If you ever wondered if Medium is good for SEO, I can offer some tangible proof. I have been blogging at DevelopmentCorporate.com for 12 years. I write about enterprise software product management and mergers/acquisitions. It is a niche blog that gets some decent traffic. I have been republishing my content on Medium since late 2018. Recently I discovered that an article from my blog that I republished n Medium ranked #1 for a Google search term. My original post on my blog ranked #3.
Everyone Wants to be on Page 1 of Google
There is a saying “Page 2 is where Google Search results go to die” Everyone wants to be on Page 1 of Google. SEO stats back that up. Here is a chart of organic search click-thru rates by Google search position for 2021:
For my blog, I have had some modest success getting ranked on page 1. Here is some data from Google Search Console about how my content has ranked over the past 12 months:
DevelopmentCorporate Search Console
Ranking on Page 1 is tough. Over the past 10 years, I have had one post, How to Calculate the Enterprise Value of a Private Company, that has consistently rated #1 for that search term. It is a niche piece, to say the least. As of now, my content ranks on Page 1 of Google for 233 search terms. I am an SEO amateur, but I have followed the basic advice offered by many. If you want to learn more about my approach, check out this article.
Medium Content Will Rank High on Google
I republish most of my blog content on Medium. Medium content tends to do very well in search engine ratings. This screenshot shows that an article I republished on Medium outranked the exact same post on my blog:
In fact, it ranked #1 on Google for the search term Product Management Memes. My post has languished in the number 3 spot for a long time..The same content from Medium ranks #1.
The highlighted portions in the screenshot are from the Moz toolbar – a neat little free Chrome plugin. PA is Page Authority and DA is Domain Authority. Page Authority is a score developed by Moz that predicts how well a specific page will rank on search engine result pages (SERP). Page Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank. Domain Authority is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to greater likelihood of ranking.
The Google Search algorithm is very complex and can’t be reduced to just two factors. The 2021 update of the Google Search Quality Guidelines is over 170 pages long. Moz’s estimates are good proxies you can use to see why your content rates where it does. Medium content ranks so well because of its high Domain Authority and Page Authority. You do not have to do anything special, just write good content that follows the basic guidelines for good blogging SEO practices.
Summary
Ranking on Page 1 of Google Search results is tough. Due to its high domain and page authority, content on Medium tends to rank very well. Often the content published on your blog will rank better when republished on Medium.
Also published on Medium.