If you've been in SEO long enough, I can bet you that you've used the "inurl" search
operator in Google.
Well, how powerful would this feature be when it's used in Ahrefs Content Explorer?
You're about to find out in this video.
Stay tuned.
[music]
What's up SEOs?
Sam Oh here with Ahrefs, the SEO tool that helps you grow your search traffic, research
your competitors and dominate your niche.
Now, if you haven't heard of Content Explorer, then let me give you the skinny.
Content Explorer is a mini search engine that was made for marketers.
You can type in any query and find pages that contain the word or phrase that you've searched for.
Plus, you'll see all of the SEO metrics like Domain Rating, Referring Domains, Organic
Traffic, and more.
Our content index is currently at over a billion pages and growing quite rapidly.
Plus, there are a bunch of cool filters here that will help you refine your data.
But hey, we're not here to talk about these features.
We'll be talking specifically about the "inurl" search operator, which can be used to find
pages that contain a word or words within the URL.
Plus, I've sprinkled in a couple tips specifically for YouTube creators that I have yet to share
with anyone else.
Let's get to it.
The first tactic is to look for new pages that have generated links fast.
Now we all know that quality links are important, particularly for competitive keyword targets.
But sometimes those links are hard to get.
But the good news is that there are certain topics that attract links faster than others.
And all you have to do to find these topics is search for something like "inurl:the
current year" and then type "title:your topic." So I'll use "save money" as our example.
Next, I'll set the referring domains to a minimum of 20.
And as you can see, we're down to a nice list of popular topics that were published this year.
From here, you can manually review the pages and see if there are commonalities among the topics.
For this particular example, you'll see that "saving money" in the health industry seemed
to be a popular topic, which would be worth looking into.
The next tactic is to find old posts with links and steal them, which is commonly referred to
as the Skyscraper Technique.
All we need to do is make a slight modification to our current query.
And the great thing about Content Explorer is that you can search for multiple variations
by creating a "group."
So I'll remove the current year and write within parentheses (2015 OR 2014 OR 2013 OR
2012) or whatever is considered out of date and then run the search.
Next, I'll change the referring domains filter, and set a minimum value here to something
decently high like 20.
And you can see that we now have a small, but nice list of great pages.
So from here, we can click on the caret for each of these pages, go to the backlink reports,
then contact relevant prospects and build some quality links.
The next tactic is to find sites that will likely accept your infographic.
Now the logic behind this query is to find pages that have previously posted an infographic
in your niche.
And doing that in Content Explorer is super easy and you'll see in a second that the results
are super relevant too.
Here's how it's done.
Just type "inurl:infographic title:infographic" and then a broad topic related to your niche.
So I'll type in "fitness."
Next, I'll hit the "One article per domain" filter since we don't need to pitch our infographic
to the same site multiple times.
And now we have a large list of unique domains that clearly like infographics enough to create
a dedicated post for them.
From here, you can pitch these sites with your graphic and get a relatively easy editorial
backlink to your site.
The next tactic is to find guest posting opportunities with supreme relevance.
Now we talk a lot about finding guest posting opportunities with Content Explorer.
But I'm sure some of you might hesitate to contact websites that don't have a "Write for
Us" page, especially if you're new to guest blogging.
But here's the thing.
Most websites don't have a "Write for Us" page, but they still accept guest posts.
Let me prove it to you.
Just type "inurl:" and then within parentheses add "guest-post" OR "guest-blog" OR "guest-author",
close the bracket, and then add your topic.
Next, I'll use the "One article per domain" filter again for obvious reasons.
And we now have nearly 400 websites that are clearly accepting guest posts and I bet that only
a fraction of these sites have a "Write for Us" page.
So now, you can approach these people confidently and likely get a higher hit rate, assuming
that your pitch is solid.
Now, there are two important things to note:
#1. Depending on your industry, different slugs may be better than others so you may want
to try other footprints too.
And #2. You don't need to limit yourself to websites that have previously accepted guest posts.
If you're offering free content and it's actually good, then why wouldn't the vast majority
of people accept it?
The next tactic is to find resource pages.
Now resource page link building is one of the easiest tactics to do.
These pages are generally chalk-full of links on a specific topic.
Here's how you can find them using the "inurl" feature.
Just type "inurl:resources" and then add a topic using the "title" search operator.
From here, you'll have to filter through the results since the word "resources" can be
used in so many different contexts.
But the great thing about doing this in Content Explorer is that you can cherry-pick high-quality
websites by using the "Domain Rating" filter.
And Domain Rating is a numerical representation of a website's overall link profile.
So I'll set it to only show sites that have a Domain Rating of at least 50.
And from here, you can quickly assess whether these pages would likely be good candidates
to contact.
The next tactic will help you find interview opportunities.
Now aside from great exposure for your brand, getting interviewed comes with a few SEO benefits too.
#1. You don't need to spend hours, days or weeks creating and promoting your content.
That's the job of the host and their team.
And #2. I can almost guarantee you that as you're getting interviewed, resources from your website
will get mentioned, which will result in links like this.
And at the very least, you'll get a home page link.
Here's how you find these interview opportunities.
Start with "inurl:interview-with" and then "title:" and the name of an influencer in your niche.
Now, the results are pretty small, but they're hyper-relevant to exactly what you'd want to see.
You could expand this search by trying just "inurl:interview" or by using other industry
names in your space.
The next tactic is to find YouTubers that would be worthy collaboration partners.
If you're unfamiliar with collaborations, then you should definitely pay attention.
These are huge in the YouTube Creator space.
They're basically the equivalent to doing a guest post, but instead, it's a "guest video."
So how do you find these channels that will move the needle for your channel?
Start by typing "site:youtube.com", which will narrow down the results to just pages on YouTube.
Next, type "inurl:channel", which will narrow the results down to just channels.
Finally, finish it off with "title:your topic".
So I'll use "gaming" as our example.
From here, you'll want to find popular YouTubers in your space.
And the easiest way to do that is to sort the results by "search traffic" in descending order.
What you'll find is that these channels' keyword rankings are almost always for branded queries.
Which lets us safely assume that if search traffic is high, then they likely have an
authentic and decently large subscriber base.
So go and pitch some of these channels within your league, offer them value, and get collaborating.
The final tactic that I want to share with you is awesome.
And to the best of my knowledge, no other tool on the planet can do this.
The tactic is what I like to call the "Double Dipping Technique."
Here we go.
YouTube is a huge search engine, and you can definitely get a ton of traffic organically
through their platform alone.
But there are also a lot of videos that rank in Google Search Engine Results Pages.
So why not create topics where you can get traffic from both?
Or double dip...
Let's assume that I have a DIY gardening channel.
Here's what I would search for in Content Explorer.
"site:youtube.com" then "inurl:watch", and then "gardening."
And I'm using "inurl:watch" to exclude things like channels and subdomains from YouTube.
Next, I'll sort these videos in descending order by search traffic.
Now, check this out!
This video on how to grow mushrooms apparently gets 10,000 visitors per month from Google.
And clicking through, you'll see that it has over 900,000 views.
Scrolling down in Content Explorer, you'll see some other great topic ideas that have
"double dipping" potential.
Now use any relevant topics to get traffic from the world's largest search engine and
potentially double, triple or even 10X your YouTube views.
As you can see, these 5 letters alone can produce powerful results for your SEO and
marketing efforts.
So I highly recommend logging in and giving them a shot.
Now if you enjoyed this video, make sure to like, share, and subscribe. And I'd love to
know what you thought about these tactics or if I'm on the only one here that's super
pumped about these.
So keep grinding away, don't use the last tactic in the SEO and marketing niche,
and I'll see you in the next video.