Category Archives: SEO Tips

10 Steps to Better SEO

Your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts may need a review. The way that Google handles SEO has changed and the other search engines have followed. The following are 10 steps to employ for better SEO

Write unique and high value content

Never take a press release and simply post that to your site. You can use a press release as a foundation for an article, but it should never define what your site is about. Always strive for unique, interesting and informative articles. If you cover the same story as others do, then find a way to present your original take on it.

Strengthen your keywords

Your site should rank for certain key words and phrases. You should also use variations of your top words and include them within your articles. Make use of Google’s Keyword Planner to find new keyword ideas.

Make your site user friendly

You have a lot of good information on your site. Trouble is, your readers may have difficulty finding it. Make it easy for people to find what they want by building a sensible and usable navigation bar, including bread crumbs to help them follow their way around; remove clutter that only distracts or misleads.

Go dense, but not too much

When using keywords, make sure that you use them frequently throughout your article. Be natural, but also be useful — one to no more than two words per every 100 words written is good practice. You can use variations of the keyword and similar words in your website too.

Ask for links and reciprocate

People should no longer paste links to the sidebar and consider that effort okay. You want others to link to your site, but those links should appear naturally within articles. Ask people to reference you — the best way is for you to consent to an interview. Don’t worry about receiving a “no follow” link as PageRank does not have the weight it once did. Do likewise for others that request a link from you. Understand how local citations work too.

Refresh your old content

As much as possible you want to create evergreen content, what stands the test of time. For everything else, your articles can grow stale, but may still be entirely useful. Older content should be cleaned up, updated and reposted. Include links to newer information on your site and check that outbound links still work.

Check your site map

You do have a site map, right? An XML site map should be created, shared with the search engines and automatically updated each time you make a change to your site. Make it search engine friendly and you’ll help your SEO efforts.

Do you know? What are the Necessary Skills to be required for becoming better SEO?

Examine your outbound linking strategies

Don’t get too crazy by linking to a lot of different sites. The sites you select should be respected, informative and clean, just like your site. Provide one or two outbound links for each article, as appropriate.

Do you know? - How to use content syndication for increasing referral traffic?

Snap up old or expired domains

Domains that are no longer used and are similar to yours can help your site. Buy them and point the base URL to your base URL. Check with Web Archives to find if there is old information that is useful and can be repurposed to your site.

Change your web host

When was the last time you changed your web host? If you are still with your original shared hosting site, consider a new one, especially if your current host accepts a lot of spammy sites. You are known by the company your keep — your IP address may have become blacklisted all because your hosting company is not vigilant in keeping spammers out.

Do you know? How to Use Amazon S3 for Hosting Your Website

SEO Considerations

Always keep on top of your SEO efforts as the base practices remain the same, but some of the extraneous activities have changed. Manage your site diligently and you’ll benefit from a stronger customer base and the sales that go with it.

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Local Businesses Don’t Need Big Budgets for Their Content Marketing

With all the changes happening in the digital marketing industry, the one constant that has emerged is that SEO is all about content marketing. It is important to create, publish and promote content that will naturally attract new links rather than using backlinks. The plan sounds simple and easy on paper, but we’ve seen late adopters in the market hesitate because of the lack the necessary resources (budget, people, and time) to produce quality content to push through the right channels.

But industry experts have now proven that local businesses don’t need big budgets for their content marketing. They believe that almost every aspect of business can be turned into usable content especially if content isn’t seen merely as an image, article, blog or web page text. In reality if seen carefully all the below mentioned business aspects can turn into story ideas for potential content:

Business staff
Shop or office design or interiors
Products and services offered
Menu or product catalog
Company values
Customers and client testimonials

Really, you’re only limited by your imagination, but you don’t have to look too far away from your brand to find the stories that people will connect with.

Confused? Keep reading!

Client Testimonials: Almost all businesses aim to deliver high customer satisfaction and if this goal is achieved, half of the battle is won. Your client servicing can actually set you apart from your competitors and can make people talk about you, and if you’ve got strong and positive reviews from your market, make sure you tap into that source.
Your immediate work space: Take a look around the place you work at. See anything fun or unique about the environment? The team interaction? Special events or landmarks or even mini-celebrations that happen? All of that is real content for you to tap into and develop.
Products or services offered: This is a landmine of content just waiting to happen. Your products and services can be used as creative content for your business. You need not have a unique product or offer unique services, but you need to make them stand out in the crowd. The most reliable way is to package and present them with great creativity.
Menu or product catalog: There is a huge possibility of going creative with the menu or product catalog. For instance, if you have the budget for it, you can replace your menu cards or product catalogs with iPads to make the experience a lot more engaging and interactive for the people who walk in.
Company values: The vision, mission and values says a great deal about your brand. Slogans do the half of the work for big brands but small businesses can thrive on company values by partnering up with higher welfare institutions and suppliers. This will contribute towards positive PR around the business especially within local publications.
Client Interaction: There is no doubt that client interaction offers opportunities to create content, especially for local businesses that operate out of retail storefronts. Your repeat clientele is bound to talk, post or tweet about your business and helps in running a successful campaign especially if they’ve had a pleasant experience. The obvious payoff is when they write positive things about the business as a blogger the business gets an honest review and a link back to the website.

Small businesses must realize that content is not merely articles or infographics but each and every aspect of your business. Small businesses must also realize that they must make efforts to fully utilize SEO, social media and content marketing together to achieve effective results. Think in terms of giving your clients a great experience – everything else is just a great byproduct that help you grow too.
Develop your content marketing skills, get good training from SEO Institute, opt for digital marketing training from professional SEO and Social Media experts,

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:

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.
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.
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.

How to Make Google Your Best Friend – SEO Tips for Entrepreneurs

You have an eCommerce store but it is not yielding profits? Thinking why? The answer is simple, if people cannot find you, where will the revenue come from. Ranking higher than your competitors is necessary. It is understood that you’re missing out on sales and revenues if the traffic footfalls are lesser.

If you are looking out for useful tactics to improve the visibility and traffic of your eCommerce site, here are some crucial SEO tips for entrepreneurs straight from SEO Institute:

Do not rely on PPC alone: Many eCommerce entrepreneurs fall back on PPC strategy alone for visibility. However, remember with time the PPC cost continues to increase and once you stop paying for advertisements, your online presence is affected. Thus, it is very important to implement organic SEO practices like information rich content, human-friendly URLs and rich media simultaneously to maintain ranking. Too much of a tall order? Don’t sweat it. Consider hiring employees with SEO training under their belt to provide the support you’ll need.
Say no to duplicate content: Most eCommerce stores are penalized because they have duplicate content in terms of product descriptions and lists. As a best practice, never use the product description given on the manufacturer’s site. One of the best ways is to use the rel=”canonical” tag to avoid duplication problem.
Audience centric content strategy: It is very important to be geared with a content strategy that is focused on targeted audience. Establish your users and create concrete content that will interest them. To engage your audience offer interesting content like contest, e-book or webinar on all major social media platforms.
Carefully optimize product images: Recently image search has become very important and many users rely on it to find products. Thus, eCommerce websites should focus on image optimization. Use vibrant and specific descriptions, optimize the ALT tags, strategize the product angles and image dimensions and handle the thumbnails carefully. Also , test the number of product images per page as loading time is a major issue.
Make use of anchor text: Anchor text sparingly as if you over use this strategy, Google will be suspicious. Place the internal links naturally. Never add too many links with the same anchor text as Google tracks the anchor text for inbound links.
Structure the store: The structure of the store also affects the SEO. Make sure there are number of landing pages that are brand or product specific. This will give you a chance to optimize multiple pages and keyword groups to increase the visibility of the site.

If you have used any other techniques, you would like to share, feel free to give us a shout. We look forward to hearing from you!

Crucial Factors for SEO Success in 2013

2013 was a rough patch for SEO experts because of radical changes in Google’s algorithm including the Panda & Penguin updates. While inbound links and content quality still continue to rule the organic ranking scenario, significant changes have been made. In the increasing competition it is important to employ strategic practices in pragmatic approach to reach the top of the search engine ranking page.Crucial factors for SEO success in 2013 as per SEO Institute focus on creating the value for readers. Read below to know more about them:

1. On-page SEO: To get SEO success it is very important to keep a track of latest SEO trends and Penguin. Focused users must ensure that below mentioned factors are used to influence search engine ranking:

I. Page title: This is the first attribute that shows up in the search results for the website. Make sure it is unique for every page. Two things to remember are that you must focus on two keywords and it should be maximum of 70 characters.

II. Meta description: It is an actual sentence that describes the topic to both the users and search engines. A good description contains maximum of 160 characters and must focus on two keywords.

III. Meta Keywords: These are unique keywords assigned to particular page of the website. These words must be included in the website content. Here is one little tip, include maximum of five words without spaces.

IV. ALT text: It provides an alternative text to an image when the mage can’ be displayed. It is important to place ALT text on every page and match the primary keywords of destination.

2. Keyword research and analysis: The most crucial part in online marketing and SEO is to do keyword research and analysis. To make this tedious task simple, just follow these simple steps:

I. Ask yourself: It is very important to ask is the keyword really relevant to the content. Will the searchers be able to find what they are really looking for? Will these keywords result in financial rewards?

II. Search for keyword terms or phrases in major engines: It is very important to understand which websites are already ranked for the keywords give you a valuable insight into the competition and also how difficult it is to rank them for the given terms. You also need to find out if there are PPC campaigns running for the keywords.

III. Long-tail keywords: With changing trends you must realize that long tail keywords convert better as they are able to attract searchers in the conversion cycle. Including long-tail keywords like, ‘best price on Acer laptop” are people who have their wallet out already.

3. Content: Google has very explicitly announced that good quality content is the key to website ranking. Content quality refers to the uniqueness and resourcefulness of the information. The web rate on search engines depend basically on the content on the web or blog. The original and creative the content, the higher is the Google rate.

The above are some of the crucial SEO trends that play a key role in SEO for 2013.

Best Practices For Maximizing Your Local Search Engine Optimization

Local SEO was never as prominent in the online world as it is right now. Given the changes in algorithms by Google and the importance it has been giving to local search results, in addition to the natural way in which searches have evolved to incorporate more local results, now is the time for pushing aggressive strategy.Of course, like everything else in the online marketing world, in order to succeed with local search engine optimization, one needs to follow certain processes and proven methodologies that can provide the best ROI. Whether it’s exploring local SEO packages on offer by agencies or biting the bullet on your own, here are some tips on how to go about it all:

-Be in the know: Your local SEO strategy quite literally has to start from the word go. The moment you have your website development plan in place, you need to figure out a search engine optimization strategy that will enhance your local SEO efforts. Do your research and look for what is trending as well as what people are looking for in terms of keyword searches.

- Advertise your location aggressively: Local SEO is all about geographical location and you need to make sure that you put yours out there aggressively. Profiles on Google places and Bing, listing on online directories, your company and brand name, address, contact details all filled out, these are the things that you need to address immediately. People need to know where you are in order to be able to find you.

-Content with a local context: The fact that fresh, consistent content is extremely important is something you’ve heard enough. In terms of local SEO though, you need to give your content a local spin. Writing about stuff that pertains to your services but is also somehow linked to your geographical location will bring you favor with search engines, both in terms of relevance and information.

-Feedback and reviews: Cherish and value these with all your might. Online reviews are a tremendous asset. They increase your credibility in the eyes of first time visitors. Of course the goal should be to garner as many positive reviews as possible and gibe your audience a chance to say what they want about you. This also promotes your authority in your field and gives you greater visibility.

-Social media: There cannot be a successful SEO strategy without a successful SMO plan. Both of these need to be integrated, profiles created on all possible platforms and then used for interaction and building a network and a positive community. Getting local with your social media is the key as descriptions get indexed and so does select content from your feed.

Local SEO does not have to be rocket science. While there might be challenges but following a structured method will help you overcome them and attain the positive results that you desire.

Contact Techmagnate to know more about Local SEO Packages.

SEO is NOT Dead

This article explores the question of whether search engine optimization is declining at a rate wherein it will die out completely. The number of SEO packages, SEO services and SEO plans available in the market actually suggest otherwise. SEO is growing enough for it to be still a strong player and contributor to the online marketing world. The change might have come in terms of how things are done but at its core, search engine optimization is still very much a part of the process.With the evolution of online marketing strategies and the advent of something new almost on a daily basis, one of the most pressing and relevant questions that is asked often is whether all of this has affected SEO and if so, then how? In other words- is SEO dead? Or is there still hope?For the most part, this question is asked in the context of social media optimization actually being given more importance right now, something that has sidelined SEO completely. Given the number of SEO plans, SEO services and SEO Packages available in the market today, there can only be one answer to this question- No, SEO is not dead at all, rather it growing strong and progressive as time goes now.The one thing that is a fact that looking back at the time when SEO actually started to the current scenario, there has been big enough change in terms of how SEO is performed and how it’s implemented. Other than that, to say that SEO is dead or even nearing death is a bit far-fetched.

The one thing we need to realize is that while social media is becoming a dominant force when it comes to online marketing, that is not happening at the expense of search engine optimization. Both of these have a place of their own and are co-existing to provide marketers the best possible options and opportunities when it comes to creating online marketing plans. SEO is actually growing under the radar and all these claims about how everything is mobile now and content based, need to be re-thought.

In fact it would not be incorrect to say that SEO is actually experiencing a positive growth spell. This is especially true in the light of all the new Penguin and Panda updates that are now in the market. Proper and expert SEO knowledge is become more and more important in order to implement campaigns and maintain consistent high rankings.

Most online campaigns are still keyword driven and keywords cannot be detached from search engine optimization. Both of these are integral parts of each other and together go on to create robust strategies that help drive traffic and business. Keeping that in mind, until keywords exist, the idea that SEO will not is a completely wayward one.

The online help that is available for SEO nowadays goes on to further re-enforce the fact that it is very much a part of the game. New tools are being developed and introduced in the market in order to make SEO easier and no one would bother with these for something that was on its deathbed. In fact going into the future, SEO with all these new tools stands on the threshold of being more popular than ever.

Considering how the online world is developing and progressing each passing day, it is but natural for the relevancy of something as old as SEO to be questioned. But, the writing is very clear on the wall and for now SEO is here to stay. The face of it might change over time but the core competency as well as the functionality will remain the same.