the paradox of great content
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | [email protected]
The Paradox of “Great Content”Why Some Pieces Make the Leap While Others Languish in Obscurity
![Page 2: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
A Tale of Two“10X” Content Investments
![Page 4: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
![Page 5: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
![Page 6: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Yikes. #10. Behind many far lower-quality, less-investment-heavy results
![Page 8: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
![Page 9: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
![Page 10: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
![Page 11: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
![Page 12: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
#1 for this and dozens of other keywords
![Page 13: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
For 2.5 years, I’ve maintained a list of remarkable content from across the web…
![Page 15: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Links, Shares, & Ranking KWs Analyzed
![Page 16: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Avg. Linking RDs:
Avg. Ranking KWs:
Avg. Facebook Shares:
919
2,834
77,990
![Page 17: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Correlation Shares->KWs:
Correlation Shares->Links:
Correlation Links->KWs:
-0.014
0.069
0.386
![Page 18: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
What Separates 10X Pieces That Perform vs. Those That
Don’t?
![Page 19: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Keyword Research& Targeting#1
![Page 21: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
If only they’d done any SEO at all…
Not blocking your own crawler might be a start
![Page 22: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
This piece may not look like much…
![Page 24: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
A Strong Investment in KW Research Clearly Paid Off
IFixIt knows what searchers want, and delivers
![Page 25: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
What You Call Your 10X Content Matters A LOT!
Sadly, Polygraph titled their excellent analysis unwisely, & missed out on lots of extra search traffic
![Page 26: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Failure to Optimize for SERP CTR#2
![Page 27: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
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
![Page 28: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
FiveThirtyEight made the same type of mistake w/ their piece on gun deaths.
![Page 29: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Domain/URL Segmentation#3
![Page 30: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Many folks shoot themselves in the foot, creating unique domains or subdomains for their 10X content
![Page 31: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Building on Another’s Platform#4
![Page 32: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Why Put a Phenomenal, Traffic & Link-Generating Article on Medium & Not Your Own Site Too?!
![Page 33: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Github seems like an even more peculiar choice as one’s only publishing platform…
![Page 34: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Some folks use 3rd-party platforms wisely – for distribution, not the primary home
![Page 35: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Accessibility#5
![Page 36: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
1,540 linking RDs
60K+ FB Shares
Ranks for only 24 keywords
![Page 37: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
No, Frinkiac, you really don’t deserve this shabby lack of an internal link structure.
![Page 38: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Delightful,But Not Useful#6
![Page 40: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
It’s hard to justify 10X investments that don’t provide ongoing value… unless you’re an ad agency
![Page 41: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
Ignores the Searcher’s Intent#7
![Page 42: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Content that fails to answer searchers’ goals can have a brief ranking “pop,” but usually falls thereafter
![Page 43: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
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.
![Page 44: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
Creates No Incentive to Link#8
![Page 45: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
Made Reddit’s Front Page w/ 6568 upvotes
600+ Facebook Shares in a Week 42 Links
![Page 46: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
IcelandAir made a big investment w/ this piece on the Northern Lights, but got only 5 links…
![Page 47: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
A Few AdditionalPatterns & Observations
![Page 48: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
There’s Subtle Evidence that Social Visits Are Connected to Google’s Rankings
Source
![Page 52: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/52.jpg)
Media Companies Dominate
FiveThirtyEight
New York Times
Bloomberg
Other Media
7
7
7
19
![Page 53: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/53.jpg)
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
![Page 55: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/55.jpg)
Source
225 Linking RDs
Ranks for 465 KWs
Worth it for the brand awareness
![Page 56: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/56.jpg)
The Three MostSuccessful* Pieces
*from an SEO perspective
![Page 57: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/57.jpg)
#3: Timelines of Geeky Fiction
Source
96 Linking RDs
Ranks for 9,616 KWs!
585 FB Shares
![Page 58: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/58.jpg)
#2: US Election Odds
Source
7,180 Linking RDs
Ranks for 22,723 KWs!
344 FB Shares
![Page 59: The Paradox of Great Content](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022081520/58b8802d1a28ab44078b5c2b/html5/thumbnails/59.jpg)
#1: Zillow’s “Digs”
Source
834 Linking RDs
Ranks for 2,630 Insanely High Value KWs
8570 FB Shares