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SEO Case Study: How I Increased My Organic Traffic 652% in 7 Days

Brian Dean

Written by Brian Dean

SEO Case Study: How I Increased My Organic Traffic 652% in 7 Days

There’s a SEO strategy that’s crushing it right now.

(“Skyscraper Technique 2.0”)

I used this strategy to increase organic traffic to one of my pages by 652.1%:

Analytics – SEO Checklist – Traffic boost 2018

(In 7 days!)

This same approach helped my brand new post hit the #1 spot in Google… within weeks:

Google SERP – Mobile SEO – Number 1 spot

And today’s SEO case study I’m going to show you exactly how I did it, step-by-step.

My Content Was a Smash Hit… Then It Flopped

On July 26th, 2016 I published this post:

Backlinko – SEO checklist 2016

My post got a huge spike in traffic in its first week:

SEO Checklist – Traffic spike in first week

Lots of shares:

SEO checklist – Social shares

And people quickly started linking to it:

SEO checklist – Backlink

Sure enough, my page cracked the top 10 for my target keyword (“SEO checklist”) a few weeks later.

SEO Checklist – Cracking the top 10

All good right?

Well… not really.

You see, my posts usually get more traffic from SEO over time.

Not my SEO checklist page.

In fact: organic search traffic to that page decreased as time went on.

SEO Checklist – Traffic drop over time

It got so bad that my post averaged only 4-5 visitors per day.

SEO Checklist – Low daily visitors

And my rankings dropped to the middle of the second page:

Google SERP – SEO checklist – Second page

That’s When I Wondered: “What Happened?!”

On paper my content had everything going for it:

200+ backlinks.

Lots of comments (which Google likes).

And social media shares out the wazoo.

What was missing?

User Intent.

User Intent + SEO = Higher Rankings

Remember:

Google’s #1 goal is to make users happy.

This means they need to give people results that match their user intent.

Never heard of User Intent? Here’s a simple explanation:

UI

User Intent

noun

Definition

The main goal behind a user's Google search.

And Google is REALLY good at figuring out User Intent (also sometimes called “Search Intent”).

In fact, a big part of Google RankBrain is to give users “results that it thinks searchers will like the most”.

Search Engine Land – Google RankBrain

And the 2018 Google Quality Rater Guidelines has an entire section on User Intent:

Google Guidelines – Understanding user intent

Google has even started asking users about their User Intent:

Google user intent survey

That’s when it hit me:

My post was getting buried because it didn’t satisfy user intent.

Here’s what happened next:

Skyscraper Technique 2.0: (An SEO Strategy That’s Working GREAT Right Now)

After I optimized my page around User Intent, organic traffic shot up like a rocketship:

SEO Checklist – Traffic increase

And my rankings went from #11 to #5:

SEO Checklist – Rankings change

(And these improved rankings have stuck 4+ months later.)

SEO Checklist – Sustained traffic increase

With that, here are the steps for The Skyscraper Technique 2.0:

Step 1: Figure out User Intent

Step 2: Satisfy User Intent

Step 3: Optimize for UX signals

To be clear:

The original Skyscraper Technique still works GREAT.

For example, this list of SEO tools is classic “Skyscraper” content marketing.

Backlinko – SEO tools post

Most SEO tools posts list 10-20 tools. So I decided to review over 170:

SEO tools – Number of tools

And because my page is bigger and better, lots of people have linked to it:

Ahrefs – SEO tools – Backlinks

That said:

This page also satisfies User Intent.

This is why it ranks in the top 3 for my target keyword:

Google SERP – SEO tools

In short:

Ideally, you want to use Skyscraper Technique 1.0 AND 2.0.

Skyscraper Techniques 1 & 2

Skyscraper Technique 1.0 helps you get the links you need to hit the first page.

And Skyscraper Technique 2.0 will make sure those rankings stick.

Let’s dive into the steps…

Step #1: Figure Out User Intent

Here are two simple ways to identify User Intent:

Analyze the First Page

Google’s first page gives you a HUGE insight into User Intent.

Why?

If something ranks on Google’s first page, you KNOW that it satisfies User Intent.

So all you need to do is search for your keyword…

Google Search – Baking sourdough

…and scan the SERPs.

Google SERP – Baking sourdough

Specifically, answer the question:

“What kind of intent do these results satisfy?”

Do people want information? If so, are they looking for the basics… or advanced strategies?

Do they want to buy something? If so, are they ready to buy… or comparing two different products?

Types of user content

For example…

If you search for “Office Space Brooklyn”, the results are 100% transactional:

Google SERP – Office space Brooklyn

In fact, 10 out of 10 results are product pages for booking an office space:

Office space Brooklyn – Product pages in SERP

But if you search for “Coworking Space Brooklyn”, you get something completely different:

Google SERP – Coworking space Brooklyn

The results are mostly blog posts about the best coworking spots in the city:

Coworking Mag – Brooklyn coworking space

So:

On the surface these keywords seem similar.

But Google’s first page reveals that the User Intent is VERY different.

Look At the Keyword Itself

Sometimes the keyword itself tells you all you need to know.

For example…

With my SEO checklist post, I asked myself:

“What does someone searching for ‘SEO checklist’ actually want?”

Duh! They want an SEO checklist.

Despite that, my original post was a case study… not a checklist.

SEO Checklist – Case study highlight

Sure, there were some steps that resembled a checklist.

SEO checklist – Steps

But it wasn’t the type of detailed checklist that searchers wanted.

And Google noticed.

This leads us to…

Step #2: Satisfy User Intent

At this point I had User Intent figured out.

And now it was time to publish a piece of high-quality content to match that User Intent.

Here’s exactly how I did it:

Covered the Basics

I noticed that other content ranking for the “SEO checklist” had steps for people new to SEO:

Other SEO Checklist content had steps

And I quickly realized something:

My original post was WAY too advanced.

In fact, the first step was: “Delete Dead Weight Pages”.

SEO Checklist – Delete dead weight pages

This is a strategy that people new to SEO should absolutely NOT use.

So I replaced this advanced strategy with steps for SEO newbies:

SEO checklist – New first step

Changed the Format

Like I mentioned earlier, the original version of my post was a step-by-step case study.

So I changed the format.

This time, I made the content more checklisty.

SEO Checklist – Add SERPs

Covered More Stuff

Google’s top 10 results were clear:

People searching for an “SEO checklist” want checklists that cover LOTS of different stuff.

Search Engine Land – 40-point SEO checklist

Despite that, my post had ZERO info on:

  • Technical SEO
  • Link building
  • Keyword research
  • SEO software and tools

So I expanded my post to hit on these important subtopics:

SEO checklist – Subtopics

I Emphasized “2018”

I noticed a clear pattern in the search results:

Most of the content pointed out that their checklist worked in 2018.

Google SERP – SEO checklist – Year focus

So I emphasized that my checklist was up-to-date.

How?

I included “2018” in my title tag…

SEO Checklist – New title tag

…in the introduction…

SEO checklist – Year in intro

…and I even mentioned “2018” a few times in the content itself:

SEO checklist – Year in content

Now:

In this case, I rewrote an existing post.

But you can use this same strategy for brand new content.

For example…

A while ago I wanted to write something about mobile optimization.

The first thing I did was a search for “Mobile SEO”… and scan the results.

"Mobile SEO" SERPs

And I noticed 3 things about Google’s first page results:

They covered WHY mobile SEO is important.

Importance of Mobile SEO result

So I led off my guide with a handful of stats:

Why is Mobile SEO Important?

2. They wrote about responsive design vs. dynamic serving vs. “M. mobile sites”

Other site – Responsive design section

So did I:

Responsive design section

3. They had tips for improving sitespeed.

Other site – Site speed section

So I included a section on that.

Site speed section

The end result was “Mobile SEO: The Definitive Guide”.

Mobile SEO Guide

And largely thanks to The Skyscraper Technique 2.0, it quickly climbed to #1 for my target keyword:

Google SERP – Mobile SEO – Number 1 spot

(Above heavyweights like Moz, Search Engine Land… even Google itself.)

And now it’s time to…

Step #3: Optimize for UX Signals

Here’s the deal:

Your content can be a PERFECT match for User Intent.

But if it looks like this…

Ugly website

…people are gonna leave your site like it’s on fire.

And Google will quickly downrank you:

Google downranks sites that are poor matches for user intent

So now that you’ve nailed User Intent, it’s time to optimize for UX Signals.

Specifically, this step is all about engineering your content to:

Here’s how:

Embed Videos

Wistia found that: “people spent on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.”

Average time spent on page

Now:

I’ve never seen a video work THAT well.

But videos can definitely keep people on your site longer.

That’s why I embedded a few videos in my SEO checklist post:

SEO Checklist – Video embeds

Table of Contents

I added a table of contents to the top of my new post:

SEO Checklist – Table of contents

And this table of contents got me some sweet sitelinks in the search results:

SEO Checklist – Sitelinks in SERPs

Needless to say, these sitelinks boosted my organic CTR.

Short Introductions

What’s the first thing someone does when they land on your post?

They read your intro.

In fact, take a look at this heatmap from the Backlinko blog:

Backlinko blog – Heatmap

As you can see, there’s A LOT of action on the first few lines of my intro:

Backlinko blog – Heatmap intro focus

And if you start your post off with a long intro… users are gonna bounce.

That’s why I write short and sweet introductions (5-8 sentences).

Intro above fold

LOTS of Examples

Examples INSTANTLY separate your content from the regurgitated garbage that most people publish.

So don’t be afraid to use tons of examples in every post.

For example:

I included 19 examples in my new SEO checklist post:

SEO checklist – Examples

H2 and H3 Subheaders

Subheaders break up your content into chunks:

SEO checklist – Sub header

(Which makes your content MUCH easier to read.)

In fact:

My SEO checklist post had over 9 subheaders:

SEO Checklist – Subheaders count

Short Sentences. Short Paragraphs.

Here’s how to make your content 10x easier to read:

Short sentences. Short paragraphs.

That’s why I write short sentences:

SEO checklist – Short sentences

And use 1-2 sentence paragraphs:

SEO checklist – Two-sentence paragraph

This is a big part of why my post’s average time on page is 5:53:

Analytics – SEO checklist – Time on page

Over To You

Now I’d like to hear from you:

What do you think of this SEO case study?

Or

Maybe you have a question about The Skyscraper Technique 2.0.

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.

397 Comments

  1. Deep Avatar Deepsays:

    First 🙂 Just
    Wanna Say That Brian You Rock 🔥
    And Happy Halloween Everyone 🎃

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Deep 👍👍👍

      1. Brian i just wanna ask you is that how you create custom pages like Backlinks: The definative guide 2018 post on your blog….Are there any template you use to hire the freelancers to do this work for you ..?

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          Hi Deep, those guides are all custom designed and coded.

      1. Brian, I have a small request for you why don’t you write about social media traffic generation.?

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          I’m not a big social media guy

  2. nooooo I didn’t think you could outdo your infamous skyscraper technique but you did!!!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Austin. I’m not sure I outdid Skyscraper 1.0. But it’s really working well for me right now.

  3. Nic Avatar Nicsays:

    Excellent post for sustainable results.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Nic. That’s true: my rankings have been super stable on my SEO checklist post since I gave it the Skyscraper 2.0 treatment.

  4. Fantistic Brian, can’t wait to read this article! Thanks again for taking time to put such valuable content together for us!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Darshana

    1. I can only agree with that. Thanks Brian a lot! Great Posts each time. Have learned so much yet.

      Keep it up

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Cheers Calin. The original Skyscraper still works well. But SEO has changed a lot since 2013 (when I first wrote bout The Skyscraper Technique). So it’s good to have a new strategy to use in 2018 and beyond.

  5. Farooq Avatar Farooqsays:

    you have just nailed it.
    This article is like never ending with awesome content.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks 👍👍👍

  6. Very interesting Brian. I’m still fascinated by how Google *thinks* it can truly determine user intent. The act of someone coming to a page, quickly skimming or reading it, and then leaving without interacting at all (no sharing, commenting, submitting a form, etc) and certainly without filling out a survey (who the hell has time for surveys!?) does NOT mean that the reader or user was not happy with the result they found. Nevertheless, I guess it’s the best way to guess whether a reader or user was satisfied with what they found.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Michael.

      I agree with you. Google has called those signals “messy”. But they can be pretty conclusive in some cases. For example, if someone visits a page and heads back to the search results and clicks on something else… that is a signal that the first result didn’t satisfy user intent.

      (The book “In The Plex” quotes Google employees saying that they use this specific situation in the algorithm)

  7. Fantastic and thorough post as always Brian, thanks for the advice.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Keith. I try to bring it with every post!

  8. Hi Brian,

    Just saw this in my email haha! I knew its gonna be a bomb..

    Awesome new strategy plus great results right here.

    I would sure apply the techniques and see how it works….

    Google are paying great attention to UX.

    Great post once again and have a nice day.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Noah. I agree: UX signals are becoming more and more important. Let me know how it goes.

  9. Thanks Brian , it is great technique and it is time for us to upgrade!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      No problem, Raymond. It’s 2.0 time!

  10. Thanks, Brian for Sharing…. as usual good stuff.

    Have been using your tips to improve seo on my website.

    Happy Halloween

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Kanuj

  11. Daniel Avatar Danielsays:

    As usual, I am impressed with the quality of your content. Thank you Brian for articles like these, as they really help us implement the techniques on our websites! Good luck with your blog.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Daniel. Happy to help.

  12. Skyscraper 2.0 looks like an SEO CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) play.

    Makes sense- a lot of the technical SEOs I follow speculated that the recent Google algorithm updates (8/1 and 9/27) specifically related to user-intent/user-engagement, on-page factors.

    Awesome guide- so Skyscraper 1 is off-page and now Skyscraper 2 is on-page. A good duality.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Ryan. That’s true: content that matches user intent is also going to help your conversions.

      And yes, user interaction signals are HUGE right now. They’re too helpful for Google to ignore.

  13. Well done, Brian! Ignoring user intent was a huge mistake I made with the first posts I published on my new authority site. I recognized that a week ago and now you confirmed with this article that I was getting on the right track. Thanks mate!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Viktor. You’re definitely on the right track

  14. Amazing content as always Brian! It is a simple thing if you think about, but as you have shown it can have a massive impact on your numbers. I especially agree on short, easy to read paragraphs, it makes such a difference in bounce rate.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Otto. For sure: readability is one of the most underrated skills in SEO and content marketing. If people can’t read your stuff, it’s not going to do well. Period.

  15. Bro I really dig your work. I have been telling people about “What Is” content (content with an informational bias as opposed to transaction oriented bias) mapping to user intent on highly competitive keywords for a while now, and you hit the nail on the head as usual. Well done.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks man. You’re 1000% right about that.

  16. Brian, it`s f$$#g useful stuff as usual. [went to analyze all my pages…]

    God, bless you.
    and 100000… thank`s.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Artem

      1. Same here. Now I see serps differently. Just this one article made me capable of finding user intent at an advanced level.

        Brian’s topic updates are epic and shouldnt be missed

  17. Stephen Avatar Stephensays:

    So as I understand, Skyscraper 2.0 is more of a part B, not necessarily a replacement?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Yes, that’s right Stephen. Both still work well. In fact, I now use both whenever I publish a new post.

  18. Epic post as always, love your blog! It sounds like Google is doing what it should do and that’s giving users what they want and removing sites that are gaming the system.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Seb! Absolutely: this is the direction Google is going. Whoever delivers the legit BEST result is going to win. And a big part of being “best” is matching user intent better than anyone else.

  19. Hey Brian,
    I face the same kind of problem. 3-4 month ago my website ranking was in a good position but right now I got lots of downranking. I like the way you describe Skyscraper Technique 2.0 and hope will be back with a good result.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      I hope it helps, Ahsan. It’s not a magic bullet, but I’ve seen the Skyscraper Technique 2.0 consistent improve my site’s rankings for some tough keywords.

  20. Thanks Brian , it is great technique and it is time for us to upgrade!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Sufyan

  21. Amazing stuff Brian, it’s really indepth analysis and optimization stuff. Definitely it will help to get better rankings in search results.

    Keep sharing such wonderful guides.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you liked the new post, Asim

  22. This technique definitely works! I did a case study on Moz earlier in the year with a similar strategy. Across roughly 20 blogs we have gone to page one in most instances, and they stay there.

    Overall organic traffic is up 145%.

    Well explained.

    https://moz.com/blog/influence-googles-ranking-factor

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hey Jeff, Nice! Excellent case study.

  23. Sachin Khanna Avatar Sachin Khannasays:

    Now I figured out why my site is hit with google update. I don’t focus on user intent. I just focus alone on 5000-6000 words post. But thanks Brain for this post. You really is a genius.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Sachin.

  24. Anant Avatar Anantsays:

    Awesome Strategy Brian !!!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Anant. 👍👍👍

  25. Hey Brian Great Information. My websites one post was losing visitors last month. My post was taken down from page1 to page2 by google. At that time I really got confused. Then I figured out that my article was not matching user intent query. My article talks about some different topic that a user doesn’t want to read. My bounce rate was high.

    Then I optimize my post for user intent by figuring out other websites.
    Now that post ranks in Top 5 Page of Google. But I want a no1 position and I know how to do that after reading your article. Your post covers all the factors needed for matching user intent. I will definitely give it a shot.

    Cheers
    Jatin Thakur

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Awesome Jatin! Let me know how it goes. 👍👍👍

  26. Hi Brian,

    Great article as always! Are you planning to write more about user intent?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks! I tried to cover user intent pretty thoroughly in this post. Is there something I missed?

  27. This is great detail valuable information. I will certainly follow these steps to launch something in the future.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Sounds good, Jitender

  28. Great post as always. Skyscraper techniques are great but getting backlinks in 2018 is getting really tough. Could a site rank in the first page just by using good content without backlinks?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Maher. You still definitely need links. Links are still super important.

  29. Fantastic as usual! Backlinko is a diamond among dirt and will be my top go-to resource for current SEO trends as long as you’re cranking out the knowledge! Thanks Brian!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Jason. I’ll keep cranking it out as long as people keep reading 🙂

  30. Rodrigo Martinez Avatar Rodrigo Martinezsays:

    Reverse engineering eats all.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Pretty much, yeah.

  31. Checklisty! You, sir, are a wordsmith.

    Great read as always!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      HA! Glad you enjoyed the post, Gregory.

  32. Marc Avatar Marcsays:

    That fantastic, crazy Canadian genius Marshall McLuhan said “the medium is the message” and I love how you consistently, methodically break down what that means for online search.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Marc!

  33. Yes! This concurs with my experience. I have more authority backlinks, better content but still I get outranked on some keywords. For me it also seems like Google has made a huge shift in the last months toward more user intent and user behaviour.

    I am thinking about maybe adding a small non intrusive form on specific pages to ask what visitors are looking for on that specific page.

    Also what metric do you think is best to a/b test for? Bounce rate, avg time or amount of visited pages? I would think avg time on page.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Hey Koen, I haven’t tested a lot of interactive stuff (besides videos), but a form could help. Either way, I’d definitely study the first page and see what the user intent is for that particular term. To answer your question: I focus on avg time on page.

  34. Great stuff, Brian. Backlinks definitely help improve rankings, but only if the content matches the searcher intent. I’ve had some of my content rank well with few or zero backlinks by keeping the content as my main focus. Although recently, backlinks seem to be used as a trust signal more heavily since the medic update. What are your thoughts on this?

    Thanks for writing this. I’ll definitely be referring to it again in the future!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Nick. Glad you enjoyed it.

      To answer your question: I’m still making sense of exactly what Google was doing with the Medic update. There’s no doubt in my mind that trust was a big part of it. But it’s hard to see if it’s links based or based on other on-site trust signals.

  35. Another awesome article!! i will start to testing some of these examples.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Sounds good. Let me know how it goes, Milad.

  36. In our industry, there are usually two groups of opposing searchers landing on our pages. Landlords and Tenants.

    This means intent is very different for the person landing on the page and I try and appeal to both people in the intro copy.

    Especially because there are 10 tenants for every 1 landlord.

    Our product is geared towards landlords but if the copy appeals to landlords AND tenants it will improve our position over time meaning more landlords will see it.

    It’s a rising tide raises all boats type of situation.

    It’s good to think about who else might be landing on the page and not just your target demographic.

    When we refresh content we keep this in mind now.

    Great article Brian… thanks for sharing.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Sounds good, Eric. In that situation I think what you’re doing is smart: trying to appeal to both groups as much as you can. You’re 100% on the right track already.

      1. Eric Avatar Ericsays:

        Good to know Brian. Your content is super helpful for staying on track. The CTR case studies On the GSC guide are great.

        After reading that guide I realized how many tenants were landing on our content and started speaking Moreno to both sides. Thanks!

  37. Awesome post. Focusing on UX is very important nowadays which many people don’t do.

    Thanks for sharing these tips. 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome. I honestly can’t blame them. In the old days of SEO, UX didn’t make much of a difference. But today it’s HUGE

  38. Thank you Brian.
    I loved the Post, Simply Amazing.
    I want to apply the tips now and validate the results!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Sounds good, Fernando. Keep me posted on how things go.

  39. Utpal Shuvro Avatar Utpal Shuvrosays:

    Thanks, Boss!
    No doubt about your strategy and
    all of the techniques.

    Very soon I’ll apply this.

    Have a good day.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Utpal

  40. You’re such an inspiration, thanks for the great work, Brian! Btw, I just finished SEO that Works: I LOVED it! Keep up the great work, buddy!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Ivan. I really appreciate that. And congrats! 👍👍👍

  41. Vytas Avatar Vytassays:

    Hey Brian,

    As always an awesome and comprehensive guide. I was always wondering which plugin do you use for table of contents?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Vytas. We actually set those up manually using jump links.

  42. That is a fascinating post and really well explained.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Cheers Steve. Glad you liked today’s post

  43. Gordon Avatar Gordonsays:

    Excellent post as ever, super easy to follow and as always, actionable tips. Thanks Brian

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Gordon. I HATE “high-level” SEO content. SO I try to keep everything super actionable.

  44. Thanks a lot, Brain Dean, I really love reading your blogs, and when I implement this skyscraper technique it improves my blog ranking to 120%.

    Regards
    MJ

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Michael. I hope Skyscraper Technique 2.0 also helps you get more organic traffic

  45. Razu Ahammed Avatar Razu Ahammedsays:

    I was waiting for your new research. The new skyscaper technique is really amazing. “Step 2: User Intent” is more important for 2018 SEO. I will use the technique. Thanks for coming with the new once.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Razu

  46. Cris Avatar Crissays:

    This post is great but I feel you can’t make trademark on this technique.

    It is usually obvious to most SEOs and isn’t revolutionary like first Skyscraper technique. I am not saying it bad, it is good but I still think that it isn’t mind blowing like you previously did with post. Sorry if I criticize but I just want to say what I feel.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      All good, Cris. Thanks for your feedback.

  47. Hey Brian,
    I really like all of your blogs and YouTube videos. I watched them over 20 times so far. It really helped me understand SEO in general and also in depth. I appreciate you sharing what you’ve researched! I get super excited whenever I see your email because I just know that I will learn from you. I am waiting to see your upcoming YouTube videos as well!

    Thanks again for sharing this awesome content.
    -Sandy

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re welcome, Sandy. I actually do have a few videos in the works. See you on YouTube!

      1. AWESOME! I’m so excited to see your upcoming videos!
        I know you are really busy, but as I was working on growing my channel, I have one question for you.

        You know how Instagram only allows up to approximately 30 tags?
        I was wondering how many tags we can use for YouTube. I want to get discovered my many people out there and was using the same technique as you taught, which is using the exact same tag as competitors, but it didn’t help me to discover on “related video”

        Also, vidiq suggests having at least 400 tag characters.

        I know you are busy but I wanted to hear from your opinion since you are the SEO king! haha

        Thanks Brian.

  48. sah Avatar sahsays:

    Thanks

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      No problem

  49. This is really interesting. It seems like long-form content (skyscraper 1.0) is not enough. We need to optimize even more to get better results !

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      In my experience, Skyscraper 1.0 is usually enough. But not always. For times when 1.0 isn’t enough, 2.0 comes in handy

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