Learn 80% of SEO in 14 Minutes — Ahrefs Fundamentals

[00:00] In the next 14 minutes, you're going to
[00:01] learn 80% of what you need to know to
[00:03] get results [music] from SEO. These are
[00:05] the same fundamentals that I teach in
[00:07] our 2-hour SEO course, the same tactics
[00:09] that grew Ahrefs over 4 million monthly
[00:12] visits from Google search alone. And
[00:14] before anyone says it, no, SEO is not
[00:17] dead. Google still sends 345
[00:20] times more traffic to websites than AI
[00:23] chatbots. And 76% of the citations
[00:25] inside Google's AI overviews come from
[00:28] pages already ranking in the top 10. SEO
[00:31] didn't die, it just became the
[00:33] foundation [music]
[00:34] of AEO or AI SEO. So, in this video,
[00:37] I'll teach you the five pieces you need
[00:39] to know to get your pages ranked in
[00:40] Google and cited by AI. And it all
[00:43] starts by understanding how Google
[00:45] search actually works.
[00:48] Most people picture Google as a giant
[00:50] brain reading the live web. It's not.
[00:53] It's a library. In a nutshell, Google
[00:55] sends out crawlers that hop from link to
[00:57] link, copy every page they find, [music]
[01:00] and store those copies in a massive
[01:02] database or their search index. So, when
[01:05] you search, [music]
[01:06] you're searching Google's copy of the
[01:07] web. And ranking algorithms decide which
[01:10] pages from that copy deserve the top
[01:13] spots. Now, Google has hundreds of
[01:15] ranking signals, and nobody knows
[01:16] exactly how they all work. But decades
[01:19] of testing have made three of them
[01:21] crystal clear. First are [music]
[01:23] backlinks. These are links from a page
[01:25] on one website to another. In fact,
[01:27] [music]
[01:28] Google actually tells us that links from
[01:30] prominent websites is generally a good
[01:33] sign that information is trustworthy.
[01:34] [music]
[01:35] Just think of links as votes. The more
[01:37] votes you get from credible sources, the
[01:39] more Google trusts your page. Second is
[01:42] search intent, which is the purpose
[01:44] behind a searcher's query. Think about
[01:45] this for a second. Google's entire job
[01:48] is to return the most relevant results
[01:50] >> [music]
[01:50] >> for any given query. So, if someone
[01:53] searches slow cooker recipes and you try
[01:55] to rank a product page selling slow
[01:57] cookers, it's not going to rank. And
[01:59] that's because when people search for
[02:01] that, the search results tell us [music]
[02:03] that they actually want to get recipes,
[02:05] not a product. And third is user
[02:08] satisfaction. Your page needs to resolve
[02:11] the searcher's query the best it
[02:12] possibly can as fast as it can. So, that
[02:16] doesn't have anything to do with content
[02:17] length.
[02:18] >> [music]
[02:18] >> In fact, the top ranking page for how to
[02:20] turn off iPhone 12 is only 283 words,
[02:24] but it perfectly resolves the query.
[02:26] Now, AI search isn't just about asking a
[02:29] question and then finding a page that
[02:31] best serves it. When you ask ChatGPT or
[02:33] Google's AI a question, that one prompt
[02:36] gets fanned out into dozens of smaller
[02:38] searches behind the scenes. And guess
[02:41] what those searches pull from? Search
[02:43] indexes, the same ones you just learned
[02:45] about. So, every fundamental in this
[02:48] video isn't just how you rank in Google,
[02:50] it's how you become source material for
[02:53] AI, too. But, knowing how the game works
[02:55] doesn't tell you what to play for
[02:57] because if you're not ranking for things
[02:58] people actually search, your SEO efforts
[03:01] are meaningless, which is why everything
[03:03] starts with keyword research. Keywords
[03:06] are just the words and phrases people
[03:08] type into search engines, and keyword
[03:10] research is the process of finding the
[03:12] ones worth targeting. Notice how I said
[03:14] worth targeting? That's because most
[03:16] keywords aren't, and there's a
[03:18] five-point checklist I use to separate
[03:19] winners from time wasters. The first
[03:22] check is search demand. This is measured
[03:25] by search volume, which you can find in
[03:27] any keyword research tool. My favorite
[03:29] is obviously Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.
[03:31] But, you can't just choose keywords
[03:33] based on search volume alone because
[03:35] search volume can lie to you. Take the
[03:38] query kilometer to miles. It gets
[03:40] searched hundreds of thousands of times
[03:42] per month. Sounds amazing, right? Until
[03:44] you see that there's only 0.17 clicks
[03:47] per search. Why? Because So, one has to
[03:50] click anywhere to solve their query.
[03:53] Google already does it, which is why the
[03:55] second check matters more.
[03:57] Traffic potential.
[03:59] Traffic potential is the total traffic
[04:01] you get if you're ranked in the top
[04:02] position for your target query. And it's
[04:04] often bigger than search volume suggests
[04:06] because pages don't rank for just one
[04:08] keyword. In fact, our study shows that
[04:11] the average top ranking page ranks for
[04:13] nearly a thousand other keywords in the
[04:15] top 10. So, instead of trusting volume,
[04:18] you need to look at the SERP and check
[04:20] how much traffic the current top pages
[04:22] actually get. That's the number you're
[04:24] gunning for. The third check is business
[04:27] potential, and this one's simple. Score
[04:29] every keyword from zero to three based
[04:31] on how naturally you can pitch your
[04:32] product in the content. For example, if
[04:34] you sell used golf clubs, buy used golf
[04:36] clubs is a three. Someone searching for
[04:38] that is ready to purchase. Best golf
[04:41] clubs is a two because it's easy to
[04:43] recommend products in your store.
[04:44] Whereas, what is a handicapping golf is
[04:47] a one. It's relevant traffic, but tough
[04:49] to pitch anything. And something like
[04:51] Happy Gilmore review would be a zero,
[04:53] even though it's a fantastic movie about
[04:55] golf. The fourth check is search intent,
[04:57] and you read intent by looking at what's
[04:59] already ranking. Pay attention to the
[05:01] content type. Like, are the top results
[05:03] blog posts, videos, product pages, or
[05:05] category pages? Then look at content
[05:07] format. Are they how-tos, listicles, or
[05:10] reviews? And finally, check out the
[05:13] content angle. Is it a piece targeted at
[05:15] beginners? Are they boasting about how
[05:18] fresh they are, price, something else?
[05:21] If the SERP is full of e-commerce
[05:22] category pages and you've got a blog,
[05:25] that's not [music] your keyword. Move on
[05:27] because if you can't match intent,
[05:29] you're not going to rank.
[05:30] And the fifth check is ranking
[05:32] difficulty. Compare yourself to the
[05:33] pages that currently rank. Can you get
[05:35] more [music] quality backlinks than they
[05:37] have? Is your website authority in the
[05:39] same ballpark? Is your site equally or
[05:41] more topically authoritative? Do you
[05:43] have something better to offer than the
[05:45] other top ranking pages? The more yeses,
[05:48] the better.
[05:49] Now, there's one more filter I'd add in
[05:51] the AI area that wasn't in the original
[05:53] course. I call it the AI filter. AI
[05:56] overviews now show up on about 21% of
[05:59] all keywords,
[06:00] >> [music]
[06:00] >> but for question queries, that jumps to
[06:02] nearly 58%
[06:05] and when an AI overview appears, the
[06:07] number one ranking page loses around 35%
[06:09] of its clicks. So, before you commit to
[06:12] a keyword, Google it and ask, "Can AI
[06:15] fully satisfy the searcher without a
[06:18] click?" If the answer is yes, that
[06:20] keyword may be dead like in our
[06:22] kilometers to miles example, or you
[06:25] might just have to target it
[06:26] differently. For example, there's no
[06:28] doubt that AI overviews are taking away
[06:30] clicks for queries like best [music]
[06:32] weightlifting shoes, but instead of
[06:34] chasing the click, your goal becomes
[06:36] getting your actual shoe brand mentioned
[06:39] inside the AI answer itself because this
[06:41] can lead people to take that brand and
[06:44] search for it in Google, YouTube,
[06:45] Amazon, [music]
[06:46] or other social media networks. Now, to
[06:49] actually generate keyword ideas, start
[06:51] with seed keywords. [music] These are
[06:53] broad terms related to your niche. You
[06:55] can drop them into Keywords Explorer,
[06:57] open the matching terms report, and
[06:58] you'll have more ideas than you know
[07:00] what to do with.
[07:02] Fortunately, you can use these filters
[07:04] to search for modifiers by intent. For
[07:06] example, you can filter for best, top,
[07:08] versus, and review to find keywords with
[07:11] buying intent. [music] Or switch to how,
[07:14] what, why, and guide to find
[07:16] informational topics. And when you run
[07:18] out of ideas, just steal your
[07:20] competitor's best ones. To do that, put
[07:22] a competing site into Ahrefs Site
[07:24] Explorer, open their top pages report,
[07:26] and you'll see exactly which pages send
[07:28] them the most search traffic. If it's
[07:30] working for them, it belongs on your
[07:32] list. But keyword research is just going
[07:34] to tell you what to target. It doesn't
[07:36] actually go and create the page that
[07:38] actually [music] ranks. So, the next
[07:40] piece to learn is creating search
[07:42] optimized content. And I want to bust a
[07:44] myth before we start. On-page SEO is not
[07:47] about stuffing your keyword into the
[07:49] page a magic number of times. And it's
[07:51] not about hitting a word count. In fact,
[07:53] our free backlink checker is around 600
[07:56] words, and it pulls in hundreds of
[07:59] thousands of monthly search visits. What
[08:01] on-page SEO is about is satisfying
[08:04] search intent better than anyone else on
[08:07] the SERP. And the fastest way to learn
[08:09] what searchers want is to study the
[08:11] pages already winning. Just open the top
[08:14] three relevant ranking pages for your
[08:15] keyword. Skip the outliers that don't
[08:18] match the dominant intent. Then look for
[08:20] patterns. What subtopics do they all
[08:22] cover? How are their subheading
[08:24] structured? Who are they writing for?
[08:26] Then take it one level deeper with a
[08:28] content gap analysis. Drop those same
[08:31] URLs into Ahrefs content gap tool, and
[08:33] you'll see the keywords those pages rank
[08:35] for in common. These are the subtopics
[08:38] searchers expect to see on a page. Hand
[08:40] it to you as a checklist. From there,
[08:43] the technical stuff is quick. Put your
[08:44] keyword in the title when it fits
[08:46] naturally, use a short descriptive URL
[08:48] slug, add internal links from your other
[08:51] relevant pages, and write in short
[08:53] sentences, short paragraphs, with
[08:55] descriptive subheadings. Now, that's the
[08:57] TLDR of how you write for Google.
[08:59] [clears throat]
[08:59] But AI assistants, they read your
[09:01] content differently. They don't process
[09:03] your pages as one piece. They chop it
[09:06] into chunks, and you don't control where
[09:09] the chunks fall. [music] So, there are
[09:11] three structural habits that make your
[09:12] content easier for AI to parse, [music]
[09:15] and therefore cite. First, put the
[09:17] bottom line up front. Start every
[09:20] section with the answer, not the
[09:21] backstory. Both humans and AI weigh the
[09:24] beginning of a passage more heavily than
[09:26] the middle. Second, make every section
[09:29] atomic, meaning every section on its own
[09:32] should make sense. Because that's
[09:34] exactly how AI will read it. And third,
[09:37] write entity-rich content. [music] So,
[09:40] instead of "This tool helps with SEO",
[09:43] write "Ahrefs Keywords Explorer helps
[09:45] with SEO". Names, numbers, and specifics
[09:48] [music] give AI something concrete to
[09:50] quote. The last thing on content,
[09:52] especially if you want to appear in AI
[09:54] search, is to keep it all fresh.
[09:57] Content cited by AI is on average 25.7%
[10:01] fresher than what ranks in traditional
[10:03] search. So, your fastest wins usually
[10:06] aren't new pages. They're updates to
[10:08] pages that [music] used to rank but
[10:10] slipped. But, content is only half the
[10:13] job. You can write the best page on the
[10:15] internet and still sit on [music] page
[10:17] five where no one will see it. Because
[10:19] remember those votes from earlier?
[10:21] That's right. It's time to learn how to
[10:23] get backlinks.
[10:24] >> [music]
[10:25] >> And that's done through a method called
[10:27] link building. Link building is the
[10:28] process of getting other websites to
[10:30] link to yours. And there are only three
[10:32] ways to do it. You can create links, buy
[10:34] links, or earn them. Creating them
[10:37] yourself would be things like
[10:38] directories, blog comments, profile
[10:40] links. These are easy, which is exactly
[10:43] why it barely moves the needle.
[10:45] Now, buying them works until it doesn't.
[10:48] Because technically, it violates Google
[10:50] spam policies. It risks penalties, and
[10:53] on average, they'll run you hundreds of
[10:55] dollars per link. Which leaves earning
[10:57] them. And this is where beginners get
[10:59] link building wrong because they treat
[11:00] it like a number scheme. They blast a
[11:03] thousand templated emails
[11:04] >> [music]
[11:05] >> and pray for the scraps. But, here's the
[11:07] reframe that can change everything. Link
[11:09] building is actually about building
[11:11] relationships with relevant site owners
[11:13] who want to link to you because your
[11:16] content enhances theirs. Now, there's
[11:19] three important words in there that
[11:20] matter. There's relationships,
[11:23] relevance, and value exchange.
[11:26] Every good link building tactic is just
[11:28] a different flavor of value exchange.
[11:31] Guest posting, they get free content for
[11:33] their audience, you get a link. Becoming
[11:35] a source for journalists, they get
[11:37] expert quotes on deadline, you get
[11:39] mentioned in publications you could
[11:41] never pitch cold. And when you do
[11:43] outreach, the goal of your first email
[11:45] isn't necessarily to get the link. It's
[11:48] to start a conversation. I'll give you a
[11:49] quick example. We created a post about
[11:51] SEO statistics, and we noticed that the
[11:53] top ranking pages hadn't updated their
[11:56] stats in decades. So, we emailed sites
[11:58] linking to the top page about a
[12:00] 14-year-old stat that I think it was 93%
[12:04] of online experiences begin with a
[12:05] search engine, and we pointed them to
[12:07] the fresh number on our site. [music]
[12:10] And that campaign, it earned us 27
[12:12] backlinks from outreach, and we ranked
[12:15] number one for SEO statistics pretty
[12:17] soon after. Now, here's where AI search
[12:20] kind of changes everything with
[12:21] outreach. And honestly, it's good news.
[12:24] In our study of 75,000 brands, branded
[12:27] web mentions had the strongest
[12:28] correlation with visibility in AI
[12:30] overviews. Stronger than backlinks,
[12:31] [music]
[12:32] stronger than domain rating, stronger
[12:34] than anything else that we studied.
[12:37] Which means every outreach email you
[12:39] send now has [music] two potential
[12:41] payoffs. If you get the link, you climb
[12:44] the Google rankings. If you get
[12:45] mentioned, even without a link, and AI
[12:48] has one more training example [music]
[12:50] connecting your brand with your topic.
[12:53] The unlinked mention, it used to be a
[12:54] consolation prize, but now it's a win.
[12:57] So, now you know what to target, how to
[12:59] create content that ranks, and how to
[13:01] earn the links and mentions that push it
[13:03] to the top. But, none of this matters if
[13:06] search [music] engines can't actually
[13:08] reach your pages. And that's what
[13:10] technical SEO protects. For beginners,
[13:12] it comes down to a handful of things
[13:14] that quietly break sites all the time.
[13:17] The big one is the no index tag.
[13:19] >> [music]
[13:19] >> It tells search engines to keep a page
[13:21] out of their index. Oftentimes,
[13:23] developers use it on staging sites
[13:25] during a redesign because [music] they
[13:27] don't want a duplicate version of your
[13:29] site indexed in Google, and for good
[13:30] reason. But, when it comes time to
[13:33] launch, people often forget to remove
[13:35] it. And that one left over tag tells
[13:38] Google not to add your pages to their
[13:41] search index, which means
[13:43] no search traffic. Then, there's your
[13:45] robots.txt file, which tells crawlers
[13:48] where they can and cannot go on your
[13:50] site.
[13:51] One disallow rule can tell Google AI
[13:53] bots [music] and other search engine
[13:55] tools not to crawl your site, which
[13:58] isn't good if you want them to recommend
[13:59] you. Now, monitoring hundreds of
[14:01] potential SEO issues is impossible to do
[14:03] manually. The real move is to [music]
[14:05] stop guessing and just run scheduled
[14:07] site audits. And you can do that free
[14:09] with Ahrefs Webmaster [music] tools.
[14:11] Just verify your site and set up a
[14:13] weekly or monthly crawl, and you'll get
[14:15] a health score, a prioritized list of
[14:17] issues, and instructions on how to fix
[14:20] each one. And that's the 80% of SEO you
[14:23] need to know to get real results. Now,
[14:25] if you want the full playbook with every
[14:26] workflow step-by-step, watch our free
[14:29] SEO course for beginners right here on
[14:31] YouTube.