3 Ways to Quickly Compare Your Website with Your Competitors – Search Engine Journal

Chuck Price

• 3.8K
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Comparing your site to your biggest competitors is useful for a variety of reasons. First, it helps you find missed opportunities. It also clues you into shifts in your industry which could help you stay ahead of the curve. It also gives you a benchmark for growth goals.

Reaching the top of the SERPs and staying there is more challenging now than ever. Although Google webmaster guidelines haven’t changed much over the years, the core algorithm has.

Thanks to regular updates, in addition to major ones like Knowledge Graph, Hummingbird, and RankBrain, Google is better able to filter out websites that don’t meet their standards and boost up sites that best satisfy those guidelines.

I’m not suggesting that you can “reverse engineer” Google’s algorithm. It’s far too complex. Still, a review of top ranking websites can be a good starting point for determining best practices. At the most basic level, a website can be broken down into these components:

• Technology
• Content
• Backlinks

Here are three ways to compare your site to your competitors to see where your SEO could be doing better.

1. Website Technology

A well-structured website that is fast, easy to use, and easy to crawl should be every webmaster’s goal. You don’t need a specific technology to accomplish this, but if you’re starting with a new site or considering a redesign, it’s certainly worth checking out the competition.

My favorite resource for this is BuiltWith.com.

They provide a ton of technology information, including:

• Web Server
• Email Services
• Hosting Providers
• Nameserver Providers
• SSL Certificate
• Content Management System (CMS)
• Advertising
• Analytics & Tracking
• JavaScript Libraries
• Mobile
• Widgets
• Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Aggregation Functionality
• Document Information
• Encoding
• CSS Media Queries

Website Architecture

Knowing your competitors’ website architecture can be useful in terms of establishing parent and child page hierarchy as well as discovering potential product or content gaps. The best and easiest way to determine this is by creating a sitemap. There are several great sitemap tools available, but if you want a free tool that has stood the test of time, it’s hard to beat Xenu Link Sleuth as shown below:

Page Speed

With mobile devices being the most popular access point to the web, page speed is incredibly important. Google has specifically mentioned it as a ranking factor. The WebPageTest tool shows how you stack up against your competition:

If you find your site is underperforming, head over to Google’s PageSpeed Insights for specific recommendations on how to speed up performance. In fact, even if you are best in class, you should still run the PageSpeed test and address any problems cited by Google.

2. Website Content

Organic Keyword Research

Developing the right list of keywords is still important. Chances are, your competitors have already invested a lot of time in developing a killer keyword strategy. Don’t let all that hard work go to waste. Use this competitive intelligence to drive traffic to your site.

My tool of choice for competitor organic keyword research is Ahrefs. They have a large database of search rankings by website. They also make it easy to determine which phrases drive traffic and their potential for ranking.

In addition to listing keywords and rankings, they also list top pages. Better still,  they include the number of keywords that a particular page ranks for as well as a list of those phrases:

It fairly common to find a single page, like the one highlighted above, ranking for hundreds (even thousands) of related keywords. It can often be much more efficient to concentrate on creating a better version of a top-performing page than to focus on a single keyword or phrase.

One question in the back of nearly every webmaster’s mind is, “What opportunities are being missed?” What are competitors ranking for that you are missing out on? That doesn’t need to remain a mystery. Just plug your competitors into the Content Gap Tool, as shown below:

You have the option of filtering to:

• Show keywords that any of the targets rank for, but you don’t
• Show keywords that at least two of the targets rank for, but you don’t
• Show keywords that all the targets rank for, but you don’t

This is a great way to find both highly relevant keyword opportunities as well as some potentially new business opportunities.

On-page Optimization

Google may not be as dependent on meta tags since the introduction of Knowledge Graph, but having a clear roadmap for both users and search engines is still important. One way to see how your pages stack up against the competition is by using SEOBook’s free WebPage Similarity Comparison Tool:

This tool outputs a comparison of:

• Page title
• Meta description tag
• Keywords (good for competitor intel, not so much for SEO)
• Text and word count
• Top two- & three-word keyword phrases

The most effective way to use this tool is to look for patterns. In this case, each title tag leads with the brand and includes mentions of SEO and search marketing in at least two of the three pages with optimized title tags.

Some would argue this makes you the same as everybody else. That may be true, but if that’s what Google is rewarding, I’m OK with that.

3. Backlinks

There was a time when SEOs would chase after every backlink a competitor had to neutralize the advantage that link might provide. That all changed with the introduction of Penguin in April 2012.

Links that once held zero value suddenly had a negative value. All the garbage links acquired through indiscriminate backlink mining became dangerous to have in a link profile.

Penguin 4.0 is much more forgiving, but who knows what the future may bring? That doesn’t mean competitor backlink mining is a bad idea. It just means you need to use your head and “score” prospective links to determine if they are worth the necessary effort to acquire. (Pro tip: If no effort is necessary, it’s almost never worth getting.)

Once again, I find the Ahrefs Link Intersect tool to be highly effective in mining competitor links. (For the record, I have no affiliation with Ahrefs except for a paid subscription.)

The tool offers two different filtering options:

• Show who is linking to all the targets
• Show who is linking to any of the targets

Final Takeaways on Competitor Analysis

Content and links will continue to be the backbone of Google’s algorithm for some time. Understanding what you are up against and neutralizing any competitor advantages is an important step when developing an effective marketing campaign. Follow that up with the development of unique and useful content and nothing can stop you from ruling the SERPs.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Pixabay
Various Screen Shots: 4 May 2017 / Chuck Price

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-competitors/196681/

On – 09 May, 2017 By Chuck Price

source https://andlocal.org/3-ways-to-quickly-compare-your-website-with-your-competitors-search-engine-journal/

Bad SEO Information: Too Easy to Find, Impossible to Escape – Search Engine Journal

Tony Wright

• 2.4K
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We play in our closed Facebook groups, our message boards, our emails to each other. We laugh at the SEO advice being given by “some idiot” who doesn’t know what he is talking about.

From articles that declare SEO is dead to large sites that still use meta keywords, we sit back in our chairs and gloat about how much more we know and how silly people are for hiring hacks.

In SEO circles, cynically ripping apart what we consider bad advice has become a blood sport. Mercilessly trolling “bad apples” who give out bad advice is considered fair game. And, those who do battle with ninja-guru-growth-hacker fanboys wear their scars like badges of honor.

The Amount of Bad SEO Information Online is Staggering

It’s incredibly easy to find bad SEO information online.

Part of the problem is that the Internet is forever. Bad information posted in 2005 continues to haunt us to this day. (Though honestly, if you’re basing any part of your search engine strategy on an article written in 2005, you probably deserve to fail.)

But what about the stuff that comes at us and our clients with misleading half-truths and logical conclusions that are just wrong?

To keep my faith in humanity, I must believe the authors of this false information have good intentions. I find it hard to fathom that they would be intentionally misleading someone.

But you can only hear claims about how click-through rates affect rankings so many times before your cynicism sets in, and you want to tattoo “causation is not correlation” across your forehead so you don’t have to keep repeating yourself.

Timestamps…Really?

The article that prompted this rant (I won’t link to it because I don’t like ruining lives) indicated that Google looked at timestamps on posts to determine which piece of content came first on the web.

He indicated that if you put a timestamp on your content, Google will see the timestamp if someone scrapes your content and Google will know you were first.

I can understand how, if you live in a vacuum, this seems logical.

But, it’s not true.

Not even close.

And that was only one of the many pieces of bad SEO information this author touted as a fact.

Even the Good Stuff Gets a Bad Rap

The proliferation of bad information, and gut-reaction bashing of it, has gotten to the point where even good information is caught in the crossfire.

Recently, a great article from SEO veteran Roger Montti was lambasted by many on SEJ’s Facebook page. Ironically, the article’s intent was to help SEOs discern good information from bad information. Roger stated that:

“Keywords in headers are not relevant to how modern search engines work today.”

Based on the comments, you would have thought that SEJ was the sister publication of the Weekly World News.

Self-righteous SEOs had to get in their two cents.

Some even posted that they had lost faith in the accuracy of the information in Search Engine Journal.

Obviously, the point of Roger’s article seemed to go right over the collective heads of the SEO inquisition mob.

(Roger is right, for the record.)

False information on the internet isn’t the SEO industry’s only problem, though it’s a symptom of the root illness.

Even more dangerous are the snake oil solicitations that innocent and naïve business owners receive every day.

It’s the Consumers of SEO That Suffer

These e-mails say something like, “Hey, guess what! I bought a tool for $99 that runs a report on your site. It says that 20 of your title tags are too long and you don’t have any Alt tags. Oh, and your PageRank is low.”

OK, they’re not quite that honest, but that assessment is factual. And, they often start with, “Greetings of the day!” Who talks like that?

Look, I expect myself, and my team, to build good enough relationships with my clients that they see these solicitations for what they are – hack jobs.

But many business owners and unsophisticated webmasters (and even some who think they are sophisticated) don’t see these solicitations as spam. They fear that something is wrong with their sites.

Then they hire these so-called SEOs who suck up both dollars and time – and just suck. They have bad experiences that color their perceptions of “the SEO industry,” and I get a prospect who wants me to discount my retainer because they had a previous bad experience.

This has actually happened.

SEOs Aren’t Special

I could rant all day, and most likely, so could you.

If you’ve been in the industry for more than five minutes you’ve read the bad advice and seen the bad email solicitations. But we aren’t special snowflakes.

There’s bad advice about every business segment and industry. Wrong and dangerous advice, even.

My doctor told me the worst thing to happen to his profession is the internet. He’s seen many people misdiagnose themselves to the point where they cause significant harm to their bodies.

As SEOs, thankfully we don’t have to worry about anyone dying. But we do see SEO traffic die all the time because of bad information.

So, we rant, and we commiserate. We make caustic remarks about how stupid people are. And year after year nothing changes. The amount of bad advice grows.

There are still uneducated, unethical people claiming to be SEOs, and our industry still has less respect than used car dealers.

I Tried to Help, I Really Did!

It’s been almost four years since I tried to do something about the bad actors in the SEO field.

Four years ago, as a newly elected board member of SEMPO, I embarked on an ambitious endeavor to create a “search congress.”

The purpose of the search congress was to create a cohesive and enforceable code of ethics for the search engine marketing industry.

My idea was that if we could get search engine marketing influencers to the table, we could come to a consensus on basic ethical guidelines. If we had a code of ethics, we could definitively call out the bad actors – the folks who intentionally abuse unsuspecting businesses, and the people who publish bad information, intentionally or not. And we could start shedding the snake-oil salesman image our industry has had since virtually its inception.

It was a noble idea.

It failed miserably.

Why did the search congress fail?

Was it because the bad actors didn’t want their lucrative schemes foiled? Was it because of a few very vocal people who thought the whole thing was a bad idea? Was it because the egos in the search marketing world couldn’t get past their own arrogance to compromise and work with others?

I wish it was one of those reasons.

The reason the search congress idea failed was because of apathy. Complete indifference. No one was interested.

The search congress site was up until about two weeks ago. The site was live for almost four years. Only four people ever filled out a form to solicit more information.

Lots of people said they were willing to help, but when it came time to do the work, no one was available.

We Deserve Our Fate

Our industry failed to take a step toward cleaning up its act because, in the end, no one cared.

We didn’t put a stake in the ground. We didn’t help the next (or current) generation. And now, we’re lying in the bed we made for ourselves.

When you’re ethically apathetic, you get what you deserve.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/bad-seo-information/198021/

On – 17 May, 2017 By Tony Wright

source https://andlocal.org/bad-seo-information-too-easy-to-find-impossible-to-escape-search-engine-journal/

4 Tips That Will Prepare You for the Future of Search & SEO

Clark Boyd

• 4.2K
  READS

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We are experiencing a period of unprecedented flux in the search industry. But dig deeper, and there are some elements that hold stubbornly true.

Historically, search has been about Google and it has been about text. There has been a shift in this relationship, as voice-based digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa take hold, and search results become much more varied.

The way we approach search has also changed. Search is now central to most marketing teams and it encompasses a wide variety of skillsets. Everyone from the CMO to the creative team to the data analysis specialists has a vital role to play.

This provides a lot of food for thought for modern marketers. Enough for an all-you-can-eat thought buffet.

Just some of the big trends in our industry in 2017 are:

• Voice search
• Hyperlocal targeting
• Personalized content
• Visual search
• Mobile-first indexing
• Multimedia results
• Personalized SERPs
• Keyword-less search

It used to be so much simpler, right?

All of this can be disconcerting. So how can we stay on top of so much change?

If you react to every new, shiny update, you’ll fall into a trap. The faster our industry changes, the slower we should be in our decision-making. The choices we make now will shape how successful we are over the next few years, so it’s worth taking the time to get them right.

There are some comforting constants within all of this exciting flux.

The act of searching has not changed; it depends on an accurate answer to fulfill its function. Search engines are getting better at judging which answer is the most relevant and for that, we should be grateful. The industry has a long way to go, but the path we are on is a constructive one.

Therefore, with one eye on the present and the other on upcoming trends, we can set ourselves up for short- and long-term search success.

Below are four tips we should all bear in mind as we prepare for the future of search.

1. Use Psychology & Technology to Shape Strategy

People don’t change as quickly as technology. Marketers should understand the psychology behind their audience’s actions.

These eternal marketing principles will take center stage once more as search grows in sophistication. It is in understanding the full breadth of potential interactions our customers can have with our brands that we can thrive in this new ecosystem.

The hardware used to find this information may change, along with the search engine used to power it. However, the user behind the query will have the same impulses and requirements they always had.

Sure, the form these queries take will advance in lock-step with technology. We have seen this with longer queries via voice search, for example. We will see this more and more as users tap icons rather than typing queries.

This is exactly why we shouldn’t chase shadows by targeting specific search queries.

Knowing which keywords led visitors to your site is useful to know. It always will be. But from a strategic standpoint, gaining insight into the intent behind that keyword will be much more valuable.

Both quantitative and qualitative resources are required to reach this level of comprehension into consumers.

This is where we can use technology to our advantage.

Your company’s CRM data can be a goldmine. Even the humble survey still has a role to play.

If you want to know what people are thinking, ask them. Combine this with what you see in your analytics and CRO software to get an idea of what truly leads a customer either to engage or disengage with your brand.

Psychology is the foundation of a great search campaign. Technology enables us to create a stronger foundation than ever before.

2. Structure Your Site Around Topics

Taking this approach to research will provide you with a rounded view of your customers’ preferences and requirements. This then becomes a fantastic resource when you consider the structure of your website, as you can build topical hubs for semantically related content.

We have been talking about this way of structuring sites for quite a while now. The logic is sound: Map different sections of your website to different products and services and, within each, cover every point of the consumer journey with different landing pages. This lends itself to a URL structure that is great for search engines and users alike.

This can be extended to encompass your apps and social media profiles, should they be a more fitting home for certain types of content.

What this provides is a perfect platform to populate with a variety of content formats. Informational pages may benefit from videos while transactional pages require structured, clear answers to pressing questions.

Let’s take as our example an insurance brand. Applying this approach, we would have separate sections for each type of insurance.

We can consider the lead product page in each section to be the main content. This is then supported by supplementary content, which supports the main product page by adding further color and guiding users towards an informed decision.

Often these supplementary pages can be migrated from the blog, with some minor amendments. As a result, your product hub will cover everything from [what type of car insurance do i need?] to [get car insurance online].

This adds to your authority as a reputable resource and allows you to nest all related content within sub-folders under the main product.

Wherever the industry takes us in the next five years, this approach to site structure will have merit.

3. Think Beyond Google

Searching implies the requirement for an answer. The transmission of those answers may differ by channel or search engine or by media format, but search is just a vehicle for the information.

In fact, search engines only have access to our information once we choose to put it in their hands. They are not the creators of the content, but they form an essential link between demand and supply.

Google has been a dominant presence in our landscape, although competition is increasing as user behaviors differentiate. And yet, this is driven by a core truth: People are simply seeking new information.

This is important to remember as we ponder the rise of Amazon as an e-commerce search platform, or as Pinterest’s visual search technology evolves. Yes, we should learn how to code Skills for Amazon’s Echo. Undoubtedly, we should know how Pinterest’s “similar items” feature functions.

Nonetheless, this should not come at the cost of creativity. The age of generating content just to fit how we think Google ranks results is long gone. If we try to manipulate our way into a wider array of search engines and media formats all at once, we will lose sight of what is important. Moreover, we’ll have no time left to create anything of worth.

This new era will reward genuine creativity and research over ‘quick win’ tactics. The future of search should actually be much more unified, from a strategic perspective, in the sense that we require one cohesive plan across all of those touchpoints.

That has not always been the case; often we have had to make do with the acquisition stage, which is harder to deliver on when you don’t really shape the awareness or consideration phases.

Where we need to upgrade our skills is in the area of content discoverability. Whether it is through Schema.org markup or creating Actions for Google Home, our focus should be on making it as easy as possible for any digital assistant or search engine to find and serve our content.

4. Devise a Flexible Measurement Strategy

We need to measure all of the above in a more nuanced way, bearing in mind that personalization is still an untapped opportunity.

Much has been made of personalization in search for a few years now, but true personalization is still on the horizon. This will be great for marketers, no doubt.

Personalization will, however, present us with new measurement challenges.

Search results will never be static. So how can we measure our ranking performance?

Furthermore, we need to know how to evaluate the success of our content across media platforms and social networks.

The key point in this area is to accept the importance of flexibility in a measurement strategy. The expectations of a video embedded within an informational page will differ greatly to those of a product launched on Amazon. A piece of content that gets links will be different to one that gets social shares, typically, and those will differ greatly from content that converts customers in volume.

Therefore, the communication of our measurement strategy is just as important as its component parts.

We need all parties to buy into the fragmented nature of search as we move away from being a pure, direct response channel.

This can be a very fruitful approach for businesses and may end up being a more varied and satisfying role for search marketers.

Of course, we need clarity in our data to achieve any of this success.

Hopefully that data will be shared by all digital assistants, which will give us insight into performance across devices.

We should also expect Google to split out voice queries within AdWords and Search Console (a feature they have tested already), which will at least provide a little transparency within voice search performance, too.

By using a unified reporting solution with tailored dashboards for different stakeholders, we can share our successes and learn constantly.

Our industry is changing, for sure, but it is changing for the better. The savviest marketers — and communicators — will reap the rewards.

Image Credits

Featured Image and In-post Images: Pixabay

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/future-search-tips/198579/

On – 19 May, 2017 By Clark Boyd

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source https://andlocal.org/4-tips-that-will-prepare-you-for-the-future-of-search-seo-2/

7 Survival Basics for ‘Fred’ & Other Recent Google Algorithm Updates

Aleh Barysevich

• 3.5K
  READS

A pretty major Google algorithm update hit the web on March 7. This update, jokingly referred to as “Fred” by Google’s Gary Illyes before the name stuck, caused some websites to experience anywhere from 50 to 90 percent drops in organic traffic. Others enjoyed unexpected traffic spikes.

Fred is just the latest in a long line of algorithm updates. Other major updates like Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Mobilegeddon, and Possum have all shaken the SEO world and left SEOs scrambling to survive the next major algorithm change.

Let’s walk through some basics on how to see if any of the recent algorithm updates impacted your site, fix falling traffic in the wake of Fred, and survive future Google updates.

1. Monitor Your Website’s Traffic

You need to keep an eye on your organic traffic numbers. Obviously. But what you might not be paying attention to is how your traffic numbers correlate to Google algorithm updates.

Open Google Analytics or your rank tracking software and scan your recent history for major spikes and drops in traffic. Check the dates of those changes against the dates of recent algorithm updates.

When you’ve figured out which updates have had the heaviest impact on your site, you’ll be prepared to correct any on-site issues you’ve been penalized for. Now that you know which updates have wreaked havoc on your search numbers, read on to see how you can correct them.

2. Fix Ad-heavy/Affiliate-heavy Pages

Fred is the latest in a long line of quality control updates. The majority of sites affected by Fred were content sites such as blogs, which sacrificed high-quality content and a good user experience at the altar of ad and affiliate revenue.

In other words, Fred penalized pages that were thin on content, ad-centered, and affiliate-heavy. In fact, many websites affected by Fred claimed to see immediate improvements when they removed some or all of the ads from their content.

Even if you weren’t affected by the Fred update, you should consider removing ads that intrude upon your users’ experience. Deceptive ads that look like download buttons, ads placed smack in the middle of an article, and video ads that autoplay when users land on your page are all liable to earn your page a penalty in the future — even if Fred missed you this time around.

3. Beef Up Thin Content

Completely demonetizing your website isn’t an option — and it’s not necessary. You won’t see The New York Times or The Guardian suddenly going ad-free or suffering low traffic volume. The sites Fred really picks on are those that are both ad-heavy and content-sparse.

If you’ve been affected by a recent Google update, then it’s time to double-check the quality of your content. All of your content should be:

• Well-written.
• Delve deeply into its topic.
• Completely answer relevant queries.

Download a website auditing tool to help you identify and correct low-quality content. Keep an eye on metrics like word count (which might indicate thin content),  as well as bounce rate and session duration (which are often indicative of user satisfaction).

But remember, while word count is a fast and dirty litmus test of your content’s quality, a low word count doesn’t necessarily mean your content is too thin. Yes, you should be concerned if one of your pages has one link per four words, but sometimes a short page that succinctly answers a question is fine.

4. Prioritize Mobile Experience

Google’s made a big push for sites to provide excellent mobile experiences to their users. They’ve switched to mobile-first ranking, which means they now preferentially crawl your mobile site over your desktop site for indexing purposes.

Recent news from Google suggests that most pages are still ill-adapted to this mobile-first world. About 70 percent of pages take 7 seconds for visual content to load above the fold, which increases user bounce rate by 113 percent. Ideally, you want each of your pages to load within 3 seconds.

Other improvements you can make include ensuring your desktop and mobile content match, using proper viewport configurations, and only using mobile-friendly plugins. Also, be careful about using intrusive interstitials.

If your site isn’t mobile-friendly and you aren’t sure where to start, consider taking the mobile-friendly test.

5. Stay Visible in Local Search

Google’s most recent local search update, Possum, makes it easier for its users to find nearby businesses. Now, the physical location of a searcher plays a bigger role in what results they see, and their results are heavily influenced by their proximity to local businesses and the phrasing of their query.

If you rely on local traffic, this update can be a huge boon for your business. However, to get the most out of it, you’ll need to make sure all of your geo-specific search information is up to date.

Here’s how:

• Create a Google My Business Page: Make sure you categorize your business correctly.
• Ensure NAP consistency across all local listings: If any third parties list your business address, make sure they accurately list your name, address, and location (NAP).
• Get listed in local directories: Use a link building tool to find local directories and get them to list your business.
• Target local keywords: Possum allows for greater variety in similar-looking queries, so make sure you rank for all variations. If you aren’t sure what keywords to target, use rank tracking software to help you find relevant keywords.
• Do competitor research: Spy on your local competition and see what keywords they’re targeting and how you rank in comparison. Use rank tracking software to see what user SERPs might look like in your local area.

6. Remove Harmful Links

The right kind of links — high-quality backlinks from people quoting your content and referring you to friends — are some of the best possible ranking signals you can have.

The wrong kind of links — links from link networks, backlinks from irrelevant pages, and links with spammy anchor text — can result in a manual penalty from Google.

Use link auditing software to scan your site for low-quality links. When you find links that are harmful, reach out to the linking site and ask them to remove your link. If that doesn’t work, use Google’s Disavow Tool to tell Google to ignore those links.

Note that Penguin 4.0, which rolled out between late September and early October is “gentler” than its predecessors because it now devalues bad links instead of harshly penalizing your entire site. Nevertheless, you’ll want to make your website is as Penguin-proof as possible.

If you’re using a social bookmarking service, triple check the quality of the links it’s providing you with. Some users are reporting that as of the Fred update, those services are causing them to fall in search rankings.

7. Provide a Better User Experience

The common denominator in every Google update is to provide your users with the best experience possible. If you keep improving your website with that lofty aspiration in mind, you should never run afoul of a Google algorithm update.

If you’re struggling with site UX, here are a few simple things you can improve:

• Optimize for all platforms: Make sure users on mobile, tablet, and desktop versions of your site can access all of your content and find what they’re after.
• Deliver high-quality content: Correct thin content and low-quality content with useful articles that engage your users as much as possible.
• Eliminate UX barriers: Keep your site clean and easy to navigate. Reduce load times as much as possible. Eliminate intrusive ads and interstitials.
• Make your site structure more logical: Keep pages relevant and URLs that reflect your site’s structure.
• Use an XML Sitemap & RSS feeds: Help Googlebot easily find and index your content.
• Use Schema Markup: Tell users what to expect from your site when they find you through search engines.

Conclusion

Google tweaks its algorithm daily, as Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller recently reminded us, but not all updates are rolled out equally. Major updates have a drastic impact on how we perform SEO and how we earn organic traffic, and we’re always working to stay two steps ahead of the next algorithm update so we won’t be caught unprepared.

Fortunately, surviving an update like Fred isn’t hard when you understand why you’ve sunken through the ranks of Google’s quality algorithms. Focus on creating great content, fixing technical SEO issues, eliminating advertising problems, and delivering the best user experience you can. You’ll be back in Google’s good graces in no time.

Image Credits

Images are by the author.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-algorithm-survival/195671/

On – 05 May, 2017 By Aleh Barysevich

source https://andlocal.org/7-survival-basics-for-fred-other-recent-google-algorithm-updates-2/

4 Tips That Will Prepare You for the Future of Search & SEO

Clark Boyd

• 3.2K
  READS

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We are experiencing a period of unprecedented flux in the search industry. But dig deeper, and there are some elements that hold stubbornly true.

Historically, search has been about Google and it has been about text. There has been a shift in this relationship, as voice-based digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa take hold, and search results become much more varied.

The way we approach search has also changed. Search is now central to most marketing teams and it encompasses a wide variety of skillsets. Everyone from the CMO to the creative team to the data analysis specialists has a vital role to play.

This provides a lot of food for thought for modern marketers. Enough for an all-you-can-eat thought buffet.

Just some of the big trends in our industry in 2017 are:

• Voice search
• Hyperlocal targeting
• Personalized content
• Visual search
• Mobile-first indexing
• Multimedia results
• Personalized SERPs
• Keyword-less search

It used to be so much simpler, right?

All of this can be disconcerting. So how can we stay on top of so much change?

If you react to every new, shiny update, you’ll fall into a trap. The faster our industry changes, the slower we should be in our decision-making. The choices we make now will shape how successful we are over the next few years, so it’s worth taking the time to get them right.

There are some comforting constants within all of this exciting flux.

The act of searching has not changed; it depends on an accurate answer to fulfill its function. Search engines are getting better at judging which answer is the most relevant and for that, we should be grateful. The industry has a long way to go, but the path we are on is a constructive one.

Therefore, with one eye on the present and the other on upcoming trends, we can set ourselves up for short- and long-term search success.

Below are four tips we should all bear in mind as we prepare for the future of search.

1. Use Psychology & Technology to Shape Strategy

People don’t change as quickly as technology. Marketers should understand the psychology behind their audience’s actions.

These eternal marketing principles will take center stage once more as search grows in sophistication. It is in understanding the full breadth of potential interactions our customers can have with our brands that we can thrive in this new ecosystem.

The hardware used to find this information may change, along with the search engine used to power it. However, the user behind the query will have the same impulses and requirements they always had.

Sure, the form these queries take will advance in lock-step with technology. We have seen this with longer queries via voice search, for example. We will see this more and more as users tap icons rather than typing queries.

This is exactly why we shouldn’t chase shadows by targeting specific search queries.

Knowing which keywords led visitors to your site is useful to know. It always will be. But from a strategic standpoint, gaining insight into the intent behind that keyword will be much more valuable.

Both quantitative and qualitative resources are required to reach this level of comprehension into consumers.

This is where we can use technology to our advantage.

Your company’s CRM data can be a goldmine. Even the humble survey still has a role to play.

If you want to know what people are thinking, ask them. Combine this with what you see in your analytics and CRO software to get an idea of what truly leads a customer either to engage or disengage with your brand.

Psychology is the foundation of a great search campaign. Technology enables us to create a stronger foundation than ever before.

2. Structure Your Site Around Topics

Taking this approach to research will provide you with a rounded view of your customers’ preferences and requirements. This then becomes a fantastic resource when you consider the structure of your website, as you can build topical hubs for semantically related content.

We have been talking about this way of structuring sites for quite a while now. The logic is sound: Map different sections of your website to different products and services and, within each, cover every point of the consumer journey with different landing pages. This lends itself to a URL structure that is great for search engines and users alike.

This can be extended to encompass your apps and social media profiles, should they be a more fitting home for certain types of content.

What this provides is a perfect platform to populate with a variety of content formats. Informational pages may benefit from videos while transactional pages require structured, clear answers to pressing questions.

Let’s take as our example an insurance brand. Applying this approach, we would have separate sections for each type of insurance.

We can consider the lead product page in each section to be the main content. This is then supported by supplementary content, which supports the main product page by adding further color and guiding users towards an informed decision.

Often these supplementary pages can be migrated from the blog, with some minor amendments. As a result, your product hub will cover everything from [what type of car insurance do i need?] to [get car insurance online].

This adds to your authority as a reputable resource and allows you to nest all related content within sub-folders under the main product.

Wherever the industry takes us in the next five years, this approach to site structure will have merit.

3. Think Beyond Google

Searching implies the requirement for an answer. The transmission of those answers may differ by channel or search engine or by media format, but search is just a vehicle for the information.

In fact, search engines only have access to our information once we choose to put it in their hands. They are not the creators of the content, but they form an essential link between demand and supply.

Google has been a dominant presence in our landscape, although competition is increasing as user behaviors differentiate. And yet, this is driven by a core truth: People are simply seeking new information.

This is important to remember as we ponder the rise of Amazon as an e-commerce search platform, or as Pinterest’s visual search technology evolves. Yes, we should learn how to code Skills for Amazon’s Echo. Undoubtedly, we should know how Pinterest’s “similar items” feature functions.

Nonetheless, this should not come at the cost of creativity. The age of generating content just to fit how we think Google ranks results is long gone. If we try to manipulate our way into a wider array of search engines and media formats all at once, we will lose sight of what is important. Moreover, we’ll have no time left to create anything of worth.

This new era will reward genuine creativity and research over ‘quick win’ tactics. The future of search should actually be much more unified, from a strategic perspective, in the sense that we require one cohesive plan across all of those touchpoints.

That has not always been the case; often we have had to make do with the acquisition stage, which is harder to deliver on when you don’t really shape the awareness or consideration phases.

Where we need to upgrade our skills is in the area of content discoverability. Whether it is through Schema.org markup or creating Actions for Google Home, our focus should be on making it as easy as possible for any digital assistant or search engine to find and serve our content.

4. Devise a Flexible Measurement Strategy

We need to measure all of the above in a more nuanced way, bearing in mind that personalization is still an untapped opportunity.

Much has been made of personalization in search for a few years now, but true personalization is still on the horizon. This will be great for marketers, no doubt.

Personalization will, however, present us with new measurement challenges.

Search results will never be static. So how can we measure our ranking performance?

Furthermore, we need to know how to evaluate the success of our content across media platforms and social networks.

The key point in this area is to accept the importance of flexibility in a measurement strategy. The expectations of a video embedded within an informational page will differ greatly to those of a product launched on Amazon. A piece of content that gets links will be different to one that gets social shares, typically, and those will differ greatly from content that converts customers in volume.

Therefore, the communication of our measurement strategy is just as important as its component parts.

We need all parties to buy into the fragmented nature of search as we move away from being a pure, direct response channel.

This can be a very fruitful approach for businesses and may end up being a more varied and satisfying role for search marketers.

Of course, we need clarity in our data to achieve any of this success.

Hopefully that data will be shared by all digital assistants, which will give us insight into performance across devices.

We should also expect Google to split out voice queries within AdWords and Search Console (a feature they have tested already), which will at least provide a little transparency within voice search performance, too.

By using a unified reporting solution with tailored dashboards for different stakeholders, we can share our successes and learn constantly.

Our industry is changing, for sure, but it is changing for the better. The savviest marketers — and communicators — will reap the rewards.

Image Credits

Featured Image and In-post Images: Pixabay

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/future-search-tips/198579/

On – 19 May, 2017 By Clark Boyd

source https://andlocal.org/4-tips-that-will-prepare-you-for-the-future-of-search-seo/

Why Focusing on SEO Alone Isn’t Enough

Andrea Lehr

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  READS

“The only constant is change.”

As cliched as the phrase might be, it’s the perfect way to describe every marketer’s relationship with search engine optimization (SEO). Google’s algorithm is continually changing, which means that your SEO strategy is constantly evolving with it.

Luckily, Google’s webmaster guidelines clearly spell out what they’re looking for:

• Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
• Don’t deceive your users.
• Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
• Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.

Note the first bullet point and its emphasis on people. Although your site should be incredibly enticing to search engines, technical SEO efforts can only go so far. Keywords can get you on the front page of Google and drive a ton of traffic, but if these visitors are not turning into leads, you’re ultimately wasting your time and money.

This post will explore why the most effective marketing teams aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket – because they know focusing on SEO alone isn’t enough.

SEOs Bring a Lot More to the Table Than Technical Skills

Before companies even begin to outline a digital marketing strategy, a lot of marketing teams are increasingly looking for well-rounded individuals who can combine an analytical understanding of SEO with the creativity required for engaging content (also known as a T-shaped marketer).

For example, Fractl (my employer) and Moz scraped more than 75,000 job listings and found that the volume of “SEO job” listings peaked between 2011 and 2012.

The study also looked at the hiring landscape on a more granular level to identify the five most common titles for six search queries: “digital marketing,” “content marketing,” “SEO,” “social media marketing,” “PPC,” and “Google Analytics.”

Only one job title containing “SEO” cracked the top five while more generalist positions such as Digital Marketing Manager and Marketing Manager were much more prevalent — indicating that SEO knowledge is a desirable skill when paired with many other marketing competencies.

These insights indicate that more brands are looking at their search marketing efforts through a different lens.

Although a technical SEO strategy is necessary, Google also places weight on the quality of your content.

Alt Attributes Don’t Answer Questions; High-Value Content Does

Keep in mind that the technical aspects of SEO — URL structure, headers, alt attributes, etc. — shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, the above study also revealed that job titles containing “SEO” were averaging more than $100,000 annually.

Clearly, companies want people who know what they’re doing. However, relevant alt text isn’t what convinces someone to stay on your site; quality content does.

The “quality content” debate isn’t anything new to most marketers, but the latest SearchMetrics Report on ranking factors offers a new approach by coining the term “holistic content.” According to the report, holistic content incorporates relevant keywords that are similar to your target keywords in order to answer search intent more completely.

In other words, additional keywords are used to provide more comprehensive content, and if “you write a very good, readable text with lots of high-quality content,” not only will you generate more shares but your site will “rank equally well with search engines for many different keywords at the same time.”

Quality requires you to look beyond an extensive keyword list, though. An easy way to ensure your on-site content is up to Google’s high standards is by actually looking for what would signal low-quality content.

Below are red flags that are in your control and easily managed:

• Broken links: Crawl your site and make sure there aren’t any “404 errors.”
• Inaccurate information: Any sources you link to should be credible, whether they are internal or external links.
• Grammar and spelling errors: Spell check should be the last thing you use before you click “publish.”
• Page load speed: Having a fast-loading site can help you rank higher.
• Comprehensiveness: Your content should answer all questions related to a specific topic.

Quality content also plays a big role in your ability to generate backlinks – an authoritative backlink profile is a key ingredient Google looks at when determining rankings. Sites will link to your content so long as it provides value, and below are three ways to ensure it does:

• Your content offers something unique and original: You’re likely sitting on a ton of internal data that no one else has access to — share it!
• There are actionable tips throughout: Usually someone lands on your content because it provides answers to a particular problem. Make sure they leave with insights they can use once they’re done reading.
• It can stand alone as an evergreen resource: This is the holy grail for content — think laterally so that you answer every question possible, but also make sure it’s presented in a way that’s easy to digest.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that your content should provide answers to real questions. This is what gets others to link to your content — and the more backlinks you have, the more value Google will add.

The Web Is Inherently Social, Which Makes Social Shares Valuable

While mining backlinks, you’ll notice a lot of social shares pop up — and they shouldn’t be overlooked, particularly when you think about how the web works.

People go online to share ideas, maintain relationships, and build new audiences. These are inherent social characteristics, which is why an effective SEO strategy places a lot of value on social media.

SEO alone can’t get your content in front of a large audience, but the increase in traffic that comes from highly shareable content is something Google will reward.

So what are some ways social media and SEO interact?

Social Media Profiles Typically Rank High on Branded Queries

Although social share counts don’t have a direct impact on your site’s ranking (according to Google), social profiles are typically some of the top results when people search for brand names.

For example, when I look up “Adidas” in Google, their Twitter and Facebook profiles rank 4th and 7th respectively, while the sport brand’s most active social channels are highlighted in the sidebar:

Social channels make the experience of getting to know your brand more fun and engaging, but they also let Google know you’re the real deal.

Social Networks Are Search Engines, Too

Facebook gets 2 billion searches per day. That means that a lot of people are using sites other than Google to get answers.

Brands should expand their concept of SEO to extend beyond traditional search engines.

Remember – social channels actually can serve as the initial source of information about your brand.

Amplify Your Content With Paid Social After the Initial Launch

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have paid amplification options that can help you reach larger audiences, and considering more than 75% of B2C marketers are using paid social, it’s definitely a tactic worth investing in on your best content since these platforms tend to be a bit of an echo chamber.

Both SEO and social both help to build your brand identity to naturally attract visitors.

However, what social does that SEO can’t do is get your content in front of a much larger audience organically — which indirectly generates more backlinks and referral traffic that will help you rank higher.

URLs Draw Attention, but CTAs and Automation Drive Conversions

If you decided to focus solely on the more technical SEO tactics we’ve looked at up to this point, you could generate more traffic (albeit not as successfully). However, more visitors means nothing if people aren’t converting, which is why you can’t forget about how the sales funnel impacts your inbound strategy.

You can think about the sales funnel as three steps:

1. Be Seen. This is where all of the tactics we discussed earlier come into play. More than 80 percent of consumers use a basic online search to find out more about a brand, and an SEO strategy that combines a mix of on- and off-site content is crucial to optimize your search rankings.
2. Build Trust. This is where quality content kicks in. Providing valuable on-site content is how you distinguish yourself as a thought leader in your industry (and generate emails if you gate it).
3. Convert Leads. Once you have the traffic and authority, you need content that is on brand and connects your business goals with the needs of your consumers.

SEO helps a lot with the first step, but engaging your audience is what pushes them further down the funnel.

One way to drive engagement is through CTAs, or calls to action. CTAs can range from entering an email address to making a purchase.

Regardless of what you want, the important part is that your CTA clearly tells someone what you want them to do. You’ll find a great example if you scroll down to the end of this post:

Another way to drive conversions is through automated email workflows.

Although blasting your subscriber list with the subject line “content marketing agency services” won’t help you rank any higher for that term, the email should include resources that your target audience will find useful — an essential element for any high-converting content.

There’s also a hidden bonus to email marketing.

A newsletter, for instance, can include widgets that allow readers to easily share content on their social channels. This can help drive the top-of-the-funnel awareness we looked at a bit earlier.

The regular email activity generated by automated workflows like newsletters is what encourages people to share your content with others. More shares means more people potentially seeing and engaging with your content, which improves the chances that your content will rank higher.

SEO Is Essential, But Ineffective in a Vacuum

Google’s algorithms are constantly changing. These changes are out of your control, which is why an effective marketing strategy shouldn’t focus solely on SEO.

You need to think of SEO as a companion to your social and content strategies.

Your ultimate goal should be to answer your audience’s most pressing questions through valuable content — and in return, they’ll reward you with more traffic.

Image Credits:

Featured Image: Pixabay
Screenshots by Andrea Lehr. Taken May 2017.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-alone-isnt-enough/196867/

On – 16 May, 2017 By Andrea Lehr

source https://andlocal.org/why-focusing-on-seo-alone-isnt-enough/

Mark Cuban’s Advice on Shark Tank Helps Miami SEO Agency Gain New Business | California News Reporter

Mark Cuban’s Advice on Shark Tank Helps Miami SEO Agency Gain New Business

Miami, FL – ANDLOCAL, a digital marketing company, offers full-service content marketing and SEO benefits, helping businesses meet their marketing goals. Mark Cuban, an American businessman, and one of the main “shark” investors on Shark Tank, has helped ANDLOCAL gain new business while helping local business owners grow their traffic, sales, and revenue. By always stressing “SEO” on the “Tank” Cuban has brought to the mainstream the secret to a successful website, thus helping agencies like ANDLOCAL retain new customers.

Due to the technological advances in today’s society, some businesses tend to fall behind when maintaining a professional web demeanor. Because consumers rely heavily on the web, taking advantage of internet marketing techniques and SEO practices are key to a company’s success. Business owners unaware on how to utilize these key factors to their advantage become discouraged when they obtain little success through their online services. They are encouraged to seek a reliable team of SEO providers.

ANDLOCAL Miami SEO brings professional services to small or large businesses who need help managing their online business sites through online marketing and SEO techniques. Their large selection of services ranges from full website redesigns, content marketing, social media, or local SEO. In today’s competitive market, their keen eye for rich online content brings companies an increased number of results. This company delivers quality SEO practices, taking businesses to the next level.

With their small team of experts, they bring increased traffic to business web pages. Every member of their team has an advanced understanding of how SEO and internet marketing works, helping businesses achieve top ranking results. Not only does this company attract new customers to business websites, but they also improve user experience, establish trust, and provide a friendly user interface. Their SEO experts have received quality ratings, rising above local competition.

Since their founding date in 2015, ANDLOCAL aims to further increase brand awareness, drive organic search volume, and drive social signals to businesses. This Miami SEO provider is confident in their work, striving to be the best provider in Miami, while preserving companies budget and ROI. They are truly an asset to companies they encounter by providing lasting results in a short period of time.

This service takes pride in their success to generate new revenue for businesses with their search engine optimization and internet marketing expertise.

For more information, business owners are encouraged to visit them online at https://andlocal.org

Media Contact
Company Name: ANDLOCAL
Contact Person: Elias De Moya
Email:
Phone: 305-322-2753
City: Miami
State: FL 33137
Country: United States
Website: www.andlocal.org

http://www.californianewsreporter.com/story/128985/mark-cubans-advice-on-shark-tank-helps-miami-seo-agency-gain-new-business.html

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source https://andlocal.org/mark-cubans-advice-on-shark-tank-helps-miami-seo-agency-gain-new-business-california-news-reporter/

See, Think, Do, Care: A New Way to Communicate Your SEO Strategy – Search Engine Journal

Christopher Hart

• 2.1K
  READS

 

When discussing SEO strategy with the C-Suite, do you ever experience your audience’s eyes glazing over?

Sure, you can try to explain website optimization in terms of the top of the funnel, mid-funnel, and bottom of the funnel; every CMO has some understanding of that. But that still doesn’t effectively capture the essence of what organic search optimization should be today.

What if I told you there’s a better way to approach discussing SEO with business stakeholders, in a language they can understand?

I’m referring to the marketing model envisioned by Avinash Kaushik, digital marketing evangelist at Google, called “See, Think, Do.” His framework applies to all types of marketing strategies, regardless of the channel. Let’s look at how to apply this framework to discussions around the implementation of optimizing a website for organic search.

Understanding “See, Think, Do”

Discussing his framework in an interview with Acronym CMO Mike Grehan, Kaushik dismissed the age-old AIDA (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) model, as well as the conventional consumer buying cycle of awareness, consideration, purchase, and loyalty.

Instead, he argues for taking a customer-oriented approach based on an understanding of the consumer’s journey. Grehan’s conversations around “intent-based digital marketing” align nicely with this notion.

“I believe when you develop content around intent and think in a more focused way about the ‘required experience’ on the customer journey, you begin to change the voice and the way you communicate, too,” according to Grehan. “You begin to think more of the individual and speak in a one-to-one tone as opposed to the often copied ‘mass media audience’ voice. The fact is, nobody watches the internet. You can’t compare it to the audience-designed broadcast medium. In short: Talk to ‘me’ — not my demographic.”

(I talk about intent briefly as well in this Search Engine Journal post on fleshing out the intent behind keywords.)

“I don’t think about awareness, consideration, purchase loyalty — these standard marketing models, I hate them,” Kaushik said in the video. “So I created a new one. I call it ‘See, Think, Do.’ And what it says is that rather than thinking selfishly as a company, you have to think from a consumer perspective.”

He adds, “Every single person in the world is in one of these four buckets [See, Think, Do, Care].”

The buckets of consideration that Kaushik is referring to happen when an audience is on their buying journey.

• See: This stage is comprised of the largest, qualified, addressable audience
• Think: This stage is the part of the audience that is actually thinking or considering a particular thing
• Do: This stage is made up of that subset of the audience that is looking to buy

Below is an illustration from Kaushik that shows the See, Think, Do framework with the types of audiences that fall into each stage of consideration (with “Care” added for established customers):

In this model, “audience intent” is defined by behavior, not demographics or psychographics, Kaushik said.

So how does this model relate to SEO strategy? Tying it into the traditional way we think about how people search, Grehan compared See, Think, Do to search queries that are either informational, navigational, or transactional in this article.

The difference here is that the SEO of yesterday might focus on simply optimizing web pages with specific keywords from those three buckets (informational, navigational, transactional). Today, See, Think, Do coupled with intent-based optimization is focused on what the audience is trying to accomplish, and bringing in various elements on a web page to help them reach their goal.

Applying the See, Think, Do Framework to Website Optimization

Let’s look more closely at how you might apply the See, Think, Do framework when discussing and implementing the optimization of a website to drive organic search, conversions, and revenue. Keep in mind that when talking about optimization, we aren’t just placing keywords; we’re creating an experience through content and the various elements on a web page.

• See: This includes the larger audience of people online that are interested in something, and relates to the more generic search queries we see, for example, “doorknobs.” In this phase, if you’re in the market of selling doorknobs, you might create informational content in various forms on your website about doorknobs; varieties, uses, features and benefits, installations, etc. Again, we’re thinking about the intent of the audience here.
• Think: Your audience is essentially thinking about a purchase. Your website’s job is to help that decision become easier. In this phase, you might create buying guides for doorknobs. You might also have functionality on your product pages that allow a person to compare various doorknobs.
• Do: This is enabling a conversion on the web page, whether that’s buying a product or signing up for more information from your brand or any other type of conversion you deem important. This is usually facilitated by the elements on the web page (for example, a noticeable “add to cart” button, an easy-to-find way to request more information or talking to customer service via chat, and so on).

Let’s remember that the traditional journey from the top of the funnel to the bottom is no longer linear. Yes, your audience will still likely go through all three phases to get to the conversion, but it does not mean that their actions exist in a silo.

While in the “See” phase and on an informational web page, your audience may benefit from choices in the other phases of the journey, so that they move along at the pace they choose.

As this presentation from McKinsey & Company outlines, the consumer decision-making journey today is much more circular than linear:

See, Think, Do: An Example

Kaushik shares an illustrative example of how ModCloth employs multiple See, Think, Do elements on any given web page on their site:

Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore the New Approach

Without an understanding of what your audience is trying to do, SEO strategies today can fall short, be too prescriptive and too tactical.

When you implement the wrong tactics, you end up measuring the wrong things, too. As Kaushik points out here:

Without great content, and an equally worthy marketing strategy across See-Think-Do-Care, data is almost completely useless. Scratch that. It is completely useless.

In an era where search engines are becoming smarter at identifying the web pages that answer your audience’s intent, you can’t afford not to consider models like intent-based optimization and See, Think, Do. Without it, your chances of visibility online are becoming slimmer.

Plus, approaching your conversations with the C-Suite in a more strategic way when discussing SEO is speaking a language they can understand, and presenting a roadmap they can get behind.

Image Credits
Featured Image: Depositphotos
Image 1: Kaushik.net / See, Think, Do, Care Winning Combo: Content +Marketing +Measurement!
Image 2: Kaushik.net / See-Think-Do: A Content, Marketing, Measurement Business Framework

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/see-think-do-care-seo-strategy/194785/

On – 20 Apr, 2017 By Christopher Hart

source https://andlocal.org/see-think-do-care-a-new-way-to-communicate-your-seo-strategy-search-engine-journal-2/

22 Unique SEO Tips Backed by 22 Renowned SEO Experts

How great would it be if we could gather all the awesome SEO experts in just one room to talk about search engines ranks with a focus on the best SEO tips available out there? It would be glorious! Since we don’t have a room big enough to gather all the best experts in one place, we took advantage of the online “meetings” and gathered all the up to date SEO tips into an awesome expert roundup post. That is how we got the idea of interviewing 22 renowned SEO experts and how we found out 22 awesome and unique search engine optimization tips … the best of them.

 

We’ve got answers from some of the brightest minds about the most actionable tips from the digital marketing world. We’ve found interesting news, insights and really helpful tips and guidelines about mobile optimization, metrics, qualitative content marketing, testing, technical SEO and customer centric websites. These 22 tips are some of the best for small businesses or large enterprises. Make sure you get the best of them.

 

Grab a coffee, sit comfortably and start reading the next list with 22 unique SEO tips backed by 22 renowned SEO experts that will make your search traffic bloom. 

 

1. Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings by Phil Frost
2. Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines by Omi Sido
3. Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics by Danny Denhard
4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO by Paul Shapiro
5. Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable by Sujan Patel
6. Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO by Dixon Jones
7. Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research by Trond Lyngbø
8. Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO by Julie Joyce
9. Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic by Andy Crestodina
10. When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust by Tim Grice
11. Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy by Caleb McElveen
12. If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity by Greg Jarboe
13. Invest More in Content by Eric Enge
14. Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories by Carl Hendy
15. Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis by Marcus Miller
16. Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For by Bill Slawski
17. Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way by Bill Sebald
18. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly by Andy Drinkwater
19. Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free by Mark Porter
20. Focus on Content Quality by Rishi Lakhani
21. Find a Way to Create Attention by Patrick Hathaway
22. Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible by Dan Leibson 

 

We need to mention that all our cool experts had to answer just one-question interview:

 

If you were to recommend just one SEO tip, what would that be?

1. Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings

I’ve talked with many business owners that think ranking high in Google is all you need to be successful.  The reality is that SEO is just one of many tactics to drive prospective customers to your website. Sure, ranking high in Google is great, but it’s also worthless if you don’t have a website that is set up properly to convert that traffic into leads and sales.  Plus, you won’t rank high for long unless you have proper tracking in place and a process to monitor and analyze your SEO efforts.  As you can see, SEO is not just about rankings; it’s also about website conversion rate optimization and website analytics and tracking.  That’s important to understand before you start to invest in SEO.

 

2. Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines

 

Producing content that’s irrelevant and insignificant to your audience’s wants and needs leads to only one thing – people stop taking you seriously. People click on your links in the SERPs but they do not interact with your website and leave quickly – wasted opportunity to turn visitors into customers.

 

 

So how do I find what my buyer persona (not to be confused with ‘buyer profile’) is looking for?

 

Glad you’ve asked, so let me give you some actionable tips. Finding questions that people are asking about your products or services.

 

A very good place to start is Quora. I just went there and typed something very uninspiring like “carrots” (Writing content for a boring industry? No Problem).

 

Some of the questions I get:

• Why are carrots good for your eyes? Does eating carrots improve your eyesight? How?
• How many carrots should I eat a day?
• What else besides carrots can help your vision?

Another favorite place to go would be Answer The Public.

Last but not least, take data from your internal Site Search. All you have to do now is to align a question with a keyword that would bring traffic to your website. To do that just drop a question in the Google keyword planner and you will be presented with an opportunity.

Note: Stay focused and only choose the keywords that answer your original buyer’s persona question.

 

I am sure you already know where I am going. You’ve got the question and you’ve got the targeted keyword. All you have to do now is give an answer in the form of a blog article or video.

 

We’ve started with the customer in mind and ended up with a content that’s relevant to YOUR audience and, at the same time, well optimized for the search engines.

 

 

3. Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics

 

If you track for the right KPIs, auditing will supply you with ongoing changes and help you focus on making the highest priority changes for you to hit KPIs and plan for the future.

4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO

People often neglect testing in SEO, mostly because it’s not easy, but optimizing CTR is a way to get some huge wins. Check out how Etsy is doing it or this recent look at approaches from Wayfair and their learnings.

 I’m talking about coming up with novel ideas and analyses that help move the needle but are less about copywriting and more about technical proficiency. A couple examples: digging deep into semantic keyword research and data mining or dynamically populating title tags using the Google Search Analytics API.

5. Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable

Highly linkable content is content written on a broad enough topic that you can work it into guest posts and other link opportunities naturally, without the article having to be directly related to the content you’re linking to.

 

For example, I wrote a big piece on customer delight – a thorough guide on how to make your customers happy at every point in your relationship. I’ve been able to link to this piece within articles on topics ranging from marketing and sales to operations and employee management. Having a few of these kinds of pieces means you’ll never miss an opportunity to link to your content.

6. Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO

Do not underestimate how important “branding” is to SEO.

7. Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research

Your goal should be to build a customer-centric destination that works 24/7 at attracting fresh business.

 

My company, Search Planet, specializes in E-commerce SEO. I often see even large e-commerce Web shops leak revenue and profit because they’ll mirror their own needs and organizational structure online, instead of focusing on their customers’ needs. So the best prospects don’t find them in search results. Or when they do, they won’t buy from them – but go to their competitors instead.

 

By transforming your online presence to be entirely customer-focused, you’ll cut through the clutter, dominate search engines, draw a flood of targeted traffic to your website, and make more sales.

8. Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO

 

 You could have all kinds of issues that you aren’t aware of and rather than just trying to throw links at the site or find someone to write better content for your home page, put some focus on doing a thorough SEO audit.

 

9. Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic

 So here’s how I think about SEO:

• If you made the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to HELP you;
• If you didn’t make the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to STOP you.

 

Of course, it’s not enough just to make a great page. But it’s step one. Combine this effort with a clear understanding of off-site SEO, links and basic understanding of how to increase your domain authority and everything is going to work out well for you.

10. When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust

The landscape has changed so much, we’re seeing a lot more weight shifting towards user experience, and link building has become a game of trust.

SEOs need to forget about them; there isn’t a metric out there that gives a true reflection of the value of a link, we have come across so many links with good domain authority or domain trust that we would class as toxic websites. When it comes to link acquisition, you need to be looking for trust, and you can only do this through a manual review; is this website the kind of website Google would trust and want to pass value through, is it a trusted source of information? You should then focus on how your links appear on that site, links that look like ads, in the footer or sidebars are going to be less likely to pass value in the long term.

 

We’re seeing a huge increase in the influence site speed has on rankings. We have run a few tests now with clients and are seeing a direct and almost immediate correlation with speed improvements and an uplift in rankings. Make it a priority, work with the development team and ensure your website is as fast as possible.

11. Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy

 

Do not take any shortcuts to buy or build low-quality links. While links are still a ranking factor, that is no longer their sole purpose. An effective link will provide the opportunity to improve three things; your traffic, your brand, and build trust. These are the links that should be your focal point. These types of links are found in building relationships with relevant websites and companies, creating valuable (not just quality) content, and a consistently having a giving mentality. Though it takes times, the reward will be worth it.

12. If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity

 

 

If you just want one SEO tip, then let me share the insight that led me to co-found SEO-PR back in 2003. Hundreds of SEOs optimize web pages hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google search results. And many of them do a great job. But only a small handful optimize news stories, blog posts, or press releases hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google News search results.

Now, the Google News algorithm is similar but different than the Google algorithm. Why? Because inbound links aren’t as strong a signal of the importance of a story. This puts a premium on relevance. But, the big mistake that many SEOs make is assuming that the popularity of keywords used on Google is the same on Google News. They often aren’t. You can see this for yourself by using the Google Trends Explore tool. The default result for any keyword will be web search interest. But you can use the drop down menu to see news search interest. And the trends are often different.

 

In addition, Google says that 16% of searches that it sees every day are new. Well, ask yourself: “Where do baby search terms come from?” And you’ll discover that the stork doesn’t bring them. They are generated by the “news.” So, these are search terms that your competitors haven’t been optimizing their web pages to get high rankings for 15 years. So, you have a better shot of getting your news stories or blog posts (if you’re a news source) and even your press releases to get high rankings for than you would for yet another web page.

Now, admittedly, your ranking in Google News may only last a day or two. But, for near term news and events, this is the opportunity to drive traffic to a relevant landing page on your website. Now, the links in press releases are no-follow, so there is no “link juice” in them. But, they can still drive visitors to a page with more information — if it’s relevant and important. We used unique tracking links in four press releases for Southwest Airlines to generate $2.5 million in ticket sales. And when the CFO asked how we knew that they came from the press releases, we showed him that the tracking parameters on the links weren’t used by any other element of the company’s marketing. And when he suggested that we were merely harvesting interest that had been generated by the company’s excellent TV advertising, we showed him that the releases were for new service to cities where Southwest Airlines had never run an ad. He asked what else we knew. Well, we’d analyzed the database of people who had purchased tickets and found that two-thirds had never flown Southwest Airlines before and that they were generally purchasing round-trip tickets for two people.

 

Now, here’s the punch line: Part of why we got such strong response was the use of the term “low airfare” in the headline and lead paragraph of the press release. But the other part was the actual price of a one-way ticket in the headline — which actually was a “low airfare.” So, it isn’t just about putting a keyword in the headline and lead paragraph.

13. Invest More in Content

 Here at Stone Temple, we have built up numerous case studies of work we’ve done where we have more than doubled traffic to the pages we work on, simply by making improvements to the content on those pages.

 

 

14. Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories

 

15. Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis

It is always tough to provide a generic yet actionable SEO tip that folks have not seen a million times before. What is right for a local business is not right for a national business. What works for a B2B company won’t work for a B2C eCommerce store.

If you create a basic SWOT grid and start to detail your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can start to get a better idea what kind of SEO you need. This is exactly how we work at Bowler Hat and even our SEO service page details how you need to identify what kind of SEO is right for you.

 

As an example. If a weakness was domain authority, then you can focus on that area. Often businesses will have competence in one area or another. They may be great on page SEO but lack keyword research skills. You may have all the content you need but lack authority. It is very easy to focus on your strengths – this approach forces you to confront your weaknesses.

 

So my tip – identify your current situation and focus on your weaknesses.

16. Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For

A lesson I learned from one of the highest level corporate law judges in Delaware was to “be responsive” – Make it as easy as possible for people to answer you and to say yes to something that you are asking. This lesson translates well into SEO also. 

What words they might use when they search for it, how they might construct their query and what words they will expect to see on your pages. Also what questions they might have about the goods or services offered on that website; and the answers to those questions, so that you can provide answers, and begin the journey towards having them become customers of your site.

 

Being responsive means building a website for your audience that makes it easy for them to learn about what you are offering, and easy for them to purchase from you. Being successful at SEO means building websites for your client’s audience.

17. Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way

If I were pressed to give just one SEO tip, it’s to not expect a quick return today (generally speaking).  

 

 

Try testing longer strategies over tactics, and measure each step of the way.

 

Google has made huge changes that altered the way SEOs do their work.  Many of the historic, quick-hitting tactics we wrote into our playbooks have either been devalued by Google or have little weight today.  SEO isn’t for the weak-hearted – expect that it could take a while to move into a position that starts to hit your goals.  It takes diligence, trial and error, and patience.  

 

Google wants to rank the sites that earn their users’ satisfaction. Google isn’t as easily influenced, thanks to new search models and AI that are designed to truly understand the value of a page the way a user would.

18. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly

Google is testing a new algorithm called Mobile First and as long as tests go well, expect this to be rolled out. The reason it is so important is that it will change how Google ranks websites.

At the moment, Google uses your desktop site to rank you on desktop searches – Mobile First turns this on its head because it will base your desktop rankings on your mobile site.

 

So if your mobile site is very poor, or even if you don’t have one, expect mobile first to cause you problems.

19. Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free

When I started out in the industry I was obsessed with consuming every SEO article that was published, but ultimately things really took off when I started launching websites. None of them are particularly successful, but they allowed me to try things risk-free without jeopardizing a client’s campaign. I was able to freely dive into onsite SEO, and I also dabbled in the ‘dark arts’ of link building which of course led to one of my sites being penalized..all fun and games!

 

In order to truly understand how a website works I think it’s important to have some hands on experience, and getting that is easier than you might think. WordPress websites are simple to set up, and building up a bit of traffic can also allow you to experiment with advertising, log file analysis and more!

20. Focus on Content Quality

 It seems that the Google algo is getting better and better at pulling out content and really starting to understand how that content answers a query.

 

Traditionally we used to talk about “content” and used to hammer in content in areas where really there was no structure, for example on product category landing pages in eCommerce websites. That used to be good enough to dominate the short, mid and long tail of queries as long as you had a decent volume of links.

 

My experiments have shown that although you may be able to dominate these queries by link volume alone, you can actually rank better with fewer links if your content quality is decent. And quality means ease of reading, supplying specific answers, breaking it down into digestible pieces, and even semantically layering it. Some of my small affiliate sites are dominating spaces where traditionally massive e-commerce sites used to occupy.

21. Find a Way to Create Attention

 

22. Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible

While SEO is a relatively broad discipline, the technical aspects of it are relatively opaque to many, and there is no shortcut for. On top of that, it is a skill that will likely always be in demand.

 

 

Conclusion

On the long run, search engine optimization will always work, it is just metamorphosed into different forms and approaches. The SEO experts involved  in this article said that every business owner should focus on the customer, valuable (not just quality or unique ) content, testing, in-depth analysis, link earning, mobile responsiveness, creative technical SEO while keeping an eye on the ranking signals and the quality backlinks. There are a lot of Youtube videos or “ultimate guides” to improve your SEO.  The truth is that some grass-root pieces of advice directly from the professionals in the field are always the SEO tactics you can learn from. 

 

The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results. Because nobody might go to the second page in SERP when they look for something. That’s why, from time to time,  you need take into account these kind of actionable SEO tips (directly from SEO experts) and rank higher in Google. Lots of people want to receive organic traffic, write relevant fresh content, have fast loading speed, earn quality links, have authority sites and no Google penalties. Having an SEO strategy, get registered with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, and other digital marketing tools might help you outrank your competitors and become number one. But it depends on you to do the things right; if you follow these SEO techniques backed up by experts you might have bigger chances of success. 

 

Make sure you pay attention to these more advanced SEO tactics but don’t forget about the basic SEO tips for your website, such as an internal link strategy, increasing social shares for brand awareness, building relevant links for your website optimizing anchor text, crawling your site to fix broken links, get keyword ideas, create valuable and relevant content on your site, easy to read blogs with popular content, onpage SEO optimization for long tail keywords, image alt text, compelling meta descriptions and unique titles and descriptions. Also bear in mind to integrate social media into the whole SEO strategy, because it is an important piece of the pie. This blog post is a collection of actionable SEO tips for beginners but also for professionals and we hope you will take full advantage of them. 

 

 

https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13605/seo-tips/

On – 26 Apr, 2017 By Andreea Sauciuc

source https://andlocal.org/22-unique-seo-tips-backed-by-22-renowned-seo-experts/