Task instructions

Type: Report

Learning Objectives Assessed: 1, 2, 4

Due Date: 24 Apr @ 14:00

Weight: 30%

Word Limit: 1,500 words

Task Description:

• Students will conduct a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Content Audit to assess the existing website content for a given brand (a.k.a. “The Client”). Students will determine how they could get more and better quality organic traffic for their client. Students should identify content gaps (key commercial gaps); identify the best combinations of key words to be used and why, and create two page brief exemplars. All optimization decisions will need to be justified.
• The report should show an understanding of SEO as well as research involving secondary data sources.

The report should include the following sections

1. Title/Cover page (Student name, Student ID, Tutor name, Tutorial day and time)
2. Identification of two key content gaps (key commercial gaps) and provide a justification;
3. Identify the best combinations of keywords (primary & secondary) to be used and why
4. Page brief exemplar – content gap 1.
5. Page brief exemplar – content gap 2
6. Excel spreadsheet with Keyword analysis (add this as a second submission file) – Note that this Excel should elucidate on how you were able to arrive at the choice of primary keywords.

Identify primary and secondary keywords

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when doing a SEO Content Gap Analysis

• What do SEO practitioners need to know to inform their content strategy?
• What is task of the SEO practitioner when carrying out a content gap analysis?
• What does the store/brand offer as a business that inherently answers certain types of user intent to a high level? That is,
  – Is the store/brand a real-world shop that people can visit?
  – Does it have certain categories of products that users are searching for?
  – Does it have hard-to-find brands or products that users are searching for?
• Which key insights can you derive from these questions?

Identify two key content gaps w/ justification

1. Students will receive a data file that includes all keywords that Planet Cycles ranks for and all keywords that 99 Bikes ranks in the top 20 for.
2. Students cannot use a different data set.
3. This keyword ranking data comes from Ahrefs.com, an SEO tool which tracks ranking performance and other important SEO metrics.
4. Please note that you must submit the Excel spreadsheet with your Keyword analysis as a second submission file. This Excel should elucidate on how you were able to arrive at the choice of primary keywords.
5. Students must briefly justify why they choose the primary keywords and link with the key insights found in the Content Gap Analysis.

Understanding the data provided

The columns translate as the following:

Keyword = The search term used in Google

Volume = Number of monthly searches for the keyword in Google (average of previous 12-month’s search volume)

KD = Keyword Difficulty, a proprietary metric by Ahrefs aimed at indicating how difficult it would be to rank for the keyword based on the competition (this should be taken with a large grain of salt).

CPC = Cost Per Click, how much you would pay to get a click for this keyword if you were using Google Ads

Traffic = The estimated amount of traffic the website in question is getting from this keyword Current position = The current ranking of the website for the keyword

Current URL = The URL of the page that’s ranking for the website