Masterclass is raising new funding at a $2.5B valuation.

The platform& #39;s secret sauce: incredible SEO, which uses the power of "second order questions" to drive free traffic to its site.

Here& #39;s a breakdown https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">

1/ The Masterclass website got ~10m visits in March w/ 61% of traffic coming via search (nearly all of it organic).

2/ The key to this organic search traffic?

Masterclass’ hundreds of high-quality articles including pieces on:

• Food
• Design
• Music
• Business
• Writing

3/ Masterclass appears at the top of Google searches for:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥨" title="Brezel" aria-label="Emoji: Brezel">“what are pretzels”
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🖊" title="Kugelschreiber unten links" aria-label="Emoji: Kugelschreiber unten links"> “types of poems”
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥄" title="Löffel" aria-label="Emoji: Löffel">“how many teaspoons in a tablespoon”
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🎶" title="Mehrere Musiknoten" aria-label="Emoji: Mehrere Musiknoten">“song structure”
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="📙" title="Oranges Buch" aria-label="Emoji: Oranges Buch">“how to write an autobiography”

These five key search terms combine for 500k+ monthly Google searches.

4/ Let’s dig into one example:

“how many teaspoons in a tablespoon”

This one has 130k+ monthly searches.

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🔗" title="Link Symbol" aria-label="Emoji: Link Symbol"> https://masterclass.com/articles/how-many-teaspoons-in-a-tablespoon-measurement-conversion-chart">https://masterclass.com/articles/...

5/ This “teaspoon” article definitely answers the search query.

BUT, it is also riddled with calls-to-action for Masterclass courses related to cooking (eg Gordon Ramsay, Madison Bottura).

6/ This is where "second-order questions" come into play.

Example:

Let’s say you sell washable rugs online.

A typical FIRST ORDER question you might rank for is “best pet friendly rug”.

A SECOND ORDER question you should target is “best rug shampooer for pets”.

7/ Why do SECOND ORDER questions work?

Because you’re targeting a similar audience who is one step away from wanting your product.

And @masterclass is brilliantly building a content library around these audience-related searches!

8/ This knowledge was shared to me by @ahogan, who DEF knows the search game.

Elsewhere, if you want to know the secret behind Amazon& #39;s writing culture...check this thread: https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1361324736878313478">https://twitter.com/TrungTPha...