(What’s Working Now!) 2020 SEO Case Studies LIVE...Mar 03, 2020 · Using our SEO tools, we can identify these pages and ﬁgure out what we need to compete SEO doesn’t have to

2020 SEO Case Studies LIVE(What’s Working Now!)By: The HOTH

Clayton JohnsonCMO @ The HOTH

In Case Sound Isn’t Working:

This Is For You If...

● You want to get REAL, lasting SEO results…

○ Without any shady tactics

● You’ve been confused about what to do

○ We’re here to simplify!

● You want to see what’s working today

○ No fluff, no theory, We’re going over real world case studies in 2020!

This Presentation

● Designed to show you real world scenarios

● What we did, the strategy, the links and content

● Clear takeaways

● Selected these so that you can learn while seeing case study results!

During This Presentation

● We’ll be covering a lot

● 30 min pure training

● If you have questions, put them in the chat!

Stick Around Until The End

● I’ll show you where to get the slides

● 30 min of Q&A - ask me anything you want!

● We have a special deal for those who stick around!

Why The HOTH?

The SEO Strategy & Process That We Use

About These Case Studies

● All part of our HOTH X Managed SEO Program

● Been on HOTH X for at least six consecutive months

● SEO takes time to see results and it’s all about consistency

This Process Works For All Types Of Businesses

● E-Commerce Store

● Local Business

● Online Service

● Publishers

SEO Audit

Easy Wins Analysis

Keyword Gap Analysis

Customized Strategy

Product Pages

Link Base

Blog

Guest Post Guest Post Guest Post Guest Post

Blog Blog Blog

Ready?

Case Study #1Recovering A Site Hit By

Google Core Updates In The Competitive Financial Space

Background

● This is a highly competitive & lucrative space in finance

● They are competing with some very big, well known brands

Audit

● Started with us in July 19, after they had been losing traffic

● Really started taking a bigger hit with a “Core update” of March 2019

What’s Up With Core Updates?

● Core updates are what we’ve been seeing over the last few years

● They are changes to the algorithm that don’t target 1 thing in particular

● For the most part, Google seems to “turn a bunch of dials”

Core UpdatesMarch 9, 2018

Broad Core Algorithm Update

April 16, 2018


August 1, 2018 "Medic"


March 12, 2019

Core Update

June 2, 2019

June 2019 Core Update

September 24, 2019


Core Updates

● Started in 2018

● Sites in “YMYL” have seen bigger swings

● (Your Money, Your Life)

● Because this client is in financial, and their timeline matched up with the update, we had reason to suspect this was the case

March 9, 2018


April 16, 2018


August 1, 2018 "Medic"


March 12, 2019

Core Update

June 2, 2019

June 2019 Core Update

September 24, 2019


Core Updates

● Disclaimer:

● Core updates are difficult because it’s usually not just 1 thing that goes wrong.

● So we like to look deeper -

● Dig page by page to see what actually is happening!

You Can Do This With Search Console

You Can Also Do This With Ahrefs

This Will Give You A MuchMore Granular Look!

Audit

● We noticed that they were losing a variety of terms, it wasn’t one specific page in particular

● We would have to take a multi faceted approach

Audit

● We also check out backlinks

● We noticed they were over-optimized on some of their main pages as well

Creating A Strategy For Recovery

Strategy

● Our Main Strategy:

● 1. Build out long form content

○ This will help increase their EAT (Expertise, Authority, Trust)

● 2. Build high quality links to these pages + Money Pages

○ Use the link flow to increase authority

● 3. Diversify the anchor text

○ Use multiple link types and increase anchor text diversity

Strategy

● We started with a combination:

○ Foundations Packages

○ DA20-50+ Guest Post Links

○ HOTH Blogger Blog Posts

● Focus on consistency

Building Authority With Blog Content

Strategy

● Google wants to rank authorities

● So you need to build out content around your main topic

● Blog content gives your site contextual relevance

Key Page

SubTopic

SubTopic Sub

Topic

Key Page

SubTopic

SubTopic

SubTopic

Your Site

How Do You Find Keywords / Topics To Write About?

Strategy

● One way you can do this is with what we call a Content Gap Analysis

● We looks at topics that you’re competitors have that you don’t

● We start building out authority content around these topics

Total Keywords In The Market

Keyword Gap

https://www.thehoth.com/keyword-gap-analysis/

Here’s An Example Of How We Set It Up

Buy Widgets

How Do Widgets Work?

Blog PostWidgets For

People In XZY Situation

Blog Post

Where To Get Widgets

Blog Post

Key Page

Strategy

● Here we’re building out topical authority on the subject

● We’re also ranking for more keywords

● We’re also increasing conversions, because we’re answering questions

Key Page

Blog Post Blog Post Blog Post

Strategic Link Building

Strategy

● We need links to rank

● We had to both build links direct to the money page for anchor text diversity

● But we also want to get good links to the site

● So we funnel them up through blog content

https://ahrefs.com/blog/off-page-seo/

Key Page

Related Topic 1Blog Post



Key Page


Guest Post Guest Post Guest Post



Here’s What Happens When You Do This:

Rankings for /blog/ start increasing

Blog Traffic Follows Suit

Combining The Strategies

● Remember, we combined multiple strategies over the course of this campaign.

● We needed to reverse the core update decline and we did that by

○ 1. Creating authoritative content

○ 2. Strategic link building

● We did this consistently over time

Results?

Totally Reversed The Decline & Massive Traffic Jumps

Huge Traffic Value!

Thats over $500,000 of free traffic per year!

Takeaways

● If you’re declining in traffic - don’t panic. It can be fixed, even if your in a YMYL niche.

● Build out authority with content (and link to your money pages!)

● Build links to both content & your money pages. (Make sure to diversify your anchor text.)

Do You See How This Approach Can Recover A Site

(Even In A Competitive Niche?)

Case Study #2Maximizing Traffic In Localized Searches

(Grey Niche)

Background

● This is a client in the alt medicine space

● This is difficult to advertise for, so SEO is a great option

● Came to us in July 2018

● They were suffering a decline

We Noticed A Couple Things From This Audit

Audit

● First, we saw their link building was stagnant

● This is an opportunity to re-invigorate their authority

Audit

● Second, we also noticed that many of the search terms they should be ranking for are localized.

● I’ll explain in a second...

● We wanted a well rounded approach:

● 1. Increase local landing pages & links

● 2. Increase authority & relevance with strategic content

● Let’s break it down

Strategy

What’s Happening With Localized Searches

Strategy

● Google has been localizing lots of searches if it’s relevant to for consumers to get things locally.

● Sometimes you may end up in a situation where you must localize your content if you want to maximize value.

● This 100% applies to local businesses

Here’s How It Works:

This Means, If You Want To Rank Locally...

You Must Build Out Pages For Each City You Want To Rank!

Example Structure

Tampayourbiz.com/florida/tampa/service1/ yourbiz.com/florida/tampa/service2/ yourbiz.com/florida/tampa/service3/

St. Petersburgyourbiz.com/florida/st-petersburg/service1/ yourbiz.com/florida/st-petersburg/service2/ yourbiz.com/florida/st-petersburg/service3/

There Was A Problem:

Strategy

● The client didn’t have physical locations….

● But that’s OK

● You can still build out localized pages!

We Also Invested In Blog Content

Publishing Blog Content

● There were some really good opportunities to create blog content here

● Terms that would attract their perfect audience, but weren’t too competitive

● We started building out blog content and doing some light linking

Key Page

Blog Post Blog Post Blog Post

Here Is A Single Blog Post:

It Ranks For Over 150 Keywords

We Only Built A Few Links

Strategy

● Overall we combined a few strategies

● 1. Consistent link building

○ They were stagnant before - Can lead to declines

● 2. Localized content

○ Google was localizing searches, so implementing localized landing pages was vital

● 3. Strategic blog content

○ Creating the right type of content grew authority and brought relevant traffic

We Did This MonthOver Month

Results?

Massive Traffic Increases!

Reversing The Falling Traffic

Takeaways

● Remember this was a grey niche site!

○ If you are in a niche that’s difficult to advertise for, SEO can be a powerful channel

● Build Local Landing Pages

○ If you’re searches are localized, build out local pages. You can do this even if you don’t have physical locations to capture more searches!

● Build Blog Content & Links

○ Building blog content & links consistently can get you out of a rut

Do You See How Local Landing Pages Can Change

The Game?

Case Study #3Capitalizing On Easy Wins

In E-Commerce

Background

● This is an ecommerce store in the medical space

● They came to us and wanted to improve their sales

● Started in Feb 2019

Audit

● We took a look and they did have some rankings

● There were some terms / pages that could be easy wins

● We wanted to capitalize on these

Easy Wins Analysis

Easy Wins

● Easy Wins = keywords you are close to the top, but not in the top 3 yet!

● Also called “pre-traffic rankings”

● We found a LOT of high value terms in position 4-30

● This is important!!!

● Here’s why:

https://backlinko.com/google-ctr-stats

Strategy

● Since they had easy wins and Google already liked them, we built links month over month to our identified targets

Target Page

Guest PostLinks

FoundationalLinks

Strategy

● Guest Posts DA10+ - DA50+ (High Quality White Hat)○ Utilized a variety of anchor texts

● Foundations (In-Content Web 2.0 Type)

○ Used mostly natural anchor text for diversity

● Consistency

○ We built consistently over 6 months

Target Page

Guest PostLinks

FoundationalLinks

Results?

#1 For Their Top KWs

Product Pages Popping To The Top

Nice Big Traffic Increases!

Even More Importantly, Traffic Value Increases

Takeaway

● Many sites are sitting on a hidden pile of gold - and you don’t even know it

● Using our SEO tools, we can identify these pages and figure out what we need to compete

● SEO doesn’t have to be super complicated, sometimes you just need action!

● Building diverse links, over time, can dramatically improve your results

Do You See How This Can Work In Any Niche?

Competitive Finance (Plus Recovery!)

Local & Grey Niche

E-Comm

Case Study Review

● Using this process you can get ahead every step of the way:

● Audits:

○ See past issues that might prevent you from success

● Easy Wins:

○ Uncover hidden potential in rankings!

● Strategic Content & Link Building

○ Set your set site up with the right types of content & links

Case Study Review

● If a campaign isn’t working, sometimes a simple switch is all it takes to make the difference.

● Biggest switches / takeaways to remember from these case studies:

● 1) Building consistent authority through quality content, and strategic link building (can even reverse losing traffic)

● 2) Creating localized pages for each city when appropriate

● 3) Capitalizing on easy wins and high value pages with strategic link building

It Doesn’t Have To Be Overly Complicated When You Have

Someone To Guide You!

Who Would Like To Get Results Like These For Your Site?

Would You Like Some Help?

The Problem

● Most people don’t know where to start

● SEO can be complex and it’s hard to see through the weeds

● You need someone to help point you in the right direction

● So I have a special offer to help you out

FREE SEO Strategy Session

Special Offer

● Want to help you figure out your next steps:

● What’s going on with your site right now

● Where your opportunities are

● What keywords you should be targeting

● What it’s going to take to meet your goals

Special Offer

● I created a special page for you to get a free strategy session

● This is no obligation, because we believe in value-first

Get Your FREE SEO Strategy Session:

TheHOTH.com/special

Book Your Strategy Session: TheHOTH.com/special

Special Offer

● This strategy sessions is going to be the most valuable 30 min for SEO you’ve ever had

● We’ll take a look at your site and point you in the right direction

● If you want some help fleshing this out and executing this, we’re running a special promotion


The Great HOTH X Double Down March Special


The Great HOTH X Double Down March Special


Get Double Your Month 1 DeliverablesWhen You Commit To 3 Months!

HOTH X March Double Down

● This is a GREAT way to kick off a campaign

● We’ve never offered this before

● You are going to get double the amount of links, content, in your first month!


Get Your FREE SEO Strategy Session:

TheHOTH.com/special

We’ve Been Getting Crazy Results


Health & Wellness Local Site433% Increase In Organic Keywords


Local Therapy489% Increase In Organic Keywords


Appliance E-Commerce556% Increase In Organic Keywords


Canadian E-Commerce1875.42% Increase In Organic Traffic


Mobile App Development636% Increase In Organic Traffic


Physical Testing E-Commerce440% Increase In Organic Traffic


Apparel1079% Increase In Organic Traffic


Rehab$26k per month Traffic Value from scratch


Wholesale Homegoods$7k per month Traffic Value from scratch


Boating Supplies1,800 Visitors Per Month From Peanuts


Web Hosting UK$11k per month traffic value from nothing


Do You Like This?


Cause We Have More...


Local SalonRanking for 1k+ keywords


Specialized LightingHuge HOTH X Mountains


Marketing AgencyWe Helped Them With Marketing!


Home Goods6k traffic per month from scratch


SupplementsFrom zero to 1800+ organic per month


Local Bail BondsHOTH X Mountains


Local Divorce LawyerHOTH X Mountains


School SuppliesShooting up from nothing


Local ChiropractorHOTH X Mountains


Outdoors AffiliateHOTH X Mountains


Family LawHOTH X Mountains


Outdoor SuppliesTripled their traffic


Local Body ShopShooting up


Beauty SalonShooting up


Australian Beauty ProductsShooting up


Another Marketing AgencyStruggling to over 14k per month!!!


Jewelry$20k / month traffic value from scratch


E-Commerce1,011.11% Increase


Local Business1,011.11% Increase


Insurance640.74% Increase


Get Your SEO Strategy Session:

TheHOTH.com/special

● 30 min, personalized Strategy Session with an SEO analyst

● Take advantage of our Double Down HOTH X March Special

● Get Double Your Deliverables In Month 1 When You Commit to 3 Months!

● This deal ends March 31, 2020

Q+A

Book Your FREE SEO Strategy Session


Thank You For Joining Us Live!

Clayton Johnson

Title: CMO @ The HOTH

Email: [email protected]

Website: TheHOTH.com

Get Your Free SEO Strategy Session:TheHOTH.com/special

(What’s Working Now!) 2020 SEO Case Studies LIVE...Mar 03, 2020 · Using our SEO tools, we can identify these pages and ﬁgure out what we need to compete SEO doesn’t have to

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