Having a high-quality, high-traffic blog in the same niche can significantly enhance the organic rankings of an eCommerce site for commercial terms like “buy football goals.” Here’s how:
Increased Topical Authority
Search engines such as Google prioritise specific knowledge and expertise. A blog that focuses on football-related topics showcases expertise and builds authority within the niche. This can enhance the credibility of the eCommerce site as a reliable source for football equipment.
If you have 30 excellent, well written, detailed posts about football, then for an array of reasons from topical authority to social shares and backlinks, the eCommerce ‘section’ of your site will tend to rank a lot higher for commercial terms.
Top tip – include your own research and data. People love to link back to statistics. A good example with the NOW Foods 3rd party lab testing of creatine gummies – showing half of them had hardly any creatine in them.
Internal Linking Opportunities
A well-organized blog provides the chance to link to your product pages (e.g., “buy football goals”) using keyword-rich anchor text. This not only drives traffic to those pages but also indicates to search engines the relevance of your product pages for specific keywords.
Improved Backlink Profile
Blogs tend to attract more backlinks than product pages because they offer valuable, non-commercial content. These backlinks to your blog can transfer authority to your eCommerce site if you effectively link the blog to your product pages.
Keyword Coverage
Blogs enable you to target informational keywords like “how to set up a football goal” or “best football training drills,” which may not fit well on product pages. Once users visit these blog pages, you can direct them toward related products, creating a smooth transition from information to purchase.
Increased Dwell Time
High-quality content keeps users engaged on your site for longer periods. This increased dwell time signals to search engines that your site offers valuable content, which can positively influence rankings across the board, including for commercial terms.
Capture Users at Different Stages of the Sales Funnel
Blogs can attract users who are in the awareness or consideration stages of their buying journey. For instance:
A post titled “5 Things to Consider When Buying Football Goals” can inform users while subtly promoting your products.
If they choose to buy, they’re already on your site and more likely to make a purchase.
Use exit intent pop-ups to build an email list – incentivise sign ups with discounts
Have a sticky banner with a special offer
Make the brand stand out in images and banners
Brand Awareness!
Anybody can set up a website and sell stuff, and create some ads – but you won’t get direct visitors and people searching for your brand (a HUGE SEO ranking factor) if you haven’t built your brand.
Brand bias is also huge on products – take trainers, football boots and clothes for example. A top quality blog with good content can help build your brand awareness massively.
Establishes Authority & Expertise
Marketing bellends call this “thought leadership” and other contrived BS terms to make it sound impressive. But, at the end of the day, if you read a local PT’s blog about fitness and nutrition and it’s amazing, and references meta-analysis and robust research; you’ll probably be inclined to contact him or her if you are looking for a PT in the future? Especially if they display other EAT – Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness, like a PhD in Exercise Physiology and 20 years experience as a Navy Seal fitness instructor and 10 years as a Premier League Physiotherapy – just to give you a realistic example.
Gives You an Idea of What Your Audience Wants More of
Use search console to see what your blog posts rank for. Take note of any quasi-relevant search terms.
For example, my MMA diet plan, was ranking for Boxing Diet Plan – so I created a new page for this second search term.
In addition to expanding your offerings in terms of content and products, see which are your most popular posts, and if these posts can inspire more content or products. Especially true if the posts related to pain-points of your target audience.
**Under “Crawl Limits,” select “Limit Crawl Depth” and set it to 1 to crawl only the specified folder
In the “Include” box, add this pattern: https://www.mysite.com/buyers-guides/.*
Start the crawl by clicking the “Start” button
This configuration will ensure Screaming Frog only crawls URLs within the /buyers-guides/ folder on networldsports.co.uk, excluding other sections of the website.
**Note – if you are looking to crawl a country folder – e.g. https://www.apple.com/us/ – and the country-folder has URLs deeper than one folder down – e.g. https://www.apple.com/us/phones/i-phone999/ Then don’t add/set Crawl Limit to 1.
If You’re Folder URL Resolves with a 200 without a trailing slash /
Enter the URL of the domain plus sub/folder into the main address bar on Screaming Frog.
Choose Sub-folder option to the right of the address bar:
Go to Configuration (top menu bar, to the left) >Spider > crawl > Include – Add the sub-folder (without trailing slash) to the include section:
Click “Start”. (Button to the right of the “Subfolder” drop down).
Crawling a sub-folder – plus all internal & external links that are contained within the sub-folder pages.
The protocol above would only check the status codes of any URLs actually held within the /buyers-guides/ folder.
For example, if a football goal guide, links to the FA’s website, and 404s, the above methods would not pick this up (as the FA doesn’t have /buyers-guides/ in the homepage etc)
Crawl and check all the URLs within a sub-folder e.g.
then switch to list mode (Mode > List), go to ‘Config > Spider > Limits‘ and change the ‘Limit Crawl Depth’ from ‘0’ to ‘1” and upload and crawl the URLs
Remember to delete in include /buyers-guides from the crawl config before doing the above i.e. Config>Spider>Include – remove anything in the box/field.
The free Shopping listings currently take the form of
Organic Product Grids
Product knowledge panels
Image search results
Shopping tab
Reports to Check for Free Shopping Listings
GA4 – Acquisition – User Acquisition > organic SHopping (Keep in mind the recent non-PDP auto-tagging changes – might need customisation in GA4)
Search Console – > Performance Report > Add Filter > Merchant Listings (There are reports for Search type: Web and Search Type: Image – just add the Search Appearance filter
Optimizing Your Product Feed
A well-optimized product feed is crucial for ranking in free Shopping listings. Focus on these key attributes:
Image link
Description
Brand
GTIN
MPN
Color
Size
Material
Title (highly influential for free listings and CTR)
Leveraging Merchant Features
To stand out in free shopping grids, optimise and complete the following merchant features:
Seller ratings (aim for 5-star reviews within the last 12 months)
Top quality score
Promotions (e.g., coupon codes)
Local free listings
“Buy Now” button
Payment options (PayPal, Google Pay)
Loyalty programs
Competitive pricing
Clear shipping and returns policies
Free Shopping Grids & Structured Data
Products with the best price tend to rank highest
Shipping policy & returns policy – can affect rankings significantly
In Search console there are warnings that show if u don’t have these set up in merchant center or in structured data.can ignore the warnings sometimes tho
Structured data – although we have seen google may unify product feeds and structured data in the near future
I’m using the code below, to extract product schema only – I can export to excel and filter the URLs containing product schema, but don’t have the aggregaterating:
The Magento configuration file is a critical document that contains important settings and directives for the operation of the Magento website. It acts as a site control panel where relevant information is stored and managed. As an SEO professional, even without a strong background in coding or server management, a basic understanding of this file can enable you to understand how the various technical aspects of a website work.
Here is a division of its purpose and functionality:
Stores basic settings: The Magento configuration file records key information such as database details (including data on products, customers and orders), security protocols, and caching mechanisms that affect site speed.
Regulates functionality: Directs Magento behavior by specifying preferences such as the language used, the currency displayed, and the activation status of certain features.
SEO considerations: URL structure: Some configurations affecting URL generation on a site can be managed here, which contributes to a cleaner, more optimized URL layout.
MTPuTTY Explained for Beginners (non-coders)
MTPuTTY (Multi-Tabbed PuTTY) is a tool that helps manage multiple server connections at the same time.
Here’s how it works in a simple, non-technical way:
By allowing users to open several tabs, MTPuTTY streamlines the process of connecting to various remote servers without the hassle of switching between different windows or applications. This means that you can seamlessly work on multiple projects concurrently, enhancing productivity and efficiency. Each tab operates independently, so you don’t lose your connection when navigating between tasks. Additionally, MTPuTTY provides a user-friendly interface, making it easier for newcomers to grasp the basic functionalities, while still offering advanced features for experienced users. This combination of simplicity and versatility makes MTPuTTY an invaluable tool for anyone who needs to maintain numerous server connections at once.
What is PuTTY?: PuTTY is software that enables developers or server administrators to connect to a server remotely, such as accessing the back-end of a Magento website to make changes or check performance.
What does MTPuTTY do?: MTPuTTY is like an upgraded version of PuTTY that allows people to open multiple server connections at once in different tabs. It’s particularly useful for someone managing several servers, because it keeps everything organized and easily accessible.
How is it relevant to you?:
You won’t likely use it, but developers or technical SEO experts might. They use tools like this to access your website’s server and make behind-the-scenes optimizations that can impact website speed, performance, and security, all of which are important for SEO.
For example, if your site is running slowly, they might use MTPuTTY to connect to your server and make improvements, which could help with SEO by improving site speed.
In summary: MTPuTTY is just a tool that helps manage technical tasks on servers. While you don’t need to know how to use it, it’s helpful to understand that your team might use this tool to maintain your website’s health, which indirectly affects SEO performance.
Google follows links and sitemaps provided in search console to crawl websites.
Pages are revisited to check if they have changed
The crawlers needs to prioriterise what and when to crawl different pages, and different domains/websites.
Successfully crawled pages are passed to the index
Google computes crawl rate of your website – according to what traffic your site can handle.
Crawl Stats Report
Provides stats about Googles crawling of your site.
Looks out for errors and drops & spikes in graphs.
Login to Search Console and click on settings
THIS REPORT IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR PROPERTIES AT THE DOMAIN LEVEL – that don’t include https etc in the address
Look for spikes and drops in the data
E.g. to determine if robots.txt has been updated incorrectly – if there’s a sudden drop.
That’s about it.
Oh, check your server/host is ‘working okay’ too –
Find the above report by clicking “settings” on the left hand side-bar/menu > Crawl Stats > Choose a “host” in the middle panel (usually just your homepage address) > then “Host status”.
It’s good to check crawl stats and average response time before and after a migration or redesign.
Average Response Time:
Under 200ms: Excellent. Site is well optimized for crawling by Google etc.
200ms-500ms: Acceptable. That’ll do pig, that’ll do.
500ms-1s: Slightly too slow, especially if your site is 1,000 pages+
Analyze Core Update Impacts: If your site was affected, investigate potential causes such as relevance adjustments, intent shifts, or quality issues.
Run Delta Reports: Isolate dropped queries and landing pages using delta reports to identify the reasons for traffic decline.**
Content Strategy:
Reassess Content Strategy: Move away from generic content aimed at search engines (SEO-first) and focus on user-first content that aligns with intent and provides real value.
Avoid Overloading Pages: Do not overload pages with excessive information. Make them clear and relevant to user intent.
Quality Over Quantity:
Holistic Quality Evaluation: Improve overall site quality, including UX, ads, presentation, and sources. It’s not just about content but the experience as a whole.
Long-Term Quality Improvements: Use a “kitchen sink” approach—continuous, holistic improvements to demonstrate significant quality enhancement over time.
Utilize User Engagement Data:
Measure User Engagement: Focus on engagement metrics like click-through rates (CTR), time on page, and interactions (Navboost signals) to improve rankings.
Consider the Intent Shifts:
Study Intent Shifts: Understand changes in user intent. Ensure your content targets the appropriate search intent, whether transactional, informational, or navigational.
Use Natural Language Processing (NLP) Tools: Leverage NLP tools to analyze how well your content aligns with searcher intent.*
RankBrain and Vector Search:
Optimize for RankBrain: Vector search re-ranks results based on intent. Focus on improving content relevancy through quality rater feedback and actual user interactions.
Monitor Industry-Specific Trends:
Industry Trends: Be aware of specific industry shifts (e.g., pet insurance, tech products) and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly. Specialized retailers and informational sites are gaining over commercial giants like Amazon.
Consider Site Authority:
Balance Domain and Brand Authority: Tom Capper’s study suggests sites with higher brand authority (BA) performed better than those relying solely on domain authority (DA). Focus on building brand recognition alongside traditional SEO efforts.
Core Update Response:
Future-Proofing: Continue producing high-quality, intent-driven content as Google aims to reward helpful content over SEO-first strategies. Sites that improve post-HCU or core updates will continue to see gains.
Action for Content Creators:
Engage with the Community: Marie plans to collaborate with SB Pro members to develop a system for scoring intent alignment, potentially enlisting community support to study core update effects.
Marie also encourages community engagement, suggesting that producing authentic, user-focused content will be a key driver of success in the evolving search landscape.
*1. Use Natural Language Processing (NLP) Tools to Analyze Content Alignment with Searcher Intent
What is NLP?
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on the interaction between computers and humans through natural language. In the context of SEO and content creation, NLP tools help analyze and understand the nuances of language, enabling better alignment of your content with what users are searching for.
Why Align Content with Searcher Intent?
Searcher intent refers to the primary goal a user has when typing a query into a search engine. Understanding and aligning your content with this intent ensures that your pages meet the needs of your audience, leading to higher engagement, better rankings, and increased conversions.
How to Leverage NLP Tools:
Identify Searcher Intent:
Types of Intent:
Informational: Users seeking information (e.g., “How to fix a leaky faucet”).
Navigational: Users looking to reach a specific website or page (e.g., “Facebook login”).
Transactional: Users intending to make a purchase or complete a transaction (e.g., “Buy iPhone 14”).
Commercial Investigation: Users researching products or services before making a decision (e.g., “Best DSLR cameras 2024”).
Analyze Your Content:
Keyword Analysis:
Use NLP tools to analyze the keywords and phrases within your content to determine if they align with the identified searcher intent.
Content Structure:
Ensure your content is structured in a way that directly addresses the user’s query. For instance, use clear headings, bullet points, and concise paragraphs for better readability and relevance.
Semantic Analysis:
Assess the context and relationships between words to ensure your content comprehensively covers the topic.
Optimize Content Based on Insights:
Content Gap Analysis:
Identify areas where your content may be lacking in addressing certain aspects of the searcher intent and enhance those sections.
Content Enrichment:
Add relevant information, multimedia elements, or interactive features to better satisfy user needs.
Language Refinement:
Adjust the tone, complexity, and style of your content to match the preferences and expectations of your target audience.
Recommended NLP Tools:
Google Natural Language API:
Offers powerful text analysis capabilities, including sentiment analysis, entity recognition, and syntax analysis.
Select a tool that fits your technical expertise and specific needs. For instance, Google Natural Language API is highly customizable but may require more technical setup compared to user-friendly platforms like Surfer SEO.
Conduct a Content Audit:
Use the chosen NLP tool to analyze your existing content. Look for metrics like keyword density, semantic relevance, and sentiment alignment with user intent.
Map Content to Search Intent:
Categorize your pages based on the primary search intent they fulfill. Ensure each page clearly aligns with its intended user goal.
Optimize and Update Content:
Based on the analysis, make necessary adjustments to improve alignment. This could involve rewriting sections, adding new information, or restructuring content for better clarity and relevance.
Monitor and Iterate:
After optimization, continuously monitor your content’s performance. Use analytics to assess improvements in rankings, engagement metrics, and conversions, and iterate as needed.
*2. Run Delta Reports: Isolate Dropped Queries and Landing Pages to Identify Reasons for Traffic Decline
What are Delta Reports?
Delta reports in SEO are comparative analyses that track changes in your website’s performance metrics over specific periods. By comparing data before and after a Google core update (or any significant change), you can identify which queries and landing pages experienced fluctuations in traffic.
Why Run Delta Reports?
Running Delta reports helps you pinpoint the exact areas of your website that are affected by algorithm changes. Understanding these changes allows you to take targeted actions to recover lost traffic and optimize your site for future updates.
How to Run Delta Reports:
Gather Data:
Time Frames:
Pre-Update Period: Data from a period before the core update (e.g., two weeks before).
Post-Update Period: Data from a period after the core update has been fully rolled out (e.g., two weeks after).
Metrics to Collect:
Organic traffic
Impressions
Click-through rates (CTR)
Average position
Use SEO Tools:
Google Search Console (GSC):
Provides comprehensive data on search performance, including queries and landing pages.
Select a date range that covers both pre-update and post-update periods.
Export Data:
Export the performance data for both periods to a spreadsheet for easier comparison.
Calculate Delta:
Use formulas to calculate the percentage change in impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position for each query and landing page.
Analyze the Data:
Identify Drops and Gains:
Highlight queries and pages that saw significant drops or gains in traffic.
Segment the Data:
Break down the data by categories such as content type, topic, or user intent to identify patterns.
Look for Correlations:
Determine if there are common factors among the affected queries/pages, such as content quality, relevance, or technical issues.
Identify Potential Causes:
Relevancy Issues:
Content may no longer align with the updated search intent or relevancy criteria.
Technical Problems:
Issues like slow page speed, mobile usability problems, or broken links can impact rankings.
Content Quality:
Thin content, outdated information, or lack of depth can lead to declines.
Competitor Improvements:
Competitors may have enhanced their content, earning higher rankings.
User Experience (UX):
Poor UX, intrusive ads, or difficult navigation can negatively affect rankings.
Develop an Action Plan:
Content Optimization:
Revise and enhance content to better match searcher intent and improve quality.
Technical SEO Fixes:
Address any identified technical issues to improve site performance.
Improve UX:
Enhance the overall user experience to keep visitors engaged and reduce bounce rates.
Monitor Competitors:
Analyze top-performing competitors to understand what changes they made that may have contributed to their gains.
Continuous Monitoring:
Regularly update and monitor Delta reports to track the effectiveness of your optimizations and stay ahead of future updates.
Tools and Techniques for Delta Reporting:
Google Search Console (GSC):
Export and Compare:
Export performance data before and after the update and use spreadsheet tools to calculate differences.
Filtering Options:
Use filters to narrow down specific queries or pages for detailed analysis.
Google Analytics:
Custom Reports:
Create custom reports to compare traffic sources, user behavior, and conversion metrics across different periods.
Annotations:
Use annotations to mark the date of the core update, helping correlate changes in data with the update rollout.
SEO Platforms:
SEMrush’s Position Tracking:
Track keyword rankings over time and compare pre- and post-update positions.
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer:
Analyze backlink profiles and organic search traffic changes.
Moz’s Rank Tracker:
Monitor keyword performance and identify ranking fluctuations.
Spreadsheet Analysis:
Pivot Tables:
Use pivot tables to summarize and analyze large datasets effectively.
Visualization:
Create charts and graphs to visualize traffic trends and identify significant changes.
Best Practices for Delta Reporting:
Consistent Time Frames:
Ensure the comparison periods are equivalent in length and cover similar days of the week to account for any variability.
Account for Seasonality:
Be aware of seasonal trends that might affect traffic independently of the core update.
Focus on Significant Changes:
Prioritize queries and pages with substantial traffic drops or gains to address the most impactful issues first.
Iterative Analysis:
Continuously refine your analysis by incorporating additional data points or adjusting your reporting criteria as needed.
Putting It All Together: Enhancing Your SEO Strategy
By integrating NLP-based content analysis and Delta reporting, you can create a robust SEO strategy that not only aligns your content with user intent but also allows you to proactively identify and address issues arising from algorithm updates. Here’s a step-by-step approach to combining these strategies:
Initial Content Audit:
Use NLP tools to assess the alignment of your existing content with searcher intent.
Identify content areas that need enhancement or restructuring.
Post-Update Performance Analysis:
After a core update, run Delta reports to identify affected queries and pages.
Cross-reference these findings with your NLP analysis to understand if misalignment with search intent contributed to the declines.
Optimization and Implementation:
Optimize affected content based on insights from both NLP analysis and Delta reports.
Enhance content quality, adjust for better intent alignment, and fix any technical issues identified.
Continuous Monitoring and Improvement:
Regularly use NLP tools to keep your content aligned with evolving search intents.
Continuously monitor your site’s performance with Delta reports to stay ahead of any negative trends.
Community Engagement and Learning:
Engage with SEO communities (like the Search Bar Pro Community mentioned in your summary) to share insights and learn from others’ experiences.
Stay updated with the latest SEO trends and algorithm changes to adapt your strategy accordingly.
Additional Resources
Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines:
Understanding these guidelines can provide deeper insights into what Google considers high-quality content.
Implementing these strategies effectively can lead to improved search rankings, better user engagement, and sustained organic growth. By continuously aligning your content with user intent and proactively monitoring your site’s performance, you can navigate algorithm updates with greater confidence and resilience.
If you have any further questions or need assistance with specific tools or techniques, feel free to ask!
Small Business Dad 