What are the most important link metrics to consider for organic search visibility? Link volume and link authority are not the only factors that affect search engine rankings – And it's no longer enough to gain popularity by just building as many links as you can. With Google now able to understand the broader context of your content through machine learning and natural language understanding, relevancy actually has the biggest impact on your search rankings. Join this webinar as we deep dive into what relevancy is and show how you can leverage it to rise above your competitors in the SERPs. Key Takeaways: - The value of high-quality, brand-led coverage and links. - How to use product-focused PR to prove your relevance. - Ways to overtake your competition with easy-to-use free tools. In this session, Beth Nunnington, VP of Digital PR and Content at Journey Further, will demonstrate how relevant branded content is the key to increasing visibility and traffic for a winning SEO performance. Sign up now and start prioritizing relevancy for your digital PR and link building campaigns.

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Beth Nunnington
11 years’ experience driving organic performance for
leading brands including Marks and Spencer, Dr Martens
and Virgin Money.
VP of Digital PR & Content Marketing

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Steve Walker
Former Apple SEO engineer, Head of SEO at
STEAK/Dentsu and co-founder of the Journey
Further Organic team.
Technology Director

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How link & content
relevance drive organic
performance
What I’ll cover
➔ What do we mean by relevance?
➔ Why is relevance so important?
➔ How to use machine learning to
measure relevance
➔ Using relevance insight to drive organic
growth

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What do we mean
by ‘relevance’?
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Relevance
Data shows that
the brand’s target
market want to
read about the
topic
Audience
interest
Can the brand
own the topic
based on its
expertise?
Brand
authority
The campaign
aligns to the
keywords that
you want to rank
for
Keywords
The campaign
aligns to the
news agenda
Topical

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Why increasing
topic relevance
needs to be a big
focus of your digital
PR strategy
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Consider the value of
each piece of coverage
for Ikea…
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91 DA 59 DA

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Which link would you rather have pointing back to
your site?
10
VentureBeat - 91 DA
HIGH DA / ZERO RELEVANCE
Driven By Decor - 59 DA
MEDIUM DA / HIGH RELEVANCE

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We’ve known for a
while Google thinks
it’s important…

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We’ve known for a while Google thinks it’s
important
https://moz.com/blog/link-relevance-seo
https://gofishdigital.com/blog/annotation-text-new-anchor-text-approach/
https://www.seobythesea.com/2014/12/replacement-pagerank/
(Updated 2019)
➔ Topic-Sensitive PageRank
➔ Phrase based indexing
➔ Annotation text

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“We try to understand what is relevant
for a website, how much should we
weigh these individual links…the total
number of links doesn’t matter at all.”
John Mueller - Google Representative
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It’s not enough to
be popular…

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You also need to be
relevant.

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But how do you
measure relevance?

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Understanding link
relevance with Salient™
Your data Output Insight
Our tool

18. Testing
our
18
theory

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SEO report:
Link relevance
correlation study
Travel/Flights

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We analysed the organic
rankings of 6,988 commercially
valuable keywords, across 20
travel related topics to
understand which sites are the
most visible

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We then correlated
these scores
against 3 link
metrics...

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01
Topic relevance?

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Topic relevance?
Domain authority?
02

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Topic relevance?
Domain authority?
02 03
Unique linking
domains?

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Topical link relevance
had the strongest
correlation with
organic visibility in
11 of the topics.

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Topic
(Flights)
Search Volume DA
Unique Linking
Domains
Topic Relevance Winner
All KWs 11,794,160 0.59 0.74 0.96 Topic Relevance
Las Vegas 1,780,500 0.55 0.67 0.82 Topic Relevance
Orlando 1,116,780 0.56 0.62 0.68 Topic Relevance
London 1,051,120 0.45 0.72 0.78 Topic Relevance
New York 1,047,140 0.51 0.76 0.94 Topic Relevance
Miami 1,021,460 0.57 0.73 0.87 Topic Relevance
Denver 1,010,920 0.62 0.81 0.64 Unique Linking Domains
Dallas 806,310 0.53 0.60 0.41 Unique Linking Domains
Houston 791,330 0.55 0.51 0.56 Topic Relevance

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Flight Industry (US) 11,794,160 searches per month
Market Share DA Unique Linking Domains Topic Relevance
Expedia 27.50% 87 56,676 1396.47
Kayak 16.00% 84 76,258 1040.85
United 8.30% 86 40,541 605.74
Cheapflights 5.50% 71 12,830 668.91
AA 5.40% 86 46,000 328.90
Skyscanner 3.80% 80 15,121 384.05
Orbitz 3.40% 79 20,924 444.74
Travelocity 3.40% 79 22,791 310.14
Southwest 3.20% 83 38,703 401.40
Cheapoair 1.30% 72 8,606 296.82
Momondo 1.30% 73 19,812 179.51
Correlation 0.59 0.74 0.96

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Correlation ≠ causation
➔ Google is a black box (that continuously
evolves)
➔ The combination of multiple patents
referencing topical relevance plus data
from correlation studies is a useful guide

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How do you
increase
relevance?

30. Quality
over
quantity
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What I used to do…
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What I do now…

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247 Blinds
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How is an online
blinds retailer
ranking higher
for key terms
than the likes of
two household
UK brands?

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Increasing relevance for 247 Blinds
Link profile before activity

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Increasing relevance for 247 Blinds
Link profile after activity

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Prove your relevance
by focusing on
product coverage

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Securing relevant
linking coverage, in
relevant publications

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Organic revenue has
improved by 33%
➔ Sessions +21%
➔ Revenue +33%
➔ 3rd most
visible blinds
retailer in UK

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Request a free relevancy report
beth@journeyfurther.com
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Actionable takeaways
● Focus on improving keyword relevance
through digital PR
● Don’t rely on volume or ‘domain authority’
metrics for measuring success
● Understanding the relevance of your link
profile can give you a competitive advantage
● ‘Link bait’ creative campaigns will only get you
so far
● Product-focused PR gets results and can be
used to target specific areas
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Questions?