Hey there,

We have two new research studies this week:

• Patrick conducted the largest link rot study ever.

• Tim studied the accuracy of our own search traffic estimations.

Tim also has a post where he explains more about Domain Rating (DR), our own metric. And Sam has a video on a previous research study we did, where we studied whether longer content performed better on Google. 

Joshua has two posts: a guide on local SEO and another on the best affiliate marketing niches to go into. Similarly, I have two posts: one on how to create product-led content and another on how to create a buyer persona.

Finally, Bill will show you how to create blog titles that get clicks. 

As always, click through to read each post. Or if you’re busy, read the tl;dr below each link.

New on the blog 🎉

At Least 66.5% of Links to Sites in the Last 9 Years Are Dead (Ahrefs Study on Link Rot)

Since January 2013, 66.5% of the links pointing to the 2,062,173 websites we sampled have rotted. We found another 6.45% with temporary errors. We don’t know if they’re still there or not.

This is even more complicated when it comes to SEO. Another 1.55% have other issues that prevent the links from being counted for the purposes of ranking.

That means a total of 74.5% of the links in our study are considered lost, with at least 66.5% being rotted.

Local SEO: The Complete Guide

Joshua Hardwick

Here are what SEOs believe are the most important factors for "map pack" and organic "blue link" results:

• Google Business Profile – In all, 36% of SEOs think your Google Business Profile is the most important ranking factor for the map pack. And 6% believe that it’s important for the “regular” organic results. That’s according to BrightLocal’s survey.

• NAP citations – BrightLocal’s 2021 study shows that 7% of SEOs think citations are the most important ranking factor. That’s true for both the “map pack” and “regular” results.

• Reviews – BrightLocal’s 2021 study shows that 17% of SEOs deem reviews the most important ranking factor for map pack rankings. But only 5% see them as most important for regular organic rankings.

• Links – BrightLocal’s study shows that 31% of SEOs deem links the most important signal for ranking on regular organic search. And 13% think the same for map pack rankings.

• On-page – BrightLocal’s study shows that 34% of SEOs think on-page signals are the most important factor for regular organic search. And 16% believe they’re the most important factor for map pack rankings.

How Accurate Are the Search Traffic Estimations in Ahrefs? (New Research)

It is widely known that the search traffic numbers in Ahrefs are merely estimations. But how far do they deviate from the actual traffic numbers?

We decided to run a small study and try to quantify that. We took 1,635 random websites and compared their monthly GSC traffic in the U.S. to their monthly U.S. organic traffic estimates in Ahrefs.

We studied two factors:

• How much Ahrefs’ traffic estimations deviate from GSC

• How consistent our traffic estimations are when compared to GSC

In our studied sample of 1,635 websites, the median deviation turned out to be 49.52%. 

In other words, most of the time you can expect Ahrefs to misreport a website’s U.S. traffic by up to half of its value. To put our median deviation of 49.52% in perspective, we also calculated it for SEMrush, and it turned out to be 68.36%.

7 Blog Title Formulas That Get Clicks (With Examples)

Bill Widmer

Here are a few templates you can use to easily and quickly write great blog titles:

1. The list post title, e.g., 27 Easy Desk Organization Ideas to Finally Clear the Clutter

2. The “how to” title, e.g., How to Execute the Skyscraper Technique (And Get Results)

3. The what, why, or how title, e.g., How Long Is the Golden Gate Bridge?

4. The “versus” title, e.g., Choosing Your RV: Class A vs. Class C Motorhomes

5. The ultimate guide title, e.g., SaaS SEO: The Ultimate Tried & Tested Guide

6. The devil’s advocate title, e.g., Why ‘Following Your Passion’ Is Horrible Advice (What to Do Instead)

7. The direct answer title, e.g., TikTok Has Over 5 Billion Users. Here’s What That Means

Product-Led Content: What It Is, Why Use It, and How to Get Started

Si Quan Ong

Product-led content is the content marketing strategy that has helped us to achieve an eight-figure ARR. 

Here’s how to create product-led content:

• Know your product really well

• Find topics with search traffic potential

• Prioritize them using “business potential”

• Create product-led content that ranks

How to Create a Buyer Persona for Your Business

Creating a buyer persona isn’t about downloading a template and filling it in. It’s about talking to real people and understanding their perspectives.

Here’s how to create a buyer persona:

• Find people to interview

• Reach out to them for interviews

• Interview them

• Organize your data

• Create your buyer persona(s) by segmenting your data

6 Best Niches for Affiliate Marketing in 2022 (Profitable and Uncompetitive)

The niches are:

• Vacuum cleaners

• Hotels with jacuzzis

• Travel car seats

• Golf equipment

• Headphones and earbuds

• Zero waste

Domain Rating: What It Is & What It’s Good For

Domain Rating (DR) is an Ahrefs metric that shows the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile.

Here are the main use cases for DR:

• Gauging the “ranking potential” – If you have roughly the same DR as your competitor, you can plug their website into Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool and look for keywords that bring them traffic and that you don’t currently rank for. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to rank for them too.

• Link prospecting – When you have a list of hundreds of relevant websites to potentially acquire a backlink from, the DR of these websites will help you to determine which of them is likely to cast the “stronger” link. (This doesn’t mean low-DR sites are bad. If relevant, even a low-DR link will help your page to rank better.)

New on YouTube 📺

How Long Should a Blog Post Be (It’s NOT 2,000+ Words)

Does longer content perform better on Google? We conducted an analysis of 900 million pages of content to see if there are any grounds for this.

Here’s what we found:

• We found a clear positive correlation between word count and referring domains for content that’s up to 1,000 words long. But there’s a strong negative correlation between backlinks and word count for content over 1,000 words.

• We found a moderate positive correlation between word count and organic traffic (content up to 2,000 words). For content longer than 2,000 words, there’s a moderate negative correlation.

What we’re reading 🤓

Google Offering SEO Certification Taught by Googlers as Part of Digital Marketing Course

Interesting development. Do you think this is a good move by Google? 

Enterprise SEO Buy-in: 7 Essential Tips for Winning the Long Game

Learn how to make allies and win support so you can do better work.

5 Ways to Use the Wayback Machine for SEO

Article

The Wayback Machine takes historical screenshots of webpages and stores them in its public database. Here are five ways you can use the Wayback Machine for SEO.

5 Key Lessons From Interviewing In-house SEOs on Working With Development Teams

Substack

In March 2022, Adam Gent interviewed 15 in-house SEOs with the goal of understanding how they work and get things done with development teams. These are the top five insights from the analysis of these interviews.
 

Till next time ;)
Cheers,