Disney+ Hotstar is a MONSTER at SEO!
They get 60M+ organic traffic and have 1.31M backlinks 🤩
Learn Technical SEO to market your website and gain millions of users! 🧵
They get 60M+ organic traffic and have 1.31M backlinks 🤩
Learn Technical SEO to market your website and gain millions of users! 🧵
Structure:
1. What is Hotstar?
2. SEO numbers
3. Hotstar's main goal
4. So, what were the issues?
5. The solution
6. What did Hotstar do?
1. What is Hotstar?
2. SEO numbers
3. Hotstar's main goal
4. So, what were the issues?
5. The solution
6. What did Hotstar do?
1/ What is Hotstar?
Hotstar is an Indian OTT platform that works on a subscription-based model.
You can stream your favourite TV shows, movies and sports tournaments on the app.
The company is affiliated with Disney+ and India's favourite cricket league, IPL!
Hotstar is an Indian OTT platform that works on a subscription-based model.
You can stream your favourite TV shows, movies and sports tournaments on the app.
The company is affiliated with Disney+ and India's favourite cricket league, IPL!
2/ SEO numbers
1. Organic Traffic ➝ 64M
2. Organic Keywords ➝ 2.9M, 95%+ keywords are non-branded.
3. Backlinks ➝ 1.31M
4. Domain Rating ➝ 81
But, in 2015, when Hotstar was launched, they didn't see the same shining SEO results as today.
Let's learn how they achieved this!
1. Organic Traffic ➝ 64M
2. Organic Keywords ➝ 2.9M, 95%+ keywords are non-branded.
3. Backlinks ➝ 1.31M
4. Domain Rating ➝ 81
But, in 2015, when Hotstar was launched, they didn't see the same shining SEO results as today.
Let's learn how they achieved this!
3/ Hotstar's main goal
1. Increase the overall ranking of pages
2. Increase the total number of impressions and in turn visitors (clicks)
3. Finally, increase the overall conversion rate
But, there were a few issues with Hotstar's website that were working against these goals.
1. Increase the overall ranking of pages
2. Increase the total number of impressions and in turn visitors (clicks)
3. Finally, increase the overall conversion rate
But, there were a few issues with Hotstar's website that were working against these goals.
4/ So, what were the issues?
A) Technical issues
1. The website's structure and the way the code was written were causing a lot of crawling issues.
2. It took a lot of time to load a page, harming the user experience.
3. Google was having trouble indexing its pages.
(contd)
A) Technical issues
1. The website's structure and the way the code was written were causing a lot of crawling issues.
2. It took a lot of time to load a page, harming the user experience.
3. Google was having trouble indexing its pages.
(contd)
It seemed like Hotstar was facing classic technical SEO errors.
When you implement technical SEO well, it can be a real growth hack.
But, when it's ignored and the errors pile up, they can be very BAD for your SEO results.
So, tackling them is important!
(contd.)
When you implement technical SEO well, it can be a real growth hack.
But, when it's ignored and the errors pile up, they can be very BAD for your SEO results.
So, tackling them is important!
(contd.)
B) Keyword-related improvements
Starting out, any brand would mostly rank for branded keywords. Meaning when someone exclusively searched for "hotstar".
So, on the keywords front they had 2 goals:
1. Rank for non-branded keywords, as they have a higher search volume
(contd.)
Starting out, any brand would mostly rank for branded keywords. Meaning when someone exclusively searched for "hotstar".
So, on the keywords front they had 2 goals:
1. Rank for non-branded keywords, as they have a higher search volume
(contd.)
Example:
Non-branded keyword ➝ "live ipl match" ➝ 630K volume
Branded keyword ➝ "hotstar tv shows" ➝ 15K volume
2. Rank for keywords in the query groups — "sports", "movies", "streaming"
These are HIGH volume, HIGH difficulty keywords. So, ranking for them is difficult.
Non-branded keyword ➝ "live ipl match" ➝ 630K volume
Branded keyword ➝ "hotstar tv shows" ➝ 15K volume
2. Rank for keywords in the query groups — "sports", "movies", "streaming"
These are HIGH volume, HIGH difficulty keywords. So, ranking for them is difficult.
5/ The solution - Technical SEO!
They solved these issues by
a) fixing all their technical SEO errors and improving wherever there's potential and
b) creating pages to rank for more diverse keywords.
But, what exactly is Technical SEO?
(contd.)
They solved these issues by
a) fixing all their technical SEO errors and improving wherever there's potential and
b) creating pages to rank for more diverse keywords.
But, what exactly is Technical SEO?
(contd.)
Any technical improvements you make to a website's pages that translate into a better user experience qualify as "Technical SEO".
With this you can either:
1. Improve the overall user experience
2. Or, help search engines crawl and index content on your site better
(contd.)
With this you can either:
1. Improve the overall user experience
2. Or, help search engines crawl and index content on your site better
(contd.)
What does crawling, indexing and ranking mean here?
Crawling ➝ Search engine algorithms scour the web to find unique URLs
Indexing ➝ After crawling, they index each webpage and organize
Ranking ➝ Once your page is indexed, now it can be ranked for a relevant query.
(contd)
Crawling ➝ Search engine algorithms scour the web to find unique URLs
Indexing ➝ After crawling, they index each webpage and organize
Ranking ➝ Once your page is indexed, now it can be ranked for a relevant query.
(contd)
Examples of technical SEO
1. Page speed ➝ shows how fast or slow a page loads. You can check your page speed and improve it if needed.
2. Website's crawlability ➝ A good hierarchical structure and internal linking between pages make your website more crawlable.
(contd)
1. Page speed ➝ shows how fast or slow a page loads. You can check your page speed and improve it if needed.
2. Website's crawlability ➝ A good hierarchical structure and internal linking between pages make your website more crawlable.
(contd)
3. Create a sitemap ➝ Providing search engines with a URL map of your website also helps in crawling.
4. Avoid duplicate data ➝ Duplicate content are a no-no. You can be penalized for this.
5. Remove dead links ➝ Any link leading to an error should be removed.
(contd.)
4. Avoid duplicate data ➝ Duplicate content are a no-no. You can be penalized for this.
5. Remove dead links ➝ Any link leading to an error should be removed.
(contd.)
6. Make sure the site is secure ➝ Your website should be SSL or HTTPS secure.
7. Perform site audits ➝ Regular site audits can show you if your website has any of the above errors.
8. Use structured data ➝ Adding structured data to your pages can help display rich results.
7. Perform site audits ➝ Regular site audits can show you if your website has any of the above errors.
8. Use structured data ➝ Adding structured data to your pages can help display rich results.
6/ What did Hotstar do?
A) Solve Technical SEO issues:
1. They performed a thorough site audit to identify & rectify errors like[1]:
- Crawling or indexing errors
- dead links
- duplicate content
(contd.)
A) Solve Technical SEO issues:
1. They performed a thorough site audit to identify & rectify errors like[1]:
- Crawling or indexing errors
- dead links
- duplicate content
(contd.)
2. They also made fundamental changes to the way content is rendered on their website so that search engines are able to crawl dynamic JavaScript pages.
3. Finally, Hotstar used dynamic meta content & page titles for its pages.
Now, what exactly is a dynamic title?
(contd.)
3. Finally, Hotstar used dynamic meta content & page titles for its pages.
Now, what exactly is a dynamic title?
(contd.)
When your page has dynamic elements, then using dynamic meta tags is advisable.
So, instead of manually inputting meta titles and page titles, dynamic tags derive the title from the information available on a page.
(contd.)
So, instead of manually inputting meta titles and page titles, dynamic tags derive the title from the information available on a page.
(contd.)
For example:
Genre-based titles ➝ Here the title template remains the same but the genre changes
- Watch Romance Movies & TV Shows On Disney+ Hotstar
- Watch Action Movies & TV Shows On Disney+ Hotstar
- Watch Drama Movies & TV Shows On Disney+ Hotstar
(contd.)
Genre-based titles ➝ Here the title template remains the same but the genre changes
- Watch Romance Movies & TV Shows On Disney+ Hotstar
- Watch Action Movies & TV Shows On Disney+ Hotstar
- Watch Drama Movies & TV Shows On Disney+ Hotstar
(contd.)
B) Target more diverse keywords:
Hotstar essentially wanted to target non-branded keywords under a specific topic.
So, it designed a website structure that is templatized in such a way that it automatically targets such keywords!
(contd.)
Hotstar essentially wanted to target non-branded keywords under a specific topic.
So, it designed a website structure that is templatized in such a way that it automatically targets such keywords!
(contd.)
Site structure:
1. The entire Hotstar website is divided into sub-categories like:
a. TV, Movies, Sports — broad categories
b. Languages, Channels, Genres — specific categories
(contd.)
1. The entire Hotstar website is divided into sub-categories like:
a. TV, Movies, Sports — broad categories
b. Languages, Channels, Genres — specific categories
(contd.)
Each content piece is assigned under broad and specific categories.
For example, Brahmastra
- Broad category — Movie
- Language — Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu
- Genre — Fantasy, Adventure
- For TV shows, we could also specify the TV channel that owns it.
(contd.)
For example, Brahmastra
- Broad category — Movie
- Language — Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu
- Genre — Fantasy, Adventure
- For TV shows, we could also specify the TV channel that owns it.
(contd.)
But, how does this help with SEO?
Well, with these categorizations, Hotstar programmatically creates many landing pages like
- languages ➝ hotstar .com/in/languages/hindi
- genres ➝ hotstar .com/in/genres/action
- channels ➝ hotstar .com/in/channels/star-world
(contd.)
Well, with these categorizations, Hotstar programmatically creates many landing pages like
- languages ➝ hotstar .com/in/languages/hindi
- genres ➝ hotstar .com/in/genres/action
- channels ➝ hotstar .com/in/channels/star-world
(contd.)
- language + movies ➝ hotstar .com/in/movies/languages/english
- channel + TV shows ➝ hotstar .com/in/channels/starplus
- and, more!
By simply structuring these pages properly, Hotstar can now rank for a number of different keywords for each page!
(contd.)
- channel + TV shows ➝ hotstar .com/in/channels/starplus
- and, more!
By simply structuring these pages properly, Hotstar can now rank for a number of different keywords for each page!
(contd.)
Example:
- "biopic movies"
- "hindi movies"
- "star plus shows"
- "tennis live match"
(contd.)
- "biopic movies"
- "hindi movies"
- "star plus shows"
- "tennis live match"
(contd.)
As for the internal linking, each broad category page links to all content that comes under that category.
And, each individual content page also links to other content pages under the "more like this" heading.
So, the website template essentially takes care of everything!
And, each individual content page also links to other content pages under the "more like this" heading.
So, the website template essentially takes care of everything!
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