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15 Marketing Ideas for Your Small Businesses (+ Free Checklist)

Your small business doesn’t need a huge budget to get noticed.

In 2025, the most effective marketing doesn’t come from expensive ad campaigns or complicated funnels.

It comes from authentic content that connects with your audience.

Take Edeles Candles, for example.

This handmade candle brand has nearly 90K TikTok followers and 500K likes.

TikTok – EdelesCandles videos

How did a small business get this kind of exposure?

By posting simple behind-the-scenes videos of candle-making.

No fancy production or big teams. Just engaging content that reaches thousands of potential customers every week.

@edeles.candles Demolding the Hourglass Candle. ✨ Better late than never, happy second Advent. 🫣🕯️ #candleshop #edelescandles #naturaldecor #candlemaking #candlediy #homedecor #demolding #demoldingvideo #wax #candle #handmade #smallbusinessowner #candlelover #candlelight #asmr #candleideas #christmascandle #giftideas ♬ Originalton – EdelesCandles

And TikTok is just one path.

In this article, you’ll find 15 marketing ideas for small businesses that drive real results.

Each one is broken down by effort, impact, and budget. So, you can choose the ones that fit your resources and goals.

Bonus: Many of the ideas are free or low-cost.

Helpful resource: Download our free Small Business Marketing Checklist to stay organized as you implement these strategies. It includes a notes section to help you plan next steps as you read.


Let’s start with one of the top tactics for small businesses — video.

1. Grab Attention with Short-Form Videos

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate High Free to low

Short-form video is hands down the best marketing idea for small business owners in 2025.

Especially if you want to increase brand awareness.

Why?

Because platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are specifically designed to push your content to people who don’t follow you.

This gives you a chance to get discovered even if you don’t have an existing audience.

For example, Toasted Mallow, a gourmet marshmallow shop, got over 1 million views on TikTok.

And they did it by sharing a no-frills look at how they make their treats:

@toastedmallow Cookie dough filled marshmallows!! #elfitup #pushin🅿️ #socialshopping #foodtiktok #music #dessert ♬ Lost – Frank Ocean

You could do something similar, no matter what you sell.

Think quick tips, transformations, or behind-the-scenes peeks. The key is posting content that’s authentic and valuable.

YouTube – Apple Cheeks grab attention

Pro tip: Use trending audio from TikTok, Reels, or Shorts and targeted hashtags to show algorithms your content is timely and boost your reach.


Not sure which platform to start with? Go with the one your audience already uses the most.

And don’t worry about fancy equipment. Use your phone camera and film near natural lighting for the best results.

Add engaging captions, voiceovers, and sound effects with tools like CapCut.

It’s beginner-friendly and makes your videos look polished without pro editing skills.

2. Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate High Free

If you have a local business, optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) is one of the easiest (and most important) ways to help customers find you.

This is because it can majorly boost your visibility in Google Maps and local search results.

Like when someone types “car wash in jacksonville” and sees prominent listings like this:

Google SERP – Car wash in Jacksonville – Businesses

This kind of exposure can lead to more foot traffic, phone calls, and bookings.

But only if your profile is fully optimized.

Keep your info accurate and complete. Include business hours, address, website, and service areas.

Island Time Car Wash Jacksonville Florida – Contact details

Add high-quality photos that are helpful to customers and inspire confidence.

For example, post action photos and show the outside of your location so it’s easy to find.

Example of post action photos

And don’t forget reviews.

Signals like your average rating, number of reviews, and how recent they are all affect local SEO and buyer trust.

Google Maps – Car wash Jacksonville – Ratings & Reviews

Make it a habit to ask for reviews after a positive experience, and respond to every one.

(Yes, even any negative comments you get, too.)

3. Create Helpful Website and Blog Content

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate to high High Free to high

Attract your ideal customer with content on your website and blog that answers users’ questions.

This improves your chances of ranking organically and capturing steady traffic.

Use tools like Google Autocomplete, Semrush, or AnswerThePublic to uncover what your audience is asking.

Google SERP – What to wear under a dress shirt – People also ask

Then, create content that answers those questions.

(While subtly introducing your product or service as the fix.)

Use AI writing tools to speed up content creation.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other tools can generate briefs, outlines, and content of all kinds.

Here’s a sample prompt to get started (the more details, the better):

Write a [blog post/social media caption/email newsletter] about [your topic] for [target audience – include their biggest challenges or goals]. Keep the tone [professional/conversational/friendly] and focus on [key benefit/solution]. Include [relevant examples, statistics, or case studies]. Make it [word count/length] and end with [specific call-to-action].


Heavily edit the draft for accuracy, brand voice, and your expertise.

Done right, a single blog post can become your hardest-working salesperson.

For example, Leigh McKenzie, Backlinko’s head of Growth, uses content to promote his ecommerce brand, Underfit.

Using Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, Leigh identifies the search terms people type into Google to find products like his.

Like “what to wear under a dress shirt” and “types of undershirts.”

Keyword Magic Tool – What to wear under a dress shirt – Keywords

Then, he creates content that directly answers those queries.

Like this blog post on what to wear under a dress shirt, which includes comparison tables and fabric tips.

Underfit – Blog post

It also subtly directs readers to Underfit’s products with a banner that includes trust signals.

Language like “get your money back” gives prospects the confidence to buy.

Underfit – Get your money back

4. Use SMS to Instantly Reach Customers

Effort Impact Budget
Low Moderate Low to moderate

Want to grab your customers’ attention fast? Text them.

With open rates as high as 98%, SMS is one of the most effective ways to promote offers or send reminders.

It works especially well for service-based businesses where timing matters.

Like salons, restaurants, clinics, fitness studios, and local shops.

Salon survey text

The key is to keep it short, clear, and genuinely useful. SMS isn’t the place for long messages or hard sells.

Smart ways to use SMS include:

  • Flash sales or last-minute discounts
  • Appointment reminders or confirmations
  • Shipping updates or order status
  • VIP-only offers or restock alerts
  • Event reminders or holiday hours

Smart ways to use sms – Event reminder

Test what types of messages drive the most engagement.

And always ask for SMS opt-in at checkout and include an easy way to unsubscribe.

5. Encourage Customers to Share Their Experience on Social Media

Effort Impact Budget
Low Moderate to high Free

One of the easiest ways to build trust? Ask your customers to share their experience.

Called user-generated content (UGC), this is when customers organically share photos, videos, or reviews about your brand.

This creates authentic, unpaid social proof that builds trust and boosts visibility.

Many people will be happy to post about your products online — they may just need a little nudge.

  • Add a short, friendly request in your post-purchase email
  • Offer a small incentive, like a discount on their next order
  • Encourage customers to tag you on social with a branded hashtag
  • Include a review prompt on your thank-you or packaging insert

For example, let’s say you run a ceramic shop. When someone buys a handmade mug from your brand, include a thank you card that says:

“We’d love to see how you use your mug! Tag us @CozyClay and use #MyMorningMug to be featured.”


This simple prompt can inspire unboxing videos, photos, or short video reviews — all of which are great for reshares.

Once you start receiving tags, repost customer content, and comment on the posts. This helps you connect with your customers and further your reach.

For example, Sol, a beach beanie bag company, has a dedicated “You” Highlight on Instagram:

Instagram – Sol Summer Club – You

It features tagged Stories from real customers using their products at the beach.

This works as a social proof and a visual guide for new buyers.

Sol – Instagram stories from customers

6. Partner with UGC Creators

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate High Moderate

While UGC is created organically by customers, UGC creators are paid to make content for your brand.

The best part? They don’t come with the influencer price tag.

Pro tip: You’ll pay around $150 to $300 per video for UGC creator content (some creators accept free products as an incentive). In comparison, you’d pay $1,250 to $2,500 for a macro-influencer (100K to 500K followers) and $2,500+ for a mega-influencer (500K+ followers).


UGC creators produce content (like unboxings, demos, or testimonials) that you own and can use across your marketing channels.

This includes ads, social media posts, or landing pages.

The benefit? Content that feels genuine while giving you complete control over where and how it’s used.

Here’s how to get started:

  1. Decide what kind of content you need — e.g., product demo, lifestyle use, review, testimonial
  2. Find creators on platforms like Influee and Billo
  3. Clarify deliverables and usage rights
  4. Post on your socials or use in paid ads

For example, HiZoo, a massage device brand, partnered with a UGC creator who filmed herself trying their product for the first time.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by HiZoo (@hizooco)

In the video, she shares genuine reactions about how the product feels and works.

The content feels like a real customer review, not a polished ad. Which encourages likes and comments.

Instagram – Real customer review – Likes & comments

This gives the brand an opportunity to build trust and credibility (and sell more products).

Use a tool like Modash to find creators who’ve already posted about similar products to yours — they’re more likely to say yes and nail the tone you want.

7. Use AI Chatbots to Promote Your Business 24/7

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate Moderate to high Free to low

Never miss a lead or lose a customer to long wait times.

AI chatbots help you deliver instant, personalized support 24/7.

And happier customers = more sales.

Whether on your website or social media channels, chatbots make sure you’re always available to answer questions, remove buying friction, and close sales.

Chatbots can:

  • Answer FAQs
  • Take orders
  • Book appointments
  • Recommend products
  • Escalate customer service issues

You can even build a bot that sounds just like you.

Upload your service descriptions, common responses, and FAQs to tools like Tidio or Manychat.

This allows you to create a chatbot that mimics your tone and expertise.

Manychat – Chatbot

For example, Attendant, a UK coffee chain, is a great example of how businesses of all sizes can use chatbots to reduce customer service inquiries.

While improving customer service at the same time.

Attendant – Chatbot

The chatbot offers instant answers to common customer questions.

Like “are your cafes dog friendly” and “when do you end serving breakfast.”

Attendant – Chatbot question

It’s like cloning your best customer service rep, minus the payroll.

8. Collect Prospect Info with Lead Magnets

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate High Low

A lead magnet is a free resource you offer in exchange for someone’s email. Like a discount, template, or ebook.

When done right, it attracts high-intent leads who are more likely to buy over time.

Here’s how to make it work:

  • Solve a specific problem. Think budgeting template, skincare quiz, or a free sample tied to your product
  • Make it a natural extension of your offer. Sell time-tracking software? A “Weekly Productivity Planner” is a perfect match. Run a meal prep business? Offer a “3-Day Healthy Eating Kickstart.”
  • Promote it everywhere. Homepage banners, blog posts, social captions, link in bio, and pop-ups. Mention your lead magnet in any social media videos you create — and don’t forget to add a link to it in the caption or comments.

For example, Budget With Mel, a personal finance blogger, offers a free budgeting template on her blog.

Users provide a first name and email address to access the template.

Email signup form

Since the template was pre-filled with formulas that auto-calculate totals, the value is instantly clear to the user.

All they have to do is plug in numbers to instantly see where their money’s going.

It’s frictionless, helpful, and directly tied to her paid offers.

Monthly – Paycheck budget

9. Create an Email Newsletter

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate Moderate Free to low

A monthly or weekly email newsletter is one of the easiest ways to stay connected to your audience.

Whether you have an ecommerce business or own a boutique, your newsletter can become a go-to resource that builds loyalty over time.

Share helpful tips, seasonal offerings, behind-the-scenes updates, and promote your products or services.

So, how do you get started?

Email marketing tools like Kit and Mailchimp offer customizable newsletter templates that make it easy to send professional newsletters.

(Without the need for design skills.)

Mailchimp – Newsletter templates

Set a recurring send date (like every Tuesday) and stick to it.

This way, subscribers know what to expect.

Maintain your brand voice when writing your newsletter. And consider adding personalization to your strategy as you get more advanced.

Pet supplement brand Adored Beast Apothecary’s newsletter is a great example of how to mix education with subtle promotion.

For example, this issue opens with fun, educational content on dog behavior.

This keeps pet owners engaged and builds trust. Even if they’re not ready to buy something right away.

Adored Beast – Newsletter

They also include links to additional content about common pet health issues.

By driving traffic back to their site, they extend the customer journey and increase the chances of a future sale.

And position themselves as a reliable expert.

Newsletter – Pet care

The newsletter ends with a short product section recommending relevant supplements.

It’s a smooth transition from education to solution. (So it feels helpful rather than pushy.)

Newsletter – Your Adored Beast Will Love

10. Turn Reviews and Testimonials into Visual Proof

Effort Impact Budget
Low to moderate Moderate Free to low

Got happy customers?

Turn their praise into visual content that does the selling for you.

Collect reviews from emails, DMs, social media comments, or your Google Business Profile.

Or ask a happy client to record a 30-second selfie-style video.

Then, share these testimonials on your social media accounts. Like the owner of popular TikTok account Destiny Media Marketing does.

To promote her business, she collects client reviews and turns them into persuasive carousel posts.

TikTok – Destiny Media Marketing – Client reviews

She also shares short testimonial videos.

Like this one from a satisfied client who left her a glowing review about her services.

@destinymediamarketing Thank you so much Katie Grace Films 🤍 #clienttestimonial #websitedevelopment #webdesign #websitedesign #videographer ♬ original sound – Priscilla Marketing Specialist

Pro tip: Create a dedicated Instagram Story Highlight called “Happy Customers” or “Reviews” so new visitors can immediately see social proof when they visit your profile.


11. Share Visual Content on Pinterest

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate Moderate to high Free to low

Pinterest is a hidden gem for generating sustained traffic to your small business website or online store.

A single, well-optimized Pin can continue driving clicks and conversions for months (or even years).

Take Budget With Mel as an example.

One of her top traffic sources is Pinterest.

Traffic Analytics – Budget With Mel – Top Sources

So, how is she making this platform work for her?

By sharing simple yet valuable infographics that link to her blog.

This helps funnel targeted readers directly to her content.

Funnel target readers directly to content

Most importantly, her blog has a lead magnet that turns visitors into email subscribers.

This means she’s not just getting one-time visitors — she’s building a list of potential customers she can reach again and again.

Email signup form

Here’s how to replicate Mel’s success:

  • Create valuable Pins: Turn your best tips, products, or blog posts into eye-catching visuals using a template-friendly design tool like Canva
  • Organize strategically: Set up boards by category (like “Budgeting Tips” or “Gift Ideas”) to make your content easy to find
  • Optimize for search: Include relevant keywords in your Pin titles and descriptions — people search Pinterest like Google
  • Drive traffic: Link every Pin to a blog post, lead magnet, or product page to convert browsers into customers

12. Amplify Your Reach by Boosting Your Social Posts

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate High Flexible

If your social media post already gets a decent engagement — saves, likes, comments — that’s your cue to boost it.

You can do this on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest.

LinkedIn also supports boosting, but only from company pages, not personal profiles.

And even a small budget can help your top-performing posts reach more people without driving up costs.

Scrappy Gardeners – Boost button

This approach is more effective than boosting random posts.

Why? Because you already know the content resonates with your audience.

How to start:

  • Choose a social media post that’s performing well organically
  • Set a daily budget (even $5-$10 per day can work)
  • Target based on location, interest, and behavior
  • Let the ad run for a few days before making any tweaks

But don’t just boost ads.

Promote a mix of content, like blog posts, how-to videos, product highlights, and behind-the-scenes clips.

Prioritize posts that feel authentic and aligned with your brand voice.


Pro tip: Need a little help creating engaging social content? Tools like Semrush’s AI Video Marketing Automator and AI Social Content Generator turn your blog posts into short videos and social posts in seconds — no video editing or design experience required.


13. Create a Loyalty Program That Feels Personal

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate High Low

Small, thoughtful touches can turn one-time buyers into loyal fans.

Start with a simple reward system (digital or physical) that feels fun and easy to use.

Think stamps, punch cards, or online progress trackers.

After five or 10 purchases, offer a reward that feels like a win: a free drink, a low-cost product (under $5), a bonus add-on, or early access to something new.

The key? Make it feel personal and let customers see how close they are to earning their reward.

Bonus points if you personalize it with their name, preferences, or purchase history.

Loyalty program

For example, a toy store owner explained on Reddit how they created “instant repeat customers” with a playful loyalty program.

Reddit – Toy store owner's explanation

Kids earn pirate coins and vinyl stickers with each purchase. After five coins, they trade them in for a free toy.

It’s low-cost, but it works because it feels personal, rewarding, and fun. (And the adults like it, too!)

Reddit – Toy store owner comment

14. Build Trust and Authority on LinkedIn

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate High Free

LinkedIn is one of the best places to build credibility and attract clients.

Especially if you sell services, offer consulting, or work with other businesses.

Why?

Because it puts you in front of decision-makers actively looking for business solutions.

But success on LinkedIn isn’t all about pitching your services.

It’s about consistently sharing helpful, real-world insights that show you know your stuff.

LinkedIn – Taylor Scher – Trust and Authority

Over time, this positions you as a go-to expert.

And turns your content into a client acquisition tool that works even when you’re not actively prospecting.

Here’s how to get started: Pick one to two topics you want to be known for.

And post at least once a week.

Share industry-relevant stories, lessons, business updates, or tips.

LinkedIn – Daniel Korenblum – Content as client acquisition tool

Still don’t know what to post?

Use ChatGPT or Claude to draft LinkedIn post ideas from your blog content.

Prompt it with the following:

Turn this blog post into a conversational first-person LinkedIn post with a story-driven hook.


But don’t just post your own content. Comment meaningfully on industry posts, too.

LinkedIn – Meaningfully comment on industry

This showcases your expertise and gets you noticed by potential clients.

15. Co-Host Lives, Webinars, or Giveaways

Effort Impact Budget
Moderate Moderate Free to low

Want fast reach without paying for ads? Team up with a creator or business that shares your target audience.

Co-hosting a live, webinar, or giveaway helps you both get in front of new, relevant followers.

To make it work:

  • Choose a partner in your niche or local community (but not a direct competitor)
  • Bring something valuable: a quick tutorial, product demo, Q&A, or prize
  • Plan your next step: What should viewers do after? Follow you? Sign up? Claim an offer?

Promote it ahead of time on both profiles. During the event, keep it lively, helpful, and interactive. Answer questions and encourage participation for the best results.

For example, if you have a B2B audience, you could team up with an expert or company in your space to host a short, high-value webinar.

Like a 30-minute how-to or industry trends Q&A.

LinkedIn – Profile SEO Sherpa

Have a B2C small business? Co-host a giveaway with a like-minded brand (or three).

To boost reach, ask participants to follow both accounts and tag a friend to enter.

Instagram – Co-host a giveaway with a like minded brand

Turn These Small Business Marketing Ideas into Results

You don’t need a big team or a big budget to make progress.

The most effective marketing plans start with a few smart tactics tailored to your audience and goals.

Pick three quick wins you can knock out this week:

  • Post a behind-the-scenes Reel with trending audio
  • Ask one happy customer for a review or photo
  • Boost a blog post or product on Facebook

Then, keep the momentum going.

Collect emails with a simple lead magnet or share helpful tips in a monthly newsletter.

Small, consistent actions like these build trust and drive real results over time.

Ready to get started? Download our free Small Business Marketing Checklist to prioritize your top tactics and track your progress.


Next, read our small business SEO guide to learn how to build authority and improve your online visibility.

The post 15 Marketing Ideas for Your Small Businesses (+ Free Checklist) appeared first on Backlinko.

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How to Create an SEO Report That Wins Trust (and Budgets)

Most SEO reports go unread.

Or, worse — they get skimmed, misunderstood, and ignored.

But knowing how to create an SEO report that demands attention can change everything.

It’s not just a performance recap.

It’s a strategic tool that helps you build trust with decision-makers. Win bigger budgets. And keep your SEO efforts on track.

In this article, you’ll learn how to:

  • Create SEO reports that people actually read (and act on)
  • Tie SEO performance to business goals
  • Highlight wins and uncover growth opportunities

Free resource: Download our SEO Report Template. It has ready-made sections for tracking key metrics, visualizing performance, and presenting clear next steps.


What Is an SEO Report and Why Is It Important?

An SEO report is a tool for measuring performance and shaping strategy.

It tracks key metrics like traffic, rankings, and conversions.

Then, connects them to business outcomes, opportunities, and priorities.

A strong SEO report helps answer:

  • What changed?
  • Why did it happen?
  • What should we do next?

Why SEO Reporting Is Important

For example, let’s say you run SEO for a workplace furniture ecommerce company.

You notice a spike in traffic and rankings for your category page on ergonomic office chairs.

Here’s how a useful SEO report would break that down:

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Keyword Rankings

It’s a clear, focused snapshot that distills the data into what improved, why it happened, and why it matters.

How to Create an SEO Report That Drives Results

Too many SEO reports dump data without insight.

Traffic, rankings, and top pages might look impressive — but they don’t tell the full story.

And without context, stakeholders are left guessing.

The best SEO reports connect the dots. They tie performance to business goals, spotlight what’s working, and make the next move obvious.

Here’s how to build one that actually drives results:

How to Create an SEO Report in 4 Steps

Step 1: Determine the Stakeholders

Before pulling data or building charts, get clear on who you’re reporting to.

Knowing your audience should shape your whole report, from the SEO stats you’re using to how you communicate them.

Ask yourself:

  • Who will read this?
  • What do they know about SEO?
  • Who will be making the decisions?
  • What decision do I want them to make?

And here’s one more that’s just as important:

Have I asked what metrics actually matter to them?

A quick conversation can surface priorities that no dashboard will show you.

From there, tailor the format, metrics, and language accordingly.

(This is where many SEO reports go sideways — too much data, not enough direction.)

Here’s a quick breakdown of how to match your audience to your data and format:

Stakeholder What They Care About What to Show Format Tips
CMO / Exec Revenue, ROI, brand authority Conversions, organic-assisted revenue Keep it short, visual, and business-focused
Marketing Team / Managers Channel performance, goal tracking Traffic trends, keyword growth, top pages Include takeaways and next steps
Product Team Feature discovery, UX gaps Search query trends, on-page feedback Highlight qualitative insights and opportunities
Small Business Client Clear wins, reviews, local visibility Local rankings, top queries Use plain language and short summaries

For example, if your primary audience is a CEO or CMO, you probably wouldn’t lead with details about unindexed pages or on-page engagement time.

Likewise, a report for a small business owner with zero SEO background shouldn’t be packed with complex metrics or jargon.

They need simple wins, clear summaries, and next steps they can act on.

Pro tip: When your SEO report serves multiple audiences, prioritize what matters most to decision-makers — like ROI, growth, and performance. Then, layer in tailored insights for other teams (product, content, dev, etc.) in separate sections or an appendix.


How to Report to Non-SEO Audiences

Working with clients who don’t speak SEO?

You can help them level up their knowledge by translating industry terms into easy-to-understand language.

Add simple explanations to your reports and introduce new concepts one at a time.

Refine Your SEO Report

Here are three ways you can do this in your SEO reports:

1. Include key takeaways to clarify complex points.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – SERP Visibility

2. Add links to educational resources on SEO concepts.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Technical SEO

3. Add short videos with explanations of the client’s data or performance.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Content

Step 2: Decide Which Metrics Matter Most

Start with the key SEO metrics every report needs, no matter the audience.

Metric Why It Matters
Conversions Connects SEO to real business results. Key for proving SEO ROI.
Organic traffic + engagement (including click-through rates and average position) Shows how well your pages attract and keep search visitors — great for spotting what’s working.
Organic impressions Highlights search visibility and signals growth or dips in core topics
Keyword trends (rankings, top non-branded keywords) Shows what’s gaining traction and where to focus next. Helps spot cannibalization or decay.
Backlink profile health Keeps tabs on link trust and growth. Important for authority.
Technical health Identifies site issues that hurt SEO. Vital for maintaining crawlability and indexability.
SERP features Tracks special placements that boost visibility (e.g., featured snippets, video results, or shopping carousels)
LLM visibility Shows brand mentions and citations in AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — key for influence in AI-driven discovery.

You can find the majority of your must-have metrics in SEO tools like Google Search Console (GSC) or Semrush.

Add-On SEO Report Metrics

Once you’ve covered the essentials, you can layer in additional metrics depending on your team’s strategy and goals.

 
If you’re prioritizing: Include metrics like:
User engagement Scroll depth, bounce rates, dwell time, and GA4 engagement metrics
Topical authority How well your content ranks for key themes
E-E-A-T signals Mentions, expert authorship, branded searches, trust indicators (e.g., social shares)
Content library ranking efficiency What % of your pages rank in the top 10 to guide pruning or reinvestment.

Further reading: Curious about some of these add-on metrics? Check out our guides on bounce rate and dwell time.


Step 3: Turn Raw Data Into Actionable Insights

Raw data doesn’t drive decisions — clear stories do.

Knowing how to create an SEO report means turning numbers into narratives.

It needs to clearly tell a story around these questions.

  • Is our SEO strategy working?
  • What changed?
  • Why did it change?
  • What should we do next?

One of the best ways to tell the story is through time-based comparisons.

Show how SEO performance has changed month-over-month (MoM), quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), or year-over-year (YoY).

Highlighting changes over time makes it easier for stakeholders to spot trends. And understand why they matter.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Conversions

For most SEO teams, the challenge isn’t collecting data. It’s translating it into context stakeholders care about.

Raw numbers might make sense if you’re inside the tools every day.

Organic Research – Backlinko – Overview

But executives and cross-functional teams need more than charts. They need meaning.

The best reports go beyond what changed. They explain why —and connect the dots to business impact.

Like this:

Metric Increase Might Mean Decrease Might Mean
Organic traffic + engagement (CTR, avg. position) Higher rankings or better-optimized content Rankings drop or poor user experience (UX)
Organic impressions More visibility in search Lost rankings or SERP features
Keyword trends New or improved keyword rankings Declining rankings or outdated content
SERP features tracking Gaining authority in SERPs Dropped from features or lost relevance
Conversions SEO traffic is converting better Traffic mismatches or UX issues
Backlink profile health More quality links or mentions Lost links or declining authority

Translate percentages and numbers to what actually happened:

  • What new pages were published?
  • Did your development team ship technical fixes?
  • How many backlinks were earned?
  • Are algorithm changes or seasonal searches a factor?

Most importantly, link the SEO impact to business terms.

For example, let’s say your top product page jumped from position No. 9 to No. 3.

In the same month, inbound demo requests doubled.

That’s not just a ranking improvement. It’s a signal that higher visibility on the right terms is driving qualified traffic.

In this case, the takeaway isn’t just “rankings are up” — it’s that SEO is contributing directly to revenue growth.

Step 4: Showcase the Results

A great SEO report doesn’t overwhelm your reader — it guides them.

It frames wins. Flags issues. And makes the next move crystal clear.

Executive Summary

Start with a snapshot that shows where things stand.

The Executive Summary gives a high-level view of key metrics and overall performance trends.

So, stakeholders can get the big picture fast.

Keep it sharp and clear. Spotlight what’s working, what’s driving it, and where to go from here.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Executive Summary

Performance Metrics

This section covers your core SEO performance data — like traffic, rankings, keywords, and backlinks.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Organic Traffic

Include context and key takeaways.

When showcasing trends, show the progress over time, not just one-off wins.

And use visuals as much as possible.

Charts, graphs, and annotated screenshots really can make your performance insights pop.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Backlinks

Next Steps

What needs to be tackled next?

Here’s your chance to include those thoughts for your stakeholders.

Include clear, actionable recommendations, like a fresh SEO audit or doubling down on high-performing content.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Next Steps

Appendix

This optional section includes deeper data for teams, stakeholders, and ongoing projects.

It helps keep the main report focused, while still delivering the context others may need.

Backlinko – SEO Report Template – Appendix

Bonus move: Once your report is done, record a short walkthrough to present it. It’s a great way to highlight key takeaways, explain the big picture, and guide stakeholders through anything they might overlook.


Mistakes to Avoid in Your SEO Report

Even with the right data, your SEO report can still fall flat if it’s hard to interpret, misaligned with business goals, or missing a clear takeaway.

Here are some common mistakes to avoid — and how to fix them.

Reporting Data Without Context

Don’t just drop data into your report. Make it meaningful.

Show how it relates to business goals and your site’s overall SEO performance.

For every metric, briefly explain what it means, why it matters, and what action it might prompt your team or your client to take.

Reporting Data Without Context

Surfacing Issues Without Providing Solutions

Reporting on every issue isn’t helpful unless it impacts your site’s SEO performance.

For example, say you note that a group of pages are experiencing index issues.

Include a hypothesis on why this is happening and how you might recommend fixing it.

Surfacing Issues Without Providing Solutions

Listing Every Keyword Ranking

A full list of keyword shifts (especially minor ones) can bury your most important wins.

Instead, spotlight high-impact keywords — non-branded terms driving traffic or tied to revenue pages.

Listing Every Keyword Ranking

Including Every. Single. Page.

Reporting on every page creates noise, not insight.

Focus on the top 10 pages for organic traffic, or spotlight the top page in each key topic cluster.

Including Every Single Page

Ignoring Business Outcomes

Your report might show SEO progress. But, does it show business progress?

Tie your work to signups, revenue, pipeline, brand visibility — whatever matters to your decision-makers.

Ignoring Business Outcomes

Telling, Not Showing

You shared the data. But did you explain the story?

Use visuals, comparisons (e.g., MoM or QoQ), and commentary to walk the reader through what changed, why, and what’s next.

Telling, Not Showing

Show the Impact. Earn the Buy-In.

SEO reporting isn’t just about checking a box.

It’s your opportunity to show impact, earn trust, and steer strategy.

Surface insights that get stakeholders aligned and excited about what’s possible.

Want to make it easier on yourself?

Download Backlinko’s free SEO report template to create reports that stand out and get results.


The post How to Create an SEO Report That Wins Trust (and Budgets) appeared first on Backlinko.

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The SEO KPIs That Actually Matter (And How to Track Them)

Proving the value of your SEO efforts can seem like an uphill battle.

What’s the cheat code to getting buy-in from stakeholders?

Tracking the right SEO KPIs. Not just the default ones in your dashboards. But the right metrics.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose and monitor SEO KPIs that actually mean something. I’ll show you:

  • What makes an SEO metric a true KPI (and what doesn’t)
  • Which SEO KPIs matter most and why
  • Which emerging KPIs to track in the era of AI Overviews and LLM search
  • How to select KPIs based on your goals and maturity stage

What Are SEO KPIs? (And What They’re Not)

SEO KPIs are key performance indicators that tie your optimization efforts directly to business outcomes. They measure whether or not your SEO strategy is achieving its overall purpose.

On the other hand, SEO metrics are more broad. They include all the available data you could monitor in SEO tools and analytics platforms.

But here’s the thing:

Just because you can measure a bunch of different metrics doesn’t mean you should treat them all as KPIs.

SEO Metric SEO KPI
Organic traffic Demo signups from organic traffic
Bounce rate Engagement on the page based by page type
Backlinks Topical or brand authority growth

Why You Need to Measure the Right SEO KPIs

Measuring your SEO KPIs over time is how you prove your SEO work is moving the business in the right direction.

Tracking the right KPIs can help you:

  • Uncover blockers early: If conversions are dipping even though your traffic is increasing, you may have a content or UX issue.
  • Make better decisions: Knowing which actions moved the needle (and when) helps you repeat tactics that work and avoid the ones that don’t.
  • Discover much-needed pivots: Monitoring KPI-linked performance data makes it easier to adjust content, targeting, and resource investment.

SEO KPI Feedback Loop

Let’s take a look at the KPIs that most effectively show how SEO is moving the business forward.

SEO KPIs That Prove You’re Doing Your Job

Which KPIs you choose to measure should reflect where your business is going and what SEO is expected to deliver along the way.

So, not all of the KPIs below are your KPIs. They depend on your specific business model, SEO maturity, and desired outcomes.

With that in mind, we created a free SEO KPI planner to help you build your own custom SEO KPI system.

Backlinko – SEO KPIs Planner Worksheet

This worksheet is a brainstorming tool. It will help you connect your SEO actions to the KPIs you need to monitor to hit your business goals.

It’ll also help you avoid common mistakes like:

  • Overreporting vanity metrics (e.g., rankings without conversion context)
  • Ignoring conversions altogether
  • Treating all SEO metrics as your SEO KPIs
  • Failing to communicate SEO gains in terms the business cares about

Side note: Your KPIs might shift over time depending on whether you’re building brand awareness, driving conversions, or trying to improve user experience and engagement on the page. Use this planner to keep track of things as your business goals evolve.


Conversion and Revenue KPIs

You should track conversion or revenue-related KPIs no matter what stage of SEO investment you’re in.

Why?

Because these are the metrics most clearly tied to your larger goals of lead generation and revenue impact. In other words: goals that drive business growth.

KPI Definition Why It Matters How to Measure Example
Organic-assisted conversions Conversions where organic search appeared in the user’s journey, even if not the final touchpoint Shows SEO’s role in the full customer journey Attribution paths report in GA4 Tracking how often organic content influences purchases (even when social or paid channels get last-click credit)
Demo or trial signups Number of demos or trial signups attributed to organic search Indicator of lead generation from SEO Event tracking in GA4 with source segmentation Monitoring improvements in signups after implementing new content strategy
Form opt-ins Email signups and contact form submissions from organic traffic Measures mid-funnel conversions Event tracking in analytics; form analytics tools Comparing form completion rates across different landing pages
Revenue from organic traffic Earned revenue from organic search visitors Measures SEO ROI Ecommerce tracking in analytics; CRM integration for B2B Determining quarterly organic revenue to justify increased SEO investment

How to Track These KPIs

You’ll need to configure a tool like Google Analytics to track these types of SEO metrics based on your unique needs or goals.

For example, using the Attribution paths report to track organic-assisted conversions:

Attribution Paths Report

And the Key events feature to track conversions and signups:

GA – Traffic Acquisition – Key events

A Note on Tying SEO KPIs to Revenue

There’s some debate in the SEO community about KPIs that tie into business revenue.

I’ve had this discussion with marketing leaders many times:

Should you consider revenue-based SEO KPIs when determining if SEO efforts are successful?

Just take a quick afternoon stroll in the r/SEO subreddit, and you’ll encounter wildly different opinions regarding the tie between revenue and SEO performance.

Some will tell you that revenue-based KPIs are the only ones that matter:

Reddit – Revenue based KPIs

Others will tell you that all that matters is where you rank:

Reddit – Where you rank

They’ll argue that KPIs based on revenue impact are unfair because an SEO team doesn’t control sales team outcomes, brand messaging, product improvements, or conversion rate optimization (CRO).

But:

You’re performing SEO to help the business gain online visibility and drive growth. As long as your KPIs are linked to these broad goals, they’re worth tracking.

Visibility and Awareness KPIs

SEO KPIs related to visibility and awareness are worth tracking if you’re trying to grow a brand.

But we’d argue they’re now essential for all brands to track — no matter the growth stage.

Why?

Because AI Overviews and other AI tools have changed the game. It’s no longer just about ranking at the top of Google. Being included in AI responses is going to become an increasingly important factor in your SEO success.

For example, here’s the SERP for “what’s the best crm”:

Google SERP – What's the best CRM

Notice how the “top” result is an AI Overview that immediately tells the user a few examples of CRMs.

Salesforce and HubSpot would never rank top for such a competitive term on their own. Appearing in an AI Overview gives them a new way to instantly appear as the right choice for a user searching for this term.

How do you increase your chances of appearing in these responses?

By boosting your brand visibility (among other things).

The specifics of how you can do that are a topic for another article. For now, here are some important SEO KPIs you can use to gauge your overall brand visibility:

KPI Definition Why It Matters How to Measure Example
Organic impressions Number of times your website appears in search results viewed by users Indicates overall search visibility and potential reach Google Search Console impressions data Tracking impression growth in targeted categories following content expansion
Branded search Searches for your brand name and variations Indicates brand awareness Google Search Console; Semrush’s Domain Overview (useful for comparing to competitors) Measuring correlation of TV campaign on branded search volume
SERP feature ownership Visibility in featured snippets, knowledge panels, People Also Ask boxes etc. Indicates growing authority signals SERP feature tracking tools, like Semrush Position Tracking Monitoring featured snippet acquisition after implementing FAQ schema

How to Track These KPIs

You can use Google Search Console to monitor organic impressions:

GSC – Backlinko – Performance – Total impressions report

You can also use it to track branded search visibility:

GSC – Backlinko – Queries table

To monitor SERP feature ownership, you can use Semrush’s Position Tracking tool. It shows you which SERP features you appear in for your custom-tracked keywords.

Position Tracking – Backlinko – Domain ranks drop-down

Note: A free Semrush account lets you track up to 10 keywords. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.


Who Should Use These KPIs?

Visibility and awareness KPIs usually include metrics that measure larger goals of brand visibility and authority building. While they’re worth tracking for all brands, they’re particularly important for:

  • Early-stage and growth-stage orgs that prioritize brand authority investment
  • A small business that just started investing in SEO and marketing
  • Established sites that have seen a noticeable decline in branded search

Engagement and Behavior KPIs

You’ll want to monitor engagement and behavior KPIs once you’re past the initial investment in SEO and into stages of SEO growth or maturity. You’re getting decent traffic, and now you want to optimize the site to better engage that traffic.

KPI Definition Why It Matters How to Measure Example
Click-through rate (CTR) Percentage of impressions that result in clicks to your site Indicates relevance of content to search intent Google Search Console CTR metrics Monitoring CTR improvements on pages with new title tags
Scroll depth / engaged sessions How far users scroll; sessions with on-page engagement Measure of content relevance and quality GA4 engaged sessions Measuring engagement for mid-funnel pages after content restructuring
Pages per session Average number of pages users view during a session Indicates content interest and sufficient site structure Analytics platforms (GA4 calls it “Views per session”) Analyzing the effectiveness of updated internal linking strategy
Average engagement time Time users spend actively engaging with content Indicates how well content engages and keeps users interested GA4 engagement time Determining which topics on the site hold user attention to guide content strategy
On-page “hot spots” Visual indicators of where users focus attention Reveals actual user behavior Heatmaps and click maps (using tools like Hotjar, VWO) Monitoring where and when users drop off

How to Track These KPIs

GA4 has a lot of built-in ways to monitor KPIs related to user behavior and engagement:

GA – Reports – Engagement – Overview

But you’ll need to use a specialized tool like Hotjar to monitor more granular page engagement:

Hotjar – Heatmaps

Who Should Use These KPIs?

Your team should measure engagement and behavior KPIs to monitor progress toward goals related to lead generation, revenue impact, and authority building.

Here are a few example scenarios where you’d want to measure these KPIs:

  • SEO teams that focus on driving up on-page engagement
  • Businesses that need to determine which content topics are resonating with their audience
  • Organizations that have built a content library but are noticing underperformance
  • Any team facing low conversion rates with no obvious cause

Authority and Ranking Power KPIs

If topical authority or share of voice drives your strategy, track these ranking-power KPIs:

KPI Definition Why It Matters How to Measure Example
Referring domains or backlinks Number of external websites linking to your site External signal of site authority Semrush Backlink Analysis and Backlink Audit Benchmarking authority backlinks earned from digital PR campaign
Ranking content percentage Portion of indexed content ranking in target positions Indicates content quality and optimization effectiveness SERP tracking tools with position filtering (like Semrush Position Tracking) Monitoring content library pages ranking in positions 1-3 for target topics
Share of voice in key topic clusters Visibility compared to competitors for core topic areas Shows topical authority and competitive position SERP visibility tools, like Position Tracking Measuring share-of-voice compared in core topics after content refresh
Average SERP ranking positions Average position of rankings across tracked keywords Overall indicator of search visibility Google Search Console; rank tracking tools with averaging capabilities Benchmarking growth in top SERP rankings over time for core keywords

How to Track These KPIs

You’ll generally need more specialized tools to track these KPIs. Semrush’s Backlink Analytics shows lots of metrics about your site’s authority.

These include total numbers and trends of backlinks and referring domains:

Backlink Analytics – Backlinko – Overview

Rank tracking tools like Semrush’s Position Tracking can help you work out the percentage of your key content that ranks in target positions. And you can even get at-a-glance data about your share of voice:

Position Tracking – Backlinko – Share of Voice

Finally, use Google Search Console to track your average ranking positions at the page or query level:

GSC – Backlinko – Queries – Average position

Who Should Use These KPIs?

Authority and ranking power KPIs are important for teams working toward brand visibility and authority building goals. Examples include:

  • Organizations that prioritize backlink and digital PR investment
  • Teams that are investing in growing their topical authority or increased topic ownership
  • Established sites that have organic visibility but want to outpace competitors

Emerging SEO KPIs for the AI Era

So much has changed in SEO since the introduction of AI and LLM-based chat and search functions.

And with all this change comes the need to adjust how we monitor SEO success for our stakeholders, teams, and clients.

If you want to show up at key AI-powered search moments, start tracking these new KPIs for AI mentions and visibility:

KPI Definition Why It Matters How to Measure Example
LLM mentions Frequency of brand/product mentions in AI response outputs Indicates visibility in the growing AI search ecosystem Manual testing; Semrush AI Toolkit Monitoring increased brand mentions via LLM models after implementing structured data
AIO visibility and inclusion rate Presence in Google’s AI Overviews Critical for visibility in AI-enhanced SERPs Manual tracking; Semrush Position Tracking Benchmarking growth in AIO optimizations for high-value queries
Topic authority Demonstrates the relevance of your domain to the topic of a selected seed keyword Indicates potential for ranking in key topic areas SEO tools with topical authority metrics, like Semrush; custom scoring Determining increased authority in specific targeted topics
LLM-driven traffic Visitors coming from AI search channels Measures impact of AI tools as a new traffic channel GA4 with source identification; UTM parameters Using GA4 and/or UTM tagging to monitor organic traffic from LLMs

How to Track These KPIs

Tracking AI mentions is still a bit tricky at the moment. You can see some referral traffic from sites like ChatGPT in your Google Analytics account:

GA – Traffic Acquisition – Session source / medium

But monitoring your brand’s inclusion in AI Overviews might be easier than you think.

Using Semrush’s Position Tracking tool, you can filter keywords by those for which you rank in the AI Overview:

Position Tracking – Ebay – Overview – SERP Features menu

How to Choose the Right SEO KPIs for Your Business

Now that you know what SEO KPIs you could track, you need to connect the dots between your business goals and the SEO metrics that matter most.

Use these four approaches (alone or combined) to zero in on the KPIs that matter most to your team.

Four Ways to Choose SEO KPIs

1. Align KPIs to Your Business Model

The way your business operates has a direct impact on which metrics signal success.

For example, a local HVAC service provider and a global SaaS company won’t measure SEO wins the same way.

Here are a few examples of how you might prioritize SEO KPIs based on different business models:

  • Small ecommerce site: Focus on revenue per organic visit, product page visibility in SERPs, and even top-of-the-funnel indicators like newsletter opt-ins or coupon searches.
  • Startup SaaS platform: Track branded search growth, demo or free trial signups from organic visits, and the performance of long-tail, solution-focused keywords.
  • Service-based businesses: Monitor metrics tied to future conversions, like free consultation forms, quote requests, and engagement indicators like page views per session.
  • Local businesses: Prioritize local visibility KPIs like Map Pack presence, Google reviews, and organic visits from users in your service regions.

Pro-tip: There is no one-size-fits-all SEO KPI list. Determine the goals that are important to your clients, stakeholders, marketing leadership, and adjoining teams, and then decide on the ones you’ll monitor over time.


2. Map Your Audience’s Search Journey

To fuel real growth, map out how your audience moves through their search-to-buy journey. Then, focus on the KPIs that matter most to monitoring the goals you want to achieve.

Where is your audience in the search journey

Think through the following questions:

  • Where does your audience search at different points of the journey? Are they using Google, TikTok, Instagram, ChatGPT?
  • How does your target audience search for your product or service? Are they typing in problem-based queries or searching by brand?
  • Are they using Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) to make decisions, or do they largely ignore them?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can map out where your brand needs to be seen by your target audience.

Let’s say you have a complex product and your audience has a long sales journey, and they do a lot of research before they make their final decision via several channels.

Impressions across different search platforms, branded search increases, and on-page engagement would be better KPIs than immediate organic conversions or form opt-ins.

Alternatively, imagine your audience is high-intent, they don’t use LLMs as part of their search journey, and your site focuses on providing only bottom-of-funnel content. In this case, you’d want to focus on CTR and organic conversion metrics.

3. Define Strategic Business Outcomes

Your KPIs should reflect business outcomes you expect your strategy to influence.

I like to think of this in four major types of strategic SEO goals:

  1. Brand visibility
  2. Lead generation
  3. Revenue impact
  4. Authority building

SEO KPIs to Track by Goal

4. Match KPIs to Your Site’s SEO Maturity

You’ll also need to consider your KPIs based on your site’s SEO maturity stage.

If you’re in the early stage of SEO investment, you’ll want to zero in on:

  • Content production goals: Report on the number of new blog posts or landing pages published per month.
  • Keyword rankings: Track how many of your target keywords break into the top 20 search results.
  • Visibility growth: Monitor the overall increase in impressions and clicks.

But if you’re further along in your SEO strategy?

Shift your focus from visibility to impact and trust.

If you’re in the advanced stages of SEO investment, rather than just asking “What’s improving?” ask yourself things like:

  1. How many pages rank in the top 10 from our entire content library?For example, if only 10% of your pages rank on page 1, you’ll want to monitor the topic clusters where you’re weakest and set a KPI to improve those over time.
  2. Which pages or topics convert best and why?Let’s say you have a post that drives five demo signups per month, but another page in a different topic cluster drives zero. As you work to better optimize your pages, track demo signup growth by topic to gauge improvement.
  3. Where do we see the least engagement?For example, if you’re experiencing high impressions but low average time on page in one particular topic cluster, your content may be missing the mark. Set a goal to optimize those pages and ensure you’re tracking on-page engagement as a KPI to determine which actions move the needle.

Track the Right SEO KPIs to Get Real Results

Now that you know what KPIs to track (and which metrics to ignore), you’ll want to do the following:

  • Do a KPI audit: Are you tracking what really matters? Use the SEO KPIs planner to help you decide on the right ones for your business or client.
  • Set a review cadence: Monitor your KPIs weekly, monthly, or quarterly based on your goals.
  • Evolve as you grow: Your KPI mix should mature with your SEO strategy. You’ll measure different KPIs in year one of your SEO efforts vs. year three.

This will help you drive real SEO results. Results that grow your business and show your clients the impact of your SEO efforts.

Free resource: Remember to download our free SEO KPI planner to set yourself up for success.


The post The SEO KPIs That Actually Matter (And How to Track Them) appeared first on Backlinko.

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Programmatic SEO: What It Is and When to Use It (+ Examples)

Imagine if your website could rank for every single keyword related to your niche.

That’s the promise of programmatic SEO.

It’s how Tripadvisor creates “Things to Do in” pages for countless locations across the globe…

Tripadvisor – Things to Do in – Collage

…and ranks for almost 100K keywords featuring the words “things to do in”:

Organic Research – Tripadvisor – Keywords

But the reality is more nuanced. It’s not a magic trick that’ll instantly drive traffic.

And we’ve seen programmatic plays go wrong countless times (more on that below).

The real differentiator nowadays isn’t the ability to create thousands of pages. It’s whether those pages actually deserve to rank.

In this guide, I’ll show you when programmatic SEO works, when it doesn’t, and how you can build your own winning programmatic SEO strategy.

What Is Programmatic SEO?

Programmatic SEO, also referred to as pSEO, is the systematic creation of content at scale using templates and data to target thousands (sometimes millions) of related search queries. The goal is to drive traffic and revenue through these automatically generated pages.

Put another way:

You create landing pages at scale to rank in lots of search results.

In traditional content marketing, you create individual articles targeting specific keywords. With programmatic SEO, you automate page creation based on patterns in search behavior.

Each page uses the same template structure, layout, and core elements. The only things that change are the keywords you’re targeting.

Keywords

You use automation to spin up hundreds or thousands of variations. Each one targets different long-tail keywords with relatively low competition.

The goal is to drive traffic, build authority, and generate revenue for your business — at a volume you couldn’t replicate manually.

4 Successful Programmatic SEO Examples

Use the programmatic SEO examples below to get inspired and understand how to spot patterns that make good candidates for programmatic campaigns.

Note: Some of these sites have millions of pages, and they often run across multiple different types of programmatic SEO efforts. As a result, the number of pages and traffic figures are estimates. But they should still give you a good idea of what is possible when pSEO works well.


1. Wise

Card 1 – Wise

Wise is a global financial platform that helps users send, spend, and receive money internationally.

You’ll see Wise as a common example of programmatic SEO in action, generally for their currency converter pages. But most discussions on the topic don’t properly convey the true scale of Wise’s pSEO play.

The total number of currency converter pages across Wise’s domain (including across different global subfolders like /gb/ and /us/) is a whopping 8.5 million.

Not tens of thousands. Millions of pages. That all look like this:

Wise – Currency converter

How do I know there are that many?

Because Wise’s main sitemap index contains 170 individual sitemaps for the currency converter pages alone (it starts at “sitemap-0”):

Wise – Currency converter – 170 individual sitemaps

And each of those contains 50K individual URLs (except the last one, which has just under 47K):

One Wise sitemap contains 50k individual URLs

All of which are indexable and canonicalized:

Wise – Currency converter – Page URL & code

That includes the variants for specific currency amounts.

That’s right, Wise has created a bunch of pages for various currencies that are prefilled with common amounts of currency to convert. Like “2,000 Maldivian rufiyaas to New Zealand dollars.”

And they rank:

Google SERP – Currency convert – Wise

In fact, Wise ranks for tens of thousands of related keywords, including 36.5K that include the word “convert”:

Organic Research – Wise – Keywords

Wise’s currency conversion pages demonstrate the difference between valuable programmatic content and thin content.

Each page (like USD to EUR) includes real-time rates, interactive calculators, historical charts, bank comparisons, and transactional capabilities. Not just basic templated text with a CTA.

Their pages solve real user problems rather than merely existing to capture keywords.

But that’s not the only way Wise uses programmatic SEO. They also use it for:

SWIFT codes for businesses (1.25 million pages):

Wise – Swift Codes

Stock tickers (280K+ pages):

Wise – Stock Tickers

And they also have:

  • Currency exchange pages (~8K)
  • Account pages (~1K)
  • “Send money” pages (~16K)
  • IBAN pages (~10K)
  • Comparison pages (~38K)
  • Routing number pages (~45K)
  • Various landing pages (~6K)

Overall, the Wise website has more than 10 million pages. Combined, they drive 100+ million visits every month.

Backlinko – Website Traffic Checker – Wise

Note: Want to see traffic metrics for other sites? Try our free website traffic checker tool.


This isn’t necessarily the most relatable example. It would require extensive resources to pull off this kind of automated page creation.

But it does show the sheer scalability and ranking power of programmatic SEO.

Why this works: Wise has massive amounts of proprietary data about currencies and other financial information. Each page also caters to a very specific user need that is globally relevant.


2. Tripadvisor

Card 2 – Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor uses programmatic SEO for its location pages.

Search for “things to do in [city]” and you’ll see how they’ve dominated this pattern.

For example, here’s the result for “things to do in Paris”:

Tripadvisor – Things to Do in Paris

And this is the result for “things to do in New York”:

Tripadvisor – Things to Do in NYC

Each page follows the same structure. But each one is populated with location-specific attractions, reviews, and booking options unique to that destination.

Tripadvisor – Things to Do in – Collage

These pages collectively drive millions of organic traffic to Tripadvisor.

Backlinko – Website Traffic Checker – Tripadvisor

Bonus note: This is just counting the URLs on Tripadvisor’s .com domain. There are similar pages on its global domains too, like .co.uk.


Why does this work so well?

Because Tripadvisor is able to meet the pain points of users all over the world. Travellers are always looking for things to do in different locations.

And Tripadvisor can cater to this need with its vast array of data on landmarks, sights, and activities. Plus, they have proprietary user data (like reviews) that helps make every programmatically generated page unique and useful.

Why this works: Tripadvisor has an Authority Score of 100. Add to that the fact that its pages cover the global travel market and contain heaps of UGC (like reviews) and you have the ideal candidate for pSEO.


3. Zillow

Card 3 – Zillow

Zillow uses programmatic SEO to generate thousands of hyper-local pages for every city, neighborhood, and property type to capture long-tail real estate search traffic.

The site transforms raw data (like home value estimates, price trend visualizations, school information, and walkability scores) into context-rich resources that both rank well and help users make important decisions.

And they have A LOT of listings.

I trawled through their sitemaps and found various groups of pages:

  • Home values by location (173K pages)
  • Miscellaneous listings (9K pages)
  • School districts (146K pages)
  • For sale by agent (1.6M pages)
  • For sale by owner (26K pages)
  • New construction (160K pages)
  • Pending (1.5K pages)
  • Recently sold (7.5M pages)
  • For rent (1.2M pages)

Then there are other sitemaps covering buildings, apartments, off-market, other, and “for sale” suggesting tens of millions of pages.

But one sitemap index for off market homes contained 4999 sitemaps, each with seemingly around 23K URLs. This would suggest there are more than 100 million URLs in this category.

Either there is some overlap on the pages (which would be impossible to manually check for) or Zillow lists pretty much every single home in the US on its site.

Regardless, Zillow has millions of pages. And these rely on programmatic SEO.

The result?

243 million organic visits every month.

Backlinko – Website Traffic Checker – Zillow

Why this works: Zillow has massive authority (Authority Score of 97). When you combine that with masses of proprietary data and a nationwide market, you have a brilliant use case for programmatic SEO.


4. Zapier

Card 4 – Zapier

Zapier is an automation platform that connects different web apps and creates workflows based on these connections.

They generate detailed integration pages for every possible app combination to capture search intent around software integrations. With 590K+ pages, Zapier’s programmatic efforts are impressive.

Zapier – Calendly and Slack

The /apps/ subfolder that contains these integration pages drives more than 610K organic visits every month:

Traffic Analytics – Zapier – Visits & Unique Visitors

Each integration page (like “Connect Calendly to Slack”) offers specific use cases via templates…

Zapier – Set up your first integration

…along with lists of supported triggers and actions:

Zapier – Supported triggers and actions

Why this works: Zapier’s entire tool works around integrating different tools. So they have proprietary data they can lean on (the lists of templates and triggers) that nobody else can replicate. But the key part is that every one of these pages serves a very specific intent in a detailed way.


When pSEO Makes Sense (And When It Doesn’t)

Not every business can or should use programmatic SEO.

So before you spend resources building a system that cranks out thousands of pages, let’s be brutally honest about when this approach actually works.

Marketplace sites, aggregators, and directories are the perfect candidates for pSEO. Think Zillow (property listings), Tripadvisor (travel destinations), or Zapier (software integrations).

Why do these programmatic SEO sites work so well?

Because each piece of content changes enough to justify its own page. Plus, users genuinely need that specific information or functionality.

Key takeaway: If your data or functionality doesn’t meaningfully change between variations, strongly reconsider whether you should use programmatic SEO.


Simply changing “[City] plumbers” to target 500 locations while offering identical generic text isn’t programmatic SEO — it’s spam.

The Dangers of Programmatic SEO

Programmatic SEO can look a lot like spam if you just create a bunch of thin content.

But even if it doesn’t look like spam, if users have a different intent or there are better sources out there, you’ll struggle to rank.

We’ve seen programmatic efforts have negative consequences with the likes of G2 and ZoomInfo.

ZoomInfo’s databases of companies and people still drive significant traffic:

Domain Overview –Zoominfo – Organic Traffic – Days

But nowhere near as much as they used to:

Domain Overview – Zoominfo – Organic Traffic – Months

The same goes for G2.

The product review and comparison site used to drive almost 12 million monthly visits back in 2021. But now it gets less than 1 million:

Domain Overview – G2 – Organic Traffic

Both sites saw major drops in traffic on at least two occasions:

  • Between May-August of 2021, coinciding with several major Google updates (including for spam specifically)
  • In October 2023, again coinciding with major Google updates, and again with one for spam specifically

There are other factors at play too, like the prevalence of AI Overviews in search results, Reddit’s SERP dominance, and more authoritative competition.

But these are two examples of programmatic SEO working very well — until it doesn’t.

How to Know if Programmatic SEO Is Right for You

Before you invest in programmatic SEO, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do you have lots of proprietary data, user-generated content, or structured information at your disposal?
  • Does your site already have rankings and authority?
  • Will your hypothetical pages each provide real value individually?
  • Would you be proud to show each individual page to any user?

You should be able to answer “yes” to all of these questions. If not, rethink whether programmatic SEO is worth your investment.

How to Build Your Programmatic SEO Strategy in 5 Steps

Step 1: Find Scalable Keywords

The foundation of programmatic SEO isn’t finding high-volume keywords. It’s about identifying patterns that you can target systematically.

What Good Programmatic SEO Keywords Look Like

You’re looking for search queries that follow consistent formats but change one or two variables.

Like these examples:

  • [product] vs [competitor]
  • best restaurants in [city]
  • convert [currency] to [currency]
  • [language] to [language] translation
  • average salary for [profession]
  • cheap flights from [location] to [location]

The key is evaluating whether the underlying search intent stays consistent across variations.

For example, let’s take a closer look at Wise’s currency converter pages:

Organic Research – Wise – Pages – Organic Pages

Someone searching “USD to EUR” wants the same core information as someone searching “GBP to JPY.” They just want to convert different currencies.

Wise – Currency converter – Different currencies

But these pages aren’t just glorified calculators. They also feature historic conversion charts:

Wise – Currency chart – USD to EUR

Tables of the highs, lows, averages, and changes:

Wise – Currency converter – Tables

And a comparison of Wise’s own rates versus competitors:

Wise's rates versus competitors

This is why they dominate these searches: they’re solving the specific problem searchers have with each currency pair. It’s the same intent but with different variables — the right mix for programmatic SEO.

How to Find Your Own pSEO Keywords

Good programmatic SEO keywords consist of two key parts:

  • Head term: The consistent part that appears in all variations (e.g., “Resume templates”)
  • Modifier: The variable element that changes with each page (e.g., job titles like “product managers” or “systems engineers”)

You can use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to find keywords like this.

For example, imagine we’re looking to create programmatic content around the head term “SEO tools”:

Keyword Magic Tool – SEO tools – Overview

We’d look for patterns where only one variable changes across multiple keywords.

For example, patterns like “best seo tools for [business type]”:

Keyword Magic Tool – Best SEO tools for – Keywords

Once you’ve identified a potential pattern, you’ll need a variety of modifiers to create your programmatic pages.

The right modifiers expand your keyword targeting exponentially, while maintaining consistent search intent.

Here are some keyword modifiers that work across multiple niches:

  • Geographic modifiers: “in [city]”, “near [location]”, “for [country]”
  • Comparison modifiers: “vs [competitor]”, “alternative to [product]”, “[product] or [product]”
  • Attribute modifiers: “best [product] for [use case]”, “[color] [product]”, “[size] [product]”
  • Professional modifiers: “for [profession]”, “[skill] for [industry]”, “[tool] for [job]”
  • Format modifiers: “[topic] template”, “[topic] calculator”, “[topic] checklist”
  • Question modifiers: “how to [verb] [topic]”, “can [subject] [verb]”, “why does [topic] [verb]”
  • Statistical modifiers: “average [metric] for [category]”, “[topic] statistics [year]”

Pro tip: Use the asterisk (*) search operator in Google to find even more variations (like “seo tools for *”).


Set the Keyword Difficulty to “(KD) < 30” and use the “Include” filter to narrow down to specific patterns (e.g., include “for” to find “seo tools for [industry]”).

Finally, sort by volume to prioritize higher-traffic opportunities.

Keyword Magic Tool – SEO tools – Filtered keywords

Next, check the SERPs for several variations of your pattern and to confirm similar content types appear across variations.

Keyword Overview – SEO tools – SERP Amalysis

This is an important step. Let’s say you were planning to programmatically create pages that list the top SEO tools for different business types.

Your plan was to create pages that contained a simple list with basic facts and stats about each tool, along with some features and pricing info. You have a database with all this information, and you plug in an AI tool’s API to help create unique content for each page.

But then you check the SERP for some common terms and realize that Google seems to be rewarding more detailed lists.

Google SERP – SEO tools for small businesses

Lists that feature:

  • In-depth tool info
  • Expert takes and opinions
  • Screenshots that show the writer has used the tool

Do you think your programmatic content will rank alongside these guides?

Probably not.

That’s why checking the SERP and evaluating the search intent is so important.

But once you do have a list of ideal keywords to target, you can export it and group by modifier types (locations, products, features). This organized data will feed directly into your template planning.

Step 2: Collect and Structure Data

Every successful programmatic SEO project thrives because of its data.

Without unique, valuable information, you’re just going to create thin pages Google will eventually demote.

You have three main options for data acquisition:

  1. Proprietary data: Information you own or generate that competitors can’t access is the gold standard. Think Zapier’s integration data or Tripadvisor’s reviews. If you have proprietary data, your programmatic SEO has built-in defensibility.
  2. Public data with added value: You can transform, combine, or present data from public sources in uniquely valuable ways (like from government databases or APIs). Because anyone else can access this data, how you present it is absolutely key.
  3. Scraped data: This is the riskiest option. If you go this route, focus on adding significant value through analysis, visualization, or aggregation. Remember: scraping should be a starting point, not your end product.

If you’re struggling to find data, here are some free datasets for programmatic SEO across different niches (including stocks, salary data, social media, books, and more).

Just remember that anyone can find these data sets. So it’s best to use them for inspiration rather than hinging your pSEO campaign on them.

Practical Programmatic – Datasets

Step 3: Create Quality Content Templates

Templates are the engine of programmatic SEO. But they’re also where most projects go wrong. It’s easy to generate 100,000 pages. It’s hard to make them genuinely useful.

Start by manually creating 3-5 examples of your target pages. These are your test runs. Use them to validate that your data, structure, and content actually helps users.

Once you’re happy, build your template with the following:

  • 500–1,000+ words of helpful content: Use headings, bullet points, and other visual breaks to improve clarity
  • Conditional content logic: Use if/then rules to tailor each page’s copy, examples, recommendations, or CTAs to match the specific data or topic
  • Rich elements like HTML tables, charts, or maps: Visualize your data to make your page interactive and genuinely informative
  • Internal links: Guide users to related pages, deeper resources, or next steps

Step 4: Technical Setup (Based on Skill Level)

You don’t need to be a developer to launch a programmatic SEO site. But you will need to choose your approach based on your technical comfort and scale requirements.

Here are a few examples of what your setup might look like depending on your skill level:

Level Pages Tools Example Workflow Best For
Beginner / No-code 1-100 pages
  • Google Sheets
  • WordPress or Webflow
  • WP All Import or similar plugins
  1. Export keyword data to spreadsheet
  2. Write templates using variables
  3. Use formulas/find+replace to populate content
  4. Bulk import via plugin
Non-technical users launching small projects
Intermediate 100-1,000 pages
  • Airtable / Notion
  • Webflow CMS
  • Zapier / Make
  • Jekyll, Hugo (SSGs with data files)
  1. Build structured data in Airtable
  2. Connect to Webflow CMS via Make
  3. Auto-generate new pages when data is added
Marketers comfortable with no-code automation tools
Advanced 1,000+ pages
  • Custom apps
  • Next.js or similar
  • CMS APIs
  • Databases with caching
  • CI/CD pipelines
  1. Develop custom app (e.g., with Node.js)
  2. Fetch data from database (e.g., PostgreSQL)
  3. Generate and deploy pages with frameworks like Next.js via Vercel
Developers or teams with engineering resources

Pro tip: Roll out your programmatic SEO efforts in stages. Don’t push 100K URLs live overnight.


Step 5: Monitor and Improve Your SEO

Like any SEO strategy, programmatic SEO is an ongoing effort. Because you might have hundreds or thousands of pages to manage, staying on top of performance and technical issues is key.

Here are some important things to track, and the best tool(s) to use:

  • Indexation rate: What percentage of your pages are in Google’s index? (Google Search Console)
  • Crawl stats: How frequently is Google visiting your pages? (Google Search Console)
  • Traffic distribution: Are certain variations performing better than others? (Google Analytics)
  • Conversion patterns: Which page types drive valuable actions? (Google Analytics)
  • Page-level metrics: What do your loading speeds, bounce rates, and time on page metrics look like? (PageSpeed Insights, Google Analytics)
  • Cannibalization issues: Are your programmatic pages competing with each other? (Google Search Console, Semrush Position Tracking)

Is Programmatic SEO Really the Way to Go?

It’s hopefully clear by now that programmatic SEO can yield some pretty impressive results.

But it should also be clear that it’s not the right choice for everyone.

Unless you have:

  • Existing authority
  • Plenty of resources
  • Unique data

It’s probably not the right approach for your website (at least not yet).

For now, I recommend focusing on growing your site with quality, not quantity. For more on this, check out our guide to creating high-quality SEO content.

The post Programmatic SEO: What It Is and When to Use It (+ Examples) appeared first on Backlinko.

Read more at Read More

Search Everywhere Optimization Guide (+ Free Checklist)

Imagine you’re looking for after shave oil.

You type a few keywords into Amazon. A brand called Truly Beauty pops up. You’ve never heard of them.

Amazon – After shave oil – Truly – Results

So you go to YouTube to find the “best after shave oil”.

At the top of the results, someone has reviewed Truly Beauty’s product.

YouTube – Best after shave oil – Results

Okay, interesting…

Let’s stay on YouTube. Next, you type “truly beauty after shave oil” into the search.

YouTube – Truly Beauty after shave oil – Results

What the? The whole page has people reviewing Truly Beauty products!

Is this brand legitimate, or are all these ads in disguise?

Time to go to Reddit to get some unfiltered opinions.

You search for “after shave oil reviews reddit” and notice that once again, Truly Beauty shows up in the results.

Google SERP – After shave oil reviews Reddit

Sure enough, other people share your skepticism. But there’s some positive feedback too.

You decide to give them a try.

This kind of journey happens millions of times every day — across every industry, on every platform.

Side note: I run a men’s apparel brand, but I often research women’s beauty. It’s insanely competitive and usually way ahead in digital strategy.


If you’re in SEO, there’s a clear takeaway here:

You’re not just optimizing for Google anymore.

You need to show up across the entire decision-making journey. Wherever your audience searches, scrolls, or compares.

This is exactly what Truly Beauty figured out.

They didn’t just optimize for Google. They built visibility across the entire search ecosystem. Amazon for discovery. YouTube for social proof. Reddit for authentic reviews.

And it’s working amazingly well.

In this guide, I’ll break down how to optimize your brand for how people actually search today. With concrete examples. Including Truly Beauty’s strategy.

Free resource: To make things easier, I’ve created a checklist to track your progress


Let’s start with what’s really happening here.

The New Reality: Search Everywhere Optimization

What Truly Beauty did isn’t luck. It’s strategy.

They understood something most brands still miss:

Search has changed.

Today’s customers don’t follow a clean, Google-only path. They bounce from TikTok to YouTube, Reddit to Amazon, back to Google, then maybe ChatGPT for one last check.

Credit where it’s due: Rand Fishkin captured this evolution perfectly in his recent post.

Search Everywhere Optimization is about helping people find, evaluate, and trust your brand across every platform where discovery happens. That includes Google — but also YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, LinkedIn, and even AI tools like ChatGPT.

Every one of those platforms can shape a decision. Miss one? You risk losing the customer to someone who showed up where you didn’t.

How People Search in 2025

Your job isn’t just to rank on Google.

It’s to help people find, evaluate, and trust your brand everywhere they search.

Some call this omnichannel SEO, cross-platform optimization, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

The way I see it:

Search Everywhere Optimization.

Because the search journey now includes everything from YouTube Shorts to AI summaries.

And your job is to build visibility, credibility, and conversion power across it all.

It’s not just about being found.

It’s about being trusted. On every platform where decisions happen.

That’s what makes Search Everywhere Optimization different — it evolves SEO beyond a siloed tactic into a full-funnel growth strategy.

So, you’re not just optimizing pages anymore.

You’re shaping how people find, evaluate, and trust what you offer across every stage of the journey, on every platform they turn to for answers.

Done right, Search Everywhere Optimization helps you:

  • Show up on high-engagement platforms where decisions start
  • Create content that resonates in the right format and context
  • Build trust through experience — design, messaging, and credibility
  • Turn search moments into conversions, leads, or long-term users

That’s the shift:

From rankings to relevance. From clicks to action. From Google-only to everywhere that matters.

Two Core Areas of Search Everywhere Optimization

To make Search Everywhere Optimization work, you need to understand where your audience is discovering products.

And how much control you have over those moments.

That’s where this framework comes in.

We divide the modern search experience into two key areas:

  • Managed experiences — where you control the content and presentation
  • Influenced experiences — where others shape the narrative, but your brand still shows up

This distinction helps you prioritize efforts across platforms you own… and platforms where you earn visibility.

Managed Experiences

These are touchpoints you can directly control.

Your website is still your most important owned asset. But you also manage your social media profiles, product listings, app store pages, and more.

Pinterest – Truly Beauty

This is where things gets tactical. You’re shaping the journey with:

  • Engaging content
  • Clear messaging
  • Cohesive visuals
  • Optimized flows and CTAs

On your website, you can go even deeper — refining structure, page speed, copy, and trust signals.

The goal? Deliver a fast, credible, and conversion-ready experience every time someone finds you through search.

Earned and Influenced Experiences

Now, let’s talk about where you don’t control the narrative.

These are the moments shaped by others: customers, creators, communities, algorithms.

Earned and influenced experiences are touchpoints you don’t directly control.

But they still shape how people perceive and trust your brand.

This includes:

  • Customer reviews
  • Reddit threads
  • YouTube mentions
  • Third-party comparisons
  • AI-generated responses in tools like ChatGPT

Illuminate Labs – Blog Health – Truly Beauty review

You can’t control these spaces… but you can influence them.

Search Everywhere Optimization is about increasing your visibility, credibility, and perceived value in places you don’t own.

That might mean:

  • Engaging in relevant conversations
  • Encouraging customer reviews
  • Partnering with trusted voices
  • Publishing helpful content that others cite

Truly Beauty does this well. Their TikTok is a managed asset. The brand controls the content, caption, and messaging.

This isn’t about control. It’s more about visibility, relevance, and credibility in places people already go to decide.

Luckily, you can help shape perception through helpful content, real engagement, and clear value.

You can pay influencers to review and interact with your product, publish high-quality guest posts. So, you don’t have full control over them, but you can light the fire.

For example, Truly Beauty has a strong presence across owned and earned/influenced platforms.

This includes the brand’s official TikTok account, an owned experience.

The brand controls the content, caption, and messaging.

TikTok account – Truly Beauty – Mobile

But when someone searches for Truly on TikTok and sees unsponsored reviews? That’s an influenced experience.

TikTok – Truly Beauty – Search

Both matter. Because both shape how people perceive your brand.

Search Everywhere Optimization ensures you show up in both worlds (managed and influenced) so you’re part of the journey no matter where it happens.

How Search Everywhere Optimization Builds on Traditional SEO

Traditional SEO has mostly focused on one thing — ranking on search engines like Google.

That still matters.

But it’s no longer enough.

Search Everywhere Optimization expands your SEO strategy beyond Google to include every platform where people search, compare, and decide.

So instead of optimizing just for rankings…

You’re optimizing the entire discovery journey.

This shift doesn’t replace SEO. It levels it up.

Here’s how they work together:

Traditional
SEO
Search Everywhere Optimization
Primary Goal Drive qualified traffic from Google and other search engines Help people find, evaluate, and take action across platforms
Tactics Focus on content, keywords, backlinks, and technical fixes Tailor messaging and format to each platform and stage of the journey
Performance Metrics Metrics include rankings, impressions, CTR, and conversions Metrics include engagement, watch time, scroll depth, reviews, and cross-platform performance

Think of it this way:

  • Traditional SEO gets you found on Google
  • Search Everywhere Optimization gets you chosen — everywhere

When you combine both, you create a strategy that moves with your audience.

Across platforms. Across formats. Across every step of their journey.

Step 1: Define Your Search Personas

Creating search personas lets you outline what your ideal audience wants and needs, and what drives their decisions.

This helps you design content and experiences based on real search behavior, rather than assumptions.

Creating search persona

Pro tip: Already have marketing personas? Add a “Search Behavior” section to show how your audience searches, discovers, and evaluates solutions online.


Start with Real People

Before you can build your personas, you need real-world insights.

Go straight to the source by asking existing customers questions like:

  • How they found you
  • What made them trust you
  • What they needed before taking action

Tools like Typeform let you create and distribute surveys.

Start with their ready-to-use consumer behavior templates to make the process fast and easy.

Typeform – Survey template

Loop in Sales and Support

No one knows buyer questions better than your frontline team.

Ask them:

  • What keywords or phrases do people use when they reach out?
  • Which platforms drive user discovery?
  • What’s unclear or confusing before people convert?

This input gives you practical insights you can’t get from keyword tools alone.

Layer in Data

Tools like Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit let you analyze your target market’s demographics.

Here’s how it works:

Enter your domain and up to four competitors’ domains.

Click “Analyze.”

Traffic Analytics – Truly Beauty – Competitors

View the “Audience” report to get a breakdown of unique visitors to each domain by age and sex.

Traffic Analytics – Truly Beauty – Demographics – Audience

Then, scroll to the “Geo Distribution” report to see an overview of visits and unique visitors by country.

Traffic Analytics – Truly Beauty – Geo Distribution

Next, click “Audience Overlap” to learn about your audience’s online habits.

Traffic Analytics – Truly Beauty – Audience Overlap

Including their most-visited domains. This gives you insights into their preferences, pain points, and needs.

Traffic Analytics – Truly Beauty – Visited domains

Once you’ve gathered your data, organize everything into a clean visual persona.

Free tools like Semrush’s persona builder make this easy.

Semrush – Persona Wizard

Or just use a doc or spreadsheet — whatever helps you capture the key insights clearly.

By the end, you should know:

  • What your audience is trying to solve when they search
  • What blocks or gaps slow them down
  • What type of content or format resonates most

These insights give you a clear picture of who your searchers are and what matters to them.

Note: You can create multiple personas if your product serves more than one audience. For example, a beginner and a power user won’t search the same way or want the same content.


Step 2: Map the Full Search Journey

Map how each search persona moves from discovery to decision across platforms, questions, and content types.

We want to start by breaking the journey into three simple stages.

Quick note:

I’m showing these stages as a linear progression for simplicity. Real search journeys usually aren’t straightforward.

Users frequently jump between platforms and stages, circling back and moving forward unpredictably. This framework simply helps organize our understanding of the core phases searchers experience.

Journey 1

  • Discover: This is when someone first realizes a need or problem and starts looking for ideas, inspiration, or possible solutions
  • Compare: At this stage, they evaluate their options, which involves comparing features, reading reviews, or checking alternatives to decide what fits best
  • Act: This is when they’re ready to take action. Including making a purchase, signing up, booking a service, or taking the next step.

Expand this journey into more stages and variations as needed.

Like awareness, consideration, evaluation, or post-purchase.

Journey 2

For simplicity, we’ll stick with three core stages.

Then, for each stage, identify:

  • What they search for
  • Where they go to find answers
  • What content format they expect

Let’s say we’re mapping the search journey of a shopper discovering Truly Beauty.

A user might first come across this brand when searching for “best after shave oil” on TikTok.

TikTok – Best after shave oil – Truly

From there, they Google “after shave oil” and see Truly in the top results.

Google SERP – After shave oil reviews Reddit

Next, they visit the brand’s site to view product details, images, and pricing.

Truly Beauty products – Glazed Donut After Shave Oil

After that, they head to YouTube.

They search “truly after shave oil review” to find reviews from real people.

YouTube – Search – Truly after shave oil review

Finally, they visit Amazon, search for the product, and check reviews again before placing their order.

Amazon – Truly product – Customer reviews

This is a simplified version of your audience’s actual journey.

In reality, searchers might visit more platforms during the discovery and compare stages — spanning days or even weeks.

This is why it helps to map the complete journey.

Like this:

Complete Journey

Have more than one persona or product category? Create a separate map for each.

Many platforms offer free customer journey map templates, such as Canva and Miro.

Customer Journey Map – Web

Step 3: Identify Gaps and Prioritize Touchpoints

Here’s where you’ll identify what your brand is missing across the search journey and what to fix first.

Using your journey map from Step 2, go through each stage and ask:

  • Are we visible everywhere our audience searches?
  • Does our content actually help them move forward?

Let me walk you through an example.

I conducted a quick manual audit for Truly Beauty across multiple platforms.

On TikTok and Instagram, they consistently appear for branded searches like “Truly Beauty.”

And product-specific searches like “vanilla baby body oil.”

Instagram – Search – Vanilla baby body oil

Next, I examined user-generated forums to see if people discuss the brand organically.

On Reddit, I found some positive threads where users recommend Truly products.

Comment on Reddit – Truly Beauty

And some negative threads, too.

Overall, Truly Beauty could have a stronger presence in earned and influenced spaces.

Reddit – Posts – Truly Beauty

I then analyzed Truly’s product pages.

Their website features several conversion elements:

  • Social proof (ratings and reviews)
  • Clear pricing and purchase options
  • Subscription incentives
  • Trust badges

Truly Beauty products – Vanilla Baby Luxury Body Oil

Their Amazon listings maintain this strategy while adapting to the marketplace’s format.

This way, they create a consistent purchase experience regardless of where customers shop.

Amazon listings – Truly

You’ll want to adjust this process based on your specific industry, audience, and platforms.

The key is documenting all touchpoints where your audience searches.

Once you’ve audited all platforms, organize your findings in a simple spreadsheet.

Include a “Status” column to label your presence on each platform:

  • Optimized
  • Weak
  • Missing

Here’s an example to show how you might organize your audit insights.

Feel free to structure it however works best for you.

SXO – Backlinko Google Sheet

Bonus: We added the above audit template to our downloadable checklist to help you complete this step. Download it now, if you haven’t already.


Now, it’s time to decide which platforms need attention first:

In Truly Beauty’s case, they could strengthen their presence in earned spaces.

Responding to positive and negative feedback builds trust with potential customers.

This might mean recommending products where appropriate.

And addressing any user concerns and complaints.

Prioritize your own gaps based on:

  • Where users likely drop off or switch to competitors
  • High-intent moments like evaluation or decision stages
  • Platforms your audience already trusts and uses to make decisions

This focused approach ensures you tackle the most impactful improvements first.

Step 4: Build a Content Plan Aligned with Search Intent

A key part of any strategy is planning content for each search stage and platform.

Use your audit insights from Step 3 to build a content plan that satisfies user needs.

Improve Your Existing Content

Before creating new content, maximize what you already have.

Check Google Analytics or Google Search Console (GSC) for pages that are underperforming.

For example, in GSC, look for:

  • Posts with high impressions but low CTR
  • Pages that rank for relevant keywords, but not as high as they should

Google Search Console – Pages with high impressions & low CTR

Consider this Truly Beauty blog post as an example.

Truly Beauty – Blog post

It already targets commercial keywords, like “best moisturizer for mature skin.”

But it ranks on page 4, 5, and beyond.

This means it’s nearly invisible in search.

Organic Research – Truly Beauty – Organic Search Positions

So, how do you fix that?

Check what they include that you don’t, like additional examples, FAQs, or expert commentary.

Then, improve the content by:

  • Updating it with fresh info, product comparisons, or reviews
  • Adding structure that matches search intent (like “best of” lists, buyer’s guides, etc.)
  • Enhancing formatting for scannability — with subheadings, bullets, and visuals
  • Filling gaps with missing subtopics or angles competitors cover

For instance, Truly Beauty could improve this post by adding:

  • A side-by-side comparison with other moisturizers
  • Tips from skincare experts
  • More visuals (like product images, charts, or before/after shots)

These updates would help align the content with what searchers expect. And give it a better shot at ranking.

Create New Content

Creating new content for every platform should be an ongoing part of your strategy.

For each platform, ask:

  • Is the user trying to learn, compare, or act?
  • What format do they expect — video, reviews, short posts, or product pages?
  • What would build trust or answer their next question?

Semrush’s Topic Research Tool helps you find new content ideas.

Open the tool and enter a topic. Like “best body scrub for glowing skin.”

Then, select your target location and click “Get content ideas.”

Topic Research – Best body scrub for glowing skin

Click on a relevant subtopic.

And go through the “Questions” column to see what users are actively searching for.

For example, Truly Beauty could turn common questions into helpful content that drives conversions.

Like “What are some good homemade body scrubs?” and “How do you make a homemade scrub?”

Topic Research – Best Body Scrub for Glowing Skin – Content Ideas

Analyzing competitor content can also help you come up with great topic ideas.

Look at top-performing content across platforms where your audience searches.

Pay special attention to:

  • Content themes
  • Hooks
  • Formats
  • Captions
  • Hashtags

For instance, Truly Beauty’s audience might search “best body scrubs for glowing skin” on TikTok.

The brand could explore top-performing videos around that phrase.

And analyze what makes them successful.

TikTok – Best Body Scrub for Glowing Skin

Then, they could use what they find to create videos that mirror those formats — while tailoring them to their product and audience.

(And you can, too.)

Repurpose Content

Don’t let great content live in one place.

The most efficient strategy turns one strong piece into many platform-specific assets.

Start with your highest-performing content.

Then, adapt it to match how your audience consumes information on different platforms.

Truly Beauty – Blog – Best foods for skin

For example, Truly Beauty could transform their “12 Best Foods for Your Skin” blog post into the following:

  • Email newsletter
  • Pinterest infographic
  • Facebook and Instagram carousels
  • TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts
  • Twitter/X or Bluesky thread

One idea → multiple formats → broader discovery.

This way, you can easily scale content across the entire search experience for every platform.

Long Form Content

Step 5: Optimize Owned Touchpoints

When someone lands on your site, they expect it to:

  • Load fast
  • Feel trustworthy
  • Make it easy to take the next step

In fact, search engines like Google look at user experience signals when ranking pages.

That’s why this step focuses on performance, structure, and clarity, so your site works for users and ranks highly.

Improve Site Performance

Slow-loading pages lead to higher bounce rates, missed conversions, and lower rankings.

Use PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site.

And view your Core Web Vitals scores, which are Google user experience metrics.

These metrics measure user responsiveness, visual stability, and the speed at which your main content loads.

For example, Truly Beauty’s website failed the Core Web Vitals assessment on both mobile and desktop.

PageSpeed Insights – Truly Beauty

The good news?

PageSpeed Insights also shows exactly what’s slowing your site down and how you can fix the issues.

So, Truly Beauty can improve site performance by taking steps like reducing JavaScript execution time and minimizing main-thread work.

PageSpeed Insights – Truly Beauty – Diagnostics

For a deeper look at your site’s speed and usability, use Semrush’s Site Audit tool.

Note: A free Semrush account allows you to crawl up to 100 URLs using Site Audit. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.


Enter your domain and configure the tool to set up your first crawl.

Once your report is ready, you’ll see a “Site Performance” score in the “Overview” tab.

For instance, Truly Beauty has a site performance score of 95%.

Click “View details” for more information.

Site Audit – Truly Beauty –Overview – Site Performance

Here, you’ll see the average load speed of your site.

Truly Beauty has an average page load speed of 0.31 seconds, which is outstanding.

Site Audit – Truly Beauty – Site Performance

You’ll also learn if Site Audit detected any issues with your site, categorized by priority:

  • Errors: Highest priority
  • Warnings: Medium priority
  • Notices: Lowest priority

Click “Learn more” for details on how to fix each issue.

Site Audit – Truly Beauty – Site Performance Issues – Learn more

Once you’ve addressed the issues, re-run the audit.

You’ll likely see improved site speed and performance (if you’ve correctly fixed the issues).

These technical improvements will strengthen your search experience optimization efforts.

And improve the experience for your users.

Add Trust Elements

Trust elements give users the confidence to take action, whether that’s making a purchase, booking a demo, or signing up.

Add them anywhere users evaluate options or make decisions.

Including product pages, landing pages, checkout screens, pricing pages, and even comparison blog posts.

Trust elements include:

  • Star ratings or review counts
  • Customer testimonials
  • Author bios with credentials
  • Security badges or payment icons
  • User-generated content, like photos or quotes

For example, Truly Beauty shows a variety of trust elements on its product pages.

Like ratings, reviews, and customer-submitted photos.

Truly Beauty – Variety of trust elements

This creates a compelling social proof ecosystem that reduces purchase anxiety and enhances your brand perception.

Clean Up Structure and Layout

Messy layouts confuse users and slow them down.

In contrast, a clean and consistent structure makes your page easier to read, navigate, and act on.

Take a look at how formatting impacts readability on mobile:

Hard-to-skim vs. Easy-to-skim Paragraphs

Which one do you think is more readable?

Shorter paragraphs and clear spacing make content easier to scan and understand.

Here’s how to improve your site’s structure and layout:

  • Break up long paragraphs into shorter chunks
  • Use clear, descriptive headings to guide the flow
  • Keep visual design consistent: fonts, spacing, and colors
  • Make key elements like CTAs, pricing, or product features easy to spot

For example, this Truly Beauty blog post does some things well.

Including scannable headings, bullet lists, and plenty of white space.

Truly Beauty – Blog – Good practices

But they could increase the font size to make the content easier to read and skim.

Step 6: Strengthen Your Presence Across Discovery Channels

Some of the most important search moments happen off your website.

In this step, you’ll focus on optimizing how you appear on social media sites, niche forums, and more.

Optimize Your Profiles

Your profile should instantly tell visitors who you are and why they matter to you.

So, review your bio, visuals, and links on every priority platform.

Each one should reflect your brand clearly and feel native to how people use that platform.

Truly Beauty’s Instagram bio is short and clear. But there’s room for improvement.

It doesn’t highlight what sets the brand apart, including a strong hook or call to action.

Instagram – Truly Beauty – Bio

They also don’t have pinned posts.

And their Highlight covers aren’t clear or consistent with their brand visuals.

Instagram – Truly Beauty – No pinned posts

Conversely, makeup brand Too Faced does a great job here.

Their Instagram bio is short but expressive:

Instagram – Too Faced – Bio

Their Instagram Highlights are organized by category — from new product drops to event looks.

Instagram – Too Faced – Highlights

They even include multiple links and a “Shop” button to drive action directly from the page.

Instagram – Too Faced – Shop button & links

On TikTok, Too Faced takes a different but equally strategic approach.

The brand uses playlists to categorize videos by product type.

TikTok – Too Faced – Playlists

And the pinned posts showcase high-performing videos with bold thumbnails and direct product demos.

Which is perfect for TikTok’s users, who prefer short, visual content before buying.

TikTok – Too Faced – Pinned videos

Engage with Followers

Getting questions or comments on your social media posts?

This is a great opportunity to engage with your audience and offer helpful information.

Truly Beauty engages with users in the comments.

And responds to feedback, answers questions, and shows appreciation for its customers.

Instagram – Truly Beauty – Comments engagement

This kind of interaction builds trust and shows followers there’s a real team behind the brand.

Collaborate with Trusted Voices

Want a fast way to build credibility?

Partner with the creators your audience already trusts.

Find the voices influencing those spaces — and team up.

Truly Beauty works with influencers to promote products.

Instagram – Truly Beauty – Influencers

But when it comes to creator partnerships, makeup brand Morphe takes this strategy to another level.

They regularly collaborate with beauty creators to launch products, demo looks, and drive buzz.

Like this influencer collab that got them over 2.4K likes and 60+ comments:

Instagram – Morphe Brushes – Influencer collab

Step 7: Monitor, Measure, and Optimize

You can’t optimize what you don’t track.

To improve your performance over time, you need visibility into how people discover and engage with your content, products, or services.

And what happens next.

Start by identifying which metrics you want to prioritize.

Here are some examples:

  • Google: Rankings, click-through rate (CTR), impressions
  • YouTube: Watch time, average view duration
  • TikTok: Engagement rate, profile clicks
  • Amazon: Conversion rate, product search visibility
  • Instagram: Post engagement rate, profile visits, bio link clicks
  • Reddit: Upvotes, comment volume, brand mentions
  • Your website: Goal conversion rate, bounce rate, scroll depth, time on page

Then, choose the right tools to track these metrics.

Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console provide essential data to track your SEO performance and user experience improvements.

For instance, on GA4, you can navigate to “Reports” > “Acquisition” > “Traffic Acquisition” to view your site’s traffic sources.

GA – Traffic Acquisition report

YouTube Studio, TikTok Insights, and Instagram Insights provide platform-specific data.

Like views, watch time, and subscribers.

YouTube Studio – Analytics

Use what you learn to improve weak content and fix UX issues.

You may also want to add specialized tools for social media and website performance.

Like heat mapping, session recording, and conversion analysis.

Clarity – Microsoft – Heatmaps

Ready to Improve Every Search Touchpoint?

The search journey in 2025 isn’t linear anymore. And your strategy shouldn’t be either.

The brands that win won’t be the ones with the most blog posts.

They’ll be the ones who show up with the right content, in the right format, on the right platform — at the moment it matters.

To make that happen, you need a strategy built for how people actually search.

Use our free checklist to turn what you’ve learned into a clear, actionable strategy.

Next up: Check out our definitive guide to on-page SEO, a crucial component of any effective SEO strategy.


The post Search Everywhere Optimization Guide (+ Free Checklist) appeared first on Backlinko.

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Title Tags: How to Write Them (+ Steal Our Formulas)

You can create the most helpful, well-optimized content on the web.

But if you mess up the title tag, none of that will matter.

The title tag is the blue, clickable headline that shows up in search results.

It’s also your one shot at convincing a reader to choose your content over everyone else’s.

A subtle tweak to the title tag can make all the difference.

Take this example from the Backlinko blog: rain

Original title tag: “17 Ways to Get More Views on YouTube in 2025”

Position: 4th in search results

Keyword Overview – How to increase views on YouTube – SERP Analysis

Improved title tag: “17 Powerful Tactics To Get More YouTube Views in 2025″

Position: 1st in search results and the featured snippet

Google SERP – How to increase views on YouTube – Featured snippet

Same topic, same content. Wildly different result.

But, why did that second title tag work better?

And how can you get the same results?

In this guide, I’ll break down what makes a title tag work.

I’ll cover real examples, a simple framework for writing them, and tools you can use to improve your title tags — and search results — today.

Free resources + AI Prompt

Ready to start improving your title tags right away? Download our:

Prompt:

Help me write a title tag for [YOUR KEYWORD] using the Backlinko formulas and checklist I’ve attached.


What Is a Title Tag?

A title tag is a line of HTML code that tells search engines (and searchers) the title of your webpage.

Think of it as your content’s elevator pitch — your chance to convince a searcher that you have the answer to their questions.

A title tag isn’t something that readers will see on the webpage itself. It’s the text that appears:

  • As the blue hyperlink in search engine results

    Google SERP – SEO Strategy – Title

  • As the text on a browser tab m

    Backlinko – Text on browser tab

  • In some social media previews of your web content

    LinkedIn – Preview of web content

Behind the scenes, it looks like this in your website code:

<title>How to Create an Effective SEO Strategy in 2025</title>

Why Title Tags Matter

Google’s guide says title tags are key for both readers and search rankings.

“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.

Most Titles Contain 65 to 85 % of the Keyword

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.

And that click really matters.

The No. 1 result in Google gets an average click-through rate (CTR) of 27.6%.

The result in position 10? Just 2.4%.

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.

Google organic CTR breakdown by position

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.

Studies show Google rewrites around 61% of title tags in search results.

Usually because they’re too long, vague, or overloaded with keywords.

And when that happens, you lose control over what shows up in the search engine results page (SERP).

Sometimes Google will just grab the heading (H1) of the page.

Other times, it’ll generate something entirely new. And not always better.

If you want to make sure your pages look polished in the search results, writing a solid, search-optimized title tag is non-negotiable.

Title Tags vs H1 Tags

Personally, I used to muddle these up. So if you’re confused about the difference between title tags and H1s, you’re not alone.

Element Title Tag H1 Tag
Where it appears In SERPs and the browser tab At the top of the webpage where people can read it (e.g., the title of a blog post)
What it looks like (HTML code) <title>Your Page Title</title> <h1>Your Page Heading</h1>
Who is it for? Mainly for search engines and clicks Mainly for readers
What does it do for SEO? Improves rankings and CTR Supports on-page structure and confirms your page is relevant to the search query

Your title tags and H1 tags should both convey the same information.

They don’t need to be word-for-word the same, though.

For instance, we’ve written an article with the heading “What is Content Marketing?”

Backlinko – What is Content Marketing

That’s the H1 tag.

But our title tag is “What Is Content Marketing? Complete Beginner’s Guide.”

What is Content Marketing – Title tag

Different, but clearly covering the same information.

Write Better Title Tags With the 3C Framework

Your title tag has one job: get more clicks.

The 3C Framework gives you a simple way to create titles that rank well AND get clicked more than your competitors.

The 3C Framework for Better Title Tags 

Clear

The title should tell people what your page is about. No need to guess.

Bad:

“Solutions That Work for the Modern Business”

What does that even mean?

Better:

“CRM Software for Small Businesses | Free Trial Available”

It tells Google what the page is. And it tells humans why they should click.

Clickable

Ranking is only half the battle. The other half? Getting the click.

To do that, your title needs to stand out and make people want to learn more.

Bad:

“Marketing Strategy Guide”

It’s fine, but a bit blah.

Better:

“Marketing Strategy Guide: Get Explosive Growth in 7 Days”

It’s actionable, shows value, and uses an emotional power word (“explosive”).

Want some ideas for turning bland language into more clickable titles?

Generic Word Power Word Replacement Why It’s Better
Improve Boost / Transform Suggests dramatic results
Learn Master / Discover Suggests success, not progress
Guide Blueprint / Playbook Feels actionable
Increase Explode / Multiply Implies faster, bigger gains
Tips Hacks / Secrets Feels exclusive
Info Insider Info / Must-Know Draws on FOMO
Get Grab More action-oriented

Contextual

You need to give readers (and search engines) context — and that means keywords.

But tread carefully. No stuffing allowed.

Bad:

“Email, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Email Tips”

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…”

Google SERP – Top 10 CRM

Do they include the current year?

People want the latest updates. Add the year to your title to show it’s fresh.

Year in title shows 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.

Explaining – The concept what is x

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”.

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.

Title tags between 40 to 60 characters have the highest CTR

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.

Google truncates title tags based on pixels

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.

Mangools – Google SERP Simulator – Mobile

3. Use Keywords First

This helps in two ways:

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.

Backlinko – Number in headline

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.

Brand name in title tag


5. Match the Title to the Content

Simple, but important.

Your title has to accurately reflect what’s on the page.

If you’ve promised “The 17 Most Important SEO Tips,” there had better be seventeen juicy bits of SEO wisdom there.

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:

Backlinko – How to Create a Website

vs.

Backlinko – 10 Steps to Create a Website

  • 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.

Start optimizing your title tags today with our title tag checklist.


Compare Good vs. Bad Title Tags (Across Industries)

Great title tags don’t just follow best practices. They match intent, highlight value, and stand out in crowded search results.

Let’s break down a few real examples (good and bad) to show what works — and what to avoid.

SaaS

Keyword: “project management for small businesses”

The first result we get is from Zapier:

Zapier – Keyword in title

Why it works:

  • It matches why someone would be searching and shows the benefit they’ll get from reading
  • It includes the keywords so the reader knows they’ll get exactly what they’re looking for
  • It includes the power word “best”

Compare that with this result from Scoro, way back on page 10.

Scoro – Google result from tenth page

Why it doesn’t work:

  • It’s too vague. The reader doesn’t know what they’ll get if they click.
  • It doesn’t match what the reader is looking for
  • It’s jargon-heavy. It assumes we’ll know what PSA Software is.

Ecommerce

Keyword: “buy leather backpack”

Here’s the first result:

Kodiak Leather – Buy leather backpack

Why it works:

  • Hits both “leather” and “backpack”
  • Addresses searcher needs — includes both genders, links backpacks to travel
  • “Best” works as a power word

And here’s one from page 10:

Mina Baie – Buy leather backpack

Why it doesn’t work:

  • Leading with “MINA BAIE” wastes valuable space (this isn’t a household name)
  • A diaper bag isn’t obviously the same as a backpack, so it misses search intent
  • “Modern” is vague and lacks emotional punch

Local Business

Keyword: “coffee shops in Austin”

Here’s a result from the top of the SERPS:

Do512 – Coffee shops in Austin

Why it works:

  • Matches exactly what this searcher might be looking for
  • “Awesome” is an appealing emotional power word
  • Location-based

And here’s one from page 10:

Switchyards – Coffee shops in Austin

Why it doesn’t work:

  • Too much brand, not enough benefit
  • Doesn’t match search intent
  • Jargon-heavy — what is a neighborhood work club anyway?

Landing Page

Keyword: “seo strategy template”

Backlinko – SEO strategy template

Why it works:

  • Clearly stated benefit — you get what you were looking for
  • Hits all three keywords
  • “High-level” sets an expectation about scope — if that’s what you need, you’ll find it here

Google breaking its own rules here:

Looker Studio – SEO strategy template

Why it doesn’t work:

  • Doesn’t clearly communicate that the page offers SEO strategy templates
  • Lacks a compelling reason to click
  • Overly branded — many searchers won’t recognize or be looking for Looker Studio

How to Analyze and Improve Your Title Tags

Got title tags already? Let’s find the ones losing you clicks.

These simple analysis methods show which titles need fixing ASAP for quick traffic wins.

Check Your Current Title Tags

Audit your existing title tags to spot issues like:

  • Titles that are too long, too short, or duplicated
  • Titles that don’t clearly describe the page
  • Titles that don’t match what people are searching for

A few tools you can use:

Google Search Console

First, open Google Search Console and select your website property.

If you’ve never used it before, or you have a new website, take a look at our Guide to Google Search Console to get started.

On the left-hand menu, under “Performance“, click on “Search results.” This report shows how your site appears in Google Search.

GSC – Performance – Search results

Click on the “Pages” tab.

This shows performance data for individual pages on your site.

Google Search Console – Backlinko – Performance – Pages

Look for pages with high impressions but low clicks.

Google Search Console – Backlinko – High impressions low clicks

High impressions + low clicks = your page is showing up but not convincing people to click.

These are the pages where improving your title tag could make a big difference.

Semrush On Page SEO Checker

Use Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker to make sure your title tags include your target keywords, without keyword stuffing.

First, configure the tool to crawl your site and collect data.

Then, head to the “Optimization Ideas” tab to see a list of your pages along with the number of suggestions for each one.

Click on the “# ideas” next to any page.

On Page SEO Checker – Techcrunch – Optimization Ideas

In the “Content” section, you’ll see whether your title tag uses your target keywords appropriately.

Content section – Title keywords in title tag

Semrush Site Audit

Use Semrush Site Audit to spot duplicate or missing title tags.

Set up the Site Audit from your Project dashboard.


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.

Site Audit – Backlinko – Issues – Title tag

Click on the issue to see the list of affected pages.

Site Audit – Backlinko – Issues – Too much text within the title tags

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 – Backlinko

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.

Screaming Frog – Backlinko – Page Titles

Use the filter dropdown or look at the “Issues” column to find problems.

Screaming Frog – Backlinko – 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.

    Backlinko – List or Number Formula – Title tag

The Keyword-Colon Formula

  • Formula: [Content Topic]: [Actionable promise]
  • Why it works: Directly addresses the topic and hooks the reader with an actionable promise.

    Backlinko – The Keyword-Colon Formula – Title tag

The Keyword-Question Formula

  • Formula: [Keyword Question]? [Promise]
  • Rationale: Answers the reader’s question head-on and draws them in with a clear benefit.

    Backlinko – The Keyword-Question Formula – Title tag

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.

Download our file of 50+ title tag formulas.


Time to Fix Those Title Tags

Your title tag is more than just metadata. It’s your best shot at earning the click.

So, don’t let it go to waste.

Pick your top three pages, apply what you learned here to improve your title tag SEO, and track the results.

Want to keep leveling up?

Head over to our On-Page SEO Guide for more ways to boost traffic, rankings, and engagement.

The post Title Tags: How to Write Them <br>(+ Steal Our Formulas) appeared first on Backlinko.

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What is Keyword Stuffing? How to Avoid Doing SEO Like It’s 2005

Back in the early 2000s, keyword stuffing actually worked.

All you had to do was repeat the same phrases, and you could rank pretty well.

(Readability be damned.)

I’m not exaggerating here — these sites were literally littered with keywords.

Like this one from 2005.

The Wayback Machine – Online Casinos

Yes, this is a real site I found on The Wayback Machine.

And yes, “online casinos” was used enough times to make your eyes burn.

But that game is over.

Today, keyword stuffing makes your content unreadable and unrankable.

Google’s smarter. Users are pickier. And spammy tactics? They get flagged fast.

So, if you’re still stuffing keywords, you’re not just stuck in the past — you’re tanking your chances of ranking.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

  • What keyword stuffing looks like
  • How it harms your SEO and credibility
  • How to use keywords naturally to boost rankings and readability

Let’s start by examining how this tactic works and its rise to popularity.

What Is Keyword Stuffing?

Keyword stuffing is the practice of overloading your content with target keywords in an unnatural way to manipulate search rankings.

It’s considered a black hat SEO tactic, meaning it goes against Google’s guidelines and puts your site at risk.

So, what does it look like?

Here’s a keyword stuffing example straight from Google:

Google Search Central – Keyword Stuffing

No one talks like that.

And no one wants to read it, either.

You might think that SEO keyword stuffing only happens in blog content or sales copy.

But it shows up in other places, too:

  • Headings and subheadings
  • Meta titles and descriptions
  • Anchor text
  • Navigation menus
  • Page footers
  • URLs

URLs – Keyword Stuffing

Wherever it appears, the result is the same: stiff, awkward content that adds no value for the reader.

Google also considers the following to be keyword stuffing:

  • Lists of phone numbers with no context or purpose
  • Blocks of cities or regions to manipulate local rankings

Like this:

“We serve New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Hoboken, Jersey City…”


Then, there’s invisible keyword stuffing — which is exactly what it sounds like.

You don’t see it, but search engines do.

Some common examples:

  • White text on a white background
  • Text hidden behind an image
  • Fonts set to 1px or less
  • Keywords in HTML comments
  • Hyperlinking just one character (like a period or dash)
  • Alt text loaded with unrelated keywords

    Alt text with unrelated keywords

So, how did keyword stuffing become so widespread in the first place?

Let’s take a quick look back.

History of Keyword Stuffing

Back when E-E-A-T was just a gleam in Google’s eye, keyword stuffing reigned supreme.

Why?

Because early search engine algorithms relied heavily on keyword density to determine relevance.

The more times a keyword appeared on a page, the more relevant that page seemed to search engines.

For example, here’s another site I found on the Wayback Machine — this one from 2002.

As you can see, they used various tactics to manipulate their rankings.

The Wayback Machine – WeightLossGuide

Like blatantly adding a bunch of keywords into content blocks on their homepage.

I’m guessing this site sold “weight loss diet pills,” but I can’t be sure.

WeightLossGuide – A bunch of keywords in content

They also loaded their product pages with back-to-back keywords.

Like “antidepressants and antiaging supplements.”

(And made a bunch of bold medical claims without citing or linking to reputable sources.)

No E-E-A-T here, that’s for sure.

Content with no E-E-A-T

Thankfully, Google got smarter — and more serious about quality.

Over time, it rolled out various updates to detect manipulative tactics.

And rewarded content that actually helped users and met search intent.

This made it harder to cheat the system and easier for Google to flag spammy, keyword-packed content.

But it hasn’t stopped all site owners from engaging in this practice.

So, if your content reads like it was written for bots, don’t be surprised when Google treats it like spam.

How Keyword Stuffing Hurts Your Site

Using keywords is important for relevance.

But overusing them?

It carries more risk than you might realize.

Google Penalties

If Google detects keyword stuffing, it may lower your rankings or trigger a manual action.

Even worse, you may be wiped off the SERPs completely.

Google warns about this in its spam policies:

Google Search Central – Spam policies

Recovery can take months of hard work.

And some sites never fully recover their rankings.

Poor User Experience

Even if you escape Google’s penalties, keyword-stuffed content creates a terrible user experience.

Users who land on these pages typically:

  • Leave immediately (increasing bounce rate)
  • Spend less time on page
  • Rarely convert
  • Never return

GA – Average engagement time per active user

These negative engagement signals harm your overall site performance, too.

Damaged Brand Reputation

Keyword-heavy content can make your site appear spammy and unprofessional.

It signals to users that you’re more concerned with manipulating search engines than providing value.

Cheap Affordable Airfare

This damages trust – the foundation of any successful brand.

Once users and search engines label your site as “spammy,” rebuilding that trust becomes difficult.

Lower Rankings

The ultimate irony of keyword stuffing?

It’s likely to achieve the opposite of its intended purpose.

Instead of boosting your rankings, it can make them plummet.

Today’s search algorithms prioritize:

  • Relevant, natural content
  • Positive user engagement signals
  • Valuable information that satisfies search intent

As Google says:

While there is no guarantee that any particular site will be added to Google’s index, sites that follow the Search Essentials guidelines are more likely to appear in Google’s search results.


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:

Keyword Density

  1. Count how many times your target keyword appears in your content
  2. Divide by your total word count
  3. 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.

Rank Math – High Keyword Density

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?

Use Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker.

Instead of manually scanning your content, this tool benchmarks your keyword usage against top-ranking competitors.

Here’s how to use it:

Side note: A free Semrush account gives you limited access to the On Page SEO Checker. Or you can use this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.


Enter your domain into the tool and press “Get ideas.”

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Get ideas

Next, configure your settings.

(It’ll ask you to choose your location and preferred pages to analyze.)

When your report is ready, scroll to the “Top pages to optimize” section.

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Top pages to optimize

Click the blue “# Ideas” button next to any page to view detailed recommendations.

If keyword stuffing is detected, the On Page SEO Checker will call it out.

And show you exactly where the issue is.

Including the body content, meta tags, or headings.

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Optimization ideas

If your keyword usage is clean, you’ll see notes like:

“No keyword stuffing detected in <h1> tag.”

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – No keyword stuffing

You’ll also get recommendations for:

On Page SEO Checker – Scrappygardeners – Backlink Ideas

Use the recommendations to create higher-ranking content that search engines and readers love.

6 Keyword Optimization Best Practices

So, how do you avoid keyword stuffing?

And still optimize your content without sounding like a broken record?

Here are some do’s (and a few don’ts) to help you strike the right balance.

1. Write for Humans, Not Search Engines

Keyword density isn’t a ranking factor.

So, don’t worry about hitting a specific number.

Focus on creating helpful content instead.

Answer your audience’s questions. Solve their problems. And satisfy their search intent.

The 4 types of search intent

Google calls this people-first content — content made for readers, not algorithms.

Google Search Central – Focus on people-first content

Yes, you should use your target keywords.

But if you’re covering the topic thoroughly, they’ll appear naturally.

For example, if you’re writing about meal prep for beginners, you’ll probably mention:

  • Easy meal prep
  • Weekly food planning
  • Healthy lunch ideas

No keyword stuffing required.

Bottom line: If your content reads well out loud and actually helps someone, you’re on the right track.

2. Include Keywords in Key Elements

You don’t need to repeat your keyword 55 times.

But placing it in a few prominent spots helps Google (and readers) understand what your page is about:

  • URL
  • H1
  • First paragraph
  • Subheadings (minimally — mix it up with keyword variations)
  • Title tag
  • Meta description
  • Alt text

Always prioritize natural language over forced keyword insertion.

3. Use Secondary and Semantic Keywords

Secondary and semantic keywords make your content more engaging.

They also make it easier for Google to understand what your content is about.

Secondary keywords are terms that are closely related to your primary keyword.

They help your content rank for a broader range of relevant searches.

For example, if your primary keyword is “vegetarian recipes,” secondary keywords would include:

  • Vegetarian meal ideas
  • Meatless recipes
  • Vegetarian dinner recipes

Keyword research tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and others let you find secondary keywords.

Keyword Magic Tool – Vegetarian recipes – Keywords

Semantic keywords are contextually related words and phrases that help search engines understand the meaning behind your content.

These terms aren’t direct matches or synonyms.

For a vegetarian recipe article, semantic keywords would be “veggie burgers,” “tofu,” and “vegetarian chili.”

You’re likely to include these terms naturally.

But Google can also help.

Conduct a search for your primary keyword and check “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” for ideas.

People also search for – Vegetarian recipes

4. Avoid Irrelevant Keywords

Targeting irrelevant keywords won’t trick Google.

It’ll just confuse your audience — and dilute your topical authority.

For example, if your blog niche is fitness, don’t target irrelevant keywords like “top vacuum cleaners” or “best mattress.”

Keyword Overview – Best mattress – Overview

Even if you’re actually able to rank for these terms, it’s unlikely to do you any good past a bump in vanity metrics.

Aka — you might get clicks, but you won’t get conversions.

Plus, you’ll send confusing signals to Google about your site’s core purpose.

5. Don’t Use Grammatically Incorrect Keywords

During keyword research, you’ll inevitably run into terms that are misspelled yet somehow still get thousands of searches.

For example, “morgage calculator” gets 27,100 searches per month.

And “best morgage rates” gets 14,800.

Keyword Magic Tool – Morgage – Keywords

But using misspelled keywords isn’t worth the risk.

They make your writing less credible and can make your site look spammy.

Search engines are smart enough to know what users actually mean when they search for “morgage” instead of “mortgage.”

As Google says:

Our natural language understanding models look at a search in context, like the relationship that words and letters within the query have to each other. Our systems start by deciphering or trying to understand your entire search query first. From there, we generate the best replacements for the misspelled words in the query based on our overall understanding of what you’re looking for. For example, we can tell from the other words in the query “average home coast” that you’re probably looking for information on “average home cost.


Same goes for grammatically incorrect or just plain awkward keyword phrasing like:

  • “Running shoes cheap”
  • “How to train dog fast”

Yes, people search like this:

Keyword Overview – Running shoes cheap – Overview

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.

Keyword stuffing example

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.

How to Recover from Keyword Stuffing Penalties

Worried your rankings declined from excessive keyword usage? Don’t panic.

Recovery is possible with the right approach.

Check for a Manual Penalty in Google Search Console

First things first: confirm whether you’ve received a manual penalty.

Log into Google Search Console (GSC) and follow this path:

Security & Manual Actions” > “Manual Actions.”

GSC – Security & Manual Actions

If you don’t have any manual actions, you’ll see this message:

GSC – Manual actions – No issues detected

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.

GSC – Manual actions – Issues detected

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.

What is E-E-A-T

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.”

GSC – Manual actions – Request review button

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.

GSC – Manual actions – Request review

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.


The post What is Keyword Stuffing? How to Avoid Doing SEO Like It’s 2005 appeared first on Backlinko.

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6 Best Social Media Management Tools (Tried & Tested)

There are many tools that let you schedule content across different social media platforms.

But:

Not all of them are built to match your unique workflow.

Some focus on collaboration, others on planning.

That’s why I’ve handpicked the best tools and highlighted the features that go beyond basic scheduling.

Here’s an overview of the best social media management tools included in this article:

Best for Pricing
Buffer Content creators and small teams that need help generating content ideas and staying consistent Starts at $6/month per channel; limited free plan available
Planable Marketing teams that need a centralized hub to collaborate on all types of content Starts at $39/month; limited free plan available
SocialBee Businesses that want a built-in AI assistant to help plan strategy and generate content Starts at $29/month; 14-day free trial
Canva Creators and small businesses that want to design and schedule content in one place Starts at $15/month; 30-day free trial available
Hootsuite Teams that need social selling tools and CRM integration Starts at $149/month; 30-day free trial available
Sprout Social Large teams or agencies that need unified analytics, collaboration tools, and social listening Starts at $249/month; 30-day free trial available

Note: This is not the most extensive list of social media management tools. Instead, I’m sticking to what the title says and only including the very best options.


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 – Monthly Calendar

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.

Buffer – Built-in kanban board

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”:

Buffer – Turning Idea into 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:

Buffer – Choose Social Media Platform

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:

Buffer – Choose a starting template

But you can also customize it with your brand colors, fonts, and layout:

Buffer – Start page – Customize template

When you publish your page, you can track views and clicks to see what your audience is interested in:

Buffer – Statistics

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:

Buffer – Settings – Posting Goal

Once you select your frequency, Buffer will automatically recommend the best time slots and add them to your queue:

Buffer – Settings – Posting Times

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.

Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
Use AI assistant to draft tailored post captions for different social media platforms Analytics doesn’t support creator accounts for Instagram and LinkedIn; it’s limited to business pages
Manage comments and replies from one dashboard

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 – Workspace

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:

Planable – Commenting feature

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

Planable – Team Roles & Approvals

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:

Planable – Hide from clients

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:

Planable – Calendar view & Connected Channels

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:

Planable – Campaigns

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

Planable – Header bar

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 – Create your post

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:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot

Based on your input, the AI Copilot recommends the best platforms to focus on and suggests a weekly posting frequency:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Posting frequency

Copilot also suggests content categories that match your business and tone:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Content categories

It then generates the posting plan based on your content categories:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Posting plan

And finally, it generates the posts. You can use the captions as-is or use AI suggestions as inspiration:

SocialBee – Social Media Copilot – Generated posts

Create Evergreen Content Categories

SocialBee lets you recycle posts on autopilot by marking a content category as evergreen:

SocialBee – Re-queue after posting

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:

SocialBee – Your content categories

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:

SocialBee – Content – Import links

Just paste in your links, assign them to a content category, and SocialBee will generate a basic post using the page title and link:

SocialBee – Import links – Created post

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.

Get Help from a Dedicated Social Media Concierge

If you’d rather outsource some of your social media tasks to a pro, SocialBee offers concierge services.

SocialBee – ConciergeBee Store

ConciergeBee connects you with a service provider who takes care of tasks like making content or talking to your followers.

You can choose from several service packages (starting at $129/month) based on your needs.

For example, options include:

  • Weekly content creation (graphics, captions, and videos)
  • Community management (inbox and comment replies)
  • LinkedIn lead generation
  • Blog content writing
  • Ads management

SocialBee – Service packages

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 AI to enhance your social media strategy
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

Canva – Content Planner

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:

Canva – Schedule design

This built-in scheduling tool helps you post regularly on social media without making more work for yourself.

Instead of switching between tools, you can design, schedule, and publish all from one place.

This saves time and keeps your content calendar on track.

Fill Your Calendar with Holiday-Ready Templates

Canva’s Content Planner shows holidays, awareness days, and seasonal events from around the world:

Canva – Content planer shows holidays

You can click on any event, choose a ready-made template, make it match your brand, and schedule the post right away:

Canva – Ready made template

This is a simple and effortless way to fill your content calendar and engage your audience.

Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
Design and schedule content without switching platforms Lacks advanced collaboration tools, such as content approvals, needed for larger teams
Pre-designed visuals tied to calendar events and holidays

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 – Dashboard

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:

Hootsuite – DM automation

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:

Hootsuite – Turn social conversations into sales

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 – Dashboard

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:

Sprout Social – All Messages

Your team can even tag messages, assign them to teammates, and leave internal notes to add context:

Sprout Social – Internal comments

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

Sprout Social – Received Messages and Actions Summary

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:

Sprout Social – Profile Performance

You can also track how your audience has grown over time with the Audience Growth graph:

Sprout Social – Audience Growth

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:

Sprout Social – Post Performance

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:

Sprout Social – Keyword tracked

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.


The post 6 Best Social Media Management Tools (Tried & Tested) appeared first on Backlinko.

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19 Sitemap Examples for Any Type of Website (+ Best Practices)

Your sitemap is exactly what it sounds like: a map of your site’s pages.

A good sitemap organizes all your most important pages logically, and it can help Google crawl and understand your site.

Sitemap Example

Free template: Want to create your own visual sitemap like the example above? Download our free Canva template here.


Below, I’ll go through 19 example sitemaps and explain the key best practices to help you build your own.

Beyond XML, HTML, and visual sitemaps, I’ve categorized the examples below by site type. This way, you can find examples of sitemaps from websites like yours.

We’ll cover sitemaps for:

Note: If you haven’t created a sitemap yet, or you want to learn more about optimizing them, check out our dedicated sitemap guide first.


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.

HTTPStatus.io

Sitemap URL: https://httpstatus.io/sitemap.xml

The sitemap for HTTPStatus.io is fairly simple. The site offers a tool for checking the HTTP status of your URLs. But it also has some pages explaining integrations and what different status codes mean.

HTTP Status – XML Sitemap

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

Sitemap URL: https://www.forbes.com/sitemap_index.xml

Forbes uses an XML sitemap index, found at forbes.com/sitemap_index.xml.

Forbes – XML Sitemap

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:

Forbes – 2005 Sitemap

While the news sitemap contains news-themed URLs:

Forbes – News sitemap – 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.

Backlinko

Sitemap URL: https://backlinko.com/sitemap_index.xml

We’ve used Yoast (a WordPress plugin) to create our sitemap index. That’s why it looks like a more styled page than the previous two examples.

Backlinko – XML Sitemap

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:

Backlinko – XML Sitemap – URLs

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.

Forbes

Sitemap URL: https://www.forbes.com/sitemap/

I showed you Forbes’ XML sitemap above, but the site also has an HTML sitemap for users.

Forbes – Sitemap

The HTML sitemap sorts Forbes’ main pages into categories like Newsletters, Leadership, and Lifestyle.

These don’t cover all of Forbes’ categories though, which you can see in their navigation menu:

Forbes – Navigation menu

So this is an example of a site likely just using their HTML sitemap to highlight specific important pages.

Lovevery

Sitemap URL: https://lovevery.com/pages/sitemap

Lovevery’s HTML sitemap sorts its products into categories like Play Kits and Course Packs. It also highlights two of their main products right at the top: The Play Gym and The Montessori Shelf.

Lovevery – HTML Sitemap

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:

Sitemap

Don’t forget: You can try our free Canva visual sitemap template to map out your own website’s pages.


Best Practices for Visual Sitemaps

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.

Cup of Jo

Sitemap URL: https://cupofjo.com/sitemap_index.xml

Cup of Jo’s sitemap is generated by Yoast.

Cup of Jo – XML Sitemap

It organizes the blog’s pages into the following categories:

  • Posts (with 8 individual sitemaps covering posts going back 10+ years)
  • Pages
  • Products
  • Authors

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…

Cup of Jo – XML Sitemap – URLs

…that just links to pages with a single image on them:

Cup of Jo – Affiliate links

(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

Sitemap URL: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/wp-sitemap.xml

NerdWallet has a main sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml. It contains further sitemaps of posts, reviews, other types of posts, authors, and more.

NerdWallet – XML Sitemap – URLs

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:

NerdWallet – XML Sitemap – 998 URLs

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

Local Business Sitemap Examples

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.

The Wild Rabbit

Sitemap URL: https://thewildrabbit.co.uk/sitemap_index.xml

The Wild Rabbit is an inn with one single location in the UK. It uses Rankmath, another popular WordPress SEO plugin, to generate its sitemaps.

The Wild Rabbit – XML Sitemap

Its sitemap index is fairly straightforward, with further sitemaps for:

  • Posts
  • Pages
  • Events
  • Menu
  • Categories

If you also have a single location with a simple website, a clean sitemap like this is a good example to follow.

Las Carettas Mexican Restaurant

Sitemap URL: https://www.lascarretasmexicanrest.com/pages-sitemap.xml

Las Carettas Mexican Restaurant’s sitemap is as simple as it gets.

Las Carretas Mexican Restaurant – XML Sitemap

The sitemap just contains all of the site’s URLs within one single sitemap file.

Pimlico Plumbers

Sitemap URL: https://www.pimlicoplumbers.com/sitemap_index.xml

Pimlico Plumbers is London’s largest independent plumbing company. But even with lots of service areas all around the city, Pimlico’s sitemap is simple and organized.

Pimlico Plumbers – XML Sitemap

The most notable sitemap here is the location-sitemap.xml file:

Pimlico Plumbers – XML Sitemap URLs

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.

Gymshark

Sitemap URL: https://www.gymshark.com/sitemap.xml

Gymshark’s sitemap is a useful example to follow for ecommerce sites.

Gymshark – XML Sitemap – Ecommerce example

Its sitemap index splits URLs across pages, collections, and products.

Here’s what the collection sitemap looks like:

Gymshark – XML Sitemap collections

And since Gymshark is a global brand, there are also sitemaps for hreflang and the Spanish-speaking US variants of the site’s pages:

Gymshark – Language variants – XML Sitemaps

Then, on Gymshark’s region-specific domains, there are separate sitemap files. Like this one for the French version of the site:

Gymshark – XML Sitemap for the French version

Ruggable

Sitemap URL: https://ruggable.com/sitemap.xml

Ruggable XML Sitemap

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:

Ruggable – Extensive product sitemap

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

Sitemap URL: https://weather.com/en-US/sitemaps/sitemap.xml

Weather.com is a HUGE site. Like 50+ million pages huge.

Google SERP – site:weather.com – Results

(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.

Weather XML Sitemap

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:

Weather – 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:

Weather – Individual URL within sitemaps

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.


eBay

Sitemap URL: https://www.ebay.com/lst/BROWSE-0-index.xml

The eBay marketplace is home to 2+ billion live listings.

So it’s no surprise that the site needs a massive sitemap. So massive in fact that eBay needs to compress its many sitemaps. You can tell because its sitemap URLs end in .xml.gz, with .gz referring to “gzip” (a compressed file format).

eBay – Massive XML Sitemap

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:

Sitemap with 40K+ URLs

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”)

eBay – Types of sitemaps

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:

eBay – Sets of sitemaps for 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

Sitemap URL: https://clickup.com/sitemap.xml

ClickUp’s sitemap is clean and simple — even though the SaaS site has tens of thousands of pages and 10+ regional versions.

ClickUp XML Sitemap – Clean & simple

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:

ClickUp Sitemap – Blog for Spanish speakers in Spain

It’s worth noting that many of these sitemaps exist on a cdn.web.clickup.com subdomain. (The individual URLs within the sitemap aren’t on this subdomain.)

This might provide a small performance boost in terms of how fast Google can crawl the sitemaps, along with a bit of server load reduction. But I don’t imagine it would be a game changer for most sites.

It’s also not something you absolutely need to do for large sitemaps. But it could still be worth considering.

Further reading: Page Speed and SEO


Docusign

Sitemap URL: https://www.docusign.com/sitemap.xml

Docusign’s sitemap index contains individual sitemaps for things like blog posts and PDFs.

Docusign – XML Sitemap

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:

Docusign – EN for GB Blog Sitemap

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):

Docusign – Page source code

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.

TSMC

Sitemap URL: https://www.tsmc.com/english/sitemap.xml

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is Taiwan’s largest company. It’s also one of the world’s most important manufacturers of computer chip components.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – XML Sitemap

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

Sitemap URL: https://www.deloitte.com/sitemap_index.xml

Deloitte is another major firm with a huge global presence. Its sitemap index primarily contains sitemaps for all of its regional variants.

Deloitte – XML Sitemaps – For regional variants

Like this German variant:

Deloitte – XML Sitemaps – 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:

XML Sitemaps – Validate XML Sitemap

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:

Site Audit – Backlinko – Issues – Sitemap

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)
  • Sitemap files that are too big
  • Missing sitemaps
  • Sitemaps missing in your robots.txt file
  • Unsecure URLs in your sitemap
  • Orphaned pages in your sitemap

Note: Use Semrush Site Audit to find issues with your sitemap by using this link to access a 14-day trial on a Semrush Pro subscription.


The post 19 Sitemap Examples for Any Type of Website (+ Best Practices) appeared first on Backlinko.

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15 years of Yoast: 15 SEO tips for 2025 and beyond

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

1. Embrace AI-powered SEO tools

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.

Yoast SEO’s AI features offer guidance to help your content succeed.

Did you know?

Yoast is 15 years old!

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!

Shop our products

2. Optimize for zero-click searches

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.

The post 15 years of Yoast: 15 SEO tips for 2025 and beyond appeared first on Yoast.

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