Tag Archives: search engine

Marketing

Step by Step on How to Optimize Any Content for Search Engines

Search engine optimization is arguably the most crucial part of the content game, after content itself. Search engines and content are two peas in a pod; your audience uses search engines to find the answers you create content to provide. If you’re not visible on search engines, your ideal audience can’t see the great content you’ve put out or convert to paying customers.

Search engine optimization is what you need if you’re trying to bring in new audiences; remember, great content is nothing if it doesn’t reach the people who need it. Moreover, more reads mean more leads and ultimately, more money for you. If your content keeps coming up when people search for related keywords, they’d be more inclined to trust and patronize you. In this article, we show you how to optimize content for search engines in a few easy-to-apply steps.

Create Your Content Strategy with SEO in Mind

A common mistake people make is that they create good content strategies but leave out search engine optimization. SEO isn’t just a promotional tool to bring in after you’ve created content; it should be the basis of your content strategy.

A good content strategy is premised on keyword and user intent research to find out what your target audience wants, what they’re likely to search for, and how you can meet these needs. When your content strategy begins with this, it’ll be much easier to create optimized content and rank on Google’s algorithm.

Create High-quality Content

After you’ve created your SEO based content strategy, the next step is to create high-quality content that’s relevant to the keywords you use. To calculate the relevance of your post and rank it, Google’s algorithms also check user experience and how long visitors stay on your page. If users typically leave your page within a few seconds of opening it, Google will mark your page as being irrelevant and give it a low rank.

Pro Tip: When you create high-quality content, your readers are likely to share it with their network, contact you for further information, and be willing to pay for your services.

To create high-quality content, pick out 1-2 long-tail keywords (more on this below) to center your post on. With the keywords in mind, you can create organically optimized content. When you have a clear and narrow topic – because you’re answering a particular question instead of writing broadly – it’s easier to create content where the keywords flow naturally.

Incorporate Long-tail Keywords that Match the User Intent

Ranking on SEO isn’t about using as many keywords as possible; in fact, using many keywords can hurt your SEO because Google considers this keyword stuffing, i.e. using many keywords to aid ranking. Using many keywords also takes away from the user experience, which is something Google uses to check if you meet the needs of your visitors.

What you want to do is focus on a few long-tail keywords (phrases with 3-4 words) that your reader is likely to search. This helps you keep the focus of your post narrow enough, so you spend your time optimizing for a few keywords and keep you focused on answering a particular question your reader has.

When you focus on long-tail keywords – which are usually question based – you’re more likely to attract visitors who will read your entire post, and have a higher chance of converting and earning you money.

Include the Chosen Keywords in Specific Areas of Your Post

There are certain essential areas of your post where you should include your keywords; these are your Title tag, URL, meta description, headers and body.

Your title tag is the first contact the Search Engine, and the readers have with your post. It’s how they know if your post is relevant to the search. Google’s algorithms cut off your title tag after the first 60 characters, so ensure you put the keywords in the first 60 characters of your title tag.

Your URL, unique to every post, is another thing search engines look at to know what your post is about and rank it. Take advantage of your ability to customize your URL to optimize it for SEO by including as many as two keywords in it.

A meta description is the short description of a page that comes up on SERPs. This can be a section of your post with the relevant keyword or a specially curated summary. When writing your meta description, include your long-tail keywords, try to answer the question the reader is asking without giving so much away that they don’t need to open your page anymore. Also, keep in mind that meta descriptions are cut off after the first 300 characters so keep your copy straight and to the point.

Your keywords should be included in your headings and throughout your copy in organic ways that won’t come across as keyword stuffing and get you penalized. Focus on providing the information your readers need, and you’ll find that the keywords flow naturally into the text, whether directly or with synonyms.

Create Keyword Clusters

Since you’re focusing on 1-2 long-tail keywords per post, you won’t be able to speak about a topic in one post completely. This is where keyword clusters come in. What this means is that instead of having several posts with similar keywords who’d have to compete for ranking, you’d have a group of posts with the same primary keyword but different long-tail keywords, so they don’t compete for ranking on the same SERPs.

Using keyword clusters also drives traffic to several pages on your blog with just one search. How does this work? Well, the posts in the cluster – since they answer specific questions regarding a broad topic – would link to each other. Therefore, if a reader wants to know more, he’d be inclined to click on the hyperlink to your other posts. In essence, you’re getting views on several posts from one search engine query.

Conclusion

Optimizing your content for search engines is like the proverbial journey of a thousand miles; it begins with your first step. It can seem like a daunting task, but once you start, it gets easier. Remember to keep the focus on creating content your readers want to see and not on search engine visibility. Once you provide useful content and implement the right strategy, visibility is sure to follow.

Internet, New

Why Your Site Desperately Needs Search Engine Optimization

You have probably heard about search engine optimization (SEO). From a scientific point of view, search engine optimization is a series of steps aimed at increasing the site’s search results. By using SEO, you can list new user sites quite high on search engine sites. High-ranking websites can be found on the first available search engine page, while lower-ranking websites can be found several pages down.

Today, Internet users are impatient and refuse to search for information for more than a few minutes. Content that cannot be found is useless. Your site needs information that can be found easily. According to HigherVisibility, it is important for online companies to optimize their website SEO.

6 Important Elements of SEO

• Your Target Audience & Niche

• Research Keywords

• Intent of User

• Analytics and Reporting

• Mobile and Technical  SEO

• Crawling and Indexing

Why optimize your company’s SEO?

The Internet has been used mainly to collect information, but the situation has changed significantly. The growing number of Internet users and new technologies is a good marketing tool with many other factors. The growth of e-commerce, for example, shows that Internet technology can benefit website owners.

For any Internet user seeking similar goods or services, online advertising may be useful. Statistics show that more than a third of Americans are Internet users. With an online presence, a company is more attractive and accessible to the public. Consider this, there may be thousands of people every day looking for your products, but because your website lacks SEO, they buy from your competitors instead of you.

This is not necessarily because your competitors are better, their site has just found an effective way to top search engines. As hard as it might look, high rankings are not rocket science. Your website can also use search engines to get lots of traffic. It only requires a little optimization.

Does my site have to be the first result on search engines?

The answer, yes. There are many reasons why you need your site to rank in the top 5 sites. First and foremost, being highlighted on search engines in this way links your business to being one of the most famous companies in your city. A customer often gets a great first impression and can plan to visit your business based solely on the visibility of your site.

Your prestigious rank gives customers greater confidence in your company, even if they have never experienced your service personally. This method seems stereotypical but works almost 100 percent of the time. That is why SEO supports and often uses this stereotype to its advantage. Major sites are usually seen as the most prestigious company with the best service.

Secondly, many people will be interested in a first-page ranking site simply because Internet users are impatient. It is well known that 95% of Internet users do not look beyond the first 10 sites on the results page, so the higher the rank, the bigger the traffic. With a website on the fourth page of your search engine, you’re almost guaranteed to have a failed online business. The fourth page typically attracts less than 2 percent of Internet users. Consistently aim for the top five search results, and you can’t go wrong.

Why does the list of requirements matter?

The optimization of search engines requires time and money and the involvement of a number of experts, including customer experts. Your site cannot be on a competitive market to ensure rapid results. The promotion doesn’t stop, even after a site is secured in the top ranks. The content must be updated regularly.

Search engines also rank sites according to how much time a user spends on a page, but a large amount of text does not attract visitors. Actually, it’s known to do the opposite. Some good ways to keep your visitors’ attention would be to use thematic videos, high-quality photography and info-graphs to divide the articles into blocks. Quality content must be created, but you don’t have to do all the work alone. Experts, authors, publishers, designers, and photographers are available on freelance websites to help you add a new online article with at least 5,000 characters or more every two weeks.

Internet

What We Can Learn from Google Updates to Improve Our Marketing Strategies and Performance

Some digital marketers might yearn for life without Google updates because they think that it would be easier for them to attain the marketing goals. However, is it so? Those who are even slightly aware of the good that the updates can do for marketers would prefer to take its advantage for taking their marketing initiatives to new heights. The updates are the early signs of things to come and the sooner you can pick the signals, gain knowledge and stay prepared; you stand to make good gains in SEO. You will experience improvement in search rankings and traffic flow that promises of higher conversions and sales

Updates will happen

Google has to keep launching updates, which are nothing, but algorithmic changes, most of which are minor and few major ones. The Google search algorithm undergoes regular and continuous changes because of Google’s commitment to serving users with the best experience in searching. Indeed, this is not the only reason because the need to stay updated with the technological advancements compels Google to update the algorithm time and again. On an average, Google releases 500 to 600 updates in a year, and this has been happening ever since its inception. It points to the fact that Google works relentlessly to provide the best platform for online marketers.

Staying updated

The continuous changes happening in the technological arena like the advent of the social media, the popularity of mobile devices and similar developments impact the behavior of users. As user behavior keeps changing, Google adjusts its algorithms to suit the behavior of providing them the best experience.  As a result, marketers receive new directives in the form of updates. A typical effect of Google update resulted in providing a guide for real backlinks when the focus shifted to the quality of backlinks and not its quantity as it used to be earlier. In this article, we have discussed the reasons that prompt Google to release updates. We will also evaluate the benefits marketers derive from updates.

Updates can do much good to marketers

Although there are reservations among some marketers about Google updates, there is no good reason for it. Google wants to keep improving its game and marketers who can adjust to the changes as quickly as possible, would reap the rewards.  There is a wrong perception about updates that marketers look upon it as some penal action, which it is not.  Taking the updates in the right spirit would elevate the marketing campaign, as marketers can derive lots of benefits from updates. It is the unnecessary fear that arises from ignorance that holds back marketers from taking advantage of Google updates.  However, marketers have no choice but stay tuned to the updates or algorithmic changes because being on the wrong side would spell the doom for the marketing campaign.

The motivation for creating high-quality content

Content is the prime mover of the marketing campaign, and it is not for nothing that people consider content as king in marketing.  Despite admitting the need for quality content, marketers often tend to lose direction in marketing and fall back upon low quality and thin content hoping to make gains in link building. However, with the release of Google Panda update, there is no place for any low-quality content in the campaign. As low-quality content drives you nowhere, the update compels marketers to create high-quality unique content that is long enough to provide its inherent strength.

Well-researched, informative and relevant content creates better user engagement, reduces bounce rates, drives more traffic and improves conversions. Long content attracts Google too, as it looks upon it as value providing content that is capable of improving search rankings. In-depth, innovative and educational content that we now see around us is the result of Google Panda update.

Keep the content fresh

Google updates have helped to do away with stale content. Marketers eager to remain in the good books of Google have understood how important it is to maintain a steady pipeline of contents so that they can serve fresh content to viewers. Whenever you publish fresh content on the website, Google not only indexes it but also awards a score for it. To keep earning the recognition of Google, marketers have no choice but keep producing fresh content on a continuous basis that ultimately pushes up search rankings. At least, one new content every week is the norm today.

Increased brand awareness

Some of Google’s algorithmic changes have compelled marketers to give more emphasis on branding.  The trend of stuffing internal links with keyword rich anchor text is now gone. Instead, including brand names in the anchor text has helped marketers to give the brand building exercise a boost.

Updates are good for marketers provided you can understand it in the right perspective.

 

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About the author: Derek Iwasiuk is a Google webmaster who has acted as a guide for real backlinks in several top-notch SEO projects.  His knowledge and experience have helped many marketers to change their fortunes. Derek is fond of books and reading thrillers is what excites him most.

Internet

Searchme Features a New Visual Search Engine

searchme    is a new web service, allowing you to search the internet visually. The company has developed a nice and intuitive search engine that will change the internet navigation and our searching behavior. Like any other search engines, you start by typing the word or inquiry you look for and searchme will offer related categories. Choose any category and the engine will pop up pictures of web pages that answer your search. Just flip between the visual pages and click through. If you need more info, read the short brief at the bottom of the visual results and pick your likable page. Unfortunately, Searchme is a closed beta, but i do hope it will go live ASAP and change the way we search the web. I was lucky to get an invitation and test Searchme, it is new, refreshing and very fast to use. Still, there are many things to improve, like adding more web pages to the engine’s data, increase the size of search results and make them more accurate. Check out the video:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/TsGR5HP2ffw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]