![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-flushing-toilets-keyword-ranking-1024x296.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe page we optimized shot up from #53 to #10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it also ranks #7 for the keyword \u201cbest flushing toilets on the market\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yup, our page jumped onto the first page of the Google SERPs all because we did a content refresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The harsh reality though is that it\u2019s impossible to achieve a 100% hit rate with content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if your SEO is razor-sharp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you follow along with this case study you\u2019ll see exactly how we did this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the first step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First things first, you need to ask yourself is your keyword still worth ranking for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can you tell?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You audit your keyword by putting it into Ahrefs<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re like me you choose keywords based on a few key metrics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n But using those metrics is not a guarantee that your page will rank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Or that your rankings won\u2019t change dramatically within 3 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me give you an example of a similar situation we found ourselves in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in 2016, we published an in-depth roundup of the best keyword research tools on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article ended up on page 1 and stayed there for several months:<\/p>\n\n\n But as you can see, the competitive landscape around this keyword changed really quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Which drove us down to #40 before we finally settled in at around #16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what\u2019s worse is that if you check it now in Ahrefs there are massive sites outranking us.<\/p>\n\n\n I\u2019d be competing with Brian Dean of Backlinko fame, Neil Patel, and Robbie Richards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This tells me I\u2019d have to invest a lot of resources \u2013 in both time and money – in outranking their high DR sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These guys are at the top of their SEO game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, once they notice they\u2019re being outranked they\u2019ll instantly counter what I did with their own round of optimization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, again, the question to ask is, \u201cIs it worth it to do the work required to rank for this keyword?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking resources away from other keyword battles you could win with a lot less effort, on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the answer here is a resounding, \u201cNo\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why I prefer ranking for many small keywords vs. one big keyword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to requiring fewer resources, it also minimizes the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when auditing your own keyword, simply follow the same steps as above:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Look at the link metrics for the top-ranking results<\/p>\n\n\n 3. Decide if you can still compete for this keyword<\/p>\n\n\n If the answer to #3 is \u201cYes\u201d then go for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If, however, the answer is \u201cNo\u201d then there are several options available to you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you haven\u2019t noticed by now, Google loves putting certain content formats on page one of their search results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll find page one of the SERPs filled with nothing but list posts, roundup reviews, or \u2018how to\u2019 tutorials, for a given keyword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google very rarely deviates from this \u201cnorm\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A typical example of this is if you Google \u201cbest barbell exercises\u201d \u2013 every top-ranking page uses a listicle format:<\/p>\n\n\n So, search intent also includes whatever the dominant article format is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, your page has to match that format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it doesn\u2019t then you\u2019re better off simply rewriting your article to match the dominant article format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, your chance of ranking is extremely low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So now let\u2019s look at a page from a website I had built for me by Alpha Investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The site is Bomisch.com and it\u2019s all about bathroom remodeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the interests of full transparency, we didn\u2019t pay for this site \u2013 it was given to us for review purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The keyword we\u2019re going to analyze is \u201cbest flushing toilet<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let\u2019s put the URL for that page into Ahrefs<\/a> and see what we get:<\/p>\n\n\n Our page for \u201cbest flushing toilet\u201d lingered on page five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then when we look at the first page of the SERPS in Ahrefs we see several DR30 sites but also a DR7 and even a DR2:<\/p>\n\n\n This means there\u2019s almost definitely a ranking gap here that I can take advantage of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there are two things that concern me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n But fortunately, my article format already matches what Google wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a roundup review just like everything else on the first page of the SERPs:<\/p>\n\n\n So I will only need to tweak it and not completely rewrite it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our next step is to analyze our page\u2019s structure in comparison to our competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where we start is by looking at the subtopics covered by our competitors\u2019 pages \u2013 their H2 and H3 tags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This allows us to identify topics we should have covered but currently do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can manually extract the Hx tags from each site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But an easier way is to use something like the SEO Meta 1-Click<\/a> extension for Chrome:<\/p>\n\n\n You can save yourself a lot of time by using a simple labelling system for the Hx tags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So anything that mentions \u201cBuyers tips\u201d or \u201cConsiderations before buying\u201d all fall under \u201cBuyer\u2019s Guide\u201d, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same applies to other common Hx tags like \u201cFinal word\u201d or \u201cSummary\u201d – they can all be labeled as \u201cConclusion\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once your analysis is done you should end up with something that looks like this.<\/p>\n\n\n Now we have to identify what we have in common with the other pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should highlight those in green:<\/p>\n\n\n This looks promising so far \u2013 our page has done a lot of things right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sections highlighted in green can either be left as they are, or you can give them a light refresh to make sure they\u2019re as good as they can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next part of the process is to highlight the elements featured on other pages that are not present on ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should highlight those in red:<\/p>\n\n\n What really stands out here is that all of the top pages feature a \u201cBuyer\u2019s guide\u201d of one kind or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we\u2019ll need to create one of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then finally you\u2019ll highlight in yellow the sections of our page that aren\u2019t really all that relevant:<\/p>\n\n\n We\u2019ll replace these \u201cyellow\u201d items with more relevant FAQ-style questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because we don\u2019t want to waste our visitor\u2019s time by explaining how to flush a toilet properly\u2026most of us learned how to do that in kindergarten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now it\u2019s time to actually pull together the new structure for our article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And my favorite tool for doing this is Dynalist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n We start with our existing article structure but with the unnecessary bits removed:<\/p>\n\n\n Then we add the interesting sections covered by our competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n When I add in the ideas for new sections and an improved FAQ, it create an entirely new article structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can instantly see how much the outline will improve the original article once the rewrite is complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But first, you need to actually do the rewriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surfer SEO<\/a> is our tool of choice when refreshing content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Step one is to create your project in the \u2018Content Editor\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n Next, set it to only analyze the top handful of competitors so it can extract the thematically relevant keywords from their pages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analyzing the top 3 \u2013 5 sites is usually enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just make sure to remove Amazon and other e-commerce sites \u2013 they skew the data you get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surfer recommends that the new page should be between 4,500 and 5,200 words…which is a lot of extra words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t always follow Surfer on their suggested word count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, I aim for the lowest word count of the top 3 results and then add a few hundred extra words to that figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now create a new Google doc from within Surfer:<\/p>\n\n\n This document will have the article text on one side and the Surfer SEO recommendations on the other:<\/p>\n\n\n I copy and paste my original article into Surfer SEO, and give it a quick reformat if needs be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next step is to change the text color of the original document to gray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is so I can easily see what additional words are added to the page by my writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now it\u2019s time to refer back to Dynalist and add the new sections (the H2s and H3s) to our existing article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And remove the stuff we don\u2019t want anymore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The temptation here is to just start writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But you can save yourself a lot of headaches later on by getting your subtopics and FAQ headings in place at the very beginning of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n I then add comments to each section to let the writer know exactly what I want.<\/p>\n\n\n One example of this is recommending that he look at our competitors\u2019 articles for inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But also because we need to refresh our content to match what Google wants to see on page one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, we\u2019re wasting our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I link out to the pages I want him to check out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I use our project management tool Asana to provide the writer with a detailed brief and a link to the Google doc I created in Surfer SEO<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n You don\u2019t have to go nuts with your brief \u2013 just list what you need to be done:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As above, I tell the writer to write any new content in black so I can tell what\u2019s new and what\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n Once the writer has finished the rewrite I\u2019ll review it and either ask for revisions or copy and paste the black sections into your article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then add any formatting you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, paste the words written in black into a word counter<\/a> so you\u2019ll know exactly how much to pay your writer:<\/p>\n\n\n This helps you avoid paying for words they didn\u2019t actually write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we have an updated article based on an entirely new structure it\u2019s time to optimize it in Surfer SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just before you start writing it\u2019s important to set the word count within Surfer SEO:<\/p>\n\n\n You do this to ensure that your rewritten article has the correct keyword \u201cdensity\u201d within a specific word count.<\/p>\n\n\n Now you simply go through the article and add in the keywords that the tool suggests:<\/p>\n\n\n But part of the optimization process also involves limiting the instances of overused keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve highlighted two examples above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FYI, here\u2019s how the Surfer SEO<\/a> color-coding system works:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do your best to get most things green or yellow, but don\u2019t go overboard:<\/p>\n\n\n You do not<\/em><\/strong> need to optimize for every single keyword or phrase until it turns green to give your page a boost in the SERPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google Docs includes a pretty good spell-check feature, but it\u2019s not great at dealing with grammar or syntax issues.<\/p>\n\n\n So we use Grammarly Premium<\/a> for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The neat thing is that Grammarly also integrates seamlessly with Google Docs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, you can do all your on-page optimization and grammar checking in one window instead of jumping between multiple tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The free version of Grammarly works pretty well too for this purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now it\u2019s time to resubmit your page via Google Search Console (GSC) – you\u2019re telling Google that you\u2019ve updated a page and you\u2019d like it to be reindexed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This feature was disabled for several months but it\u2019s finally working again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How long will it take for Google to reindex your page?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It depends on how much authority you have, but 2 weeks is a fair estimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And just before we wrap up let\u2019s spend a few minutes covering the individual steps involved in our content refresh process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019ve completed the above steps you could then look at your internal linking and maybe even building some external links. Tools like LinkWhisper<\/a> or URLsLab<\/a> can help with this as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It all depends on how much competition you\u2019re up against.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, because it\u2019s been several weeks since we refreshed this page, Google last swung by to visit on December 20th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So\u2026what was the outcome of my attempt at reviving this page?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bomisch page targeting \u201cbest flushing toilets\u201d used to rank on page 4\/5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re now on page one.<\/p>\n\n\n And if you Google, \u201cbest flushing toilets on the market\u201d, you\u2019ll find Bomisch at #7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 90 days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without building a single backlink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretty cool, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is just a sample of what you\u2019ll find inside your Authority Hacker Pro<\/a> membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why not sign up for our waiting list?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll let you know the split second we\u2019re open for new applications. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mini audit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-keyword-research-tools-keyword-ranking-ah-1024x314.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-keyword-research-tools-serp-1024x361.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nKeyword analysis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ahrefs-keyword-explorer-1024x378.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-flashing-toilets-serp-1024x486.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-flashing-toilets-keyword-competition-1024x486.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Search intent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/search-results-list-posts-1024x364.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nContent revival case study<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Bomisch](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/bomisch-homepage-screenshot-1024x385.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-flashing-toilet-ahrefs-ranking-bomisch-1024x327.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-flashing-toilet-serp-results-ahrefs-1024x518.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-flushing-toilet-serp-result-articles-1024x593.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nContent refresh prep<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Seo](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/seo-meta-1-click-chrome-extension-1024x425.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Content](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/content-analysis1-1024x253.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Content](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/content-analysis2-1024x242.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Content](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/content-analysis3-1024x235.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Content](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/content-analysis4-1024x319.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nContent outlining<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Dynalist](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/dynalist-homepage-screenshot-1024x297.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Dynalist](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/dynalist-article-outline-1024x417.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Dynalist](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/dynalist-article-structure-1024x578.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe rewriting process<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Surfer](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surfer-seo-content-editor-1024x303.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Surfer](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surfer-seo-content-editor-organic-competitors-1024x573.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Surfer](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surfer-seo-google-doc-setting-1024x349.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Surfer](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surfer-seo-gdoc-article-1024x471.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nCreating a new article structure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Article](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/article-structure-in-gdoc-1-1024x327.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Gdoc](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gdoc-article-comment-1024x391.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"asana](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/asana-content-update-794x1024.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Article](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/article-updated-in-gdoc-1-1024x362.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Word](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/word-counter-1024x535.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nOn-page optimization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Surfer](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surfer-seo-settings-1024x184.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Word](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/word-count-in-surfer-seo-1024x320.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Surfer](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/surfer-seo-keyword-optimization-1024x419.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/flushing-toilet-article-surfer-gdoc-1024x586.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nSpelling & Grammar<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Grammarly](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/grammarly-extension-gdoc-1024x560.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nUpdating your article<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Our 12-step content refresh process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n
Ranking update!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Best](\"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/best-flushing-toilets-keyword-ranking-changes-1024x287.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n