In Episode #162, Eric and Neil discuss how to outrank your competition when you have fewer links. Link building is an essential part of ranking your website; however, Neil and Eric teach us that it is possible to outrank your competitors thanks to Google Hummingbird. Tune in to find out how to maximize on Hummingbird’s new update to increase search engine traffic to your website.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:28 – Today’s topic: How to Outrank Your Competition When You Have Less Links
00:42 – Links have a lot of impact in Google ranking
00:50 – The “Hummingbird Update” had the biggest impact on search engine listings
- 01:02 – Hummingbird looks at everything in a topical sense
- 01:27 – The new update looks at topics and themes
- 01:29 – “Websites with the strongest themes tend to rank the best”
- 01:49 – The new algorithm looks for depth and detail
02:25 – Look at these blogs to learn more about Hummingbird: GetRichSlowly, MyMoneyBlog, PennyHoarder, and MagnifiedMoney
02:40 – GetRichSlowly is the oldest website among the 4, but PennyHoarder gets more traffic because of their thorough content
02:57 – More links does NOT mean a better website
03:32 – Hummingbird looks at the overall relevancy of a post, not just keywords like before
03:45 – Use tools like MarketMuse to tell you how topically relevant you are for phrases in that space
05:04 – UberSuggest will give you suggestions of what to incorporate into your content
05:17 – Don’t forget about The Skyscraper Technique!
05:58 – Linking out too much can make your website look like a directory
06:15 – Neil shares what his team did for his website to get another 10% in traffic
07:28 – Remove default URL date structures
08:16 – That’s it for today’s episode!

3 Key Points:

Google’s Hummingbird update looks at the whole meaning of sentences as opposed to keywords.
Having more links does NOT guarantee you a top spot – RELEVANCY is key.
Use tools to help you plan and strategize your content for overall relevance.

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John Zmirak