the paradox of great content
TRANSCRIPT
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | [email protected]
The Paradox of “Great Content”Why Some Pieces Make the Leap While Others Languish in Obscurity
A Tale of Two“10X” Content Investments
Yikes. #10. Behind many far lower-quality, less-investment-heavy results
#1 for this and dozens of other keywords
For 2.5 years, I’ve maintained a list of remarkable content from across the web…
Links, Shares, & Ranking KWs Analyzed
Avg. Linking RDs:
Avg. Ranking KWs:
Avg. Facebook Shares:
919
2,834
77,990
Correlation Shares->KWs:
Correlation Shares->Links:
Correlation Links->KWs:
-0.014
0.069
0.386
What Separates 10X Pieces That Perform vs. Those That
Don’t?
Keyword Research& Targeting#1
If only they’d done any SEO at all…
Not blocking your own crawler might be a start
This piece may not look like much…
A Strong Investment in KW Research Clearly Paid Off
IFixIt knows what searchers want, and delivers
What You Call Your 10X Content Matters A LOT!
Sadly, Polygraph titled their excellent analysis unwisely, & missed out on lots of extra search traffic
Failure to Optimize for SERP CTR#2
The Economist’s college rankings (which are, IMO, vastly better & more scientific than others) can’t compete in featured snippets b/c of the chart embed
FiveThirtyEight made the same type of mistake w/ their piece on gun deaths.
Domain/URL Segmentation#3
Many folks shoot themselves in the foot, creating unique domains or subdomains for their 10X content
Building on Another’s Platform#4
Why Put a Phenomenal, Traffic & Link-Generating Article on Medium & Not Your Own Site Too?!
Github seems like an even more peculiar choice as one’s only publishing platform…
Some folks use 3rd-party platforms wisely – for distribution, not the primary home
Accessibility#5
1,540 linking RDs
60K+ FB Shares
Ranks for only 24 keywords
No, Frinkiac, you really don’t deserve this shabby lack of an internal link structure.
Delightful,But Not Useful#6
It’s hard to justify 10X investments that don’t provide ongoing value… unless you’re an ad agency
Ignores the Searcher’s Intent#7
Content that fails to answer searchers’ goals can have a brief ranking “pop,” but usually falls thereafter
We observe this w/ time-sensitive content, too. E.g. This amazing NYTimes graphic was a snapshot in Curry’s 3-point history, and thus, didn’t rank for long.
Creates No Incentive to Link#8
Made Reddit’s Front Page w/ 6568 upvotes
600+ Facebook Shares in a Week 42 Links
IcelandAir made a big investment w/ this piece on the Northern Lights, but got only 5 links…
A Few AdditionalPatterns & Observations
There’s Subtle Evidence that Social Visits Are Connected to Google’s Rankings
Source
Media Companies Dominate
FiveThirtyEight
New York Times
Bloomberg
Other Media
7
7
7
19
Brand ROI Can Be Outstanding, & Isn’t Just About Links or Rankings
Source
515 Linking RDs
Ranks for 92 KWs
Worth it just for the positioning
Source
225 Linking RDs
Ranks for 465 KWs
Worth it for the brand awareness
The Three MostSuccessful* Pieces
*from an SEO perspective
#3: Timelines of Geeky Fiction
Source
96 Linking RDs
Ranks for 9,616 KWs!
585 FB Shares
#2: US Election Odds
Source
7,180 Linking RDs
Ranks for 22,723 KWs!
344 FB Shares
#1: Zillow’s “Digs”
Source
834 Linking RDs
Ranks for 2,630 Insanely High Value KWs
8570 FB Shares
