How to get your website on page one of Google search results

 

Needless to say, the competition in SEO is fierce no matter the domain.
Google’s top search rankings have been dominated by big players. The most popular search terms belong to 15-ish companies that own big networks of authoritative sites linking to each other.
They can pass link juice around and dominate trending keywords in a new niche in a matter of months, leaving almost no space for smaller players.
Not to mention all the SEO junkies that act on every Google update and optimize their sites down to the smallest detail.
As such, making the first Google page for even long-tail, low-search-volume terms can take forever for small businesses, freelancers, or solo entrepreneurs that have sites with a low domain authority (DA) rank and presumably no SEO support.
But there’s a workaround I call “syndicated SEO content”.

My SEO “aha” moment

The other day I was reviewing an archive of my client’s SEO articles and their rankings. A whole lot of articles didn’t even make the top-30 positions because the competition had much higher DA ranks.
Since we were syndicating more newsworthy content to high-profile publications likes Forbes, Business Insider, I thought, “why don’t we try more evergreen and long-form content on those sites?.”
My intention was to drive some traffic to our site in the short term and then reuse those articles for other SEO efforts.
As expected, the articles did drive some short-term traffic. But unexpectedly, we kept receiving more and more traffic from them over time, which was out of the ordinary for those publications.
Then I looked up the articles on Moz…
In the span of several weeks, these articles made it to the first pages for the keywords we optimized them for on our site. And that’s because our media partners had DA ranks of 85+, which allowed us to outstrip the competition.
Unintentionally, we used them as high DA proxies for our SEO efforts.
In hindsight, it’s seems so obvious. But obvious things often get overlooked when you are deeply immersed in your field.

The SEO article doesn’t have to reside on your page

I know the mantra of content marketers: don’t build property on someone else’s land. That especially holds true in the SEO field, as your syndicated content eventually starts competing with the originals on your site.
But look, if there’s an opportunity to compete for a keyword with a monthly volume of 10,000+ searches by placing your content on someone else’s land, isn’t it worth it?
The good part of it is that the buyer’s journey stays almost intact. People read an article, find a call-to-action (CTA) at the bottom, which links to a lead magnet on your site. Isn’t it the same with content posted on your site?
Of course, you can optimize your article pages better by customizing and visualizing the CTA, setting up exit-intent pop-ups and more. But what can you do with your highly optimized page for conversions if it is not receiving traffic?
It’s clear that potential gains of syndicated SEO content outweigh its downsides for those on the lower part of the DA spectrum.

Use only high DA sites as proxies

Now, not all the sites work the magic. If you want to get the most out of syndicated SEO content, you have to go after the most authoritative and credible sites in your domain.
I personally use Moz and their domain authority (DA) metric to evaluate potential sites for syndication. Your goal is the first page, and more precisely, the first three positions, as the click-through rate drops below a mere eight after the 3d ranking (see the chart below).

Credit: SmartInsights

As such, in most cases, you are shooting for sites with a DA of 80 or higher.
For perspective, here are the DA ranks of several highly credible sites:
www.forbes.com — DA: 96
www.thenextweb.com—DA: 89
www.contently.com— DA: 71

Make sure you use effective CTAs

Another key to the success of syndicated SEO content is the quality of CTAs in the article. Since the content doesn’t reside on your site, you are limited to text CTAs, which are not the best type of plugs to catch attention.
But still, there are ways to achieve damn good click-through rates if you are doing it right. (For some reference, I managed to achieve a CTR of five percent with a CTA  on sites like Forbes. Please note that I’m not adding visits to related articles in this figure, which would pump it up twice.)
Now, let’s get back to the topic.
First, you have to understand that the majority of the audience will just glance through the article and spend no more than 10–30 seconds on it, according to multiple studies.
For those people, we want to include a bold CTA that visually stands out from the rest of the article. To that end, I use a CTA note at the bottom with a bolded subhead, a short paragraph about the offer followed by a sentence that entices to take action now.
Example:
FREE eBook: How to Build an Email list of 50,000+ Subscribers from Scratch
In this eBook, you’ll learn seven ways to drive traffic that converts to your brand new blog, five types of high-converting lead magnets and much more to build highly-targeted email lists of 50,000+ subscribers in a year. Claim your free copy today!
Some readers, however, will dive deeper into your article, for whom we need something more organic. To that end, I use one or several subtle contextual CTAs inline with the text. If the publication’s link policy allows me, I bold them.
Example:
…your lead magnets must contain five important elements if you want to achieve a high conversion rate. (I discuss them in depth in my free eBook, 5 lead Magnets that Convert. Download it here)
This kind of CTAs also serves another purpose. Since a CTA note is placed at the bottom, inline CTAs cover the audience that will not make it to the bottom—that’s going to be the bulk of the audience.
In addition to these two types of CTAs, I include links to related content on my sites.

Conclusion 

It’s a no-brainer to post SEO content on your site and leave it there if you have a high DA rank that can compete for keywords with a decent volume of searches in your domain.
But if you are just starting out or have a low-DA site that can’t beat the competition in this respect, this is a good workaround.
I know, getting featured on sites like Forbes is hard and it’s a completely different topic I won’t dive into now. But achieving a DA rank that is not even close to theirs takes way more time and resources.


Reference: https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/06/09/get-website-page-one-google-search-results/#.tnw_AXP2GCkQ

37 Ways to Screen Job Candidates for Strategic SEO Thinking

Every SEO has their own favorite strategies to implement. When interviewing candidates for an SEO position, it’s important to know whether their strategies align with yours. While you’ll never be in agreement 100% of the time, the interview should give you a basic understanding of how the candidate’s strategies would align with your business.
Having an understanding of a candidate’s knowledge and experience is essential, and I have addressed those questions in previous posts. But knowledge and experience are only gateways to the most important thing: what the SEO will actually DO.
The following questions will help you better understand how your candidates stack up against each other and help you filter out those who are not right for your company.

1. What are three things you think are important to know before working on a new website?

The three things aren’t as important as why those things matter to them. This can tell you a great deal about how the candidate assesses a site’s needs and the responsibilities that lie ahead.

2. What is the first thing you do when you start optimizing a site?

The candidate will likely tell you that it depends on what they find out about the site, but don’t let them off the hook that easy. There are typically several things any SEO will want to do first. Encourage them to articulate what those are.

3. How do optimized pages and landing pages differ, and how do you employ these in your strategy?

Historically, landing pages are for PPC and optimized pages are for SEO. But really good SEOs think of every optimized page as a landing page. They should be able to outline what they do to treat optimized pages as such.

4. How do you go about optimizing a site with millions of pages?

You don’t need to have a million-page site for this question to be relevant. You want the candidate to provide some large-scale SEO tactics and strategies. Not every aspect of SEO needs to take a long time, and it’s these strategies that can help even small sites achieve results more quickly.

5. What do you do when your first attempt at SEO fails?

First attempts at SEO are rarely successful, at least not immediately. And this is what you want to hear from a candidate: not only what they do when their first attempts fail, but whether they allow their efforts appropriate time (and assistance) to produce the desired results.

6. How do you future-proof websites against algorithm changes?

This uncovers the candidate’s overall philosophy. Every SEO will tell you that they do SEO for the long term, but this is where you can force them to discuss specific long-term tactics.

7. Other than content, what on-page elements do you optimize?

The candidate should talk about other important factors that may not be content — or even SEO — related. Today, things such as usability, visual appeal, and other factors are just as important to a site’s success as keyword and content optimization.

8. How do you deal with duplicate content?

Most SEOs will talk about canonical tags, but those are really just band-aids. Press candidates to discuss more permanent — and effective — solutions.

9. What are some things you never want to do as part of the optimization of a site?

This is an open-ended question, which can make it difficult to answer. The candidate might revert to the more typical answers that have been a problem with SEO since the beginning. However, a more experienced candidate might go into some uncharted or more controversial territory.

10. What plugins or tools do you use?

Tools were discussed in the experience-related questions, but this time you can either dive deeper into their list of tools or how particular tools are used specifically to assess a site and implement effective strategies.

11. How do you use competitor knowledge to succeed at SEO?

Competitor knowledge can be a goldmine of information, but not always. The candidate should be able to outline ways they use competitor data, how they integrate it into their strategy, and when they ignore what a competitor is doing.

12. A client is ready to roll out a new website. What do you do?

Let the candidate detail the process of launching a new website. What steps will they go through to make for a seamless launch? Listen for them to list things that should be done long before the launch date.

13. How do you approach keyword research?

Tools, process, keyword assessment — all of these are on the table for discussion. The candidate should have one or more processes they use to find and assess keywords for optimization.

14. How do you determine which keywords to optimize and where?

Jumping off the previous question, talk deeper about how keywords are selected for specific pages. Make sure the conversation addresses searcher intent and how it factors into page/keyword selection.

15. What is your process for optimizing keywords into a page?

Encourage them to get as detailed as possible so you can determine if they attempt to integrate all the keyword phrases targeted or how they go about focusing on the overall topic.

16. How does keyword proximity factor into your optimization efforts?

You don’t need to specify proximity to what. Let the candidate do that. They should understand the various ways algorithms look at keywords in relation to other elements on the page. Let them do the talking to see if they know how to take advantage of this.

17. How do you assess the quality of inbound links?

The candidate can give you a tour of the tools and assessment they utilize to understand a site’s backlink profile. They should be able to articulate what constitutes a good or a bad link and their process for ensuring bad links don’t hurt the site.

18. How do you get backlinks?

Getting links is still important. The SEO may not want to perform actual link building, but they need to know how and be willing to if necessary. Let them take you through their process of researching, assessing, and obtaining high-quality links.

19. How have you dealt with link penalties?

Not every SEO will have experience with link penalties, but they should know what to do if they come across one. Have them discuss their process for getting out from under such a penalty.

20. Is it ever OK to pay for a link?

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If this wasn’t discussed above, get an understanding of the candidate’s beliefs regarding paying for links. This can include a healthy discussion on link-related search penalties.

21. What is your internal linking strategy?

The candidate should outline a course of action to massage internal links for search engine ranking exposure. Look for a measured approach. The candidate should be able to articulate the differences between good and bad internal linking strategies.

22. How do you use redirects?

Broken links may not harm your SEO, but that doesn’t mean redirects won’t help your efforts. Let the candidate discuss when, where, and how they use redirects, the benefits of doing so, and when redirects should not be employed.

23. How would you redirect a page?

The candidate should be familiar with the multiple ways to redirect pages and the different kinds of redirects. Have them discuss where and when each type should be used.

24. How would you optimize a site for local performance?

You aren’t looking for a discussion on local search algorithm signals but more of a list of things the candidate would do and why. Have them indicate a level of priority for each action.

25. How do you configure a site for mobile?

There are mobile sites, responsive sites, and AMP sites. The candidate should be familiar with the pros and cons of each of these and indicate their preference and why.

26. How would you go about assessing and improving site speed?

This can be a detailed and technical question. Ask the candidate for the broad strokes so you can determine their assessment skills and what they can (or can’t) do to improve a site’s speed.

27. How do you use nofollow tags?

Nofollows can be used strategically for good optimization, but not as once was believed. The candidate should outline a sensible strategy for using them, which should have nothing to do with channeling PageRank.

28. How do you use analytics to assist your SEO strategy?

Every SEO should have a basic understanding of analytics and the data needed to assess and improve their SEO strategy. Don’t just discuss metrics but how they use and compare those metrics.

29. What role does the TLD play in your SEO strategy?

Search engines generally don’t give preference to one top-level domain (TLD) over another until you get into country specific TLDs for international SEO. However, some TLDs might help with branding and marketing. See what your candidate says about this.

30. How do you optimize a site that targets customers in multiple countries using multiple languages?

If you aren’t optimizing for an international audience, you can skip this question. However, it can’t hurt to get an understanding of the candidate’s knowledge and strategy. Discuss options for optimizing for various countries and multiple languages, how that would impact the existing site, and what the candidate sees as the best way forward.

31. What role do heading tags play in your SEO strategy?

Many believe heading tags have minimal impact on SEO, but “minimal” doesn’t mean “none.” Discuss how much effort the candidate will invest in optimizing headings, as well as the time versus reward factor. Get a sense of where the candidate prioritizes this over other efforts.

32. How do you use sitemaps in your SEO strategy?

The candidate should be able to discuss the two types of sitemaps, how each is used, and why. They should also be able to communicate when sitemaps are a bad idea and when multiple sitemaps are better than one.

33. How would you try to improve click-through rates?

Many SEOs think that their job stops at achieving rankings, but that’s not so. Not only do click-through rates impact rankings, it’s an important part of the business’s success. And that makes it the business of the SEO.
There are specific things SEOs can do to influence CTRs from SERPs. Find out what strategies the candidate might employ.

34. How would you try to improve bounce rates?

As with click-through rates, bounce rates impact not only rankings but the bottom line of the business. Bounces occur for many reasons, and the candidate should be able to articulate a good handful of them, but make sure they dial in on those that are specifically impacted by the work the SEO does.

35. How would you try to improve conversion rates?

While this may technically fall outside of the SEOs purview, it’s important to the company’s success, which makes it important to the SEO. They may not be conversion experts, but they should have some conversion improvement ideas.

36. How would you try to improve a site’s engagement?

This question will be the one the candidate is least likely to have in-depth knowledge in, but that makes it a great question to ask. It’s always good to have team members who can provide feedback in other areas based both on their own industry knowledge and as a general user. See what ideas they have and how much the candidate stumbles over this question, or not.

37. How do you employ microsites into your SEO strategy?

Microsites do have a place, but they are often more harmful to the main site optimization than they are helpful. The candidate should be able to explain how, when, and why to use microsites.

The Final Test

As the interviewer, you need to be confident that the candidate’s strategies are going to help and never harm the sites they are working on. Knowledge and experience questions should be asked first as they can be used to more easily weed out poorly qualified candidates. But every remaining candidate needs to pass the strategy test.


Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-job-interview-questions-strategy/200538/

8 DIY SEO Tips to Optimize Your Mobile Marketing

Mobile SEO is the single most important marketing factor for the typical local business.

Mobile online marketing is now synonymous with online marketing. More users consistently use mobile devices today than connected ones. In late 2016, Google began testing a mobile-first index. When they rollout and begin using the index, search engines will look to the mobile version of your website before the desktop version to determine ranking.
Websites without a mobile version or with a poorly optimized mobile website will slip even further in search engine results pages (SERPs) as the rollout encompasses more sites. The good news is that some mobile SEO tasks are very easy to do yourself.
If your content performs inconsistently across mediums, you’re missing an audience engagement opportunity. Mobile SEO, much like traditional SEO, is about creating and tagging content in a way that makes it stand out online. Use this list of DIY mobile SEO tips to protect your brand from search engine penalties and maintain online visibility:

1. Create a Google My Business listing.

One of the most important listings businesses owners can create, Google My Business accounts are free and simple to set up. Fill out the information to the best of your ability, and include as many images of your business as possible. When people enter a search for your business online or via a Google app, they will likely see this information first. Make it count.
Related: How to Set Up 'Google My Business' for Your Small Business

2. Frequently review all directory listings.

Beyond the Google My Business account, mobile users may use other websites and applications to find your brand. Frequently review and update all listings for your business online. Update listings on Yelp, local websites, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Angie’s List, the Better Business Bureau and other popular business directories. These listings will ensure searchers reach the right information when they search for your name.
Related: 7 DIY SEO Tactics for Companies Not Ready to Hire a Consultant

3. Get social.

On mobile devices, social media sites drive a significant amount of traffic. Around 80% of social media users spend their social media time on mobile devices. If you want to maintain visibility with mobile users, prioritize your social media marketing strategy. Use platform-specific advertising, engage with users, and/or post prolifically to ensure your brand stands out.
Related: Is Amazon's 'Merch' the Next Big Thing?

4. Take advantage of plugins.

If your business uses WordPress or another platform, take advantage of the plugins designed to make your mobile site more user friendly. WordPress offers plugins to improve site speed, optimize images, and take care of other important mobile SEO tasks. WPtouch is a somewhat ubiquitous WordPress plugin that will create a Google-approved mobile-friendly version of your website. If you’re not currently using a professional to update and optimize your website, look into how plugins can help you maintain visibility online.
Related: 20 Crucial WordPress Plugins

5. Use keywords for content visibility.

Mobile users search differently than desktop users. Optimize for mobile keyword searches to keep your content in front of the right people. While you can purchase tools to find the right keywords for your content, you can find keyword comparisons by device in Google’s Search Analytics.
Related: 3 Tools to Uncover Your Competitor's Keywords

6. Optimize images.

To improve page loading times on mobile devices, optimize images for mobile users. If you don’t use a plugin to help with images, identify the ones that present a problem using a page speed tool and then compress or change the dimensions for faster loading times.
Related: 5 Ways to Optimize Your Ecommerce Campaigns

7. Prepare your content for mobile.

In addition to searching differently on a mobile device, many people digest content differently. Readable and scan-friendly content tends to work better on mobile devices, but testing is the only way to know for sure. Consider using a basic A/B test format to determine which types of mobile content perform better.
Related: So, What's the 'X-Factor' in the A/B Testing Formula? (Infographic)

8. Optimize for local searches.

You may not want to dive into detailed code optimizations that can boost search rankings, but you may want to consider a few basic activities. To optimize for local searches, include both the city and state in title tags, the URL, the H1 heading, and Meta description.
Mobile SEO will soon trump desktop SEO. Consider working with a professional or attempting a DIY head start today to ensure your site maintains visibility in mobile and desktop searches. A few simple tweaks can boost your digital presence and bring local customers to your door.

Reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295328

Why Unlimited Web Hosting Services are Good for SEO

Personally I never thought web hosting services really had impact in any business. All it summed up to was more money for the host. If you share the same school of thought you’re probably right especially if you haven’t seen clouding services. On my side I’ll take my sentiments back. What experience has taught me is the truth. Web hosting for SEO and cloud based services is really important. In reality it has more benefits to the business than anyone would imagine. Here are some of the most factual benefits it provides.
It keeps your links checked. Dead links deny your website the juice it deserves. Additionally it leads to high bounce rates and minimal conversions. At the end of it this leads to losses. When you have a web host this is often minimized. The reason is simple. Part of the host’s job is to keep an eye on your links and to update them every time they die. This keeps your website very active. At the end of it all your website will have minimal or no dead links at all and that cool.
It’s good for optimization. Today many prospective buyers own a Smartphone, tablet, or a browser. The best websites should be able to provide all the prospective visitors with a smooth ride irrespective of their choice of gadget. Such optimization is crucial in case you want a smooth flow of business. Expert web hosting services often cover for this kind of integrate-able optimization.
It is extremely convenient. The best web hosting services just don’t end with a single service, no! Actually there are often a variety of services provided including content creating, website design, and many more. Having all these services under one host is extremely convenient. You don’t have to waste so much time looking for independent services, money hiring new employees to do the job, and energy that over works your limited staff. That’s why hosting for SEO is ideal.
It’s also very much targeted. Imagine this, having a single platform whose main intention is to rank you? What this means is that every service they provide is intended to give your top notch visibility. These services are therefore targeted and will include downsizing the number of HTTP requests, minimizing load time to Google standards, developing ideal CSS, and many more.

It cuts down overall costs. Web hosting can be a shared affair. If shared, you’ll share the overall costs too. This would mean cutting costs. Additionally have an independent server means hiring techs to service and maintain it, web hosts provide those services within their package. At the end of the day you don’t have to hire such services. In overall you will minimize your costs.
It offers vital backups. If your server crashes it’s an obvious disaster. When hosted you don’t lose everything as these services involve routine backups. These routine backups ensure that you get back everything that you had worked for. It is therefore more reliable than having a personal system.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that hosting for SEO is very beneficial. For startup it is an assured security path too. In addition to all these it is also very affordable and extremely viable for cutting costs.
Make sure you find the best services. These should be provided by highly experienced experts. The experts should be trained professionals with the knowledge of the most vital business needs.


Reference: https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/06/05/unlimited-web-hosting-services-good-seo/#.tnw_nQYlxwQo

How to Deal With Competitors Targeting Your Brand Terms

 

 

A little bit of healthy competition won’t hurt anyone, right?
Well, that’s not always true. When it comes to branded bidding wars on Google paid search, things can turn real nasty.
Imagine the scene. You wake up one morning, search for your company’s brand name in Google, and discover your competitor has stolen the number 1 position in paid search and is gobbling up a large percentage of your traffic.
This is no ordinary traffic either. This is highly valuable traffic — they’re your best potential (or existing) customers.
For most brands, this would cause instant chaos, especially if your brand terms are searched for in large volumes. So, what next? Surely if you report this PPC shark to Google, they will take immediate action and remove their listing, right?
Think again.
Google lifted the ban on bidding on competitors’ branded keywords way back in 2008, and since then it’s been completely acceptable to bid against your competitor’s brand, as long as you don’t mention their trademark name within your ad copy. It’s a bit of a gray area, but completely fair in Google’s eyes.
Many of us will already know about Samsung’s famous ‘Awkward. You obviously mean’ Google AdWords campaign targeting Apple’s precious iPhone 6s branded terms.
And I have to admit, this is creatively genius. It sparked plenty of media attention and the traffic was highly valuable. But I can guarantee Apple didn’t look at this in the same light.

In such a scenario, what would the best course of action?

Step 1: Acknowledge That Your Competitor May Never Take Down the Listing

It’s a tough blow to accept, but your competitor is under no legal obligation to remove their ads as long as they aren’t using your brand name in their ad text.
You have to come to terms with the fact that they will never remove the ads. The results may just be really powerful for them, leading to a high ROI/ROAS which could potentially be their most profitable campaign of all.
If they’re using your trademark name in their ad copy, however, this can be an infringement of Google’s trademark policy and therefore, you can submit a request to Google have their ads removed.

Step 2: Check Google Search Partners

Google isn’t the only search engine you should monitor for branded PPC. Its search partners could potentially be driving your competitors a lot of traffic.
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t disclose a list of its search partners as its network is growing and they are subject to change at any point. That said, some of the most popular search partners are AOL.com, Ask.com, Dogpile.com, and Amazon.com.
Here’s an example of how the ads would appear on Amazon. For this example, I searched for “Gym Shark”, which is a popular sports and activewear brand based in the UK.

If you’d like to dig a bit further to uncover more search partners, a list can be found here, albeit they may not be 100% accurate.

Step 3: Check Bing and Its Search Partners

For sure, Google is by far the most dominant search engine, but don’t underestimate the power of Bing and its search partners to drive highly relevant, targeted traffic. This is not always true for unbranded search because CPCs tend to be lower, but conversion rates aren’t always as high as the Google search network.
For branded search, however, you may just uncover a heap of new customers you never knew existed.
If your competitors are going full throttle stealing your most prestigious web traffic, chances are they’re taking advantage of Bing and its search partners, too — particularly Yahoo. So keep your eyes peeled.

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Step 4: Send Your Competitor a Polite Email Request

Think twice before going all out guns blazing, picking up the phone for a good old argument with your competitor.
Chances are, this will only make matters worse and they will be even more determined to conquer your branded search traffic. This could potentially have a serious impact on your bottom line, particularly if your USP is difficult to distinguish or your competitor has incentives in place to steal away your customers.
The best course of action is to send a polite email to your competitor asking them to take down the ad, in the interest of fair play. You can certainly send a word of warning later about your plans to take PPC revenge, but you should first give them an opportunity to remove the ads.
It could be the case that their PPC agency has set up these ads without permission or any prior notice. (This isn’t a good agency practice, but it’s been known to happen.)

Step 5: Set Up Your Own Branded Search Ads

Whoa, you mean to say you haven’t already done this?
Branded PPC ads are an absolute must. This is especially true if you wholesale products to other retailers.
Take Nike, for example:

But why would brands such as Nike bid on their own branded keywords if they’re already ranking highly organically?
Simply put, this allows brands to dominate the SERPs. Having multiple listings in Google (both paid and organic) can drastically improve your click-through rates and micro and macro conversions.
Unless there are numerous brands bidding against your brand name and thus increasing the bids, the CPCs are usually really cheap and you can maintain full control of your brand messaging.
Additionally, if you’re targeting your brand name as a broad or phrase match, you can check the search term reports to see what other terms people are associating with your brand.
Did I mention the cost-per-clicks are really cheap?
You should also consider targeting ‘top of page’ bid strategy to ensure your branded search ad is always at the top of the search results, capitalizing on the bulk of the traffic and knocking your competitors down. But this depends on their level of PPC knowledge and, ultimately, how much they’re willing to pay for placement positions.

Step 6: Consider Targeting Your Competitors’ Branded Keywords

As a last resort, but a tactic which can absolutely be worthwhile, is targeting your competitors’ precious branded terms with a new ad campaign. This may lure your competitor into taking their ads down as a mutual agreement to doing the same.
If their brand search volume is much lower than yours, however, this most likely won’t be the case as they will see more benefit from targeting your keywords.
Targeting your competitors brand terms as “revenge” can be considered as damage limitation, but it certainly can be a route worth taking if they’re reluctant to remove their ads.

Conclusion

Targeting your competitors branded terms can certainly be highly profitable, although it can lead to a serious marketing war which could be more damaging in the long-run. It’s important to weigh all the pros and cons before taking the plunge. Remember to do your research prior to taking this dark route.


Reference: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ppc-branded-keyword-bidding-wars/200336/

The 7 Pieces of a Successful SEO Starter Kit

so you're interested in search engine optimization (SEO), but like most newcomers, you're intimidated by the perceived complexity of the field. To be sure, there are hundreds of independent variables that collectively bear an impact on your site's rankings and search engine visibility.
Related: 6 Essential SEO Strategies to Incorporate in 2016
And, learning how to master all of them is a process that takes years of experience and practice.
However, you don't need a huge budget or years of experience to get started with SEO. Dominating the top rankings for general keywords related to your brand may be out of your reach, but even a slight investment in SEO can help your business earn more traffic and visibility.
To get started, you'll need these seven basic components of a starter SEO campaign:

1. A website with a good SEO plugin

First, you need a decent website, and if this one is your first effort, and/or you want to keep things simple, it's in your best interest to use a website builder like Wordpress. In fact, this and most other website builder tools are inexpensive and easy to use; and, importantly, they come automatically equipped to handle basic SEO fundamentals.
For example, they'll be coded in a way that's neat, clean and easy to crawl, and they'll be responsive, so you needn't worry about a separate strategy for mobile optimization. You may also want to consider a separate SEO plugin, which can help you with technical tasks like optimizing title tags and meta descriptions, and pinpointing the keyword density of your various pages.

2. A carefully chosen niche

Next, you'll want to define your niche and target a list of carefully chosen keywords. If you go too general, you'll end up competing with businesses that have a much bigger budget and a longer history of development. Instead, it's better to focus on a highly specific niche that's relevant only to your customers.
At that juncture, you'll need to conduct some keyword research. You don't need to get fancy here; just target a mix of basic "head" keywords and extended "long-tail" keywords, and aim for terms with high volume and low competition ratings.

3. An on-site overhaul.

Next, you'll need to optimize your site directly. It's true that your website builder will set you up with some fundamentals, but you'll still need to add your own content.
Organize your pages into categories and subcategories, including page titles that contain some of your target keywords. Make sure every page of your site contains at least several hundred words of helpful, well-written, relevant content; and optimize all your title tags and meta descriptions while you're at it.
Related: 5 SEO Techniques You're Doing All Wrong

4. A regular blog

I'd argue that the most important thing for a new SEO strategy to take off is a high-quality, regular content-marketing campaign. Aim to produce at least two new posts every week, covering topics that are relevant to your readers, and providing detailed, helpful information that your competitors haven't already covered.
Originality, practicality and aesthetic value all matter here, so spend some time refining your strategy and stick to your editorial calendar. You'll also want to include a blend of mediums, including images and videos, if you can.

5. An off-site publication schedule.

Aside from on-site optimization and content marketing, the most important element of your strategy is your link building campaign -- otherwise known as off-site optimization. The quality and quantity of links you have pointing to your domain determines your overall authority, which in turn determines where you rank for various search queries.
However, you can't just spam off-site links -- nor would you want to. Instead, focus on writing valuable content for external publishers, establishing your author profile and your expertise simultaneously. Usually, you'll earn at least one link back to your site, and over time, you'll develop your authority so you can rank higher.

6. Integrated social media

Contrary to popular belief, social media doesn't have a direct relationship with your search rankings. However, it can have an indirect bearing on the success of your SEO campaign. So, flesh out your profiles and regularly promote your latest content; you'll earn more shares and links to those blog posts, which can boost your search visibility.
Additionally, you'll earn more followers, which can become an additional stream of traffic to your site (and a good way to get your foot in the door with more publishers since it establishes your credibility).

7. A good reporting strategy

Finally, you'll need some way to measure your effectiveness (so you can determine what changes you need to make to your strategy). A good starter tool for this is Google Analytics, which will allow you to measure your "organic traffic" -- meaning the amount of traffic you're generating naturally through search engines. Ideally, this will grow over time.
Implementing these seven "starter kit" items won't let you tap your business's full online marketing potential, but they can and will get you started on the right path. With a decent infrastructure in place, including a baseline domain authority score, your subsequent investments will become even more valuable.


Reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/294548

The Amazing SEO Benefits of Discovering Your "Hidden Ranks"

Any website that’s had SEO work done has potentially hundreds or even thousands of undiscovered hidden ranked keywords lurking in the top 100 positions of search engines. Hidden ranks are one of the biggest SEO treasure troves that unfortunately are neglected by website owners and SEO experts, often due to low awareness of the subject. So, what can you do about it? Read on.

First Off, What Are These So-called “Hidden Ranks”?

Hidden ranks are essentially keywords that are ranking in at least the top 100 positions in a search engine for your website that you are NOT aware of.  They are keywords you didn’t promote directly, but they could bring quality organic traffic.
Since they fly under your radar (because you are not actively searching for them), all that traffic potential goes unfulfilled. Believe it or not, some of these low-ranked keywords can already account for some organic traffic trickling to your website, unbeknownst to you. It’s pure organic traffic that should be boosted and cultivated — traffic that you deserve and have earned.

How Do Hidden Ranks Come to Be?

Some of you already know this, but this is actually just a natural side effect and positive outcome of a typical organic ranking process of search engines. As you run an organic SEO campaign to promote your targeted keywords, other related keywords are positively influenced as a result, and they also float upwards in the search engine ranking algorithm stream and reach the top 100 or even top 50 shores.
Example: You directly promoted the keyword “cake decorations” for a local cake-decorating website in Denver, Colorado. Depending on the content strategy you used, a keyword such as “birthday cake decorations” might be positively influenced as well and get ranked, even though it wasn’t directly promoted.
Another aspect of this phenomenon is that the keywords you promoted directly for Google could reach the top 10 ranking positions on desktop devices, and as a result, these keywords might also rank top 50 for Google mobile, Google local ranks, and even Yahoo! and Bing. But again, since you are not actively searching for hidden ranks, you might only be aware of part of the picture.
Regrettably, this is as far as these keywords will go if you don’t start promoting them directly.
So, how do you discover them?
Well, there are three ways: Either you start arbitrarily and painstakingly searching for them manually on search engines yourself (this is a fairly annoying task, since you don’t actually know what to even look for), you can stumble upon them by sheer chance, or you can use Pro Rank Tracker’s designated Ranking Discovery Tool specially designed for this purpose!

What Is This Ranking Discovery Tool, and How Does It Work?

This tool comes FREE with PRT’s SERP tracker, and operating it is easy — any URL you track with PRT can be put into the tool, then any top 100 ranked keywords on record for that URL will be revealed before you, instantly. The tool, in a way, reverse engineers the search process and will only become better as search engines evolve.
What can you do once you’ve discovered all these keywords? Simple — promote them to top 10 positions! As these keywords are already in the game, it will be much easier than promoting them from scratch, and the additional organic traffic your website will receive will be well worth the extra effort.
A few more SEO-centered applications to this tool:

• Bring value and insight to future clients. If you are meeting a potential client whose website already has some presence on search engines, use the tool to see what keywords are ranked top 100 for that website. Show them what keywords are already ranked and which ones can rank even higher.
• Discover all the best keywords for almost any niche. By checking the top 10 leading websites of any niche with the tool, you can see what keywords are being promoted in that niche most of all. This is a great way to research a niche and get high-quality keyword ideas for tackling almost any niche on the internet successfully.
• “Spy” on any website, and get the full picture of what they rank for. The same principle as above applies in this case: Input any URL into the tool, and see all the keywords on record that rank top 100 for that website. You can use it to research competitors or as an aid to building your base SEO strategy.

Of course, these are just a few of the possibilities. All the potential applications and strategies are still waiting to be discovered! It’s all up to you. Give this tool a spin, and see for yourself what keywords you can discover for any website.


Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-amazing-benefits-of-discovering-your-hidden-ranks/199946/

What B2B Marketers Must Know About SEO in 2017

Staying on top of SEO best practices and increasing organic traffic is a priority for many B2B marketers. The more targeted buyers you bring to your content, the more you will increase your conversion rates and generate leads.
I sat down with Stephen Johnson, resident SEO expert at Salt Water Digital, to find out how search engine optimization is affecting B2B marketers in 2017.

Q: How has SEO changed in 2017?

Stephen: Google made some major updates in the early part of 2017 that we are still trying to understand. Many of the core principles of SEO remain valuable. But we need to determine what best practices will move the needle the most.
The two most important SEO considerations are content and domain authority. It’s important to publish high-quality, long-form content, as search engines send traffic to pages that are authorities for keywords. Pages with thin content won’t perform as well as pages with longer content.
However, content isn’t everything. The strength of your domain is still critical. A domain’s age, size, and popularity determines its authority. A site gains authority when other sites with high authority scores recognize it.
To improve your domain authority, focus on link building.

Q: Everyone talks about link building. How do you effectively build links?

Stephen: Passively waiting for backlinks is not an effective way to improve your SEO. You must be proactive.
We recommend two strategies for building links. The first involves using industry-specific citations or directories. Most industries have online resources where you can list your company or provide content in return for a link, such as through an interview or a guest post. Providing your expertise on blogs is an excellent way to acquire links.
While some directories aren’t high impact, they can still support your link-building efforts. Industry blogs and resources often have high domain authority – not to mention the respect of your customers. Find out which sites can provide you with high-quality links and form relationships with their editorial team.
The second strategy is to outsource your link building to an SEO company that can take care of everything for you. However, it’s important to learn how they plan to acquire links to your website so that you can avoid penalties from Google.
For example, ensure that they won’t use black hat techniques that spam your site around with low quality or hacked accounts. Avoid Fiverr at all costs. You should also find out which websites they will get links from and check their domain authority using MOZ.

Q: Are one-way links more valuable than linking between websites?

Stephen: Google looks for logical link building. Does the link make sense?
For example, you can’t add your financial planning software to a website about dogs. The website doesn’t have any relevancy, and Google will recognize this. Industry relevant links are important.

Q: To avoid thin content, is it better to have one long post per month instead of four shorter posts?

Stephen: You don’t need to write super posts all the time because you’ll burn out and send your blog to an early grave. But the meatier your content, the better.
Write at least 500 words for your blog posts and product pages. Mid-length content will go a long way in improving your SEO.
But don’t create fluff articles just to meet your blog’s deadlines. You must produce useful content. Hire a copywriter to ensure that your content is something that your customers want to read.
Also, include images and videos whenever possible. When you add media to your content, you can tag it with keywords and increase your chances of getting found. Google wants to provide search results with great content – including images and especially videos. The more media you add, the better more likely your content will succeed.
The content you create – whether text or media – should relate to your targeted keywords. You should also interlink and optimize it using anchor text. Meaning, if you want to rank for “HR software,” use this phrase as your anchor text when you interlink between your blog and your product page. Don’t use “click here” as your anchor text.

Q: Should all B2B companies focus on SEO?

Stephen: SEO isn’t for every business. Optimizing the SEO for a B2B company can be tough. Many B2B keywords have low search volumes when compared with B2C keywords. This makes achieving ROI challenging, as you might target keywords that only get a few searches per month. In these cases, I recommend investing in PPC strategies.

Q: If my keywords have a low search volume, will I get any value from SEO?

Stephen: Yes. Even if the keywords that describe your products or services have a low search volume, they could still provide you with value. For example, optimizing for specific phrases can bring targeted buyers to your website. These customers can go on to purchase something that costs thousands of dollars – making your SEO investment worthwhile.

Q: What mistakes do you see B2B marketers making with SEO?

Stephen: When B2B companies tell me they are “doing SEO,” I often see a disconnect in what this means. Many aren’t doing anything other than adding keywords to their web pages or blog posts.
Also, some B2B companies fail to perform keyword research. They guess what people are searching for, rather than doing research to find out what customers actually look for. You can use free tools, including the Google Keyword Tool, to see which phrases your customers are using.

Q: What are your favourite tools?

Stephen: There are a number of tools that I find helpful for marketers. Moz is a great tool to check your site’s domain authority and get an idea of what links already point to it.
If you’re interested in checking out the competition from an SEO and PPC perspective, Spy Fu is really cool. It gives you an idea of what your competitors are doing to get found online.

The Google Keyword Planner is the tool that I use the most for clients. The foundation of SEO is knowing what people are searching for, and the Keyword Planner shows you this information.Finally, I use SEMrush for its keyword tracking capabilities. It is fantastic if you are pursuing aggressive content strategies, as you can clearly see how your content performs from an SEO perspective.

Reference:http://www.business2community.com/expert-interviews/b2b-marketers-must-know-seo-2017-01847098#768dqujEC2t3qTBm.97

5 reasons to give SEO experts a seat at the website planning table

 

 

Maybe it’s your company’s yearly planning session, or maybe the meeting is being called because your website is in dire need of a refresh.
Whether the goal is to help form a new layout for the website, or to start creating the content calendar for the year, the planning sessions will naturally have product heads, key executives, and marketing managers in attendance.
As your company conducts this careful planning process and dreams up the site’s future, there’s one other important voice that should be at that table: your SEO expert. Whether this is an in-house individual or an external SEO agency or consultant, the knowledge this person can provide will have a critical impact on the site’s ultimate success.
Here are five ways that your go-to SEO expert can positively affect the outcome of your website project:

1) Ensure that your site has a design that’s search engine friendly

Just as it’s the job of your designers to ensure that the website is inviting and communicates elegantly with users, your SEO expert’s responsibility includes making sure the site communicates all the right information to search engines.
Your SEO lead can help tailor a site design that delivers essential company/product information from the homepage, in a way that assists search engines in efficiently learning all they need to know about your site. By doing this, your SEO expert sets the stage for your site to be viewed more favorably when it comes to organic search rankings.

2) Discover and make the most of content opportunities

Your content specialists ought to work hand in hand with your SEO expert to craft content that has legs and delivers business value. The right content selection process can lead to subject matter that works for you, naturally pulling in traffic by providing desired information on the correct topics.
Your SEO expert can really help inform this process, identifying those content opportunities that will bring in new customers and then optimizing that content so that it receives the visibility it deserves.

3) Optimizing updates to page content, metadata, and locations

When making any changes to the structure of your site, make sure your SEO expert is involved.
How your site is designed to move visitors from page to page – and the content and metadata within those pages – have a determinative effect on how search engines value your site. Your SEO expert can inspect the user flow of your site’s pages and suggest any content changes that would be beneficial.
Your expert might also take the opportunity to rewrite metadata and update pages to follow the best practices for heightening visibility in search engine queries.

4) Utilize the possibilities of off-page content

From videos to presentations and beyond, remember there are opportunities to gain visibility for your brand away from your website. In certain cases – which your SEO expert should be able to recognize – these pieces of content can ultimately contribute to your brand’s SEO by enhancing your overall presence in search engine results.
For example, a video screencap displayed in search results can capture clicks and attention, and ultimately increase traffic to your site. 

5) Execute large-scale SEO initiatives

When making preparations for a site redesign, it may also be an optimal time to pursue major SEO initiatives.
Some site-enhancing projects worth considering: adding HTTPS to make the site more secure (and trustworthy for visitors), or adding schema markup where appropriate – likely for videos, recipes, products, etc. – to enable search engines to provide users with more informative results.


Reference:https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/05/09/5-reasons-to-give-seo-experts-a-seat-at-the-website-planning-table/

How to Boost the Organic Visibility of Category & Tag Pages?

Category and tag pages are considered “weak” in SEO since they have very little content. Normally they have image thumbnails with a “Read More” link. How can we optimize these types of pages to increase their organic visibility?
I’m assuming you’re talking about category and tag pages like you’d find on a blog (like WordPress). Where all it really provides is a repeat of all the information available elsewhere on the site in a re-organized way.
I think where people go wrong most often is having too many categories or tags. You want your categories and tags to be mutually exclusive. In other words, you don’t want category=blue widgets and tag=blue widgets.
There are a few things you can do to make these more valuable and therefore more useful to search engines and their visitors:

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• Define them carefully. Set some plan in place and stick to it. Maybe categories will be intent based (like News, Fashion, and Promotions) and tags will be product based, like dresses and shoes. Whatever you decide, just make sure they serve different purposes.
• Choose nomenclature that is inclusive rather than exclusive. Try to limit tags to just one per topic, and only 2-3 per post. In other words, you wouldn’t tag a single article with “dresses”, “summer dresses”, and “sleeveless dresses”. You’d just tag it with “dresses”, and maybe “sleeveless” or “summer”.
• Provide some summary or description of what’s in each category or tag page. For the category page, maybe you can have a description of the category appear on the page along with a few featured posts on that topic and some pins on that topic from your Pinterest account. The idea is to make the page a hub of information on a specific topic, beyond just a relisting of posts in that category. It should be the same with tag pages.

If this is more effort than you’re willing to give, then just noindex them.
Category and tag pages aren’t duplicate content per se, but they do waste crawl budget (the time search engines spend on your website gathering information), especially if you have thousands of similarly tagged or categorized pages.
If you can’t see a reason why someone would bookmark your category or tag page to refer back to, then it’s unlikely a search engine is going to want to send people there.

Reference: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/category-tag-pages-seo/199598/