Lenovo Partner Network The SEO Journey Series

Creating SEO Authority Workbook 5

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Table of Contents

• Authority • SEMRush Site Review • SEMRush Competitor Site Review • Compare Your Site to Your Competitors • Competitive Content Review

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What authority signals is your website sending out?

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Authority

GOOD BAD

Backlinks - diversity and quality of the - links originate from low quality or linking to your content. untrusted websites and/or lack portfolio diversity.

Reputation - trustworthiness imbued by site’s Reputation - the website lacks historical trust history, social media presence, and reviews. or features a significant number of poor reviews.

Locality - signals related to location including NAP Locality - content and technical infrastructure information, local citations, and server location. don’t reflect region of focus.

Anchors - the keywords used when sites link back to Anchors - inbound links feature keywords unrelated your content. to content or are highly repetitive.

User Experience - your website is easy to use User Experience - your website is hard to use and appears trustworthy. and/or appears untrustworthy.

Engagement - the ways in which visitors consume Engagement - visitors quickly return to the content and return to your website. after clicking through to your site.

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SEMRush Site Review

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SEMRush Site Review: Navigating your SEMRush Dashboard

Once you have created your account on SEMRush, use the following pages as a visual guide to help you with navigating your dashboard when needing reference with each of the exercises in this workbook.

How to get to an SEMRush Dashboard:

1) Visit SEMRush.com 2) Search for your Company URL 3) Login or sign up for free account with SEMRush

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Organic Search Traffic Backlinks Backlinks

Top Organic Keywords

Main Competitors

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Backlinks Follow/ No Follow Links

Backlink Type

Top Anchors Referring Domains

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SEMRush Site Review

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SEMRush Exercise Worksheet 1: Search Traffic/Backlinks

Head over to semrush.com and search for your company’s website and provide the following:

Organic Search Traffic: ______

SEMRush Rank: ______Keywords: ______Traffic Cost: ______

Backlinks: ______

Referring Domains: ______Referring IPs: ______

THINGS TO SEMRush’s Database differs from Analytics and CONSIDER: Console. It allows you to cross-reference information from multiple sources to get an alternate perspective of at your site’s traffic.

Backlinks are referrals from other webpages. If multiple domains are on the same IP address, it is like 5 family members recommending their favorite restaurant. 5 IP addresses recommending your site is like 5 different families recommending your site.

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SEMRush Exercise Worksheet 2: Top Organic Keywords

What are your top 5 Organic Keywords:

Keyword Position Volume CPC Traffic

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

THINGS TO Positions 1-10 tend to be on the first page of the SERP. Positions 11-20 CONSIDER: are on the second page of the SERP. CPC is the cost per click for ads with similar keywords. The higher the cost the more in demand the keyword is with the competition.

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SEMRush Exercise Worksheet 3: Top SERP Competitors

Who are your top 5 SERP competitors according to SEMRush?

CompetitorCompetitive Keywords SE Keywords

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

THINGS TO Your SERP competitors are the Websites that compete for search results CONSIDER: with your website. If these are grossly wrong, the keywords found on your site may not be aligned correctly to your industry.

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SEMRush Exercise Worksheet 4: Links

How many links do you have in the following categories:

1) Follow Links ______

2) Links ______

Backlink Count by Type:

1) Text Links ______

2) Frame Links ______

3) Form Links ______

4) Image Links ______

THINGS TO Follow links are websites that are actively recommending your site. CONSIDER: NoFollow Links are links that are making users aware of your site but not passing along good or bad recommendations. Follow links are more valuable than NoFollow links, but they both provide value and traffic to your site.

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SEMRush Exercise Worksheet 5: Top Referring Domains

Top Referring Domains:

URL Backlink Count Do you trust this site? (Y/N)

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

THINGS TO Top referring domains are the domains that have follow links to your CONSIDER: site and are ranked by their value to your site. These may not all be good for your website.

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SEMRush Exercise Worksheet 6: Top

Top Anchor Text:

Anchor Text Domains Backlink Count

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

THINGS TO Link Anchor text passes signals to the search engine of what is CONSIDER: expected on your site. Most sites are heavy on Branded links here. Keep an eye out for anchor links that are not branded and if they are sending good signals to your site.

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SEMRush Exercise Worksheet 7: Referring Page/Anchor Text

Backlinks: What Pages/Sites are referring to your content? What content are they referring to and are they passing authority to your site with a dofollow link:

Referring Page/URL Anchor Text/Site URL

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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What authority signals are your competitors sending out?

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SEMRush Site Review Competitor 1

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Competitor #1 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 1) Worksheet 1: Search Traffic/Backlinks

Head over to SEMRush.com and search for a competitor’s website and add the URL to the top right corner.

Organic Search Traffic: ______

SEMRush Rank: ______Keywords: ______Traffic Cost: ______

Backlinks: ______

Referring Domains: ______Referring IPs: ______

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Competitor #1 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 1) Worksheet 2: Top Organic Keywords

What are your top 5 Organic Keywords:

Keyword Position Volume CPC Traffic

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitor #1 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 1) Worksheet 3: Top SERP Competitors

Who are your top 5 SERP competitors according to SEMRush?

CompetitorCompetitive Keywords SE Keywords

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitor #1 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 1) Worksheet 4: Links

How many links do you have in the following categories:

1) Follow Links ______

2) NoFollow Links ______

Backlink Count by Type:

1) Text Links ______

2) Frame Links ______

3) Form Links ______

4) Image Links ______

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Competitor #1 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 1) Worksheet 5: Top Referring Domains

Top referring Domains:

URL Backlink Count Do you trust this site? (Y/N)

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitor #1 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 1) Worksheet 6: Top Anchor Text

Top Anchor Text:

Anchor Text Domains Backlink Count

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitor #1 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 1) Worksheet 7: Referring Page/Anchor Text

Backlinks: What Pages/Sites are referring to your content? What content are they referring to and are they passing authority to your site with a dofollow link:

Referring Page/URL Anchor Text/Site URL

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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SEMRush Site Review Competitor 2

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Competitor #2 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 2) Worksheet 1: Search Traffic/Backlinks

Head over to SEMRush.com and search for a competitor’s website and add the URL to the top right corner.

Organic Search Traffic: ______

SEMRush Rank: ______Keywords: ______Traffic Cost: ______

Backlinks: ______

Referring Domains: ______Referring IPs: ______

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Competitor #2 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 2) Worksheet 2: Top Organic Keywords

What are your top 5 Organic Keywords:

Keyword Position Volume CPC Traffic

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitor #2 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 2) Worksheet 3: Top SERP Competitors

Who are your top 5 SERP competitors according to SEMRush?

CompetitorCompetitive Keywords SE Keywords

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitor #2 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 2) Worksheet 4: Links

How many links do you have in the following categories:

1) Follow Links ______

2) NoFollow Links ______

Backlink Count by Type:

1) Text Links ______

2) Frame Links ______

3) Form Links ______

4) Image Links ______

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Competitor #2 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 2) Worksheet 5: Top Referring Domains

Top referring Domains:

URL Backlink Count Do you trust this site? (Y/N)

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitor #2 URL:

SEMRush Exercise (Competitor 2) Worksheet 6: Top Anchor Text

Top Anchor Text:

Anchor Text Domains Backlink Count

1) ______

2) ______

3) ______

4) ______

5) ______

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Competitive Analysis Where are you ahead? Where are you behind?

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Competitive Questions

1. How does your site rank compare to your competitors?

______

______

2. Who has the most “DoFollow” backlinks amongst the sites you reviewed? What are the most valuable website backlinks coming into the sites?

______

______

3. What keywords are linking to your website? Are any of them different from your brand?

______

______

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Competitive Questions

4. What URL/content is most valuable to your competitors?

______

______

5. Do you have content on your site that is similar? Is it 10x better? What could you do to improve the content on your page to beat your competitor’s page?

______

______

6. What keywords that would be valuable to your site are your competitors ranking for that you are not ranking for?

______

______

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Creating Posts with Authority Content Why authority content works

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When you search for content, answers to questions, or a professional opinion, what expectations do you have about that content?

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Content

GOOD BAD

Quality - Well-written, valuable, original Quality - Poorly written, misspellings, and human-centered. duplicate and/or algorithm-focused.

Contextual - Highly aligned to the topic of interest Contextual - Tangential, off-topic of the user. or obfuscated.

Topical Vocabulary - Using language and keywords Topical Vocabulary - Using company- reflective of the topic being searched. Information, focused language instead of user focused local citations and server location. language.

Timely - Non-stagnant, fresh. Timely - Out of date or old.

Depth - Substantive and comprehensive. Depth - Shallow.

Multimedia - Images, videos, and audio. Multimedia - Text only.

Answers - Direct and informative. Answers - Uninformative or unhelpful.

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Content Review Go to a high-value content page on your website and answer the following questions about the content on that page. Repeat this exercise for each high-value content page on your site.

URL: http______

Expected Outcome: What search(s) would you expect this page to come up for?

______

______

Reality: Head over to Google and see what comes up for that search. Did the page you identify come up on page 1 or 2 of the results? What position?

______

______

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Now, let’s review the content on the page, remembering your goal is to provide content that is 10x better than your competitors so you can better rank on the SERP.

Quality - Is the content on this page well-written, valuable, original and human-centered? How could you make the content better?

______

______

Contextual - Think of the reason for a user to be on this page, is the content highly aligned to the topic the user is interested in?

______

______

Topical Vocabulary - Are you using language and keywords that are reflective of the topic being discussed on this page?

______

______

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Timely - Is the content on this page fresh and new or does it need an update?

______

______

Depth - Does the page utilize images, video or audio? How does the page make you feel when you look at it? Is there something compelling to review, or draw your eye?

______

______

Multimedia - Can a user find the answer to the search they executed easily on your page?

______

______

Social - Is the content on this page something you would share with friends, family, colleagues or bosses?

______

______

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Method Savvy is a marketing consultancy that helps ambitious leaders find better ways to grow their brand and business. Our three focus areas, brand, experience, and growth acceleration, help create connected brand experiences that influence behavioral change at scale. SEO is one of many components we specialize in that help brands build a foundation for the ecosystem they want.