An ecommerce SEO audit is a 360-degree review of your website’s SEO performance in terms of technical setup, on-page optimization, site structure, backlink profile, and more.

Think of it like a routine check-up for your online store.

Instead of waiting for traffic to drop or sales to slow down, you can proactively find and fix problems before they spiral into revenue leaks.

Done right, an SEO audit helps you:

• Identify ways to improve rankings and user experience
• Detect issues affecting your organic performance
• Protect and sustain long-term growth

More importantly, this audit creates an SEO strategy grounded in data, not guesswork.

In this guide, I’ll break down a 4-stage process for conducting an ecommerce SEO audit.

I’ve also prepared a free audit workbook to help you document findings, prioritize fixes, and drive measurable results.

Core Components of an Ecommerce SEO Audit

Unlike a traditional website audit, a well-rounded SEO audit for ecommerce focuses on five key components.

1. Technical SEO

Technical SEO ensures search engines can find, crawl, and index your website.

It prevents critical issues like:

This is important for ecommerce websites since URL structures and large inventories can create crawlability concerns.

2. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO allows search engines to understand the content and purpose of each page on your site.

A strong on-page setup includes title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and more.

It also covers internal linking patterns to ensure link equity flows to your most important pages.

3. UX and Performance

This part of the audit evaluates:

It helps optimize your UX, so visitors can easily navigate your store, stay longer, and convert.

4. Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO looks at external signals that influence your site’s authority, such as:

Put simply, off-page SEO covers everything outside your website that shows search engines you’re a trustworthy brand.

5. Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis assesses how your site stacks up against other brands.

Benchmarking your performance against competitors helps you find gaps and opportunities to outrank competitors on organic search.

Now that you know what to audit, let’s walk through how to do it — step by step.

We’ll break it down into four practical stages that map back to the core components.

Download our free audit workbook to better understand every step and implement them for your business.

Stage 1: Can Google Find My Store and Products?

A good ecommerce SEO audit starts by checking whether search engines can actually find, crawl, and index your pages.

No matter how well you optimize pages, they won’t rank or drive traffic if they’re invisible to search engines.

In short: This stage lays the groundwork for everything else that follows.

Here’s what to look for in this stage:

Check If Your Pages Are Indexed in Google

A web page becomes visible in search results and starts ranking only after it’s added to a search engine’s index.

Start your audit by heading to Google Search Console (GSC) to review the index status for your pages.

Open your GSC dashboard and go to the “Pages” report under the index section.

The report will list all non-indexed pages with specific reasons:

• Discovered – currently not indexed
• Crawled – currently not indexed
• Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag
• Page with redirect

If pages aren’t added to Google’s index, it could be due to issues with page quality, crawl budget, or duplicate content.

Use the “URL Inspection” tool to learn why a page isn’t indexed yet.

In this example, the URL has been discovered but not indexed.

Press the “Request Indexing” button to manually submit a page for indexing.

Ensure Key Pages Are in Sitemap and Crawlable

A clean, accurate sitemap helps search engines discover your most important pages.

Your sitemap should include hierarchical URLs for all types of pages, like categories, products, product versions, and more.

Here’s what an ecommerce store’s sitemap looks like:

Check whether your sitemap is updated automatically whenever you add new pages.

Open Google Search Console and go to the “Sitemaps” section.

This report shows when your sitemap was last submitted and read by Google. It also highlights the status and number of URLs discovered.

At the same time, check your robots.txt file.

This file tells search engines which parts of your site they shouldn’t crawl.

Go to yoursite.com/robots.txt to see if you’re unintentionally blocking any pages or folders.

You can use Google’s robots.txt Tester to validate your setup.

Identify and Fix 4xx/5xx Errors That Hurt Visibility

Check your HTTPS status codes to discover pages with 4xx or 5xx errors.

These errors explain why search engines can’t access your pages.

Use tools like Screaming Frog and Semrush Site Audit to check your HTTPS status codes.

Here’s how to do it with Semrush:

Go to the Site Audit tool, and add your domain.

Follow the steps in this guide to configure and customize your Site Audit project before running the crawl.

When you’re ready, hit “Start audit.”

Once the results are in, navigate to the “HTTPS” part of the audit overview.

Here, you’ll see any issues with HTTPS status codes and how to fix them.

You can also go to the “Crawled Pages” section in your report and filter data based on status codes.

For example, I applied the “Issue Status” filter to find pages with broken or blocked status codes.

Here are the filtered results showing all the pages meeting this criteria:

Review all the pages showing errors and plan ways to fix each type of error.

For example, if a page showing the 404 error is outdated and no longer needed, you can remove it from your sitemap.

Use Canonical Tags to Avoid Duplicate Content

Ecommerce sites often struggle with duplicate content due to multiple product variants or filtering options.

This can confuse search engines and affect your rankings.

That’s why canonical tags are important to tell search engines your
preferred version of a page.

For example, the athleisure brand Alo Yoga uses canonical tags for color variants, such as:

• Steel grey: airlift-intrigue-bra-steel-grey
• Anthracite: airlift-intrigue-bra-anthracite

To prevent search engines from seeing these pages as duplicate content, each product variant includes a canonical tag pointing to a single, main product URL.

Use free canonical checker tools like Detailed to check whether all product variants are canonicalized to the main URL.

Stage 2: Do People Discover and Visit My Pages?

Your next step is optimizing your pages to rank well and appeal to searchers.

Focus on improving how your listings appear in search engine results pages (SERPs) and matching them to the right search intent.

This optimization can boost impressions, traffic, and, ultimately, revenue.

Here’s what to check in this stage:

Optimize Titles and Meta Descriptions for Clicks

Title tags and meta descriptions are often the first thing searchers see.

Are yours compelling enough to earn the click?

For example, when I search for “healthy soda,” I find this page by Zevia Soda.

The title tag emphasizes its main value proposition: Zero Sugar Natural Flavored Soda.

And the meta description doubles down on this, highlighting zero calories and the variety of flavors.

Use Backlinko’s free SEO checker to find any critical issues here.

Add any page and hit “Check SEO” to get started.

Here’s how the tool flags issues related to your page’s title, headings, meta description, and other elements:

Add Structured Schema for Rich Results

Schema markup with tags like Product, Review, and FAQs can enhance your listings with rich snippets.

Visual cues like pricing, ratings, discounts, and delivery details simplify the shopping experience and can boost CTR for your pages.

Here’s how they look:

Google’s Rich Results Test is a helpful tool to validate your schema markup with all these elements.

For example, I ran a test for a hair oil product page to see what kind of rich snippets it has.

The report indicated that this page has four snippets, but some of them are invalid.

On further analysis, I discovered that one of the snippets is missing the review and rating fields.

This product listing won’t qualify for full rich results unless you add such required fields to your schema.

That’s how you can review schema markup for individual pages.

To check the schema for all your pages, revisit your Site Audit report on Semrush.

In the Overview section, you’ll see data for the “Markup” category.

Press “View details” to get deeper insights about your site’s schema.

For example, the report shows:

• Number of pages with markup
• Kind of schema markup for all pages
• Type of structured data available for your pages.

Map Target Keywords to the Right Pages

Another crucial task in this stage is checking whether your keywords align with the actual user behavior and intent.

Map each page to its target keywords and search intent.

Evaluate this map to find pages targeting the wrong keywords or intents. Here’s an example:

You can also run a Google search for your low-ranking keywords and see the kind of pages appearing in SERPs.

Then, compare these top-ranking pages with your content to find areas of improvement.

Optimize Images and Add Alt Text

Your online store can drive significant traffic by optimizing images and multimedia assets.

Image optimization can:

I searched “blue ceramic dinner plates” to see this in action.

Below the usual product listings, the images section also shows product listings for people to browse more options.

As a part of your audit, check whether your images have relevant file names and keyword-rich alt text.

Semrush’s Site Audit report will also flag images missing alt text attributes.

Stage 3: Are Visitors Staying and Buying?

The next part of your audit explores how shoppers interact with your site and whether they convert or bounce.

You want to know:

• Are people spending enough time in your store?
• Are they dropping off after viewing one product?
• Is something in the user journey causing friction?

If people constantly leave your store without buying, your site’s UX might need help.

Here’s what to check in this stage:

Improve Load Times and Mobile Usability

Slow pages = Poor experience = Higher bounce rate.

An ecommerce site audit reveals which pages are loading slowly and need your attention.

It also tests your website’s responsiveness across different screens, especially mobile devices.

Google PageSpeed Insights is a trusted tool for evaluating your store’s user experience based on Core Web Vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading speed
• First Input Delay (FID): Tracks time to interactivity
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Checks visual stability during load

Here’s an example report I generated:

This page failed to meet the benchmark for a good user experience for mobile devices.

Remember to check the page speed specifically for mobile since Google’s mobile-first indexing approach prioritizes mobile devices.

Simplify Page Design and UX

Design plays a crucial role in instilling confidence among potential customers.

When you deliver a frictionless user experience with good design elements like CTAs, trust badges, and accessible navigation, users stick around for longer.

This sends powerful signals to search engines and improves SEO metrics like dwell time, page views, bounce rate, and more.

In fact, our ranking factors study reveals that pages with a higher “time on site” tend to rank higher in Google.

Fix Pages Targeting the Same Keyword

Ecommerce sites often have multiple pages targeting the same keyword, like category filters or similar products.

As a result, many pages compete against each other for a keyword.

Since search engines can’t decide which page to rank higher, your rankings are diluted.

Refer to your Site Audit report to find errors pointing to duplicate content and identify:

• Near-identical pages competing for the same keywords
• Variants (color, size) are published as separate URLs

Add Internal Links to Boost Relevance

Strategic internal links create logical paths between pages, keep users engaged longer, and distribute authority.

So, even if searchers land on one of your blog posts, they can find their way to a relevant product page and make a purchase.

Here’s how Tonal, a fitness equipment brand, does this in its articles:

Stage 4: Where Am I Behind My Competitors?

In the final stage of your ecommerce SEO site audit, broaden the scope and look at the competition.

If a competitor ranks above you for key terms or earns better backlinks, they’re claiming traffic that could be yours.

So, understand your competitive landscape to identify missed opportunities for your SEO efforts.

Audit and Strengthen Your Backlink Profile

Backlinks are another critical ranking signal.

If you operate in a competitive category, backlinks can have a decisive impact on your organic visibility and traffic.

Start with a backlink audit to see where you currently stand.

This audit will help you discover:

• High-authority domains are already linking to your site
• Toxic or spammy links that may hurt your rankings
• Pages earning the most backlinks (and why)
• Opportunities to reclaim or build new backlinks

You can also benchmark your backlink profile against competitors and plan the next steps.

I used Semrush’s Backlink Gap tool to compare Fabletics’ backlink profile with two competitors.

You can add up to four main competitors and press “Find prospects.”

The tool will analyze every site’s backlinks and show you curated prospects for your site.

You can find the best, strong, weak, shared, and unique domains that link to your competitors but not to you.

For Fabletics, the tool suggests domains like healthline.com, usnews.com, americanexpress.com, and more.

Use this data to prioritize outreach or content partnerships for your link-building efforts.

Uncover Keyword Gaps and Ranking Opportunities

Use tools like Semrush’s Keyword Gap or SimilarWeb to see which keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t.

This can help you:

• Identify new content opportunities
• Strengthen underperforming pages
• Reclaim rankings for keywords you’ve lost visibility on

Focus especially on high-intent, bottom-funnel terms that drive conversions, not just traffic.

For example, let’s say a competitor ranks for “buy minimalist running shoes.”

If you sell the same type of product but don’t appear in search, that’s a clear gap — and a chance to win back visibility.

How to Prioritize SEO Issues You Identify in a Site Audit

When you’re looking at a laundry list of issues from your SEO audit, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Everything looks important. Where do you even begin?

Our SEO audit workbook automatically calculates the priority level based on every issue’s impact, effort, and scope.

Impact

Find out how fixing an issue will move the needle for your business.

• Will it increase traffic, rankings, or conversions?
• Or, will it go largely unnoticed by search engines and shoppers?

The easiest way to determine impact is by looking at which pages are affected.

If high-revenue category or product pages are at stake, it’s a high-impact problem.

But if the problem is restricted to low-ranking blog posts, then the stakes are lower.

Effort

Once you’ve categorized issues on a scale of low to high impact, consider the effort required to fix each one.

Realistically calculate effort in terms of time, technical complexity, and capacity required to resolve a problem.

Scope

Scope looks at scale.

Estimate how big the problem is by checking if it’s:

• Isolated
• Page-level
• Site-wide

And if it’s a page-level concern, you want to zoom into the type of pages affected.

Prioritization Framework

Here’s how you can prioritize issues based on impact, effort, and scope:

• Priority 1 (Quick wins): Resolving these concerns can lead to significant SEO gains without draining resources
• Priority 2 (Can be urgent): Some of these issues need attention because they can affect your key revenue drivers
• Priority 3 (Rarely urgent): Automating or handling these issues in monthly cycles is a good bet
• Priority 4 (Low impact): Spending resources on these time-consuming tasks can delay more meaningful work

Here are a few examples to see this prioritization framework in action:

Troubleshooting Guide

We created a quick guide listing the solutions for some of the most common SEO issues for ecommerce stores.

When you’re ready with a prioritized list, refer to this guide to find potential causes and solutions quickly.

Build a Store That Google (and Shoppers) Love

Your online store has untapped potential.

A structured SEO audit gives you clarity to realize this potential.

It pinpoints where you’re losing traffic, which pages are underperforming, and what fixes will move the needle.

Work through our ecommerce SEO audit checklist to identify issues and implement solutions.

And when you’re ready to level up your strategy, check out our guide on the best strategies for ecommerce SEO.

It’s packed with examples, workflows, and tools to help you turn organic traffic into your best-performing channel.

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What Is a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a framework that evaluates a business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Performing a SWOT analysis can help you make better business decisions.

The analysis typically involves creating a matrix with the four categories:

• What’s working for your business (strengths)
• What’s not working for your business (weaknesses)
• The external factors your business could capitalize on (opportunities)
• The external factors that could harm your business (threats)

In this post, you’ll learn how to do a SWOT analysis. We’ll include examples and also give you a free SWOT analysis template.

But first, let’s explore why you should do this analysis in the first place.

Why Is It Important to Do a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis is a valuable framework that can help you evaluate your business from different angles and discover new ways to grow and improve.

By doing a SWOT analysis, you can:

• Use your strengths to stand out from your competitors
• Address your weaknesses before they hurt you
• Find and seize new opportunities
• Prepare for and avoid potential threats

Which means:

A SWOT analysis can help you make smarter decisions, plan better, and reach your goals faster. 

What Are the Components of a SWOT Analysis?

A SWOT analysis evaluates a business or project based on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Here’s how you might think about filling out a SWOT chart:

Let’s look at all four components one by one.

Strengths

Strengths are the positive attributes that give you an advantage over competitors—the things that you do well, you’re proud of, and help you stand out.

Some examples of strengths are:

• A loyal customer base
• A strong brand reputation
• A unique product or service
• A skilled and motivated team
• A high-quality website

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are your business’s negative attributes (things to improve, fix, or avoid) that limit your performance or hinder your growth. 

Some examples of weaknesses are:

• A lack of financial resources
• A high employee turnover rate
• A weak online presence
• A low customer satisfaction rate
• A low-quality product or service

Opportunities

Opportunities are favorable situations or conditions you can leverage to achieve your business goals. 

Some SWOT analysis opportunity examples are:

• A growing demand for your product or service
• A new market segment or niche
• A new technology that automates routine tasks
• A new partnership or collaboration

Threats

Threats are unfavorable situations or conditions that can harm your business and that you need to recognize.

Some examples of threats are:

• A declining demand for your product or service
• A new competitor or alternative
• A new technology that makes one of your services less valuable
• A negative publicity campaign
• A change in regulation or policy

How to Do a SWOT Analysis (+ Examples)

A SWOT analysis is an assessment of your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

But it’s more than that. It’s also a tool to strategically advance your business.

And that means going beyond a simple list of facts.

Here’s how to do a SWOT analysis the right way:

1. Start with a Clear Purpose

Define why you’re doing a SWOT analysis. What business decision are you trying to make that the analysis can help guide?

For example, you may want to do a SWOT analysis before making important business decisions, such as:

• Deciding whether you should expand your business into newer markets
• Assessing the feasibility of new products or services
• Deciding if changing HR processes is worth it

Try using this simple formula to pin down exactly what you’re deciding:

Decide whether to [specific action] to achieve [desired outcome].

Let’s look at an example. 

Imagine you run an ecommerce store and want to increase the revenue from your business. 

You know that marketing is important, and you’ve already tried various organic channels with modest success. You’ve heard that paid methods—such as digital advertising—can deliver faster results. But you’re not sure whether you’re ready to make the investment.

So, using the formula above, the focus for your analysis becomes:

Decide whether to invest in digital advertising to achieve revenue growth.

You’ll evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats specifically in the context of investing in digital advertising.

Having this clarity up front makes the rest of your analysis sharper—and far more actionable.

For the next four steps, we’ll walk through how to do each part of the SWOT analysis itself.

2. Assess Strengths

In this step, you’ll list your business’s strengths.

Get started by asking some questions:

• What does your business do well?
• In what areas do you outpace your competitors?
• What customer data or unique insights do you have about your business?
• What assets do you own (talented teams, technological solutions, capital, etc.)?

You might come up with quite a lot of strengths when you start brainstorming. Every idea is a good one. So don’t leave anything out.

Examples of Strengths

Because we’re focusing on deciding whether to invest in digital advertising, here are some strengths you might list:

• Strong brand recognition that can be leveraged in digital ad campaigns
• Knowledgeable team with digital marketing expertise
• A large email subscriber base that can be used for audience targeting
• High-quality visual assets (product photos and videos) are available
• Affordable pricing that can be emphasized in ad messaging

3. Uncover Weaknesses

Next, honestly and thoroughly write down your weaknesses—your goal is to make improvements.

Here are some questions that can help:

• In what ways are your competitors better than you?
• Where are you lacking in knowledge or resources?
• What are some underperforming areas of your business?
• Do you see any gaps in your strategy?

The good news is that weaknesses are internal factors. Which means you have control over them and can use them to improve.

Examples of Weaknesses

For a decision about whether to use digital ads, here are some examples of weaknesses you might consider:

• Limited marketing budget
• Lack of clearly defined target audience segments
• Outdated website design or poor user experience (UX)

Sometimes, you need external tools to discover or validate weaknesses you might not be aware of. 

For example, you might use Semrush’s Site Audit tool to find that your website has a slow loading speed of 4.2 seconds. That’s not ideal because loading speed affects conversions.

4. Consider Opportunities

Opportunities are external factors you can use to your advantage.

Here are some questions you can think through to uncover opportunities:

• What emerging trends can you take advantage of?
• Are there new tools or technologies you could use?
• Are there activities the competition isn’t pursuing?
• Are customer needs or behaviors shifting in a way you could tap into?

Examples of Opportunities

To guide your decision on whether to use digital ads, here are some examples of opportunities you might list:

• A new social media platform is getting popular and offers ad capabilities
• Established competitors are scaling back their advertising efforts
• New targeting capabilities are now available on existing advertising platforms like Meta, YouTube, or TikTok
• There’s growing demand for educational content in your industry

Finding opportunities is often easier when you have access to specialized tools and data. 

For example, you can use the Advertising Research tool to find keywords your competitors are bidding on that you could also use. 

5. Identify Threats

Threats are the external factors that could put your business at risk—but you can plan for them.

Here are some questions that will help you identify threats:

• What are your competitors doing that could affect you?
• Are there any negative trends in your industry?
• Are there changes in consumer behavior that could negatively impact your business?
• Are there any economic, political, or regulatory changes that could hurt you?

If you’re paying close attention to your industry, you probably know the major threats you face. 

Examples of Threats

For our example, here are some threats you might list in a SWOT analysis:

• Increasing marketing costs across multiple channels
• New competitors entering the market with aggressive promotions
• Growing consumer skepticism toward advertising
• Potential economic downturn affecting customer spending

You can use Semrush’s Traffic and Market toolkit to monitor new competitors entering your space, changes in traffic trends, or shifts in audience interests—all of which could signal potential threats.

6. Make a Decision and Create an Action Plan

Once you have a decent number of items in each of your four SWOT categories, use the analysis to make your decision.

And if you decide to move forward, create a rough action plan to achieve your goal.

Start by weighing your strengths and opportunities against your weaknesses and threats. 

Ask yourself: 

• Do the potential benefits outweigh the risks? 
• Can you leverage your strengths and capitalize on the opportunities?
• Can you address or mitigate your weaknesses and threats? 

For our digital advertising example, your decision might be to proceed with the investment. 

Here’s a simple action plan based on that decision:

• Build on strengths: Your brand recognition gives you a head start—people already know who you are, so your ads will feel familiar and trustworthy. Use your team’s expertise in marketing to create compelling campaigns. And don’t forget to use your email list to create retargeting campaigns.
• Address weaknesses: Get clarity on your target audience and redesign your website to improve user experience. Allocate a small portion of your budget for testing different ad platforms before making larger investments in any of them.
• Capture opportunities: Get on the new social media platform early to understand what’s possible with ads, create a short educational content series that you can repurpose as a lead magnet, and explore new targeting capabilities to reach more qualified prospects
• Mitigate threats: Build a distinct brand voice that stands out from competitors and optimize spending to maintain efficiency (despite rising costs)

Free SWOT Analysis Template

Here’s a SWOT analysis template you can use when evaluating your own business. 

This simple but effective template gives you a clear structure to organize your thoughts about each SWOT component. 

Here are some pro tips for getting the most out of it:

• Use specific, measurable statements rather than vague generalizations
• Review each item with key stakeholders to ensure accuracy
• Consider how different quadrants interact—for example, which strengths can help you capitalize on which opportunities
• Use your completed SWOT analysis to evaluate if it’s worth pursuing your chosen goal. If so, sketch a rough action plan.

Complete Examples of SWOT Analyses

Let’s explore some full SWOT analysis examples to see this framework in action. We’ll look at one real company facing major strategic decisions right now, and how they might use SWOT to guide their decision.

Plus, we’ll also include one hypothetical small business example to illustrate how a SWOT analysis is useful at any scale.

Meta’s AI Investment SWOT Analysis Example

In 2025, Meta is investing billions in AI technology while facing intense competition from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

Should Meta continue massive AI investments and compete directly with rivals in the consumer AI market?

Let’s analyze the SWOT components to decide:

Meta may decide to continue investing in AI after doing this analysis, as it has the user base, infrastructure, and capital to compete.

Here’s how they might create their action plan:

• Build on strengths: Tap into the massive user base across Meta platforms to increase adoption of their AI chatbot. The company can also take advantage of its strong financial position to fund long-term AI research and acquire promising startups (if necessary).
• Address weaknesses: Trust is still an issue for Meta, so being transparent about how their AI uses data (and giving users more control) could help rebuild some of that. The company’s large size can slow things down—they’ll need to cut through some red tape and speed up decision-making. And they can iterate faster to innovate and release better models that beat benchmarks.
• Capture opportunities: Meta should go after the growing chatbot market, but they should also create vertical-specific tools (e.g., coding agent). As open-source AI gains traction, Meta can contribute selectively to the community to build goodwill while using the ecosystem to test and improve its own models.
• Mitigate threats: To keep up with faster competitors, Meta needs to launch early and often to gain feedback they can use to improve. The company should also proactively engage with policymakers and build compliance into its AI systems to prepare for any forthcoming regulations.

Hypothetical Fashion Boutique SWOT Example

Imagine you own a successful fashion boutique that currently sells clothing and accessories from various independent designers.

You’re considering launching your own private-label clothing line. To determine whether this makes sense, you conduct a SWOT analysis.

Your goal: deciding whether to develop and launch a private-label clothing line for your boutique.

Let’s analyze the SWOT components:

After completing this analysis, it’s time to make a decision and create an action plan. 

Weighing your strengths against weaknesses and opportunities against threats, you might decide to proceed with the idea.

Here’s what your action plan might look like:

• Build on strengths: You know your customers and what they like—that’s great! Use your knowledge of fashion trends to create something that they’ll really like. Having a popular brand is a plus, and your relationships will come in handy when starting production.
• Address weaknesses: Start small to manage that upfront investment—maybe begin with a capsule collection of just five to 10 signature pieces. Consider partnering with a local designer who can help create designs. Make sure the end product is of high quality.
• Capture opportunities: Leverage social media to tell the story behind your clothing line—customers love seeing the process and connecting with local businesses
• Mitigate threats: Keep your first collection focused on timeless pieces that won’t go out of style quickly. Be transparent with your existing partners about your plans—maybe even find ways to collaborate rather than compete. Start with a smaller investment that won’t put your business at risk if economic conditions worsen.

Analyze Your Business & Achieve Your Goals

Doing a SWOT analysis is key for making informed decisions. And then, you can set effective goals you’re more likely to achieve.

If you haven’t already, grab your free SWOT analysis template.

Take your time. Be thoughtful. And your SWOT analysis will lead to better decisions.

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What Is a Brand Persona?

A brand persona is a fictional profile that captures your brand’s voice, tone, and style when communicating with people.

Think of it as an imaginary spokesperson who embodies your brand’s traits. 

A clear brand persona:

• Keeps voice and messaging consistent 
• Guides employees who represent the brand 
• Differentiates you from competitors
• Builds emotional ties with potential customers

Here’s an example of how a brand persona document might look:

A complete brand persona usually includes:

• Basic identity: Name, age, occupation, and location of your brand personified as an individual or group
• Core values: Fundamental principles that guide your brand’s actions and decisions, such as integrity, innovation, or sustainability
• Brand mission: Clear statement of why your brand exists, what it aims to achieve, and how it serves customers
• Brand vision: Forward-looking statement that outlines your brand’s future aspirations and long-term goals
• Personality traits: Characteristics that define how your brand behaves and communicates, like friendly, innovative, or bold
• Brand voice: The consistent communication style, including vocabulary choices, sentence structure, and overall content approach
• Brand tone: How your brand’s emotional inflection changes across different platforms and situations while maintaining a consistent voice
• Brand story: Narrative of your brand’s origins, challenges overcome, and driving purpose
• Visual representation: Logo, color palette, typography, and graphic style that visually express your brand’s personality

A brand persona definition can vary based on your business and goals. These are core elements, but you can also include things like pain points, communication channels, or cultural context if helpful.

Download our free brand persona template

8 Steps to Create a Brand Persona (+ Free Template)

To create an effective brand persona, start by understanding your audience and defining your brand’s character traits, voice, and story.

Follow these steps:

1. Visualize the Customers You Want

Understand your target audience before shaping the persona. 

Semrush’s Demographics dashboard helps you gain insights into your audience.

Open the tool, enter your domain name, and click “Analyze.”

The Demographics dashboard shows your audience’s age, gender, and location. 

Record these findings in the template’s Target Audience Research section. 

Blend this information with what you already know about your target audience. Let’s say the totality of your data shows your audience is predominantly business professionals aged 30-45 who are active on LinkedIn and interested in business technology. 

Your branding persona can be professional, solution-oriented, and knowledgeable with a direct, efficient communication style.

2. Create Your Brand’s Basic Identity

Give your brand human characteristics like name, age, occupation, and location to make it relatable—you want your customer to see themselves represented in brand materials.

For example, a sales CRM brand might be “Alex, 38, a former sales director from Chicago who understands the challenges of managing customer relationships.”

These details help the team imagine how Alex speaks, thinks, and solves problems. 

It turns your brand from an abstract concept into someone they can write, design, communicate, and strategize for and about.

3. Record Your Company’s Values, Mission, and Vision

Your mission, vision, and values explain why your brand exists and what it stands for, which help shape how your brand speaks, what it cares about, and how it should show up in every customer interaction.

List 3-5 core values that guide your decisions. Such as “efficiency,” “transparency,” “innovation,” or “customer success.”

Write your mission statement in one or two sentences that clearly explain why your company exists. Like: “To help sales teams build better customer relationships by eliminating tedious administrative work.”

Add a vision statement describing your long-term aspirations. For example: “To create a world where salespeople spend 90% of their time building relationships and 10% on administration.”

4. Define Your Brand’s Personality Traits

Your brand’s personality traits define how it behaves and interacts with your audience. 

These characteristics will make your brand relatable and human to your audience.

Think about your brand as if it were a person. What 3-5 adjectives would best describe its character?

Consider traits that: 

• Feel authentic to your company’s purpose 
• Appeal to your target audience
• Is distinctive enough to stand out from competitors

For example, a sales CRM brand might be “efficient,” “reliable,” “straightforward,” and “supportive.”

Another brand in the same space might lean into traits like “bold,” “disruptive,” “confident,” and “fast-moving.”

These traits would then influence everything from your brand’s voice to its visual elements.

5. Describe How Your Brand Would Talk

How your brand talks—its voice and tone—helps people instantly recognize and connect with you across every channel.

Your brand voice is consistent. It reflects your brand’s personality and core values.

Your tone changes depending on context. Like sounding upbeat in social posts and more empathetic in customer support replies.

Decide whether your brand should sound formal or casual, technical or simple, serious or playful. 

Then define the vocabulary, sentence style, and emotional feel that match those choices.

A sales CRM brand might say, “We’ll help you close more deals with less paperwork,” instead of “Our solution optimizes your revenue generation potential through administrative efficiency.”

6. Capture the Story That Motivates Your Brand

Creating a compelling brand story helps people connect emotionally with your brand and understand its purpose. 

This narrative explains your brand’s conception. 

Start with the origin of your brand. 

• What problem or opportunity led to its creation? 
• Who was involved? 
• What challenges did they overcome? 

Your story should feel authentic while highlighting values that matter to your audience.

For instance, the story of a sales CRM brand might center on its founder, who was frustrated with spending more time on data entry, which inspired them to create a simpler solution.

Further reading: Definitive Guide to Brand Storytelling

7. Create Your Brand’s Visual Identity

Your brand’s visual identity helps people recognize your brand at a glance and understand what it stands for.

Work with a designer to build a strong and consistent brand identity across these four elements:

• Logo: Design a simple, memorable mark that captures your brand’s essence
• Colors: Choose 2-3 main colors that reflect your brand traits
• Fonts: Select typography that matches your voice
• Graphics: Develop a consistent style for icons, illustrations, and images

For example, professional blues with orange accents and clean sans-serif fonts might work well for a sales CRM brand. They convey both reliability and efficiency, which are important for the busy sales professionals they’re targeting.

8. Pull Everything Together

Review your completed brand persona to ensure all the elements align and create a consistent character. 

Share it with your team for feedback. 

Also, consider adding more detail and context where needed to ensure it’s easier for non-marketing colleagues to understand this document.

Remember: Your brand persona isn’t set in stone. You can expand it over time with additional details like customer pain points or communication preferences. And revisit it as your brand grows or your audience shifts.

Once finalized, distribute it across your organization so everyone represents your brand consistently.

Example Brand Personas for Inspiration

Here are three brand persona examples to help you understand them in action:

Nike

Nike’s brand persona is bold, inspiring, and competitive. This mission: Bring inspiration to every athlete. 

The slogan “Just Do It” fuels a high-performance mindset. Which is reinforced through bold, action-driven storytelling. Like this video:

Nike’s website and social media highlight elite and everyday athletes, emphasizing perseverance and personal growth. 

Its emails use short, motivational copy, keeping the brand voice strong and confident. 

Visually, Nike relies on high-contrast imagery, dramatic lighting, and dynamic motion shots that ensure every channel reflects a relentless, empowering spirit. Here’s an example from its X timeline: 

Here’s how Nike’s brand persona might plot in our template:

Slack

Slack’s persona is approachable, witty, and efficient, driven by its mission to make work simpler, pleasant, and productive. 

The brand voice is friendly yet professional, often using light humor and casual phrasing. Like this X post:

Its emails and in-app messages maintain this tone, keeping interactions helpful, clear, and engaging. Like this:

On social media, Slack engages with users in a relaxed, conversational way, reinforcing its role as a supportive team player. Like this interaction on Instagram:

Visually, the brand’s vibrant colors, playful icons, and clean design make it feel inviting and intuitive.

Here’s how Slack’s brand persona might plot in our template:

Dove

Dove’s persona centers on authenticity and care, with a mission to make “beauty a source of confidence, not anxiety.”

The brand showcases unretouched images of diverse women, uses empathetic language in communications, and creates educational content about self-esteem to help youth. Like this:

Their consistent rejection of beauty stereotypes demonstrates how a meaningful persona can drive both messaging and social impact. 

Take this campaign as an example in which Dove pledges not to use AI-generated people in its ads:

Here’s how Dove’s brand persona might plot in our template:

Understand What Resonates with Your Audience

Your brand persona is only effective if it aligns with what truly engages your audience. 

Use real data and audience insights to refine your messaging, tone, and personality. 

The Semrush Traffic & Market Toolkit helps you analyze your audience’s demographics and traffic behaviors. Give it a try today.

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Your small business doesn’t need a huge budget to get noticed.

In 2025, the most effective marketing doesn’t come from expensive ad campaigns or complicated funnels.

It comes from authentic content that connects with your audience.

Take Edeles Candles, for example.

This handmade candle brand has nearly 90K TikTok followers and 500K likes.

How did a small business get this kind of exposure?

By posting simple behind-the-scenes videos of candle-making.

No fancy production or big teams. Just engaging content that reaches thousands of potential customers every week.

@edeles.candles Demolding the Hourglass Candle. ✨ Better late than never, happy second Advent. 🫣🕯️ #candleshop #edelescandles #naturaldecor #candlemaking #candlediy #homedecor #demolding #demoldingvideo #wax #candle #handmade #smallbusinessowner #candlelover #candlelight #asmr #candleideas #christmascandle #giftideas ♬ Originalton – EdelesCandles

And TikTok is just one path.

In this article, you’ll find 15 marketing ideas for small businesses that drive real results.

Each one is broken down by effort, impact, and budget. So, you can choose the ones that fit your resources and goals.

Bonus: Many of the ideas are free or low-cost.

Let’s start with one of the top tactics for small businesses — video.

1. Grab Attention with Short-Form Videos

Short-form video is hands down the best marketing idea for small business owners in 2025.

Especially if you want to increase brand awareness.

Why?

Because platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are specifically designed to push your content to people who don’t follow you.

This gives you a chance to get discovered even if you don’t have an existing audience.

For example, Toasted Mallow, a gourmet marshmallow shop, got over 1 million views on TikTok.

And they did it by sharing a no-frills look at how they make their treats:

@toastedmallow Cookie dough filled marshmallows!! #elfitup #pushin🅿️ #socialshopping #foodtiktok #music #dessert ♬ Lost – Frank Ocean

You could do something similar, no matter what you sell.

Think quick tips, transformations, or behind-the-scenes peeks. The key is posting content that’s authentic and valuable.

Not sure which platform to start with? Go with the one your audience already uses the most.

And don’t worry about fancy equipment. Use your phone camera and film near natural lighting for the best results.

Add engaging captions, voiceovers, and sound effects with tools like CapCut.

It’s beginner-friendly and makes your videos look polished without pro editing skills.

2. Optimize Your Google Business Profile

If you have a local business, optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) is one of the easiest (and most important) ways to help customers find you.

This is because it can majorly boost your visibility in Google Maps and local search results.

Like when someone types “car wash in jacksonville” and sees prominent listings like this:

This kind of exposure can lead to more foot traffic, phone calls, and bookings.

But only if your profile is fully optimized.

Keep your info accurate and complete. Include business hours, address, website, and service areas.

Add high-quality photos that are helpful to customers and inspire confidence.

For example, post action photos and show the outside of your location so it’s easy to find.

And don’t forget reviews.

Signals like your average rating, number of reviews, and how recent they are all affect local SEO and buyer trust.

Make it a habit to ask for reviews after a positive experience, and respond to every one.

(Yes, even any negative comments you get, too.)

3. Create Helpful Website and Blog Content

Attract your ideal customer with content on your website and blog that answers users’ questions.

This improves your chances of ranking organically and capturing steady traffic.

Use tools like Google Autocomplete, Semrush, or AnswerThePublic to uncover what your audience is asking.

Then, create content that answers those questions.

(While subtly introducing your product or service as the fix.)

Use AI writing tools to speed up content creation.

ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other tools can generate briefs, outlines, and content of all kinds.

Here’s a sample prompt to get started (the more details, the better):

Heavily edit the draft for accuracy, brand voice, and your expertise.

Done right, a single blog post can become your hardest-working salesperson.

For example, Leigh McKenzie, Backlinko’s head of Growth, uses content to promote his ecommerce brand, Underfit.

Using Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, Leigh identifies the search terms people type into Google to find products like his.

Like “what to wear under a dress shirt” and “types of undershirts.”

Then, he creates content that directly answers those queries.

Like this blog post on what to wear under a dress shirt, which includes comparison tables and fabric tips.

It also subtly directs readers to Underfit’s products with a banner that includes trust signals.

Language like “get your money back” gives prospects the confidence to buy.

4. Use SMS to Instantly Reach Customers

Want to grab your customers’ attention fast? Text them.

With open rates as high as 98%, SMS is one of the most effective ways to promote offers or send reminders.

It works especially well for service-based businesses where timing matters.

Like salons, restaurants, clinics, fitness studios, and local shops.

The key is to keep it short, clear, and genuinely useful. SMS isn’t the place for long messages or hard sells.

Smart ways to use SMS include:

• Flash sales or last-minute discounts
• Appointment reminders or confirmations
• Shipping updates or order status
• VIP-only offers or restock alerts
• Event reminders or holiday hours

Test what types of messages drive the most engagement.

And always ask for SMS opt-in at checkout and include an easy way to unsubscribe.

5. Encourage Customers to Share Their Experience on Social Media

One of the easiest ways to build trust? Ask your customers to share their experience.

Called user-generated content (UGC), this is when customers organically share photos, videos, or reviews about your brand.

This creates authentic, unpaid social proof that builds trust and boosts visibility.

Many people will be happy to post about your products online — they may just need a little nudge.

• Add a short, friendly request in your post-purchase email
• Offer a small incentive, like a discount on their next order
• Encourage customers to tag you on social with a branded hashtag
• Include a review prompt on your thank-you or packaging insert

For example, let’s say you run a ceramic shop. When someone buys a handmade mug from your brand, include a thank you card that says:

This simple prompt can inspire unboxing videos, photos, or short video reviews — all of which are great for reshares.

Once you start receiving tags, repost customer content, and comment on the posts. This helps you connect with your customers and further your reach.

For example, Sol, a beach beanie bag company, has a dedicated “You” Highlight on Instagram:

It features tagged Stories from real customers using their products at the beach.

This works as a social proof and a visual guide for new buyers.

6. Partner with UGC Creators

While UGC is created organically by customers, UGC creators are paid to make content for your brand.

The best part? They don’t come with the influencer price tag.

UGC creators produce content (like unboxings, demos, or testimonials) that you own and can use across your marketing channels.

This includes ads, social media posts, or landing pages.

The benefit? Content that feels genuine while giving you complete control over where and how it’s used.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Decide what kind of content you need — e.g., product demo, lifestyle use, review, testimonial
2. Find creators on platforms like Influee and Billo
3. Clarify deliverables and usage rights
4. Post on your socials or use in paid ads

For example, HiZoo, a massage device brand, partnered with a UGC creator who filmed herself trying their product for the first time.

In the video, she shares genuine reactions about how the product feels and works.

The content feels like a real customer review, not a polished ad. Which encourages likes and comments.

This gives the brand an opportunity to build trust and credibility (and sell more products).

Use a tool like Modash to find creators who’ve already posted about similar products to yours — they’re more likely to say yes and nail the tone you want.

7. Use AI Chatbots to Promote Your Business 24/7

Never miss a lead or lose a customer to long wait times.

AI chatbots help you deliver instant, personalized support 24/7.

And happier customers = more sales.

Whether on your website or social media channels, chatbots make sure you’re always available to answer questions, remove buying friction, and close sales.

Chatbots can:

• Answer FAQs
• Take orders
• Book appointments
• Recommend products
• Escalate customer service issues

You can even build a bot that sounds just like you.

Upload your service descriptions, common responses, and FAQs to tools like Tidio or Manychat.

This allows you to create a chatbot that mimics your tone and expertise.

For example, Attendant, a UK coffee chain, is a great example of how businesses of all sizes can use chatbots to reduce customer service inquiries.

While improving customer service at the same time.

The chatbot offers instant answers to common customer questions.

Like “are your cafes dog friendly” and “when do you end serving breakfast.”

It’s like cloning your best customer service rep, minus the payroll.

8. Collect Prospect Info with Lead Magnets

A lead magnet is a free resource you offer in exchange for someone’s email. Like a discount, template, or ebook.

When done right, it attracts high-intent leads who are more likely to buy over time.

Here’s how to make it work:

• Solve a specific problem. Think budgeting template, skincare quiz, or a free sample tied to your product
• Make it a natural extension of your offer. Sell time-tracking software? A “Weekly Productivity Planner” is a perfect match. Run a meal prep business? Offer a “3-Day Healthy Eating Kickstart.”
• Promote it everywhere. Homepage banners, blog posts, social captions, link in bio, and pop-ups. Mention your lead magnet in any social media videos you create — and don’t forget to add a link to it in the caption or comments.

For example, Budget With Mel, a personal finance blogger, offers a free budgeting template on her blog.

Users provide a first name and email address to access the template.

Since the template was pre-filled with formulas that auto-calculate totals, the value is instantly clear to the user.

All they have to do is plug in numbers to instantly see where their money’s going.

It’s frictionless, helpful, and directly tied to her paid offers.

9. Create an Email Newsletter

A monthly or weekly email newsletter is one of the easiest ways to stay connected to your audience.

Whether you have an ecommerce business or own a boutique, your newsletter can become a go-to resource that builds loyalty over time.

Share helpful tips, seasonal offerings, behind-the-scenes updates, and promote your products or services.

So, how do you get started?

Email marketing tools like Kit and Mailchimp offer customizable newsletter templates that make it easy to send professional newsletters.

(Without the need for design skills.)

Set a recurring send date (like every Tuesday) and stick to it.

This way, subscribers know what to expect.

Maintain your brand voice when writing your newsletter. And consider adding personalization to your strategy as you get more advanced.

Pet supplement brand Adored Beast Apothecary’s newsletter is a great example of how to mix education with subtle promotion.

For example, this issue opens with fun, educational content on dog behavior.

This keeps pet owners engaged and builds trust. Even if they’re not ready to buy something right away.

They also include links to additional content about common pet health issues.

By driving traffic back to their site, they extend the customer journey and increase the chances of a future sale.

And position themselves as a reliable expert.

The newsletter ends with a short product section recommending relevant supplements.

It’s a smooth transition from education to solution. (So it feels helpful rather than pushy.)

10. Turn Reviews and Testimonials into Visual Proof

Got happy customers?

Turn their praise into visual content that does the selling for you.

Collect reviews from emails, DMs, social media comments, or your Google Business Profile.

Or ask a happy client to record a 30-second selfie-style video.

Then, share these testimonials on your social media accounts. Like the owner of popular TikTok account Destiny Media Marketing does.

To promote her business, she collects client reviews and turns them into persuasive carousel posts.

She also shares short testimonial videos.

Like this one from a satisfied client who left her a glowing review about her services.

@destinymediamarketing Thank you so much Katie Grace Films 🤍 #clienttestimonial #websitedevelopment #webdesign #websitedesign #videographer ♬ original sound – Priscilla Marketing Specialist

11. Share Visual Content on Pinterest

Pinterest is a hidden gem for generating sustained traffic to your small business website or online store.

A single, well-optimized Pin can continue driving clicks and conversions for months (or even years).

Take Budget With Mel as an example.

One of her top traffic sources is Pinterest.

So, how is she making this platform work for her?

By sharing simple yet valuable infographics that link to her blog.

This helps funnel targeted readers directly to her content.

Most importantly, her blog has a lead magnet that turns visitors into email subscribers.

This means she’s not just getting one-time visitors — she’s building a list of potential customers she can reach again and again.

Here’s how to replicate Mel’s success:

• Create valuable Pins: Turn your best tips, products, or blog posts into eye-catching visuals using a template-friendly design tool like Canva
• Organize strategically: Set up boards by category (like “Budgeting Tips” or “Gift Ideas”) to make your content easy to find
• Optimize for search: Include relevant keywords in your Pin titles and descriptions — people search Pinterest like Google
• Drive traffic: Link every Pin to a blog post, lead magnet, or product page to convert browsers into customers

12. Amplify Your Reach by Boosting Your Social Posts

If your social media post already gets a decent engagement — saves, likes, comments — that’s your cue to boost it.

You can do this on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest.

LinkedIn also supports boosting, but only from company pages, not personal profiles.

And even a small budget can help your top-performing posts reach more people without driving up costs.

This approach is more effective than boosting random posts.

Why? Because you already know the content resonates with your audience.

How to start:

• Choose a social media post that’s performing well organically
• Set a daily budget (even $5-$10 per day can work)
• Target based on location, interest, and behavior
• Let the ad run for a few days before making any tweaks

13. Create a Loyalty Program That Feels Personal

Small, thoughtful touches can turn one-time buyers into loyal fans.

Start with a simple reward system (digital or physical) that feels fun and easy to use.

Think stamps, punch cards, or online progress trackers.

After five or 10 purchases, offer a reward that feels like a win: a free drink, a low-cost product (under $5), a bonus add-on, or early access to something new.

The key? Make it feel personal and let customers see how close they are to earning their reward.

Bonus points if you personalize it with their name, preferences, or purchase history.

For example, a toy store owner explained on Reddit how they created “instant repeat customers” with a playful loyalty program.

Kids earn pirate coins and vinyl stickers with each purchase. After five coins, they trade them in for a free toy.

It’s low-cost, but it works because it feels personal, rewarding, and fun. (And the adults like it, too!)

14. Build Trust and Authority on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the best places to build credibility and attract clients.

Especially if you sell services, offer consulting, or work with other businesses.

Why?

Because it puts you in front of decision-makers actively looking for business solutions.

But success on LinkedIn isn’t all about pitching your services.

It’s about consistently sharing helpful, real-world insights that show you know your stuff.

Over time, this positions you as a go-to expert.

And turns your content into a client acquisition tool that works even when you’re not actively prospecting.

Here’s how to get started: Pick one to two topics you want to be known for.

And post at least once a week.

Share industry-relevant stories, lessons, business updates, or tips.

Still don’t know what to post?

Use ChatGPT or Claude to draft LinkedIn post ideas from your blog content.

Prompt it with the following:

But don’t just post your own content. Comment meaningfully on industry posts, too.

This showcases your expertise and gets you noticed by potential clients.

15. Co-Host Lives, Webinars, or Giveaways

Want fast reach without paying for ads? Team up with a creator or business that shares your target audience.

Co-hosting a live, webinar, or giveaway helps you both get in front of new, relevant followers.

To make it work:

• Choose a partner in your niche or local community (but not a direct competitor)
• Bring something valuable: a quick tutorial, product demo, Q&A, or prize
• Plan your next step: What should viewers do after? Follow you? Sign up? Claim an offer?

Promote it ahead of time on both profiles. During the event, keep it lively, helpful, and interactive. Answer questions and encourage participation for the best results.

For example, if you have a B2B audience, you could team up with an expert or company in your space to host a short, high-value webinar.

Like a 30-minute how-to or industry trends Q&A.

Have a B2C small business? Co-host a giveaway with a like-minded brand (or three).

To boost reach, ask participants to follow both accounts and tag a friend to enter.

Turn These Small Business Marketing Ideas into Results

You don’t need a big team or a big budget to make progress.

The most effective marketing plans start with a few smart tactics tailored to your audience and goals.

Pick three quick wins you can knock out this week:

• Post a behind-the-scenes Reel with trending audio
• Ask one happy customer for a review or photo
• Boost a blog post or product on Facebook

Then, keep the momentum going.

Collect emails with a simple lead magnet or share helpful tips in a monthly newsletter.

Small, consistent actions like these build trust and drive real results over time.

Next, read our small business SEO guide to learn how to build authority and improve your online visibility.

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Continually coming up with fresh, relevant content ideas isn’t easy.

But you might be overlooking something important: related content.

Related content includes topics that connect to your primary content themes. And it’s more powerful than you might realize.

It helps you:

• Spot content gaps before competitors do
• Build topical authority
• Create smart internal linking opportunities

For example, search Google for “site:backlinko.com ‘backlinks’” and you’ll see we have this topic covered from every angle.

Including a beginner’s guide, link-building strategies, and even a free backlink checker tool.

In this guide, I’ll teach you how to do the same.

You’ll learn seven proven ways to find related content that attracts your audience and boosts your authority.

Plus, you’ll get a free content planner to organize your topics and plan your publishing schedule.

How to Use the Related Content Planner

Turn your related content research into an actionable strategy.

Download our free Related Content Planner now to follow along with the steps below.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a full list of high-impact related topics. And all the data you need to create high-quality content.

Here’s how to make the most of the planner:

• Add topics as you discover them: Jot down every promising idea so nothing gets lost
• Record keyword data: Use a keyword research tool to record search volume, difficulty, and intent to make smart prioritization decisions
• Set priority levels: Rank topics based on search potential, competition, and audience relevance
• Plan your content approach: Use the dropdown to mark each idea as “new,” “existing,” or “update,” so you know exactly what action to take
• Map linking opportunities: Note which pages should connect to build topical authority and content clusters
• Track your progress: Check off completed topics to monitor your progress

Ready to get started?

Let’s begin with one of the fastest and easiest ways to find new topics — autocomplete.

1. Autocomplete and Related Searches

The easiest way to find related content?

Use the platforms where your audience already hangs out.

Search engines and social platforms show you exactly what people want to know about your topic.

And all you have to do is start typing.

Enter a search term, and you’ll see suggested completions based on what that platform’s users search for.

These “autocomplete suggestions” are a goldmine of content ideas because they represent genuine demand.

But where you search depends on your business.

For example:

• Amazon: Product-related content
• YouTube: Video content ideas
• Reddit: Discussion topics
• TikTok: Related (and trending) content angles

The best part? It’s completely free.

I’ll show you how it works using Google and Pinterest.

Google

Google offers two ways to find related content:

Start with autocomplete. Type in your seed topic (say, “gaming”) and let Google finish the sentence.

For example, if I type “gaming,” Google suggests a variety of related queries:

• Gaming news
• Gaming monitor
• Gaming keyboard

Next, scroll until you see the “Related searches” section.

This might also be called “People also search for” or “People also Ask.”

Here, you’ll find even more related topics to turn into content for your audience.

Such as “what is the definition of gaming” and “what does it mean when someone is gaming.”

Now, let’s see how this works on a social media search engine.

Pinterest

Pinterest autocomplete works great for almost any niche.

Plus, it often surfaces different ideas than Google or other platforms.

Type a topic in the search bar, and Pinterest will show you related searches.

For example, a search for “gaming” brings up ideas like:

• Gaming setup
• Gaming wallpapers
• Gaming room ideas

Pinterest might even suggest some popular related accounts in its autocomplete feature.

File this information away for later. It can be helpful for identifying guest blogging opportunities, expert quote contributions, and influencer collaborations.

2. Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tools can be a great source of related content.

But don’t confuse related content with related keywords.

They’re connected but different:

• Related keywords are terms that are closely related to your main keyword (like “gaming headset” and “best gaming headset”)
• Related content covers adjacent topics your audience cares about (like “ergonomic chairs” or “gaming glasses”) that expand your site’s topical and overall authority

For this example, I’ll be using Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool.

Here’s how it works:

Enter your main topic (like “gaming”) into the search bar and click “Search.”

The tool will likely return thousands of keyword suggestions.

Skip the close matches (aka avoid duplicate content issues).

Look for topics you haven’t covered in the past instead.

For example, if you have a gaming site, you might expand into platform-specific topics like “amazon prime gaming.”

Or you might review “gaming earbuds” or “gaming microphones.”

View each term’s keyword metrics to help you prioritize which related topics to target first.

• Search volume: How many people search for this topic each month.
• Search intent: What people actually want when they search (information, products, comparisons, etc.)
• Keyword difficulty: How hard it will be to rank for this topic based on competition

Pick topics you can actually rank for, not just popular ones.

Aim to strike a balance between decent search volume and low-to-moderate difficulty.

Next, select “Questions” on the menu.m

This reveals your audience’s pain points, motivations, and knowledge gaps.

These topics are perfect for tutorial content, how-to guides, and comprehensive resource articles.

For gaming, you might find questions like:

• How to fix internet lag while gaming
• How to customize gaming controller
• How to build a gaming PC on a budget
• How to reduce eye strain from gaming

Notice how the questions above span different aspects of gaming? Like technical troubleshooting and health concerns?

This is one of the major benefits of related content — it lets you create content for your audience’s entire journey.

Which will bring in more website traffic and conversions. And help establish you as an authoritative voice in your industry.

3. Artificial Intelligence

Don’t have time for hours of brainstorming or research?

AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have gotten pretty good at finding related content ideas.

They’re especially helpful for surfacing niche topics and unexpected content angles in seconds.

Here’s a simple prompt to try:

Get specific for the best results.

For example:

When I tested this prompt with Claude, it returned some interesting related topics.

Including ones that were much more niche than what some of the other tools found.

Like “game soundtrack analysis” and “the evolution of open-world games.”

Use follow-up prompts to dig deeper.

For example:

• What are 10 controversial topics in [your niche] that generate strong opinions?
• What seasonal or trending topics should I cover in [your industry] this year?
• What beginner mistakes do people make in [your niche] that I could address?

Experiment with different prompts until you find the ones that work best for your niche.

4. Specialized Content Tools

There are many content tools designed to help you cover all aspects of a niche.

Including Answer the Public, a search listening tool.

Enter your topic and select the desired platform: Google, Amazon, TikTok, Bing, YouTube, or Instagram.

Now, you’ll see a map of related questions organized by question type.

(Why, who, where, can, are, how, etc.)

The visual format makes it easy to spot question patterns and content themes you haven’t covered.

For example, these gaming questions would be easy to turn into helpful content.

• Will gaming be in the Olympics?
• Which gaming app pays the most?
• Can gaming cause carpal tunnel?
• Are gaming chairs good for office work?

Each of these represents a potential blog post, video, or social media series that could attract your target audience.

Semrush’s Topic Research is another helpful tool for comprehensively covering any niche.

Here’s how to use it:

Enter your topic and click “Get content ideas.”

The tool will return tons of related subtopics displayed as cards.

Click any card to see questions people ask about that specific topic. Along with popular headlines for inspiration.

For example, I clicked on “gaming mouse” and found some interesting related ideas.

Including “how do you choose a gaming mouse” and “what is the best budget gaming mouse under $10?”

Next, select “Trending subtopics first” on the menu.

This will show you what’s currently popular in your niche.

You can also sort the topic cards by Volume, Difficulty, and Topic Efficiency.

This helps you prioritize which topics to tackle first.

Now, select “Mind Map” on the menu to visualize and plan content clusters.

It’s an easy way to spot internal linking opportunities, too.

5. Google Search Console Data

Sometimes, the best related content ideas are already hiding in your own data.

Google Search Console reveals the queries people use to find your site.

(Including ones you’re not actively targeting with content.)

Here’s how to find these queries:

Open Google Search Console and follow this path:

“Performance” > “Search Results.”

Ensure “Queries” is selected on the menu and look through the results.

Focus on these specific types of queries:

• Terms that get impressions and clicks, but you haven’t targeted before. These reveal related audience interests.
• Searches with low monthly impressions. These often represent emerging topics or highly specific needs that can grow over time.
• Question-based queries. Look for any new questions showing up in your data that you could answer with dedicated content.

This is a smart approach for a couple of reasons.

For one, you might discover related topics your audience is already searching for.

Like “game releases” and “indie games.”

But it can also reveal valuable business opportunities.

For example, if people search “gamertag generator,” you could create a free tool to capture that traffic. (And then convert them with a lead magnet.)

This turns a simple related query into a revenue stream.

6. Competitor Analysis

Your competitors have already done the hard work of testing what related content performs in your niche.

Why not learn from their successes?

While you can look through your competitors’ sites manually, Semrush’s Organic Research tool automates the process.

Here’s how to use it.

Add the URL of one of your competitors and click “Search.”

Toggle to “Topics” on the menu. This will show you your competitors’ highest-performing topics.

Take a look at the list and see what related topics you can target on your own site.

For example, you might discover that “gaming news” and “game release calendars” are major traffic drivers for competing gaming sites.

If they’re a direct competitor, it’s likely these topics would work well for you, too.

The goal isn’t to copy what competitors are doing.

It’s to understand what topics resonate with your shared audience. And find related content gaps you can fill with your unique perspective and expertise.

7. Forums and Niche Communities

Want to know what your audience really cares about? Go right to the source.

They’re already discussing their biggest challenges, interests, and questions in online communities.

You just need to know where to look.

Start by identifying where your audience gathers online:

• Reddit: Subreddits for your niche and related topics
• Facebook groups: Industry-specific groups and interest communities
• Discord servers: Real-time conversations in niche communities
• Industry forums: Established forums in your space
• Public Slack communities: Professional groups and interest-based channels

Look for active communities where people have legit discussions about problems and interests.

Avoid forums that are overly promotional or full of link spam.

Once you’ve found the right communities, don’t just pop in once. Become a regular observer.

Spend time understanding the community dynamics and recurring themes.

As you go through posts, pay attention to:

• Topics that generate the most engagement
• Questions that appear repeatedly
• Pain points mentioned in multiple threads
• Controversies that spark discussion

For a gaming site, you might monitor communities like:

• Reddit’s r/gaming for general gaming discussions
• Reddit’s r/buildapc for hardware-related conversations
• Discord servers for real-time discussions about trending games and player preferences

For example, if you notice multiple threads about the same topic, you’ve found a perfect related content opportunity.

Find Related Content That Maximizes Your Visibility

Covering a topic thoroughly is now more important than ever.

It’s always helped with SEO and topical authority. But AI search engines prioritize sources that demonstrate deep expertise across related topics.

Potentially giving you a huge bump in visibility on traditional and LLM search engines.

If you haven’t already, download our free Related Content Planner to keep track of your ideas.

Then, turn the related topics you found into comprehensive content clusters that work together to dominate your niche.

For step-by-step guidance, read our guide to creating topic clusters that improve your website’s authority and deliver a better reader experience.

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Imagine you’re looking for after shave oil.

You type a few keywords into Amazon. A brand called Truly Beauty pops up. You’ve never heard of them.

So you go to YouTube to find the “best after shave oil”.

At the top of the results, someone has reviewed Truly Beauty’s product.

Okay, interesting…

Let’s stay on YouTube. Next, you type “truly beauty after shave oil” into the search.

What the? The whole page has people reviewing Truly Beauty products!

Is this brand legitimate, or are all these ads in disguise?

Time to go to Reddit to get some unfiltered opinions.

You search for “after shave oil reviews reddit” and notice that once again, Truly Beauty shows up in the results.

Sure enough, other people share your skepticism. But there’s some positive feedback too.

You decide to give them a try.

This kind of journey happens millions of times every day — across every industry, on every platform.

If you’re in SEO, there’s a clear takeaway here:

You’re not just optimizing for Google anymore.

You need to show up across the entire decision-making journey. Wherever your audience searches, scrolls, or compares.

This is exactly what Truly Beauty figured out.

They didn’t just optimize for Google. They built visibility across the entire search ecosystem. Amazon for discovery. YouTube for social proof. Reddit for authentic reviews.

And it’s working amazingly well.

In this guide, I’ll break down how to optimize your brand for how people actually search today. With concrete examples. Including Truly Beauty’s strategy.

Let’s start with what’s really happening here.

The New Reality: Search Everywhere Optimization

What Truly Beauty did isn’t luck. It’s strategy.

They understood something most brands still miss:

Search has changed.

Today’s customers don’t follow a clean, Google-only path. They bounce from TikTok to YouTube, Reddit to Amazon, back to Google, then maybe ChatGPT for one last check.

Credit where it’s due: Rand Fishkin captured this evolution perfectly in his recent post.

Search Everywhere Optimization is about helping people find, evaluate, and trust your brand across every platform where discovery happens. That includes Google — but also YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, LinkedIn, and even AI tools like ChatGPT.

Every one of those platforms can shape a decision. Miss one? You risk losing the customer to someone who showed up where you didn’t.

Your job isn’t just to rank on Google.

It’s to help people find, evaluate, and trust your brand everywhere they search.

Some call this omnichannel SEO, cross-platform optimization, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

The way I see it:

Search Everywhere Optimization.

Because the search journey now includes everything from YouTube Shorts to AI summaries.

And your job is to build visibility, credibility, and conversion power across it all.

It’s not just about being found.

It’s about being trusted. On every platform where decisions happen.

That’s what makes Search Everywhere Optimization different — it evolves SEO beyond a siloed tactic into a full-funnel growth strategy.

So, you’re not just optimizing pages anymore.

You’re shaping how people find, evaluate, and trust what you offer across every stage of the journey, on every platform they turn to for answers.

Done right, Search Everywhere Optimization helps you:

• Show up on high-engagement platforms where decisions start
• Create content that resonates in the right format and context
• Build trust through experience — design, messaging, and credibility
• Turn search moments into conversions, leads, or long-term users

That’s the shift:

From rankings to relevance. From clicks to action. From Google-only to everywhere that matters.

Two Core Areas of Search Everywhere Optimization

To make Search Everywhere Optimization work, you need to understand where your audience is discovering products.

And how much control you have over those moments.

That’s where this framework comes in.

We divide the modern search experience into two key areas:

• Managed experiences — where you control the content and presentation
• Influenced experiences — where others shape the narrative, but your brand still shows up

This distinction helps you prioritize efforts across platforms you own… and platforms where you earn visibility.

Managed Experiences

These are touchpoints you can directly control.

Your website is still your most important owned asset. But you also manage your social media profiles, product listings, app store pages, and more.

This is where things gets tactical. You’re shaping the journey with:

• Engaging content
• Clear messaging
• Cohesive visuals
• Optimized flows and CTAs

On your website, you can go even deeper — refining structure, page speed, copy, and trust signals.

The goal? Deliver a fast, credible, and conversion-ready experience every time someone finds you through search.

Earned and Influenced Experiences

Now, let’s talk about where you don’t control the narrative.

These are the moments shaped by others: customers, creators, communities, algorithms.

Earned and influenced experiences are touchpoints you don’t directly control.

But they still shape how people perceive and trust your brand.

This includes:

• Customer reviews
• Reddit threads
• YouTube mentions
• Third-party comparisons
• AI-generated responses in tools like ChatGPT

You can’t control these spaces… but you can influence them.

Search Everywhere Optimization is about increasing your visibility, credibility, and perceived value in places you don’t own.

That might mean:

• Engaging in relevant conversations
• Encouraging customer reviews
• Partnering with trusted voices
• Publishing helpful content that others cite

Truly Beauty does this well. Their TikTok is a managed asset. The brand controls the content, caption, and messaging.

This isn’t about control. It’s more about visibility, relevance, and credibility in places people already go to decide.

Luckily, you can help shape perception through helpful content, real engagement, and clear value.

You can pay influencers to review and interact with your product, publish high-quality guest posts. So, you don’t have full control over them, but you can light the fire.

For example, Truly Beauty has a strong presence across owned and earned/influenced platforms.

This includes the brand’s official TikTok account, an owned experience.

The brand controls the content, caption, and messaging.

But when someone searches for Truly on TikTok and sees unsponsored reviews? That’s an influenced experience.

Both matter. Because both shape how people perceive your brand.

Search Everywhere Optimization ensures you show up in both worlds (managed and influenced) so you’re part of the journey no matter where it happens.

How Search Everywhere Optimization Builds on Traditional SEO

Traditional SEO has mostly focused on one thing — ranking on search engines like Google.

That still matters.

But it’s no longer enough.

Search Everywhere Optimization expands your SEO strategy beyond Google to include every platform where people search, compare, and decide.

So instead of optimizing just for rankings…

You’re optimizing the entire discovery journey.

This shift doesn’t replace SEO. It levels it up.

Here’s how they work together:

Think of it this way:

• Traditional SEO gets you found on Google
• Search Everywhere Optimization gets you chosen — everywhere

When you combine both, you create a strategy that moves with your audience.

Across platforms. Across formats. Across every step of their journey.

Step 1: Define Your Search Personas

Creating search personas lets you outline what your ideal audience wants and needs, and what drives their decisions.

This helps you design content and experiences based on real search behavior, rather than assumptions.

Start with Real People

Before you can build your personas, you need real-world insights.

Go straight to the source by asking existing customers questions like:

• How they found you
• What made them trust you
• What they needed before taking action

Tools like Typeform let you create and distribute surveys.

Start with their ready-to-use consumer behavior templates to make the process fast and easy.

Loop in Sales and Support

No one knows buyer questions better than your frontline team.

Ask them:

• What keywords or phrases do people use when they reach out?
• Which platforms drive user discovery?
• What’s unclear or confusing before people convert?

This input gives you practical insights you can’t get from keyword tools alone.

Layer in Data

Tools like Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit let you analyze your target market’s demographics.

Here’s how it works:

Enter your domain and up to four competitors’ domains.

Click “Analyze.”

View the “Audience” report to get a breakdown of unique visitors to each domain by age and sex.

Then, scroll to the “Geo Distribution” report to see an overview of visits and unique visitors by country.

Next, click “Audience Overlap” to learn about your audience’s online habits.

Including their most-visited domains. This gives you insights into their preferences, pain points, and needs.

Once you’ve gathered your data, organize everything into a clean visual persona.

Free tools like Semrush’s persona builder make this easy.

Or just use a doc or spreadsheet — whatever helps you capture the key insights clearly.

By the end, you should know:

• What your audience is trying to solve when they search
• What blocks or gaps slow them down
• What type of content or format resonates most

These insights give you a clear picture of who your searchers are and what matters to them.

Step 2: Map the Full Search Journey

Map how each search persona moves from discovery to decision across platforms, questions, and content types.

We want to start by breaking the journey into three simple stages.

Quick note:

I’m showing these stages as a linear progression for simplicity. Real search journeys usually aren’t straightforward.

Users frequently jump between platforms and stages, circling back and moving forward unpredictably. This framework simply helps organize our understanding of the core phases searchers experience.

• Discover: This is when someone first realizes a need or problem and starts looking for ideas, inspiration, or possible solutions
• Compare: At this stage, they evaluate their options, which involves comparing features, reading reviews, or checking alternatives to decide what fits best
• Act: This is when they’re ready to take action. Including making a purchase, signing up, booking a service, or taking the next step.

Expand this journey into more stages and variations as needed.

Like awareness, consideration, evaluation, or post-purchase.

For simplicity, we’ll stick with three core stages.

Then, for each stage, identify:

• What they search for
• Where they go to find answers
• What content format they expect

Let’s say we’re mapping the search journey of a shopper discovering Truly Beauty.

A user might first come across this brand when searching for “best after shave oil” on TikTok.

From there, they Google “after shave oil” and see Truly in the top results.

Next, they visit the brand’s site to view product details, images, and pricing.

After that, they head to YouTube.

They search “truly after shave oil review” to find reviews from real people.

Finally, they visit Amazon, search for the product, and check reviews again before placing their order.

This is a simplified version of your audience’s actual journey.

In reality, searchers might visit more platforms during the discovery and compare stages — spanning days or even weeks.

This is why it helps to map the complete journey.

Like this:

Have more than one persona or product category? Create a separate map for each.

Many platforms offer free customer journey map templates, such as Canva and Miro.

Step 3: Identify Gaps and Prioritize Touchpoints

Here’s where you’ll identify what your brand is missing across the search journey and what to fix first.

Using your journey map from Step 2, go through each stage and ask:

• Are we visible everywhere our audience searches?
• Does our content actually help them move forward?

Let me walk you through an example.

I conducted a quick manual audit for Truly Beauty across multiple platforms.

On TikTok and Instagram, they consistently appear for branded searches like “Truly Beauty.”

And product-specific searches like “vanilla baby body oil.”

Next, I examined user-generated forums to see if people discuss the brand organically.

On Reddit, I found some positive threads where users recommend Truly products.

And some negative threads, too.

Overall, Truly Beauty could have a stronger presence in earned and influenced spaces.

I then analyzed Truly’s product pages.

Their website features several conversion elements:

• Social proof (ratings and reviews)
• Clear pricing and purchase options
• Subscription incentives
• Trust badges

Their Amazon listings maintain this strategy while adapting to the marketplace’s format.

This way, they create a consistent purchase experience regardless of where customers shop.

You’ll want to adjust this process based on your specific industry, audience, and platforms.

The key is documenting all touchpoints where your audience searches.

Once you’ve audited all platforms, organize your findings in a simple spreadsheet.

Include a “Status” column to label your presence on each platform:

Here’s an example to show how you might organize your audit insights.

Feel free to structure it however works best for you.

Now, it’s time to decide which platforms need attention first:

In Truly Beauty’s case, they could strengthen their presence in earned spaces.

Responding to positive and negative feedback builds trust with potential customers.

This might mean recommending products where appropriate.

And addressing any user concerns and complaints.

Prioritize your own gaps based on:

• Where users likely drop off or switch to competitors
• High-intent moments like evaluation or decision stages
• Platforms your audience already trusts and uses to make decisions

This focused approach ensures you tackle the most impactful improvements first.

Step 4: Build a Content Plan Aligned with Search Intent

A key part of any strategy is planning content for each search stage and platform.

Use your audit insights from Step 3 to build a content plan that satisfies user needs.

Improve Your Existing Content

Before creating new content, maximize what you already have.

Check Google Analytics or Google Search Console (GSC) for pages that are underperforming.

For example, in GSC, look for:

• Posts with high impressions but low CTR
• Pages that rank for relevant keywords, but not as high as they should

Consider this Truly Beauty blog post as an example.

It already targets commercial keywords, like “best moisturizer for mature skin.”

But it ranks on page 4, 5, and beyond.

This means it’s nearly invisible in search.

So, how do you fix that?

Check what they include that you don’t, like additional examples, FAQs, or expert commentary.

Then, improve the content by:

• Updating it with fresh info, product comparisons, or reviews
• Adding structure that matches search intent (like “best of” lists, buyer’s guides, etc.)
• Enhancing formatting for scannability — with subheadings, bullets, and visuals
• Filling gaps with missing subtopics or angles competitors cover

For instance, Truly Beauty could improve this post by adding:

• A side-by-side comparison with other moisturizers
• Tips from skincare experts
• More visuals (like product images, charts, or before/after shots)

These updates would help align the content with what searchers expect. And give it a better shot at ranking.

Create New Content

Creating new content for every platform should be an ongoing part of your strategy.

For each platform, ask:

• Is the user trying to learn, compare, or act?
• What format do they expect — video, reviews, short posts, or product pages?
• What would build trust or answer their next question?

Semrush’s Topic Research Tool helps you find new content ideas.

Open the tool and enter a topic. Like “best body scrub for glowing skin.”

Then, select your target location and click “Get content ideas.”

Click on a relevant subtopic.

And go through the “Questions” column to see what users are actively searching for.

For example, Truly Beauty could turn common questions into helpful content that drives conversions.

Like “What are some good homemade body scrubs?” and “How do you make a homemade scrub?”

Analyzing competitor content can also help you come up with great topic ideas.

Look at top-performing content across platforms where your audience searches.

Pay special attention to:

• Content themes
• Hooks
• Formats
• Captions
• Hashtags

For instance, Truly Beauty’s audience might search “best body scrubs for glowing skin” on TikTok.

The brand could explore top-performing videos around that phrase.

And analyze what makes them successful.

Then, they could use what they find to create videos that mirror those formats — while tailoring them to their product and audience.

(And you can, too.)

Repurpose Content

Don’t let great content live in one place.

The most efficient strategy turns one strong piece into many platform-specific assets.

Start with your highest-performing content.

Then, adapt it to match how your audience consumes information on different platforms.

For example, Truly Beauty could transform their “12 Best Foods for Your Skin” blog post into the following:

• Email newsletter
• Pinterest infographic
• Facebook and Instagram carousels
• TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts
• Twitter/X or Bluesky thread

One idea → multiple formats → broader discovery.

This way, you can easily scale content across the entire search experience for every platform.

Step 5: Optimize Owned Touchpoints

When someone lands on your site, they expect it to:

• Load fast
• Feel trustworthy
• Make it easy to take the next step

In fact, search engines like Google look at user experience signals when ranking pages.

That’s why this step focuses on performance, structure, and clarity, so your site works for users and ranks highly.

Improve Site Performance

Slow-loading pages lead to higher bounce rates, missed conversions, and lower rankings.

Use PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site.

And view your Core Web Vitals scores, which are Google user experience metrics.

These metrics measure user responsiveness, visual stability, and the speed at which your main content loads.

For example, Truly Beauty’s website failed the Core Web Vitals assessment on both mobile and desktop.

The good news?

PageSpeed Insights also shows exactly what’s slowing your site down and how you can fix the issues.

So, Truly Beauty can improve site performance by taking steps like reducing JavaScript execution time and minimizing main-thread work.

For a deeper look at your site’s speed and usability, use Semrush’s Site Audit tool.

Enter your domain and configure the tool to set up your first crawl.

Once your report is ready, you’ll see a “Site Performance” score in the “Overview” tab.

For instance, Truly Beauty has a site performance score of 95%.

Click “View details” for more information.

Here, you’ll see the average load speed of your site.

Truly Beauty has an average page load speed of 0.31 seconds, which is outstanding.

You’ll also learn if Site Audit detected any issues with your site, categorized by priority:

• Errors: Highest priority
• Warnings: Medium priority
• Notices: Lowest priority

Click “Learn more” for details on how to fix each issue.

Once you’ve addressed the issues, re-run the audit.

You’ll likely see improved site speed and performance (if you’ve correctly fixed the issues).

These technical improvements will strengthen your search experience optimization efforts.

And improve the experience for your users.

Add Trust Elements

Trust elements give users the confidence to take action, whether that’s making a purchase, booking a demo, or signing up.

Add them anywhere users evaluate options or make decisions.

Including product pages, landing pages, checkout screens, pricing pages, and even comparison blog posts.

Trust elements include:

• Star ratings or review counts
• Customer testimonials
• Author bios with credentials
• Security badges or payment icons
• User-generated content, like photos or quotes

For example, Truly Beauty shows a variety of trust elements on its product pages.

Like ratings, reviews, and customer-submitted photos.

This creates a compelling social proof ecosystem that reduces purchase anxiety and enhances your brand perception.

Clean Up Structure and Layout

Messy layouts confuse users and slow them down.

In contrast, a clean and consistent structure makes your page easier to read, navigate, and act on.

Take a look at how formatting impacts readability on mobile:

Which one do you think is more readable?

Shorter paragraphs and clear spacing make content easier to scan and understand.

Here’s how to improve your site’s structure and layout:

• Break up long paragraphs into shorter chunks
• Use clear, descriptive headings to guide the flow
• Keep visual design consistent: fonts, spacing, and colors
• Make key elements like CTAs, pricing, or product features easy to spot

For example, this Truly Beauty blog post does some things well.

Including scannable headings, bullet lists, and plenty of white space.

But they could increase the font size to make the content easier to read and skim.

Step 6: Strengthen Your Presence Across Discovery Channels

Some of the most important search moments happen off your website.

In this step, you’ll focus on optimizing how you appear on social media sites, niche forums, and more.

Optimize Your Profiles

Your profile should instantly tell visitors who you are and why they matter to you.

So, review your bio, visuals, and links on every priority platform.

Each one should reflect your brand clearly and feel native to how people use that platform.

Truly Beauty’s Instagram bio is short and clear. But there’s room for improvement.

It doesn’t highlight what sets the brand apart, including a strong hook or call to action.

They also don’t have pinned posts.

And their Highlight covers aren’t clear or consistent with their brand visuals.

Conversely, makeup brand Too Faced does a great job here.

Their Instagram bio is short but expressive:

Their Instagram Highlights are organized by category — from new product drops to event looks.

They even include multiple links and a “Shop” button to drive action directly from the page.

On TikTok, Too Faced takes a different but equally strategic approach.

The brand uses playlists to categorize videos by product type.

And the pinned posts showcase high-performing videos with bold thumbnails and direct product demos.

Which is perfect for TikTok’s users, who prefer short, visual content before buying.

Engage with Followers

Getting questions or comments on your social media posts?

This is a great opportunity to engage with your audience and offer helpful information.

Truly Beauty engages with users in the comments.

And responds to feedback, answers questions, and shows appreciation for its customers.

This kind of interaction builds trust and shows followers there’s a real team behind the brand.

Collaborate with Trusted Voices

Want a fast way to build credibility?

Partner with the creators your audience already trusts.

Find the voices influencing those spaces — and team up.

Truly Beauty works with influencers to promote products.

But when it comes to creator partnerships, makeup brand Morphe takes this strategy to another level.

They regularly collaborate with beauty creators to launch products, demo looks, and drive buzz.

Like this influencer collab that got them over 2.4K likes and 60+ comments:

Step 7: Monitor, Measure, and Optimize

You can’t optimize what you don’t track.

To improve your performance over time, you need visibility into how people discover and engage with your content, products, or services.

And what happens next.

Start by identifying which metrics you want to prioritize.

Here are some examples:

• Google: Rankings, click-through rate (CTR), impressions
• YouTube: Watch time, average view duration
• TikTok: Engagement rate, profile clicks
• Amazon: Conversion rate, product search visibility
• Instagram: Post engagement rate, profile visits, bio link clicks
• Reddit: Upvotes, comment volume, brand mentions
• Your website: Goal conversion rate, bounce rate, scroll depth, time on page

Then, choose the right tools to track these metrics.

Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console provide essential data to track your SEO performance and user experience improvements.

For instance, on GA4, you can navigate to “Reports” > “Acquisition” > “Traffic Acquisition” to view your site’s traffic sources.

YouTube Studio, TikTok Insights, and Instagram Insights provide platform-specific data.

Like views, watch time, and subscribers.

Use what you learn to improve weak content and fix UX issues.

You may also want to add specialized tools for social media and website performance.

Like heat mapping, session recording, and conversion analysis.

Ready to Improve Every Search Touchpoint?

The search journey in 2025 isn’t linear anymore. And your strategy shouldn’t be either.

The brands that win won’t be the ones with the most blog posts.

They’ll be the ones who show up with the right content, in the right format, on the right platform — at the moment it matters.

To make that happen, you need a strategy built for how people actually search.

Use our free checklist to turn what you’ve learned into a clear, actionable strategy.

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A social media calendar is a planning tool to organize your ideas, coordinate with your team, and manage a consistent posting schedule — all in one place.

With a solid calendar, you can:

• Map out content ideas weeks or months in advance
• Deliver messaging that resonates with your audience
• Drive measurable results from your social efforts

In short: A social calendar replaces guesswork with an actionable roadmap.

But creating a calendar that actually works for your team? That’s where many marketers hit a wall.

I built this playbook to help you tackle this challenge and build a foolproof social media planning system.

Follow along with our free social media calendar template to create a customized setup that works for you.

Where Most Teams Go Wrong with Social Media Content Calendars

When I worked as a one-person content team at a startup, I would spend countless hours every few months trying to make a practical social calendar.

All that trial and error helped me understand why most teams end up abandoning their calendars.

These are the four big reasons:

Overcomplicated Setup

Too many tabs. Complicated color-coding. Overwhelming categorization.

When you spend more time maintaining a spreadsheet than you do planning content, something’s wrong.

The best social calendars capture just what matters without drowning in excessive detail. This includes:

• Post ideas
• Publish dates
• Approval statuses

Silvija Kemeraite, Social Media Manager at Omnisend, shares her take on how to overcome this challenge:

“Make a calendar that works for you and refine it as you go. There’s no point in creating a fancy calendar with hundreds of rows or columns that you don’t use or — even worse — use without a clear purpose.”

Siloed Planning

Siloed planning = Missed opportunities.

When you isolate social from your broader marketing plan, it creates a disconnect.

As a result, your marketing channels compete against each other. You end up driving attention to different messages.

You miss the chance to amplify your campaigns across different touchpoints.

Picture this:

Your latest email campaign spotlights the latest product launch. But your social accounts are only posting cat memes.

This dilutes the momentum.

A coordinated push across email marketing, social, blog posts, and other channels builds stronger visibility and reinforces your message multiple times for your audience.

The bottom line: Your brand’s social presence doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and neither should your calendar.

Structure vs. Spontaneity

Structuring your calendar too rigidly leaves no room for you to adapt to or join the conversations happening right now. This can lead to missed opportunities at best, and make your brand appear tone-deaf at worst.

On the other hand, calendars that constantly pivot to chase every trend can dilute your brand identity. They also become a nightmare to manage.

You need to walk the middle path and balance these two approaches.

Stick to relevant content pillars and leave room for timely opportunities.

Take this post by HubSpot as an example.

The social team capitalized on a trending event (the SNL50 Special Episode) to introduce its just-launched integration with Canva.

The viral post racked up 5800+ reactions with 238 comments and 160 reposts. It became one of their best-performing LinkedIn posts — all because they left room for spontaneity.

Unrealistic Production and Review Process

Creating a calendar with three weekly posts for five platforms sounds ambitious on paper.

The reality? You’re setting your team up for missed deadlines, subpar content, and lots of frustration.

Quality takes a backseat when you prioritize quantity.

But you can’t get too hung up on quality either.

Your timelines take a hit if every post goes through a lengthy, multi-step review process.

A sustainable calendar takes into account the entire production cycle and available resources, ideally with a quick review process.

How to Create a Social Media Calendar that Works

You’ve got plenty of ideas, but they’re all over the place. Some get posted, most get forgotten.

I’ve been there.

That’s why I curated these best practices on how to create a social media calendar that’s compatible with your bandwidth and timelines.

1. Create a Minimum Viable Calendar

A Minimum Viable Calendar (MVC) focuses only on the essential elements of a social media content calendar.

Think of it as the “lite version” of your actual calendar. It’s stripped away of unnecessary complexities to give you a quick head start and improve follow-through.

Unlike a standard calendar, an MVC builds momentum through achievable steps.

Rather than doing too much with an overly ambitious plan, this version helps you establish consistency through:

• A simplified setup for a short period and 1-2 platforms
• Faster implementation and publishing
• Easier tracking and optimization

Let’s find out how you can create a minimum viable calendar to get your marketing efforts off the ground.

Define Your Goals and Target Audience

Start with two questions:

• What business objectives will your social channels support?
• Who exactly are you trying to reach and influence?

For example, if you have a cookware brand, your goal might be to build brand awareness and drive sales. And you want to reach chefs and cooking enthusiasts in your target region.

While listening to the Social Pros Podcast, I found an interesting insight by Katie Robbert, CEO of Trust Insights.

Katie emphasizes the importance of defining your ideal customer profiles (ICPs):

“Whether or not we realize this, as marketers, we think we’re creating content for our customers, but we make it about ourselves. We have that bias of what we think their pain points are. Instead, we should be putting the customer first, and saying: ‘Your pain points are ABC, and here’s how we can solve them.”

Identify Target Platforms

The next step is to find where your audience hangs out the most.

Instead of posting on every possible platform, select 1-2 key channels where your audience is the most active.

For example, your cookware brand can focus on TikTok and Instagram to stay top of mind for cooking enthusiasts.

Find your fit: Check out the most popular social media platforms to pick the best ones for your brand.

Outline Content Pillars

Finally, you want to establish 3-5 content pillars that align with:

• Your audience’s interests
• Your business goals

These pillars will guide your content brainstorming and creation efforts.

For example, your cookware brand might focus on pillars like recipes, maintenance, and home remedies.

This is also where you can experiment with different content formats to see what appeals the most to your audience.

Discover Ideal Posting Times

Use your minimum viable calendar to experiment with posting frequencies for a few weeks.

This will help you decide the best time to post on each platform when your audience is the most active.

You can also use Semrush Social to find the best time to post specifically for your brand.

The tool shows when your audience is the most active on each platform.

Social Analytics goes further to display activity by hours.

Here’s a look at the Instagram dashboard showing hourly engagement data for all days of the week:

With this data, you can schedule posts based on specific time slots when your audience engagement peaks on your chosen platforms.

Do It with Our Template

You’ve collected all the insights you need.

What’s next?

Our calendar template makes it easy to document everything from this step and keep it handy alongside your calendar.

Here’s a glimpse of how you can consolidate all the details in the template:

2. Use the One-Third Rule for Brainstorming Ideas

Are you struggling to create a consistent flow of ideas to fill your social calendar?

Try the one-third approach to plan content without compromising quality for quantity.

This practical approach divides content planning into three parts:

1/3 Repurposed Content

Repurpose different marketing assets to share your message across multiple touchpoints.

Here’s a simple workflow for content repurposing:

• Consolidate your content: Create a spreadsheet or content bank to list every blog post, video, podcast, or content asset you’ve produced
• Group content by themes: Organize this content into groups based on the topics they cover, so you can repurpose in batches
• Pick your repurposing formats: Pick 2–3 formats (like carousels, quote cards, and 30‑second video clips) and build simple templates for each
• Add slots for repurposing: Create space for repurposed posts in your social calendar and add which topic and post you want to recreate

Check out this quick framework for repurposing content assets:

Here’s an example of content repurposing in action:

Semrush created a LinkedIn post and carousel rounding up key statistics from its research study on AI Overviews.

It racked up 200 reactions and 56 reposts, and it includes a link to the study for those who want the deep-dive version.

Further reading: How to Promote Content on Social Media

1/3 User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) builds authentic social proof for your brand and saves production time.

You can leverage UGC to fill your social pipeline by:

• Making it easy for users to share content with branded hashtags or other channels
• Offering rewards and meaningful prizes to incentivize users for contributing UGC
• Establishing a clear workflow to request usage rights from customers

Here’s how Wild One, a dog fashion brand, features user-generated content to show its product in action:

Besides content from real customers, UGC includes case studies, testimonials, and customer playbooks.

Check these stats: 24 Key User-Generated Content (UGC) Statistics for 2025

1/3 Original Content Creation

Original content is how you display your brand’s unique voice in crowded and noisy social feeds.

But coming up with original ideas can be exhausting, to say the least.

Here are a few places to start:

• Behind-the-scenes looks into your team and process
• Interactive content to engage your audience
• Educational series, like weekly tips
• Product and service showcases
• Relatable memes

Kate Erwin’s advice will come in handy the next time you’re brainstorming fresh ideas.

She believes it’s important to listen to the conversations already happening on socials and share your take.

“You don’t want your point of view to come out of nowhere. Connect it to what your audience already cares about. Thankfully, people are already telling you what they care about all the time on social. They’re posting. They’re reacting. They’re commenting. They’re part of the conversation. It’s your job to join in.”

The takeaway? Original content doesn’t start with you; it starts with your audience

Actively listen to your audience and tune into their conversations with a perspective unique to your brand.

This is where Semrush’s Social Content AI tool can come in handy.

Just add your brand’s website and a description of the kind of content you want to create.

The tool will analyze your input and come up with a list of ideas for different content pillars.

It also shares the top news stories relevant to your input.

Remember that not every original idea will work out.

That’s why I created this quick scoring system to evaluate whether an idea is worth pursuing:

Rate each idea on a scale of 1 to 5, and calculate the average score for each idea.

Set a minimum threshold, such as an average of 4, for approving ideas.

Then, pick the most promising ones for production.

Find inspiration: 25 Creative Ways to Find New Content Ideas

Do It with Our Template

Our template gives you a dedicated space to add new ideas as and when inspiration strikes.

Plus, multiple team members can contribute ideas or make requests.

Use the ideas bank to collect all your ideas, score them, and pick the ideas that score above your minimum threshold.

3. Build a Content Production Pipeline

Creating great content consistently requires more than just good ideas.

You need a structured workflow to go from an idea to a published post without getting stuck.

A well-designed content production pipeline can:

• Eliminate the chaos of last-minute scrambling
• Help you meet timelines and post consistently

To build this production process, define clear handoffs for every stage — from ideation to publication.

Next, you need realistic timelines to make your process sustainable in the long run.

Many social calendars fail because they’re built on overly optimistic estimates.

They don’t account for everyone’s bandwidth and unexpected delays.

When planning these timelines, work backward from publication dates and build in buffer time at every stage.

As a best practice, give each stage an owner and set clear handoff guidelines for moving ideas from one stage to the next.

You also want to base your production time on:

• Content type: You can move a simple social post from idea to published in 3–5 days. But a carousel post or video montage could take a few weeks.
• Team size: Involve every contributor in the discussion to determine the time they need to do their best work. Then set time-based milestones accordingly.

Pro tip: Build buffer time into your production process. Add 10–20% extra time after each handoff to handle delays, last‑minute feedback, or unanticipated hiccups.

At the end of each month or quarter, look at what slipped and why to optimize your workflow.

Once your production process is ready, build a visual workflow to bring everyone on the same page.

Apply this workflow while implementing your minimum viable calendar. It’ll reveal issues and bottlenecks that can potentially derail your calendar.

Your workflow should clearly show:

• Content production stages
• Designated owner for each stage
• Due dates for moving to the next stage
• Any dependencies or prerequisites for a stage

You can build this workflow with many tools (more on that later).

Do It with Our Template

When I was trying to set up this workflow for my own B2B social media strategy, I experimented with a new tool every other week.

Asana, Notion, Trello, you name it.

The truth is:

There’s always a learning curve with these tools because they’re not purpose-built for social media marketing.

To save you all this time and effort, I designed our calendar template with two main sections:

• Ideation: Add your core idea with a brief description. Assign the owner for each idea, then pick the platform(s) and format.
• Execution: After the ideation stage, you want to define a publish date. Then, work backwards to assign deadlines for design and review.

Here’s a sample view of what this workflow looks like:

4. Design a Quick-Response Workflow for Trendjacking

Even the most meticulously planned calendars need room for spontaneity.

Leaving space means you can use trendjacking (creating content around popular trends) to increase your visibility and engagement.

That’s why you have to create structure around spontaneity.

I spoke to Travis Tyler, Senior Social Media Manager at Motion, about building a social calendar.

His best advice? Give your calendar some flexibility.

“Sometimes your best social posts will be these random, ad hoc, last-minute, 11th-hour ideas that seem stupid or silly. And then they end up crushing!”

So, make sure you build in the flexibility to jump on trending opportunities.

For starters, block some time every week to proactively find social media trends.

Look for upcoming events or holidays, spy on your competitors’ feeds, and use social listening tools to spot emerging trends early.

You can also use Semrush’s Social Tracker to find your competitors’ top posts.

See what’s driving the highest engagement for these brands. Then (if it’s relevant to your own brand), see if you can come up with related ideas with your own spin on it.

Once you’ve identified some trending themes, you have to decide which trends are worth following.

Evaluate your ideas against these parameters to see how well the trend aligns with your brand:

• Relevance check: Does this trend naturally connect to your products/services?
• Audience alignment: Will your audience care about or engage with this trend?
• Brand alignment: Does this trend align with your brand values and reputation?
• Resources required: Can you create good content with the available resources and timeframe?

When you’ve locked in a trending idea, don’t get stuck in your standard review cycle and miss the moment.

Give someone in your team the authority to make rapid approvals for trending ideas.

5. Add Space for Feedback and Analysis

If your calendar doesn’t evolve based on performance insights, it’s just a rigid publishing schedule.

You need to designate time to analyze engagement data and modify your strategy based on these insights.

You can assess performance against different types of metrics:

• Awareness: Impressions, reach, shares, and follower growth
• Engagement: Likes, comments, shares, and saves
• Conversion: Click-through rate, direct conversions, and social traffic

Establish clear benchmarks for “good” performance for each metric.

Then, monitor your performance with weekly analyses and monthly audits to see where you can improve.

This is where Semrush’s Social Analytics tool can make life easy for you.

You don’t have to scramble to collect data from multiple platforms.

Social Analytics gathers organic and paid data from Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram.

Here’s a preview of the Overview tab on Social Analytics. It gives you a glimpse of each channel’s key metrics, like followers, reach, profile views, post engagement, and more.

To get started with Social Analytics, you need to connect your social media profiles to Social Poster.

This will automatically link your accounts and collate all performance data.

Social Analytics creates unique dashboards for every platform.

• Instagram: Data for audience, profile interactions, stories, and posts
• Facebook: Metrics for page likes, engagement, and posts
• LinkedIn: Data for audience, engagement, and posts
• TikTok: Covers engagement and posts

Take a look at the TikTok dashboard to see the depth of insights available:

When to Review Your Calendar

You need a multi-layered approach for reviewing your social calendar.

Each round of review should serve a specific purpose:

• Weekly: Focus on immediate feedback. Review the past week’s performance to adjust the posting times or caption styles for higher engagement.
• Monthly: Evaluate patterns to find which content types consistently perform better than others
• Quarterly: Take a closer look at your data to potentially restructure your calendar. Consider your business goals, performance, and other factors.

While your review process doesn’t need to follow this exact structure, you want to be clear on what you’re doing with the data.

Tools for Building a Social Calendar

The success of all these best practices depends on how comfortable you are with the calendar tool you use.

Let me share a few tools I’ve used to create and manage a social media content calendar.

Backlinko’s Template

I designed our free template to give you an easy and convenient way of maintaining a social planner.

Instead of struggling to pick one option from dozens of social media calendar tools, you get the familiarity of a spreadsheet.

Simply add a new row for each new idea, then assign dates, owners, and other attributes.

Now, everyone can see your planned content, and it’s easy to collaborate with others too.

Semrush Social Poster

With Semrush’s Social Poster, you can schedule posts on a dynamic calendar for multiple platforms.

Choose a platform (or multiple), create a new post by adding the caption and media file(s), and schedule it for any date.

The best part?

You can schedule posts in bulk by uploading a simple CSV file with up to 100 premade posts.

Besides social content planning, you can use the wider Semrush Social toolkit to track platform-specific engagement, keep tabs on your competitors, and even brainstorm new ideas.

Notion

Notion offers many customizable social calendar templates.

The tool combines project management with collaborative documentation. That means teams can ideate, create, edit, and finalize content on the same platform.

Since Notion is free for up to 10 users in a workspace, it’s a good option for lean teams.

I’ll admit that, when compared to dedicated social media tools, I do miss the scheduling and analytics capabilities that Notion is lacking.

But I’ve found it to still be a great planning tool to organize your ideas and collaborate with a small team.

Buffer

Buffer is a dedicated social media management tool.

I find it super easy to create new posts in any format, then drag and drop them on any date.

As a result, your weekly/monthly calendar is ready in just a few minutes.

What sets Buffer apart is the ability to create custom categories and use color codes to organize your posts. Think content pillars, goals, formats, and more.

Create Winning Social Media Content

Planning content for socials can be chaotic.

Trends pop up by the minute, and every day can feel like a fresh start.

A social media planner is your compass for navigating this constantly changing space.

But your calendar isn’t going to get you far without great content ideas.

Get inspired by these 23 outstanding content marketing examples.

The post Social Media Calendar Guide: Plan, Post, & Grow (Free Template) appeared first on Backlinko.

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AI copywriting tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to generate written content for marketing purposes. Such as blog posts, social media updates, and product descriptions.

Generally, this is how it works:

1. You enter a prompt that tells the tool what to create
2. The tool uses technology known as generative AI to fulfill your request (usually in a matter of seconds)
3. You ensure the text meets quality standards before publishing

With AI copywriting tools, you can produce higher-quality content in less time. And there’s software to suit different budgets, needs, and preferences.

Here are 10 of the best AI copywriting tools for 2025:

1. AI Article Generator

Best for: SEO-friendly articles
Pricing: $60/month

AI Article Generator helps you create articles that can rank well on Google.

To start, enter a high-level topic you want to write about. The tool will guide you through a simple setup process to improve the AI output.

Fill out the requested details:

• Title: Enter your own or use the AI’s suggested title
• Target keywords: Add keywords manually or choose from AI-generated suggestions, based on actual search volume
• Audience location: Select the intended audience’s location 
• Word count: Set a custom word count or use the AI’s recommended length
• Brand voice: Select the tone that matches your brand

Enable the SEO boost. This feature gathers search data to help your content rank higher. 

Click “Create article” to generate your content.

You can then choose to publish, customize, or regenerate the content.

Open the editor to:

• Request changes from the AI chatbot
• Add AI-generated images or images from Unsplash
• Review competitor data
• Get SEO, readability, and tone suggestions
• Edit the content manually

What We Like

We like AI Article Generator because it simplifies the entire article creation process. It handles writing, optimizing, editing, and adding visuals all in one place. It’s efficient not having to use separate tools for writing, SEO, editing, and images.

2. Jasper

Best for: Multi-asset marketing campaigns
Pricing plans: Creator ($49/month), Pro ($69/month), Business (custom pricing)

Jasper is AI copywriting software that provides templates for over 50 use cases.

And with a Pro or Business plan, you can access Jasper Campaigns. Which allows you to create multiple assets from a single brief. 

For example, you can provide Jasper with details about your upcoming product launch. And it will generate a blog post, press release, social media posts, and more.

You can teach Jasper about your business by:

• Importing a URL
• Typing information
• Uploading files

This helps ensure that generated content aligns with your brand voice and is accurate. 

What We Like

Jasper uses multiple large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and its own model. The platform intelligently selects the best model based on the content type to give you a high-quality output.

Jasper also guarantees that your data is secure. It doesn’t use your content to train its models or share it with third parties.

Having tested the trial, we’re particularly impressed by Jasper’s Brand IQ feature. It accurately replicates your tone of voice, showing that the Jasper team has put significant effort into fine-tuning the underlying algorithm. 

3. QuillBot

Best for: Improving your own content
Pricing plans: Free or Premium ($19.95/month)

QuillBot is one of the best free AI copywriting tools for improving content.

It offers nine main functions:

1. Paraphraser: Rewords text in your chosen tone
2. Grammar checker: Fixes grammar errors 
3. AI detector: Identifies AI-generated text 
4. Plagiarism checker: Ensures text is original (Premium only)
5. AI humanizer: Makes robotic-sounding text sound more natural
6. Summarizer: Provides text summaries
7. Citation generator: Creates citations for webpages, books, etc.
8. Translator: Translate text into 40-plus languages
9. Flow: Allows you to generate or review text with AI without switching tabs

You can use QuillBot via the website, Google Chrome extension, Microsoft Edge extension, macOS app, Word add-in, Android keyboard and app, or iOS keyboard and app.

What We Like

Our favorite feature of QuillBot is its ability to humanize AI-generated text. Many AI tools produce robotic-sounding output, but QuillBot refines word choices and adjusts sentence structures to make the text sound more natural. 

4. Writesonic

Best for: Up-to-date, well-researched content
Pricing plans: Basic ($20/month), Lite ($49/month), Standard ($99/month), Professional ($249/month), and Advanced ($499/month) 

Writesonic is an AI copywriting tool that browses the web for the latest information and conducts research.

The tool cites its sources directly in your content, helping to build trust with readers.

Writesonic also automates internal linking, adding links to relevant pages on your site to benefit your SEO and improve user engagement.

What We Like

We’re impressed by Writesonic’s real-time research capabilities.

Unlike most AI writing tools that rely on training data, Writesonic actively searches the web for current information. This helps ensure your content is up to date and factually accurate.

However, it’s important to note that all AI tools can still make mistakes. Don’t rely solely on them for fact-checking. Always verify information independently to ensure accuracy. 

5. Anyword

Best for: Enterprise marketing
Pricing plans: Starter ($49/month), Data-Driven ($99/month), Business ($499/month), Enterprise (custom pricing) 

Anyword is an AI copywriting tool designed for enterprise marketing teams.

It helps with demand generation, product marketing, social media, content marketing, email marketing, operations, and marketing strategy.

For example, if you need to create high-performing ads or email campaigns at scale, Anyword can help you generate and optimize messaging that resonates with your target audience.

You can upload existing content or provide a URL to train the AI on your brand voice. And create basic buyer personas to generate content based on them. 

What We Like

We’re impressed by Anyword’s predictive performance scoring system. 

Before launching a campaign, you can test multiple content variations and get data-driven predictions about which versions are likely to perform best with your audience. This eliminates guesswork and helps improve campaign effectiveness.

6. Rytr

Best for: Content tailored to your tone of voice
Pricing plans: Free, Unlimited ($9/month), Premium ($29/month)

Rytr allows you to create over 40 types of content, all designed to match your brand voice.

The tool analyzes different writing samples to learn your writing styles. It then applies these styles to your AI-generated content, helping maintain your brand’s tone of voice. 

You can even create content that sounds like it’s written by specific people, such as a blog post that sounds like your CEO. 

You’ll need the Unlimited plan for one tone match, and the Premium plan to do multiple tone matches.

What We Like

Rytr is one of the most affordable AI tools available, especially given the variety of content types it supports. We recommend this tool for anyone with a limited budget who needs to create content quickly and efficiently.

7. Describely

Best for: Product descriptions and ecommerce content
Pricing: Pay as you go ($0.75 per product) or Concierge (custom pricing)

Describely is an AI-powered tool designed for managing ecommerce product content, including descriptions, titles, meta tags, and images.

You can set content rules to guide the AI on how to craft your content, from tone to specific length preferences. This ensures every output meets your requirements.

Once you import your product catalog and select items, you can generate content based on these rules.

Describly integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Salsify, and other popular ecommerce platforms, making it easy to push updates live with just a few clicks.

What We Like

Our favorite feature is the bulk content generation. Describely saves a lot of time when you have hundreds or thousands of products. Instead of spending weeks writing descriptions, you can generate them in bulk, with each one remaining unique.

8. Type

Best for: Professional creators
Pricing: $29/month

Type is an AI-powered writing platform designed for professional creators who want to speed up their content writing without sacrificing quality. 

It offers a clean, distraction-free editor combined with advanced AI assistance to help you draft, refine, and polish everything from emails and blog posts to YouTube video descriptions and scripts.

You can start writing naturally and use the AI feature to improve your phrasing, fix grammar issues, rephrase sections, and generate new paragraphs based on your existing content.

What We Like

Our favorite feature is the smart autocomplete. It completes your thoughts before you even finish typing, suggesting full sentences that flow with your existing content. You simply hit “tab” on your keyboard to accept the suggestion and continue writing.

9. Social Content AI

Best for: Social media content (text and images)
Pricing: $29.99/month

Social Content AI generates content for Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, and Pinterest.

Start by adding your URL and business description. The tool will generate a variety of social content ideas.

Click “Generate” on your chosen idea. 

For the best results, select your tone of voice, post type, and target social network before clicking “Generate text.”

Social Content AI provides text and allows you to edit it.

You can also generate AI art (illustrations) or designs (graphics with text). In the perfect size for your selected platform and post type.

What We Like

Our favorite feature of Social Content AI is its ability to handle content for nearly every major social media platform. Need a quick Instagram story? Done. LinkedIn post? No problem. Pinterest post? Easy. It’s like having a social media Swiss Army knife at your fingertips.

Try AI Copywriting Tools for Free

AI copywriting tools increase your productivity and make content creation easier than ever.

The best way to understand their potential is to try them yourself with your own specific content needs. 

The below AI copywriting tools are available inside Semrush and come with a free seven-day trial:

Try these powerful tools today. And discover what AI copywriting can do for your business.

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Understanding the full spectrum of HTML tags is helpful for more than just expanding your technical knowledge—it’s foundational for ensuring a good user experience, improving accessibility, and achieving positive SEO results.

By the end of this article, you’ll have a thorough understanding of HTML tags that you can use across your website.

But let’s first cover the basics. 

What Are HTML Tags?

HTML tags are the fundamental building blocks of webpages that tell web browsers how to display and format content.

For example, the tag below tells the browser to include a link to an article explaining SEO and place it over the text “search engine optimization (SEO).”

<a href=”https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-is-seo/”>search engine optimization (SEO)</a>

Here’s what that link looks like on a live blog post:

In this example:

• “<a>” is the element, i.e., the fundamental building block that includes the tag itself and the content it encloses
•  “href” is an attribute that specifies the link’s destination
• “search engine optimization” is the content of the tag. In the case of a link like in this example it will be rendered as the anchor text.

HTML tags always have an element. They can have one or more attributes. Some, such as <a> elements, have content.

Most Common and Useful HTML Tags

Before diving into our ultimate HTML tags list, let’s get to know them alongside a few use cases.

The graphic below shows the most common and useful HTML tags as they can appear on three different page types:

1. Homepage: Focused mainly on navigation and highlight key parts of the business
2. Blog post: Focused on presenting a blog post in a clear, logical way
3. Landing page: Focused on conveying benefits and converting users

You’ll see some tags that are used across all three but for different purposes (mentioned in parentheses). And you’ll see some tags that are specific to each page type.

So, the next time you’re about to publish a homepage, blog post, or landing page, review to see that all important tags are present on your page.

Semantic HTML Tags for Conveying Structure

The following table contains a set of semantic tags that describe the meaning of the content they enclose. 

Use this semantic markup to improve accessibility and provide additional context for search engines.

Basic Structure Tags for Establishing Overall Construction

The following basic structure tags are essential for establishing the fundamental framework of any HTML document. 

Content and Text Formatting Tags for Defining Overall Look

These content and text formatting tags establish the content’s primary structure and style to make it easy to read and engage with.

Image and Multimedia Tags for Incorporating Visual Elements

Use the image and multimedia tags in the following table to embed and manage visual and auditory content within a webpage.

List Tags for Organizing Content

List tags are used to present information in a structured manner, which makes it easier for users to read and understand content.

Table Tags for Presenting Data

Table tags can be used to structure and display data in a tabular format with rows and columns.

Form Tags for Enabling User Interaction

Form tags are used to create interactive forms that allow users to input and submit data.

Other Important HTML Tags

This table includes additional HTML tags that serve various purposes in web development and content structuring.

How to Audit Your Pages’ HTML Tags

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to check HTML tags using Google Chrome (the process is very similar in other popular browsers):

1. Open the webpage you want to check in Google Chrome
2. Right-click anywhere on the webpage and click “Inspect” from the menu. This will bring up Chrome’s Developer Tools with the “Elements” tab open.
3. Press “Ctrl + F” (on Windows) or “Cmd + F” (on Mac) to open a search bar, then type the name of the tag (e.g., “<title>”) or attribute (e.g., class=”item”, id=”main”) you’re looking for. Be aware that the search might also highlight the search term within text content.

This method is helpful if you know what you’re looking for.

If you’re newer to HTML tags or just want to streamline your audit, try using Semrush’s Site Audit tool to make sure your basic HTML tags and attributes are set up correctly.

Follow the prompts to set up your project, and then open it to go to the “Overview” report.

Now, click on the “Issues” tab and type “tag”into the search box

You’ll then be able to see whether there are important HTML tags and attributes that need to be addressed on your site.

Click “Why and how to fix it” next to any issue reveals more about it and provides advice on how to address it.

Try Site Audit for free today.

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According to numerous business experts, appropriate market analysis is a crucial component of a successful business. If you don’t adequately assess your competition or sector before starting your business, you run the risk of not properly understanding the best ways to establish your business effectively. One such form of assessment is known as Porter’s Five Forces model. 

We’re going to teach you exactly what Porter’s Five Forces are, and how they are best implemented. Then, we’ll provide you with a handy template so that you can conduct your own analysis for your business.

What Are Porter’s Five Forces?

As the name suggests, Porter’s Five Forces are five separate threat factors that can impact business growth. The theory is credited to senior Harvard Business School academic Michael E. Porter.

The Five Forces, or Porter structure, are as follows:

• The intensity of the competitive landscape;
• Level of supplier power;
• Buyer’s entry/exit costs;
• The threat of substitute products;
• Access to the market for new entrants.

The objective of Porter’s Five Forces model is to assess the overall competitive landscape of a particular business sector. Each of these five forces corresponds to a key component of market intensity.

When all five of Porter’s Five Forces are assessed, a business owner can assess the overall competitiveness of a particular market. 

If these forces are particularly strong, they contribute towards an unattractive sector overall. This is because the strength of each negatively affects the overall likelihood of profitability.

The ideal sector is one where “pure competition” exists, allowing all those within it to make respectable profit margins.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Let’s take a look at each of Porter’s Five Forces—using SpaceX as an example.

This framework helps you understand the structure of your market so you can make smarter strategic decisions. In some of the steps, we’ll use data from the Semrush Traffic & Market Toolkit to guide our analysis.

The intensity of the competitive landscape

The first thing to look into is how intense the competition is within your niche. The key insights you should gather at this stage are:

• The competition level within the marketplace
• Key competitors
• A clear understanding of your competitive strategy

The Market Summary in the Market Overview dashboard provides a great starting place. Taking a data-driven approach, let’s get an overview of the competitive landscape for SpaceX.

This dashboard shows whether the market is fragmented (with traffic spread across many players) or concentrated (dominated by a few). For a company like SpaceX, this helps reveal whether it’s competing in a wide-open field or fighting for share in a tight race.

From there, scroll to the Growth Quadrant section to identify key competitors and see how they compare in terms of traffic volume and recent growth.

After examining the market as a whole, we can zoom into the competitive landscape specifically using the Growth Quadrant. 

You can always go deeper and take a look at more rivals, However, for an in-depth look, it’s always a good idea to narrow down the scope of research.

With space, SpaceX won’t have too many direct competitors — just because the entry bar is very high, with high fixed costs, government regulations, and more. For most industries, however, looking at the range of competition and its intensity is a starting point for solid market analysis. 

Next, it’s important to check whether you and your competitors are actually reaching the same audience. You might offer similar products but attract entirely different customer groups.

For example, after identifying nasa.gov as a key competitor for web traffic, we ran SpaceX and NASA through the Audience Overlap dashboard to compare their audiences.

Surprisingly, the overlap was minimal. One possible reason? NASA’s traffic likely includes a large share of students, educators, and space enthusiasts consuming public science content—while SpaceX’s audience may skew more toward industry professionals, investors, and private-sector partners.

This kind of audience insight adds depth to your competitive analysis. If you’re attracting different types of users, you’re not competing for the same attention. But you might spot untapped opportunities to reach new segments or tailor your messaging more effectively.

This post will walk you through the ways to shape a stronger marketing strategy to attract competitor audiences.

Level of supplier power

Online or offline, businesses are heavily reliant on other businesses in their operations. This factor examines the power a supplier might hold over your business.

Your procurement, security, and other departments will have information about the following factors you should consider when it comes to assessing the threat of overdependence on suppliers:

• The number of suppliers within the market (from your anti-DDoS software to steel mills);
• The range of existing suppliers — the more backup suppliers you manage to secure, the more bargaining power your business will have;
• The costs of switching to other suppliers — from rewiring all the hardware to establishing new supply chains, you should consider all the factors and expenditures.

Buyer’s entry/exit costs

Now, with consumers, they can also have some bargaining power over your business. While this may seem like a customer-centric factor, you should be looking at your competitive landscape once again to determine the costs of the buyer’s entry and exit. 

The overall audience size, the number of competitors, their pricing, and quality factors will matter when you are shaping or reshaping your business and marketing strategies.

This post will help you find the right tactics that enable you to:

• Analyze your competitors’ overall online performance;
• Get a glimpse at their online advertising strategies;
• Pinpoint your rivals’ SEO, content and PR strategies;
• Reveal their activity across social media channels.

The threat of substitute products

In addition to keeping an eye on your direct competitors, you also need to consider substitute products—alternatives that solve the same problem in a different way.

Substitutes can quietly chip away at your market share. A product or service becomes a threat if:

• It offers a lower price but delivers a similar function or quality
• It’s priced similarly but offers higher quality, better performance, or added value

For example, if you sell software for remote collaboration, your substitute might not be another software company—it could be a new AI productivity tool or even a completely different workflow model. Even if it’s not marketed as a direct competitor, it could be drawing your users away.

The Top Pages dashboard can help you spot these shifts. Look at which pages are generating the most traffic for competitors or related domains. If you start seeing high-traffic pages focused on alternative solutions—especially ones that aren’t part of your current offering—that’s a signal worth investigating.

This kind of insight helps you stay ahead of changing customer preferences and reevaluate where threats might come from. It’s not always the competitor you expect.

Access to the market for new entrants

This factor considers how easy or difficult it is to enter the market for upcoming brands. While you may be all set with your market analysis, this factor requires ongoing market monitoring.

While SpaceX’s position is fairly stable, Asian competitors like Interstellar Technologies may pose a threat in years to come.

However, if you’re not in Aerospace or another niche that is difficult to enter, you should consider the market entry barriers and establish the frequency of your market monitoring accordingly — the lower the entry bar, the higher the monitoring frequency.

Here is a live example of Porter’s Five Forces analysis:

Porter’s Five Forces Template

A template for Porter’s Five Forces provides you with the layout of the model and how each force impacts the others. 

Remember, the objective of Porter’s Five Forces model is to review the competitiveness of a market. If you’re already operational, this can give you a significant advantage over your competition.

Used properly, the model can be adapted to create comprehensive competitive strategies. These can then help you carve out an even more significant portion of the overall market for your business.

Take a look at our comprehensive Porter’s Five Forces template here.

[ Download the Porter’s Five Forces Template ]

Where Can I Find Out More About Marketing Strategies?

Porter’s competitive model is one of the most well-recognized marketing strategies available today. But relying solely on Porter’s Five Forces means you won’t be taking advantage of other significant strategies.

The best way to get ahead in your sector is by contributing as much as possible to competitive assessment and business growth. Luckily, that’s where Semrush can help.

Semrush provides over 40 digital marketing tools to help you thrive in your sector. This includes tools for Competitor Analysis and Competitor SEO Analysis, among many more.

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