How to Choose a Reliable Local SEO Company For Your SMBs

posted on February 21, 2022

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If your primary target audience is local, you should be familiar with the phrase local SEO. Local SEO, as opposed to traditional SEO, increases your presence in search results within your local audience. Although the functioning of local SEO is similar to that of conventional SEO in that it includes an umbrella of strategies, ranging from content marketing to page speed optimization, to assist your Small and Midsize Business (SMB) to obtain a top place in search results with local intent.

To put it simply, if someone looks for “best salons near me,” the results will be based on a local intent, whereas if someone searches for “Grey denim jacket,” the results will come from any user within five miles or fifty miles.

Local SEO, on the other hand, necessitates a far more complex discipline than one might expect. 

So, if you want to reach the most people in your area, the best solution is to hire professionals who will assist you reach your target audience while you focus on your core business.

How to choose a Reliable Local SEO company?

Given the degree of skill and variety in the SEO sector, selecting the “Right” team of experts might be difficult. With so many SEO professionals to choose from, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

That is why, for the finest reach, you need a competent SEO agency that not only assists you with local SEO but also completely knows your business. We’ve compiled a list of factors that will assist you in selecting a reliable SEO company for your SMBs.

1. Learn About Their Previous Case Studies

While any SEO business attempting to pitch your SMB and promote their services will mention the number of cases and value they provide. They will tell you exactly how they have assisted other businesses in achieving local visibility online and growing their company.

Most SEO firms have their case studies posted on their website. You may head over there and do some research on the past firms they’ve worked with, which will give you a good indication of how well-versed and capable they are for your SMB.

2. Know About Their Local SEO Strategies

Local SEO firms, like any other business in the same industry, employ a number of tactics to reach their target audience. Each firm will approach local SEO in a somewhat different manner depending on the nature of the business and its target market.

Some may only have one customer in each vertical, but others may have multiple customers in each vertical. Various SEO agencies employ a variety of models.

The company you’re thinking about should, on the other hand, have a broad approach to local SEO that includes sectors and markets. Request that your local SEO business explains it to you.

3. Understand Which SEO Tool They Use

There are a variety of SEO tools available to assist SEO experts in their tasks. Discuss the tools used by the firm you’re considering with them, as well as why they use them. You’ll learn about their overall strategy for SEO techniques.

Expect to hear about tools like Moz Local, Yext, Advanced Web Rankings, SEM Rush, and others when it comes to local SEO.

4. Know About the Latest Updates in Local SEO

The greatest approach to know an SEO company’s understanding and how well versed they are in local SEO is to examine their SEO knowledge.

Allow your prospects to demonstrate their experience and know-how by inquiring about the most recent updates to Local SEO.

After all, they are the Local SEO experts and should be able to amaze you with their vast knowledge.

5. Know About the Companies Experience With GMB

Google My Business is the most convenient approach to reach out to your local audience. It is the most effective strategy to boost your local presence and rating. However, the local SEO business you are looking for may or may not have expertise with GMB.

It is a rather simple SEO strategy, so let your SEO professionals explain how they use GMB for local SEO.

6. Ask Them How They Plan to Get Your Business Local Map Pack

The Google local map pack refers to the first three search results that appear on the search page when anything related to an industry or work is combined with a specific area. For example, if a user searches “electricians” and enters a city, the top three businesses in that city display beneath the ad. This boosts the number of people that visit your website.

That is fantastic digital real estate for your local business. Inquire with each of the companies you’re considering how they aim to propel you to the top of the rankings.

7. Understand Their Plan to Give You Organic Search Results.

Your firm should be featured in more than just the local 3-Pack. It should appear in organic search results as well. Organic search results appear right below advertising or the local 3-pack. You want people to find your business even if it isn’t listed in the three-pack.

Inquire with each of your local SEO business competitors about their plans for ranking your site in organic search results.

As a Local SEO marketing agency, they should be able to clearly articulate their methodology and how they intend to use it to your benefit.

8. Ask What They Include in Reports

When evaluating how to select the best SEO agency for your Local SEO requirements, evaluate what the company will provide you in reports.

Local SEO reports are commonly distinguished from national SEO reports, so be certain that they have these aspects.

What you should look for in a good Local SEO report is as follows:

  • Positionings in each region
  • The traffic, conversion rates, and leads or purchases at each location
  • There were reviews created.
  • More details about SEO reporting may be found here.

9. Understand Their Plans and Payment Structure.

Knowing how and where your money is spent is the greatest approach to learning about a firm. You’re investing in a local SEO business in the hopes of seeing a return on your investment. But, before you can calculate the ROI, you must first understand the “I.”

Inquire about the payment arrangement of each firm. Make sure you have a good sense of how much money you’ll need to invest to optimize your site for local visitors.

10. Understand Their Meaning of Success

To achieve organic traffic, placement in the local 3-pack, and other benefits, you must first grasp the SEO agency’s definition of success and how it aligns with you and your SMB’s goals.

The easiest approach to assess it is to give them an open-ended question, such as “how do you define success?”

The responses would fluctuate based on the SEO agency’s competence in the sector and the value they bring. However, This will provide you with a good sense of the company’s intelligence and skill to be recruited as your SEO professional.

Conclusion: Follow These Points for Selecting the Best Local SEO Company

An SEO expert firm should be able to comprehend your particular business and the best technique to provide the proper set of visitors to your website in this high-end and tight competency.

The greatest advice we can provide you to help you select the proper SEO firm is to interview them while keeping the criteria listed above in mind. You should not select any SEO company without first properly knowing their strategy for moving your business ahead. Get several consultations so you can see which provider is offering you the most value for money.

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7 Major Things Ignored While Planning a Business

posted on February 10, 2022

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Planning a business takes a great deal of care and attention to detail. It is easy to skip a few steps or ignore something significant if you rush to get your business going. Any one of these omissions could turn your business into a failure before it has even started. Here are 7 significant things ignored when planning a business that can result in failure.

1. Failing to Do a Business Plan

Unless you write a business plan, you will be unable to assess the viability of your new business, let alone whether or not it would be profitable. There are several components of a good business plan, most of which are mentioned below. A good business plan is the foundation of your business blueprint: your justification for starting the business, how it is to be developed and its ultimate objectives.

If you are constructing a piece of furniture, you need a plan to follow. A list of materials and how they are to be put together is crucial. You will likely use this plan to establish whether or not it is cheaper to buy the piece or make it yourself. The same approach applies to planning a business. You need to define a course of events from concept to completion. You need to evaluate your cost and establish whether or not you need financing. If so, you will have to present your business plan to prospective lenders such as your bank.

2. Ignoring Your Financial Planning

Financial planning is a critical aspect of a business plan. Therefore, you must consider the following:

  1. Raw materials and any employee costs
  2. Profitable selling prices or fees for goods or services
  3. Projected income over specified time periods

– and more. Check over your initial business plan and the cost of each step.

Image courtesy of Pexels

Many people who are starting a new business fail to take financial planning seriously until they circumstances force them to do so. Every new business needs a cash flow projection, particularly if you are looking for financing. You will have to assess your income and expenses. Also, you have to be able to present a projected balance sheet. You must prove that your business is worth investing in, and that you can repay any business loan offered.

3. Ignoring Market Research

Before you do anything else, you must make sure there is a market for your product or service. Many businesses fail because people have ignored market research and end up finding that they have no customers or clients to sell to. You can easily avoid this. Simply carry out some market research – this can often be done online. Market research is a critical aspect of planning a business, no matter what your business is offering.

Check out forums and social media. Ask “what if you had…†and look for responses. Check out Amazon for products similar to yours, and then look at their reviews and questions asked by users. This may give you ideas on how to adapt your products to provide solutions to the issues people are having with existing products.

You could use a Facebook Business Page to present an online questionnaire. Design the questions to find out the potential responses to your new product. Never ask for personal details – just questions that can help you analyze the potential market for your product or service. It is absolutely crucial to ensure that your business has a market and that you have people interested in your type of product.

4. Ignoring the Competition

Choosing to ignore the competition when planning a business is a fatal error. If your competitors are selling the same products or services as you, how do you intend to compete with them? If your business plan and financial analysis say you must sell at $20 and your competition is selling the same at $16, who will they end up buying from? You see why ignoring the competition should be avoided at all cost, right?

Another aspect of the competition is the market saturation of your area. Before even considering starting up a business locally, you must check out who else is offering your product or service in your projected geographical area. Find out who those businesses are, what they charge and whether or not there is any possibility of you competing with them at their price level.

Also, keep in mind customers tend to be faithful. If your competition offers a good and reliable service, why should they switch to you – unless you are undercutting them with the same or better service? You have to offer an excellent reason for them to switch to you.

That could be a price advantage, a better product or a more comprehensive service – or even all of these. You could offer better guarantees or warranties, more design or higher specification or some other reason to persuade them to buy from you. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes: “What would someone have to offer you in order to persuade you to choose another supplier?â€Â

5. Ignoring Online Marketing

Ignoring online marketing when planning a business is a cardinal sin in this electronic age. Many people – in fact, likely most – will look online for what they are seeking. Whether they’re searching for a service or a product, they will check Google Local for businesses that provide them with the desired means.

Many will go straight to Amazon for their product needs! You must get registered on Amazon and get your own Facebook business page. Advertise on Facebook and sell on Amazon. Increasing numbers of people go online to find what they want.

Many people use Amazon and get free delivery in many cases (without paying for Amazon Prime.) They can check out the reviews for their product and make a purchasing decision based on these reviews.

You don’t need to have a website, although that would be beneficial. What will help you is to:

  • Get a Facebook page for your business.
  • Get your products offered for sale on Amazon.
  • Register with other social media such as LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter: Tweet new products or updates to your Twitter followers.
  • Run a blog – there are free blogging applications available for you to use. You can keep in touch with customers and clients by blogging about fresh news, special deals, and other helpful information.

Never underestimate the power of the internet. You can be sure your competition is using it.

6. Ignoring SEO Techniques in Internet Marketing

If you decide to use a website or blog to promote your business, then you need to understand some basic SEO principles. The focus of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) lies on to the improvement of your website design and ensures that your site’s content is listed on Google as well as other search engines. Keywords are essential, but you should not overuse them. When planning or running a business, you should be able to elaborate about your passion for said business and draw your audience in this way.

SEO is necessary, and Google itself will teach you a lot about it. Check out the Google Webmasters Support site to learn more. It is not difficult to follow, but if you feel you need help with SEO, then include some expenditure on it in your business plan.

Here Are Some SEO Techniques That Should Not Be Ignored:

Use of Keywords

Google will use its LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) algorithm to establish the theme of your web content. This tool analyzes the vocabulary used on each web page to decide for itself what that page is about.

However, it would help if you never write for search engines. Write for your readers, and Google will decide itself what you are writing about. Excessive use of keywords gets punished, and in many cases, all you need is about 1% keyword density. If you keep using the same keywords repeatedly, you won’t just annoy Google but also your readers.

Social Media Connects

Never ignore the power of social media. If you don’t have a Facebook business page, then get one. Also, make sure you have a Google+ page. Not only does social media connect with an ever-increasing number of potential clients or customers, but they can also connect with themselves.

People talk about what they see and also Retweet or Share specific posts that interest them. Not only can you use social media to connect with people interested in your product or services, but they can share also that information with others and vice versa: have your content go viral and you will receive a massive amount of free advertising.

Not just that, but make sure you have your website links on your posts and tweets. You may then get links passing all around the web – that is impressive SEO!

These are just two SEO techniques that are used to ensure that your web pages are displayed when potential customers are searching for products or services that you can offer. Never ignore SEO – but use it wisely to make better use of what it can offer.

7. Ignoring Financing

Ignoring financing can end your business before it even begins. You must make sure you have enough money to start. If you need to borrow funds, then your business plan must be good enough to persuade banks that you are a reasonable risk. Only ever get financing from banks or recognized business angels or financiers. High-interest short-term loans can result in you losing everything.

That’s why your business plan should be adequately prepared – even if you have to pay to have it done. Financing is crucial, but never borrow more than you need to get started. Check whether you qualify for any “startup†government business loans. There are of course other ways to acquire financing for a new business: Check here for some more ideas.

When planning a business, it is vital to give yourself the best possible chance of success. Your plan should certainly take into account the reasons why some businesses have failed, but it should also consider why many have succeeded. Avoid failure and follow proven success.

The 7 tips discussed in this article should help you avoid the major factors ignored by those who failed, but they should also point you in the right direction for success.

The post 7 Major Things Ignored While Planning a Business appeared first on SiteProNews.

How to Write the Best Guest Post Manuscript

posted on February 7, 2022

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Guest posting continues to be one of the most popular off-page SEO tactics. Instead of waiting for reputable sites to link to your domain, you take a proactive role by approaching them first. It’s one of the fastest ways to get backlinks and improve your domain authority.

However, getting published in high-traffic and high-authority blogs isn’t that easy. Since they’ll be publishing your posts as content on their own website, all blogs that allow guest posts will screen every application and submission. They’ll want content that fits their blog, audience, and content strategy.

So, if you want to be a guest author, you’d need to prove your skills, experience, and credibility. One way to do so is to write an excellent manuscript.

Why You Need a Great Manuscript

It’s important to note that not all guest posting sites accept upfront manuscripts. High-ranking sites like to ensure they get high-quality content by prioritizing a guest author’s CV. Therefore, they usually won’t accept manuscripts until you’ve given them a list of previous guest posts, your experience, and your achievements.

Luckily, not every guest posting site does this. Many blogs welcome finished manuscripts and publish them based on the quality of the writing alone.

That said, although your experience and credibility are important factors, the real crux of getting a guest post published is the quality of the manuscript. Editors will always reject poorly-written manuscripts, even if they’re from a pre-approved guest poster.

Tips on Writing the Best Guest Post

Basic writing skill isn’t the only factor in getting a manuscript published. Most blogs and publications that welcome guest posts likely already have an impressive backlog of content. So, your manuscript needs to be high-quality and unique on all fronts.

Here are a few tips to help you brainstorm and write the perfect manuscript:

1. Look for Content Gaps

High-authority blogs know and follow basic content marketing and SEO guidelines. This means they’re not going to keep publishing similar content and repeat main keywords. Doing so might cause keyword cannibalization or affect their domain authority. Audiences also don’t appreciate repetitive content, so topics that have already been done before will likely be rejected.

So, while you brainstorm possible topic ideas, be sure to check if they’ve already been covered. As most blogs require anywhere from 500 to 2000 words per manuscript, avoiding topics that are sure to get rejected will save you a lot of time.

2. Read the Guidelines

Most websites that accept guest posts will have a “Write For Us” or “Guest Blogging” page. This is where they’ll post information about guest post submissions and other requirements.

For blogs that welcome upfront manuscripts, they’re going to have an exhaustive list of what they want from aspiring guest writers. These guidelines could include:

  • Accepted topics
  • Minimum and maximum word requirements
  • Desired writing tone and style
  • Accepted document formats (i.e., Docx, Google docs, ODT, etc.)
  • Required information (i.e., author’s experience, links to previous guest posts, company links, etc.)
  • Required attachments (i.e., author’s headshot, images, etc.)

Some editors will even leave special conditions like “include the word “firetruck” somewhere in the email” and won’t entertain your pitch when you don’t follow it. Special requirements like these are to make sure you read the guidelines before submitting your manuscript.

The whole point of guest post guidelines is to make sure the editors are getting submissions that are fit for their blog. They’re looking for guest posts that match their content and SEO strategy. Since different companies have different strategies, you need to make sure you’re writing specifically for the blog you want to get published on.

For example, a tech blog isn’t going to publish a blog from a gardening business because it’s irrelevant to its content and keywords. Likewise, blogs that regularly post 4000-word articles won’t accept anything shorter than that.

3. Write for the Host’s Audience

Different blogs cater to different audiences. Some audiences appreciate a laid-back and digestible tone, while others prefer a more authoritative and knowledgeable style. Some audiences are more knowledgeable than others, so the desired wording, vocabulary, and topics will differ from blog to blog.

More importantly, editors will always cater to their audience, not yours.

For example, if you’re dealing with an audience of marketers, SEO experts, and industry authorities, your content needs to match their level of knowledge. In this case, “How To Do Keyword Research” or similar beginner-level topics will not fit the audience’s need.

Similarly, if you’re writing for a blog that caters to small business owners, SEO newbies, and fledgling marketers, submitting a manuscript with niche slang and expert-level marketing concepts will be too much for the audience’s level of expertise.

4. Proofread Your Manuscripts

The secret to getting a guest post published quickly is to make sure the editors have as little work to do as possible. For popular guest posting sites, their editors might be getting hundreds of manuscripts a week, so they’ll immediately ignore anything irrelevant or poorly written.

Additionally, you also need to check for plagiarism. Even when you didn’t intend to use the exact same words as someone else, search engines will still take high-plagiarism ratings as an unfavorable SEO signal. Editors will check for this, too, so make sure you’ve run your manuscript through plagiarism checkers before submitting them.

That being said, don’t rush your writing process. You need to put in enough time to research, write, and look for spelling and grammatical errors. Remember, if the editors are already getting a lot of submissions, rejecting a few poorly-written manuscripts isn’t going to affect them.

Bottom-Line

Guest posting isn’t just about your knowledge or writing skill. You also need to consider the blog you want to get published on, their previous content, and their audience. The general theme is that guest post manuscripts should cater to the accepting blog; otherwise, they will get rejected.

So, before you even brainstorm topic ideas and do research, make sure you know who you’re writing for.

The post How to Write the Best Guest Post Manuscript appeared first on SiteProNews.

How to Level Up Your SEO Strategy with Keyword Clusters

posted on January 28, 2022

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Did you know that you can get so much more out of your SEO strategy with simple tweaks, like paying more attention to the way you organize your keywords?

Since the BERT update, Google started getting gradually better at understanding natural language. In other words, it got better at understanding how humans speak.

This means that search engines can now understand synonyms better. And they understand what falls into a broader topic. This is where keyword clusters come into play.

What Are Keyword Clusters?

As the name suggests, keyword clusters are groups of keywords that speak to the same topic and, more importantly, to the same search intent.
For example, “rustic decorations†and “farmhouse decorations†or “rustic home décor ideas†are different keywords but someone looking to change the look of their home might search for any of these phrases.

Why Should You Bother with Keyword Clusters?

A good question! Should you add all the keywords in a cluster to a single piece of content or spread them out on several pages? Modern SEO says to go with the former.

Here’s why:

  • Keyword clusters help search engines make connections between your pages easier.
  • Looking at the example above: if your page only ranks for “rustic decorationsâ€Â, you will be missing out on a good share of searches.
  • Having one page rank for multiple terms in the same clusters consolidates your first spots and can bring you up to 10 times the amount of traffic a single keyword would.
  • Search engines (Google, most notably) reward holistic content, that’s in-depth and covers everything about a topic. I’m talking about the type of content that doesn’t prompt the reader to go back to search results looking to complete the information you offered. Keyword clustering helps your content go in-depth.
  • It’s easier to write: when you use similar terms, your content sounds more natural. It’s easier and more appealing to read.

Topic clusters are a good way to get the best of both worlds: you can have different blog posts for different topics. Then, you can group them on a single pillar page with a neat table of contents and create a mega-guide. Each sub-topic will link to the pillar page, so when one subtopic ranks well, it will lend its “SEO juices†to everyone in the cluster.

Let’s see keyword clusters in action.

How to Build Effective Keyword Clusters

Before you say clusters may limit the keyword opportunities out there, hear me out. You can build keyword clusters around almost any long-tail keyword you’ve identified.

So, to begin with, identify a profitable keyword that matches users’ search intent and your business goals. Let’s say I want to sell SEO courses and, to begin with, I need to establish my expertise and attract SEO newbies. I would begin with “what is SEO?†as my seed keyword.

The cluster may look like this: what is SEO? -> introduction to SEO -> the basics of SEO -> what is SEO and how does it work?

And so on. You got the point.

This is definitely not the only keyword cluster I can create for SEO beginners. Here’s another example: SEO tips and tricks -> SEO best practices -> on-page SEO tips -> off-page SEO tips.

How can you come up with the keywords in your cluster?

Start with a good old Google search. In the “related section†or “people also ask†boxes you’ll find suggestions you can add to your cluster. You can also use Google Ads for this or your favorite paid SEO research tool.

Once your tool of choice comes up with suggested keywords, find the ones that bear some similarities:

  • They have a similar search volume.
  • They have a similar ranking difficulty.
  • They can be grouped around the same search intent.

All these factors are equally important. If you miss the semantic relevance, your topic cluster will not make sense. If you optimize for keywords with widely different difficulty or search volume, you risk some of them not ranking at all.

For example, if I want to create a topic cluster for a company searching for social media marketing tools, I get these suggestions from Google and from my Keyword Surfer plugin:

See all those keywords with a volume of 3600? They can all go into this cluster. But I would definitely skip “social media management†or “best branding tools†– these are great starters for other topic clusters.

Wrapping Things Up

Google and other search engines have spent years (and billions of dollars) getting their solutions to “speak humanâ€Â. And they’re just getting started. This is what the future of SEO looks like – semantic relevance and search intent all wrapped into a nice blanket of high quality content.

Topic and keyword clusters are strategies that keep on giving because you can easily add to them. Spotted a new keyword that works for one of your best pillar pages? Create a blog post around it and add it to the page. It will rank much faster (and better!) than anything your competitors may write from scratch and betting only on that single keyword.

The post How to Level Up Your SEO Strategy with Keyword Clusters appeared first on SiteProNews.

A Beginner’s Guide to Ranking High on Google Using SEO

posted on January 27, 2022

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Ranking at the top of Google’s first search results page is the ultimate goal for all businesses today. As research by Backlinko indicates, the #1 result on Google accumulates nearly 31.7% CTR, while the second pages generally tend to receive 0.78% of clicks.

Whether you own a thriving online business, work as a digital marketing manager for someone else, or are an SEO specialist at an agency, you’ll have to manage, monetize and promote online content through Google.

Search engine optimization may look like small modifications to a website. However, the combined impact of these minor changes on your website’s performance and user experience is massive.

The secret behind creating a high-ranking website resides in your ability to satisfy the users by offering them an above-par experience on your platform. One of these users is a search engine, which helps you reach other users with your website. Let’s look at some effective ways you can improve your Google ranking.

1. Understand the Google Algorithm

Whether it’s John Mueller or Gary Illyes, every successful Google executive states that Google frequently changes its algorithm and a majority of these changes are not announced publically. According to Moz, there are about 500-600 Google algorithm changes every year.

The primary purpose behind keeping these changes is to prevent black hat SEO strategies and shortcuts to maintain the authenticity of websites.

However, some notable algorithm updates you may want to know include page experience updates, core updates (related to the content quality), and mobile-first updates.

You can keep yourself updated with these changes by regularly keeping a check on Google Webmaster Central.

2. Strategize your Work

Image courtesy of Pexels

Targeting a single keyword across different pages of your website is certainly a bad idea! Instead, you need to rank for a maximum number of keywords, with the same amount of work and effort.

This is only possible if you come up with smart strategies. Start with keyword research and carefully choose your target keywords. Your targeted keywords directly impact your probability of success.

Here are a few important things to consider while selecting keywords:

  • Choose the keywords specific to your particular domain only
  • Choose less competitive keywords
  • Make sure that your chosen keywords offer sufficient traffic
  • Make sure your chosen keywords are relevant to your business
  • Target multiple keywords simultaneously

People tend to search for the same things in a billion ways. Look for a keyword seed and then search a list of keywords that represent the same theme.

3. Discover a Seed Keyword

To grow your keyword theme, try to identify your seed keyword. Seed keywords are basically the most obvious keywords relevant to your topic.

If, for instance, you sell handmade jewelry, your seed keyword can be “buy handmade jewelry.â€Â

To come up with good keyword seeds, you need to do some research and then brainstorm different ideas based on your services, business objectives, targeted audience, and keywords you want to rank for the ads you’re planning to purchase.

4. Turn Your Keyword Seed Into a Keyword Theme

Once you finalize your seed keyword, grow it into a theme by listing out all the related keywords. This approach will help you expand your opportunities and rank for multiple keywords at the same time.

Long-tail keywords can be a major help in this regard. The number of long-tail keywords used on a website is typically directly proportional to the amount of traffic directed to it by the search engines. You can use several paid or free keyword research tools like Semrush.

However, at this stage, you need to be mindful of your business goals and hence, keyword specificity. Make sure they’re not out of context or irrelevant to your industry.

5. Create Value

Image courtesy of Unsplash

Your website content gives you an edge over your competitors; make sure it’s spectacular, relevant, and well-researched. Before you share any blog piece, infographic, or any other report on your website, make sure that it offers something more to your recipients than they’re already getting from other content, raking on the same keywords you’re using.

Google provides guidelines and some clues regarding its content evaluation strategy. Try to comprehend it and create your content accordingly.

By creating the best content on the internet, you can establish your business as a trusted brand, build more links, increase user engagement and protect your website from uninformed algorithmic changes.

So, Are You Ready to Take the Plunge?

If you’re here, chances are, you’ve already started taking your Google ranking seriously, and congratulations, that was your first step towards improving your rank.

Don’t worry if all the SEO technicalities make you feel overwhelmed, you’re not alone.

If you’re looking for reliable SEO optimization services for small businesses, feel free to check out Search Berg, an established platform offering content writing, lead generation, paid marketing services, and premium SEO packages for small businesses to their clients at affordable rates.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Ranking High on Google Using SEO appeared first on SiteProNews.

4 Ways to Use Google Trends to Take Your SEO Content to the Next Level

posted on January 17, 2022

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Google Trends is one of those platforms that is often ignored by SEO content writers. And it’s a shame.

First of all, it’s a completely free platform. More importantly, it’s the place where you’ll find data based on actual search volumes.

Paid SEO tools usually offer estimates extrapolated from various data providers. I’m not saying that they are useless – not at all! They offer more than search volume data, so paid tools are always a good thing to have in your SEO arsenal.

But if you want more data (and more accurate data) try pairing the information from your paid SEO tool of choice with a few Google Trends queries.

Not sure where to begin? Here’s how we use Google Trends in my SEO content writing agency:

1. Find Out How Your Keyword or Main Topic Is Going to Fare in the Future

SEO is a game for the long term. Unless you’re optimizing for time-sensitive content (like a new app release or a piece of news), you’re going to want to have your article rank high for years to come. But search volume matters here too.

So find out if what you’re going to write about will be of interest in the future. For instance, since I work in SEO, I might be interested in my own industry’s outlook:

In the last year, there has been a growing interest in this term. While SEO is not a new concept by any means, it’s good to know that it can still spark interest. Even more interesting, you can see how SEO fares against a known “competing†industry, like PPC ads:

2. Compare Keywords or Interest in Topics

When working on new topics for my agency’s blog, my team and I often have to decide if we should add SEO to the mix or stick to content writing or copywriting in general. Google Trends can shed some light on what our audience is more interested in.

This 5-year overview clearly tells me that there is more interest in content writing than SEO content writing:

Now you might say that the choice is obvious. But bear in mind, search volume isn’t everything. If keywords related to SEO content writing have more business value, then I can definitely live with less, but more meaningful traffic. What matters here is that the interest in both seems to be constant.

This is why it’s important to constantly check with Google Trends. As marketers, we need to know if the products or services we are selling are beginning to lose traction. Remember DVDs? Fewer and fewer people do:

This is how the demise of a product looks like. And Google Trends can make you aware of it before it’s too late.

3. Find Related Topics and Related Terms

Yes, you can do that in plain, old Google search too. But Google Trends adds data to this information. You can see which search terms are more popular and which other topics are usually associated with yours.

This can help you plan your SEO strategy for the long run, as well as your current piece of content. The related queries section can be an SEO writer’s goldmine if used properly. For example, you can turn all the related queries into subtitles and thus increase your chances of ranking higher for a wide range of keywords.

More importantly, the results marked with “Breakout†have recently had a huge increase in search frequency, usually due to them being new topics or due to recent changes in the industry. This is another opportunity you shouldn’t miss out on.

4. Learn Where to Focus Your Promotional Efforts

Content writing is very popular in a few states:

In other states, people seem to have almost no interest in the topic. If I were to promote my articles about content writing on social media, for example, why waste money on audiences who have no interest in what I’m trying to sell?

But even if you don’t plan to use paid ads to promote what you write, you can use this information to refine your articles. Let’s say you have an article that already ranks well on a topic that’s popular in Kansas, like mine is. You can add a few references to the state or a few elements of local pop culture to appeal to your Kansas audience even more.

Final Thoughts

Google Trends is a great way to get started on your topic and keyword research. In fact, with a bit of experience with the platform and within your industry, you may not need any other tool to help you put together an SEO plan.

Try it out!

Need help with that plan or with implementing it in articles that rank high and convert readers into leads? Talk to my team of expert SEO content writers, we can help!

The post 4 Ways to Use Google Trends to Take Your SEO Content to the Next Level appeared first on SiteProNews.

Improve the Quality of your Leads with Landing Page Optimization

posted on January 17, 2022

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You write compelling copy, research keywords, perform A/B testing, invest in paid campaigns, tweak page design, offer free materials and special discounts – all in the hope of transforming your website visitors into qualified leads.

However, about 70% to 90% of the time, visitors don’t appreciate your efforts, as that is the average landing page bounce rate, i.e., the percentage of visitors who loaded a page but didn’t click on anything.

To minimize your website’s landing page bounce rate and maximize leads, you’ll need to resort to landing page optimization.

What is Landing Page Optimization?

Optimizing a landing page means tweaking elements of a web page (design, copy, CTA and more) to create an overall better page performance and user experience and thus engage and inform visitors well enough to encourage them to perform the desired action.

Besides ensuring the maximum possible conversions from visitors who arrive on these pages, landing page optimization is also essential behind the scenes.

If you run a paid campaign via Google Ads or social platforms, optimizing your landing page will improve its quality and relevance and thus lower your ad’s price per click.

In case you aim to improve your organic traffic, optimizing your landing page for faster loading and targeted keywords will boost its search results rankings.

Now that we’ve covered its benefits, we’ve talked with the optimization experts from a custom web design company to share their steps for successful and effective landing page optimization.

1. Focus Your Landing Page on a Single Action

Both website visitors and Google’s ranking algorithm appreciate landing on a page that unambiguously expresses its intention.

Conversely, a landing page that presents a product, offers its free trial, calls for newsletter subscription, and invites you to apply for a webinar is so all over the place that it’s bound to fail.

On such a disorganized landing page, users won’t know what they’re expected to do, and Google won’t understand what keywords the page tries to rank for.

To optimize your landing page for conversion, opt for a single target action and create content, visuals and CTAs that reinforce the key message.

Within the landing page copy, try to use bullet points to hone in on key aspects of your offer and make information easier to digest.

2. Improve Page Speed

Recent research suggests two seconds as the new threshold for an online shopper’s expectation for a page to load. Moreover, nearly half of the questioned users won’t wait more than three seconds before abandoning a website.

Besides customer expectations, page load time is a major Google ranking factor. Good page speed benefits your organic rankings, as well as your site’s quality for paid campaigns.

3. Straightforward Contact Forms

Think of your website’s contact forms as an extra step in your lead generation funnel. Prospects that take the time to contact you are genuinely interested in your offer and thus more likely to convert.

Lengthy, inquisitive contact forms may dishearten potential customers, so make sure to ask only for the minimum information you require to establish effective communication with prospects.

Nudge your website visitors further into contacting you by enabling the autofill feature that auto-populates the contact form with users’ personal info.

4. Optimize Your CTAs

Tell your users what you wish them to do by using unambiguous CTAs.

Make the buttons stand out from the rest of the page using contrasting colors to those used on the website. Be concise, clear, and straightforward, and avoid fancy or complex words in the button text. Optimizing your call to actions is an essential step in improving the quality of your leads, and it’s no wonder all creative digital agencies recommend this as one of the major things that you need to focus on.

Image courtesy of Unsplash

5. Provide Social Proof

A study conducted in 2021 suggests that over 50% of consumers read online reviews before purchasing a product. Your potential leads will be looking for social proof of your brand, so why not provide it yourself?

Adding testimonials or reviews to your landing page can help establish trust with new potential customers. Of course, publishing genuine reviews from real previous customers goes without saying. If this step sounds too complicated, you can always find a top branding agency that can help you out.

6. Offer a Free Trial

With abundant options out there, it’s only natural your prospects will have a hard time deciding whom to put their trust in. Asking potential customers to marry into your family will prove challenging if you don’t take them out on a date.

Allow your prospects to experience your brand by providing them with a free software trial, demo product version, or any other short-term, mutually beneficial agreement.

7. Perform Regular A/B Testing

Understanding what works and what doesn’t is the key to landing page optimization.

For successful A/B testing, remember to alter a single page element at a time to determine what actually delivers better results. Test headlines, CTA buttons, page copy, etc., and integrate the best-performing ones into your landing page design.

The post Improve the Quality of your Leads with Landing Page Optimization appeared first on SiteProNews.

All the Latest SEO Changes in 2021

posted on December 27, 2021

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The SEO industry is highly unpredictable. It makes it harder for marketing strategists and professional writing services to rank their content. The algorithms and trends keep changing. And before we know it, there’s a new set of rules ready to dominate the online world in a mere few months.

Similarly, 2021 was also ready for the SEO changes like every year before it. In this post, you will learn about new trends and find some old ones still standing in the SEO game. If you are ready to make your mark this year, check out these SEO changes to improve your content.

2021 SEO Trends for Professional Writing Service

It does not matter whether you are an online marketer interested in improving your inbound marketing strategy or a person just starting a new website. SEO guidelines do not prioritize one over another. The set rules are the same for everyone who is interested in ranking high in search results.

Take a closer look at the most significant SEO changes made for 2021 that will help you improve your search engine rankings!

Multitask United Model (MUM) for SEO Rankings

MUM is the latest Natural Language Processing (NLP) model created by Google, 1000 times faster than BERT. Now that says a lot about how crucial SEO is for this global company!

When Prabhakar Raghavan introduced MUM to the world at Google I/O 2021, he said that the model was capable of analyzing online content like images, text, and videos in 75 different languages. This is supposed to be ideal for complex search queries.

He further mentioned that MUM can understand languages, generate them, and train across 75 languages simultaneously. MUM is still in the testing phase, but Google will soon be letting it out of the lab for all users like professional writing service providers, video content creators, etc.

Core Web Vitals for Measuring User Experience

The SEO trend prioritizes page speed over any other website factor in 2021. Core Web Vitals are three SEO metrics that measure user experience about loading, visual stability, and interactivity.

Loading: How fast can the page load?

Visual Stability: How stable is the page while loading?

Interactivity: How long does it take to get interactive?

If you are looking to improve your inbound marketing strategy by content development, you can use the Core Web Vitals to your advantage. If a new user finds your website but does not stay, it won’t be good for the ranking. So, invest in user experience as it is directly proportional to SEO success.

Passage Indexing for Long-form Content

If you have written long-form content before but failed to get ranked on the greatest search engine, then, this SEO trend will be your new best friend!

For many professional writing service providers and bloggers, it was tough to spend hours finding the right keywords and writing thousands of words per blog post. Yet, the result was no ranking.

However, passage indexing will change the old methods of web crawling and improve SEO ranking. Google has introduced this NLP feature that will index web pages and analyze the meaning of each passage. It will help long-form content creators to get ranked on Google. based on specific sections of their posts.

More Keyword Research…Again

While those interested in inbound marketing strategy and optimization are working hard to rank on Google, the search engine keeps updating its methods to answer queries.

With Featured Snippets, related questions with answers, and Google’s business listings – people do not need to click on a link to get what they were looking for.

This is why keyword research is becoming increasingly important as SEO practices advance. To improve your search ranking, you can target long-tail keywords and write specific articles/blogs about topics.

SERPs are the best place to find the keywords that you want to try. Invest more time in searching for the keyword than any other SEO practice. It will benefit your website or business in the long run.

Voice Search: The New Game Changer

Smartphones are becoming smarter, and people are trying out new features to improve their tech experiences. Similarly, voice search is becoming a trend on its own for SEO optimization.

Let’s say, you provide a professional writing service to clients who want to target voice search queries. You’ll have to search for long-tail keywords that are very focused. Keyword research depends on your target audience and the topic. Therefore, voice search queries will be more specific and to the point.

Still, voice search optimization is new, so you can take your time learning as an SEO content creator.

Original Content is Still Relevant

Despite all the changes to SEO practices in 2021, this one hasn’t changed. No method is better than writing original content to reach a good SEO ranking.

If you want to create a killer inbound marketing strategy to increase sales or bring in new customers, original content is the best way to do it. If you want to promote an old business online, authentic content is the way to go.

Google will look for keywords and page speeds, etc., to rank a web page, but if the content is bad, it’s going to disregard it anyway. Their AI web crawlers are more efficient now as they understand language and interpret it better than they did before.

Wrapping It Up

Although there are many more SEO changes in 2021 that are equally effective, the six mentioned in this article are the core features. They will help you prepare better content for search engine ranking. Let’s recap them!

The first one was the newest NLP model from Google to improve search results. This can help you search audiences of different languages and prepare more global content.

The second one was Core Web Vitals metrics to improve user experience through page speed. Ultimately, happy visitors return.

The third one is an improved Google feature for ranking long-form content. So, if you want to write valuable pieces, instead of keyword-stuffed articles, this feature will be helpful.

The fourth and fifth are for keyword research, one for text and another for voice search. SEO writing is incomplete without keywords, but finding the right keywords for the right audience is crucial!

The last one is the ultimate feature that will help you rank on search engines. With the help of the other five, you can write great content prices with original and new information for your audience.

The post All the Latest SEO Changes in 2021 appeared first on SiteProNews.

SEO 101: Where Exactly Should You Place Your Keywords in Your Content?

posted on December 8, 2021

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Google handles an average of 6.9 billion searches per day. Every. Single. Day. Before the pandemic, the number was closer to 3 billion, but with most of us spending so much time indoors we’re pretty much googling everything now.

Do note that this is just one search engine. Granted, it’s the biggest one but it still doesn’t account for all the searches in the world.

When people spend more time online, SEO becomes more important…again. With a looming crisis on the horizon, you want every competitive advantage you can get while the getting’s good.

If you’re a regular on SiteProNews, you know I’ve written a lot about SEO intent and choosing the right keywords, so I won’t rehash this. Today, I’d like to talk about something seemingly basic because as it usually happens with basic things, it often gets overlooked.

So, you’ve found the right focus keyword. Now all you have to do is make it shine. Where do you place it for a maximum impact?

Here’s the roadmap my agency uses to get our clients’ content on the first page of Google:

1. The URL

Adding your focus keyword in the URL is probably the first item on the list of overlooked things. If you use WordPress, for instance, you’ll see that the editor automatically creates an URL for you.

Don’t assume that the machine is smarter than you. Double-check it and make sure it has the entire keyword in it, especially if you’re using a long-tail keyword (which I highly recommend).

Having your focus keyword in the URL tells both Google bots and human readers that they’ve landed in the right place for that topic. You’d be surprised at how many human readers analyze the URL before clicking on it.

2. The Title of the Article

Not everyone reads the URL. But everyone reads the title, so this is a key placement for your keyword. If possible, try to use an exact match of your keyword.

However, don’t sacrifice readability or a punchy, sexy title just to fit in an extra-long keyword. You’ll have plenty of other opportunities to use it.

3. The Meta Description

Ideally, start your meta description with your focus keyword. The more prominent its spot is, the more clear it makes the topic of your content. Again, this works wonders for both human readers and search engine bots.

This is what one of our high-ranking articles looks like in SERPs:

The keyword (in bold) is at the very beginning, promising users an in-depth look at exactly what they were looking for. This is one of the factors that attracted a lot of readers to our article and even a lot of new leads that easily converted into clients.

4. The First 100-200 Words of Text

Yes, we’re still in the realm of making things clear as soon as possible. Try adding your focus keyword in the very first paragraph or at least before you hit 200 words.

Not possible? Add a close variation of your keyword.

5. The Last 100-200 Words of Text

Finish strong. Add the keyword in your last paragraph, as close to the end as possible.

For extra points, add it to your final CTA too, but make sure it’s not part of the anchor of a link that leads to another page.

6. The Alt Tags of Images

The relevance of keywords in image alt tags has been quite a controversy in the SEO world. From my experience, it never hurts. At the very least, it will take your image higher in SERPs, if not the entire article.

Additionally, fill in all the fields in the image description. Don’t repeat the same keyword. Add variations of it instead or LSI keywords.

7. Headings and Subheadings

For legibility purposes, your content should always have subheadings, especially if it’s over 300 words long. And these subheadings should have the focus keyword in them.

If you use more than one type of subheading (H2, H3, H4) add your keyword in at least one of each. Again, don’t overdo it – the keyword shouldn’t be everywhere.

8. Throughout the Text

Sprinkle your entire text with your focus keyword. But (and this is very important!) don’t overdo it. Gone are the days when a 5% keyword density was acceptable. Stick to less than 2%, ideally less than 1%.

This is more than enough if you use it in all the other places mentioned above and if you also use variations of it and LSI keywords.

Final Thoughts

As always, my recommendation is to aim for balance and, most of all, readability. If you feel like your keyword doesn’t sound natural in any of these places, ditch it without remorse. Never sacrifice readability and a good flow for SEO purposes. Readers hate it and, ironically enough, so do search engines.

Need help with striking this balance AND ranking high in SERPs? My team of expert SEO writers and I are just a click away. Let’s talk!

The post SEO 101: Where Exactly Should You Place Your Keywords in Your Content? appeared first on SiteProNews.

7 Essential SEO Tips for Beginners to Boost Traffic

posted on November 29, 2021

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Even if you’re not in a technical position, you’ve likely heard of search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization is a powerful tool that drives business in all industries, no matter if you own a small business or are a Fortune 500 executive. You can optimize your pages to appear higher in search engine results by producing high-quality content.

Your website’s rank for the correct search queries will determine how much traffic you can drive to it. After all, many internet users — a whopping 75% — tend not to look past the first page of search results. SEO is a must-have part of any digital marketing strategy to grow your company. With so many people using the internet to search for what they need, it’s impossible to ignore SEO.

In our recent State of Content Marketing Report, 67% of content marketing professionals surveyed indicated that improving SEO performance is a top priority for their company. Another 73% stated that they use their SEO skills and tools frequently to improve content marketing results. To remain competitive, it is important to learn how to improve your search engine rankings.

Do you feel lost? Continue reading to learn SEO tips and search engine optimization strategies that even novices can use in their work. These non-technical SEO tips will help you see quick results.

1. Create Content Around Primary and Secondary Keywords

Keyword research is the heart of any SEO strategy. Keyword research is the key to creating great content. Searchers will find your site by knowing how to use both primary and second keywords.

Your landing page should have your primary keyword as its main focus. The page should contain a strong description and possibly connect to your brand. These keywords should be the main focus of your content.

Secondary keywords are words that support the primary keyword and can be included in your content in a natural way to improve your search ranking.

Start your keyword research by identifying long-tail keywords that are relevant to your audience. Say you run a DIY home improvement blog. Using our Keyword Overview Tool, you can start by searching for “DIY home improvement” as your target keyword and then expand to include more keywords from there. You’ll see the search volume and difficulty of ranking for your primary keyword in your area, along with related terms that you might be interested in.

2. Use Short, Descriptive URLs

There are also some not-too-technical ways you can optimize your SEO efforts when it comes to on-page SEO. For those just beginning in SEO, it is easy to improve your SEO rankings by structuring your URLs.

A URL that is effective should:

  • Use keywords: Your URL should contain one or more keywords that you are targeting.
  • Be easy to understand It should be easy to read and cater to the human eye.
  • Be concise Using shorter URLs is preferable. Keep them under 60 characters. Search engines won’t accept URLs longer than 60 characters, which could cause you to be pushed further down the results pages.

3. High Authority Websites Have High Quality Backlinks

Link building is an important component of any SEO strategy. It’s also relatively simple to begin. Backlinks are an important ranking factor. They come in two types: nofollow and follow, with the latter having more ranking weight.

Backlinking refers to the linking of other websites to your website as a source for information. These links are a sign to search engines that you are an authority on a topic and should be pulled up in the rankings. Higher rankings in online searches will be achieved if your website has more quality links.

Bloggers, journalists, and other companies will recognize you as an expert in your field, and may link to your content. However, this doesn’t always happen instantly. You may have to do some research before you start.

You have many options to create links to your site. Here are some strategies to consider:

  • If you have something to share or an interesting infographic, consider writing a guest blog post for other outlets.
  • Reach out to publishers for any data or research you have done to support your site content.
  • Look for directories and listings in your industry and get your company listed. It may mean joining professional associations, networking groups or business organizations. However, it increases your credibility.

How do you determine where to get backlinks? Use our Backlink Gap Tool to compare the backlinks for your site with four competing URLs. This will allow you to compare which websites link to your site more than your competitor, and vice versa. To help you target high authority sites with your initial link building efforts, you can organize the list by authority score.

4. Try to Rank for Featured Snippets

Google’s Featured Snippets are a highly desired spot that digital marketers want to reach when it comes search engine result pages (SERPs). Featured Snippets are at the top of Google search results, and they have a high chance of attracting lots of organic traffic. Optimizing your content is key to achieving this position.

First, decide what content you would like to be a featured snippet. Choose something that will make internet users click on the link. You should also carefully examine the keywords in Featured Snippets. Studies show that a piece of content that asks a question is more likely to have a Featured Snippet.

5. Format Your Content for Search Engines

While the words you choose are important, how you present your content is equally important. You want your content to be clear, concise, understandable, and easy to read. However, search engines will also require that you adapt your formatting. To improve your organic search ranking, you will want to use headings and subheadings in your content.

It is important to know how to organize your paragraphs and sentences. A sentence should not exceed 20 words. You shouldn’t have more than 20 words per sentence, but you don’t want your paragraphs to be too long either.

6. Do Not Forget Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

Keywords have a significant impact on the content you create, but did you also know that they should be included in page titles as well as meta descriptions? These two elements are basic HTML components that can help you optimize your page and pack a punch. They’re also easy to edit for beginners.

Most platforms offer an easy way for you to modify your page title or meta description. WordPress offers two boxes, “SEO title” or “meta description”, that can be edited.

These items will show up in search results. These short sections could be enough to convince an internet user to click on your site. This is a lot of power in so few words. Make sure your words are powerful.

7. Take Out Anything That Loads Slowly

Did you know that page load times can impact your SEO? Higher bounce rates are common for pages that take longer to load. 

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free SEO tool to check the speed of your site. You can add your URL to get a range from zero to 100 with 100 being fastest. You can also compare the speed of your mobile website to your desktop site.

Do yourself a favor. Take a look at your website. Do you have any plugins or elements that slow down your website’s load times? You’ll see an increase in traffic if you remove or restructure them.

The post 7 Essential SEO Tips for Beginners to Boost Traffic appeared first on SiteProNews.

What are LSI Keywords and how do They Impact SEO?

posted on November 15, 2021

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Suppose you are at a construction site.

You see the site engineer using a measuring tape to find out the length of a wall. A little later, he tells his colleague to note down 30 feet.

Using your senses, you quickly understand that ‘feet’ here refers to the unit of measurement and not the human body part.

But, search engines are not capable of this.

They don’t have sensory organs to help them differentiate between the feet used to measure and the feet used to stand.

So, LSI keywords come into the picture.

What Are LSI Keywords?

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing.

It was developed in the late 1980s to extract precise information from large data sets. However, over the years, it has improved tremendously.

Almost ALL search engines use it to understand the content on web pages and rank them better. (Even if they say there’s no such thing as LSI keywords!)

LSI keywords are simply terms or phrases related to the main keyword on a web page.

They are semantically (contextually) related to each other in one or more of the following ways:

  • Synonymy (Similar): Pipe and tube, rich and wealthy, rise and ascend, etc.
  • Antonymy (Opposite): Cold and hot, summer and winter, top and bottom, etc.
  • Hyponymy (Subordinate): Tree and plant, man and child, puppy and dog, etc.
  • Meronymy (Part): Cheese and pizza, ship and fleet, flower and bouquet, etc.
  • Troponymy (Manner): March and walk, whisper and speak, nibble and eat, etc.
  • Entailment (Consequence): Drive and ride, assassinated and dead, competition and winner, etc.
  • Derivations (Forms): Magnetic and magnetism, gynecology and gynecologist, simple and simply, etc.

Thus, relationships exist between the keywords, and search engines use them to understand a web page’s content better.

How Do LSI Keywords Impact SEO?

LSI keywords bring out the context and define the main topic of the page.

Let’s say you have created a web page about a bat and written a good 1500 words about it.

But, a bat can either be a small animal that flies and hunts at night or wooden playing equipment used to hit the ball.

How would the search engine gauge it?

They will look for different LSI keywords in your content.

  • Words like cricket, match, player, batsman, bowler, pitch, field, ground, score, etc., will help them know that it’s about the playing equipment (bat).
  • Words like wings, flying, nocturnal, darkness, echo, food, habitat, mammal, etc., will tell them that it’s about the animal (bat).

Once they understand the main topic of your web page, they will rank it for relevant search results.

LSI keywords impact SEO by helping your page rank for:

  • Relevant Search Queries: If it is about a cricket bat, it should not appear in searches for the animal bat.
  • Related Search Queries: If it is about a cricket bat, it can also appear in searches for cricket equipment.

Thus, they increase your ranking potential and enhance your site’s SEO.

How to Find LSI Keywords for Your Content?

When you have expertise and knowledge about a topic, you will unknowingly include semantically related keywords in your content.

But, to be on the safer side, you must perform exhaustive LSI keyword research before you start writing.

There are 3 ways in which you can find related words and phrases for your content:

1. Autocomplete Feature

While typing a search query, you must have noticed that the search engines try to guess it.

It looks something like this on Google and is known as the Autocomplete Feature:

You’ll also find it on other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Duck Duck Go.

They all highlight the words they are adding to your search query for a quick selection.

But, if you take a moment to analyze them, you can get many LSI keyword ideas.

For example, your main topic is chatbots.

When you type chatbots in the search box on Google, you get a lot of autocomplete suggestions.

Looking at them, you can find LSI keywords like ‘artificial intelligence‘ and ‘user interface‘.

Next, if you use autocomplete feature of other search engines, you can get even more suggestions.

2. Searches Related To

All search engines display searches related to your query at the end of the search results.

When you look at them, you find multiple phrases containing your search query and additional words before or after it.

For easy differentiation, the other words are in bold.

Look at these searches related to ‘credit card application’ on Google:

You’ll notice several highlighted words in these search queries.

When you look at them closely, they give you hints about potentially related terms to use in your content – the LSI keywords.

In this case, ‘apply online’, ‘online application process’, and ‘charges’, are some LSI keyword ideas.

And this is from Google alone.

You can examine related searches on other search engines as well to get more ideas.

Bing:

Yahoo:

Duck Duck Go:

Each search engine gives you different suggestions, and so you’ll have plenty to pick and choose from.

3. Keyword Research Tool

If you don’t want to spend time with the search engines, you can use a free keyword research tool to discover LSI keywords.

It will give you thousands of keyword suggestions and also list common search terms and phrases.

So, you can use the tool as your own free LSI keyword generator!

Here’s how it works:

Courtesy of RankWatch.com

Scan through the keyword suggestions to identify semantically related terms.

In this case, you can use the following words as LSI keywords:

  • foods
  • snacks
  • pills
  • menu
  • meal plan
  • recipes

With that, finding LSI keywords for your content becomes a cakewalk.

What’s the Selection Criteria for LSI Keywords?

The selection of LSI keywords demands using your instinct and common sense.

You don’t need to use all the LSI keywords you find in a single piece of content.

Only the ones that make sense and go well with your topic must be used.

Simply pick keywords with maximum relevance to your content.

If you are writing a listicle on ‘women handbags’, your LSI keywords list will include:

  • brands
  • online
  • shop
  • buy
  • ladies
  • purse
  • sale
  • price
  • designer

If you are giving information, words like shop and buy will confuse the readers. So, you shouldn’t pick or use such words in your content.

On the contrary, if you expect users to buy handbags, shop and buy will be the most important words.

So, the selection criteria will change based on the intent and context of your write-up.

Use your instinct and common sense while making a choice and prevent any possible blunders.

With that, LSI keywords should be simple and easy to use.

Increase Your Content’s Ranking Potential with LSI Keywords

Search engines have one goal: to provide relevant and valuable results to their users.

They can understand your page’s content ten times better with the help of LSI keywords.

Thus, you can achieve higher search rankings and decreased bounce rates by spreading semantically related keywords throughout your content.

Dropping out LSI keywords or randomly sprinkling them whenever and wherever in the content can cost you big time.

To see their power, use them wisely.

The post What are LSI Keywords and how do They Impact SEO? appeared first on SiteProNews.

4 Content Writing and Editing Tools Adjusted for Search Engines

posted on November 12, 2021

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Just like any other creative task, writing a good copy can be a nightmare. It gets even worse when you realize that creating content that ranks high on search engines is more than just drafting a good copy. Rather, creating high-ranking content involves using proper paragraph divisions, keywords, optimizing HTML tags, and the list goes on and on.

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at some of the best content writing and editing tools that will help you create optimized content for search engines.

Let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we?

Yoast’s Real-time Content Analysis

If you’re looking for a handy content writing tool, then Yoast’s Real-time Content Analysis is your best option. Basically, this two-pronged tool combines SEO advice and writing processor features.

Using this tool, you can easily create and edit your titles and meta descriptions and get a glimpse of what it would look like on the SERP. You also get an in-depth analysis of your content and editing suggestions. This way, you can create optimized content and fish out any SEO no-no’s from your copy.

The best part? It’s absolutely free.

SEMrush Writing Assistant

Most expert website content editors and writers swear by SEMrush Writing Assistant – and for good reason. This SEO content hero comes with high-grade features that can be roughly divided into four categories:

SEO recommendations

SEMrush Writing Assistant offers SEO tips and recommendations to help users create optimized content that will rank high on the SERP.

Usually, before you start writing with this tool, you’d need to put in your focus keywords. During the writing process, the target keywords will then pop up as green if you’ve used them in the text or gray if you haven’t used them yet. This saves you the trouble of having to double-check your content for keywords manually. You can also hover over any keyword to check for keyword difficulty and volume.

SEMrush Writing Assistant also offers insights into link building. For instance, it lets you know if you’ve included the optimal number of links in the text.

Readability

This is another helpful feature as it helps users make sure that in addition to using the right keywords and meta descriptions, they’re also creating readable content for their audience.

This feature is typically calculated using the Flesch readability score. You get a readability score of 100 points along with further insight into the aspects of your text that need improvement.

Namely, the tool alerts you when you have overly long paragraphs, complex words, and hard-to-read sentences. You can then click on the sentence to find out more about the issue and view alternative suggestions.

Originality

If you’re trying to rank high on SERPs, you need to ensure that your content is completely original and free of plagiarism. Fortunately, you can do this using SEMrush’s Writing Assistant. Typically, you can only perform five plagiarism checks a month, but if you create content regularly, you can purchase ten extra checks for just $5.

Tone of voice

The tool also offers suggestions and recommendations about your content’s overall tone. For instance, it shows you how formal or casual your copy sounds. The tool also lets you know if the tone of your text is inconsistent (i.e., if you’re mixing up formal and casual sentences).

Surfer SEO’s Content Editor

SurferSEO is a handy tool that’s just right if you’re looking for an affordable content editor. All you need to do is set up an account and click on “Content Editor”.

As you write, this tool scores your text and offers recommendations on what should be changed and what works well. The metric shows the number of paragraphs, words, headings, and images you should ideally use and displays the actual number you used in your text.

But that’s not all. Surfer SEO’s content editing tool also lists your potential competitors and offers focus keyphrase example recommendations based on competitors’ content.

Frase Content

Frase Content is one of the cheapest SEO writing and editing tools on the market, and is the perfect option if you’re working with a really tight budget. It comes with many handy features – not as exhaustive as in SEMrush’s tool, but it certainly offers great value for your money too.

Frase has in-built custom templates that can help you create a well-structured outline in no time at all. It also comes with topic suggestions that you can add to your content to make it better and more optimized.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking to rank higher on search engines without having to hire SEO writing services, the tools listed above will set you on the right track. SEMrush’s Writing Assistant is an in-depth tool guaranteed to give you the best results, but if you’re looking for cheaper alternatives, it’s advisable to go for Frase Content Editor.

Good luck!

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9 Factors That Affect SEO Quality

posted on November 8, 2021

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How long does SEO take? How can I measure my website’s performance? The answers to these and other questions will depend on certain factors that can impact a site’s SEO. As a webmaster or digital marketing specialist, you need to learn as much as you can about these metrics. That way, you can create a decent metric-tracking system that will help your site (and your clients) enjoy higher rankings on Google and other engines.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic represents the number of people your website attracts based on organic search. It’s more important than overall traffic since it shows you how well or poorly your SEO strategy is performing whenever someone types in any keywords related to your business and industry. This allows you to improve or replace your strategy to ensure your website’s success. To check your site’s organic traffic, simply use Google Analytics.

Keyword Rankings

You also need to monitor the rankings for the keywords you use, as it can affect your website’s SEO as well. For best results, you must do this manually for your most important keywords. That way, you’ll know their standing on Google and other search engines. But if you want a more comprehensive overview of our keywords’ rankings, try using SEMrush. Using this tool will help you track any ranking changes over time, and it will enable you to gauge how much your website is improving as a whole.

Competition

By applying great SEO practices (or outsourcing it), you’ll gradually boost your rankings. However, the more competition your website has, the more challenging it will be for it to climb higher on search engines. And more likely than not, some of your rivals will also have a nice SEO strategy in place. So aside from your own website, you need to monitor your competitions’ pages using Google Analytics as well.

Inbound Links

Inbound links can either come from other people’s websites or from a sister website (provided it has a different domain name). It can affect the length of your site’s SEO process, and it can offer some of the greatest SEO benefits your site will ever have. That being said, it’s quite challenging to obtain one. So once your website earns an inbound link or two, do everything in your power to maintain it.

Content

Crafting quality content is still a surefire way to gain organic traffic, improve search visibility, and boost your rankings. And like inbound links and competition, it can also have an impact on how long you’ll have to wait before you see results. So best make sure to optimize your website’s content, past, present, and future. That means checking if the keywords are inserted properly and strategically, ensuring there are no grammatical errors or plagiarized phrases, and more.

Mobile-Friendliness

In this day and age, more and more people are making search queries using their phones rather than their laptops. In response to this, Google has adjusted its algorithm so it’s geared towards indexing mobile-optimized websites first. And that’s another reason why you should make sure your site is mobile-friendly. Check if your pages have a responsive design (and revamp it if it doesn’t). Make your menus more accessible so Google can navigate through them more smoothly. And use large fonts so that your site’s content is readable even on smaller screens.

Social Signals

Social signals are the number of views, likes, and shares obtained by your blog or social media posts. Search engines like Google use it to check if your content has good quality or relevance, as well as gauge how much traffic it’s receiving. Additionally, it can impact your site’s Domain Authority, as Moz factors it in when calculating DA scores. So aside from improving your social media presence, you must find ways to track it. One tool to use is Smash Balloon, which lets you display your social media handles’ feeds on your website.

Page Speed

Page speed affects user experience quality, which in turn impacts your website’s potential to have high rankings on search engines. So better keep an eye on your web pages’ loading time. Luckily, you can easily accomplish this thanks to Google’s Page Speed Insights. Through this tool, you can include any metrics you like to track in a single report. This allows you to gauge the user experience your website provides, as well as spot any issues that can ruin it.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rates refer to the percentage of people visiting your website and then immediately leaving. The larger your site’s bounce rate is the more likely search engines will assume your pages don’t have relevant content. This will hurt your site’s rankings if you leave it unaddressed. So better use Google Analytics to monitor your bounce rates as well.

Wrapping Up

Regularly monitoring these factors will help you ensure the quality of your website’s SEO. This will eventually lead to your site ranking high on search engines, boosting your reputation and increasing your sales in the process. So if you haven’t done it yet, make it a habit to check these metrics as often as you can.

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5 Local SEO Tips for Your Business

posted on October 19, 2021

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In this day and age, if you are a business trying to grow or operate better locally, having an official website is mandatory, and having your SEO done properly is a must. There are a lot of ways to boost your website on search engines, and here are 5 useful tips for you to improve your local SEO performance.

Add Location Pages to Your Website

If you service multiple locations, create location pages. Be careful when you have multiple locations because you need to create unique content for each location page. Having a page for each location you provide your service or products will increase your local SEO performance drastically. For instance, if you are an alcohol reseller in Los Angeles, having just one page under the name of Los Angeles alcohol delivery will not be enough for Google and your potential customers. Let’s say your business delivers wine, your web page should have as many location pages as the number of your delivery locations. Someone who lives in West Hollywood wouldn’t type in the words Los Angeles alcohol delivery in Google’s search bar. So make sure to specify each location where you service on your website by its own location page.

Create a Google My Business (GMB) Listing

If Google can verify that your business is legitimate, the search engine may provide you with a coveted sidebar position in Google’s local search. This isn’t merely for the sake of SEO. You may make it easier for potential customers to locate you by having reviews and keeping your contact information and operation hours up to date. Due to the upheaval in consumer buying behavior and business operations expected in 2020, consumers need to find updated information now more than ever.

Create Local Content under Other Pages of Your Website

Google is not getting dumber. This means that content authors can now write for people rather than search engines. While writing about general themes will appeal to a broad audience, it’s often more vital to narrow your emphasis and write about local or industry news to appeal to a specific audience. Promote local industry meetings, news, employees, and other instructional content on your blog to establish yourself as the local authority for your sector. Consider top-of-funnel content that extends beyond what your company sells.

If you’re a local delivery business and you’re seeking to attract new customers, build a helpful resource to assist them to get acquainted with your community. A map of local service providers or a city-wide events calendar could both be useful to your persona and offer highly relevant on-page local signals.

Optimize Your Site with Local Keywords

One of the basics of local SEO is targeting local keywords. Local keywords are pretty self-explanatory, but you should still research longer tail local keywords for your business.

For instance, if yours is an alcohol reseller in Los Angeles, you’ll want to compare search volumes for different variations of search terms like “Beer delivery in LA”, “Buy alcohol in LA” and such. You may also want to drill down into hyper-local keywords, such as “alcohol delivery services, West Hollywood.”

Get Regular Reviews from Happy Customers

You’ll want “votes of validation” as your business grows that you’re who you say you are, doing what you say you do, and being where you say you’re located. It’s also a plus if people are raving about your products and services.

Reviews, on the other hand, are an excellent way to accomplish this. When search engines are trying to figure out what the best results are for a given search query, they’ll evaluate a lot of elements in their algorithm, and the number of reviews you have on Google, Yelp, and Facebook will all be taken into account. Also having an App for your business will also accumulate some reviews on your website as well as other platforms. So if you are delivering alcohol to your customers, don’t satisfy with a website and have your alcohol delivery app ready to be reached for your potential and regular customers.

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4 Obsolete SEO Practices You Should Ditch Right Now

posted on October 13, 2021

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How often are you adjusting your SEO strategy – monthly, yearly, never? It’s tempting to say “why fix it if it ain’t broken?”, but with SEO you should never wait until something truly breaks to switch things around. 

SEO evolves because user preferences evolve. However angry you may be at the latest Google algorithm change, keep this in mind: much like yourself, Google also wants to keep users engaged for as long as possible. They definitely have a bigger budget and a bigger database than you do to research and implement the changes users need. So, instead of hating the latest changes, I suggest you look at them as opportunities to keep your users engaged for longer – and buying more.

If you are unsure whether your SEO strategy is up to date, take a look at the things you shouldn’t be doing anymore:

1. Keyword Stuffing

Modern SEO has (thankfully!) moved away from keyword stuffed articles that are illegible by human readers. You can now write naturally, without fearing that you won’t rank high enough.

The advantage is clear: your content can now rank in search engines and convert users because it’s well-written! Check out this case study of how my agency has managed to meet both these goals for a client of ours through naturally-written, high-converting content.

2. Bad Keyword Matches

User intent should be at the very core of any marketing strategy you create and SEO is no exception. In the olden days, SEO specialists would try and optimize their content for generic keywords, like “best coffee”.

Today’s SEO writers (the good ones, at least) know that generic keywords are very hard to match with user intent. For instance, is someone who types “best coffee” into the search bar looking to buy it or are they just looking for information on what the world’s best coffee is?

Moreover, are they looking to buy ready-made coffee or do they want coffee beans for home use? Depending on what your business is, these distinctions are crucial.

A coffee shop would need to optimize for “best coffee in Tampa Bay center” or make sure their profile on Google Maps is up to date so they can pop up when someone looks for “best coffee near me”. A shop selling specialty coffee beans would need to optimize for “best coffee beans delivery Tampa Bay” or, better yet, target a more specialized audience with “best Colombian coffee beans price”. Finally, if you run a website for coffee aficionados and/or use affiliate links, then you can try and optimize for a high-volume, high-competition keyword like “best coffee”.

3. Content Spinning

10 years ago, article spinning was a lucrative industry, whether it involved software that would spin content automatically or humans who would do it manually. The principle was simple: find an article online that matches your goals and spin it so it’s not duplicate content. Then publish it on your website as if it were your own.

This came with several problems: the ethical one (of course!), the fact that automatic spinners simply replaced some words with their synonyms (and not always the best matches), which resulted in illegible content, and the fact that readers catch on when they see “reheated” content.

If you’re still doing that, it’s time you stopped. It’s not just ethically wrong and bad for your brand, but it’s also useless. Today, search engines look beyond individual words to find duplicate content, so you’ll be severely penalized.

4. Link Buying

Yes, links are the lifeblood of SEO. The more links from high authority domains that point to you, the higher your own authority will get and the higher you’ll rank in SERPs. This is why, until a few years ago, buying links was a common practice.

Web directories were major sellers. But search engines caught on to this and now consider these sellers spam domains. When you have a lot of those pointing to your domain, you will be considered a spammer, too.

In other words, buying links will do more harm than good. If you have spammy links pointing to your website (whether you bought them or they just appeared without your involvement), go to your Search Console account and disavow them immediately.

Ready to take your SEO game to where it should be – in 2021 and beyond? Talk to my team and I about SEO content that brings you results with no ethical compromises or obsolete practices.

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6 Google Search Console Tips to Optimize Your Search Results

posted on October 8, 2021

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Google Search Console (GSC) is a valuable tool for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals looking to assess a website’s overall performance in the search results, ask Google to index your content, review your backlink profile, and more. Yet, while GSC is a great tool, there’s a learning curve.

This article will examine the importance of GSC for digital marketers. We’ll do a quick review of some of the dashboards and discuss some of the ways you can use GSC to improve your search results. Let’s get started!

1. Find Queries That Drive Traffic (& Keyword Opportunities)

When you start writing an article, you probably have a keyword, possibly even two, that you want to rank for. It’s good that you had a keyword in mind when you started writing your article. The problem is, a month or more after your content is published, you’ll find that you’re starting to rank for all types of keywords that you might not have been expecting.

Let me provide you with an example for a popular term that many people in the marketing industry might target; “how to make money blogging.â€Â

You can see that this page has the chance to rank for a range of terms. If you have access to this information, you can optimize your content for those terms. 

To access the terms a piece of content is ranking for, do the following:

  1. Click on “Search Resultsâ€Â
  2. Select “pagesâ€Â
  3. Click on “Queriesâ€Â

You can see the total search volume, clicks, and the search ranking position of the page for each term. It’s a bit like a keyword database. You can use a variety of tools to subsequently optimize for each keyword. 

2. Optimize Your CTR for Relevant Search Terms

Your headline is the most important element of your copy. David Ogilvy famously said, “when you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your advertising dollar.†

That process holds true for pretty much every type of advertising. If you come up with great newsletter ideas and write an engaging subject line, people will open your email. If you write an engaging meta headline, people will click through from the search results onto your content.

The right meta headline can make a big difference to where you sit in the search results and the number of people who view your content. Utilizing a combination of Google Search Console and some inspiration, it’s relatively easy to improve your CTR from the search results.

To access the data follow the steps shared above. Once you’ve selected the page, review your clicks, impressions, and CTR relative to the position.

Your aim should be to identify the most relevant terms with the highest impressions getting the lowest number of clicks. Once you’ve found a relevant term, you can adjust your meta description. 

To monitor the impact of the changes on your CTR, do the following:

  1. Select “Date Range†from the top menu
  2. Click on compare
  3. Enter the comparative date range

Select the relevant date range; I’d give yourself at least two weeks to run a test. At the end of the period, compare the results.

If there’s an increase in your CTR, then your new headline is doing the job. If there’s a drop, you can have a go at coming up with a more engaging meta headline.

We always take this approach with our sales pages. For example, you can see on our Unified Communications page, we start with a definition of the term.

We also cover relevant questions that people might have about Unified Communications on the page. This approach ensures we’re providing as much useful information to page visitors as possible while optimizing the page for relevant associated terms people are searching for.

Keep in mind, according to an interesting article from 2019 by Rand Fishkin, less than half of the search terms on Google result in a click. Terms with a low CTR that you want to avoid optimizing for often have instant answers in the search results or are crowded out by Google My Business listings.

3. Identify Competing Pieces of Content

Ideally, your website should be organized. Each piece of content on your website should target a relevant keyword. You can create content silos where you thematically link different pieces of relevant content together.

So, if you’re managing a website about outreach, you might have:

  • The definitive guide to SEO
  • How to do an offsite audit
  • How to do an onsite audit

Essentially, you want to have content that is thematically grouped together. Effective content silos help spread Page Rank between the pieces of content on your site. It’s also good for the user experience, as people can click through to other relevant resources on your site on the spot.

The image above from a crawl provides a nice example of what an organized site looks like.

Of course, your site might not be organized. You might have content competing for the same keyword and other issues. You can use Google Search Console to resolve problems with conflicting content.

To check if you have competing content, click on a query and then click “pages†from the menu.

If there is more than one page on the list, you might have an issue. You should check the two conflicting pieces of content to see if there is a natural overlap. If it’s a small overlap, that could be fine. On the other hand, you might have two pieces of content targeting the same keywords.  If that’s the case, you might need to delete one of the pieces and implement a 301.

4. Remove Content from Search Results or Get Content Indexed

There are many different reasons that you might want to remove a piece of content from the search results. For example, you might discover you have two pieces of content that are ranking for the same keyword and decide the best way to do that is to 301 your content.

While a 301 might solve the problem of where your visitor goes, the offending page can still appear in the search results. Thankfully, you can use GSC to request to remove content from the search results.

The process is quite straightforward. Click on the removals dashboard and make a request.

You can also use GSC to request indexing. This guide from Google discusses how to request indexing.

5. Identify and Rectify Coverage Issues

A large part of why Google is such a successful company is its focus on user experience. The search engine does everything it can to ensure people using the search engine click through to resources that fill their needs. The better they can do this, the more people use the service and the more money they make through advertising.

Over the last few years, Google has consolidated its mobile-first approach to most of its products – including search. Hence, your website’s optimization for mobile devices – such as smartphones and tablets – needs to be up to scratch. 

The good news is, there are tools you can use to check if your website is optimized for mobile. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, for instance, is particularly handy. Just pop in the URL of the page you’d like Google to check and Google will tell you its verdict.

Source

Check out what happens when I pop in the URL of this page from Nextiva, into the mobile-friendly test:

Source

The tool doesn’t just tell you if your page is mobile-friendly or not. It also shows you how that page would look on a mobile device so you can make the necessary adjustments.

Unfortunately, for far too many sites, mobile usability is an issue.

GSC has a dashboard dedicated to mobile usability issues. The dashboard provides solutions to address issues with mobile pages and AMP.

If you’ve never heard of AMP, it stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. The feature enables faster site and page load speed while delivering a consistent UX on mobile devices. Well, that is the theory at any rate. Many sites struggle to implement AMP without a developer.

In addition to mobile, you can also identify other site issues through GSC through the coverage tab. Through this tab, you can identify issues like 5xx server errors. You can fix problems Google has identified through GSC.

6. Monitor Backlinks & Internal Links

GSC provides granular insights to each page on your website. Through the links dashboard, you can track internal and external links. You can access the “links†dashboard through the side menu.

The GSC links dashboard provides you with a nice overview of your linking strategy. You can see what sites link to you and which piece of content has got the most links. The data is useful. However, premium SEO tools generally provide more comprehensive insights and have an easier UI to navigate than GSC.

For example, when I’m monitoring backlinks, I like to know the Domain Authority of a site, the Page Authority where I got the link, the site Trust Flow, etc. While Google has internal metrics to measure link quality, they don’t share this information. 

A more valuable resource, which any SEO professional needs to know about, is the disavow feature. With the disavow feature, you can ask Google to ignore low-quality links coming to your site. Or, you might have links from a site that has had a Google penalty.

If you’re unfamiliar with how to implement a disavow, I recommend you read this article. You should have a disavow file for your site.

Wrapping Up

Google Search Console is a powerful platform for running analytics on your website and improving its SERP ranking. Its wealth of features and insights places it ahead of many other paid-for platforms that evaluate site performance.

The platform’s functionalities run the gamut when it comes to metrics that affect search rankings. GSC covers metrics like keyword performance, metadata, mobile optimization, and more. Its multi-functionality coupled with well-designed dashboards make it an all-in-one solution, like a swiss army knife.

Google designed GSC to help people who run websites dominate the search results. GSC enables you to identify problem areas and take corrective action.

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How Amazon Backend Keywords Can Boost Product Discoverability

posted on September 26, 2021

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Amazon backend keywords form an important part of any seller’s keyword strategy. They are the keywords that only sellers are privy to which is why they are the hidden keywords. They are pivotal to boosting the discoverability level of a product. 

You can include any keyword that is relevant to the product and its features into your list of backend keywords. Variations in spellings, common spelling mistakes, synonyms, etc. all qualify to be backend keywords.

Optimizing your product listings on Amazon with backend keywords will contribute towards better ranking with the A9 algorithm.

Here are some ways in which backend keyword optimization can boost product discoverability on Amazon.

Reduce redundancy

Your product description copy has to be clear and concise for customers to read. So you must include all the relevant information and keywords without making it seem too text-heavy. But the problem is that there’s always so much more that you will want to include. For this purpose, you are provided with a field to enter backend search terms, and it allows for up to 250 bytes. 

This ensures that your product still ranks for those important keywords without the risk of redundancy and overcrowding of words in your descriptions. This ultimately works towards making your product more easily discoverable. 

Backend search terms – Rules and regulations 

Amazon is very strict about the policies and regulations it has in place for sellers. There are rules for backend search terms as well. They include not using names of brands, ASINs, and expletives or other search terms that Amazon considers prohibited. It is also important that all the terms are relevant to your product because if they’re not, you’ll find it hard to rank your products. 

You have to keep these in mind and abide by them while optimizing your listings with backend keywords. This is because the end result will be an increase in sales and improved rankings on the Amazon SERP.

Competition 

Competition on the Amazon Marketplace is high and this hinders the generation of profits as well as making it difficult to distinguish your brand and products from other competitors. For this purpose, you need to take advantage of every opportunity that you can to make yourself stand out. Now you must be wondering – what other avenues are left to explore? Wouldn’t other sellers have utilized everything to the fullest? 

An interesting fact is that a lot of sellers tend to overlook or undermine the importance of backend keywords. You can be resourceful and take advantage of this fact by first gaining a good understanding of the Amazon A9 algorithm. You can then optimize your listings effectively with backend keywords. This will make your products more easily discoverable over your competitors who are all selling the same product. 

Constant monitoring 

It’s important to know that you need to keep checking and monitoring all aspects of your Amazon selling operations. Whether it is advertising, inventory management, listing optimization, or your keyword strategy, successful selling on Amazon entails consistent monitoring. Sellers can make use of expert tools like SellerApp that help manage all these functions. If you want to optimize your backend keywords regularly, you need SellerApp’s Index Checker to identify if your backend search terms are indexed or not. 

You might come across new keywords now and then and you can’t fit everything in your main descriptions. So you can include all of these in your backend search terms. This process ensures that your product listing has the full potential to boost your ranking which in turn means higher levels of discoverability. It also means that more traffic will be driven to your product listings.

Amazon reports 

Amazon provides Search Term Reports to sellers. These provide valuable insights for sellers into the exact keywords that shoppers use that direct them to your product listings. It helps in identifying how they’re searching and the keywords that they use most frequently that lead them to discover your products. 

With these reports, you will be able to find other high-performing keywords you can include in the backend keywords. This will make your products an exact match for those keywords and you can utilize them to boost your discoverability to remarkable new levels.

Conclusion

As explained above, backend keyword optimization is very important to winning top-ranking positions for all of your listings. It is the most sure-shot way of ensuring that you have a good level of discoverability for all your products. Keep in mind that you first need to ensure that all of the primary keywords used in titles and product descriptions are indexed. All of this ultimately leads to increased profits and sales while also outpacing your competition. Thus, the importance of backend keywords is very evident so ensure that you engage in them effectively.

The post How Amazon Backend Keywords Can Boost Product Discoverability appeared first on SiteProNews.

Improve Your SEO Strategy with These Four Analytical Tools

posted on September 24, 2021

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Looking to improve your online ranking? Well of course you are. The chief purpose of all SEO strategies is to improve visibility and drive traffic and potential sales to your website. Tracking your performance is vital to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign and give you valuable insights as to where you may or may not need improvement.

Fortunately, there are many online tools that are designed to help you reach your SEO goals and get your site at the top of the search results. Here we look at 4 tools that will help you on your way to success.

1. SEO Site Checkup

Performing a website audit is extremely useful to ascertain the online performance of your site and this is where SEO Site Checkup is extremely useful. Offering over 30 SEO variables, this tool breaks down the data into easily understood reports and gives insights into aspects that can affect a site’s ranking and score. It also provides a very useful comparison to your competitors.

2. Google Structured Data Testing

A great way to attract more traffic to your site is by getting to the top of Google with a rich snippet. A rich snippet is when a listing in the organic search has additional information displayed alongside the description, title and URL. Google Structured Data Testing evaluates whether your site uses structured data markup or HTML Microdata and is used by SEO professionals to debug and validate structured data. It allows you to see whether a URL is being picked up in search.

3. Ontolo

Ontolo is an online tool that enables you to learn more about what your target market is looking for online. It will allow your SEO agency to improve your links and content to attract quality traffic. Backlinks are extremely important for a site to gain more authority and Ontolo helps by locating quality linking opportunities. The tool uses data from over 80 sources to find the best prospects which is then presented in an easy-to-read report.

4. SEO Browser

This tool enables you to see your website the way Google sees it, by converting pages to pure HTML. By learning how the search engines view your URL can significantly help towards achieving that top spot in the search results. Information analyzed by SEO Browser includes, meta data, headings, word count, response time and backlinks both internal and external and many more.

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How Important Is Content to SEO (According to Google)?

posted on September 20, 2021

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Google is not the only search engine. But when it comes to ranking factors, it’s pretty much the only one that matters. By handling 90% of the worldwide searches, Google is the go-to source of information for search engine marketers.

There’s a tiny problem, though: Google is also notoriously stingy with releasing official information about what helps with ranking and what doesn’t. So the SEO community is left picking up crumbs and trying to pull words out of Google officials in every interview. 

However, we do have some facts that come straight from the horse’s mouth.

What Does Google Say about Content as a Ranking Factor?

Google handles more than 5.4 billion searches per day. Every day. To keep their huge market share of 90%, they absolutely need the results of those searches to be relevant. And they are.

The crux of relevance is the content the websites that rank high offer their users. If the content is not what the user expected, they will bounce back to search results and look for another option. If this happens too often, they will eventually switch search engines altogether and move to another one that offers better results.

Of course, Google does not want that to happen. So they make sure the websites that rank in the first positions have excellent content and a great user experience – the two major pillars of SEO.

In Google’s words:

There you have it.

Right on Google Search Central, you can find out that content will “likely influence your website MORE than any of the other factors discussed hereâ€Â.

Content and SEO marketers will tell you the same thing, myself included: if you change one thing to your website to make it rank better, make sure that thing is content. I’m not saying that the user experience doesn’t matter or that a mobile responsive website is just nice to have. Not at all.

But all things being equal, content is the starting place of the SEO revolution for any website.

I’ve noticed this time and again with my agency’s clients. They hired my team to create new content and that we did. We never touched the technical part of their SEO. Still, one of our oldest customers now ranks in the top three positions in Google for ALL the keywords they aimed for, while another generates 50% more organic leads in a very crowded industry

We’ve seen the same happen to our own websites. The better our content got, the better our ranking got too. Today, my agency generates 95% of leads and new customers from content. Some of it is on our own websites, while other is from guest posts like this one that trigger people to contact us.  No paid ads, no influencer marketing.

How can you get similar results? Well, the recipe itself sounds simple enough. The implementation, however, is a bit more nuanced. Let’s take a look:

What Type of Content Does Google Want You to Write?

The Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines speak at length about how your content is supposed to be written to win Google’s favor. There are two acronyms that you should never ignore:

  • EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): your content should be well-researched, thorough, in-depth, and written by experts in the field. Pay extra attention to the bios of the authors on your website!
  • YMYL (Your Money or Your Life): this acronym refers to pages that can impact a reader’s wellbeing, health, freedom, or finances. If you cover topics about: medicine, finance, happiness, mental health, or physical health you should be extra careful with the links you use and with how you choose to cover each topic. Again, it’s very important to have experts covering sensitive topics – so don’t forget to create relevant bios for everything you publish.

One important note here: for “regular†pages and articles, almost anyone can be an expert with enough research. Or, they can at least produce well-researched pieces of content that are factually true and offer valuable information to the reader. For YMYL topics, though, “official†credentials are important. Think of it this way: not everyone writing on a medical topic should be an MD, but it never hurts.

At my agency, for instance, we hire engineers to cover technical topics for this precise reason: we want to make sure that every article we create and our customers publish is factually accurate and valuable. Even for “lighter†topics like beauty, home improvement, XaaS, or marketing we have specialists who may not have a university degree in the field they cover, but have spent years writing on these topics.

One last aspect that I consider to be crucial but that’s rarely covered in SEO writing guides: ranking is just part one of the task. If you write commercial content, it means that your ultimate goal is not to rank in SERPs or to have millions of visitors each month, but to sell your products or services.

Thus, besides SEO-friendliness, your content also needs a marketing edge, a way to get the reader to take the action you wanted – subscribe to newsletter, download an eBook, buy, or share on social media.

I learned this the hard way, sorting through dozens of writer applications that look great on paper but who fell short during the hands-on assessments each of our staff members have to pass. In a nutshell: they were amazing writers, but their work had no spark. At least one of them could well become the next Hemingway, but they couldn’t sell a bottle of water to a man walking in the desert.

This is why we never hire writers with zero marketing background anymore. We can easily teach them the SEO guidelines and how to conduct their own research, but teaching them how to understand and implement basic marketing principles in their content takes much longer.

Bottom line: never create content that just ranks. Unless your business makes money from AdSense-type services. Otherwise, traffic is not going to pad your bottom line.

Focus instead on content that does three things:

  • Ranks
  • Answers a real need or a real problem for your readers
  • Converts readers into leads or paying customers.

Need help with content that checks all three boxes above? My team of expert SEO writers and I are just a click away. Let’s talk!

The post How Important Is Content to SEO (According to Google)? appeared first on SiteProNews.

The 35 Top Free SEO Tools Available Anywhere

posted on September 18, 2021

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SEO tools are a valuable asset to any marketing campaign. They provide insight into what people are searching for and offer information on the best keywords to optimize your website. You must invest in the best SEO tools because they can help boost your company’s search engine ranking, which will lead to more traffic and higher conversions. 

The Best Free Analytics Tools

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that provides an in-depth analysis of your website’s traffic and helps inform what needs to be changed. It contains valuable information like geographical location, demographic data, page views, and conversion rates, allowing marketers to provide their target audience with the best browsing experience possible.

2. Google Trends

Google Trends offers the best SEO tools that allow you to analyze search trends over time. This can provide marketers with insight into what people are searching for when it comes to certain topics and keywords, thus optimizing your website accordingly. You can also filter results by location, category, or time frame, which will help narrow your data.

3. Google Keyword Planner

The Google Keyword Planner is a powerful tool that provides users with information on the most relevant keywords related to their industry. 

It also offers projected traffic volume, competition levels, and suggested bids from competing advertisers, which can be used to determine the profitability of certain keywords. This will help you pinpoint keywords that are most likely to be profitable and help you successfully optimize your website for the best possible results.

4. Google Consumer Surveys

Google Consumer Surveys is a free tool from Google that allows marketers to gain insight into their target audience by asking them questions on the Internet. Questions can include any kind of variable, such as age, gender, geographic location, etc. This is an invaluable resource because it offers marketers a chance to gain insight into their target audience and have them provide feedback on the current marketing campaign to ensure that it’s meeting the needs of your audience.

5. Google Search Console

The Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, is a powerful tool that provides users with insight into how their website is being indexed in search engines. It offers information on backlinks, keywords found on your website, crawl errors, and top pages, which are great for optimizing your site’s SEO. You can even submit sitemaps to improve the crawling process and monitor your site’s performance.

6. Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. However, it was originally intended for a different search engine. It still provides useful information such as backlinks, cached pages, crawl errors, and keywords which are valuable resources when optimizing your site for the best results.

7. Panguin Tool

The Panguin Tool is a free SEO tool that allows marketers to see exactly how the algorithm of Google has changed over time. It also offers keywords, backlinks, and indexed pages, which are important factors when optimizing your website for the best results.

8. MozCast

MozCast is a free SEO tool that provides users with information on the current weather of the Google algorithm. It offers insight into what fluctuations are affecting your website and helps you adjust accordingly to optimize for the most relevant results.

9. SEMrush

SEMrush is an industry leader in providing insightful data on competitors. It contains very valuable information such as estimated traffic, keywords, and backlinks which are all important factors for optimizing your website.

10. Woorank

Woorank is a free tool that provides users with an in-depth analysis of their website’s SEO performance based on several factors, such as keyword optimization and usability. This is a very valuable resource because it helps marketers increase the overall performance of their websites.

The Best Free Keyword Research Tools

If you’re going to do any kind of Search Engine Optimization, you must know the ins & outs of doing keyword research. Keywords are at the heart of SEO and one of the most popular activities in modern search marketing. So if you want a solid foundation for your SEO work, here are the names of the ten best free keyword research tools

  1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool
  2. Keyword Eye
  3. KWFinder 
  4. Answer The Public
  5. Word tracker 
  6. Keyword Spy 
  7. Ubersuggest 
  8. Traffic Travis 
  9. SE Ranking 
  10. Keyword Surfer

The Best Free Link Tools

For every site owner out there, you know how important SEO is. You can’t put a price on good link building, and even though there are paid tools that will do it for you, the free ones are just as useful (if not more) than the paid tools. 

  1. Open Site Explorer 
  2. Majestic SEO 
  3. ahrefs 
  4. linkody 
  5. OpenLinkProfiler 
  6. Backlink Watch 
  7. Link Research Tools 

The Best Free Crawling and Indexing Tools

The Internet changes faster than anyone can keep up. Sites go offline every day for all sorts of reasons – they’re hacked, the owner goes out of business or moves to a new host, and sometimes it’s just a mistake. Whatever the reason is, these sites leave behind a broken link on listings that were once good site directories and search engines.

Thankfully, some tools out there will crawl the web for you and notify you when it finds a new broken link on one of your favorite directories or search engines. So, when you’re ready to check for broken links on some of your favorite sites, here are ten free tools that will do the job quickly and easily.

1. Broken Link Checker

This application will crawl three pages on a site of your choice and notify you if any links are broken.

2. Site Mapper

This tool crawls up to 10 sites at a time for free, which is great if you’re going link by link to check for dead sites on any directories you’ve submitted to.

3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

This crawler is a little more advanced, but the free version can go through up to 500 URLs at a time.

4. Xenu’s Link Sleuth

Another one that’s somewhat old but still works well, this tool crawls a site of your choice and reports all broken links it finds. It also lets you download a list of these sites in plain text format!

5. SEOlyzer

This crawler will look through up to 200 pages of a site of your choice and gives you the option to download the report afterward. 

6. Beam Us Up

This application crawls up to 5 sites a day for free, which should be more than enough if you’re just checking some of your favorite directories.

7. Link Redirect Trace

Another new one we just added to the list. This tool crawls up to 5 pages for free and shows you any redirects it follows. It works exactly like Xenu’s Link Sleuth in that way but can be used to find 301 and 302 redirects.

8. Redirect Path

This is another new one we just added to the list, but this one goes beyond simply crawling a site and finding redirects. Redirect Path opens each page as it crawls them so you can see exactly where it’s going without having to follow each link yourself. It also provides some other nice reports that will help you fix any broken links you find.

The tools you use depend on what you want to check, sites or pages, and how often. As we said, though, all of these tools are great in their way and will make it easy for you to keep up with any changes as they happen.

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