Search engines like Google want you ranked number one in searches. This is what we call rankings. To achieve this goal, there are two things you must do: On-Page and Off-Page Optimization.
On-Page Optimization refers to how well your webpages perform when someone types keywords into a search bar. You can use tools such as Screaming Frog to find out where you stand against your competitors.
Off-Page Optimization involves getting people to link to your webpage. Backlinks come from other sites and blogs. They help search engines determine whether your site is relevant to the keyword being searched for.
A good way to improve your Off-Page SEO is by creating Backlinks. Here are some tips to help you generate quality backlinks.
1. Create unique content. If you're writing about something that no one else writes about, chances are it'll make you look spammy.
2. Link to authoritative sources. When you write an article, always link to other articles published on reputable websites.
3. Don't overdo it. Make sure you don't go overboard with linking to your own blog posts.
Part 1: What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of digital marketing because it helps businesses reach potential customers online. Search engines like Google use algorithms to determine where you show up in search results. If you want to rank high, you must optimize your website for search engines.
The goal of SEO is to make sure that people find your website easily through search engines. To do this, you must ensure that your website meets certain criteria set by search engines. For example, you must include keywords in your webpages and meta tags, and you must provide relevant information and quality content. You can learn how to improve your SEO strategy with help from experts.
How Does SEO Work?
The term "search engine optimization," or SEO, refers to techniques used to improve a website's visibility in search engines like Google. These techniques include things such as optimizing webpages for specific keywords, writing unique content, and building backlinks.
Keywords are words that users type into the search bar on a search engine. When someone searches for something, it pulls up pages containing those keywords. If you want your webpage to show up when someone types a certain keyword into the search box, you'll need to optimize it for that keyword. This includes making sure that your webpage contains the keyword somewhere within the text itself. You can do this by including synonyms for the keyword in question, as well as adding related keywords.
In addition to optimizing your webpage for keywords, you'll also want to make sure that it is optimized for mobile devices. Search engines use algorithms to determine how relevant a webpage is to a particular search query. They look at factors such as whether there's enough content on the page, whether the information is easy to understand, and whether the design is attractive. A good rule of thumb is to keep the number of words per page around 300.
Another way to increase your rankings is to build backlinks. Backlinks are links pointing to your webpage from another website. There are many different ways to generate backlinks, including guest posting, social media sharing, and link exchanges. Some sites even offer paid backlink packages.
If you're looking to learn more about SEO, check out our guide on How To Optimize Your Website For SEO.
Rankings
The way Google ranks sites is changing. In fact, it’s changing so much that some are calling it a revolution. And while there have been changes to rankings in the past, this one is different.
Google says it still wants to show you what’s most relevant to your search terms, but now it’s looking at how long something has been around. This is called "time decay." So if a site has been online for 10 years, it won't necessarily rank as highly as a site that just launched today.
This change is part of Google’s algorithm update known as Hummingbird. But this isn’t about adding more features to make life easier for searchers. Instead, it’s about making sure people find exactly what they want.
So why does this matter? Because if you’re trying to build traffic to your site, you don’t want to waste time and money building a site that doesn’t rank well. You want to spend your resources where they count.
And that’s why we’ve compiled a list of five things you need to know about rankings.
1. Rankings Are Changing
First off, let’s start with the good news. Google hasn’t completely changed its method of determining which sites are best suited to answer a particular question. However, the way it goes about doing that is changing.
Visibility
- What Is It And How To Measure It?"
Search visibility is an important metric for evaluating the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. If you're looking to improve your site's performance in search engines, it's essential to know what factors are affecting how visible your site appears in search results. There are several ways to measure your site's search visibility, including:
1. Keyword research - This is one of the most important aspects of SEO because it helps you understand where people are searching for information related to your products or services. You can use tools like Google Trends and SEMrush to find out what keywords people are searching for, and then use those terms to help inform your keyword selection process.
2. Backlinks - Links from high-authority sites are considered "more relevant," and therefore more valuable, than links from low-authority sites. As such, building links from high-quality sources is critical to improving your site's search visibility.
3. Content - Quality content is another key component of successful SEO. When people perform searches online, they want to find useful, informative content. Good content includes original articles, blog posts, videos, etc., that provide value to readers.
4. Technical SEO - Finally, there are technical issues that affect how well your site performs in search results. These include things like code errors, broken images, slow loading speeds, etc. Make sure you address these problems before implementing changes to your site.
5. Mobile friendliness - Google now considers mobile friendliness to be an important factor in determining whether or not someone sees your site in search results. In fact, Google recently announced that it will begin penalizing sites that don't meet certain standards for mobile friendliness.
6. Schema markup - Schema markup allows webmasters to add additional data about their site, such as contact info, descriptions, prices, ratings, reviews, etc. Some search engines use schema markup to determine how much weight each piece of data carries. For example, if a product description contains a price tag, it's likely to carry more weight than a similar description without a price tag. By adding schema markup to your site, you'll increase your chances of being seen in search results.
Part 2: Keyword research & keyword targeting best practices
Keyword research is the process used to discover what people type into search engines. This helps you understand where your audience is looking for information online. Once you know what people are searching for, it’s time to start building your site around those terms.
Your ultimate goal is to rank for high volumes of relevant keywords. If you rank for too few keywords, you won’t reach enough potential customers. On the flip side, if you rank for too many keywords, you risk being penalized by search engines.
The most effective way to target keywords is to use long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are longer phrases that include multiple words rather than single word searches. For example, if someone types “how to make money blogging” into a search bar, they probably want to read about making money from blogging. So, the keyword phrase “make money blog” isn’t really useful because it doesn’t provide much value to searchers. However, “create a successful blog” provides more value since it gives people exactly what they are looking for.
When choosing keywords, think about the following things:
• What do people actually type into search engines?
• How often does each term show up in search results?
• Are there any misspellings or variations of the term that could lead to better rankings?
Part 3: On-page optimization
Keywords are an important part in any web page or blog posts. They help people find you. A good strategy includes both broad and specific keywords, and use headers, subheaders, Alt Tags, and internal linking to boost your authority.
Title tags
A title tag is one of the most important elements of a web page because it appears in the browser window while people are browsing your site. A good title tag helps you rank well in search engines like Google and Bing.
The title tag should contain your main keyword or phrase plus any related modifiers that might further describe what your page is about. You want to make the text easy to read and understand. Use keywords in the title tag where appropriate, but avoid stuffing too many words into the title tag. Try to keep the title tag under 60 characters.
Make sure that your title tag isn't misleading. Don't use a long title tag just to try to trick the search engines. If you're trying to sell something, don't put "sale" in the title tag -- it's deceptive.
You can test your title tag by searching for it on Google. Type your keyphrase into the URL bar and hit enter. See how high up your page appears in the search results. This tells you whether your title tag is working properly.
Meta descriptions
are what appears beneath each web page’s URL in search results. They’re used to display information about the page itself, such as who wrote it, what it offers, and why someone might want to read it. Meta descriptions aren’t always displayed in search results, but they do influence whether searchers click through to a particular page.
The length of a meta description isn’t set in stone; some sites use short ones while others go for longer ones. But there are certain guidelines you should follow:
Your meta description shouldn’t exceed 70 characters. This allows room for the most important keywords without making the text too long.
You should include three main points in your meta description: Who wrote the page, what it offers, what benefits it provides, and why readers should care.
A good meta description includes a clear call to action, like "Learn More," "Buy Now," or "Subscribe."
If possible, avoid including your brand name in your meta description. If you do include your brand name, make sure it’s relevant to the page. For example, if you sell gardening supplies, don’t put your brand name in your description for a page about gardening tools.
Body content
refers to text within a webpage that contains information about the product or service being offered. Body content includes everything except images, such as the name of the organization, contact information, pricing, description, delivery options, etc.
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The most important thing you can do to improve your online presence is to make yourself visible. You want people to see your brand, products, and services. And you want them to know what makes you different.
If you are looking to grow your audience organically, you need to establish a strong social media presence. But how do you go about doing that? Here are some tips to help you out.
1. Start with Facebook
You might think that Twitter is where it’s at, but Facebook still accounts for over half of all internet traffic. So start there. Create a fan page for your business and invite friends and family to like it. Then use paid advertising to promote posts and engage with fans.
2. Get involved in communities
Alt attributes
- What They Are And How To Use Them For Better Search Results
The alt attribute allows you to describe images on your website. This helps people who use screen readers understand what each picture represents. In addition, it provides information for search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, to better index your site.
This article explains how to add alt attributes to images on your WordPress site.
URL structure
Your site’s URL structure can help you separate out data in reports and increase the sharing rate of those reports. The best way to do that is to use subdomains. If you are looking at traffic from multiple countries, it makes sense to put each country into a different subdomain. This allows you to see how much traffic each country brings in without having to look at thousands of lines of code. You can even add a custom domain name to each subdomain to make things easier.
Don’t change your URL structure just because you want to improve your SEO. Changing your URL structure could cause problems for your visitors. Some browsers don’t like URLs with too many parameters. Others might not work well with certain types of URLs. In addition, some people prefer to type long URLs rather than typing a shorter one.
If you decide to change your URL structure, there are several ways to go about doing that. One option is to use a tool called Mod Rewrite to rewrite the URL. Another option is to use a third party application such as WordPress.org to handle the rewriting process. A final option is to use a 301 redirect to tell search engines and visitors what happened to the old URL.
Schema & markup
Schema markup gives your site a leg up against competitors who aren't using schema markup. There are many different types of schema markup, and you should apply each one to specific pages or sections on your site. Before applying schema markup, make sure your site is structured properly. This includes things such as having unique URLs, including H1 tags, and being well-coded. If you don't follow proper coding standards, you could run into problems with indexing.
Part 4: Information architecture & internal linking
In part four of our SEO basics series we look at link building and information architecture. In this video we talk about linking to your most important pages. We also explain why it is important to think about how you can use existing links to help build trust and authority in the brand. Finally, we discuss how to make sure your most important pages "are high up' in your information architecture.
On-page SEO & off-page SEO
Onpage SEO is all about optimising the content, titles, keyword density, etc., of your webpages. Offpage SEO is mostly about building relationships with influencer and creating authoritative content. Both onpage and off-page SEO strategies should work hand in hand.
White hat SEO vs. black hat SEO
There are different types of white hat SEO strategies. Some include:
1. Building high quality links organically
2. Optimizing webpages for mobile devices
3. Using social media to promote your site
4. Creating original content
5. Link building without spamming
6. Improving your link profile
Three Core Components of a Strong SEO Strategy
An effective SEO strategy combines onsite and offsite elements. You must consider keywords, meta data, internal linking, and external linkbuilding. All of these components work together to help you rank high in the search engines.
Onsite SEO includes optimizing your webpages for specific keywords. This helps you rank well because it improves how relevant your content appears to searchers. Meta data describes what information is included in a webpage. For example, the meta description tag tells searchers what a webpage is about. Internal linking refers to hyperlinks within a single webpage. These are helpful because they allow visitors to navigate around your site easily. External linking refers to links outside of your domain name. Backlinks are important because they indicate popularity and authority. They also provide a way to measure success.
Offsite SEO involves building backlinks to your site. There are many ways to do this. One method is to write articles and post them on blogs. Another option is to submit your blog posts to directories like Dmoz.org. Guest blogging is another good way to build links. If you want to use videos, try uploading them to YouTube. Videos are great because they add personality to your brand. Press releases are another way to generate interest in your product. You can send out a release to local news outlets, trade publications, and industry associations.
1. Technical Setup
Search engines don’t see images or other visual aspects of a webpage. They just see text. So it’s important to make sure that every element of your website is optimized for search engines. This includes making sure that your HTML code is well structured, that your images are properly named and linked, that your robots.txt file is configured correctly, and that there aren’t too many duplicates across multiple pages.
Technical setup includes things like site structure, HTML code, images and robots.txt files. You can use free online tools such as Screaming Frog and GTMetrix to check whether your technical setup is optimal.
2. Content Creation & Optimization
Content creation and optimization is about creating high quality content that people want to read and share. When optimizing your website, keep in mind that search engines look at the words on a page, not pictures or videos. Therefore, it’s essential to write unique and engaging copy. Make sure that each piece of content is relevant and useful to readers. If you do this, you’ll find that search engines start rewarding your efforts by giving you more traffic.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your brand. By sharing interesting posts on social networks, you’re able to reach out to potential customers. Plus, you’ll build relationships with followers and develop long term relationships with fans.
4. Website Architecture & Usability
Website navigation and links
Include the navigation bar and links within the body copy. Make sure you use a clear call-to-action (CTA). Use a heading tag for each link. Include a descriptive URL.
Use images sparingly. They won't be indexed by search engines.
Make sure that all links are valid. If there's no anchor text, it doesn't count.
Avoid linking to internal pages.
Simple URL structure
URLs are one of the most important parts of a web address. They tell people where to go on the internet. But what makes a good URL? And how do you make it better? Here are some tips to keep in mind.
1. Use meaningful words
A URL is like a sentence. You want to use words that describe exactly what you're talking about. If you don't know what something is called, try looking up the word online. For example, "google.com/search?" might look like gibberish, but it actually tells Google what you're searching for. Try replacing the question mark with a period, and see if it helps.
2. Don't overuse hyphens
Hyphens aren't just used to separate words--they can also add meaning to your URL. Hyphens are useful for breaking down long phrases into shorter ones. For example, "www.example.com/about-us/" could become "www.example.co.uk/about-us". However, too many hyphens can make your URL hard to read. So stick to three or four hyphens max.
3. Avoid numbers
Numbers are fine, but avoid including them in your URL unless they're necessary. This includes things such as IP addresses, phone numbers, and dates. Numbers are great for sorting files, but they shouldn't be part of your URL. Instead, include them in your file names.
Dead links or broken redirects
A dead link is a web address that no longer exists, while a broken redirect is one that takes you somewhere else entirely. Both types of errors are annoying for visitors and cause problems for search engines. But there's a simple solution: 301 redirects. These redirects tell search spiders where to send people once they've clicked on a dead link or visited a broken URL. They're easy to set up, too.
Sitemap and Robots.txt files
A sitemap tells search engines which pages to follow while crawling your site. A robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site are off limits. These files should be named sitmap.xml or robots.html. You can use either one, but you must name it differently.
2. Content
Keywords are important for any content marketing strategy. They help you understand what your audience wants. You can use keyword research tools like Moz Pro to find out which keywords your audience uses to find you. Use those words in your content. Make sure it matches the language your audience speaks. If you don’t know how to do this, ask yourself questions like, “What does my target audience say about me? What do I talk about most often? How do I describe myself?”
Content is king, especially if your goal is to rank high in search. People are searching for information online every day. Your job is to provide that information. Create great content that helps solve problems or answer questions. Then make sure your content gets shared. Share it across social media platforms, email newsletters, blogs, etc.
Search engines crawl through your site looking for relevant keywords. When they find one, they add it to the list of keywords associated with your domain name. This process is called crawling. As long as you keep creating quality content, your audience will continue to grow. And because your audience grows, your rankings will grow too.
Keyword Research
There are many different ways to do keyword research, but we believe there is one method that works best for everyone. We call it our "5 Step Method." Here's how it works...
Step #1 - Find out what people are searching for online. This step involves analyzing data from popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc. Once you know what people are searching for, you'll want to narrow down your list even further.
Step #2 - Use tools like Google Trends to see what terms are growing in popularity over time. These trends give you insight into what terms are trending up and down.
Step #3 - Create lists of related words and phrases. Related words and phrases help determine the meaning behind searches. For example, if someone types in "how to make money," you might add the following related terms to your list: "make money," "earn money," "work from home," etc.
Step #4 - Add synonyms to your list. Synonyms are similar sounding words used interchangeably. If someone uses the word "money" in their search, adding the term "cash" to your list could increase your chances of showing up in the SERPS.
Step #5 - Check out long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are those that end with three or four words. Long tail keywords tend to have lower competition and often lead to better conversion rates.
We hope you enjoyed this video.
On-Page Optimization
The term "onpage optimization" refers to the content on your website. This includes things like meta descriptions, alt text, images, headers, internal linking structure, etc. These elements help search engines understand what your site is about and how it should rank.
Meta tags are another type of onpage optimization. They're used to describe your posts and tell search engines what each one is about. You'll find meta description tags inside each individual post, along with keywords you want to use.
There are many different types of meta tags. Some are required while others are optional. Here are some examples of both:
a) Keyword Optimization
Keywords are important because they help you rank high in search engines like Google and Bing. They're also one of the most effective ways to attract visitors to your site. But what exactly are keywords? And how do you optimize them? In this article we'll explain everything you need to know about keywords and how to make them work for you.
What Are Keywords?
A keyword is simply a word or phrase that people type into a search box. When someone types something into the search bar, it sends a signal to Google or Bing that there's a match in their database. If the term matches up with a webpage that contains information related to the searcher's question, Google displays it on the search results page.
So why does this matter? Because if you want to rank well in search results, you need to include the right words in your webpages. This is where keywords come in. You can think of keywords as little signs that tell Google or Bing that there is something interesting on your site. For example, let's say I'm looking for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. My browser might send a signal to Google saying "cookies," and if my favorite cookie recipe happens to contain those exact words, Google will display it on the search results.
The reason keywords are important is that they allow Google and Bing to understand what you're trying to sell. So if you want to rank highly in search results, you must ensure that every single page on your site includes the right keywords.
How Do You Find Good Keywords?
Finding good keywords isn't easy. There are several things you can do to find some great ones. First off, you can look around your niche. What terms are people searching for? How often do they search for them? Is there anything else that relates to your topic? These questions can give you a starting place.
b) Non-Keyword-Related On-Page Optimization Factors
On-page optimization factors are things you do to improve your site’s performance. They include everything from the way you write your meta descriptions to how many times you use keywords in your copy. While there are some off-page factors involved too, like social media presence and brand awareness, most of what happens outside of your website falls under the category of on-page optimization.
The key takeaway here is that it doesn't matter where you start optimizing—it matters where you end up. You don't want to spend months trying to optimize one section of your site, only to find out that you've missed another important area. So make sure you're taking advantage of every opportunity to boost your rankings.
Here are five ways to increase your overall web traffic and boost your SEO efforts:
1. Write longer content
Longer content is generally easier to read and understand than short posts. This makes it a great option for people looking to engage with your audience. Plus, long form content tends to perform much better than shorter pieces.
2. Include internal links
Internal links allow readers to navigate around your site without having to go directly to a specific URL. These types of links can help build authority and trust among search engines.
Part 5: Content marketing & link building
Link building is an important aspect of any successful SEO strategy. However, it doesn't always mean creating tons of low quality content just to attract links. In fact, there are many types of link building strategies. This article explains how to choose the best one for your needs.
1. Identify & understand your linking & sharing audience
Identifying influencers is an essential part of building relationships and making money from content creation. If you want to know who shares your content, you need to identify those influencers first. Tools like BuzzSumo and SimilarWeb help you do just that. They show you what type of content is being shared most frequently across social media platforms. You can use this information to find out who your ideal customers are.
Once you’ve found your influencer base, it’s time to figure out how you can add value to their lives. Think about what types of products or services you offer and how you could make yourself useful to them. For example, if you sell fitness equipment, you might start a blog where you write articles about exercise routines. This way, you’ll reach your target audience without having to pay for advertising.
2. Determine what content you can create & how you can promote it
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and generate leads. But, there are many challenges associated with it. You must determine whether you want to use paid advertising, social media, email campaigns, etc., to market your content.
You might think that content creation is easy, but it isn't. There are many things to consider such as:
• What type of content do I want to create?
• How much time am I willing to invest into it?
• Do I want to hire someone else to help me out?
• Can I afford to pay someone else to write my articles/blogs?
• Who is my target audience?
3. Map your assets to specific keywords
Keywords are one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. They help define what people want to find online. You might use different words to describe the same thing, like “dog food” vs. “pet food.” But it doesn’t matter how many times someone searches for dog food; if they don’t find it, they’ll keep looking. If they do find it, they‘ll buy it.
As a marketer, you know that your product isn’t the only option out there. There are hundreds of thousands of products on Amazon alone. How do you make sure that potential customers see your brand name and understand why they should choose yours over the competition?
The answer lies in keyword research. This process involves identifying the terms that people are searching for related to your product. Once you have those terms, you can start optimizing your site for each term individually.
You can use tools like Google Trends to determine popular queries and trends. For example, let’s say you sell pet food. People might search for things like “best dog foods” or “best cat foods.” These phrases could indicate that people are interested in finding information about pet nutrition.
Once you identify keywords, you can optimize your site for them. You can add relevant tags, descriptions, images, videos, and even blog posts to your site. All of these elements work together to increase your chances of being found online.
If you’re wondering where to start, here are some tips:
1. Use Google Search Console
3. Links
Links are an important part of every web page. They connect one page to another, giving it credibility and helping search engines understand what each page is about. But there are three different types of links, and you need to know how to use them properly.
Internal links connect pages within your site. These are great because they help readers navigate around your site and find information quickly. External links go outside of your site, connecting you to relevant sites. And finally, link juice refers to the value of linking out to others. This is where most people make mistakes.
Links are an essential part of link building. You want to build links that are natural, meaning that they don't look like spammy links. If you're trying to rank well organically, you shouldn't try to trick Google into thinking your links are better than they really are.
What is a backlink?
Backlinks are one of the most important components of any SEO strategy. They help boost your site's authority and visibility. But there are many factors affecting how effective backlinks are for your particular situation. This guide gives you everything you need to know about backlinks.
Links Quality Factors
Google’s algorithm takes into account many different factors when determining how well you rank in search engines. Some are obvious, like domain authority and link profile. But what about those pesky little things called “links?” How do they affect your site’s performance? Let’s take a look at some of the most important ones.
Link Profile
The number one factor that affects your rankings is the amount of high quality links pointing to your site. This includes both incoming and outgoing links. You want to make sure that you have a lot of links coming in and out of your site. If you don’t have enough, it could negatively impact your rankings.
Domain Authority
If you have a low DA, you might think that you’re doing great. However, there are several factors that go into calculating Domain Authority. For example, a low DA doesn’t mean that your site isn’t good. A low DA just means that your site hasn’t been around long enough to accumulate a lot of trust signals. In fact, a low DA can actually be a positive thing because it means that people aren’t trusting your site yet.
Incoming Links
When you receive an incoming link, it tells Google that someone else thinks highly of your site. When you have lots of incoming links, it proves that others believe that your site is trustworthy. On the flip side, if you have few incoming links, it might indicate that no one trusts your site.
Link Building
The term "link building" refers to the process of creating links to your site from other high-quality webpages. These links help improve your rankings in search engines like Google. As a general rule, you want to focus on getting links from authoritative sources such as news outlets, blogs, industry publications, etc.
There are many different types of link building strategies. Some involve buying links while others don't. In addition, some methods are more effective than others. For example, guest posting on relevant blogs is one of the best forms of link building because it helps establish relationships with bloggers and increases the chances that they'll link to your site. However, there are risks involved with guest blogging. If you're not careful, you could end up looking spammy and hurting your reputation.
Here are some examples of the most common link building strategies:
1. Guest Posting
2. Forum Participation
3. Blog Commenting
4. Social Media Engagement
Part 6: How to Monitor & Track SEO Results
Google Analytics and webmaster tools are great ways to monitor SEO progress. They show you how visitors find your site, what keywords they used to get there, and whether those visits converted into sales. But it's easy to get caught up in the numbers and forget about the bigger picture.
Organic traffic is usually the highest conversion traffic source. If you're getting lots of traffic but no conversions, it could mean one thing: keyword research isn't paying off. You want to make sure your keywords are driving people to your site, not just sending them away.
Keywords are important to track. However, don't obsess over them. Focus on the big picture and keep your eyes on the long term goal.
Local SEO
Local SEO is about optimizing your website for specific locations, including cities, states, counties, neighborhoods, etc. This includes things like local citations, reviews, ratings, hours of operation, address, phone numbers, directions, etc. Search engines use location information to determine what’s relevant to a searcher. If you want to rank well in local searches, make sure your website is optimized for local keywords.
Google uses a number of signals to determine where it ranks webpages, including how many people are clicking on those pages, how often they’re returning to the site, and whether or not they’re coming from a mobile device. All of these factors play into determining where your website appears in the search results.
The best way to optimize your website for local search is to include accurate meta data such as addresses, phone numbers, and opening hours. You can do this manually or let Google take care of it for you. Either way, keep track of changes over time.
If you don’t already have a Google My Business account, sign up now. Once you’ve set up your profile, you can add photos, descriptions, and maps to help improve your rankings.
Also, consider adding reviews and ratings to your listing. Review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and others provide free listings. Make sure you claim your business there too.
You can also submit your business to directories like CitySearch, YP, and Yellow Pages. They charge fees, but they’ll boost your presence online.
Finally, check out our guide to getting listed on Google Maps. We cover everything from setting up your business, to uploading images, to making sure your business is correctly tagged.
Local Search Ranking Factors
Keyword research is important, and having an authoritative description about you business is even more important, but having a strong profile on Google my business helps your business rank better locally. Here are some tips to help you build a stronger profile.
Part 7: Common technical SEO issues & best practices
Keyword research is still very important, even though it seems like Google has moved away from keyword targeting. You can use tools such as MozBar, Screaming Frog, or SEMrush to find out what people are searching for. Once you know what people are looking for, you can target those terms in your content.
Technical SEO is much harder for larger sites, but there are some things you can do to improve your chances of being found. Use robots.txt files to tell Google about the different types of content on your site. Make sure your sitemap is working properly. And don't forget to include proper meta tags and title tags.
There are still plenty of problems preventing your site from showing up on Google. If you see something wrong, report it via Webmaster Tools.
Page speed
Page speed is one of the most important aspects of your digital marketing strategy. If you want to rank well in Google, it needs to be fast. In fact, there are many different factors that affect how quickly your webpages load. Some of those include:
- Image size
- External resources
- Browser caching
- Server response time
- Database queries
- Code complexity
Mobile friendliness
Google wants to make sure that people searching on smartphones find what they're looking for quickly. So it's rolling out a feature called "mobile friendliness," which helps webmasters identify problems with their sites' responsiveness across different devices. In addition to the standard mobile-friendly test, Google now offers a tool that lets you see how well your site performs on mobile phones. You can even use this tool to compare your site against competitors.
There are several ways to determine whether your site is mobile-friendly. For example, you can run a desktop version of Googlebot on your site and see if it renders correctly. If it does, you know your site is responsive. Another method involves testing your site on a smartphone simulator like Google's Chrome browser. This approach works best if you already have a mobile-optimized site because it requires no changes to your existing code base.
You can also use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to analyze your site's performance. This free online tool analyzes your site's speed, security, and usability based on Google's guidelines. You'll receive detailed feedback about areas where improvements could be made.
If none of these methods work, you can try the new Google Mobile-Friendly Test. To do this, simply enter your URL into the box on the left side of the screen. Then select "View report." Next, scroll down and click the green button labeled "Check my site." Finally, choose one of three options: "Not mobile friendly," "Partially mobile friendly," or "Mobile friendly."
The tool will give you a score based on the criteria outlined above. If your score falls under 70%, you'll probably want to take some action to fix the problem. However, if your score is over 90%, you don't necessarily need to worry too much. Your site is likely to perform just fine regardless of its mobile friendliness rating.
Header response
A header response is a piece of information sent along with every request that tells the receiving server how to respond. This includes things like cookies, authentication credentials, caching instructions, redirections, and much more. If you are sending a 301 Moved Permanently or 302 Found status code, it is important that you include a valid Content-Type header. Otherwise, the search engine might interpret the page as HTML rather than XML, meaning it won't index the page properly.
If you're having trouble getting the correct headers, try checking out our guide here.
Redirects
vs "301 Moved Permanently" - What Are They? How Do You Choose?"
The most important thing to remember about redirects and permanent redirects is that they are different things. In fact, there is a difference between the two types of redirects. This article explains what each one does and why you might want to use either type of redirect.
A 301 redirect is used to move permanently moved pages from one location to another. For example, you might decide to change the domain name of your site. If you do this, you must tell Google where to send visitors who come to your old domain name. You can do this by creating a 301 redirect.
A 302 redirect is similar to a 301 redirect, except it tells Google to temporarily redirect visitors to your new domain while you update your site. Once you finish updating your site, you can delete the temporary redirect.
Why Use Redirects?
There are many reasons you might choose to perform a redirect. Here are some examples:
• Your site is moving from one host provider to another.
• You want to make sure that people who bookmarked your old domain name can find your new one easily.
Duplicate content
vs "content syndication": Which one matters most?
The term “duplicate content” is used to describe different types of content that appears on multiple webpages. For example, a webpage might contain both the text of an article and a list of related articles. These types of pages are often referred to as “syndicated content.” However, some people use the term “duplicative content” to refer to the exact same thing: duplicate content.
If you think about it, the terms “duplicate” and “syndicate” sound very similar. They both involve sharing something across multiple locations. So why do we use two different words to describe the same thing?
In reality, the difference between the two phrases is subtle, but it can make a big impact on how search engines view your site. Here’s what you need to know about each phrase.
What Is Content Syndication?
Content syndication refers to the practice of publishing content on someone else’s website. You might publish content on a third party’s blog or social media account without having permission to do so. Or, you might syndicate content directly onto your own site.
For instance, suppose you write an article about the latest trends in technology. You decide to post this article on your personal blog, along with a few images. Then, you notice that a popular tech news website has published a similar story. Instead of copying the entire article verbatim, you could simply copy the headline, and add a short paragraph summarizing the main points. This is known as content syndication.
This type of activity is common among bloggers and small businesses. If you want to build up a following online, you might consider creating a profile on a couple of relevant platforms. Once you’ve built up a following, you can start posting regularly on those accounts.
XML sitemap
A sitemap is a file you upload to your web server that tells Google what pages are on your site. You can use XML files to do this.
Your sitemap needs to include URLs that link to other parts of your site. This lets Google know where to find those pages.
Be careful about including too many unrelated pages in your sitemaps. This makes it harder for Google to understand how your site works.
Robots.txt, meta noindex, & meta nofollow
A robots.txt file is a simple text document you can use to tell search engines what URLs they should and shouldn't crawl. A noindex tag tells search engines not to include a particular URL in their indexes. And a nofollow tag tells search engines to disregard the link's value. These three tags work together to help you control how search engines see your site.
Additional resources:
SEO Marketing: Putting It All Together
We learned how to determine what words people are searching for. We learned how to find our competitors’ rankings. And we learned how to create an efficient keyword strategy. Now it’s time to put everything together into one comprehensive plan. This course covers all aspects of SEO marketing, including:
• Keywords
• Competitor research
• Content creation
• Link building
• Backlinks
• Social media
• Website analytics
• Search engines
• Pay per click advertising
This course will help you understand every aspect of SEO marketing, allowing you to build a successful campaign. You’ll learn about the different ways to optimize your site, and you’ll discover how to use each method effectively. By the end of this course, you’ll know exactly how to approach your next SEO project.
Keyword Research and Selection
The goal of every online marketer is to increase sales. This requires you to optimize your site for specific keywords that are related to your products and services. Keywords are what people use to find your product or service online. If you don't know what keywords are best suited for your business, it could mean losing out on potential customers.
There are many different ways to go about finding keywords, but there are some general rules to follow. These include choosing keywords that are both popular and highly competitive. Popularity refers to how often those particular keywords are searched for. Competitive means how difficult it is to rank well for that term. There are several free tools you can use to help determine whether a certain keyword is worth pursuing. One such tool is Google Trends. You simply enter a word into the search bar and see how frequently it is being used today compared to the previous month. Another tool is MozBar. Simply type in your target keyword and see where it ranks in the search results.
Once you've determined which terms are most likely to bring traffic to your site, you'll want to make sure they're relevant to your business. For example, if you sell dog food, you might consider searching for "dog food recipes." However, if you sell shoes, you may want to look for "best shoe stores near me" or "shoe styles for men."
You can also try looking up similar keywords that are already bringing in traffic. This way, you can see what types of sites are ranking well for those terms. Once you've found a few good options, start building landing pages around each one. Make sure to add a call-to-action button that directs visitors to the offer you're promoting. When someone finds your page via a search engine, they'll usually read your description and decide whether or not to click on your link.
If you do end up picking a keyword that isn't working, don't worry - there are plenty more out there. Just keep trying until you find something that does work.
HTML
Title tags should provide relevant information regarding your page’s topic. A good example would be the title tag on a blog post about "How To Make Money Online." This title tag provides context for the reader. If you don't include a title tag, it's assumed that your webpage contains no useful information.
Meta description tags help describe your webpage’s content. For instance, if your webpage is about "How To Make $10,000 Per Month," the meta description tag could read something like, "Learn How To Make $10,00 Per Month With These Simple Tips."
Headers are essential for SEO because they tell browsers what type of document your webpage is. Browsers use headers to determine whether or not your webpage is safe to open. In addition, headers allow search engines to better index your site.
The following table lists some common types of headers.
Header Name Description
This is the most important heading on a webpage. It tells visitors what the page is about.
Site Architecture
A good architecture should focus on accessibility and ease of use. This includes things like having consistent navigation throughout your site, providing clear instructions for navigating around your site, and making sure you don't make people jump through hoops just to access important parts of your site.
Your site's architecture affects how easily it is to find information. If you've got a poorly designed site, it could take longer for someone to figure out what they're looking for. And even if they do figure it out, they might end up getting lost along the way.
Having an effective site architecture helps boost your rankings. When your site is well organized, it makes it easier for spiders to crawl and index your site effectively. Spiders are responsible for crawling your site and gathering data about your site. They'll be able to better understand your site and provide relevant results based on what they learn about your site.
Trust
A few months ago I wrote a post called "How To Build A Trusted Website". In it, I talked about how trust signals are an important part in building a trusted website. While there are many ways to add trust signals to your site, one of the most effective ones is to use an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate provides a visual signal to browsers that the site you're viewing is safe and secure. By adding an SSL certificate, you'll be able to show visitors that you care enough about their safety to make sure it's encrypted.
Having an SSL certificate will help you build trust in visitors. When people see a green lock next to a URL, they know that what they're seeing is something they want to interact with. They don't have to worry about whether they're being scammed or not because they know that the information they're getting is safe.
Your website needs to be secure too. If your site isn't secured, hackers could steal your customers' personal data or take over your site and redirect traffic to malicious sites. You don't want that to happen. So before you start thinking about rankings, make sure you've got a secure website.
Links
Internal links are important for user experiences, link equity, and relevance. They help people navigate your site and find what they're looking for. But too many internal links can make it hard for readers to find what they want. And if you don't know how to properly structure your internal linking strategy, you could end up with a lot of broken links. Here are some tips to help you avoid creating a bunch of dead links.
Make Sure You Include Them Throughout Your Site
You'll want to make sure you include internal links throughout your site. If you do this, you won't have to worry about adding them later. For example, you might add them to navigation menus, sidebars, footers, headers, and even blog posts.
Don't Over Think Anchor Text
Anchors are just words or phrases that link to another page on your site. When you write anchors, focus on natural language rather than keywords. This way, you'll improve your chances of getting high quality links.
For example, "Click here to learn more about our products" isn't very useful because it doesn't tell anyone anything. Instead, try something like "Learn More About Our Products."
Avoid Duplicate Pages
Personal
customer service is dead — long live personal customer service"
Customer service is one of those things we take for granted. We go online and buy something, and it arrives at our doorstep within days or weeks. If there’s a problem, we call up the manufacturer’s support team and ask questions about the product. They usually respond quickly, and the issue gets resolved.
But what happens when you don’t want to talk to a human being? What happens when you just want to speak to someone who understands exactly what you’re talking about?
That’s where the concept of "personal" customer service comes into play. Personal customer service is a way of interacting with people via social media platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter DM, etc., rather than over email or phone calls.
Why do companies offer personal customer service? Because it works. Customers love it. And it makes good business sense too.
Customers aren't always happy with the products they purchase. Sometimes they're dissatisfied because the product doesn't work properly, or because it breaks down sooner than expected. Other times, they simply want to complain about the quality of the product, or express concern about the price.
In many cases, the best thing to do is to let the customer vent his or her frustration without getting defensive. But sometimes, customers really want to tell you why they feel upset, and they want to explain their side of the story.
If you've ever spoken to a friend on Facebook messenger, you'll probably understand what I'm talking about. You might say something along the lines of "I didn't realize my shirt had shrunk," or "I thought this was supposed to be waterproof." In both instances, you'd likely receive a response that says something like "Oh, no worries!" or "No big deal, I'll replace it."
Social
Is Key To Ranking On Google For Local Businesses
The most important thing you can do to rank well on Google for local businesses is to make sure your social media presence is strong. If people are talking about you online, it increases the likelihood that they'll find you when they're searching locally.
Google wants to show relevant information for local searches. In fact, one study found that 80% of searchers use Google Maps to help them decide where to go. So, how does Google determine what's relevant? Well, it looks at things like how many shares each post receives, how often someone comments on it, and whether there are multiple accounts commenting on the same post.
If you want to rank well for local keywords, here's what you need to know:
1. Your profile picture needs to be professional.
2. You need to update your bio regularly.
3. Include a map on your homepage.
4. Add location tags to every blog post.
Part 8: How to track SEO success
There are plenty of vanity metrics out there that tell us how well our sites are doing. Organic traffic and rank are often used as indicators of success, but they don’t tell us much about whether we’re actually helping customers find what they’re looking for. Other metrics, however, do offer insight into what people are searching for and what types of content they’re finding. These insights can help guide your strategy moving forward.
Google Analytics provides some basic information about where visitors come from. You can see how many unique visits each URL gets, and it tells you how long people spend on each page. This data isn’t very actionable, though. If you want to know why someone visited your site, you need to look beyond analytics. Here are three tools that provide deeper analysis of your audience and can help you make smarter decisions.
1. Search Console
Search Console is one of Google’s most powerful tools. It lets you analyze keyword performance over time and compare against competitors. You can use keywords to drill down into specific queries and learn more about the searcher’s intent. You can also set up alerts to notify you when certain terms start trending upward or downward.
2. Keyword Planner
Keyword planner is another tool that gives you access to the same data as Search Console, but you can filter it by location, device type, language, and even browser. You can also import your existing list of keywords to plan future campaigns around.
3. AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic listens to the autocomplete data from search engines like Google and quickly finds every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword.
It's a goldmine of information about what people want and need that you can use to make new, useful content, products, and services. The kind that your customers want.
Monitor organic Share of Voice (SoV)
Organic SoV is important because you want to know how much traffic each keyword brings into your site. If one keyword is bringing in twice the amount of traffic as another, you might consider investing in that keyword. This metric measures how many visitors come directly to your site via the search engines versus those who arrive via other sources like social media. Tracking organic SoV helps you understand what type of traffic you're getting from different channels.
To calculate organic SoV, simply add up the total number of visits to your site from the search engines divided by the total number of visits from all sources. For example, if you had 500 unique visits from Google and 1000 unique visits from Facebook, you'd divide the former by the latter to find out that Google brought in about 10% of your overall traffic.
You can use tools like Compete or SimilarWeb to see how your rankings stack up against others. Or, you can manually check your analytics data to see where your audience is coming from.
Track conversions from organic traffic
The most important thing you can do to improve your online presence is to track your success. This way, you can see what works best for your brand and where you could use some improvement. You can even use conversion tracking to find out which keywords convert better than others. Conversion tracking allows you to measure the effectiveness of each campaign you run. If you want to make sure your efforts pay off, it’s essential to know how successful your ads and landing pages are.
Conversion tracking helps you figure out what types of traffic lead to sales. Once you know this information, you can decide which type of traffic is worth investing in. For example, you might notice that people searching for your product on mobile devices tend to buy more often than those looking for products on desktop computers. In this case, you might invest more money into mobile advertising.
You can also use conversion tracking to determine which parts of your site perform better than others. If you notice that certain sections of your site don’t generate much interest, you can focus your attention there. When you fix the problems, you increase the likelihood that visitors will stick around longer and purchase something.
Keyword research tools
Google Keyword Planner allows you to generate thousands of keyword ideas based on the phrases people use to search for what you offer. You can even see how many searches there are per month. This tool helps you figure out which words and phrases are most popular among searchers.
You can also use it to check the estimated search volume for different keywords. If you want to rank well for specific terms, make sure those terms are included in the list of suggested keywords.
The best part about this tool is that you don't need to spend hours manually searching for keywords. Instead, you'll get a comprehensive list of suggestions based on data collected from actual searchers.
On-page SEO tools
There are many different types of on-page SEO tools to help you improve your rankings. These range from basic metrics like how much traffic you receive per day, to detailed reports that show exactly where you rank compared to competitors. In this article, we'll look at some of the best free online SEO tools.
Title Tag Checker - This tool checks the title tag of each page on your site. If it doesn't match up with your keywords, it will tell you why. You can use this information to make sure your title tag is optimized for both search engines and humans.
Google Search Console - This tool allows you to track how well your website ranks for specific queries. It helps you find out which pages aren't being indexed properly, which URLs don't work, and which pages aren't showing up in search results.
Keyword Explorer - This tool lets you enter multiple keywords into one box to see how competitive they are. You can use this data to determine whether or not your target audience uses those terms.
Google Analytics - This tool gives you access to lots of useful statistics about your visitors. You can use this info to learn more about your customers and optimize your site accordingly.
Webmaster Tools - This tool tells you everything you need to know about crawling and indexing your site. You can use this knowledge to fix errors, add new pages, and even update your sitemap.
Google Trends - This tool lets you compare the popularity of certain topics over time. For example, you could check the number of searches for "web design trends."
Link building tools
Ahrefs is one of the most popular link building tools on the market today. This tool helps you track what keywords are driving traffic to your site, how many sites link to yours, and much more. You can use Ahrefs to discover link opportunities, build relationships with influencers, and even generate ideas for future blog posts.
Gmail allows you to send personalized emails, making it easier to write personalized emails. For example, you could say something like, "Hi, I just wanted to let you know about our latest post." Or, you could tell someone why you're writing them a personal email.
Technical SEO tools
Technical SEO includes things like server configurations, database structures, and web hosting. In addition to helping you make sure that your site is optimized for search engines, it helps ensure that your site works properly for visitors.
A good technical SEO plan should always include an audit of existing websites. This will help identify potential issues and problems that could affect how effectively your site performs.
There are many different ways to improve technical aspects of your site, some of which work better than others, depending on what you're looking to do. Here are a few examples:
1. Server Configuration
Server configuration refers to the settings that allow your site to function correctly. These settings include things such as whether your site uses PHP or ASP, the size of your MySQL database, and the number of CPUs/cores used on your server. If you don't know what these terms mean, it's okay—you'll learn about them later. For now, just focus on making sure that your server is configured appropriately for your needs.
2. Database Structure
Database structure refers to the way data is stored on your server. You can use either SQLite or MySQL to store information in your database. Both of these databases are free, open source options. However, there are pros and cons to each one.
Let's wrap this up
- What I Learned From Building My First Product
I'm sure you've heard about "lean startup," but maybe you don't know exactly what it is. Lean Startup is one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around a lot, but no one really knows what it means. So, let me tell you what lean startup is, and what it isn't.
What Is Lean Startup?
Lean Startup is a term used to describe a method of product development that emphasizes rapid iteration. This methodology encourages startups to build products that customers actually want rather than building something that sounds good on paper.
The idea behind lean startup is simple: Startups should focus on building a small number of features that solve real problems for real customers. Then iterate quickly based on customer feedback.
Why Should You Use Lean Startup?
There are many reasons why you should use lean startup. Here are just a few:
1. It makes sense from a financial standpoint.