Dissecting HubSpot’s SEO Strategy to Boost Your Reach

“Every time you decide to target a new keyword, refresh a piece of content, or diagnose a page or section of pages with irregular traffic, take a look at what’s coming up for the main queries on Google.” – Aja Frost, Head of English SEO at Hubspot.

HubSpot, one of the most well-known resources and services providers in the marketing and sales sphere, has always been at the top of its game regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

Website, content writing, and strategic digital marketing have always been a core focus for HubSpot. It also provides the necessary resources for brands to leverage and meet their brand marketing objectives.

But in 2017, the organization went through what most brands have experienced: flattening monthly traffic to its blog. The brains at HubSpot decided to use this opportunity to review their organic strategy. Needless to say, they exceeded their past goals and even broke some of their monthly traffic records.

How did HubSpot do it? By using SEO. Here is a look at HubSpot’s SEO strategy that can inspire you and help you boost your reach.

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Lessons from HubSpot’s SEO Strategy 

1. Understand and optimize your SERP ranking

Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking is an important parameter that distinguishes your content ranks per the search engine algorithm. Search engines constantly optimize their parameters to ensure audiences see relevant and well-informed content. 

To optimize your SERP rank, pay attention to:

• Search features and algorithms
• Type of content currently trending (listicles, tutorials, eBooks, blogs, product pages, etc.)
• Where your particular page appears when searching for a targeted keyword
• What information on your page is shared (title, meta description, image, etc.)

You can quickly check your SERP ranking and get detailed analytics here: ahrefs SERP Checker.

2. Focus on on-page SEO

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing a particular page on your website that can help it rank higher in SERP rankings. Decide the critical content that you want to prioritize and improve, and start by focusing on aspects like:

• Page content
• Page titles, headers, and URL
• Focus keywords and secondary keywords
• Meta descriptions
• Internal linking
• Site speeds
• Mobile optimization

As Victor Pan, Head of Technical SEO at Hubspot, defines it, “This could be ad landing pages, thank-you pages, internal sales enablement pages, and login pages. Prioritize optimizing for search when the opportunity is greater than the time invested, and leave the rest on the back burner.”

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3. E-A-T your way to success

E-A-T is an acronym for three critical aspects that Google now factors when prioritizing its search rankings — Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

The update to its algorithm in 2018 created a buzz in the industry since it impacted almost every aspect of content, keyword, and SEO. 

The E-A-T principles cover the following:

• Expertise: Is your website the right source for a particular search term? Does the piece’s author or brand have expertise in the field?
• Authority: Is the website trusted as a credible source? Does the page have backlinks from credible sources to prove this?
• Trustworthiness: Is the content genuine? Can the website be trusted for security?

Like some of the other tips, E-A-T principles need to be factored in every aspect of your content writing, SEO, and online marketing efforts, making it essential to include in your SEO marketing strategy.

4. Optimize focus keywords and long-tail keywords

Keyword optimization is critical to your website’s SEO and will determine how good your content is when someone searches with the target keyword.

Since keyword searches are now updating, it is vital to ensure the keyword is repeated in your content and should have a logical flow. An aspect you need to make sure of is including your main keyword in the following:

• Page title
• URL
• H1 Tags
• First 100 words of the content
• Meta description and title
• Alt text

In addition to the focus and secondary keywords, you must also focus on “long-tail keywords” for your page. A long-tail keyword is simply the term or key phrases you feel users will use when searching for particular content. Since long-tail keywords focus on a specific target audience, the results are distinctive and relevant to the content.

Remember, while optimizing for the search engine crawler, your content should always focus on the user. If it does not, the page ranking may never see the kind of surge you are expecting.

5. Use alt text for your images

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Search engine crawlers are bots that will scan your website to understand its elements and help rank your site pages with SERP ranking. Since the crawler uses backend information (the website code) and not the actual page (the front end that the humans see or URL showcases), ensuring every element is tagged correctly helps improve the site’s ranking.

Alt text is on top of the priority list for SEO content strategy and allows crawlers to understand what your image is about. It helps improve your SERP and showcases your image when users search for a keyword that matches the alt text. This is especially important in today’s world, as many users usually perform image searches to find the relevant content.

6. Leverage CTA often

The objective of every SEO marketing strategy is usually focused on one key aspect: conversions. The best way to gain conversions is by providing Call-To-Actions (CTA). CTAs aim to maximize conversions by calling the reader’s attention to a particular section, compelling them to take some action.

For the CTA to be successful, it must be specific and relevant to the target audience. Higher conversions are not just great for lead capturing; they also help lower bounce rates and improve interaction for your site, a big plus to boost your SEO processes.

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7. Conduct regular SEO audits

No one-time fix will get the job done regarding SEO, content writing, or online marketing. Getting the right results takes patience and persistence. You need to ensure that the process of optimization is continuous.

To get the SEO activities on track, conduct regular SEO audits. These audits help you understand website results and procure monthly or periodical analyses, helping you make the correct business decisions. You may even conduct technical audits to check technical aspects like page speed, XML sitemap, mobile optimization, URL structure, etc. 

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SEOptimiser is a great place to start this process. You can even explore other tools like MOZ, AHREFS, or more to get a comprehensive analysis and track your data periodically.

8. Establish positive connections with your developers and designers

You’ll need to work with the engineers and designers to achieve your SEO strategy goals, which isn’t just a marketing effort. Learn their language, discover what inspires them (typically fascinating projects), and, most importantly, teach them the critical SEO concepts. This may persuade them to contact you before removing a page with 500 backlinks.

9. Develop a link-earning strategy

Earning high-quality inbound links from authoritative websites and pages is critical for increasing your domain authority. “If you write it, people will link to it,” as incredible as it sounds, is not a realistic SEO strategy.

Ensure that your material is related to the content of the linked website. Networking with other sites with a higher domain or page authority and asking for connections to the material is the central strategy to gain high-quality links. Backlinko’s skyscraper approach is another option for getting high-quality backlinks.

10. Increase the authority of your page

Page authority is one of the ranking criteria used by search engines. For example, if you have a long-running blog and a reputation as an industry expert, your pages will likely rank better than those on a newer site.

As a result, it’s critical to establish your brand and authority in your domain. Regular blogging, social media posting, guest blogging on other sites, and simply being active in your field are all effective methods to develop your reputation.

11. Tutor your visitant to look for your brand

SEO is a technique for increasing the amount of non-branded searches for your corporation. 

This was based on the assumption that these were potential consumers who would not have converted otherwise. This argument is sound for a startup, but branded traffic is just as crucial for established firms with solid customer relationships.

It would be best if you established page authority to become an expert. One SEO strategy example is Amazon, where customers looking on Google have been educated to add “amazon” to their searches for site-specific results.

Likewise, by being the go-to authority on issues relating to your business, you may encourage and motivate consumers to do so.

The Takeaway

Ready to start your success story using SEO strategy tactics to help you stand out? The tips mentioned here are just the tip of the iceberg.

SEO and digital marketing are dependent on various factors and activities. HubSpot realized that, and that’s why it is a point of reference for beginners today.

Start with these steps derived from HubSpot’s SEO strategy if you are looking to boost traffic and ensure your content writing gets the attention it deserves. And do not forget to keep optimizing as you progress. SEO is continuously changing, requiring patience and apt decisions to garner the results you are looking for.

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