Stephen Watts

A few great SERPs in Jan 2020

This blog post is the 2nd in an annual series - the first looked at great SERPS from the end of 2018. This post will revisit some of those SERPs and look at new ones as well.

1. SRE
2018 rank: 3
2020 rank: -
URL: https://www.cio.com/article/3282424/devops/sre-vs-devops-whats-the-difference.html
Note: CIO moved this and much of their other content to a new domain and put it behind a paywall, resulting in loss of SERP.


2. Gartner Magic Quadrant Cloud
2018 rank: 1
2020 rank: 7
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/gartner-magic-quadrant-cloud-iaas/
Note: Blog post hasn't been updated since 2018, resulting in drop of rank


3. PaaS
2018 rank: 4
2020 rank: 3
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/saas-vs-paas-vs-iaas-whats-the-difference-and-how-to-choose/
Note: Position 4 + image in Featured Snippet. This keyword continues to drive large traffic volumes.


4. ITIL V4
2018 rank: 1
2020 rank: 6
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-v4/
Note: Large drop in rank due to increased competition for the phrase. Prior year, there was 0 competition. Further, the URL change and the keyword itself changed, as Axelos announced ITIL 4 is dropping the "V".


5. IT Conferences
2018 rank: 1
2020 rank: 1
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/tech-it-conferences/
Note: This durable URL had maintained its traffic-generating status for a few years now, and will continue.


6. Digital Transformation Books
2018 rank: 2
2020 rank: 1
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/digital-transformation-books/
Note: Continuing to dominate this and other book related SERPs (ITSM Books, IT Governance Books, etc.)


7. DevOps Conferences
2018 rank: 2
2020 rank: 1
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/devops-conferences/
Note: Continuing to dominate this and other Conference related keywords.


8. Magic Quadrant ITSM
2018 rank: 1
2020 rank: 1
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/gartner-magic-quadrant-itssm/
Note: Continuing to dominate this and related keywords.


9. RegEx for SEO
2018 rank: 2
2020 rank: 3
URL: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/regex-seo-website-data-extraction/234999/
Note: This URL on the Search Engine Journal website has moved down 1 spot, but continues to be a top result.

A few new additions for 2020

1. ITIL
2020 rank: 5
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-4/
Note: The original content targeting the phrase "ITIL" was migrated in fall 2019; we maintained a great keyword ranking for the term.


2. TPU vs GPU
2020 rank: 1
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/google-cloud-tpu/
Note: Drawing traffic for hands-on Machine Learning tutorials.


3. IT Director
2020 rank: 2
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/it-director-role-and-responsibilities-what-does-a-director-of-technology-do/
Note: Hanging with GlassDoor and Indeed, attracting large traffic volumes.


4. CTO
2020 rank: 7
URL: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/cio-vs-cto-whats-the-difference/
Note: Similar to IT Director, this keyword draws large volumes of traffic.