SEO has also shown to be one of the most cost-effective forms of online marketing, delivering a higher return on investment. This is made possible due to the unique nature of SEO; it targets clients who are actively seeking the products and services that a website is offering. Other forms of advertising such as banners and links are often ignored or seen as an annoyance, and the cost of these forms of online marketing is increasing, despite the advertisement being less effective. SEO is the only form of online marketing where the client is actually seeking to obtain information about the product or service, making it the most effective at obtaining sales.
Search engines have become an integral part of our daily lives. It is essential to admit that more than 90% of Internet users are now comparing prices and looking for reviews for products and services they are intending to purchase. It makes no difference to the product whether it is B2C (business-to-consumer) or B2B (business-to-business), what matters today is online lead generation. A person will first search information online before deciding whether to purchase an item, therefore a good understanding of search engine marketing is essential for growing any online enterprise. A search engine might be the channel that connects potential clients to the product or service but, in most cases, it all starts with a simple search and an organic click.
Understanding SEO and its Importance
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or unpaid (“organic”) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO service may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML, and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks or inbound links is another SEO tactic.
Benefits of an SEO-Friendly Blogging Strategy
A high link popularity will result in your blog being crawled more often by the search engines. As long as your blog has good content, this will result in higher rankings. Higher rankings will bring more traffic to your blog, and with a higher relevance due to an effective blog strategy, this traffic is more likely to convert.
Posting to forums can also provide relevant links. Be careful, as too much linking from irrelevant sources can actually harm your blog. You can also provide link exchanges with other relevant blogs. Ask yourself “will my readers find a link to this site valuable?”. If the answer is yes, it may be a good link exchange.
Another benefit of an effective blog strategy is the increase in link popularity and search engine rankings. You can increase your blog’s link popularity by making sure there are links from other sites to your individual blog posts. For example, you may have recently completed a study that can provide valuable information to your readers. Email the findings to someone in your field of study, ask them to comment on your study, and also to post a link to your study on their own site. This can provide you with a relevant link from a trusted source.
An effective blog strategy will also help by providing your readers with content that satisfies their needs. This will possibly increase the satisfaction of your readers, encouraging them to return to your site.
An effective blog strategy will help by improving your blog’s relevancy. This will make your blog easier to find in the search engines, and also make it easier to find by your site visitors. This will result in increased traffic and the potential for more conversions.
An effective strategy will help your blog by thoroughly targeting your core audience and improving your blog’s relevancy. By identifying your target audience, you can use your blog to direct the right visitors to your website. This increase in relevant traffic will boost your conversions, as well as the satisfaction of your readers.
There are several benefits of creating a blog strategy that is friendly to search engines. By following this guide and implementing the recommended techniques, you can increase your blog readership and make your blog a more effective and fulfilling venture.
Keyword Research and Optimization
After you have applied on-page optimization to your content, focus on off-page optimization by including the keyword in the anchor text of text-based hyperlinks that point back to your site. An example of a text-based hyperlink is: HTML Goodies, rather than using your URL as a plain text link. Off-page optimization is currently one of the biggest factors in search engine rankings. A combination of on-page and off-page optimization should help to obtain higher search rankings and increased traffic.
Once you have chosen the correct keyword phrases, the next step is to incorporate these keywords into your content using on-page optimization. On-page optimization is essentially how you craft your content so that it is as attractive as possible to search engines. You need to make sure that your keywords are contained within the title of the post, as well as headers and subheaders throughout the content. The location of the keywords also plays a role in optimization. Keyword prominence is a measure of how close to the beginning of a block of text your keyword is. Placing your keywords at the beginning of content increases their prominence. Keyword density refers to the number of times your keyword appears on the page, compared to the total number of words on the page. Keyword frequency is a measure of how often a keyword phrase is used in content. All of these factors need to be observed in order to properly optimize your content for these keyword phrases.
Keywords are essentially the backbone of any SEO strategy. A keyword is what you want to be found for, and it should be selected based on what phrases people are already using to find your type of product or service. It is no use optimizing for a phrase that no one is going to search for. The first thing that you need to do is conduct keyword research. Start out by brainstorming a list of all the keywords you think are relevant to your blog. Using this list, try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about what they would be likely to search for in order to find your type of product. You can then use this list of phrases with a keyword research tool to find out how many people are searching for these phrases and what other related phrases people are using. I suggest using Wordtracker, as they provide detailed information on multiple keyword phrases for a number of different search engines. Once you have gathered this information on your list of keywords you can compare the search count and other data in order to determine which keywords to write content for. Make sure that you don’t try to optimise your website for keywords that are too generic, as this can be difficult to compete in against more established competition. An example of a generic keyword phrase might be something like “Real Estate”. A longtail alternative may be “Real Estate in Perth”. Although the search count for the latter keyword phrase is significantly less, it would be easier to compete in this market and the traffic would be more targeted. Targeted traffic often results in a higher conversion rate.
Conducting Keyword Research
If you do not get much traffic to your site, there are other tools that can be used to find what keywords you should target. One easy-to-use tool is the Google search bar. Simply start typing a search query into the search bar and do not press enter. Google will provide you with a dropdown of the most popular searches based on what you have typed. This is a good way to brainstorm new keyword ideas based on what is popular. But the most effective method to find keywords that will have an impact on your search engine traffic is to use a keyword tool that will provide you with data on the search volume and competition level for specific keywords. The best and most used keyword tool is the Google AdWords keyword tool. It is a free tool that will give you a variety of data on keywords to help you determine which ones are worth targeting. Keep in mind that data from this tool will only be accurate for those with an AdWords account. An alternative is to use a subscription-based keyword tool. Subscription tools typically provide you with more data to improve your keyword decision-making.
To conduct keyword research, there are a variety of tools you can use. First, start with whatever tool you currently use to monitor your website traffic. The goal of keyword research is not only to improve visibility to search engines but also to drive targeted traffic to your site. Long-tail keywords will provide more targeted traffic, so finding ways to improve rankings for specific long-tail keywords that are already bringing traffic to your site is a good strategy. Look in your tools for search queries that are already bringing visitors to your site.
Keyword research is the process of finding the right keywords to focus on in your blog to drive traffic from search engines. Usually, you want to focus on long-tail keyword terms. Long-tail keywords are 3-4 word phrases that are very specific to what you are selling. They are one of the best ways to bring targeted traffic to your website. Slightly less than 70% of all search queries are 4 words or longer, so there is a lot of search traffic to be had from targeting long-tail keywords.
Incorporating Keywords into Blog Content
By incorporating researched target keywords into your blog posts, you can increase the likelihood of your blog being found in search engine results that match your content. Researching keywords and using them effectively is an important aspect of any SEO campaign. It is essential to target relevant and attainable keywords. Relevance is important so that you target a subject that your blog is about and that you reach the right searchers. Attainable keywords are the ones that you have a realistic chance of ranking high for. Trying to compete for popular single word keywords, such as ‘blog’, is not realistic for a new blog. Long-tail keywords, such as ‘create a blog’, are less popular but have a higher probability of success due to lower competition. All keywords have different levels of competition. It is important to assess your blog’s competitive level in comparison to the competition for each keyword. You should assess your blog’s competitive strength with Link-based Competitive Analysis and apply the use of competitive keywords to your blog. It is also important to review and track your keyword rankings and assess changes in keyword search volume and organic traffic. This enables you to evaluate the effectiveness of the keywords you are targeting and make adjustments to your keyword strategy as necessary. A familiarity with your audience is important for targeting specific keywords and adjusting to meet the needs of your audience.
Optimizing Meta Tags and URLs
Since meta tags are contained in the HTML code, they do not show up on the page. Instead, they provide a method for webmasters to convey information to search engine robots about a page. The first thing to consider in writing meta tags is the title tag. Not only is this the most important tag, it is perhaps the most important aspect of a page’s on-site optimization. In most cases, the title of a page will be the text displayed in the top border of the window and is also used as the title of the page when a user bookmarks it. Very simple yet often overlooked, each page should have a title. It is a good idea to include the name of your company or site in the title, as well as use one or two target keywords for that page. Remember that the title tag is what the users will see when they get the search results – it needs to be enticing to the user to act as a call to action and click on the search result. The meta description tag is similar to the title tag, but instead of the description showing up in the URL border, it is the text displayed in the search results and acts as a brief description of what the page is about. This is another chance to entice the user to visit the website, so it is important to be clear and descriptive. The meta keywords tag is no longer used by search engines to determine how relevant a page is to a search term. Because of keyword stuffing, it is a tag that has been abused and is now ignored by most search engines. However, it is still a good practice to include it just for the purpose of keeping track of what keywords you have used on a page.
Content Creation and Organization
On-page SEO is 90% common sense. Creating high-quality and engaging content is, of course, very important in maintaining a successful blog. It keeps readers on the pages for longer and increases website activity, which, in turn, improves rankings on search engines. Take the time to make quality content, and quality results will echo this effort. Revising old articles to keep the content up to date also pays off in the long run and is an easy way to better page rankings. On-page SEO is often overlooked by many beginner bloggers. Using heading tags such as H1 and H2 is a simple way to assign weight to the content trying to be found. H1 tags have been said to improve search engine rankings when they relate to the search query. Take caution not to abuse tags and only use them when it is logical to do so. Using bold or italics on key content is another way to assign weight to text. Internal linking is another of the more straightforward SEO tactics. It is the process of linking one’s own pages. In the event of creating a new article, it is wise to add links to previous articles if they are relevant. Not only is this beneficial for search engines in assigning a link weight to the content and increasing the page rank, but it also helps readers find other articles and increase web traffic on older pages. A good way to keep these links structured is to make use of a plugin that can add related posts to the article.
Creating High-Quality and Engaging Content
In the instance of a small business blog, the tone may be friendly and chatty, whereas content for a financial services website targeting professional individuals will be more formal. The main aim of creating quality content is to generate user satisfaction. The new algorithm changes Penguin and Panda are focusing on achieving user satisfaction through high-quality content, and the visibility in the SERPs of websites with low-quality content is set to decrease. Optimizing posts to include local terms is also very beneficial. This can really help small businesses target local customers and can also differentiate the keyword competition. High-quality content featuring local terms can really improve a blog’s effectiveness and enhance the potential for state-of-the-art off-page SEO.
The content on a blog should be interesting, informative, valuable, and relevant to the target audience as well as the overall purpose of the blog. High-quality content will make a blog more appealing and increase the likelihood of it being shared, and enhancing the website’s authority through link building on the blog posts. It is also important to consider the language used in the content. Blogs are a chance to show the personality of a brand, and therefore content should be written in a tone that is in line with the brand’s identity and that will resonate with the audience.
Organizing Blog Posts for SEO
Organization of a blog post is important for several reasons. First and foremost, it’s very beneficial for your readers. They are better able to understand the message of the post when it is well-organized. Also, a well-organized post is better for your search engine rankings. It’s easier to use your keywords in headings when you have a clear idea of the topic of each section. This is also true for the use of heading tags – it is easier to “theme” your post with keywords using H2 and H3 tags. Finally, well-organized posts are easier to link to. A Trackback or simple link to a post is more valuable if it links to a specific post, rather than to your blog’s front page. A well-organized post may mean the difference between getting a link to an individual post, versus getting a link to your blog’s front page. When you write a new post, often your first idea is the best idea. It’s good practice to stop and take a moment to think about the structure of your post before you start writing. What is your main point? What are the key details or examples you should include to illustrate your main point? What other points do you need to cover in order to make it flow well? A simple bullet point list of your main points can suffice as an outline for many bloggers. Remember, a little bit of thought now can save a lot of rewriting later.
Utilizing Heading Tags and Internal Linking
Internal linking is linking one page of your website to another page on the same website. This is a very important part of SEO as it allows for visitors to navigate your site easier. In addition, proper internal linking also enables for the spread of link juice, a terminology used to convey the relevance and authority of the source page to a search engine. This will in turn allows for better indexing of your pages. An example of an effective way to utilize internal linking would be to link the same keyword phrase to another page on your site. This method will allow for that particular page to rank better with that keyword because of the link.
The other method of optimizing your blog’s content with heading tags is to use them for increasing accessibility. Making your subheadings more search engine friendly is never a bad idea, but the real benefit is to your readers. A more organized post that is broken into sections with several subheadings is easier to skim and is more likely to be read in its entirety.
Heading tags are as simple as employing the HTML tag to pinpoint headlines in your content. The best way to utilize heading tags is to make sure that the heading of your post includes the most important keyword relevant to the content. Subheadings should also include relevant keywords in order to allow for better indexing when visitors are seeking information. Do not abuse heading tags, as it can have a negative impact on your search engine ranking. What we mean by this is having everything as a heading tag is not a good idea. It needs to be used for the.
Implementing Image Optimization Techniques
Using images is a great way to capture your readers’ attention. Images can also make your blog more interesting and it can help with brand recognition. One of the biggest challenges in image SEO is making sure that the image is found in a search engine. When people are looking for a topic and an image is relevant to it, the image could appear in the image search results and link back to your site. To improve image search results, the image filename and alt attribute text can both describe the image well. The title attribute can be useful as well at times, though this isn’t required. What does this mean? This means that when we save the image we can name it something that is relevant to the image and the page it’s on. For example, if you had a picture of a big orange cat, you might want to name the cat picture “big-orange-cat.jpg” something that is much more relevant to the image and the content of the page, instead of it being named “IMG00023.jpg”. The alt attribute is used to describe the image when the image isn’t shown. Usually, this occurs when the image has failed to load or when the user is using a screen reader. This is also used by search engine crawlers and it’s also used for the visually impaired. Because of the alt attribute’s annotation/correlation with search engines, using descriptive text in the alt attribute can result in the image being shown in the image results. This can increase traffic to the blog as well as bringing in new readers.
Promotion and Link Building
To cultivate a different type of blog promotion, think about promoting blog posts using different tags and submitting to bookmarking sites. Make sure to vote up your own blog posts! Another way to promote your new content is to create a Hub on Hubpages and Squidoo Lens involving your blog post topic. Having recently experimented with these two sites, the traffic to my blog from each of these sites was not only free, but the quality of the visitors was great. Each of these sites allows you to create content-rich pages entailing text, photos, and videos. A great way to promote a blog post is writing a related article to your post topic and including a link to the post within the article. Let’s not forget about the potential traffic a well-written and descriptive press release could bring to your blog. A great place to submit a press release is going through PRWeb. The traffic from a press release usually doesn’t come immediately, but later from current or potential clients researching your product.
Promoting Blog Posts through Social Media
Through social media, bloggers can promote their posts to a much wider audience than if they just used their own network of family and friends. Ideally, these blog posts will get picked up by other bloggers and webmasters and linked to – which will help to build natural links in an ideal SEO scenario. This isn’t as easy has it seems, some self-promotion can be seen as spam, so it’s necessary to be subtle and tactful. An interesting or controversial post has a much better chance of being widely shared, as does a post that solves a common problem. If you’re trying to sell an affiliate product, it’s usually a bad idea to link directly to a sales page. It’s better to link to a review or presell page. Using a landing page will help to presell the click here – directing the visitor to an informed decision to improve the chances of a sale. Overall, the key to success with social media is effective use of time. A good blog post can be promoted for weeks, and an effective system can bring a steady stream of traffic to a website. It’s often more effective to outsource the promotion of a blog using services from other social media experts.
Building Backlinks for SEO
“Do follow” links are any links that don’t have a “no follow” tag. They are what you want to gain for your site as they pass on “link juice” to your site, increasing its credibility and improving your search ranking. Step 3 in section 4.2 of this guide provides information on how to check what type of backlinks your site currently has.
A “no follow” link contains a tag that instructs search engines not to pass on any “link juice” or credibility to the other site. These links are usually placed on sites that contain user-generated content such as forums and blog comments. They are also commonly used on paid advertisements and sponsored links. Although these links won’t improve your search ranking, they do still generate traffic to your site, so they are still worthwhile.
A backlink is when a website URL is placed on another site. It can be placed as an image, a hypertext link, or a specific keyword. There are different types of backlinks, and it’s important to know the differences between them in order to implement an effective backlink strategy.
Backlinks are one of the most vital tools for increasing your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As explained in section 2.2, they are now a crucial tool to rank in search results, which makes quality backlinking a great tactic to increase your blog’s exposure and to draw in the right audience.
Guest Blogging and Collaborations
Guest blogging can be a great way to generate links. The idea behind guest blogging is to write a blog post on another blog as a guest. This method helps both bloggers and has been a proven way to generate links. The blogger who is writing the article will get to include one or two links to his/her own website. The host blogger will sometimes allow the guest blogger to have a say in including the anchor text of the link. The host blogger gains because there is a good chance that the post will be announced to the guest bloggers’ subscribers. This link building technique is great because it is a way to get one-way backlinks. Usually, these links are of high quality and you will often have control over the anchor text.
When businesses write about each other and feature the link to the other company, the post is bound to get backlinks. Promoting a company, product, or service using a relevant blog post is a great way to get backlinks. When a blogger writes about an article from another company and links to that company, there is no longer a need to leave a comment. A Trackback link will be created. This will alert the blogger that there is an article that is related and he may want to link to. Trackbacks are visible links created on a blog post that will lead to another blog or website containing a similar post. A trackback link is similar to a comment in that it is a way for a blogger to view who is linking to their articles.
