Monthly Archives: November 2013

Going Back to SEO Basics to Increase Conversions

Going Back to SEO Basics to Increase ConversionsAre you struggling to increase conversions and  you’ve tried all the latest techniques? If nothings worked yet, have you thought about visiting the old SEO techniques? Yes, you read it right! Going back to SEO basics to increase conversions can actually help you gain traction by almost 50%. Each of the below mentioned SEO basics can be optimized to add to the conversion rate:

  1. Meta Description: When was the last time you care to check the meta description? This is an important technique but often overlooked in today’s time. A good meta description should be around 150-160 characters so that it is visible. Your description will catch the attention of the readers only if it contains the keyword for which search is made, so make it keyword rich. Remember, to give each page a unique meta description for SEO purposes.
  2. Calls to Action: Check if you have a call-to-action in your meta description. As a best practice, save at least 50 characters for your call to action. Some of the calls-to-action that instill trust and make potential customers click on the organic results are ‘Price Match Guarantee’, ‘Find Out More’, ‘No Hassle Exchanges’, ‘Download Now’ and ‘Read more about’. Improved call-to-action results in 20% increased conversions.
  3. Reward: You cannot expect the visitors to follow the call to action and give away personal information like a name, phone number or email address until  there is something lucrative in it for them. People like to be rewarded for their efforts and you can offer things like a free e-book, free e-course, webinars, newsletters, coupon codes, a trial version or free initial consultation. The reward must be something that will help the visitors move closer to conversion. The reward you offer must help you with establishing a personal relationship with the visitors and improve the chances of converting the prospects into actual customer.
  4. Headline: As a best practice ensure that the headline of the landing page matches the great pitch used to induce the prospects click on the ad. Make the headline stand out on the page to reassure prospects that they have landed on the right page. Wording in an ad must be catchy and creative to get people to click on it and the headline should be simple and direct.
  5. Minimal fields: Most website owners make a common mistake that they ask for a lot of information in the lead capture form. Most of the times, requesting their name and e-mail address is sufficient. Extra details is needed at times, but try to limit it. You wont want to miss out on good potentials because the lead capture form is too long.

These four SEO basics taught by the SEO Institute, amongst other insights are sure to result in improved conversions and winning the trust of the users. At the SEO Training Institute, trainers make sure that equal weightage is assigned to old school SEO practices with the latest ones to ensure sure-shot results.

Link Building has been Dead After Hummingbird?

There is no doubt that Panda squashed poor quality content and Penguin squashed low-quality links. Now, Hummingbird is expected to eat link-building. Hummingbird is not just another algorithm update, it is more of re-tooling that is done behind-the-scene to make Google smarter and faster. Wondering what exactly is hummingbird and how it will affect your blog? Read below.

What is Hummingbird?

Hummingbird is the new engine that is built on existing and new parts, organized in a way to serve the newer search demands rather than one created few years back, with the old technologies.

Hummingbird is a big step by Google to deliver the best and fastest results to users. The ultimate goal of this update is to understand the real meaning of the words in search queries and accordingly deliver results.

Hummingbird and Link Building

It is speculated that Hummingbird will kill link building, but the fact is that it will only refine it. While Hummingbird might have limited direct effects influencing link building, but indirectly it will change a lot that we’ve gotten used to with SEO. Earlier, SEOs tricked Google to believe that their website is helpful and authoritative than their competitors. But tricking Google is no more possible. With this update, link building with poor content is sure to fail. Google will now keep a track of high-bounce rates, lack of social sharing in addition to other quality signals.

One effective link building formula is to develop interesting content, know the niche influencer, contribute to communities and share valuable content. You must adopt a new link building strategy for gaining effective page ranking with Hummingbird. Here are some of the link-building tips to keep in mind:

  1. Build Rich Content: Content on your web page has to be rich to make it more relevant in the searches. Google algorithms have been tending to move away from just informative searches to more graph based searches. Design quality will also have an impact on the page rank like before.
  2. Build more social sharing options: Google takes into account the number of searches in social space to find the quality score of the web page. Thus, it is very important for the page to have the capability of social share. It is important to know who the influencers are in the area which your web page caters to in order to make it more viable socially. Google+ is sure to gain popularity after Hummingbird as social sharing will be significant for link building and SEO.
  3. Make the link building process organic: Rather than going for an aggressive campaign for link building it is important to make the link building process natural. It is very important to contribute about the page on different communities, on forums and on Web 2.0 so that the link building automatically gains momentum.

Hummingbird and Long Tail Keywords

“Long tail” refers to the use of broad search items used by a broader set of people. Hummingbird is going to make the long tail keywords search more effective and produce better search results for long term keywords in a much lesser time. For example a search for “Best pizzas in Rome, Italy” will be queried something like this [How can I find the best pizzas in Rome, Italy?] = [best] + [pizzas] + [Rome, Italy].

This is only one example but it’s indicative of howHummingbird will make the long tail queries more understandable and rephrase them while searching to make it more funneled and closer to the best results.  Therefore it is very important for business owners to learn and master SEO Skills for Entrepreneurs, so that right keywords can be used.

Link building is still critical but treating it as a strategy can prove to be dangerous. Integrate link building into the overarching content marketing and marketing is the sure-shot way to open new opportunities.