As you know, the Euro 2020 is under way, and sports information, of course, has taken both the TV and the Internet… along with the offices and workplaces.
In fact, some of us were recently talking about the upcoming matches and betting which teams were favorites, which of them would have the best chances of beating their rivals… the usual stuff, you know.
In the meantime, we were analyzing content trends. It was unbelievable how the football cup was able to overshadow any other topic, also on the Internet. And here it came that, as it happens when working with our SEOs, the spark of creativity was unleashed. We asked ourselves: could the players from below of the table achieve a good position against the biggest soccer teams?
Or in Internet terms:
Could a website with little authority achieve a good spot against high-authoritative media in the SERPs, and doing it for a very difficult search? As it was impossible to take any of the Euro 2020’s fields and start scoring goals for the weakest teams, I’m sure you’ve guessed what we thought of doing. Because if there’s something we’re good at is influencing search results.
So we had come up with a new experiment to put our SEO Lab to the test. All we had to do was choose a country where to take action and get down to work. Luckily, we had it easy. If you follow my LinkedIn profile, you will know that we will soon open a new office in London. We had thus found the perfect setting of our challenge: the UK’s SERPs.
What’s more, if you usually do outreach or any other task related to content publishing, you will know that the UK is one of the most complex countries where to work, even when having multiple options available in our database, as it is our case.
So, without further ado, here’s what we did. You can keep reading, or find it out on this video our Co-Head of International SEO, Luis Duato, has prepared:
As you know, I’m Javier Gázquez, CEO and founder of Interamplify. And in this new case study, we are going to check how to boost the positioning of low authority sites, even when competing against highly relevant media.
Let’s dive right into it:
The Challenge: To Boost A Low-Authority Site For A High-Difficulty KW
The challenge was to position a decent but not high-relevant media for ‘uefa euro 2020’, a keyword for which it is hard to compete. In fact, its difficulty is quite high (48 out of 100).
For this type of online searches, the usual is that the first positions of the SERPs are taken by the big boys, in this case the official UEFA site, Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook… and also large media, such as Sky Sports, BBC, Al Jazeera and others. Those would be the favorite football teams of the tournament.
Smaller media, on the other hand, may try to play the game, but most likely they won’t even have the chance to compete with the big ones, at least for keywords of this difficulty.
But we were going to try to make it different.
How? By using the traffic techniques we apply for our clients, and that we develop in our SEO Lab.
I’ll explain step by step:
1. We Choose The Site That Will Complete With The Big Ones
The website chosen to carry out the experiment was ‘Get Ready Glasgow’, which has a DR of 28. And the objective was to boost it in a SERP crowded by media whose DR was above 80, 85, and even 90.
We are talking about a decent site about Glasgow –one of the host 12 cities where the UEFA Euro 2020 is taking place. Specifically, the selected page was dedicated to the sporting event and offered useful content for the user, such as updated information, recent tweets, different documents, and other data.
2. WE APPLY OUR TRAFFIC TECHNIQUES
Initially, the chosen site was in the 27th position.
That would be the starting point from which, at 1.00 p.m. (CEST), traffic techniques of various types would begin to be applied, thanks to our own software and the tactics developed in our SEO Lab.
All that remained was to see how far we could go, adapting our tactics to the specific SERP where the actions would take place.
To check the results, we would use a search simulator for the ‘uefa euro 2020’ SERP in the UK, as well as SERPROBOT, the tool that, based on a series of uploaded keywords, allows to check the rankings of a URL on Google.
Furthermore, we would see how many positions ‘Get Ready Glasgow’ could climb for other high difficulty related keywords.
3. We Check The Results: 7, 6 And 26 Positions In Less Than 24 Hours
In less than 24 hours later, at 11.55 am (CEST) the following day, we can see in SERPROBOT how the URL has risen an average of 11 positions, with an increase of 22 keywords.
We can also check that the Top 30 has changed by 4; and that the Top 100 has incorporated another 3 keywords, which leaves a positive balance for the website after the techniques applied.
When checking it keyword by keyword, we can see that, for the main term (‘uefa euro 2020’), the URL has moved from 27th to 20th spot, with an increase of 7 positions.
This is a very positive result for a low authority domain, considering that the top results are always going to be occupied by the official websites, the main social networks, and the largest media. And it takes our small website practically to the second results page.
But let’s take a look at some of the related keywords.
For the online search ‘euro 2020 glasgow’, we can see that the URL has moved from the 12th position to the 6th, raking in the top 10.
This is because the site is focused on terms such as ‘Glasgow’, thus having a higher relevance to Google. As a result, our URL achieved to be placed just between Sky Sports and Facebook, with the BBC, the UEFA official sites, and Twitter in the first positions.
Another striking example –which is crazy, is the online search for ‘uefa european championships’. From the 76th spot, where it was located, the website climbed up to the 50th position.
This is a jump of 26 positions in less than 24 hours. And we are talking about a website whose traffic figures were quite low.
Conclusions: Applying Traffic Techniques Can Make A Difference
Given the difficulty of the selected SERP, the results of the experiment are very positive. The techniques applied, with the different types of traffic we use, can make a difference and boost the rankings of a domain even in the most competitive online searches.
Now, think about this: What if we used our techniques on any of your URLs? Can you imagine how many positions your brand’s website or any of your sales pages could jump?
These tactics can be applied to virtually any URL, adjusting them to their target countries and online searches. We work with clients who need to be present in different markets, and adapting to the characteristics of each country’s SERPs is our daily work.
Besides, we love challenges! If there is a page you would like to boost with our tactics, just let us know. And if you have any doubts or comments, we’ll be more than glad to hear from you. When it comes to SEO, everything adds up.
See you in our London offices!
