How to Rank #1 in Google [New Step-by-Step Case Study]

[00:00] how to rank number one in Google step by step. that I used to rank in the top three I'm Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko,

[00:14] and the OBP formula to get higher rankings in Google. (soft electronic music)

[00:27] so let's get started. 17 Insanely Actionable List Building Strategies, and my target keyword for that page was list building.

[00:41] Now, the keyword list building is insanely competitive. in the world wants to rank for this keyword, against giant companies like MailChimp,

[00:56] Bring it on, bring it on. I'd be able to outrank these big brands but thanks to the process I'm about to share with you,

[01:08] for my target keyword. Today, I rank in the top three for list building. for dozens of related keywords like list building tips,

[01:22] Thanks to all these first-page rankings, has brought in 79,807 visits since I first published it.

[01:34] It's time for me to show you how I did it. how to rank in Google for competitive keywords. with step number one, make your content insanely actionable.

[01:48] to their algorithm called RankBrain. interact with your site in the search results. Google gives you a rankings boost.

[02:01] From my own SEO experiments, the same thing, actionable content. they don't want to read some random person's opinion.

[02:16] that they can use to solve their problem right away. Google will notice and bump you up a few spots. you don't want to hear

[02:30] You don't want my take on the future of list building. You want simple strategies that you can use right away. It's literally a short intro

[02:45] within a few minutes. I rank above sites like HubSpot and Forbes Next up, it's time for step number two,

[03:01] I recently conducted the biggest and one of our most interesting findings tend to rank above sites with a high bounce rate.

[03:16] and then quickly jumps back to the search results. it sends a strong message to Google

[03:28] Like I just mentioned, if people aren't liking your content, Fortunately, there's a simple way It's a content introduction formula

[03:43] Here's how it works. Start your intro off with the outcome For example, what does someone

[03:55] More email subscribers, so I start my intro off Okay, so now that you've hooked them Here's where you outline the benefit

[04:09] For example, my intro says that that'll help you get more leads. what your content has in store for them.

[04:25] a sneak peak into my post, Now it's time for our third step, use external links. ran an experiment to see if linking to other websites

[04:41] They found that pages that used external links That's why I always generously link out to other authority sites in my content.

[04:57] I use 16 external links, including links to authority sites Now, to be clear, I don't think that but every little bit helps,

[05:11] especially when you're going after competitive keywords. it's time to use internal links. that point to the page that you want to rank.

[05:25] on your site to your new post. which can help your Google rankings. from these two pages on my site

[05:39] which funnels juice to the post that I want to rank. are topically related to my list building post, these closely-related pages are all

[05:54] so you should rank it higher. let's move on to the fifth step, add images, visuals, and other multimedia.

[06:07] Let's call them Blog Post A and Blog Post B. were exactly the same with one major difference.

[06:19] and Content B used lots of nice images. According to lots of industry research, Content B.

[06:31] in the UK found that people judge content Then, they size up the actual written content. If your content is a giant, ugly wall of text,

[06:46] but if your content uses lots of images, videos, and quizzes, they're gonna stick around For example, my post is packed with screenshots,

[07:04] that help make my content look nice. and use a million images in every post. found that content with one image

[07:19] Using one image is way better With that, it's time for step number six, Like I mentioned earlier, Google pays very close attention

[07:35] and they want to see that people If an above average amount of people people really want to see this content,

[07:48] This is known as organic click-through rate, that's becoming more and more important every day. you're missing out on a lot of organic traffic.

[08:04] to optimize my title for click-through rate. use my content right away. They want an answer to their question

[08:18] your advice works quickly. "That work fast," in my title. Several industry studies show that

[08:32] than titles without a number, odd numbers perform slightly better than even numbers, the odd number 17 in my title tag.

[08:48] and using an odd number helped increase my organic CTR, on Google's first page. which is to optimize your content for semantic SEO.

[09:05] your target keyword a few times in your content. I mention my keyword a handful of times throughout my post. That doesn't work anymore.

[09:18] to let Google know that my content is about that keyword, I optimize it for semantic SEO. Semantic SEO simply means that

[09:34] Google now tries to understand the topic of your page, To take advantage of semantic SEO, related words and phrases into your content.

[09:48] help Google understand your content's topic. about being more productive, and your main keyword for that post is productivity tips.

[10:01] and related keywords in Google. at the bottom of the first page. You can also use Google Suggest.

[10:15] and see what Google suggests to you. and you'll help Google better understand In my case, I found semantically-related terms

[10:29] and how to build an email list, Simple. generate lots of comments on your blog posts.

[10:43] Definitely. that comments can help a lot with rankings. I tend to get lots of comments on every post.

[10:58] that I'm able to rank for so many competitive keywords. to comment on your content? First, reply to every single content.

[11:13] that no one comments on their stuff, that they do get. I reply to almost every comment that comes in.

[11:26] to reply to everyone that left a comment that I read and reply to comments,

[11:38] Over time, Google sees that my content but an active community, so they rank it higher. getting the ball rolling with the first few comments,

[11:53] make a conclusion or call to action to comment. are boring summaries of their post. Needless to say, a conclusion like that

[12:09] to actually write a comment. Instead, I recommend making your entire conclusion For example, today, my post conclusion

[12:22] but in the early days of the post my conclusion looked something like this. use click-to-Tweet buttons.

[12:37] to get more social shares and traffic. in detail in a minute, but the basic gist is that that people can use to Tweet

[12:50] In fact, my list building post Now, I should point something out. like Tweets, Facebook likes, or Pinterest pins

[13:05] In other words, people sharing your stuff on social media won't help with SEO directly. more traffic, and the more traffic you get,

[13:18] will link to your site. Those links will directly improve your rankings. click-to-Tweet buttons step by step.

[13:31] or quote in your content that's worth sharing. I decided that every technique on my list Next, use clicktotweet.com to make a click-to-Tweet button.

[13:47] and it'll create a link that you can use. You can use buttons like I used here, or you can just make the links plain text like this.

[14:00] When someone clicks on one of your click-to-Tweet buttons, to share that specific strategy with their followers. In fact, most of the Tweets that I got on my post

[14:15] are from people that shared using my click-to-Tweet buttons. promote your content with the content roadshow. you need to strategically promote

[14:30] In fact, this is a mistake I made When I launched my first website a few years ago, I call this the publish-and-pray approach.

[14:43] Back then, I underestimated how hard it can be the content that you publish, One day, I read that WordPress-powered sites alone

[14:59] put out two million blog posts every single day. without any promotion was like winning the lottery, so I decided to promote everything that I published.

[15:12] of content promotion strategies that work great. Thanks to the content roadshow, bloggers that shared my post with their audience.

[15:28] First, find people that are legitimately For example, for my content, I found people or people that had shared content on that topic.

[15:44] or using a tool like BuzzSumo. to see if they're interested in reading your content. You see, when most people promote their content,

[15:58] In fact, I get emails like this all the time, emails that ask or beg me to share their stuff, Delete, delete, delete.

[16:11] First, send the blogger this email That way, you're not shoving a link in somebody's face.

[16:23] saying that they'd like to check out your content, Also, note that I don't ask for a share here. isn't to be a pushy jerkface.

[16:38] Instead, the goal is to get your content and these people aren't dumb. There's no need to even ask.

[16:52] happily shared my content with their followers, that would've never seen my content otherwise. let me show you a cool little bonus tip,

[17:08] Back in the day, I'd publish a post, I realized that, over time, For example, for my list building post,

[17:21] and tools that didn't even exist anymore. but it was bad for SEO too. and saw that my stuff was outdated,

[17:36] to find something that was up to date. to review my content and update it. so I'll replace broken links, add new screenshots,

[17:51] to make them more current. and I've noticed that these small tweaks and upgrades help improve my content's long-term rankings.

[18:03] My content needs a complete overhaul. It was also lacking a lot of detail that was ranking for my target keyword, white hat SEO,

[18:20] and upgraded my post. and structure so that Google searchers I also added a new case study

[18:34] Finally, I answered questions that people asked me For example, lots of people asked me if the ROI of creating awesome content is really worth it,

[18:48] at least in this example, publishing world-class content that page's organic traffic by over 250%.

[19:01] and if you learned something new from this video, Just click on the subscribe button below this video.

[19:13] that I only share with subscribers, It's free. Which strategy from today's video are you gonna try first?

[19:27] or update your older content? Let me know by leaving a comment below right now. Is that how you make it rain?

[19:39] I don't know, it's like (moans) Sorry. Bring it on, bring it on.