Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) is a free, online tool that allows users to transform their data into informative, visual, and easy-to-read reports and dashboards. This helps marketers…
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Whenever you move content, change domain names, or simply tweak a page’s URL, you’ll likely use a redirect. This ensures your users (and Google) get to the right page, and it preserves the SEO value from your backlinks.
You can use .htaccess redirects specifically to do this.
But I get that messing with your site’s server files can sound daunting.
So the goal of this guide is to make .htaccess redirects as accessible as possible.
To help, there are two free resources you’ll find in this post:
- A simple spreadsheet to automatically generate rules for the most common scenarios
- An .htaccess redirect cheat sheet that explains all symbols and flags used in redirect rules
I’ll explain when to use these below. But if you want, you can download them now and follow along with the resources.
Here’s the plan:
Sound good? Let’s go.
Before you can create redirects, you need to access your .htaccess file. This file lives on your server and controls various aspects of how your website behaves.
It looks something like this (for a WordPress site in particular):
Note: You’ll only have an .htaccess file if your website runs on an Apache web server. If you’re not sure if your site does, get in touch with your developer.
There are two main ways to access and edit your .htaccess file:
I’d personally recommend the first option if you’re an absolute beginner. Or if you just want to keep the technical stuff to a minimum.
That’s not to say that using an FTP client is difficult (or that every hosting platform is a piece of cake to navigate). But generally, your file manager is going to be a bit more intuitive.
Important: Regardless of which method you use, always make a backup of your .htaccess file before editing it. One small mistake can bring your entire site down.
Most major hosting providers offer a file manager in their control panel that lets you edit files directly.
The general workflow looks something like this, although some of the specifics might vary between hosts:
Note: Your .htaccess file might be hidden by default. If you don’t see it, look for an option to “Show Hidden Files” in your file manager settings.
Once you find it, you can usually right-click and select “Edit” to make changes.
As an example, here’s how the interface looks in the cPanel platform. First, I navigate to my domain’s website dashboard and find the file manager:
And in there I can see public_html:
I then click my .htaccess file:
Simple.
You can also use an FTP client like FileZilla, Cyberduck, or WinSCP. These give you similar access, but you can do it directly rather than through your hosting provider.
To get started, download and install an FTP client. We’ll go with Cyberduck for the example below.
Then connect to your server using your FTP credentials (your host can provide these — mine were under Files > FTP Accounts):
Then, within the FTP client, navigate to your site’s root directory.
It’s probably named public_html, which may open automatically. Then, find and download your .htaccess file:
Note: I had to go to View > Show hidden files to see mine. No matter which FTP client you’re using, there’s a good chance you’ll need to do the same.
Make your changes in a text editor, and then upload the modified file back to the server. You might be able to skip the download/upload step and make edits directly, depending on the tool you use:
If you’re running a WordPress site, you usually don’t need to edit your .htaccess file to set up redirects.
Instead, you can use dedicated redirect plugins like Redirection or 301 Redirects.
These plugins are perfect if you’re not comfortable editing server files or if you just need to set up a couple of redirects quickly. But they won’t help you much for more complex redirections or when you’re performing a full site migration.
Other SEO plugins, like Rank Math, offer redirect managers alongside options to edit your .htaccess file within the WordPress dashboard:
Adding redirects directly to your .htaccess file (or indirectly via a plugin like Rank Math) often results in faster performance since it cuts out the middleman (the plugin). And once you know how to do it, it’s not all that technical anyway.
(It won’t always be the best option from a performance perspective. But generally it’s going to be faster.)
Other platforms like Shopify and Wix don’t give you direct access to .htaccess files. In these cases, you’ll need to use the platform’s built-in redirect tools instead.
The same may be true for WordPress site owners if your site runs on WordPress.com, rather than external hosting with a WordPress.org installation.
Further reading: WordPress Redirects Made Easy: Plugin & Code Methods
Before you start making changes to your .htaccess file, bear the following in mind:
Now that you know how to actually get into and edit your .htaccess file, let’s look at how to create different types of redirects.
Free resource: Make your life even easier with our handy .htaccess redirect cheat sheet. Just add your domain or URLs to automatically generate rules you can copy and paste into your .htaccess file.
Redirecting a single URL to another is probably the most common redirect you’ll create. It’s perfect for when you’ve:
This type of redirect is straightforward and requires just one line of code in your .htaccess file.
Note: As with all the redirects I’ll discuss below, you need to make sure the new page is a live URL. Otherwise, the user or search engine will run into a 404 error as it’s a broken link. While a powerful file, .htaccess doesn’t automatically create the new pages for you.
Here’s the code you’ll need to add to your .htaccess file (swapping out the URL path and domain for your own):
Redirect 301 /old-page https://yoursite.com/new-page
Let’s break down what this means:
Important: For the first part (old page), you only need the path without your domain name. For the second part (new page), you need the complete URL, including https:// and your domain.
Let’s say you have a page about dog training at:
https://yourpetsite.com/5-great-tips-for-training-dogs/
And you’ve moved it to:
https://yourpetsite.com/dog-training-tips/
Your redirect code would look like this:
Redirect 301 /5-great-tips-for-training-dogs/ https://yourpetsite.com/dog-training-tips/
Note: No matter which type of .htaccess redirect you use, make sure you stay consistent with regard to your site’s URL structure. Specifically, if you include a trailing slash at the end of your URLs (e.g., /page-1/), make sure you include that in your redirect rules.
The 301 in our example above indicates a permanent redirect. This tells search engines to update their index with the new URL and transfer the SEO value from the old page to the new one.
If you’re only redirecting temporarily (like for maintenance or a seasonal promotion), use 302 instead:
Redirect 302 /sale https://yoursite.com/spring-sale
If you’re trying to preserve SEO rankings (and your website’s authority), always use 301 redirects for permanent URL changes. Search engines treat 301s as permanent and 302s as temporary, which affects how they transfer link equity.
Sometimes you need to redirect an entire section of your website rather than just a single page. This is common when you are:
Redirecting a subfolder automatically handles all pages within that folder. So you don’t need to set up individual redirect rules for each one.
Here’s the code to add to your .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^old-folder/(.*)$ /new-folder/$1 [R=301,L]
Let’s break down the key parts:
You don’t need to know what this means. But it’s an important line to include for some .htaccess redirect rules. You only need to include it once (unless you also have “RewriteEngine Off” in your file before a given rule).
Let’s say you have a blog at:
https://yoursite.com/blog/post-name
And you want to move it to:
https://yoursite.com/articles/post-name
Your redirect code would look like this:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /articles/$1 [R=301,L ]
This will redirect:
The order of your .htaccess rules matters. This isn’t going to be an issue if you’re just redirecting a single URL.
But if you want to redirect some parts of a subfolder to one place and others elsewhere, you need to be careful.
Let’s look at an example to make this clearer:
Imagine you have a blog subfolder with a special /featured/ section. You want to redirect your /blog/ content to an /articles/ subfolder, but the featured posts should go to /featured-content/.
Here’s the WRONG order:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /articles/$1 [R=301,L] RewriteRule ^blog/featured/(.*)$ /featured-content/$1 [R=301,L]
Why is this incorrect?
Because any time a user (or Google) requests a URL on your site (say, your site.com/blog/featured/your-post/), Apache first checks if it matches the /blog/ structure.
In this case, it does. So it would redirect:
yoursite.com/blog/featured/your-post/
To:
yoursite.com/articles/your-post/
The URL no longer matches the /blog/featured/ structure, so the second rule would never apply to it. Meaning all your featured posts would just redirect to the new /articles/ subfolder.
Here’s the correct order:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^blog/featured/(.*)$ /featured-content/$1 [R=301,L] RewriteRule ^blog/(.*)$ /articles/$1 [R=301,L]
This first checks for the /blog/featured/ structure and redirects it to the new /featured-content/. So your post at:
yoursite.com/blog/featured/your-post/
Would redirect to:
yoursite.com/featured-content/your-post/
And then in this case it no longer matches the /blog/ structure, so the second rule wouldn’t apply. Which is what we want.
For any non-featured blog URLs, like yoursite.com/blog/post-2/, they’d redirect per the second rule to yoursite.com/articles/post-2/ (because the first rule wouldn’t apply to them without the /featured/ part of the URL).
Before I show you how to redirect your entire site to a new domain, it’s worth noting that you can also redirect a subfolder to a completely different domain. This is useful if you’ve moved a section of your site to a new website.
Here’s the rule to use:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^old-folder/(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/folder/$1 [R=301,L]
For example, you could use this if you moved your support section to a dedicated support site:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^support/(.*)$ https://support.yourcompany.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Moving to a new domain is a big step. Whether you’re rebranding, switching from a .org to a .com domain, or consolidating multiple websites, you need to make sure your visitors (and search engines) can find your new site.
A domain-wide redirect ensures anyone visiting your old domain automatically lands on your new one. This preserves both the user experience and authority you’ve built up through backlinks.
Here’s the code to add to your .htaccess file on your old domain:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?olddomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]
Let’s break down what this does:
Remember: If you already have RewriteEngine On elsewhere in your .htaccess file (and you don’t also have RewriteEngine Off), you don’t need to add it again.
Let’s say you’re changing from:
https://pettraining.com/dog-care/grooming
To:
https://pawacademy.com/dog-care/grooming
The redirect will automatically maintain the same path structure. This means visitors to any page on your old domain will land on the corresponding page on your new domain. (You’ll obviously need to have corresponding URLs on the new domain.)
Important: You need to place this .htaccess rule on your old domain’s server, not the new one.
Domain migrations require careful planning. But when you do it properly, they can transfer most of your SEO value and ensure your audience can find your new online home. For more on how to do it right, check out our website migration checklist.
If you’re also changing from www to non-www (or vice versa) during your domain migration, you can combine these redirects:
RewriteEngine On
# First redirect old domain to new domain
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?olddomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]
# Then handle www to non-www on new domain
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.newdomain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]
Redirecting from HTTP to HTTPS isn’t just a good practice — it’s practically mandatory. HTTPS encrypts the connection between your visitors and your website. This protects sensitive information, while also being a light Google ranking factor.
(I’m not suggesting you redirect to HTTPS for a ranking boost. It really is just the default best practice nowadays more than anything else.)
If you’ve installed an SSL certificate but visitors can still access your site through unencrypted HTTP, you’ll want to set up a redirect to ensure everyone gets the secure version.
Here’s the code to add to your .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
This is what each part does:
This redirect will change:
http://yourwebsite.com/products/item
To:
https://yourwebsite.com/products/item
The redirect preserves the entire URL structure — only the protocol changes from HTTP to HTTPS.
Unlike other redirects, you don’t need to customize this code with your domain name. The %{HTTP_HOST} variable automatically uses whatever domain the visitor is trying to access.
In other words: you can just copy and paste this in as is.
BUT:
Before adding this redirect, make sure:
And most importantly: make sure you don’t already have a method in place to force HTTPS, as this can cause redirect loops and other potential performance issues.
While .htaccess is one way to implement HTTPS redirects, you may have other options (perhaps ones that are already doing this for you):
Should your website be www.yoursite.com or just yoursite.com? This seemingly small detail actually matters a lot for consistency, user experience, and SEO.
Having both versions accessible can create duplicate content issues. So you should pick one format and redirect the other to it.
In most cases, there’s no definitive technical advantage to either format.
But non-WWW is shorter, cleaner, and easier to say in conversation.
Most modern websites lean toward the non-www version, but either choice is fine as long as you’re consistent.
Let’s look at how to redirect the www version to the non-www version (then I’ll show you how to reverse this if you prefer www).
Here’s the code to add to your .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%1/$1 [L,R=301]
Breaking this down:
This redirect will change:
https://www.yourbusiness.com/about-us
To:
https://yourbusiness.com/about-us
If you prefer the www version instead, simply reverse the logic (you need an extra RewriteCond line as well):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.%1/$1 [L,R=301]
This checks if the URL does NOT start with www and then adds it.
This is another rule you can simply copy and paste into your .htaccess file. But as with HTTP redirects, you need to make sure you’re not already redirecting via another method. Otherwise you might run into redirect loops and other issues.
Outside of your .htaccess file, you can force www/non-www via:
Make sure to test all versions of your domain to ensure they all lead to your preferred version:
All four should ultimately end up at the same place (ideally https://yoursite.com if you’re going with non-www, or https://www.yoursite.com if you prefer www).
While the above covers the most common .htaccess redirect scenarios, the file is incredibly versatile and can handle many other specialized redirect situations.
Let’s explore some other redirect types that might come in handy for specific use cases.
Note: As with any .htaccess rules, it’s easy to make small mistakes here that can have big consequences, and you may need to modify the examples below to work with your specific situation. So consult your developer if possible.
Sometimes you need to redirect based on what appears after the question mark in a URL. These are URL parameters, and they’re useful for tracking and organizing site content.
Here’s an example .htaccess redirect rule for managing URL parameters (also known as query strings):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^product=widget$
RewriteRule ^products.php$ /widgets/? [L,R=301]
This redirects /products.php?product=widget to /widgets/ while removing the query string.
The question mark at the end of the destination URL tells the server to strip the original query parameters rather than passing them along.
If you need to redirect to a different port (like for a development environment), use this rule:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^dev/(.*)$ http://localhost:8080/$1 [L,R=301]
This would redirect requests for /dev/page to http://localhost:8080/page.
You can set up custom pages for various HTTP error codes.
For example, you can send users and search engines to dedicated error pages:
ErrorDocument 404 /custom-404 ErrorDocument 500 /server-error
While these aren’t technically redirects (they’re error handlers), they help provide a better user experience when things go wrong.
We’ve mostly covered 301 (permanent) redirects, but 302 (temporary) redirects are useful for:
To create a temporary redirect, simply change the 301 to 302:
Redirect 302 /sale /summer-sale
When using temporary redirects for maintenance, you can create a rule that excludes your IP address so you can still access the original page:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^123.456.789.0
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /maintenance [R=302,L]
Where 123.456.789.0 is your IP address.
You can also redirect requests for specific file types, like PDFs:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^(.*).pdf$ /documents/$1.pdf [L,R=301]
This moves all PDF files to a /documents/ folder.
For consistency, you might want all URLs to either have or not have a trailing slash:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.*[^])$ /$1/ [L,R=301]
This adds a trailing slash to all URLs that don’t represent actual files.
The symbols in .htaccess redirects can look cryptic at first glance. Those carets, dollar signs, and brackets serve important purposes that aren’t immediately obvious.
Rather than trying to learn what they all do, below is a handy reference you can return to whenever you need to create or modify your redirects.
Free resource: Download this cheat sheet here.
| Symbol | Name | What It Does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ^ | Caret | Matches the beginning of a string | ^blog matches URLs that start with “blog” |
| $ | Dollar sign | Matches the end of a string | .html$ matches URLs that end with “.html” |
| () | Parentheses | Groups patterns and captures matched content | (.*?) captures content to be used later |
| $1, $2… | Dollar sign with number | References captured groups in RewriteRule | /$1.html inserts the first captured group |
| %1, %2… | Percent with number | References captured groups in RewriteCond | https://%1 uses the domain captured in a condition |
| . | Period | Matches any single character | a.c matches “abc”, “adc”, etc. |
| * | Asterisk | Matches zero or more of the preceding character | a* matches “”, “a”, “aa”, “aaa”, etc. |
| + | Plus | Matches one or more of the preceding character | a+ matches “a”, “aa”, “aaa”, etc. (but not “”) |
| ? | Question mark | Makes the preceding character optional | colou?r matches both “color” and “colour” |
| [ | Square brackets | Contains flags or defines a character set | [L,R=301] sets flags; [a-z] matches lowercase letters |
| Backslash | Escapes special characters | . matches a literal period rather than any character | |
| | | Pipe | Acts as OR operator | cat|dog matches “cat” or “dog” |
| Flag | Full Name | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| L | Last | Stops processing rules if this one matches |
| R=301 | Redirect (301) | Creates a permanent redirect |
| R=302 | Redirect (302) | Creates a temporary redirect |
| NC | No Case | Makes the match case-insensitive |
| QSA | Query String Append | Adds query parameters from the original URL |
| F | Forbidden | Returns a 403 Forbidden status |
| G | Gone | Returns a 410 Gone status (resource permanently removed) |
| PT | Pass Through | Passes the request to other modules for further processing |
| Variable | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| %{HTTP_HOST} | Domain name from the request (e.g., example.com) |
| %{REQUEST_URI} | The path part of the URL (e.g., /folder/page/) |
| %{QUERY_STRING} | Everything after the ? in a URL |
| %{REQUEST_FILENAME} | The full path to the requested file |
| %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} | Information about the visitor’s browser |
| %{HTTPS} | “on” if the connection is secure, “off” otherwise |
| %{REMOTE_ADDR} | The visitor’s IP address |
Here are a few examples of the kinds of rules you can set up once you get the hang of all the symbols, flags, and variables:
Pro tip: When creating complex patterns, build them incrementally and test each step. It’s easier to debug a simple pattern than a complex one.
You’ve done the hard work, so let’s now find out how to make sure you’ve set it all up correctly.
Below are a few ways to check your redirects. The best one depends on the nature of your redirects and how many you’ve set up.
The simplest way to test your redirects is to manually check them in your browser.
Just enter the old URL you’ve redirected and watch the address bar to see if it changes to the new URL.
For a more detailed view of what’s happening, use your browser’s developer tools:
In the example below, you can see it has redirected from the URL /position to /positioning:
Several free tools can test your redirects and provide more technical details. One example is HTTP Status Code Checker.
These tools show you the entire redirect path, status codes, and how long each redirect takes to process:
If you’ve set up many redirects (like a subfolder or domain-wide redirect), testing every URL manually isn’t practical.
The HTTP Status Code Checker tool does let you test multiple URLs…
But this won’t be suitable for entire site redirects or when you have hundreds (or thousands) of redirects set up.
You could use a crawling tool and compare the crawl results to your sitemap, but that’s still going to be quite tedious.
Instead, consider using a tool like Semrush’s Site Audit.
Just pop your domain in, let the audit run, and then go to the “Issues” tab. Type in “redirect” to flag relevant issues.
In particular, look out for:
Note: You can audit your site for free for up to 100 URLs. But for crawling more than that, try a Pro plan for free for 14 days with this link.
The post How to Create .htaccess Redirects (Most Common Use Cases) appeared first on Backlinko.
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Back in the early 2000s, keyword stuffing actually worked.
All you had to do was repeat the same phrases, and you could rank pretty well.
(Readability be damned.)
I’m not exaggerating here — these sites were literally littered with keywords.
Like this one from 2005.
Yes, this is a real site I found on The Wayback Machine.
And yes, “online casinos” was used enough times to make your eyes burn.
But that game is over.
Today, keyword stuffing makes your content unreadable and unrankable.
Google’s smarter. Users are pickier. And spammy tactics? They get flagged fast.
So, if you’re still stuffing keywords, you’re not just stuck in the past — you’re tanking your chances of ranking.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
Let’s start by examining how this tactic works and its rise to popularity.
Keyword stuffing is the practice of overloading your content with target keywords in an unnatural way to manipulate search rankings.
It’s considered a black hat SEO tactic, meaning it goes against Google’s guidelines and puts your site at risk.
So, what does it look like?
Here’s a keyword stuffing example straight from Google:
No one talks like that.
And no one wants to read it, either.
You might think that SEO keyword stuffing only happens in blog content or sales copy.
But it shows up in other places, too:
Wherever it appears, the result is the same: stiff, awkward content that adds no value for the reader.
Google also considers the following to be keyword stuffing:
Like this:
“We serve New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Hoboken, Jersey City…”
Then, there’s invisible keyword stuffing — which is exactly what it sounds like.
You don’t see it, but search engines do.
Some common examples:
So, how did keyword stuffing become so widespread in the first place?
Let’s take a quick look back.
Back when E-E-A-T was just a gleam in Google’s eye, keyword stuffing reigned supreme.
Why?
Because early search engine algorithms relied heavily on keyword density to determine relevance.
The more times a keyword appeared on a page, the more relevant that page seemed to search engines.
For example, here’s another site I found on the Wayback Machine — this one from 2002.
As you can see, they used various tactics to manipulate their rankings.
Like blatantly adding a bunch of keywords into content blocks on their homepage.
I’m guessing this site sold “weight loss diet pills,” but I can’t be sure.
They also loaded their product pages with back-to-back keywords.
Like “antidepressants and antiaging supplements.”
(And made a bunch of bold medical claims without citing or linking to reputable sources.)
No E-E-A-T here, that’s for sure.
Thankfully, Google got smarter — and more serious about quality.
Over time, it rolled out various updates to detect manipulative tactics.
And rewarded content that actually helped users and met search intent.
This made it harder to cheat the system and easier for Google to flag spammy, keyword-packed content.
But it hasn’t stopped all site owners from engaging in this practice.
So, if your content reads like it was written for bots, don’t be surprised when Google treats it like spam.
Using keywords is important for relevance.
But overusing them?
It carries more risk than you might realize.
If Google detects keyword stuffing, it may lower your rankings or trigger a manual action.
Even worse, you may be wiped off the SERPs completely.
Google warns about this in its spam policies:
Recovery can take months of hard work.
And some sites never fully recover their rankings.
Even if you escape Google’s penalties, keyword-stuffed content creates a terrible user experience.
Users who land on these pages typically:
These negative engagement signals harm your overall site performance, too.
Keyword-heavy content can make your site appear spammy and unprofessional.
It signals to users that you’re more concerned with manipulating search engines than providing value.
This damages trust – the foundation of any successful brand.
Once users and search engines label your site as “spammy,” rebuilding that trust becomes difficult.
The ultimate irony of keyword stuffing?
It’s likely to achieve the opposite of its intended purpose.
Instead of boosting your rankings, it can make them plummet.
Today’s search algorithms prioritize:
As Google says:
While there is no guarantee that any particular site will be added to Google’s index, sites that follow the Search Essentials guidelines are more likely to appear in Google’s search results.
Not sure if your content crosses the line from optimized to overkill?
Here’s how to spot keyword stuffing before Google and your readers do.
Old-school, but it works:
Side note: AI tools can help you calculate keyword density, but their results may not be entirely accurate. I tested ChatGPT against a manual calculation and found it was off by 28%. After prompting it to recheck its work, ChatGPT was able to provide the correct answer. But this process actually took longer than just calculating it myself.
So, how do you know if your percentage is “good” or “bad”?
Keep in mind that the ideal keyword density doesn’t exist.
As Leigh McKenzie, Backlinko’s head of SEO, says:
You can’t fake relevance by jamming your target phrase into every heading. A natural, readable flow matters more. As a general rule, if your keyword density creeps above 2–3%, it’s worth taking a second look.
Use keywords intentionally. But write like you’re talking to real people, not search engines. That’s what both the algorithm and AI actually reward.
One of the most effective ways to identify keyword-heavy content is to read it aloud.
If something feels stiff, repetitive, or robotic, your readers will feel it, too.
Ask yourself:
If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” it’s time to revise.
Using WordPress?
Plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math can help flag potential keyword stuffing.
These tools provide readability scores and keyword density calculations.
But keep in mind that these tools may miss subtle issues.
And typically won’t flag anything until it’s really obvious.
So, it’s best to use them as a guide rather than a final verdict.
Want a smarter, more in-depth look at keyword usage on your pages?
Use Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker.
Instead of manually scanning your content, this tool benchmarks your keyword usage against top-ranking competitors.
Here’s how to use it:
Side note: A free Semrush account gives you limited access to the On Page SEO Checker. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.
Enter your domain into the tool and press “Get ideas.”
Next, configure your settings.
(It’ll ask you to choose your location and preferred pages to analyze.)
When your report is ready, scroll to the “Top pages to optimize” section.
Click the blue “# Ideas” button next to any page to view detailed recommendations.
If keyword stuffing is detected, the On Page SEO Checker will call it out.
And show you exactly where the issue is.
Including the body content, meta tags, or headings.
If your keyword usage is clean, you’ll see notes like:
“No keyword stuffing detected in <h1> tag.”
You’ll also get recommendations for:
Use the recommendations to create higher-ranking content that search engines and readers love.
So, how do you avoid keyword stuffing?
And still optimize your content without sounding like a broken record?
Here are some do’s (and a few don’ts) to help you strike the right balance.
Keyword density isn’t a ranking factor.
So, don’t worry about hitting a specific number.
Focus on creating helpful content instead.
Answer your audience’s questions. Solve their problems. And satisfy their search intent.
Google calls this people-first content — content made for readers, not algorithms.
Yes, you should use your target keywords.
But if you’re covering the topic thoroughly, they’ll appear naturally.
For example, if you’re writing about meal prep for beginners, you’ll probably mention:
No keyword stuffing required.
Bottom line: If your content reads well out loud and actually helps someone, you’re on the right track.
Further reading: 6-Step Essential Guide to Choosing Keywords
You don’t need to repeat your keyword 55 times.
But placing it in a few prominent spots helps Google (and readers) understand what your page is about:
Always prioritize natural language over forced keyword insertion.
Further reading: On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide + Free Template
Secondary and semantic keywords make your content more engaging.
They also make it easier for Google to understand what your content is about.
Secondary keywords are terms that are closely related to your primary keyword.
They help your content rank for a broader range of relevant searches.
For example, if your primary keyword is “vegetarian recipes,” secondary keywords would include:
Keyword research tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and others let you find secondary keywords.
Semantic keywords are contextually related words and phrases that help search engines understand the meaning behind your content.
These terms aren’t direct matches or synonyms.
For a vegetarian recipe article, semantic keywords would be “veggie burgers,” “tofu,” and “vegetarian chili.”
You’re likely to include these terms naturally.
But Google can also help.
Conduct a search for your primary keyword and check “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” for ideas.
Targeting irrelevant keywords won’t trick Google.
It’ll just confuse your audience — and dilute your topical authority.
For example, if your blog niche is fitness, don’t target irrelevant keywords like “top vacuum cleaners” or “best mattress.”
Even if you’re actually able to rank for these terms, it’s unlikely to do you any good past a bump in vanity metrics.
Aka — you might get clicks, but you won’t get conversions.
Plus, you’ll send confusing signals to Google about your site’s core purpose.
During keyword research, you’ll inevitably run into terms that are misspelled yet somehow still get thousands of searches.
For example, “morgage calculator” gets 27,100 searches per month.
And “best morgage rates” gets 14,800.
But using misspelled keywords isn’t worth the risk.
They make your writing less credible and can make your site look spammy.
Search engines are smart enough to know what users actually mean when they search for “morgage” instead of “mortgage.”
As Google says:
Our natural language understanding models look at a search in context, like the relationship that words and letters within the query have to each other. Our systems start by deciphering or trying to understand your entire search query first. From there, we generate the best replacements for the misspelled words in the query based on our overall understanding of what you’re looking for. For example, we can tell from the other words in the query “average home coast” that you’re probably looking for information on “average home cost.
Same goes for grammatically incorrect or just plain awkward keyword phrasing like:
Yes, people search like this:
But you shouldn’t mirror that phrasing word-for-word.
Or you risk lowering the readability and trustworthiness of your content.
Don’t use a bunch of keywords in a single paragraph or section.
Distribute them naturally throughout your content, from the introduction to the conclusion.
This creates a more cohesive piece that flows naturally while still signaling relevance to search engines.
Further reading: Free Keyword Difficulty Checker + Free Guide
Worried your rankings declined from excessive keyword usage? Don’t panic.
Recovery is possible with the right approach.
First things first: confirm whether you’ve received a manual penalty.
Log into Google Search Console (GSC) and follow this path:
“Security & Manual Actions” > “Manual Actions.”
If you don’t have any manual actions, you’ll see this message:
If you have a manual action, you’ll see a report with the number of issues detected.
And a description of each one.
Like unnatural links, cloaking, thin content, and — you guessed it — keyword stuffing.
If you received a penalty, you’ll need to address the issues and submit a reconsideration request.
Once you’ve identified the problem pages, it’s time for cleanup.
But this isn’t just about fixing one page. It’s about showing Google you’ve changed your approach.
Here’s what to focus on:
Once your content is cleaned up, go back to Search Console and follow these steps:
Open the “Manual Actions” section and click “Request Review.”
Next, you’ll be asked to check a box confirming you fixed all of the issues.
You’ll also need to explain what you fixed and how you did it.
Don’t copy and paste generic language. Be honest, transparent, and direct in your answer.
Explain the following:
Expect to wait anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for a response.
You’ll get an email with Google’s decision when the review is complete.
If your first request is denied, you can try again.
Google doesn’t count keywords anymore.
Why should you?
Ranking in 2025 isn’t about gaming the algorithm — it’s about creating content that actually helps people.
So, leave the keyword stuffing to 2005 and focus on what modern readers and search engines want:
Helpful, trustworthy content.
Ready to write content that reads and ranks well?
Check out our SEO best practices guide. It’s packed with proven strategies for writing high-performing content without sacrificing quality or user experience.
The post What is Keyword Stuffing? How to Avoid Doing SEO Like It’s 2005 appeared first on Backlinko.
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There are many tools that let you schedule content across different social media platforms.
But:
Not all of them are built to match your unique workflow.
Some focus on collaboration, others on planning.
That’s why I’ve handpicked the best tools and highlighted the features that go beyond basic scheduling.
Here’s an overview of the best social media management tools included in this article:
| Best for | Pricing | |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer | Content creators and small teams that need help generating content ideas and staying consistent | Starts at $6/month per channel; limited free plan available |
| Planable | Marketing teams that need a centralized hub to collaborate on all types of content | Starts at $39/month; limited free plan available |
| SocialBee | Businesses that want a built-in AI assistant to help plan strategy and generate content | Starts at $29/month; 14-day free trial |
| Canva | Creators and small businesses that want to design and schedule content in one place | Starts at $15/month; 30-day free trial available |
| Hootsuite | Teams that need social selling tools and CRM integration | Starts at $149/month; 30-day free trial available |
| Sprout Social | Large teams or agencies that need unified analytics, collaboration tools, and social listening | Starts at $249/month; 30-day free trial available |
Note: This is not the most extensive list of social media management tools. Instead, I’m sticking to what the title says and only including the very best options.
Best for content creators and small teams that need help generating content ideas and staying consistent with posting
Pricing: Starts at $6 per month per channel; limited free forever plan available (for up to three channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel per month)
Buffer is a simple social media management tool designed to help you plan, create, and schedule content across platforms.
It has a simple layout, a Kanban-style board, AI tools to help you write posts faster, and many other features that let teams work together easily.
Here are the platforms you can manage with Buffer:
Here’s what I love about Buffer:
Buffer gives you a simple, visual way to manage your entire content workflow. You don’t need a separate project management tool.
You can plan, track, and organize your social posts using a built-in Kanban-style layout. This makes it easy to track how your content moves from idea to publication.
You can drag and drop posts through each stage, tag them by type or campaign, and convert any idea into a live post when you’re ready to publish.
Each idea card acts like a mini workspace. You can add notes, upload images, assign tags, or even use AI to shape your post.
And when you’re ready to turn an idea into a real post, just click “Create Post”:
From there, you can choose which social media platforms to post on, edit your text, and schedule it. All without leaving the ideas board:
This is a seamless workflow from idea to publishing. You don’t even need to switch tabs within the tool.
Buffer’s Start Page lets you build a mini landing page to use in your social media bio.
On this page, you can add buttons to your blog, shop, podcast, or freebies — whatever you want people to check out. It’s like a custom homepage for your content.
There are templates to get you started:
But you can also customize it with your brand colors, fonts, and layout:
When you publish your page, you can track views and clicks to see what your audience is interested in:
Whether you’re a creator, freelancer, or a small business, Start Page helps you lead your followers to the content you want them to see.
Buffer helps you build a sustainable content routine. It lets you choose a posting goal, like once, three times, or five times per week:
Once you select your frequency, Buffer will automatically recommend the best time slots and add them to your queue:
The tool recommends time slots based on when your audience is active.
With this feature, you don’t have to guess when or how often to post.
Just pick a consistency level that fits your bandwidth and goals.
This is helpful if you’re overwhelmed or inconsistent. With your target already set, Buffer takes care of when to post so you can focus on what to post.
Useful resource: Step-By-Step Content Marketing Plan Template
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Use AI assistant to draft tailored post captions for different social media platforms | Analytics doesn’t support creator accounts for Instagram and LinkedIn; it’s limited to business pages |
| Manage comments and replies from one dashboard |
Best for marketing teams that need a centralized hub to collaborate on all types of content
Pricing: Starts at $39 per month; free plan available (limited to 50 posts)
Planable is a tool built for social media teams to plan, collaborate on, and schedule content together — all in one place.
It’s designed to streamline approvals, keep your calendar organized, and make team (and client) communication seamless.
Here are the platforms you can manage with Planable:
And here’s what I love about Planable:
Planable makes it easy to work with others and communicate through every step of content development.
For example, your team can leave comments directly on each social media post. This removes the need to send the post back and forth:
You can even invite your team members and clients and give each one a unique set of permissions. These include view, edit, publish, approve, or analyze.
You can also make multiple approval workflows and set collaboration levels.
Let’s say you’re part of an in-house marketing team working with an external copywriter. You could create a custom workflow like this:
Once the client approves the content, you can:
What’s cool is that internal team comments won’t be visible to clients.
You can also hide certain posts from clients to prevent them from seeing unfinished drafts:
And if anything ever goes off track, you can see the version history. It lets you see exactly who did what and roll back to a previous version if you need to.
Planable helps you schedule, preview, and collaborate on posts for all major platforms in one place.
You can plan your content in a calendar view to visualize what’s going live, where it’s going, and when:
But what sets Planable apart is its ability to go beyond just social. You can also write and organize blog posts, newsletters, and other content with the same team setup.
So if your team is posting on Instagram and TikTok, writing email newsletters, and posting on the blog, you can check and edit everything in one place.
Planable keeps it all in sync, so your team stays aligned and consistent — no matter how many channels you’re managing.
Note: While you can manage blog content in Planable using the same workflows as social posts, it doesn’t integrate directly with CMS platforms. So you’ll still need to copy and paste your final draft manually.
In Planable, you can group your social media posts into dedicated campaigns.
This makes it easy to plan, manage, and execute content around specific themes, product launches, or events:
Each campaign can act as a central hub for your content. You can add posts to different social media, work with others, and see how your posts are doing, all in one place.
For example, if you’re launching a new product, you can create a “Product Launch” campaign. Inside that campaign, you can:
This kind of campaign structure helps your team stay focused and aligned. It also ensures every piece of content supports a bigger goal, like driving signups for an event or promoting a product launch.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Craft your social media captions with AI in the Planable post editor | Currently no integration with CMS platforms to post blog content on your site directly |
| Import visuals directly from Canva into your posts; no need to download or re-upload designs | Analytics is only available for business accounts, not creator profiles |
| Schedule the first comment on Instagram and LinkedIn posts | |
| Get post and account performance insights with built-in analytics |
Best for businesses that want a built-in AI assistant to help plan strategy and generate content
Pricing: Starts at $29 per month; 14-day free trial
SocialBee is a social media management tool that helps you manage all your content in one place. One unique thing this tool offers is a built-in AI assistant that takes tasks off your hands (more on this later).
Here are the platforms you can manage with SocialBee:
SocialBee also offers universal posting. This means you can collaborate with your team on content for a blog or newsletter for example. However, as is the case with Planable, there is currently no integration to post these directly on other platforms.
Here’s some more detail about a few of SocialBee’s best features:
SocialBee’s AI Copilot is like having a creative assistant built into your social media tool.
It helps you build a personalized content strategy, come up with content ideas, and draft social media captions.
So, how does it work?
Let’s say you run social media for Tattly, a creative brand selling artist-designed temporary tattoos.
Copilot will ask you a set of questions about your brand, goals, and audience:
Based on your input, the AI Copilot recommends the best platforms to focus on and suggests a weekly posting frequency:
Copilot also suggests content categories that match your business and tone:
It then generates the posting plan based on your content categories:
And finally, it generates the posts. You can use the captions as-is or use AI suggestions as inspiration:
SocialBee lets you recycle posts on autopilot by marking a content category as evergreen:
This means any post you add to that category will automatically be re-added to your posting queue once it goes live. You don’t need to reschedule it manually.
But why would you want to post the same content over and over?
It’s a great way to keep your content calendar full without constantly creating new content. You can use it to reshare timeless posts like tips, customer testimonials, or motivational quotes:
For example, reposting a helpful blog tip every four to six weeks keeps it fresh in your audience’s feed without feeling repetitive. Especially if you’re recycling through a variety of other content in between.
Plus, new followers may miss these posts the first time around, but still get value from them.
This keeps your content calendar active, saves you time, and ensures your best posts continue delivering value long after they’re first published.
SocialBee lets you import a bunch of links and instantly generate social media posts for them:
Just paste in your links, assign them to a content category, and SocialBee will generate a basic post using the page title and link:
From there, you can edit the draft to boost engagement and tailor it to your audience. Like by adding a hook or takeaway.
This is especially helpful if you run a blog or regularly share curated content. It gives you a head start on posting, so you’re not starting from scratch every time.
Further reading: 21+ Proven Strategies to Promote Your Blog in 2025
If you’d rather outsource some of your social media tasks to a pro, SocialBee offers concierge services.
ConciergeBee connects you with a service provider who takes care of tasks like making content or talking to your followers.
You can choose from several service packages (starting at $129/month) based on your needs.
For example, options include:
Compared to hiring freelancers on your own, SocialBee’s concierge service saves you time and guesswork.
You get vetted specialists, ongoing 1:1 communication, and fixed pricing. And you don’t have to go through the process of scouting talent and managing contracts.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Turn articles into social media posts in seconds | The mobile app is very limited at this time, sometimes not even working at all |
| Use AI to enhance your social media strategy | |
| Use Canva, Unsplash, and GIPHY integrations for visuals |
Best for content creators and small businesses that want to design and schedule content from one place
Pricing: Starts at $15 per month; 30-day free trial available
With its built-in Content Planner tool, Canva lets you design, write, and schedule posts across multiple platforms in one place.
If you’re already using it to create visual content, it might be enough to handle your entire content workflow. Especially if you heavily rely on graphics in your social media posts.
Here are the platforms you can manage with Canva:
While more limited than some of the other tools on this list, there are still a lot of reasons to love it as a social media management tool.
Here are my favorite features:
Canva makes it easy to go from designing a social media post to scheduling it for publishing. You can do it without even leaving the design screen.
Let’s say you run a small cafe and you’re launching a new seasonal breakfast menu. You design an Instagram post in Canva with a mouth-watering photo of your meals.
Once you’re happy with the design, you click “Share” > “Schedule” right from the top menu:
This built-in scheduling tool helps you post regularly on social media without making more work for yourself.
Instead of switching between tools, you can design, schedule, and publish all from one place.
This saves time and keeps your content calendar on track.
Canva’s Content Planner shows holidays, awareness days, and seasonal events from around the world:
You can click on any event, choose a ready-made template, make it match your brand, and schedule the post right away:
This is a simple and effortless way to fill your content calendar and engage your audience.
Useful resource: Content Calendar Template for 2025
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Design and schedule content without switching platforms | Lacks advanced collaboration tools, such as content approvals, needed for larger teams |
| Pre-designed visuals tied to calendar events and holidays |
Best for teams that need social selling tools and CRM integration
Pricing: Starts at $149 per month; 30-day free trial available
Hootsuite supports everything from collaborative content planning to lead generation and social selling.
It has tools that help your team save time and work efficiently. Like CRM integrations, a smart inbox, and auto-replies for Instagram.
Here are the platforms you can manage with Hootsuite:
Here are my favorite Hootsuite features:
Hootsuite lets you send automated Instagram DMs to your audience:
You can use this feature to deliver lead magnets, coupon codes, or event registrations.
For example, if you’re a fitness coach offering a free meal plan, you could post a Reel with the caption:
“Drop the word MEAL below and I’ll DM you my 7-day meal plan.”
When someone comments “meal,” Hootsuite instantly sends them your custom message with the link.
Here’s how it works:
You choose a keyword and write a message you want to send when someone comments that word on your post.
This method keeps your audience engaged without the hassle of replying to everyone yourself. And because the response is instant, your followers get what you promised right away. No matter when they comment.
Cool, right?
Hootsuite helps you move leads from social interactions to closed deals without leaving the dashboard.
You can reply to comments and DMs, save the conversation in your CRM, and follow up to turn that lead into a customer:
But how’s that possible?
Hootsuite integrates with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and SugarCRM to streamline this process.
This means your social media manager and sales rep can collaborate in real time. If a follower responds to a campaign or clicks on a product post, you can turn that engagement into a lead profile.
If your business relies on social selling, this feature is a game-changer.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Manage inbound messages, engagement, and scheduling in one place | DM automation is limited to Instagram only |
| Integrate Hootsuite with your CRM and project management platform |
Best for large teams or agencies that need unified analytics, collaboration tools, and social listening in one platform
Pricing: Starts at $249 per month; 30-day free trial available
Sprout Social is a premium social media management platform. It combines publishing, engagement, analytics, and social listening all in one place.
Here are the platforms you can manage with Sprout Social:
Now let’s talk about what I love most about Sprout Social:
Sprout’s Smart Inbox pulls direct messages (DMs), comments, and mentions across all your connected platforms.
You don’t need to bounce between tabs or apps. Instead, your entire team can view and respond to each message or comment from one space:
Your team can even tag messages, assign them to teammates, and leave internal notes to add context:
Sprout Social also tracks your inbox activity. This lets you check how your team handles audience engagement across different platforms.
For example, you can see metrics like:
This helps you reply faster, keep your support organized, and make sure you don’t miss any messages. Even when you’re constantly receiving messages at scale.
Sprout Social gives you two powerful ways to analyze your results:
This dual setup helps you see the big picture while still being able to zoom in on the details.
Its profile performance report shows key stats. Such as views, clicks, engagement, and interaction rate across all your social platforms:
You can also track how your audience has grown over time with the Audience Growth graph:
This makes it easy to see whether your efforts are growing your followers.
That way, you can identify which platforms are bringing the most momentum. And which ones might need a strategy tweak.
Sprout Social also gives you post performance insights across all your connected accounts. Or you can focus on a specific platform.
You can view and compare individual post metrics. Like total engagement, reactions, and comments:
This helps you quickly spot top-performing posts and patterns behind them. This lets you replicate what’s working — without constantly jumping between dashboards.
Sprout Social helps you understand what people say about your brand, industry, or competitors across social media and the web.
You can track specific keywords, hashtags, or brand mentions in real time.
For example, if you manage social media for a coffee shop, you might track the keyword “espresso.”
The conversation breakdown shows the words and phrases people use when they talk about espresso. Such as “recipes,” “easy,” and “home.”
These terms are ranked from highest to lowest engagement:
You can use these words to get content ideas or write relatable captions to match what your audience is saying.
It’s a quick way to spot trends and stay relevant.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| All-in-one place for managing publishing, engagement, and analytics across many social media platforms | Can be overwhelming for solo users or small teams due to the number of tools included in Sprout Social |
| Advanced analytics to track cross-platform or profile-specific performance |
The right social media management tool depends on your content needs and workflow:
Want to explore new platforms to grow on? Check out our list of new social media platforms so you can stay ahead of the curve.
The post 6 Best Social Media Management Tools (Tried & Tested) appeared first on Backlinko.
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Running PPC campaigns isn’t for the faint of heart.
You’re constantly juggling dashboards, tweaking campaigns, and fielding requests from clients who wanted performance reports yesterday.
That’s why the best PPC tools don’t just offer features. They help you move faster.
In this guide, I’ve curated this list of the best PPC tools marketers swear by, organized by use case.
The goal?
To help you quickly find what fits your workflow and skip the ones that don’t.
| PPC Tool | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Semrush Advertising Toolkit | All-in-one PPC campaign management | Starts at $139.95/month. 14-day Pro trial available. |
| Spyfu | Competitor research | Starts at $39/month. Free limited account available. |
| Google Ads Editor | Bulk editing & offline ad campaign management | Free |
| Optmyzr | Enterprise-level PPC automation and tracking | Starts at $249/month. 14-day trial available. |
| Adalysis | Ready-to-go ad automation and tracking | Starts at $149/month. 30-day free trial available. |
| Google Looker Studio | Ad campaign visualization and reporting | Free |
| ChatGPT | Ideation, ad copywriting, and campaign analysis | Starts at $20/month. Free plan available |
Best for all-in-one PPC campaign management
Tired of switching between five tools just to manage your paid search campaigns?
Call in the Semrush PPC Advertising Toolkit.
It covers everything from keyword research to competitor tracking for full campaign lifecycle visibility.
Perfect when you’re knee-deep in data but need insights fast. Like onboarding a new client or cleaning up a messy account.
Keyword research shouldn’t feel like a full-time job.
Semrush’s Advertising Toolkit makes it simpler.
Start with the Keyword Magic Tool.
Type in a general term like “indoor planters.” You’ll get a full list of related long-tail keywords, complete with cost-per-click (CPC) and search volume.
Within seconds, you’ll find high-potential keywords that fit your budget.
Now, if you want to know what your competitors are bidding on, use the Keyword Gap tool.
Let’s say you’re running campaigns for plantologyusa.com.
Add a few competitor URLs — like mygardyn.com and thesill.com — and Semrush will show keywords they’re targeting, but you’re not.
Plus, terms they’re outranking you for.
Instead of reinventing your keyword list, you see what’s driving results for others.
And where you may be leaving money on the table.
Bonus: You can easily export your keyword lists from Semrush into Google Ads. Or, use them as the base for Meta campaign planning.
Side note: Google Keyword Planner also offers keyword data straight from Google. It’s solid for search volume, but it lacks Semrush’s competitive context.
Want a fast, clear read on what your competitors are spending in paid search?
Head to Semrush’s Advertising Research Tool and plug in their domains.
For example, if you’re running PPC for Toolstation, you might want to analyze Screwfix’s paid search strategy.
Enter “screwfix.com” and you’ll instantly see:
That timeline is gold.
If you notice their ad spend consistently increases every April, it’s likely tied to seasonal demand. Or, a major promo push.
You can respond by launching earlier to capture traffic before everyone starts throwing money at the same keywords.
Or shift bids to lower-cost, related keywords that still convert.
(So you don’t get caught in a who’s-got-the-deeper-pockets contest.)
There’s no need to guess what copy your competitors are using to get clicks.
Go to the Ads Copies tab under Advertising Research.
You’ll see years of PPC history, including the keywords that triggered each ad, estimated CPC, and the exact ad copy.
From there, look at what benefits they lead with.
Free delivery? Next-day shipping? A 10% discount if you act by Thursday?
You’ll start to see patterns like how they position their offers, how they build trust, and where your own messaging might be falling short.
Sure, AI can create ad copy now.
But nothing beats learning from real ads that have been tested in the wild.
Especially ones that have been running for months.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Convinient for larger businesses that want to see how PPC performance connects to SEO, content, and broader marketing strategy | Overkill for teams that only need a basic keyword tool or simple ad monitoring |
Semrush’s PPC Advertising Toolkit is included with a Semrush subscription.
Note: Get a free Semrush account and start optimizing your PPC campaigns now.
Best for competitor research
SpyFu is one of the longest-running PPC tools.
The platform’s foundation lies in this question:
“What are your competitors doing, and how well is it working for them?”
With up to 15 years of historical data, you get a full market view of paid search trends.
This allows you to evaluate what’s effective (and what’s not) in your competitors’ strategies so you can plan your own campaigns with a lot less guesswork.
SpyFu’s PPC Research tool gives you a full breakdown of any of your competitor’s paid search strategies.
All you need is their domain.
Let’s say Salesforce is a competitor. Enter its domain and you’ll instantly see:
This kind of competitive intel helps you see what’s working in your niche.
And what your competitors are betting on.
If you see that Salesforce has consistently targeted the keyword “customer service apps” for over a year, it’s not a test.
It’s likely delivering strong results.
With that context, you can build campaigns around keywords with proven performance.
Plus, refine your messaging based on how your competitors are framing the same offer.
Manually checking competitors one by one is tedious.
Plus, you’re bound to miss patterns.
SpyFu’s PPC Kombat tool makes it easier.
Enter a few competitors’ domains into the Kombat tool, and SpyFu gives you a side-by-side comparison.
Let’s say you’re managing PPC for Monday.com.
Enter salesforce.com, pipedrive.com, and zoho.com, and Kombat will show you:
It’s one of the fastest ways to identify keyword gaps and wasted spend.
Plus, you’ll see where competitors are doubling down.
(And if you’re managing client accounts, it’s one of the fastest ways to deliver data-backed insights that make you look like the expert that you are.)
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Affordable alternative to pricier PPC tools. Great for small agencies that need competitors’ insights without enterprise-level costs. | It’s easy to rely too heavily on competitor data. And when you do, you stop spotting new trends and start sounding like everyone else. |
SpyFu offers two plans:
Best for bulk editing & offline ad campaign management
Google Ads Editor is a free desktop app.
You can use it to work on your campaigns offline and make bulk edits faster than the standard web interface allows.
If you’re managing large Google Ads accounts with lots of campaigns and hundreds of ads, this tool will keep you sane.
Once you install the editor, download your Google Ads account to your computer.
From there, you can build, edit, and review campaigns even without Wi-Fi.
You can:
Then, when you’re ready, hit “Post.”
And the updates go live. Just like that.
It’s a great option if you’re on the go or stuck with bad Wi-Fi.
Or, if you just want to batch edits without Slack pinging you every 11 seconds.
Making one change inside the Google Ads interface? No problem.
Making 100? Use the Google Ads editor.
Instead of tweaking each ad one at a time, you can apply changes across multiple campaigns, ad groups, or entire accounts.
All in one go.
One standout feature: Search and Replace.
It lets you update ad copy, URLs, headlines, or any other text-based field across your entire account.
Need to swap “Spring Sale” with “Summer Sale” in 150 ads?
Do a quick search to find the ads, apply the change in bulk, and move on.
You can also import bulk changes using a spreadsheet.
Or, update bids, budgets, keywords, and schedules without the usual click-edit-repeat routine.
It’s a real time-saver for teams managing large accounts or agencies juggling multiple clients.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Saves hours on large-scale edits | Has a bit of a learning curve, so it’s best for intermediate and advanced users |
Google Ads Editor is free to use.
Best for enterprise-level PPC automation & tracking
Get Optmyzr when you’re ready to scale your campaigns without scaling your workload.
This platform gives you the tools to automate PPC campaigns for Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Ads.
If you’re constantly chasing budget issues or fixing the same problems every week, Optmyzr helps you automate the checks, alerts, and tweaks that eat up your time.
So, you can finally stop doing all the repetitive stuff and make room for more important work.
Like watching that YouTube video you’ve had open in a tab since Tuesday.
Optmyzr helps you eliminate tedious PPC tasks so you can stop doing things a robot would happily handle.
(And save your brainpower for decisions that actually need it.)
Use the Rule Engine to set up custom automation using if/then logic.
You can pause underperforming keywords, flag return on ad spend (ROAS) drops, or trigger emails when daily spend spikes.
You can also automate trend monitoring, clean up low-CTR ads, and optimize ad groups for better conversions.
The Rule Engine is highly flexible. But it’s not plug-and-play.
You’ll need to be comfortable defining your own logic and setting up workflows.
The advantage?
That level of customization makes it especially powerful for high-stakes accounts where fast, automated reactions can protect performance and budget.
When performance dips, your first question is usually: Why?
(After the panic and checking multiple dashboards a few too many times, that is.)
Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator helps you answer that fast with a visual cause-and-effect breakdown.
Pick a top-level metric like Conversions or ROAS. Then, use the “Why did [X] change?” dropdown to compare time periods (e.g., last 30 days vs. previous period).
The chart updates instantly to show how the other related metrics changed.
For example, if conversions dropped, PPC Investigator might show that clicks actually increased.
But, your budget was reduced during the same period.
Now, you’re not viewing the conversion dip in isolation. You’re seeing the bigger picture.
Instead of guessing, you can identify which metrics changed at the same time and start connecting the dots.
It won’t hand you the answer, but it gives you a starting point for figuring out what’s really going on.
And that makes digging into the “why” a whole lot easier.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highly customizable, making it perfect for agencies and enterprise teams that want tailored workflows and automation | Steeper learning curve for PPC teams unfamiliar with rule-based logic or scripting |
Optmyzr starts at $249/month for accounts spending up to $10K/month. Plans scale with ad spend.
14-day trial available.
Best for ready-to-go ad automation and tracking
If your PPC systems are already up and running, Adalysis helps keep them healthy.
It acts as a performance-monitoring layer for your Google and Microsoft Ads accounts with 100+ built-in audits.
You’ll get early alerts when performance is subpar. Plus, practical recommendations to fix issues.
Perfect for teams managing large accounts who want automation that’s ready to go. Not something they have to build first.
Adalysis keeps a constant watch on your campaigns, scanning for issues before they turn into expensive surprises.
It flags issues the moment your metrics start drifting off course.
You can set alerts for:
So, what does that actually mean?
It means you won’t be caught off guard by issues that could have been flagged days earlier. Like lost conversions.
You’ll know right away while there’s still time to fix it.
Manually adjusting budgets across dozens of campaigns is a time suck.
Worse, one mistake can throw off your entire month.
Adalysis gives you two ways to manage your budget.
With manual pacing, you can set daily or monthly spend targets and monitor progress in a visual dashboard.
Color-coded indicators show whether you’re overspending, underspending, or on track.
You can also set alerts — or auto-pause campaigns — when spending crosses custom thresholds.
Prefer a hands-off approach?
Switch to Full Automation, and Adalysis dynamically adjusts budgets based on your goals.
Whether that’s more conversions, a better CPA, or higher ROAS.
Just set your budget and goal, and the system takes care of the rest.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Significantly reduces time spent on PPC management, making it ideal for high-volume campaigns or managing multiple accounts | It leans on its built-in structure, which may not offer as much flexibility as some advanced users want |
Adalysis starts at $149/month for up to $50K in monthly ad spend. Pricing increases in tiers based on ad spend.
Free trial available.
Best for ad campaign visualization and reporting
If you’re managing multiple accounts across platforms, reporting can eat up your entire week.
Google Looker Studio helps you build reporting dashboards using data from Google Ads, GA4, Search Console, BigQuery, Google Sheets, and more.
The result?
One central place where your team (and your clients) can track campaign performance.
Google Looker Studio’s biggest strength is turning raw data into clear visual dashboards.
So, you can stop sending spreadsheets to numbers-averse clients. And start telling a story they can follow.
You can pull in data from Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Facebook Ads (via partner connectors).
Then, layer in insights from Google Analytics, your CRM, ecommerce platform, or email tools.
This gives you a single view of your paid campaigns.
Plus, how they connect to everything else happening in the funnel.
Whether you’re a freelancer, agency lead, or in-house PPC manager, someone always wants to “see the numbers.”
Google Looker Studio makes it easy to turn Google Ads data into interactive reports that highlight performance and campaign impact.
Once you’ve set up your dashboard, you can:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Completely free to use with no limits on users, reports, or connected platforms | Some PPC connectors (like Facebook Ads) require paid third-party tools |
Google Looker Studio is free to use.
Best for ad copy and campaign analysis
ChatGPT is quickly becoming a must-have for PPC marketers.
You can use it to brainstorm headlines, write ad copy, refresh underperforming creative, and even analyze landing pages.
The catch? It’s only as good as your prompt.
But once you know how to guide it, the possibilities open up fast.
Need new ad copy ideas?
ChatGPT can help you brainstorm faster than you can type “A/B test.”
You can ask it to:
But the real magic happens when you feed it your brand’s data.
If you’re on the Pro Plan, you can create a project and upload your brand voice and tone guide, product descriptions, audience insights, offers, and more.
Once those are added to your Project files, ChatGPT starts responding like it actually knows your business.
Goodbye lifeless B2B buzzwords.
ChatGPT can help you reverse-engineer competitor landing pages and ad copy so you can learn from them.
Here’s how:
First, find a competitor’s ad or landing page.
Next, use a tool like WebtoPDF to convert the page into a PDF. Upload that file to ChatGPT.
From there, it’s all about how you prompt it.
Skip the generic “analyze this” request.
Instead, ask for specifics:
This turns ChatGPT into a strategic analyst.
It helps you understand what’s working for others and how you can do it better.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely versatile. Whether you’re writing ad copy or planning campaigns, ChatGPT adapts to what you need | You’ll still need to double-check tone, facts, and fit. Especially for client-facing work |
ChatGPT has three tiers:
Note: Never used ChatGPT before? I’ve put together an in-depth guide on “How to Use ChatGPT” with practical tips to help you get started right away. And if you’ve been using it for a while, you’ll still find a few advanced tricks you probably didn’t know it could do.
The fastest way to waste money on ad tech? Choosing a tool that doesn’t solve your specific problem.
Whether you’re trying to outsmart competitors, automate time-consuming tasks, or finally get reporting off your plate, the best PPC tool depends on what you’re trying to fix.
Choose the statement that sounds most like you to find the best tool for your needs.
Use the table below to quickly find the PPC tool that fits your needs.
Just look for the challenge you’re facing and see the tool that can help you solve it.
You can pick one or a few, depending on what you need most.
| PPC Pain Point | Recommended Tool(s) |
|---|---|
| I want to see what my competitors are doing | Semrush: Find missed keywords + ad history SpyFu: Spot keyword gaps + spend patterns |
| My ad copy is getting stale | ChatGPT: Rewrite fast + extract insights Bonus: Combine with Semrush/SpyFu for real campaign ideas |
| Managing campaigns eats up my time | Optmyzr: Automate tasks + flag metric shifts Adalysis: KPI alerts + budget pacing |
| I need to make changes quickly | Google Ads Editor: Offline, bulk edits at speed |
| I need client-ready reports | Looker Studio: Live dashboards, easy to share |
| I’m on a tight budget | SpyFu Free: Basic keyword + competitor data ChatGPT Free/$20: Low-cost copywriting help Ads Editor + Looker: Free tools for edits + reports |
You’ve got the tools. You know what they’re best at.
Now, it’s time to make them work even harder.
Before you launch your next campaign or tweak your bids, make sure you’re not throwing money at overpriced keywords.
This PPC keyword cost guide shows you how to find high-intent keywords that convert.
It’s the next step if you want smarter results from the tools you’re already using.
The post The 7 Best PPC Tools for Your Goals, Budget, and Workflow appeared first on Backlinko.
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Your sitemap is exactly what it sounds like: a map of your site’s pages.
A good sitemap organizes all your most important pages logically, and it can help Google crawl and understand your site.
Free template: Want to create your own visual sitemap like the example above? Download our free Canva template here.
Below, I’ll go through 19 example sitemaps and explain the key best practices to help you build your own.
Beyond XML, HTML, and visual sitemaps, I’ve categorized the examples below by site type. This way, you can find examples of sitemaps from websites like yours.
We’ll cover sitemaps for:
Note: If you haven’t created a sitemap yet, or you want to learn more about optimizing them, check out our dedicated sitemap guide first.
Before jumping into examples, you need to know which type of sitemap is right for your website.
There are two main types: XML and HTML. Each one serves a different purpose.
Note: I’ll also provide an example of a visual sitemap below, but XML sitemaps (the kind you submit to Google Search Console) are the focus here.
XML sitemaps are designed specifically for search engines, not humans.
They use a structured format that tells Google and other search engines about the pages on your site and when they were last updated. (This means they can affect your site’s SEO.)
You’ll usually find them at URLs like “yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml” or “yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml” (if you have multiple sitemaps).
XML sitemaps won’t directly improve your rankings. But they can help search engines find and then index your content.
Important: You don’t need an XML sitemap. But honestly, as long as you set it up properly, there’s no reason not to have one.
There are a few ways you can implement XML sitemaps. Below are three examples showing the most common styles you’ll come across.
Sitemap URL: https://httpstatus.io/sitemap.xml
The sitemap for HTTPStatus.io is fairly simple. The site offers a tool for checking the HTTP status of your URLs. But it also has some pages explaining integrations and what different status codes mean.
Beyond the main tool and some knowledge base style articles, there aren’t that many pages on the site to map.
If you also have a simple site, don’t overcomplicate your sitemap.
Sitemap URL: https://www.forbes.com/sitemap_index.xml
Forbes uses an XML sitemap index, found at forbes.com/sitemap_index.xml.
This is an index of multiple sitemaps, like /forbes_2008_sitemap.xml and /news_sitemap.xml.
In this case, the 2005 sitemap contains URLs published in 2005:
While the news sitemap contains news-themed URLs:
You’ll see that Forbes includes various different attributes in its sitemap. Most of these aren’t essential. Google also ignores many of them, like <changefreq> and <priority>.
But if you use the <lastmod> value and it’s “consistently and verifiably accurate,” Google may use it to understand how often to crawl your pages.
In other words: don’t use this to try and pretend you’ve significantly updated your content when you’ve just changed the date.
Sitemap URL: https://backlinko.com/sitemap_index.xml
We’ve used Yoast (a WordPress plugin) to create our sitemap index. That’s why it looks like a more styled page than the previous two examples.
If you have a WordPress site, plugins like Yoast and RankMath can create sitemaps for you.
In our case, we’ve split our sitemap up into different categories like posts, pages, tools, and hub resources.
Here’s what the /post-sitemap.xml looks like:
Follow these best practices when creating your XML sitemap:
Note: Many content management systems like WordPress, Shopify, and Wix automatically update your sitemap when you add, move, or adjust pages.
HTML sitemaps, unlike XML sitemaps, are designed for your human visitors.
These are actual pages on your website that list all your content in a hierarchical structure. You’ll typically find them at URLs like “yourdomain.com/sitemap” (although it can vary depending on the site’s URL structure).
They help visitors find what they’re looking for when they can’t access what they need via your navigation menus.
However:
Your users should be able to find what they need via your navigation menus and internal links. An HTML sitemap is not a substitute for good UX design.
(But it can supplement it.)
You should consider creating an HTML sitemap if:
You don’t need to choose between XML and HTML sitemaps. You can use both simultaneously.
Sitemap URL: https://www.forbes.com/sitemap/
I showed you Forbes’ XML sitemap above, but the site also has an HTML sitemap for users.
The HTML sitemap sorts Forbes’ main pages into categories like Newsletters, Leadership, and Lifestyle.
These don’t cover all of Forbes’ categories though, which you can see in their navigation menu:
So this is an example of a site likely just using their HTML sitemap to highlight specific important pages.
Sitemap URL: https://lovevery.com/pages/sitemap
Lovevery’s HTML sitemap sorts its products into categories like Play Kits and Course Packs. It also highlights two of their main products right at the top: The Play Gym and The Montessori Shelf.
It also subdivides the Play Kits by age. This makes it easy for users to find products they need for their child.
Here are best practices to follow if you want to create an HTML sitemap:
Visual sitemaps represent your site’s architecture graphically. They use shapes, colors, and lines to show how pages are connected.
They’re helpful during site planning and development, but you won’t submit these to Google, and your users won’t see them either.
Here’s an example of a visual sitemap for a website that sells coffee products:
Don’t forget: You can try our free Canva visual sitemap template to map out your own website’s pages.
Follow these tips to create a useful visual sitemap:
Next, I’ll go through examples of XML sitemaps for different types of websites. While HTML and visual sitemaps have their place, it’s your XML sitemap that matters most for SEO.
A well-structured blog sitemap ensures all your content remains discoverable. This includes older posts that may have fallen off your main navigation or recent posts list.
For sites that regularly publish new content, an automatically updating blog sitemap can help maintain your search engine visibility across your entire content archive.
Sitemap URL: https://cupofjo.com/sitemap_index.xml
Cup of Jo’s sitemap is generated by Yoast.
It organizes the blog’s pages into the following categories:
But there are also some extra sitemaps in there that I wouldn’t recommend you include.
For example, there’s a sitemap for affiliate links…
…that just links to pages with a single image on them:
(This one’s URL was /pillow/, but the image is a jacket.)
Your sitemap should contain only your important pages you want Google to index. So you should avoid including any links to pages that don’t add value for users.
Sitemap URL: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/wp-sitemap.xml
NerdWallet has a main sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml. It contains further sitemaps of posts, reviews, other types of posts, authors, and more.
But there are also other sitemaps for specific region versions of the site:
While NerdWallet generates its main sitemap either via a custom setup or plugin, it generates its region-specific ones with Yoast:
All of these sitemaps follow a simple structure, listing the URL and date it was last modified. (The Yoast ones also include the number of images on the page — a small and not super important detail.)
Considering NerdWallet has tens of thousands of pages and multiple regional versions of the site, this is an impressively straightforward example of a blog sitemap.
If you have a blog, follow these best practices for your sitemap:
Related article: Top 8 Sitemap Generator Tools
A well-structured sitemap for your local business website can help Google find and index all of your location pages and other important content. This is especially true for businesses with lots of locations or complex service offerings.
Sitemap URL: https://thewildrabbit.co.uk/sitemap_index.xml
The Wild Rabbit is an inn with one single location in the UK. It uses Rankmath, another popular WordPress SEO plugin, to generate its sitemaps.
Its sitemap index is fairly straightforward, with further sitemaps for:
If you also have a single location with a simple website, a clean sitemap like this is a good example to follow.
Sitemap URL: https://www.lascarretasmexicanrest.com/pages-sitemap.xml
Las Carettas Mexican Restaurant’s sitemap is as simple as it gets.
The sitemap just contains all of the site’s URLs within one single sitemap file.
Sitemap URL: https://www.pimlicoplumbers.com/sitemap_index.xml
Pimlico Plumbers is London’s largest independent plumbing company. But even with lots of service areas all around the city, Pimlico’s sitemap is simple and organized.
The most notable sitemap here is the location-sitemap.xml file:
This is a useful way for Pimlico to organize all of its locations in an easy-to-find way. This potentially helps Google find and index its location pages.
Sitemaps for local businesses don’t require too much in the way of dedicated best practices.
But you should:
With potentially thousands of products, categories, and filters, ecommerce sites can end up with pretty complex sitemaps.
But with a bit of logical organization, you can ensure your sitemap helps (rather than hinders) your ecommerce site’s SEO.
Sitemap URL: https://www.gymshark.com/sitemap.xml
Gymshark’s sitemap is a useful example to follow for ecommerce sites.
Its sitemap index splits URLs across pages, collections, and products.
Here’s what the collection sitemap looks like:
And since Gymshark is a global brand, there are also sitemaps for hreflang and the Spanish-speaking US variants of the site’s pages:
Then, on Gymshark’s region-specific domains, there are separate sitemap files. Like this one for the French version of the site:
Sitemap URL: https://ruggable.com/sitemap.xml
Ruggable offers thousands of products. But its sitemap index just consists of four simple individual sitemaps covering:
Here’s what the extensive product sitemap looks like:
This single sitemap contains 1,000+ individual product URLs.
This creates a simple overall sitemap setup, while still being well below the limit of 50,000 URLs per sitemap.
Follow these best practices for your ecommerce sitemap:
Large websites with thousands or millions of pages face unique challenges when it comes to sitemaps. Sitemaps have a URL limit of 50,000 per individual sitemap. So it’s often impossible to keep every page within just a single file.
This means sitemap indexes and automated updating are essential for larger websites.
Sitemap URL: https://weather.com/en-US/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
Weather.com is a HUGE site. Like 50+ million pages huge.
(This is just Google’s estimate and it’s not always that accurate. But there’s no doubt there are A LOT of pages on Weather.com.)
The site will tell you the weather pretty much anywhere on earth with its own dedicated page. So it needs a robust sitemap setup that goes beyond simple categories.
In fact, it needs several sitemaps:
Within each of these, there are yet more sitemaps:
These categorize URLs by things like:
And within these, there are individual URLs:
This leads to an extensive but essentially well-organized sitemap that covers millions of potential locations.
Note: For obvious reasons, I can’t verify if Weather.com’s sitemap contains every one of its indexable URLs. For sites at this scale, what’s key is just ensuring your sitemap contains all of your most important pages.
Sitemap URL: https://www.ebay.com/lst/BROWSE-0-index.xml
The eBay marketplace is home to 2+ billion live listings.
So it’s no surprise that the site needs a massive sitemap. So massive in fact that eBay needs to compress its many sitemaps. You can tell because its sitemap URLs end in .xml.gz, with .gz referring to “gzip” (a compressed file format).
You need to download these and then decompress them to view them. But when you do, you’ll find they often have 40K+ URLs in them.
I downloaded a few just out of curiosity, and I found 48K URLs in one of the “browse” sitemaps:
Another had 40K URLs, so the average is likely somewhere between those numbers. On the .com domain, I found at least 1,600 individual sitemaps in total across:
If they all have at least 40K URLs in them (I’m not manually verifying that), we can assume there are at least 64 million URLs in eBay’s sitemap in total. But I imagine it’s more like 70-80 million.
And that’s just the .com domain. There are similar sets of sitemaps for its regional domains:
So this is an example of a truly massive sitemap. And you can see eBay sorts it into just four broad sitemap indexes, each one with hundreds of individual, compressed sitemaps.
Follow these best practices for large sitemaps:
A well-structured SaaS sitemap encourages Google to index your most important pages.
SaaS websites are often complex, and so sitemap indexes are usually the go-to for this kind of website.
Sitemap URL: https://clickup.com/sitemap.xml
ClickUp’s sitemap is clean and simple — even though the SaaS site has tens of thousands of pages and 10+ regional versions.
ClickUp’s main sitemap index splits into:
Then there are a bunch of sitemaps for templates, more programmatic pages, and region-specific blog posts.
Like this one for Spanish speakers in Spain:
It’s worth noting that many of these sitemaps exist on a cdn.web.clickup.com subdomain. (The individual URLs within the sitemap aren’t on this subdomain.)
This might provide a small performance boost in terms of how fast Google can crawl the sitemaps, along with a bit of server load reduction. But I don’t imagine it would be a game changer for most sites.
It’s also not something you absolutely need to do for large sitemaps. But it could still be worth considering.
Further reading: Page Speed and SEO
Sitemap URL: https://www.docusign.com/sitemap.xml
Docusign’s sitemap index contains individual sitemaps for things like blog posts and PDFs.
But what makes it an interesting sitemap example is the way it implements hreflang for its language and regional variants.
For example, here’s the /en-gb/ sitemap for English speakers in the UK:
But this actually highlights one of the reasons many site owners stick with just one form of hreflang implementation (often putting it in each individual page’s code). When you have lots of URLs and different language versions of them, it can be tough to keep them updated.
(Even Google warns that this can become an issue.)
Including hreflang attributes in multiple locations (like the page’s source code and in your sitemap) means you have two sets of alternate URLs to manage.
Let’s look at the first example in the screenshot above (/docusign-iris-agreement-ai). We see the sitemap tells search engines there are five variants of the URL:
But the page’s source code (see below) suggests there is also a variant for Spanish speakers in Mexico (es-mx):
And in fact it doesn’t explicitly include en-us. Instead it opts for just en for the English/US version (/blog/docusign-iris-agreement-ai).
Perhaps the sitemap or page code just hadn’t updated yet (other pages don’t all show the same issue).
But if you have widespread cases like this, it could lead to Google having trouble knowing which versions of your site to serve to users. Or it might ignore your hreflang tags altogether.
If you run a SaaS site, do the following to optimize your sitemap:
A well-designed corporate sitemap makes it easier for Google to index high-value pages. These could include pages about investor relations and press releases, along with leadership profiles.
Sitemap URL: https://www.tsmc.com/english/sitemap.xml
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is Taiwan’s largest company. It’s also one of the world’s most important manufacturers of computer chip components.
So it’s no surprise that it has sitemaps covering important pages like:
TSMC uses Drupal to create its sitemap. This automatically adds change frequency and priority values, but Google ignores these.
Sitemap URL: https://www.deloitte.com/sitemap_index.xml
Deloitte is another major firm with a huge global presence. Its sitemap index primarily contains sitemaps for all of its regional variants.
Like this German variant:
These sitemaps contain everything from staff profiles to services and events.
If you’re creating a sitemap for a corporate or business website, follow these best practices:
Putting together a sitemap is fairly straightforward. But it’s still easy to make mistakes (as some of the examples above show).
To make sure your sitemap is valid, use a sitemap validator, like this one:
But just because your sitemap is valid doesn’t mean it’s error-free.
To check for the most common sitemap issues, use a tool like Semrush’s Site Audit.
Just enter your domain, run the audit, and head to the “Issues” tab. Then type “sitemap” into the search bar:
The tool will highlight issues like:
Note: Use Semrush Site Audit to find issues with your sitemap by using this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.
The post 19 Sitemap Examples for Any Type of Website (+ Best Practices) appeared first on Backlinko.
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As AI-driven search engines rewrite the rules of content visibility, one thing is clear: optimization isn’t dead — it’s evolving. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity AI don’t just retrieve web pages; they synthesize answers. And your content? It only gets included if it’s clear, relevant, and easy to extract. The good news? If you’re already using the Yoast SEO plugin, you have some of the most critical tools for this new era baked right into your workflow.
In this post, I’ll walk through how LLMs evaluate and extract content — and how Yoast SEO’s content analysis features, particularly the Flesch Reading Ease score and green light checks, can help you structure your writing for AI retrieval, not just human readers.
And more importantly, I want to clarify a common misconception: Yoast SEO isn’t about “chasing green lights.” It’s about helping you become a better, clearer communicator. Green lights aren’t the end goal—they’re indicators that you’re aligning your content with the kinds of clarity and structure that serve both readers and AI systems. In a world where LLMs decide what gets surfaced and summarized, being a better writer is your best competitive advantage.
Even if AI search doesn’t dominate your vertical today, it will. The best time to prepare was years ago. The second-best time is right now. Consider this your SEO shade tree: start planting.
Forget rankings — AI search is about retrievability and clarity. LLMs ingest and parse content based on:
Even the smartest LLM will skip your content if it’s overly complex, meandering, or fails to mention the query terms directly. That means no more hiding your key points in paragraph five. No more cute, clever intros that never get to the point. The models are pulling excerpts, not reading for nuance.
This is where Yoast SEO shines. Its features, often seen as basic hygiene, are perfectly aligned with what makes content usable by AI.
In a world of AI Overviews and synthesized summaries, readability is a superpower.
The Flesch Reading Ease score — included in the Yoast SEO content analysis — doesn’t just help human readers skim your content. It helps machines parse and interpret it.
LLMs prefer:
These are the exact factors the Flesch score evaluates. So when Yoast flags your content as difficult to read, it’s not nitpicking — it’s showing you what might keep your article out of an AI Overview.
Pro tip: When possible, aim for a Flesch score above 60, especially for top-of-funnel or FAQ-style content you want to be quoted or summarized.
And let’s be clear: this doesn’t mean your content has to be simplistic or dumbed down. It just needs to be accessible. Plainspoken, not generic. Direct, not dull. Think of it as writing for a global audience — or a machine that doesn’t have time for interpretive poetry.
I’ll be honest: I’ve been one of the worst offenders when it comes to ignoring those green lights. I like long sentences. I enjoy prose that meanders a little if it means delivering a point with style. And I’ve spent enough of my career writing professionally that being told how to write by a plugin occasionally rubbed me the wrong way.
But here’s the thing I’ve come to accept: it’s not that the plugin is trying to replace your voice or artistry. It’s that it’s trying to ensure your work can be understood, parsed, and surfaced—especially by machines.
It is absolutely still possible to create highly visible content that doesn’t earn a green light for sentence structure or reading ease. I’ve done it. But those pieces need to be intentional. They need to be structured so that the core ideas—the “meat” of the argument—aren’t buried in the longest paragraph of the article or expressed only in dense, lyrical blocks of text.
If you want to break the rules, fine. But make sure you know where the lines are before you step over them. The art is still welcome—it just has to be thoughtfully placed.
Yoast’s content checks aren’t arbitrary — they’re aligned with how both humans and machines understand text. In fact, many of the green-light criteria align shockingly well with what LLMs are known to favor:
In other words: the green light checklist is not just “SEO best practice.” It’s an LLM comprehension checklist in disguise.
And while experienced writers might feel tempted to override these warnings with “but this sounds better to me,” it’s worth considering how much clearer your writing becomes when you follow them. Especially when writing for an audience that might include an algorithm.
If you want your content to get pulled into AI-generated answers, try this simple structure — and let Yoast SEO help enforce it:
Even if you’re writing complex thought leadership content, this structure ensures your brilliance is actually understood and surfaced.
Structured data is still valuable, especially for establishing context and disambiguating entities. But Yoast SEO users should remember: if your page is poorly written or confusing, schema won’t save it.
LLMs cite content that is:
Yoast SEO helps you get there — not just with schema tools, but with live readability feedback during writing.
It’s also worth noting that while structured data might support AI understanding, it’s the structure of the writing that matters most for inclusion in AI responses. LLMs pull paragraphs and list items, not rich snippets. If you want to be quoted, you have to be quotable.
In the age of AI search, optimization means:
Yoast SEO’s content analysis isn’t just a checklist — it’s an AI visibility strategy. That little green light might be your ticket to being the source LLMs choose to summarize.
Don’t fall into the trap of writing for the plugin. Use the plugin to write better for people and machines. That shift in mindset makes all the difference.
And as LLMs continue to power more and more of the search experience, from Google AI Overviews to tools like ChatGPT Browse, that visibility is worth more than position #1 ever was. Start now. You’ll be glad you did.
The post How to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools appeared first on Yoast.
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Since 2013, Search has recognized the importance of app deep links in a mobile-centric world.
In this post, we’ll review the current state of app deep links — take a look at what they
are, the benefits of using them, and how to implement them effectively.
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Meta tags are snippets of HTML code that live in your webpage’s <head> section. Your website’s visitors won’t see them. But search engines, browsers, and social media platforms can see and use them.
You can think of meta tags as a way to tell Google and other search engines about what your page contains and how they should display it in search results.
Some meta tags are more important than others. In fact, there are really only a couple of meta tags you need to worry about.
I’ll explain exactly what these are below and how you can optimize yours.
Here’s what a basic meta tag looks like:
<meta name="description" content="This is a description of my webpage that should appear in search results.">
Let’s break down this structure:
Some meta tags use different attributes. For example, the charset meta tag looks like this:
<meta charset="UTF-8">
And the viewport meta tag uses the following structure:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
You don’t need to memorize these formats. Most content management systems (like WordPress, Shopify, and Wix) handle the technical implementation for you.
What matters is understanding which meta tags are important for SEO and how to optimize them for better visibility online.
Important note: I’m going to discuss a few elements that are not strictly speaking “meta tags.”
Tags like <title> are HTML elements in their own right, not meta tags by definition. But they do provide search engines with useful information.
Plus, they’re often referred to in the same way as other meta tags. So I’ve covered them here anyway. But for the sake of accuracy, if it’s not within theHTML element, it’s not a true meta tag.
Let me make it clear early on:
Your meta tags are not the most important aspect of your site’s SEO. They matter, but there are usually other areas you can likely optimize for greater impact.
But optimizing them won’t hurt your SEO. And in some cases it can actually make a big difference.
Your title tag and meta description are the primary elements people see in search results before they even visit your site.
Think of them as your website’s elevator pitch. You have just a few seconds to convince someone to click through. A compelling title and description can be the difference between a click on your result or your competitor’s.
By writing meta descriptions that address user intent and include a clear call to action, you can increase your click-through rates (CTRs). This means more traffic without necessarily needing higher rankings.
But:
Google often chooses its own titles to display, and even more commonly chooses its own descriptions. That’s because it puts a focus on displaying a description relevant to the search query.
For example, here’s a result that displays our chosen meta description for a post about backlinks:
And here’s the description Google displays for that same post but for a different query:
So while you can improve your CTRs by optimizing some meta tags, it’s not always going to have measurable results.
Want to prevent a page from appearing in search results? There’s a meta tag for that. Need to tell Google which version of a page is the original? There’s a meta tag for that too.
These technical meta tags help avoid common SEO issues like duplicate content, indexing of private pages, or incorrect international targeting.
Meta tags like viewport and charset ensure your website displays correctly across different devices and browsers.
While these may not directly impact your search rankings, they certainly impact user experience. This ultimately affects how long people stay on your site and whether they convert.
When someone shares your page on Facebook, X/Twitter, or LinkedIn, specialized meta tags determine how your content appears. These are called Open Graph or Twitter Card tags.
Without these tags, social platforms might pull random text or images from your page. This can lead to unappealing or confusing social snippets.
Unlike many areas of your site that require significant time and resources to optimize, you can update your meta tags relatively quickly.
For most websites, you can improve your meta tags in minutes through your CMS or with simple plugins. For example, Rank Math has an entire section dedicated to “SEO Titles & Meta”:
However:
As I’ll discuss later, not all platforms make it easy to change your meta tags. Some (like Squarespace) don’t give you much control at all.
Not all meta tags are created equal when it comes to SEO impact. Some directly influence your rankings and visibility. Others play supporting roles or have become obsolete over the years (like the keywords meta tag).
So to keep things simple (and prioritize your efforts and resources), let’s focus on the meta tags that actually matter for your website.
| Tag | SEO Impact | Supported By Google |
|---|---|---|
| Title Tag | High | Yes |
| Robots | High | Yes |
| Canonical | High | Yes |
| Hreflang | High (for international sites) | Yes |
| Meta Description | Low | Yes |
| Viewport | Low | Yes |
| Charset | Low | Yes |
Now let’s break down each important tag in detail.
The title tag isn’t technically a meta tag (it’s an HTML element in its own right). But it’s one of the most important tags in your page’s header from an SEO perspective, so I’ll cover it here.
<title>Backlinko: SEO, Content Marketing, & Link Building Strategies</title>
Your title tag appears in three key places:
As an example, compare these two title tags. They both contain a number, which may help boost CTR (depending on the query).
But the date in the TeamUpdraft title tag is from last year, making it seem outdated. Meanwhile, the WP Rocket title also tells me their list contains free and paid options.
This helps cater to a wider audience with different budgets. It also adds something unique that could boost engagement by helping it stand out on the search engine results page (SERP).
The robots meta tag controls how search engines interact with your pages. It looks like this:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
The default value is “all” which you can think of as “index, follow” (even though Google’s documentation doesn’t list these as accepted values). You can still include “index, follow” without any negative impact, but it’s not necessary.
If you don’t add a meta robots tag to your page (which Google’s John Mueller says is perfectly fine), Google assumes there are no restrictions.
If you do want to restrict indexing/following of links, you can use:
You can also use the robots meta tag to control how your site appears in search results via the snippet rules. These include:
If you don’t add any of the above rules, Google will just apply its defaults. In other words, if you don’t have any preferences, you don’t need to worry about these meta tags.
Most pages should use “all” or not specify any meta robots tags. This applies to any pages you want Google to index and follow the links on.
But you may want to use “noindex” for:
You can even target specific search engines:
<meta name="googlebot" content="noindex, nofollow">
The canonical tag technically isn’t a meta tag (it goes within the <link> element). But it is something you add to your <head> section that the user won’t see.
It helps prevent duplicate content issues by specifying the “primary” version of a page.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.yourwebsite.com/primary-page/">
You can learn more about these in our full guide to using canonical tags.
For multi-language websites, hreflang tags help search engines show the right version to the right audience. They’re not meta tags by definition. But like canonical tags, they are important for SEO and your user won’t see them.
They look like this:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="es" href="https://es.example.com/page.html"> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="it" href="https://it.example.com/page.html"> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://en.example.com/page.html">
If you don’t run a multilingual site, you don’t need to worry about these tags.
But if you do, here’s how to optimize your hreflang tags:
It’s easy to make mistakes here, so I recommend checking out our full guide to hreflang tags for more information.
The description meta tag looks like this:
<meta name="description" content="Your compelling ~120-character description that includes your target keyword and encourages clicks.">
While not a direct ranking factor, your meta description can impact click-through rates.
But:
You shouldn’t assign too much value to these, for two reasons:
So while you can and (I cautiously say) “should” optimize your meta descriptions, there are likely more important things you can do if you’re limited on time or resources.
With that out of the way, here are a few best practices:
You can optimize your meta descriptions by:
Here’s an example of an optimized meta description:
It captures the main benefits of the product, making it clear to a searcher why it’s the right one for them (and why they should click).
This meta tag ensures your site displays properly on mobile devices. It looks like this:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
This simple tag helps improve your site’s mobile friendliness. While not a direct ranking factor itself as a tag, Google does prioritize sites that provide a great experience on all devices. So it’s a good idea to make sure you implement this one correctly.
Further reading: Mobile SEO: The Definitive Guide
Most content management systems (like WordPress) will set this tag for you. And you’re unlikely to want or need to change it.
You can tweak values like the width and height, but for most cases, you won’t need to.
Just make sure you have one, and ideally use the following values:
The charset meta tag defines the character encoding for your page. It looks like this:
<meta charset="UTF-8">
If you use the wrong character encoding or implement it incorrectly, you might see some character display issues in your browser:
Like the viewport meta tag, you’re unlikely to want or need to make any changes to this. Your CMS will likely add this automatically for you.
But if you’re adding it manually, Google recommends you stick with Unicode/UTF-8.
Open Graph is a separate type of meta tag that isn’t going to impact your SEO. But these tags can affect how your content appears when you or others share it on social media.
Here’s what Open Graph meta tags look like:
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Compelling Social Title"> <meta property="og:description" content="Your engaging social description"> <meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg"> <meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page"> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">
Here’s an example of a blog post with Open Graph meta tags:
And here’s how that post looks when it’s shared on X/Twitter:
Here are some tips to optimize your Open Graph meta tags:
Before I move on, it’s worth noting a few other meta tags that you may come across.
Here are the main ones and what you can use them for:
Here are a few meta tags that Google doesn’t support (and so you probably shouldn’t use):
How you add or make changes to your meta tags depends on how your site is set up.
If you built your site from scratch or have a custom setup, speak with your developer about adding or changing your meta tags.
If you’re doing it yourself, you can add or change them in the <head> section of your page’s code.
If your site runs on a content management system (CMS), how much control you have over your meta tags is going to vary depending on the platform you use.
WordPress takes care of a lot of meta tags for you. To verify this, I just added a fresh install of WordPress to a domain I own. I deleted all the default plugins my host added, and I only have the 2025 default WordPress theme on the site.
Here are the meta tags it added:
The platform will:
What it didn’t do:
Note that it might vary depending on whether you run a WordPress.com-hosted domain or are self-hosting and using the WordPress.org software. It might also depend on the theme you use.
You can edit your theme files to adjust your meta tags. But it’s just as easy (or easier) to use plugins. You might even already use a plugin that can do a lot of this for you.
For example, Yoast will take care of your page title tags and meta descriptions.
It’ll also let you adjust your Open Graph tags:
You can find out more about using this plugin to boost your SEO in our Yoast guide.
As I mentioned earlier, Rank Math is another option that lets you control a lot of your site’s meta tags. These include site-level and page-level controls over Open Graph tags:
You can edit your Shopify store’s main title and meta description for the homepage by going to the Preferences menu in the left-hand sidebar menu:
You can also change your social sharing image here (for Open Graph).
For other pages like products, access the product page and scroll down to “Search engine listing” and click “Edit”:
Wix lets you add meta tags through the “Advanced SEO” menu:
Wix takes care of a lot of meta tags for you by default, including:
Squarespace doesn’t give much control over your meta tags. In fact, you can only really change your title tag and meta description.
Do this via the SEO settings in your post or page and editing the “SEO Title” and “SEO Description” fields:
Having issues with your meta tags can drastically harm your site’s SEO.
Let’s look at how you can find some of the most common problems.
Semrush offers one of the most comprehensive tools for finding meta tag issues with Site Audit.
Just set up an audit for your site and let it run.
Then, head to the “Issues” tab and search for “tag.” This will highlight issues related to your meta tags.
Site Audit will flag issues like:
Note: A free Semrush account lets you audit up to 100 URLs. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.
You can use the Detailed Chrome extension for quick on-page meta tag checks.
It’ll show you that page’s title tag, meta description, canonical tag, robots tag, and more. This makes it very handy for validating quick changes to specific pages.
You can also just check your page’s meta tags manually by right clicking and selecting “Inspect”:
Then, search for “meta” to quickly identify your page’s meta tags:
This isn’t all that scalable, but it’s handy for checking specific pages.
Meta tags clearly play a role in your site’s overall SEO. But making changes to them usually won’t have a huge impact on performance unless you already have major issues.
There are lots of other aspects of SEO and technical SEO in particular that can actually move the needle.
To find out more about these changes and how to make them to boost your site’s performance, check out our guide to technical SEO.
The post Meta Tags: What They Are & How to Use Them to Boost Your SEO appeared first on Backlinko.
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Strategic ecommerce keyword research can help you reach the right audience and directly impact your bottom line.
Just look at Cosmetify’s success.
This beauty retailer was struggling with an all-too-common challenge: no traffic on its revenue-generating pages.
The team identified and mapped transactional keywords to these money pages.
Dorothy Edgar, SEO Manager at Cosmetify, shares more about her strategy:
“We also created new money pages to fit customer needs and gaps in our current website hierarchy. For example, we segmented the fragrance category page into ‘women’s perfume discounts.’ Then, we added optimized content to all these pages.”
The result?
A 12.6-position average keyword boost and a 250% jump in organic revenue in 2024.
That’s just one example of the impact you can create with strategic keyword research.
Want these results for your business?
Use this 6-step framework to find revenue-driving keywords — without wasting time or budget.
Get started with our free Keyword Research Planner Template for ecommerce brands.
Keyword research reveals how your customers search, think, and make buying decisions online.
These rich audience insights can benefit your ecommerce business in many ways.
Keyword research helps you meet buyers where they are.
You get an insider’s view of your buyers’ psyche and willingness to purchase.
For instance, when people search for “benefits of running,” they want to learn more about this topic.
When they search for “best running shoes for flat feet,” they’re comparing different products.
In short: Choose keywords to target potential customers across the buyer journey and drive conversions.
The peak shopping season around holidays and festivals is ultra-competitive.
But ecommerce keyword research reveals micro-seasonal trends that your competitors might overlook. These less-competitive opportunities can drive more revenue with less effort.
Keep in mind that micro-seasonal trends differ across geographies and occasions.
For example, “back to school” is a trending topic in the United States from July to August.
If you run an online stationery store, target relevant keywords to tap into this demand.
You can also use this research to gauge your buyers’ interest in a new product idea.
A surging search volume for certain terms signals emerging consumer preferences.
For example, more people searching for “plastic-free activewear” could show growing interest in this product.
Analyze your keywords to find an untapped market for a new product category or niche.
Before I break down our 6-step framework for ecommerce keyword research, let’s cover the basics.
Ecommerce brands can target several types of keywords.
But, three stand out for driving customers through the buying funnel: informational, commercial, and transactional keywords.
Informational terms drive top-of-funnel traffic to your website.
These keywords make your brand more discoverable, especially when shoppers are looking to solve specific problems.
Target these search terms to provide helpful context about your products and put your brand on potential customers’ radar.
Informational keyword examples:
Pro tip: Don’t just go after “best” and “how to” keywords. Use tools like AnswerThePublic or Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to find hidden gems in your niche.
Commercial keywords bridge the gap between research and purchase.
Shoppers use these keywords to compare different products’ features that match their needs.
Commercial keyword examples:
Transactional keywords lead searchers to purchase and drive revenue.
These terms show a clear buying intent because shoppers use terms like “buy” and “book” or other strong purchase signals like pricing.
Transactional keyword examples:
Here’s how these three keyword types map to the ecommerce funnel:
While these three keyword types map directly to the ecommerce funnel, they’re not the only ones worth targeting.
Navigational keywords help searchers find a specific ecommerce brand, product, or page.
These queries also include category-specific navigation patterns people use to find specific products.
For example, “Under Armour men’s joggers” shows clear intent to find a specific brand and product.
Navigational keyword examples:
Long-tail keywords are longer phrases searchers use for a highly specific need or niche topics.
Take the keyword “best running shoes for women with flat feet” as an example.
It’s longer than usual and searches for a hyperspecific product.
That level of detail can still bring in meaningful traffic — especially if it aligns with strong purchase intent.
Long-tail keyword examples:
Buy a keyword tool → Find high-volume search queries → Add to landing pages.
That’s the outdated approach to finding keywords for ecommerce brands.
It’s a recipe for draining your time and money.
Let me break down a 6-step ecommerce keyword research process to drive sales and rewrite your growth trajectory.
Before you sign up for a keyword research tool, build some groundwork for your strategy.
Your first step? Listen to your customers.
The way people search for your products can be very different from how you describe them.
This misalignment could mean missed opportunities.
But when you speak your customers’ language, your content hits home.
Let’s look at the difference:
A skincare brand markets one of its products as a “10% niacinamide serum with zinc PCA.”
On the flip side, its target buyers search for “best serum for large pores” or “how to reduce facial oiliness.”
Same product. Completely different language.
Here are some more before (brands’ language) and after (customers’ language) examples:
Here’s how to fix this language gap:
Let’s understand this with an example from Made In, a cookware brand.
Made In describes its Carbon Steel Wok with this product description. It talks about the wok’s weight, bottom, seasoning time, and more.
But customer reviews echo praise for one unique feature: the wok’s heat distribution.
Now, re-read the description.
You’ll realize it misses the one value proposition that most customers are raving about.
Once you’ve ticked off Step #1, it’s time to expand your keyword universe.
Most ecommerce sites limit themselves to product-related keywords — like a coffee maker brand targeting “single-serve coffee maker” or “burr grinder with timer.”
The result? Missing out on valuable traffic opportunities.
Customers search for your products in dozens of different ways based on:
Go beyond your product-specific terms and find seed keywords that match your customers’ search habits.
One way to do this is by listing your products, alternative names, categories, and use cases.
For a product like “coffee maker,” you can start with seed terms like:
Here’s a more detailed matrix for this brand:
| Core product | Alternative names | Product categories | Use cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee maker | Coffee machine | Drip coffee maker | Brewing coffee |
| Espresso machine | Coffee brewer | Single-serve coffee maker | Morning routine |
| French press | Coffee pot | Pour over coffee | Office coffee |
| Cold brew | Percolator | Coffee grinder | Entertaining guests |
| Moka pot | Coffee system | Coffee accessories | Specialty drinks |
When this exercise is complete, add all the keywords to your planner.
As we go through the next steps, gather more details about each keyword and add insights in different columns.
Not all keywords are created equal.
A person searching for “how to set up a camping tent” is in a completely different mindset than those searching for “buy a lightweight camping stove.”
The first searcher needs educational content. Show them a product page, and they’ll bounce.
The second one is ready to buy. Send them a how-to guide, and you’ll lose the sale.
Take a quick look at the search results and you’ll see this in action:
Knowing these differences allows you to target people across the entire buyer journey.
Follow this process to map keywords to varying search intents.
Keyword type: Informational
In the awareness stage, your buyers are simply discovering their needs.
They want to better understand their problems and find solutions. They’re not ready to buy yet.
Take Andy, for example.
He struggles with a small, messy closet.
So, he searches for “how to organize a small closet” and “closet organization ideas.”
Andy can discover your furniture brand if you have educational content on this topic.
Keyword type: Commercial
In the consideration stage, people want to do their research before buying something.
They evaluate many products and weigh their options for making an informed decision.
At this point, Andy searches for “IKEA vs Target closet” and “best closets for small apartments.”
Keyword type: Navigational and transactional
In the decision stage, your prospects are ready to buy.
They’ll search for high-intent keywords that shorten the path to purchase.
So, Andy will search for “buy PAX closet” to access the IKEA product page directly.
Once you’ve identified a broad set of terms, map them to relevant pages on your site.
Use our planner template to define the content format for each keyword.
Keyword mapping gives each page a clear purpose and aligns keywords to these pages.
Nicola Hughes, Head of SEO at TAL Agency, shares how this benefits ecommerce brands.
Her team worked with a premium food and beverage brand to revamp its organic SEO performance and drive more sales.
“We listed all the collection and product pages on the site to define a purpose for every page. From there, we conducted in-depth keyword research to learn what our audience was searching for.
We mapped 1-3 high-intent keywords per page to align content with search queries across every stage of the funnel.”
This tactic, along with a few more, improved the brand’s click-through rate from 17.1% to 22.1%. It also led to 620% quarter-over-quarter growth.
Competitor keyword research tells you what’s working in the market — without blowing your budget on trial and error.
Look at direct and indirect competitors to find high-potential keyword opportunities.
An ecommerce keyword research tool like Semrush makes it easy to perform a keyword gap analysis.
Go to the Keyword Gap tool and add your competitors to discover the terms they’re ranking for.
I added three skincare brands and hit “Compare.”
In the analysis, I could see how many search terms each brand targets.
This Venn diagram shows that Koba has the smallest share of keywords out of the three.
The tool also curates a set of missing and weak terms that Koba should target.
Keyword Gap analysis presents a list of 14.1K untapped keywords for Koba. Other competitors are already targeting and
ranking for these search terms.
I can select relevant phrases from this data and add them to a new list of competitor-specific terms.
But only finding competitor keywords isn’t enough.
You have to analyze how competing brands target these terms.
Hover over any term in a competitor’s column. You’ll see the page where they use this specific phrase.
Further reading: Free Competitor Analysis Tool (Analyze SEO & PPC)
Now, you’re looking at this long list of target keywords and wondering, “Where do I even start?”
If your first instinct is to go for high-volume queries, pause and hit reset.
A keyword with 10,000 monthly searches might look tempting. But it’s probably difficult to rank for.
For example, we have two queries:
The second keyword is much more attainable since it targets a specific need.
That’s why our planner has space to note the search volume and ranking difficulty for each phrase and choose the right terms.
You can use Semrush to prioritize the right keywords.
Go to the Keyword Overview tool and add your seed keyword. I added “exercise bike for home gym” and hit “Search.”
Keyword Overview’s comprehensive analysis tells me that this keyword:
So, searchers use this keyword to explore different brands and products.
Pro tip: Look for keywords with a high CPC, which signals a strong commercial intent. If advertisers are willing to pay top dollar for a keyword, it probably converts well.
Keyword Overview also gives me a handy list of pages ranking in the search results.
I can analyze metrics like backlinks, traffic, and more to see what I’m competing against.
Once you’ve captured this data, go to Keyword Magic Tool to expand your list of target keywords.
Filter related terms by volume, difficulty, intent, and other metrics to shortlist the most relevant terms.
When you have a set of shortlisted keywords, do an effort-impact analysis.
For each keyword, assess the effort required to create content and rank well. Then, determine its overall impact on your marketing strategy.
This analysis will clarify the order of priority:
Let’s see this in action with the example of a fitness equipment retailer.
| High Effort | Low Effort | |
|---|---|---|
| High Impact | best home gym equipment
|
workout bench reviews
|
commercial gym equipment
|
home gym setup ideas
|
|
| Low Impact | vintage exercise equipment
|
gym equipment maintenance tips
|
olympic weightlifting equipment
|
how to clean resistance bands
|
As a result, the retailer should prioritize phrases like “workout bench reviews” and “home gym setup ideas” to get quick wins.
The brand should also invest effort into terms like “best home gym equipment” and “commercial gym equipment.”
In the final step, you’re all set to build a content strategy around your keywords.
Each keyword serves a specific purpose — to educate, convince, or convert buyers.
When building your content strategy, match keywords to a specific phase of the buying process.
Then, align each keyword cluster with the right content format, like:
Use the “Content Format” column in the planner.
This lets you organize keywords well for each term in your strategy.
Finally, consolidate your strategy for various keyword opportunities in a content calendar. Focus on quick wins, seasonal trends, and more.
Let’s see how this would work for a dog food and clothing brand.
| Buyer Journey Stage | Keyword | Goal | Content Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness | “best dog food for puppies” | Educate buyers on options | Blog post, guide |
| “how to measure a dog for a coat” | Educate buyers on sizing | Blog post with visuals or infographic | |
| Consideration | “wet dog food pros and cons” | Help buyers compare options | Blog post, comparison video |
| “best dog raincoats” | Help buyers decide | Video or blog comparing products | |
| Decision/Conversion | “buy organic dog food online” | Drive conversions | Product landing page |
| “dog jacket sale” | Drive conversions | Promotional landing page or email |
Even with good keyword research, you can still make costly mistakes.
Your SEO growth can fall flat if you’re stuffing keywords, targeting very broad terms, ignoring search intent, or overlooking long-tail queries.
Watch out for these bigger missteps that can hurt your SEO and sales performance.
Many ecommerce sites target similar keywords across multiple pages, leading to keyword cannibalization.
This internal competition prevents search engines from ranking any page.
Plus, it confuses shoppers by showing them irrelevant pages from your site.
Prevent this by mapping these terms to varying search intent and your product hierarchy.
For instance, a camping equipment retailer can follow this map:
Here’s what correct and incorrect keyword mapping looks like:
Each page on your website serves a different purpose in the conversion funnel. Keyword mapping reflects this hierarchy.
Prepare better: Use our free Keyword Mapping Template to prevent any costly mistakes.
Many ecommerce brands make the rookie mistake of using only transactional keywords.
Sure, “buy board games for children under 10” sounds like a great keyword.
But you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t target other search terms across the buyer journey.
Optimize your website to take buyers from discovery to purchase.
This would include:
Keyword research helps you understand exactly what buyers want and meet them where they are.
The result?
More qualified traffic, easier conversions, and, ultimately, higher revenue for your ecommerce store.
Use our free Keyword Research Planner Template to follow this guide effortlessly and create a strong strategy.
And when you’re ready to level up your SEO strategy, check out our in-depth guide on ecommerce SEO to make your store search-ready.
The post 6 Proven Steps to Master Ecommerce Keyword Research appeared first on Backlinko.
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