Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the best internet marketing techniques to get website traffic through search engines. The importance of ranking well can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful online business. Although SEO traffic is considered free, the blood, sweat, and tears that go into optimising sites to rank well require long tedious hours of tweaking, optimising, analysing, and marketing. There are a number of SEO applications out there that currently offer some form of SEO analysis and reporting. Many of these apps are free, or their pro versions are very low-cost. Obviously, some are better than others, so here’s a list of five of the most popular SEO Apps:
SECockpit (Search Engine Cockpit) is a keyword research tool available for both desktop and mobile (only for the iPhone). SECockpit generates keyword ideas and automatically gathers and combines keyword mining data with the competitive analysis necessary to make keyword research decisions easier.
Website SEO Analyser App is an SEO tool set available for free through iTunes for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. This SEO app automatically analyses websites and creates a report with a breakdown of both on-page and off-page SEO factors. The SEO diagnostic analysis generated creates a detailed list of recommended improvements for your website.
SEO Search Ranking is an SEO ranking app available through the iTunes app store for iPhone and iPad users. The app allows you to easily monitor the position of your site’s search engine rankings (SERP) for specified keywords. You can analyse rankings for an unlimited number of keywords for as many websites as you’d like. This allows you to quickly access your search ranking information for quick and easy analysis necessary for optimisation recommendations.
WebRank SEO – Is an Android app that offers a free SEO competitive analysis of websites. The app reports back website ranking, sociometrics as well as on page and off page such as site speed, meta data and inbound links as well as other SEO variables to give you a holistic view of your site’s total SEO rankings and, unlike many other ranking tools, it analyses ranking across Google, Bing and Yahoo instead of just Google.
SpyderMate SEO Scorecard is a free Android app created to score any domain based on SEO ranking factors based on Domain Authority, Domain Back links, Traffic Value, Keyword Rankings and Sociometrics. The SpyderMate SEO scores websites’ performance, giving you a snapshot of your site’s overall SEO stats and identifying competitive advantages and weaknesses.
This list could go on and on, but these key apps seem to cover most SEO reporting and analysis needs across the widest variety of platforms. With the myriad of SEO tools available across multiple mobile operating systems, it has become easier for SEO professionals and internet marketers to monitor and analyse SEO data for their websites no matter where they are. The changing face of mobile is empowering marketers to work better, faster, and longer – getting them better results.
The single most important thing you can do to protect your site from Google updates is to have a content rich site that delivers high value to the consumers who visit it. The intent of all Google updates is to refine their search algorithm to promote the sites most likely to satisfy the people conducting searches.
Identify yourself
By linking your blog posts and articles to your Google+ account, you are attaching your name and identity to your writing much like a byline in traditional journalism. These posts and articles are considered more likely to be of high quality than posts and articles that do not have a name and identity attached to them as an author. Additionally, your author photograph appears beside the search engine results, making the link more likely to be clicked on by people conducting searches.
Provide unique content
Create unique content for your website wherever possible. Websites that duplicate content found elsewhere on the web will have their duplicate content discredited for search results. This means that shopping websites especially are penalised if their catalogues are the same as the catalogues for everyone else who stocks the same inventory. WordPress or other blog-based websites should ensure that blog posts use a single category, to prevent duplication within the site.
Diversify anchor text keywords
The assumption behind this strategy is that natural links to a website do not use the exact same anchor text. Some use the name of the website, some use the URL, some use a descriptive phrase, and some use a non-descriptive phrase such as “click here”. Therefore, if you are responsible for creating anchor text links to your website, whether through article or guest blog placement, or through purchasing of links, you should ensure that the anchor text you use is diverse.
Create relevant links
Google considers the general topic of a website as a whole, and of each individual page within that website, when considering whether or not a link from that website is relevant. So, if you are offering guest blogs to gain links back to your website, ensure that both the topic of your blog post and the overall theme of the blog are relevant to your website, and to the anchor text you are using.
Reduce keyword stuffing
Keyword rich URLs, especially keyword rich domain names, are no longer given the weight they were previously. This was an easy element of search engine result placement for scammers and spammers to exploit. Other overly-exploited locations for keywords include internal and outbound links. In general, imagine that your website was created by a third party who is interested in your industry. What would their keyword usage be like? Model your keyword usage on this hypothetical scenario to prevent keyword stuffing penalties.
After the major shakeups in search engine algorithms in 2012, many of the tried and true means of link building no longer worked. Either they were wasted time and money that resulted in no benefit for your site, or they actually penalized your standings in the search engine results. Now that the dust has settled, here are some tips to build quality links, as well as tools to help you do so more efficiently.
Link to the best pages
Using your website analytics, whether that is the free Google Analytics or a service you pay for, determine which of the pages on your website are getting the most traffic now. Which are the ones which people are engaging with for the longest time? Which are the ones that are part of your sales funnel and lead to the most sales?
These are the pages for which links will do the most good to raise the placement in search engine results. You can also link to upstream pages in your website, which then benefit all of the pages beneath it. So, for example if all of your most popular product pages are in the same category, links to that category page will be most productive for you.
Use the best link text
The best anchor text is buried within content, and related to the rest of the high-quality content surrounding it. To get great ideas for applicable anchor text, enter your keywords into UberSuggest. You can also enter “why do” and “how to” with your keywords to find the most common long tail keyword phrases being searched.
By creating excellent blogs and other rich content that feature these terms, you can create powerful links to your target pages.
Link to your links
A single layer of links is helpful. However, what is more helpful is when you send links to the page that is sending links to your page. You can create these secondary links from your main website, or you can create them from blogs or social media. To do so in a natural way, only link to important pages, such as useful blog entries or interviews. A cascade of links might be a social media post that directs people to your blog, where you link to an interview and the interview points to your desired target page on your website. You can control all of the anchor text and keywords for the links down the entire chain, making this very powerful.
Appeal to others for links
Using the tool Followerwonk, you can find people who are active in social media and who care about what you have to offer. Target them for links, by letting them know when you add something to your site that you think they will be interested in. They’re already predisposed to like you, so it won’t take much for them to give you a mention.
The importance of anchor text to search engine rankings took its first major hit when Google decided to penalise websites for over-optimisation of anchor text. As a result, instead of every link to a specific page on your website using the terms for which it was optimised, only about a third of the links could be the specific keyword text. Still, Internet marketing companies adjusted and adapted.
Now, it appears that both Google and Bing are downplaying the importance of any anchor text at all, in favour of meaningful keyword relationship metrics such as co-occurrence. In other words, it doesn’t matter as much what you say about your website (in the anchor text you provide in your blog posts, press releases, and other Internet marketing efforts), as it matters what else you say, and what other people say about your website. They don’t even have to be linking to your website, just talking about your product or company.
Shout outs or streams
One of the ways that the weight given to anchor text is (or may be) being modified is to compare the anchor text with the rest of the text in the article, blog post, or website. If your anchor text is a shout out – a single reference to a keyword that otherwise has nothing to do with the main topic of your article, blog post, or website – it is given less weight than if the anchor text is part of the same thematic stream as the rest of the text. So, for example, if your anchor text was for a specific model of camera, and the rest of your text talked about a family vacation in which you used that camera, it would be given less weight than if the same anchor text was included in an article that talked about how beginning photographers could take the best photographs.
Synonyms
Previously, Internet marketing required manually optimising your websites for every possible misspelling and synonym for your chosen keywords. Nowadays, the search engines have their own lists of synonyms and meaning clusters, developed by analysing which words are found most often together in text samples. So, for example, if the search engines see that the phrases “cell phone” and “mobile phone” are frequently found together, they may decide that “cell”, “mobile”, and “phone” are synonyms of each other. They will also determine that “phone”, “phones”, “telephone”, and “telephones” belong in the same cluster.
It is obvious from looking at results such as the Google Adwords insights that explain where the search volume assigned to a specific broad keyword is coming from, that these assignments are machine generated. As a result, when your brand is mentioned in conjunction with a particular phrase, especially if the phrase is fairly unique, your brand will be considered synonymous with that phrase. Similarly, you can be penalized for using too many variations on the same keyword within your text because the search engines consider the phrases to be synonyms.
Recent tweaks to the Google algorithms that give websites benefits or penalties based on their layout of advertising and information have brought the issue of proper layout to the fore again. One of the reasons that this is of vital importance to Internet marketers is that websites which have been penalised for an improper layout may have to wait until the next time the algorithm is adjusted to have the penalty removed, or until their entire website can be crawled by search engine spiders. This can have a significant impact on a website’s effectiveness.
Top Heavy Content
The goal of the Google algorithm is to put the information people are most likely to be searching for “above the fold”, meaning that they do not need to scroll down to find why Google suggested that particular website in response to their query. This corresponds to the common SEO best practice of using the keyword for which a page is being optimised in the first paragraph of content.
Where the problem occurs is if the content is not the first thing visible on the page. Many affiliate marketers place ads for their affiliate at the top of the screen, since if a visitor clicks on the ad and buys the product, they make money. If a visitor merely reads the information on the page, there is no profit.
The algorithm is designed to counteract spammers, who fill the top of the page with ad blocks, relegating any useful information to the very bottom of the page. Google estimates less than 1% of all web searches are affected by penalising this type of layout.
So, clearly, keeping the webpage completely free of advertising and placing keywords in the first paragraph of content will cause the webpage to benefit from having a top heavy layout. Equally clearly, filling the top of the page with ads and relegating content to the bottom of the page will cause the webpage to be penalised.
Google has stated that they will not penalise websites that have a “normal” number of advertisements above the fold. The question is what constitutes a normal number of advertisements?
Some general recommendations are to use no more than one block of advertising above the fold, and to right- or left- justify the advertising block so that content is also visible above the fold. Another guideline, especially for affiliate marketers, is to add significant improved content beyond what any other affiliate of the same company will have on their website.
By creating quality websites with appealing layouts, not only will you benefit from search engine bonuses, but you will be more likely to engage with and convert your human website visitors so that they become customers.
With search engine algorithms constantly changing, continually altering the way they index and rank websites, how does one approach the increasingly complex world of SEO? The answer, in fact, is surprisingly simple: create good content.
There are certain key elements that, regardless of what other techniques you use to appeal to search engine spiders, you simply must master. Focusing on these aspects of your site will ensure that you meet the basic SEO requirements and that your site ranks well when Internet users perform a search related to your area of expertise.
Your title is the first thing that search engine spiders—and Internet users—will see, so be sure that your crucial keywords are there. Typically, the closer they appear to the beginning of the title, the better it is for your site’s ranking. There are actually two options for adding titles: the one that appears to visitors to your site and the alternate code title in your title tag, which is, in fact, what most search engines actually use. This enables you to create a more catchy and engaging title for visitors and a more search-friendly title for your title tag.
The meta description of your site should be brief at no more than approximately 165 characters so as to be completely visible in search results. You should include keywords in the beginning of the meta description and provide an accurate summary of the page so that searchers can be clear on what they will find if they click on the link.
Your content should be updated frequently. Content that is not refreshed regularly will soon be ranked lower on search engines. This is one of the reasons that blogs have become so popular on many sites. Blogs that are posted frequently are a terrific way to keep your site fresh. Generally, sites with more substantial content—say, more than 300-400 words—will rank higher in search engines than sites with little content. Most importantly for SEO purposes, however, your content must be clearly relevant to your keywords and phrases.
The frequency with which you use keywords and phrases will affect your ranking in search engines. However, you must walk a fine line. If you use your keywords and phrases too much, search engines will think you’re trying to game the system and you will be penalized. The way to gauge your use of keywords and phrases is to look at your overall keyword density as measured against the length of your content. A good guideline is about two to three percent keyword density; anything over five percent is considered stuffing.
Do include relevant links in your content as they will help your search engine ranking. While linking to other sites may seam counterintuitive, doing so shows search engines that you are connected to other content. You can also include links to other pages within your own site and to what is known as anchor text.
Remember, there are many factors that go into SEO, so don’t necessarily expect to have a handle on everything. What I’ve outlined are the basics. They will give you a foundation for establishing a website that will rank well in search engines.
Have you ever been confused by SEO? It seems that every time I turn around someone is offering some sure-fire strategy or service that guarantees results. These services promise to have you at the top of search engines. Companies and consultants are promising to be the best SEO expert that exists. For many business owners and marketers, this leads to a cluster of confusion. They find themselves asking questions that only lead to more SEO lingo they don’t understand and being told what services they must invest a lot of money into in order to see results. How can you get out of the SEO quicksand and know what’s real and what isn’t? A good starting place is three SEO myths that are actually false.
Do it yourself
If SEO is so simple, then why do so many experts offer their SEO services for a fee? If a SEO service provider is worth their weight, they will have solid examples of their work. They will be able to show you the numbers that prove their success rate. Many business owners become so frustrated before asking the right questions that they think they can simply provide this service on their own. This is a huge mistake.
While you can make a dent and increase your rank by consistently creating content and using the right keywords and onsite meta-tags, most of us do not have the technical expertise required for real success with SEO. This is why you need to screen professional SEO consultants and trust their expertise. A tip to keep in mind, an expensive SEO consultant does not equal a good SEO consultant. Do your homework and ask a lot of questions.
It’s all the same
SEO is not a uniform process. What works for one business will not always work for another business. Steer clear of cookie cutter SEO providers. It’s true that general SEO basics do exist, but your SEO strategy needs to be unique for you. Discuss different strategy options with your SEO consultant to tailor a system that will work for you. Keep in mind that SEO does take a little bit of time when it is done properly. You won’t jump to the front of the line overnight, but you will increase your rankings over time. This is the ultimate goal.
I need more linksbacks!
Don’t get caught up on having a zillion linkbacks. While linkbacks are important, you must remember that it’s quality over quantity. Linkbacks only work when you have developed an organic relationship with the sites that you are linking to and the sites that are linking back to your site. Build the right kind of relationships with the right kind of people. This will serve you better than buying linkbacks or putting as many linkbacks into your content as possible.
SEO is an extremely effective strategy to increase your ranking, your visibility and ultimately your sales. Take the time to do it right!
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the biggest things that business owners and web developers have to think about. Not only is quality SEO essential for website recognition and promotion, but the search engines themselves seemingly do all they can to make SEO as difficult as possible for us.
Naturally, they are not actually trying to make SEO difficult. They are just trying to make their search engines as effective as possible. Unfortunately for us, that means constantly updating the search algorithms.
Google has just recently announced that it has a major update in the works, which means that the other major players in the industry will be likely to follow. Today we’re going to take a look at what changes Google has indicated are likely to come, as well as what you can do to change your SEO strategy in anticipation of the changes.
For the last few years, Google has been moving in the direction of trying to ensure that its algorithms match the wants and needs of the people who are actually reading the sites. While this is obviously not completely possible, they are doing their best to try and make the algorithms much more flexible.
In SEO terms, this means that sites which have seen excessive levels of optimization are probably going to be penalized. In essence, if you don’t have much quality content, but you’re writing it specifically so that search engines will like it, then you’re probably going to see a drop in your search engine rankings.
On the other hand, if you’re consistently creating valuable content with your readers in mind, then you probably won’t see any problems with the new update. In fact, you may see you rankings improve as other, more heavily-optimized users drop down in the rankings.
What Google is doing here is hammering home a point that I talk and writing about constantly. Even in the modern internet marketing business, its all about the customer. When you are making your site, the first thing in your mind should be “how can I serve the customer?” If you are serving your customers and reacting to their needs and desires, then you’re in the best place that you can be.
Gaining the highest possible rank on search engines is a crucial part of online marketing. No matter how terrific your products and low your prices, if consumers do not see your website, nothing else matters where online sales are concerned. In order to maximise your online sales potential, you need to be easily searchable using a variety of potential keywords. One of the more common strategies for gaining a better page rank is to gain quality back links. For those that are unfamiliar, back links are links coming from a third party website back to your own site. The more trusted the site hosting the link, the more favourably the search engine will view the backlink.
Article writing is a fabulous way to generate quality back links. If you create articles that provide quality, informative content for Internet browsers, you will find numerous sites willing to host your articles. There are some basic things to consider before you get started.
Where would you like to post your articles? Determining the forum can often help you obtain quality links. For example, if you know that you want to publish articles on a forum like DIY Network, you need to provide articles detailing how to complete do it your self home renovation projects. You will also need to meet their minimum requirements for length and quality.
Quality, grammatically correct and informative content is key. If you provide poorly written, hastily edited items to respected websites, they are unlikely to be posted. Take the time to create content that is well thought out, organised and current.
Current events play a big role in getting published. If your content is related to things that happened six months ago, the immediacy is lost. The more current the content, the more likely it is to be published.
Unique is often better than popular. Many people make the mistake of rehashing well publicised topics. Instead of discussing the same things as everyone else, find unique topics to cover. Online publishers often appreciate have new information to share that is also current, and fits in with their demographic.
Keep the demographic in mind. If is one thing to try and publish do it yourself tips on a home improvement website, but it is another to publish tips on hiring a contractor on a do it your self website. Carefully consider where you are submitting before creating an article.
The more time you put into writing carefully crafted content with solid value for readers, the more back links you will obtain. Larger numbers of back links and back links from trusted sources will quickly improve your page rankings on search engines.
It has been a while since we have discussed search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques. However, with the Google Algorithm constantly changing it may be time to update some of your practices. Certain SEO methods are no longer effective and new methods are coming to the fore. Do not be left behind and see your page rankings drop simply due to inefficient and out-dated SEO marketing practices. Keep in mind that there is a certain amount of guess work to these recommendations, as no one has completely cracked the Google ranking algorithm, but the tracked trends give considerable information to online business owners.
Buying Domain Names to Get Improved Rankings
Historically, buying domain names that matched your targeted keyword phrase exactly would improve your page rankings and thus your position on a search engine results page (SERP). That is changing rapidly. Now, Google no longer uses the domain name as part of the calculation to determine your ranking. While buying the domain may still help gain a few customers, it is no longer the solid investment it was prior to the changes in the algorithm.
Social Media and Why You Need To Have a Facebook Page
If you have not started your social media marketing push, you may want to do so now, before your website drops into total obscurity. The new Google algorithm is placing more importance on social media than before and the number of fans and shares your page receives is having a big impact on your position on SERPs. Ensure that your business still gets first page position by fully participating in social media. Currently Facebook is given the most weight, but all social media is a part of the equation.
Analytics and Webpage Usage Numbers
Another facet of page rankings that is coming into new prominence is the usage numbers of your page. High bounce back numbers can cause a significant drop in your page ranking. Bounce backs are clicks to your site that immediately hit back to return to the search engine results page. The number of click throughs to other portions of the site and the length of time people stay on your site also impact your rankings.
Provide quality content to avoid high bounce backs and use solid marketing strategies to encourage click throughs. Advertise sales and new products on the home page to encourage consumers to explore your site before they search for other providers.
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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the best internet marketing techniques to get website traffic through search engines. The importance of ranking well can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful online business. Although SEO traffic is considered free, the blood, sweat, and tears that go into optimising sites to rank well require long tedious hours of tweaking, optimising, analysing, and marketing. There are a number of SEO applications out there that currently offer some form of SEO analysis and reporting. Many of these apps are free, or their pro versions are very low-cost. Obviously, some are better than others, so here’s a list of five of the most popular SEO Apps:
