The first product reviews update was launched on April 8, 2021, the second was launched on December 1, 2021 and now the third has been released on March 23, 2022. The new is named the March 2022 product reviews update.

Google product reviews update. The Google product reviews update aims to promote review content that is above and beyond much of the templated information you see on the web. Google said it will promote these types of product reviews in its search results rankings.

Google is not directly punishing lower quality product reviews that have “thin content that simply summarizes a bunch of products.” However, if you provide such content and find your rankings demoted because other content is promoted above yours, it will definitely feel like a penalty. Technically, according to Google, this is not a penalty against your content, Google is just rewarding sites with more insightful review content with rankings above yours.

Technically, this update should only impact product review content and not other types of content.

What has changed. With the third release of the product reviews update, Google said this update “builds on” the work of the first two product review updates to enhance Google’s “ability to identify high quality product reviews.” “This will make it easier for us to get sound purchasing advice in front of users, and to reward creators who are earnest in being helpful,” Alan Kent of Google added.

Google listed the following criteria for what matters with the product reviews update:

• Include helpful in-depth details, like the benefits or drawbacks of a certain item, specifics on how a product performs or how the product differs from previous versions
• Come from people who have actually used the products, and show what the product is physically like or how it’s used
• Include unique information beyond what the manufacturer provides — like visuals, audio or links to other content detailing the reviewer’s experience
• Cover comparable products, or explain what sets a product apart from its competitors

The rollout. This rollout will happen over the “next few weeks,” Google said. These, and core updates, normally take a few weeks to rollout, so that should be no surprise. You should expect the bulk of the ranking volatility to happen in the earlier stages of this rollout.

What is impacted. Google said this update may impact those who “create product reviews in any language.” Google said the initial rollout will be “English-language product reviews” but they have seen “positive effects” from this update in the past and the search company “plans to open up product review support for more languages” in the future.

Initially, Google said this update is looking at “English-language product reviews across many sites.”

Please note that these updates can be very big, almost as big as core updates.

Previous advice on the product reviews update. The “focus overall is on providing users with content that provides insightful analysis and original research, content written by experts or enthusiasts who know the topic well,” Google said about this update. That is similar advice to the core update recommendations mentioned above, but here is a list of “additional useful questions to consider in terms of product reviews.” Google recommends your product reviews cover these areas and answer these questions. Do your product reviews…

• Express expert knowledge about products where appropriate?
• Show what the product is like physically, or how it is used, with unique content beyond what’s provided by the manufacturer?
• Provide quantitative measurements about how a product measures up in various categories of performance?
• Explain what sets a product apart from its competitors?
• Cover comparable products to consider, or explain which products might be best for certain uses or circumstances?
• Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a particular product, based on research into it?
• Describe how a product has evolved from previous models or releases to provide improvements, address issues, or otherwise help users in making a purchase decision?
• Identify key decision-making factors for the product’s category and how the product performs in those areas? For example, a car review might determine that fuel economy, safety, and handling are key decision-making factors and rate performance in those areas.
• Describe key choices in how a product has been designed and their effect on the users beyond what the manufacturer says?
• Provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience with the product, to support your expertise and reinforce the authenticity of your review.
• Include links to multiple sellers to give the reader the option to purchase from their merchant of choice.

Google also linked to its blog post from earlier this year named providing better product information for shoppers.

New advice. Google added three new points of new advice for this third-release of the products reviews update:

• Are product review updates relevant to ranked lists and comparison reviews? Yes. Product review updates apply to all forms of review content. The best practices we’ve shared also apply. However, due to the shorter nature of ranked lists, you may want to demonstrate expertise and reinforce authenticity in a more concise way. Citing pertinent results and including original images from tests you performed with the product can be good ways to do this.
• Are there any recommendations for reviews recommending “best” products? If you recommend a product as the best overall or the best for a certain purpose, be sure to share with the reader why you consider that product the best. What sets the product apart from others in the market? Why is the product particularly suited for its recommended purpose? Be sure to include supporting first-hand evidence.
• If I create a review that covers multiple products, should I still create reviews for the products individually? It can be effective to write a high quality ranked list of related products in combination with in-depth single-product reviews for each recommended product.  If you write both, make sure there is enough useful content in the ranked list for it to stand on its own.

Not a core update. Google also previous said that product reviews updates are not the same as core updates. This is a standalone update they’re calling the product reviews update. This is separate from Google’s regular core updates, the company told us. Nonetheless, Google did add that the advice it originally provided for core updates, “about producing quality content for those is also relevant here.” In addition to that advice, Google provided additional guidance specific to this update.

Why we care. If your website offers product review content, you will want to check your rankings to see if you were impacted. Did your Google organic traffic improve, decline or stay the same?

Long term, you are going to want to ensure that going forward, that you put a lot more detail and effort into your product review content so that it is unique and stands out from the competition on the web.

Also, those impacted by previous core updates, that put in the work, may be rewarded by this March 2022 product reviews update.

The post Google releases March 2022 product reviews update with additional ranking criteria appeared first on Search Engine Land.

With the wide variety of clients out there, you’re bound to run into the occasional DIY marketer. These marketers prefer that you teach them how to be self-sufficient rather than rely on you for every little question.

These clients can be a blessing but can also be dangerous. The challenging aspect of client management is finding the balance between empowering them to get the data they want without feeling like they don’t need you.

That’s where Google Data Studio tools come into play.

Data Studio is typically used for general reporting. The real beauty of Data Studio is that it can be used for so much more. 

By creating tools for clients, you enable them to do the actual research it takes to accomplish SEO while still providing that much-needed maintenance and guidance that comes with experience. 

This article illustrates free dashboard templates you can use with your clients. 

How to change the branding

Before we dive into the specifics, you may want to update the branding and logo of your dashboard. This process could not be easier.

Right-click on your logo, and you will see a menu appear. Near the bottom, select “Extract theme from image.” You will then be presented with three different color scheme options. Select whichever one you feel best represents your brand.

This will automatically change most of the colors and get you most of the way to the finish line of designing in your Data Studio tool. However, there may still be a few charts or texts you’ll need to update.

1. Technical SEO auditing

Tracking technical SEO efforts can be difficult to visualize. Sure, you can track it in a spreadsheet, but that isn’t client-friendly. 

For years, SEOs have attempted to make dashboard trackers to help show improvements in site health over time. 

Luckily, our friends at Screaming Frog have finally cracked the case of the perfect technical SEO dashboard. The best part? The template is free. You can see it here.

How to copy the dashboard

To copy the dashboard:

1. Click on the three dots in the top right
2. Select make a copy
3. Select your data source (don’t worry, you can update later)

How to set up the technical SEO tracker tool

Screaming Frog has published a helpful guide on setting up this Data Studio tool. What they will walk you through includes:

• Setting up a scheduled crawl
• Configuring the export to a Google Sheet
• Connecting that Google Sheet to the Data Studio dashboard

You can find the full tutorial here.

2. Keyword research

The presentation of keyword research takes many forms. Most recognizable is the simple spreadsheet. Some people create keyword maps for each page or topic, while others with smaller clients have a short list of keywords.

However, Data Studio can be a powerful analysis tool for larger sites with tens of thousands or millions of keywords.

If you are working with millions of keywords, do not use Google Sheets like this example. I recommend using BigQuery to handle your keywords.

Here’s the link to the dashboard.

Step One: Setting up your source data

The first step involves importing your keyword research into a Google Sheet. To use the free template I created, you will need to include the following dimensions and metrics in your Google Sheet:

• Keyword
• Position
• Previous position
• Search Volume
• Keyword Difficulty
• CPC
• URL
• Keyword Intents

Here’s the original data source for the dashboard that you can use as an example. All data is from Semrush.

Step Two: Copy the dashboard

As we learned in the previous dashboard, you’ll want to make a copy of this dashboard and connect your data source, whether it be Google Sheets or BigQuery.

Important features of this Data Studio tool

This tool has many unique features that can be used to help drive your on-page SEO strategy. Depending on your strategy, these features can be customized to display different types of data and categories.

Boolean Buttons

The three buttons in this tool are based on custom boolean formulas, meaning they work on true/false statements. Let’s take a look at one of them.

We’re creating a function only to display long-tail queries that start with a question word in the formula above. This formula relies on regex, with two very important symbols:

• The circumflex (^) is a regex function that essentially means, “if the keyword starts with this.” 
• The pipe (|) symbol is another regex function that means “or.”

Using this formula, you can create any number of different kinds of checkboxes. I added a few keywords separated by pipes (|) to help display keywords in those categories for the SEO and PPC checkboxes.

Custom search box

The custom search box is a pretty simple but powerful feature of this tool. Not only can it quickly help you narrow down your search to identify keyword opportunities, but it can also use the power of regex to customize your search.

Intent dropdown

The keyword intent dropdown can help you filter by the intent of each keyword within the search funnel. Pretty simple, right?

Well, this filter can be easily swapped out by any dimension in Data Studio. So if you want to swap it out for other keyword categories, this can be the perfect filter for you. 

Funnel

This funnel helps visualize the true search funnel by intent. When applying other filters in this tool, the funnel and metrics above automatically update with the intents.

3. Link building tracking tool

Link building is one of the tensest topics SEOs like to avoid with clients. Links are challenging to earn and often the hardest thing to control. 

The best way to earn trust with clients and stakeholders is through transparency. Instead of dodging the data around link building, hand over the keys and let them explore the data for themselves.

This is one of the more straightforward Data Studio tools we can create. You can pair any number of dimensions and metrics to help illustrate your point. 

Here is a link to the free template.

The supporting Google Sheet I’m using is a simple backlinks analytics report from SEMrush. However, you can use your own link-building tracker to feed the report. Just make sure you add the acquisition date for the date range.

You can view the Google Sheet that’s feeding the tool here.

Conclusion

Data Studio is one of the fastest reporting tools to stand up while still having some seriously robust features. The fact that it’s also free makes it an easy platform of choice.

But that begs the question, why go through all that trouble for clients and other stakeholders?

These tools help create a better sense of transparency, which can help improve trust. Thus, creating a better partnership between you and your stakeholders. 

One of the most challenging parts of SEO isn’t the work itself but the communication of value. So from now on, think of new creative ways to demonstrate value to your clients, even if it’s just making a simple tool in Data Studio.

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