“It’s often the primary piece of information people use to decide which result to click, so it’s important to use high-quality title text on your web pages.”
Our research backs that up.
We analyzed 11.8 million Google search results and found that most first-page results include some or most of their target keyword in the title tag.
In other words, a clear title tag that uses the keyword is your ticket to the first page.
But simply ranking isn’t enough.
Even if your page shows up in the search results, it won’t matter unless people actually choose to visit it.
That’s why your title tag also needs to be human-friendly. It’s your one chance to win the click.
That’s more than 10x fewer clicks and a massive difference in traffic.
So, a strong title tag doesn’t just help your page show up in search results.
It also encourages more people to click on your link, which can help your page move even higher in the rankings.
Side note: Our CTR study was conducted in 2019. With the introduction of AI Overviews and other SERP changes, click patterns have evolved. However, the core principle remains: higher positions still attract significantly more clicks than lower ones. For the latest on how search is changing, see Semrush’s 2025 AI Overviews Study.
There’s one more reason title tags in SEO are so important:
If you get the title wrong, Google might just rewrite it.
Likely to get rewritten. Also just annoying for readers.
Better:
“Email Marketing Guide for Beginners (2025 Edition)”
Front-loaded keyword, used once, in a natural way.
Want to try it out yourself?
Here’s an AI prompt you can use to incorporate these rules when writing your title tag:
You are a digital marketing specialist focusing on SEO and content strategy.
Your task is to craft a title tag that is clear, clickable, and offers context to enhance search engine ranking and user engagement.
Approach this step-by-step:
1. Determine the primary topic or keyword of the page to ensure the title is clear and relevant.
2. Use power words or emotional triggers to enhance the clickability and engagement of the title.
3. Naturally integrate the primary keyword to provide context, avoiding keyword stuffing.
Adhere to these guidelines:
1. Keep the title concise and between 50–60 characters.
2. Avoid vague or generic language that fails to clearly convey the page’s content.
3. Balance keyword usage with readability and natural language.
Keyword is: [INSERT YOUR KEYWORD HERE]
For example, for the keyword “marketing strategy,” ChatGPT gave me:
Marketing Strategy Guide: Build a Plan That Gets Results
Proven Marketing Strategy Tips to Grow Your Business
How to Create a Marketing Strategy That Works
Effective Marketing Strategy Examples + How to Use Them
Marketing Strategy Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Approach
Not bad for a few seconds of work, right?
Optimize Your Title Tags for Search Engines
You need titles that both Google and humans love.
These optimization tips help search engines understand and rank your content higher.
1. Match Your Title to What People Are Searching for
Before you write your title tag, look at what’s already showing up in Google for your keyword.
This helps you understand what searchers want and what kind of content Google is rewarding.
Here’s how to do it:
Google Your Keyword
Type your keyword into Google and look at the top 5–10 results.
Look for Patterns
Are most of the results lists?
That usually means people are exploring or comparing their options. Try a title like “Top 10…” or “Best Tools for…”
Do they include the current year?
People want the latest updates. Add the year to your title to show it’s fresh.
Are the pages explaining a concept?
People are looking for information or education. A title like “What Is X? [+ Examples]” works well.
Do you see a lot of tutorials?
People want a walkthrough. Go with a how-to title like “How to Do X Step-by-Step”.
When your title matches what people are looking for, they’re more likely to click. And Google is more likely to show your page.
2. Keep It Short
If you go too long, you risk Google rewriting it.
If you go too short, you miss an opportunity to engage your readers.
When we analyzed 4 million search results, we found that titles between 40-60 characters have the best click-through rate.
Titles in this range get 8.9% more clicks on average.
So, that’s a good starting point. But here’s what really matters:
Google truncates title tags based on pixels (the actual width of the letters), not characters.
Around 580–600 pixels is the max width before your title gets cut off.
And on mobile, titles often get truncated even earlier.
So while ~40–60 characters works most of the time, it’s not guaranteed.
Want to check your title before hitting publish?
Use a free tool like the Mangools SERP Simulator. Just make sure to switch it to mobile view first.
Readers (usually) read from left to right, so the keywords will stand out to them
One exception here:
For listicles, it’s often better to lead with the number.
Think “5 Powerful AI Tools for Content Creation” rather than “Content Creation Tools: 5 Powerful Options.”
It gives readers a clear idea of what to expect.
4. Give Each Page a Unique Title Tag
Google doesn’t like duplicate or boilerplate titles:
“Titling every page on a commerce site “Cheap products for sale”, for example, makes it impossible for users to distinguish between two pages.
Long text in the <title> element that varies by only a single piece of information (“boilerplate” titles) is also bad.”
So if you duplicate your SEO title tags (or just change a single word), you’re more likely to have them rewritten.
Instead, take a moment to craft a unique title tag for every page.
One that accurately reflects the content and intent of that specific URL.
Pro tip: Skip your brand name in most title tags. It often shows up anyway and can count as duplicate content. If you include it, add it at the end with a dash, colon, or pipe.
5. Match the Title to the Content
Simple, but important.
Your title has to accurately reflect what’s on the page.
Google might rewrite your title if it doesn’t match your content.
More importantly, you’ll annoy your readers, and they’ll bounce right off the page.
Also, remember to be specific, not vague.
Generic titles like “Home” or “Services” don’t help readers know what they’ll see if they click.
6. Vary Your Title and H1 Tags
If your title and H1 are identical, you’re missing an opportunity to hit additional keywords.
Plus, you’ll typically want to use the title tag to say what the page is about, and the H1 to get more detailed or conversational.
For example:
vs.
The title tag is contextual and clickable. It includes a number, a benefit, and a clear topic.
The H1 tag is more conversational and reader-friendly. It’s aimed at people who already know what’s on the page.
You can also include multiple variations of your keywords (e.g., “email marketing tips,” “email campaigns,” “email marketing”) without repeating yourself.
Once the audit is complete, go to the “Issues” tab and type “title tag” into the search box.
The tool will show you a list of issues related to title tags — like duplicates, titles that are too long, or ones that match the H1 exactly.
Click on the issue to see the list of affected pages.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
You can also use Screaming Frog to spot title tag issues.
Download the free version of the app (available for Windows, Mac, or Linux). Then, follow the installation steps.
Open the tool, type your homepage URL into the search bar at the top, and click “Start.”
Screaming Frog will begin crawling your site. This can take a minute or two.
Once the crawl is done, click “Page Titles” to see a full list of your website’s title tags.
Use the filter dropdown or look at the “Issues” column to find problems.
Watch the Right Metrics
Here are the numbers to keep track of:
CTR: If you update a title and your CTR jumps, it’s probably working. You can check this in your Pages report in Google Search Console.
Impressions without clicks
This means you’re showing up in search results, but nobody’s clicking. Go back to the 3Cs. Is it clear, clickable, and contextual?
Ranking changes
If a page drops in search rankings after a title change, maybe Google doesn’t like the new version.
Or, maybe you’ve missed the user intent this time round.
Try this: Want to see if your new title works better? Pick one underperforming page, change the title tag, and track the CTR in Google Search Console over the next few weeks.
If clicks go up (and rankings stay steady), the new title is probably stronger.
Steal These Winning Title Tag Formulas
Writing title tags from scratch every time? No, thank you.
Below are three proven formulas that we use at Backlinko to craft headlines that stand out.
List or Number Formula
Formula: X [Unique Adjective] [Topic]
Why it works: Lists provide clarity and set expectations but need unique adjectives to grab attention.
The Keyword-Colon Formula
Formula: [Content Topic]: [Actionable promise]
Why it works: Directly addresses the topic and hooks the reader with an actionable promise.
The Keyword-Question Formula
Formula: [Keyword Question]? [Promise]
Rationale: Answers the reader’s question head-on and draws them in with a clear benefit.
Need More Ideas?
We analyzed 150+ real title tags from top-ranking SEO content and combined that with AI-trained insights from thousands more.
The result?
Over 50 proven, plug-and-play formulas you can use to boost clicks and match search intent — no guesswork required.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-05-14 15:55:292025-05-14 15:55:29Title Tags: How to Write Them (+ Steal Our Formulas)
You’re setting goals. Publishing content. Reporting on growth.
But deep down, you’re still asking: “Are we aiming too high? Too low? Are we even on track?”
That uncertainty is normal — but it’s also a signal that you need an SEO forecast.
At Backlinko, we do SEO forecasting throughout the year. We use it to map planned content, track production costs, and project traffic and revenue gains.
This approach lets us prioritize effectively. Pivot when content underperforms. And build lasting trust with our stakeholders.
As Leigh McKenzie, our Head of SEO puts it:
“Forecasting is hard, and imperfect, but it’s essential. It forces you to tie effort to outcome. And to build trust, we always present a range (best case, expected case, and failure case), not just a single optimistic projection. That honesty helps us make better decisions — and earn buy-in.”
This guide gives you two proven forecasting methods.
Plus, a spreadsheet to project SEO traffic in minutes, right now.
Just upload your site’s performance data from Google Search Console (GSC), and this SEO forecasting tool will do the calculation for you:
If you’re the kind of person who learns best by doing, you don’t have to wait. Jump right in with our forecasting template.
If your site has at least 16-24 months of traffic data, statistical trend analysis is the most reliable way to forecast growth.
Why?
Statistical trend analysis relies on your actual traffic data. Not guesswork, not keyword volume projections, but how your site has performed over time.
It’s also the most technical method.
Normally, this kind of forecasting would require time series modeling or scraping in Python.
But to make it more accessible, we’ve built a custom SEO forecasting spreadsheet that handles the math for you.
Based on similar past campaigns, you estimate this could boost your organic traffic by 20-30%.
So, you enter +30% in the Aggressive Adjustment field.
Now imagine the opposite:
Budget cuts slow down content production, or your writer’s on leave.
You’d weigh that in and enter, let’s say, -15% in the Conservative Adjustment to reflect that slowdown.
If you’re not sure what numbers to put in these fields, here are some places to start:
Past internal data: Look at traffic lift from similar initiatives (e.g., “last time we launched 10 blog posts, traffic increased by 18% in two months”)
Operational inputs: Fewer resources, delayed launches, or technical issues? Model that in with a -10% to -20% dip.
External benchmarks: Use data from tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or industry studies to inform your assumptions (e.g., “content updates to your competitors’ sites led to +15% traffic on average”)
Even if your percentages aren’t perfect, the act of modeling a range makes your forecast stronger and way more reliable.
How to Present Your SEO Forecast
A clear presentation turns your traffic projections into a strategic tool. One that you can use to align your team, make a case for investment, or guide quarterly planning.
Here’s how to present it effectively:
1. Start with a Visual Overview
Begin with a chart that shows your traffic forecast over time — whether that’s based on keyword data or historical trends.
Why lead with a visual?
Charts turn raw numbers into a clear story. They show trends, dips, and momentum at a glance. Like this:
And this helps stakeholders understand where you’re headed without having to dig into spreadsheets or data tables.
The goal is to answer this question at a glance: “What kind of growth are we expecting, and how confident are we in that number?”
If you’re using our spreadsheet template, the built-in dashboard does this for you:
You can:
Share your screen and walk through the forecast live
Take a screenshot of the chart and summary and paste it into a report or slide deck
Export the chart as an image to use in a strategy doc
Pro tip: If you need something more advanced or reusable, you can recreate the chart in Google Looker Studio — a free tool for building custom reporting dashboards.
If you’re using Semrush to estimate traffic potential for new content, you can still visualize it.
Let’s say you’re targeting the “memory foam mattress” topic and want to target the following keywords:
Create a new Sheet and enter your keywords and potential monthly visits. A simple one, like this:
Then, insert a bar chart to show estimated traffic per topic with potential traffic on the x-axis and each keyword (or topic cluster) on the y-axis.
Like this:
Note: This gives you and your stakeholders a quick way to see which topics are worth prioritizing. And how much they might contribute to your organic growth.
2. Frame It Around Business Outcomes
Don’t just show how traffic might grow.
Show why it matters, too.
In your presentation, lead with:
The expected growth potential
What content or actions will drive that growth
How it supports high-level goals like lead generation, revenue, or product visibility
The clearer the link between SEO activity and business outcomes, the easier it is to get support and alignment.
3. Connect Your Forecast to Potential Revenue
While traffic forecasts are powerful, tying them to business results makes them even more persuasive.
If you want to show potential ROI, you can estimate how much revenue your forecasted traffic might drive using a simple formula:
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-05-14 15:45:422025-05-14 15:45:42How to Do Realistic SEO Forecasting Step-by-Step (+ Template)
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.
How to Identify Keyword Stuffing on Your Site
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.
Manual Calculation
Old-school, but it works:
Count how many times your target keyword appears in your content
Divide by your total word count
Multiply by 100 to get the percentage
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.
Manual Assessment
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:
Would I write this way if SEO wasn’t a factor?
Does this content feel valuable and informative?
Would real people enjoy reading this?
If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” it’s time to revise.
WordPress Plugins
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.
On Page SEO Checker
Want a smarter, more in-depth look at keyword usage on your pages?
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:
“Running shoes cheap”
“How to train dog fast”
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.
6. Spread Out Keyword Usage
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.
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.
Fix the Issues
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:
Rewrite keyword-stuffed content: Focus on clarity, depth, and user intent. Cut repetition and use natural phrasing and keyword variations.
Remove hidden keywords: If you used any black hat tactics, such as white text on white backgrounds, keyword-stuffed alt tags, or hidden links, remove them from your site
Upgrade the content: Check that each page meets search intent, thoroughly covers the topic, has meaningful information gain, and includes E-E-A-T signals. Like high-quality sources, author expertise, and expert insights.
Audit your site: For best results, consider following the above steps for every page on your site (if possible) — not just the ones Google flagged. This may improve your chances of getting the penalty removed.
Request a Review
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:
What caused the issue
The exact steps you took to fix it
The outcome of your efforts
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.
Stop Stuffing. Start Optimizing.
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.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-05-12 16:07:492025-05-12 16:07:49What is Keyword Stuffing? How to Avoid Doing SEO Like It’s 2005
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.
1. Buffer
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:
Facebook
Instagram
Threads
TikTok
LinkedIn
YouTube
X/Twitter
Pinterest
Google Business Profile
Bluesky
Mastodon
Here’s what I love about Buffer:
Manage Your Content Workflow with a Built-in Kanban Board
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.
Create a Custom Link in Bio Page
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.
Stay Consistent with a Weekly Posting Goal
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.
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
2. Planable
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:
Facebook
Instagram
X/Twitter
LinkedIn
TikTok
Google Business Profile
YouTube
Pinterest
Threads
And here’s what I love about Planable:
Collaborate with Your Team in Real-Time
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:
Stage 1: Content team creates the post and adds a caption
Stage 2: Design team steps in to finalize visuals
Stage 3: The client gives final approval before the post goes live
Once the client approves the content, you can:
Automatically schedule the post to publish at the assigned time (or keep manual control if you prefer)
Lock the content to prevent last-minute edits or accidental changes
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.
Manage All Your Marketing Content in One Place
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.
Organize Your Content into Campaigns
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:
Keep internal notes (like your campaign objective, key results, and what content the campaign should include)
Organize all launch-related posts and visuals for future posts
View when each post is scheduled to go live with the calendar view
Check consolidated analytics across multiple platforms
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
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
3. SocialBee
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:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
X/Twitter
TikTok
YouTube
Pinterest
Google Business Profile
Bluesky
Threads
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:
Build a Content Strategy with AI Copilot
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:
Create Evergreen Content Categories
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.
Turn Links Into Posts
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.
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
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 Canva, Unsplash, and GIPHY integrations for visuals
4. Canva
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:
Instagram Business Page
Facebook Page
X/Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Tumblr
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:
Schedule Posts Right From the Design Dashboard
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.
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
5. Hootsuite
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:
Facebook
Instagram
X/Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Pinterest
TikTok
WhatApp Business
Threads
Here are my favorite Hootsuite features:
Automate Instagram DMs with Comment Keywords
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?
Turn Social Conversations Into Sales
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
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
6. Sprout Social
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:
Facebook
Instagram
X/Twitter
LinkedIn
TikTok
Pinterest
Threads
YouTube
Google Business Profile
Now let’s talk about what I love most about Sprout Social:
Respond to Every Message in One Place
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:
Number of received vs. actioned messages and action rate
Response rate and average time to action
Performance trends across time or by platform
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.
Track and Visualize Performance Across the Channels
Sprout Social gives you two powerful ways to analyze your results:
Cross-network reporting: To track performance across all your social media channels
Profile-specific reporting: To dive deeper into individual accounts (like your Instagram or LinkedIn)
This dual setup helps you see the big picture while still being able to zoom in on the details.
View High-Level Metrics in One Dashboard
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.
Analyze Content with Post Performance Reports
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.
Listen to What Your Audience Is Saying Online
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
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
Ready to Choose Your Social Media Management Tool?
The right social media management tool depends on your content needs and workflow:
Go with Sprout Social if you’re a large team or agency that needs everything in one place, including analytics, collaboration, customer care, and social listening
Pick Hootsuite if your team is focused on lead generation and social selling, and you want powerful CRM integrations and sales automations
Choose Planable if you need advanced collaboration features and want to manage all kinds of content in one place
Go with Buffer if you’re solo or on a small team and want to stay consistent with posting using a simple, organized workflow
Try SocialBee if you want extra help either from AI or a real human handling your strategy and content
Stick with Canva if you’re already using it for design and want a streamlined way to schedule your posts without switching tools
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.
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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.
Find High-Value PPC Keywords Fast
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.
Reverse Engineer Your Competitors’ PPC Strategy
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.
“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.
Get Detailed Insights Into Your Competitors’ PPC Campaigns
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:
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:
A Venn diagram of shared vs. unique keywords
The “Core Keywords” all three are bidding on
“Potential Ad Waste,” which are keywords you’re paying for but no one else is
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 and Cons
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.
Price
SpyFu offers two plans:
Basic: $39/month with limited searches and exports. Best for occasional use.
Professional: $79/month with unlimited access, full history, and API. Ideal for agencies and power users.
Free limited account available
3. Google Ads Editor
Best for bulk editing & offline ad campaign management
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.
Work on Campaigns Offline
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:
Create or pause ads
Edit ad copy, targeting, bids, or URLs
Add new keywords or remove underperformers
Review performance data and account structure
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.
Save Time with Bulk Edits
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 and Cons
Pros
Cons
Saves hours on large-scale edits
Has a bit of a learning curve, so it’s best for intermediate and advanced users
Price
Google Ads Editor is free to use.
4. Optmyzr
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.
Automate Campaign Management and Catch Problems Early
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.
Find the Root Cause of Any PPC Performance Drop
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 and Cons
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
Price
Optmyzr starts at $249/month for accounts spending up to $10K/month. Plans scale with ad spend.
14-day trial available.
5. Adalysis
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.
Get Alerts the Moment Your KPIs Go Sideways
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:
CPA rising above target
Conversions dipping
Budgets maxing out too early
Campaigns suddenly losing impressions
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.
Automate Budget Adjustments
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.
Manual pacing with alerts
Full automation based on performance goals
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 and Cons
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
Price
Adalysis starts at $149/month for up to $50K in monthly ad spend. Pricing increases in tiers based on ad spend.
Free trial available.
6. Google Looker Studio
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.
See the Full PPC Picture
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.
Create Shareable, Client-Ready Reports in Minutes
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:
Share it via a link or scheduled email
Embed it into webpages, client portals, or internal platforms
Set access permissions (view-only, comment, or edit)
Pros and Cons
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
Price
Google Looker Studio is free to use.
7. ChatGPT
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.
Generate Creative Ad Copy Faster
Need new ad copy ideas?
ChatGPT can help you brainstorm faster than you can type “A/B test.”
You can ask it to:
Write multiple ad variations in seconds
Refresh underperforming copy with a new tone
Explore different angles or CTAs
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.
Break Down Competitor Messaging for Strategic Insights
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:
What benefit is this page emphasizing most?
What emotional triggers are being used?
What objections are they trying to overcome and how?
This turns ChatGPT into a strategic analyst.
It helps you understand what’s working for others and how you can do it better.
Pros and Cons
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
Price
ChatGPT has three tiers:
Free Plan: Includes GPT‑4o mini with limited features
Plus Plan: $20/month with access to its most advanced models
Pro Plan: $200/month for unlimited access to all models and much higher usage limits
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.
Find the Right PPC Tool for Your Goals
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
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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.
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.
Which Type of Sitemap Do You Need? (XML vs. HTML)
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 Sitemap Examples
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.
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.
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.
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:
Best Practices for XML Sitemaps
Follow these best practices when creating your XML sitemap:
Each sitemap file should contain no more than 50,000 URLs and be smaller than 50MB (for larger sites, use multiple sitemaps and a sitemap index)
Don’t include duplicate content, redirected pages, or non-indexable pages in your sitemap — this can confuse search engines and waste crawl budget
Only adjust the “lastmod” attribute when you make significant updates to pages (and don’t use it to “fake” content freshness)
Configure your CMS or server to automatically update your sitemap when you make content changes
Note: Many content management systems like WordPress, Shopify, and Wix automatically update your sitemap when you add, move, or adjust pages.
HTML Sitemap Examples
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:
Your website has deep content hierarchies
You run an ecommerce store with many product categories
Users frequently search for specific pages on your site
Your website caters to less tech-savvy audiences who might need navigation help
You don’t need to choose between XML and HTML sitemaps. You can use both simultaneously.
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.
Best Practices for HTML Sitemaps
Here are best practices to follow if you want to create an HTML sitemap:
Logically structure your HTML sitemap to mirror your site’s actual architecture
Use anchor text to describe the linked page and avoid generic labels like “click here” or “read more”
Use consistent indentation, typography, and spacing to show hierarchies
Place a link to your HTML sitemap in your site’s footer so it’s accessible from every page
Update your HTML sitemap when you add or remove content
Visual Sitemap Example
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:
Follow these tips to create a useful visual sitemap:
Limit your visual sitemap to core pages and pathways to avoid clutter
Establish a clear key for what each shape, color, and connector represents (like categories and products, or levels in the hierarchy)
Cluster similar pages together visually to show content relationships (and opportunities for internal links)
Show the intended user pathways through your site to identify potential navigation issues before they become problems
Share your visual sitemap with team members and clients early — it’s much easier to revise a diagram than to restructure a fully-built website
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.
Blog Sitemap Examples
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.
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.
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:
/uk/sitemap.xml
/ca/sitemap.xml
/ca/p/sitemap.xml
/au/sitemap.xml
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.
Best Practices for Blog Sitemaps
If you have a blog, follow these best practices for your sitemap:
List your blog posts in reverse chronological order (newest first) to highlight your most recent content
Group posts by their primary categories to create logical content clusters that search engines can understand
If you substantially update a post, reflect this in your sitemap’s “lastmod” parameter (WordPress plugins like Yoast often do this for you)
Unless your category and tag pages contain unique content, keep them out of your sitemap to avoid duplicate content issues
Ensure the URLs in your sitemap exactly match the canonical URLs of your published posts
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.
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.
Best Practices for Local Business Sitemaps
Sitemaps for local businesses don’t require too much in the way of dedicated best practices.
But you should:
Include your location pages if you have multiple
If you have lots of locations, you may want to categorize them in a separate sitemap file
Make sure to update any key page URLs and add a “lastmod” parameter when you do
Ecommerce Store Sitemap Examples
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.
Ruggable offers thousands of products. But its sitemap index just consists of four simple individual sitemaps covering:
Products
Pages
Collections
Blog posts
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.
Best Practices for Ecommerce Sitemaps
Follow these best practices for your ecommerce sitemap:
Every available product should have an entry in your sitemap
Remove or deprioritize permanently discontinued products to avoid wasting crawl budget
Exclude filter combinations that create duplicate content issues (like sorting options or non-essential URL parameters)
If you serve multiple countries or languages, include hreflang attributes to help Google understand which version to show users in specific regions
For stores with thousands of products, consider creating separate sitemaps for different categories and linking them with a sitemap index
Large Website Sitemap Examples
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.
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:
/en-US/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/pt-PT/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/de-DE/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/fr-FR/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/es-US/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/es-ES/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/en-IN/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/en-GB/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
/en-CA/sitemaps/sitemap.xml
Within each of these, there are yet more sitemaps:
These categorize URLs by things like:
Videos
News
Articles
Forecast types (ten-day, weekend, today etc.)
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.
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:
/PRP-0-index.xml (this contains links to individual listings)
/VIS-0-index.xml (this contains individual listing links along with image links)
/NGS-0-index.xml (this contains all the store pages)
/BROWSE-0-index.xml (these links are for search pages — hence “browse”)
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.
Best Practices for Large Site Sitemaps
Follow these best practices for large sitemaps:
Use a sitemap index file to organize multiple child sitemaps, keeping each under the 50,000 URL and 50MB size limits
Configure your system to automatically generate and update sitemaps when content changes, as manual management becomes impossible at scale
Only include canonical versions of pages
Consider compressing your sitemaps to save bandwidth if you have lots of large sitemap files
SaaS Sitemap Examples
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.
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:
/sitemap-landing.xml: Landing pages
/blog/sitemap.xml: Blog posts
/sitemap-next.xml: Various types of pages, including feature pages, events, and resources
/sitemap-programmatic.xml: Pages ClickUp has generated programmatically
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.
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:
en-au
en-ca
en-gb
en-sg
en-us
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.
Best Practices for SaaS Sitemaps
If you run a SaaS site, do the following to optimize your sitemap:
Prioritize feature and landing pages that target your primary conversion keywords
Include your knowledge base and technical documentation
Organize pages based on where they fit in the customer journey, from awareness to consideration to decision
Exclude pages like dashboards that are behind a login
Remove tracking parameters and unnecessary URL variations to prevent duplicate content issues
Consider implementing hreflang if you target a global audience — but make sure you don’t create any conflicts
Corporate Sitemap Examples
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.
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:
Annual reports
Business contacts
Policies
Declarations
TSMC uses Drupal to create its sitemap. This automatically adds change frequency and priority values, but Google ignores these.
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.
Best Practices for Corporate Sitemaps
If you’re creating a sitemap for a corporate or business website, follow these best practices:
Include important quarterly reports, annual statements, and shareholder information pages to make them more discoverable for search engines like Google
Prioritize press releases, media kits, and company news to support your PR efforts and media visibility
If you have a large global presence, consider using different sitemaps for each regional variation
Don’t include any internal portals or pages that are behind a login
How to Find Issues with Your Sitemap
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:
Sitemap formatting errors
Incorrect pages in your sitemap (like pages with redirects, non-canonical URLs, or URLs with errors)
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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.
What AI search wants from your content
Forget rankings — AI search is about retrievability and clarity. LLMs ingest and parse content based on:
Literal surface-level term matching (yes, keywords still matter)
Structural formatting cues like headings, lists, and bullet points
Clarity of ideas — one idea per paragraph, one purpose per section
Prompt alignment — using the same terminology your audience would use
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.
The Flesch Reading Ease score is more important than ever
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:
Shorter sentences
Simple phrasing
One idea per paragraph
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.
You can find the Flesch reading score in Yoast SEO Insights in your sidebar — this is the score for the post you are reading now
Don’t ignore those green lights (Even when you think you know better)
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:
Subheadings every 300 words = easier segmentation and extraction
Introductory paragraph present = good for AI frontloading
Paragraph length = one idea per chunk, which is LLM-friendly
Sentence length limits = fewer chances for parsing failure
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.
Not every traffic light for individual checks has to be green — just make sure the overall lights are
Structuring for LLMs: A Yoast-assisted framework
If you want your content to get pulled into AI-generated answers, try this simple structure — and let Yoast SEO help enforce it:
Start with a TL;DR or definition: Use short, declarative sentences. Bonus if you can bold the key phrase or structure it as a definition. LLMs love to latch onto clear, answer-style content.
Use subheadings to divide your points: Make sure each section answers one specific question or explains one concept. Headings serve as cues for both readers and models.
Use bulleted or numbered lists: Yoast SEO will warn you if a list is too long without proper formatting. LLMs love well-structured lists because they can be directly extracted.
Echo the query language: Use the exact phrases people search for. This helps the AI match your content to user prompts. Literal matching still matters.
End with a clear summary or CTA: AI often pulls from intros or conclusions. Don’t waste them. Reinforce your main point and point readers toward next steps.
Even if you’re writing complex thought leadership content, this structure ensures your brilliance is actually understood and surfaced.
You don’t need Schema if your structure is clear — but it helps
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:
Logically segmented
Written in plain, direct language
Free of interruptions, overlays, or unrelated diversions
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.
TL;DR: Use Yoast SEO to make your content AI-ready
In the age of AI search, optimization means:
Writing like a human, formatting like a machine
Saying things plainly
Echoing how people phrase questions
Structuring content so it can be lifted and used
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.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-05-07 13:44:312025-05-07 13:44:31How to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools
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.
The Components of a Meta Tag
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:
meta tells browsers and search engines that this is a meta tag
name is an attribute that defines what type of information you’re providing
“description” tells us it’s the description meta tag
content contains the actual information
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:
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.
Why Should You Care About Meta Tags?
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.
They Can Increase Your Click-Through Rates
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.
They Give Instructions to Search Engines
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.
They Improve the User Experience
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.
They Control Social Sharing
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.
They’re One of the Easiest SEO Elements to Optimize
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.
Which Meta Tags Actually Matter for SEO?
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.
Meta Tag Impact Summary
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.
Title Tag
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:
Browser tabs
Search engine results
Social sharing (when you don’t specify an OG title — more on that soon)
How to Optimize Your Title Tags
Keep title tags under 60 characters (or about 600 pixels) to avoid truncation in search results
Put your primary keyword near the beginning (but don’t keyword stuff)
Use a unique title tag for every page on your site
Make it clickworthy to boost CTRs (numbers can help here)
Include the year if recency is key (but make sure it’s up to date)
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).
Robots Meta Tag
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:
noindex: Tells Google not to show this page in search results
nofollow: Tells Google not to follow the links on this page
none: Equivalent to noindex, nofollow
indexifembedded: This lets Google index the content of the page if it’s embedded elsewhere through the likes of iframes (only has an effect if there’s also a noindex rule)
You can also use the robots meta tag to control how your site appears in search results via the snippet rules. These include:
nosnippet: Tells Google not to show a text snippet or video preview in search results
max-snippet: [number]: Tells Google to use a maximum number of characters as the text snippet in search results (a value of 0 shows no snippet, and -1 lets Google decide the snippet length)
max-image-preview: [setting]: This tells Google the maximum size of the image preview for this page in search results (values include none, standard, and large)
max-video-preview [number]: Tells Google to use a maximum number of seconds as a video snippet (a value of 0 means Google will at most show a static image, while -1 means there is no limit)
notranslate: Tells Google to not offer a translation of this page in search results
noimageindex: Tells Google not to index images on this page
unavailable_after: [date/time]: Tells Google not to show the page in search results after the specific date/time
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.
How to Optimize Your Robots Meta Tag
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.
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.
Always use full URLs, including the https:// portion
Ensure your canonical tags match your preferred URL versions (with or without www, trailing slashes, etc.)
The primary version of the page should also have a canonical tag pointing to itself (we call this self-referencing)
For pages with URL parameters, you typically want to canonicalize to the version without parameters
Hreflang 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.
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:
Be careful with the codes you use, ensuring you use the language tag followed by the country value (if needed), like en-us, not us-en
Each language version should reference all other versions
Each page should have an hreflang tag pointing to itself
It’s easy to make mistakes here, so I recommend checking out our full guide to hreflang tags for more information.
Meta Description
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:
Not everyone reads the meta description, so influence over CTR is limited
Google often chooses its own description to show, depending on the query (further limiting the impact)
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:
How to Optimize Your Meta Descriptions
You can optimize your meta descriptions by:
Aiming for 100-120 characters to avoid Google truncating your meta description on mobile devices
Adding a call to action like “Learn how,” “Discover why,” or “Get your free guide” to encourage clicks (but don’t use clickbait)
Making sure your description aligns with what users are actually looking for (the search intent)
Writing a unique description for each page
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).
Viewport Meta Tag
This meta tag ensures your site displays properly on mobile devices. It looks like this:
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.
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:
width=device-width to match the user’s device width
initial-scale=1 controls the default zoom level
Charset Meta Tag
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:
How to Optimize Your Charset Tag
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 and Twitter Card Tags
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 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:
How to Optimize Your Social Meta Tags
Here are some tips to optimize your Open Graph meta tags:
Keep titles and descriptions concise
Your social titles can be different from your SEO titles, so optimize them for shares
Use images with dimensions of 1200 x 630 pixels
Always ensure your og:url matches your canonical URL
Other 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:
http-equiv: You might use this to refresh the page or for meta refresh redirects, but this is rarely the best method to use (you might also use it to define content security policies, but you’re unlikely to need to do this)
robots: You can specify meta tags for certain search engine bots, but most of the time you won’t need to
nopagereadaloud: Tells search engines not to read the page aloud with text-to-speech services
google-site-verification: You may use this when verifying that you own a site for Google Search Console
rating: Use this only for labeling adult content to signal that SafeSearch results should filter it
Here are a few meta tags that Google doesn’t support (and so you probably shouldn’t use):
keywords: A long time ago, you could use this to specify keywords to search engines, but it has no impact on rankings now (don’t use it)
lang: Google doesn’t rely on meta tags to determine the language of a page
next/prev rel attributes: Google doesn’t use these and they won’t affect indexing
nositelinkssearchbox: Google no longer supports this, as the sitelinks search box no longer exists
How to Add or Change Your Meta Tags
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 Meta Tags
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:
Automatically choose the recommended charset value (UTF-8)
Add the default meta viewport tag
Add an image-preview meta tag
Not add any special indexing meta tags (so the site is set to indexable by default — a good thing)
Add a title tag to the page
What it didn’t do:
Set a meta description
Apply a canonical tag
Add hreflang tags (not a problem in this case)
Add Open Graph tags
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:
Shopify Meta 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 Meta Tags
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:
Title tag (based on the page name)
Meta description (it’s blank by default)
Robots (all pages are indexable by default)
Open Graph title and description (your current title tag and meta description)
Canonical tag (will always use the page URL unless you change it)
Squarespace Meta Tags
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:
How to Find Issues with Your Meta Tags
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.
Using Semrush’s Site Audit
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.
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.
Manual Checks with Dev Tools
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.
Optimize Your Meta Tags as Part of Your Technical SEO Strategy
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.
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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.
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.
Understand the Buyer Journey
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.
Discover Micro-Seasonal Trends
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.
Validate Product Opportunities
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.
Types of Keywords You Should Focus On for Ecommerce
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
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:
How to choose running shoes
Best skincare routine for oily skin
Budget-friendly styling tips for small living room
Shoppers use these keywords to compare different products’ features that match their needs.
Commercial keyword examples:
Best laptops for gamers
Top-rated eco-friendly winter jackets
Rothy’s vs. Allbirds everyday shoes
Transactional
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:
Running shoes under $100
Buy a memory foam mattress
Buy noise-canceling headphones
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
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:
Peloton treadmill
Zara winter collection sale
Lululemon Align leggings size chart
Long-Tail Keywords
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:
Top-rated camping tents for families with kids
Affordable stainless steel cookware sets for small kitchens
Best organic baby food brands for sensitive stomachs
How to Conduct Effective Ecommerce Keyword Research
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.
Step 1: Identify Your Core Terms and Customer Language
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:
Check product reviews: Notice how customers share their experience with your products. Find patterns in their language.
Read support tickets: Note down questions or concerns customers frequently ask. Check your support center and email to find these questions.
Monitor social media: Track comments on your social posts, especially questions. Learn how customers talk about your products.
Analyze on-site search: See the terms a prospective buyer searches for on your ecommerce site. These direct queries show exactly what they’re looking for.
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.
Step 2: Generate a Broad List of Seed Keywords
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:
Their awareness level
Their unique pain points
Their budget preferences
The features they care about
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:
Coffee maker
Coffee brewer
French press
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.
Step 3: Categorize Keywords by Buyer Journey
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:
For the “how to” query, Google serves up helpful blogs and videos.
For those looking to buy, the search results are filled with different product options.
Knowing these differences allows you to target people across the entire buyer journey.
Follow this process to map keywords to varying search intents.
Awareness Stage
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.
Consideration Stage
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.”
Decision Stage
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.
Map Your Keywords to Website Pages
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.
Step 4: Research Your Competitors’ Keywords
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.
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:
“Wireless headphones” with 50,000 monthly searches
“Best noise canceling headphones for airplanes” with 1,200 monthly searches
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:
Has a low search volume in the United States and globally
Is fairly competitive with a commercial search intent
Has a low cost-per-click (CPC) value, which indicates the average price advertisers pay for 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:
Low Effort, High Impact: Your quick wins
High Effort, High Impact: Long-term investments
Low Effort, Low Impact: Fill-in opportunities
High Effort, Low Impact: Avoid these
Let’s see this in action with the example of a fitness equipment retailer.
High Effort
Low Effort
High Impact
best home gym equipment
High search volume
High competition
Valuable for brand authority
workout bench reviews
Good search intent
Relatively easy to create comparison content
commercial gym equipment
Valuable B2B opportunity
Requires extensive content
home gym setup ideas
Popular topic
Easily create inspiring content
Low Impact
vintage exercise equipment
Niche audience
Requires specific expertise
gym equipment maintenance tips
Useful for supporting content
Good to build credibility
olympic weightlifting equipment
Very specific audience
Highly technical content needed
how to clean resistance bands
Simple instructional content
Supports post-purchase experience, not revenue growth
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.”
Step 6: Build a Keyword-Focused Content Strategy
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:
Blog posts for information searches
Product pages for transactional intent
Videos or landing pages for commercial terms
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
2 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Ecommerce Keyword Research
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.
Poor Keyword Mapping
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:
“Camping tents” is mapped to a category page with a commercial intent
“Foldable 8-person cabin tent” is mapped to a product page with a transactional intent
“How to choose the right camping tent” is mapped to a blog page with an informational intent
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.
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We’re celebrating 15 years of Yoast, and we can’t celebrate without offering some SEO insights. So, here are 15 SEO essentials to focus on in this year and beyond. Whether you are a beginner or an SEO expert, these tips will help you focus on what’s important right now.
In collaboration with our Principal SEO, Alex Moss
Artificial intelligence is making every part of SEO faster and more efficient, from keyword research to real-time performance tracking. Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs help you plan content quickly and uncover opportunities you might have missed. These platforms use data in new ways to help you improve your strategy based on live trends and competitor changes. Use tools like ChatGPT or Gemini for research, inspiration, coding, and data analysis.
Thanks to AI tools, you can automate time-consuming tasks like technical audits, site crawls, and content analysis. The time you win by doing that helps your team focus on the bigger picture, from setting the strategy, building authority, and creating content that connects with audiences and brings something new to the world.
We’re celebrating 15 years of Yoast this year and have all kinds of nice stuff planned. Of course, we’re also offering a deal on our SEO products. Use coupon code yoast15_gift4you at the checkout for a 15% discount!
In 2025, Google shows more quick answers than ever. You’ll see AI overviews, featured snippets, knowledge panels, People Also Ask boxes, and more. To be featured in those places, your content has to be high-quality and unique, above all, unique – regurgitating what’s already out there won’t cut it. But, it also has to be easy to read and scan. Don’t forget to use lists, highlighted snippets, and concise definitions at the top of your articles.
Keyword research helps you to find the questions your audience is asking. Write clear answers to those questions, making them as concise as possible. Use tools like AlsoAsked to find opportunities to rank even when a user doesn’t click through to your site.
3. Invest in video content
Video dominates search results and offers a good way to diversify traffic sources. The growth of a platform like TikTok shows that many people prefer consuming video content. Create videos that answer questions, demonstrate your products, or explain complex topics. Optimize the videos to make them easy to find, and don’t forget to add a transcript and timestamps to help with indexing and user experience.
Depending on your video strategy, hosting them on YouTube and embedding them on your site can boost engagement and dwell time. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, and building a solid presence there can reach a massive audience.
4. Improve e-commerce SEO
SEO for your products is not just about rankings, but also about conversion. Your product titles and descriptions should naturally include your most important keywords while also sounding persuasive. Don’t forget your category pages! Proper optimization helps customers find what they need. At the same time, you are building a strong internal linking structure.
Structured data is essential for e-commerce stores because it can trigger rich results, highlighting reviews, pricing, and stock status. When done well, these show up nicely in Google, boosting your visibility. Rich snippets make your SERP listings more trustworthy and clickable. Do everything you can to get more traffic and, eventually, more sales. Our Yoast SEO for Shopify app can help your business succeed.
5. Prioritize local SEO
If your business is locally oriented, local SEO should be at the top of your strategy. Keep your Google Business profile updated with opening hours, services, and nice photos. Post regularly about special offers, events, or published blog posts to show you are active and encourage engagement.
Build citations in trusted local directories and get high-quality local backlinks. You should publish high-quality, localized content or case studies from regional customers. This signals that you are active in a geographic area, which could help local search visibility — Yoast Local SEO helps you do this.
6. Improve user experience (UX)
UX and SEO are deeply connected; we all know that. If people can’t use your site, they won’t stick around. Focus on a clean layout with plenty of whitespace and add clear call-to-actions for the user to click on. Make your site load quickly and test it regularly on mobile devices.
Heatmaps, scroll maps, and user recordings made with tools like Hotjar can show where people get stuck on your site. Friction could occur with long loading times, confusing menus, missing CTAs, or other similar issues. Solving these can help reduce bounce rates, increase engagement and conversion.
7. Participate in SEO communities
Joining SEO communities isn’t just about asking for help when facing issues; it’s about much more. Platforms like LinkedIn, X, Reddit, Facebook groups, or SEO forums sometimes offer insights and advice you can’t get anywhere else. Sharing wins, failures, and experiments helps you stay connected to the SEO community and lets you build a name for yourself.
These platforms often surface research, news about Google core updates and warnings about issues some time before becoming common knowledge. News might be shared just early enough for you to take advantage of it before your competitor does. Building relationships can help you get business opportunities, collaborations, or friendships.
8. Optimize for AI discovery
AI tools and chatbots are trained on information from the web, so it’s important to understand how your content is surfaced by large language models (LLMs). These systems, like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, reshape how users uncover information. The results are often served without a way to click to your site. If your brand is not visible in these generated answers, you could be missing out in a growing share of visibility.
Research your topics and content to see how the system responds to your queries and if your content appears in the answers. Audit your content to see if you structured it so LLMs can understand it. Use clear language, be factual, build your topical authority, and use easy-to-understand layouts. Most of all, be sure that the crawlers of the AI services can reach your site without issues.
9. Focus on content pruning
Sometimes, ranking higher isn’t about adding more content to your site; it’s often about cleaning up what you have. Content pruning means removing, merging, or updating poorly performing content. Ancient blog posts that no longer get any traffic, outdated product pages, and thin articles with no value may impact your site’s overall performance.
Start with a content audit using Semrush, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs. Find pages with limited traffic, few backlinks, and poor engagement. You can update these posts if you have enough insights to add. If they’re no longer relevant, merge them into a single, more authoritative page. If nothing works, delete and redirect. Keep your site lean and focused to improve the overall quality and authority, which also helps you fix keyword cannibalization.
10. Implement structured data markup
Part of SEO is making your site easy for crawlers and search engines to understand. Structured data markup is one of the best ways to tell Google what your pages are about. With the correct schema items, you can highlight things like product prices, event dates, business locations, recipes, and more.
Plugins like Yoast SEO make this process much easier. Start with your most important pages and products, select the proper schema, and fill in the details needed. Once you have the basics done, you can expand it to more complex structured data if needed.
11. Keep focusing on mobile
If you’ve been living under a rock, you might have missed that today’s world is all about mobile. We’ve been spending more and more hours glued to our mobile phones. So, having a perfect mobile site is no longer an option. Make sure that it adapts to all screen sizes, that the buttons work, and that no nasty pop-ups overlay the screen.
Test your site often in various browsers on Apple and Android devices. See if it offers a great user experience. If not, fix it. Fixing even small accessibility issues or loading performance can greatly impact user satisfaction.
12. Create helpful, people-first content
Google is no longer just rewarding keyword-optimized pages, but genuinely helpful, people-first content. Your articles should satisfy user intent by providing clear, trustworthy and actionable information. Instead of writing the same things everyone has already done, create unique content that informs, solves problems, and adds value for your readers.
When thinking about your content, ask yourself the questions that Google recommends: “After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?” and “Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and depth of knowledge?” If your content doesn’t do any of these things, you might need to rethink it. Focus on things you know well, avoid clickbait and write for your readers, not search engines.
13. Optimize for Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals gives you a sense of your site’s health, especially with speed, responsiveness, and visual stability. They measure three main things: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which looks at loading performance. The second is Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which shows how quickly your site responds to user actions. The third one is Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which checks for unexpected layout shifts when your page loads. Google uses these metrics to determine whether your site gives a good user experience.
You can monitor your Core Web Vitals in Google PageSpeed Insights, Search Console, or Lighthouse. Improvements you can often make include optimizing images, using faster hosting, reducing reliance on JavaScript, and setting proper dimensions for media. Test your site often to see if your improvements improve the user experience.
14. Diversify content formats
Not everyone wants to read a 2000-word blog post. Some people enjoy graphics, videos, or podcasts. You can quickly repurpose your content in various formats, instead of starting over every time.
Doing so makes your site more interesting for readers and search engines alike. Adding helpful videos to articles or offering downloadable checklists or research reports makes your content more appealing.
15. Always stay updated
In SEO, change is a constant. There are algorithm updates, new AI features emerge, and best practices change. It’s a lot, so staying up to date with the news is essential. Follow reliable sources like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Roundtable, the Yoast SEO newsletter, or our monthly SEO update to get the needed insights.
Plan some time every week to read up on SEO news. Join the conversation whenever you feel like it. Use the new insights to improve your strategies. Sticking to last year’s strategy will not cut it if your competitors are faster to adapt!
15 SEO tips for 15 years of Yoast
Here’s to 15 years of Yoast and 15 more years of helping the world rank better. Whether you’re launching your first site or revamping your SEO strategy for the AI age, it doesn’t matter — we’ll help you succeed.
Which SEO tip do you swear by in 2025? Please share it with us on our social media platforms (X, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram), or in the comments below.
http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png00http://dubadosolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dubado-logo-1.png2025-04-29 11:43:102025-04-29 11:43:1015 years of Yoast: 15 SEO tips for 2025 and beyond
