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I posted 2,981 times in 2022
That's 1,430 more posts than 2021!
206 posts created (7%)
2,775 posts reblogged (93%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@trying-to-get-somewhere-real
@lonely-night
@lush-retina
@hannaheinbinderfans
@drpinkky
I tagged 2,410 of my posts in 2022
Only 19% of my posts had no tags
#avadeb hacks brainrot - 109 posts
#jeanie - 97 posts
#hacks spoilers - 76 posts
#hannah brainrot - 72 posts
#st: voy - 62 posts
#abbott elementary - 54 posts
#st: snw - 48 posts
#riss speaks - 36 posts
#aloto - 34 posts
#m:fs - 33 posts
Longest Tag: 139 characters
#and that’s not a ‘riss you just love milfs’ thing it’s a ‘i cannot relate to the problems/goals of someone who is still in undergrad’ thing
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
See the full post
112 notes - Posted September 6, 2022
#4
See the full post
113 notes - Posted April 14, 2022
#3
JEAN SMART
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series — WINNER
28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards — Feb 27, 2022
128 notes - Posted February 27, 2022
#2
fellas is it gay to watch your ex-writing partner’s qvc tapings just to feel nearer to her after she fires you then drops the lawsuit that was the only thing you were looking forward to bc it meant that you got to see her again? asking for a friend.
143 notes - Posted June 2, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
goodbye
231 notes - Posted September 12, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
#2022 year in review#did anyone expect this to be anything but a love fest for hacks#but also *dakota johnson voice* that’s not true tumblr#my number one post was much bigger than that one#five most rb’d blogs are accurate tho i fuckin love y’all#also i hate these tag stats! i tag to optimize for search not for the tag engineering#so i have a lot of slightly different tags that include overlapping words that i can search on my blog to find posts#bc the line between show/character/ship/actor is so thin and sometimes i want one thing or another thing
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SEO Checklist: Never Forget Anything About SEO Ever Again
Original Publish Date: May 8, 2015 Most Recent Update: January 16, 2019
Why You Need An SEO Checklist
Yup, never.
Some 8 years back, when I was just starting to get serious with this SEO thing, I scoured the Web for an SEO checklist that would help me remember all these new things that I was learning.
I found nothing.
Besides a list of linking strategies that included profile links, forum signatures and spamming bookmark sites, I never really did find a good one.
It would’ve made it exponentially easier for me to learn SEO if I could have printed out something and marked it off manually back then. I could review it, internalize it and plan out tasks better.
Time traveling to the present day: I snapped out of my unproductive daydream, I put my glass of wine down and I told myself to stop reminiscing about the past.
Then it dawned on me. Why not make one?
That small epiphany became this blog post and infographic. You can also download a bonus printable version at the end of the post, which includes local SEO checklists that aren’t in the infographic.
Click here to download a free SEO checklist that you can print out and use today, whether you are still learning the ropes or already running an SEO campaign. PLUS, bonus local SEO checklists that are not found in the infographic.
Grow your digital presence to get more leads with this FREE newsletter (and free resources)
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</p><br /> <p><strong>Please include attribution to LeapFroggr.com with this graphic.</strong></p><br /> <p><a href=’https://www.leapfroggr.com/seo-checklist/’><img src=’http://128.199.238.119/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Ultimate-SEO-Checklist.png’ alt=’The Ultimate SEO Checklist’ width=” border=’0′ /></a></p><br /> <p>
I wanted this SEO checklist infographic to be the longest infographic you’ve ever seen… literally.
I know the stats about how it’s not ideal. How it’s not the best thing to do and how stupid an idea that is to make such a long infographic.
Sometimes, you just need to do something different.
Besides wanting this to be remembered as the longest infographic about SEO ever, I wanted it to be REALLY useful.
There are a lot of people out there that can benefit from this, much like I would have if I am starting all over again today.
So, with that said, let’s get started with some quick explanations of why I think each one is important.
Research
Research is arguably the most boring part of SEO for many, but I personally love it. You have to embrace the research part to get a feel of what you are up against and what you will be doing.
Your whole SEO strategy will depend on your depth of understanding so DO NOT ever skip the research phase.
Market Research Market research gives you a feel of the whole landscape.
Chances are, you will be working on a more specific website. By doing market research, you open your mind to what’s out there, what they are doing, what’s working for them and so on.
Look around, vertically and horizontally. The information you learn here will come in handy when you start creating your SEO plan and link building strategy.
Niche Research It’s time to niche it down. Who are you going up against directly? What’s the overall state of the niche when it comes to SEO? What types of results is Google showing you when you search? Local? Maps? Mostly Yelp? Video dominates? Are news sites being shown?
Knowing these will help you prioritize what you need to do to get visibility as soon as possible.
Competitor Research Who are your direct competitors? What are they doing? How aggro are they?
Compile your direct competitors. Search using the keywords you are targeting on Google and list down all your competitors.
Compile their link profiles, identify which site is getting the most links, note down the link types they have and what their audiences are sharing.
Keyword Research Now that you have done your competitor research, you can use the data for this phase.
You’ll be able to see the keywords they are ranking for based on the anchor text from their links and you can use tools like SEMRush to find out what other keywords they are ranking for or bidding for.
Compile those keywords and add your target keywords into a list.
Whip out Google’s Keyword Planner, paste the keywords in and watch the magic happen.
You’ll get a ton of suggestions you would have never thought of in the first place.
Data Gathering Now, it’s time to start compiling the data you’ve researched and gather some actual stats about your website.
Compile the initial keywords and backlinks you’ve acquired from the research you’ve done above. Put them into organized lists.
You also need to answer things like: What’s the current status of your website vs your competitors? How optimized are their websites? How many links do they have now?
You need to activate Google Analytics so you can get data about the site you are working on.
You need to crawl the site you are working so you can have the data by the time you get to the on-page SEO phase.
Google Search Console
We love today’s version of Google Webmaster Tools. You can get a ton of data simply by using this.
You can:
Check for crawl errors
Check for penalties
Check if the sitemap has been submitted already
Check HTML improvements needed
Check for broken links
Grab all the data you can and fix them now or until you get to the on-page SEO phase.
Bonus: You might also want to submit your site to Bing’s Webmaster Center. Just for the sake of it. Just do it.
On-Page SEO
This often gets the most criticism from die-hard link builders but nowadays, a lot of them have come to accept on-page SEO as a major part of the overall SEO process.
Today, a lot of pages can rank purely from relevance and good on-page SEO work so never neglect it.
General
For those that are new to SEO, you might not be aware of some of these.
These are best practices that you must apply early on and throughout the life of your website.
The following items are very basic so if you have questions about any of these, please feel free to ask in the comments area.
Start with these:
Add an XML Sitemap
Add Navigation
Add Menus
Use Breadcrumbs
Add a Robots.txt file
Check for Canonical
No-index thin pages – Tags should definitely be no-indexed. Category pages that don’t have unique content should be as well.
Fix all the problems found in Webmaster Tools
Title – ensure keyword presence / check for H1 tag / use long-tail keywords
Check Meta Tags
Fix all pages missing Meta Titles (Stick to 60 characters)
Fix all pages missing Meta Descriptions (Stick to 150 characters or less)
Fix all images missing Alt Text
Check h# tags (e.g. <h1>, <h2>, etc.) and order them properly.
Optimize Content
Now it’s time to check your site’s existing content.
For many of you, you will be thrown into a project for big website that’s pretty messed up, with content that has been built over the years.
Do not be afraid to change the content if it will improve it and do not hesitate to cull those worthless pages.
Review Visual Design
Keywords
LSI keywords – Use LSI keywords to make your content more relevant.
Publish the usual static pages (Privacy/Terms/Sitemap/About/Contact/Etc.)
“Try” to keep indexed pages static
Refresh or update your site’s content regularly
Monitor Bounce Rate
Externalize Code (CSS)
Performance Tweaks
The performance of your website is IMPORTANT, especially in today’s SEO landscape.
Though the Mobilegeddon update has been underwhelming so far, it will become more important as time goes by so fix your website today.
Check multi-browser-friendliness
URL Optimization
Your URL structure can be easily neglected but it can have a good impact on your rankings and even user re-call.
The best practice is to keep it as short as possible, aim for below 100 characters.
Incorporate primary keywords into the URL
Use absolute URLs
Simplify dynamic URLs with mod_rewrite (Say no to dynamic URLs when possible)
Use 301 redirects for rewritten URLs
Set up non-www to www redirect (or vice versa)
Using Schema
Less than 30% of the websites out there actually use it. Take advantage of that. Schema is here to stay. It doesn’t mean that it’s useless because Google Authorship is dead.
Though its direct impact to SEO is still not actually “proven” in a concrete way, it’s indirect effects are actually very obvious.
Whatever you believe, like I always say, optimize everything and you will succeed in SEO.
Refine/add markup for possible schema (Official Logo, Articles, etc)
I highly recommend that you check out SEOGadget’s (ok, BuiltVisible, I miss the name…) guide on schema over here.
Off-Page SEO
Clearly the most popular part of SEO is your off-page work, more commonly referred to as link building. It is where you want to spend the bulk of your time besides planning and creating your content.
Some of the strategies below are old-school, some are new and some are really niche specific. If you have question, feel free to ask them in the comments area or you can start a new conversation over here.
Set Up Brand Alerts Setting up Google Alerts, TalkWalker and Mention are practically staples in any SEO campaign today. Moz also has neat built-in tracking tool, so if you are a subscriber, be sure to make use of that.
The reason you’d want to do this is that you want to know immediately when someone mentions your brand (and any other relevant keywords) anywhere in the Internet.
This allows you to track your reviews, negative press, blog mentions, forum questions and more! You’ll have the chance to get a backlinks by jumping in early and you also get to build better brand loyalty by showing that you care enough to respond to their posts or issues.
Find Unlinked URL’s and Brand Mentions If you are working on an established site, then chances are, there will be a ton of unlinked mentions out there for you to take.
Tip: There are a lot of ways but start with the simplest method by using Google
Brand -Brand.com (LeapFroggr -leapfroggr.com)
Competing Company Links Find your competitors, look around vertically and horizontally in your niche and category.
Compile them and check their links. Then go out and get those links. They got it, why can’t you?
Ranking Competitor Links Search for your target keywords and find those direct-ranking competitors. Chances are, you won’t see a lot of them during your competitor research phase.
Now compile these sites and check their backlinks.
Find Important Links Using Link Intersects Basically, you want to find the links that already link to your competitors.
Why? There’s a higher chance that you can get those links quickly.
You can use Excel after you export your competitor backlinks to see which domains link to them but for those rare SEO’s that don’t really like spreadsheets (like me) – then CognitiveSEO has a tool for it, so does Link Research Tools and as well as Moz.
Create Social Media Profiles Create your social properties and make sure to put a link back to your website.
If you can’t use them yet, then treat it mainly for branding purposes and to reserve the name when the time comes that you might actually need them.
Broken Link Building Broken link building is basically a strategy to start a conversation with a webmaster.
You give them something and they might eventually do you a favour. That’s the basic idea.
Knowing that, you can get creative with it. Here’s a great article from Erika about broken link building.
Richard Marriott over at Clambr also put up an awesome tutorial.
Utilizing Relevant Pinterest Boards Join or ask to get invited on Pinterest Group Boards. PinGroupie is a good place to start.
True, Pinterest links are no-follow for the most part but Pinterest can bring you tons of traffic and visibility.
You will get links that you would never get by doing normal link prospecting. You can even take it a step further and check the people that shared your pin and reach out to them. You can message with people directly in Pinterest now, just in case you haven’t been using it lately.
Join Expert Roundups Expert roundups are a dime a dozen nowadays and they are getting bigger and bigger each day just to stand out and squeeze out the most social shares.
You don’t have to join all of them but you should join some of them.
For the most part, these are on blogs with their own readership, so it’s a chance for you to get your brand out there and eventually pull in more links.
Oh, you can also be the one to do expert roundups and offer that as part of your outreach. Lots of people will link to it if you use a proper angle for the roundup.
Guest Posting on Influencer Websites Guest posting is not dead. They should rephrase that.
It’s more like guest posting on blatantly fake blog networks is almost dead.
People keep complaining about it but it really isn’t dead. In fact, it’s more important and more precious now than ever.
Find the right sites, build the right connections and create great content for their audience without over-using anchor text.
Blog Commenting To Build Relationships
Blog comment links are mostly no-follow. The real value is in the relationships that are formed.
I’ve met a ton of people simply by doing guest commenting and I got connected with new people that eventually linked to me because I took a bit of my spare time to build these relationships.
I met Matt Capala through blog commenting and he has sent business my way and exclusive connections. (Blatant Plug: Buy his book.)
Some relationships are started through email, some are started by joining local networking events and some can be started simply by blog commenting.
If you want to learn by example, my friends Adrienne, Donna, Harleena, Sue, Don, Carol and Ryan are great people to learn from.
Utilize Quote Directories Sounds funny, but there are many quote directories out there that can be used for links.
Since we are talking about directories, go ahead and look for blog directories, startup directories and niche specific directories. The links can be acquired easily and for the most part, free.
Get on Sites that Offer Awards If you are running a pet website, then you can find sites that offer awards both locally and internationally. Run a service business? There are plenty of business awards you can join. If you run a blog, go out and find sites that offer blog awards. Run a podcast? There are awards for that, too.
In many cases, being nominated can get you a link already… but do try to win so you can show off the award and get other perks.
Contribute to Newsletters Consider this as a way for you to get your brand out there. It’s also a way to get targeted traffic and acquire loyal readers.
So where does the SEO part come in? You can find sites that would allow you to publish content exclusively for their subscribers. It’s like guest posting but only through an exclusive list of people.
You can also get on newsletter publishers that publish recommended content each month. Many of their subscribers use the newsletter content when publishing their monthly or weekly link roundups on their own blogs. That’s where your link is going to come from!
As a side benefit, believe it or not, some people will copy the newsletter content directly and paste it on their site.
Get on Institution Websites Confused? These are also known as .gov and .edu links.
I could talk about hacking their sites, I could talk about manipulating their Moodle platforms and others but…this is sort of a white-hat blog.
The traditional way is to get on their resource page. You can also offer work to them in exchange for a link. One of my older tricks is to track down the student editor and give him beer money.
The .Gov sites will sometimes have forums that give do-follow links. Sometimes you can be a supplier to a project or event depending on your niche. It can open lots of doors for you if you do it the right way.
Get Links from Local Chamber of Commerce Websites Local CoC websites are plenty but the rules are different for each one.
In most cases, it’s pretty easy to get links from them. Just ask what you want do for them or what their requirements are.
Don’t Overlook New Bloggers New bloggers are going to look for mentors. They look for people that are already where they want to be. They will ask questions and they will need guidance.
If you have people following you or somebody emails you, do not hesitate to help them out. Relationships built out this way can net you links you will never really get by simply doing prospecting.
Also, when building out your prospecting list, you will encounter new blogs. Do not hesitate to reach out to them. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have readers and it doesn’t mean that the link you’ll get is worthless since they are a PR-0 site.
Often, these bloggers have really die-hard followers that jump on any recommendation they make and these followers are usually bloggers too. Imagine the extra links you’ll get.
Oh, and in time, the link you get will become more important as they become more important in the space.
Do Guest Podcasting Podcasting is BIG right now and 99% of the time, these podcasters have their own blogs so they can put the show notes there. You don’t have to even start your own podcast.
The idea here is to get on those podcasts. That’s a 100% sure, high quality link.
Submit to Curating Platforms Curating platforms like Scoop.it can share your content out and link back to you. In many cases, these are no-follow links but they have users of their own. Plus these users that curate have blogs. The things they curate get sent to their blogs and their readers get to find your content because of their referral.
My personal favourite is Flipboard. It has brought me a ton of traffic already and readers actually do stick around.
Use LinkedIN Pulse I only just started with LinkedIN Pulse but it’s pretty good so far.
The reason isn’t really for the link, but for the brand visibility. You can assume that the people that follow you and see your work on LinkedIN already have their own social presence online. They might also have blogs.
With my few articles so far, I have gotten some new links because they found my site from my LinkedIN posts.
Plus, you can republish your content on LinkedIN Pulse so it’s not really duplicate content. I don’t do this but a lot of other people do. Maybe you should try it out.
For tips, Paul Shapiro made the best article about it (ever) over here at Noah Kagan’s blog.
Get on Publisher Websites I consider the top tier publishing sites here, such as Entrepreneur, HuffPo, BusinessInsider and more. Depending on your niche, you will find other really big publishers so make sure to get on them.
I also consider the viral sites, like Buzzfeed, under this category. The normal way to get on these sites is to write on their backend and try hard to get your work on the main site. If not, then it won’t really be indexed.
If you want to be creative, my favorite tactic to get on these viral sites is to start from the smaller blogs and work my way up. I spread news or rumors on smaller blogs that I know these viral sites take news from. Once it’s picked up, you push it again on the next level and things will again, snowball from there.
Find Community Websites Community sites like and Kingged can give you some good initial traction. You’ll be able to meet new people, share your work, gain visibility and eventually, links.
Don’t Forget StumbleUpon and Reddit If you look at the StumbleUpon idea, it can look so Web1.0 but it can still bring in good traffic. Their Ad platform is also good if you plan it out right and know how to get it to catch on. Once it does, it will snowball. You’ll get links, one way or another. One of the people I’ve been following since forever is Ross Hudgens. They put out this cool guide about SU that you can check out here.
As for Reddit, it is only getting hotter so people can say whatever they want about how worthless it is for SEO but for me, Reddit has brought my sites tons of traffic and netted me links from hardcore, badass sites. Ain’t too shabby. Plus, it can do this…thanks for the spot Dan.
Find Uncredited Images It’s inevitable.
People will steal your images. Steal? Sounds harsh. Well, sometimes bloggers just grab it off Google images. It’s a completely innocent thing to do so I understand.
Good thing we know SEO! That practically means a free link in my eyes.
Use Google’s image search and upload a photo. It’ll show you places where the image was used. You can also use Tineye to do this.
Oh, infographic promotion can fall under this as well.
Submit to Slideshare If you do speaking gigs, present to your company or other groups, then you probably have a collection of slide decks. Simply use sites like Slideshare and share your content there!
Do you create blog posts? Repurpose your blog content into slides!
Need more Slideshare tips and tricks? Then get it from no other but the queen herself, Ana Hoffman from TGC.
Note: You can also submit PDF’s to Slideshare but there are also places to submit PDF’s so you can share your book or whitepaper to the world.
Get on Magazine and News Sites Local ones will tend to be easier to get featured on to but bigger, global news sites are still possible. It will just take a bit more work and patience.
What I do is to find the editor or a connection to the editor. Once I get introduced, it’s easy to submit a piece and get a piece published.
Joining HARO, which will be mentioned shortly, can also help you get on some of these sites.
Find Resource Pages Resource pages is one of the oldest plays in the book and it’s still one of my favorites.
Why? Competitors neglect them and I don’t have to worry about content. Easy, relevant links. Boom.
Join HARO and Participate Help A Reporter Out aka HARO is one of the best ways to get free press.
You get emails with different topics. You reply to the reporter and send an expert direct-to-the-point answer.
HARO isn’t the only game in town, I listed down some of the others here.
Here’s a tip: Use your mail to filter out the daily emails to find relevant phrases or words so you don’t have to check each one.
Use and Monitor Hashtags like #PRRequest Besides HARO type sites, there are hashtags out there that are used by journalists. It’s a way for them to get stories and participants. You can tweet out your topic with the hashtag or just monitor it.
Again, much like HARO, you need to pick your spots and be patient with this. Once it works for you, it’s gold.
Do a Link Bait You basically write about something controversial, something timely, something that’s not the norm. Put it out in front of the right people and BAM! You get links!
I covered it a bit more on this post.
Create Badges This is old school but still effective today, especially for certain niches today.
You create a gimmick badge, you share it to the community with a link back to you to show their support or to brag about their level in the community.
It’s sort of like those blog directories that want you to put their link on your site first to confirm your ownership. Then you forget to remove the badge and you just gave them a free link.
Find Links Pointing to Your Social Media Account but Not Your Website This is simple yet highly neglected.
By doing a simple backlink check on your own social profiles, you can dig out some pretty easy links.
To take this a step further, compile your competitor’s social accounts and check their links.
Use a Service? Submit a Testimonial! If you use a service or bought a course or maybe you are a member of a group/newsletter, then you can try to share your learnings, testimonials and results to the owner.
If you are purely in this for the link, which I know you are, then make sure the site you are contacting has a testimonial area.
For a more extensive process, Bryan Harris, THE poster boy, explains this like no other.
Support Crowd Funding Projects I mentioned it briefly here but I have talked about this on the newsletter pretty extensively in the past.
You basically find crowd funding projects that offer a link from their websites. You support them and get the link when they go live.
Charities to Support There are tons of charities you can support. Look around your local area and find those with websites.
Of course, you need to be aligned with their vision. >_>
Q&A Sites Q&A sites are mostly no-follow links but they bring in relevant traffic. They also rank pretty well and can get you spots in Google’s results.
That way, you can get more visibility, new users and eventually, new links.
Find Forums Forum links are not dead. They are still really nice and they still bring in targeted traffic.
You just need to look for relevant forums and jump into the conversation… or you can manufacture a way to start a conversation and jump in later to pitch your link.
Google removed my fav filter, which is “discussions” so just for you, here’s my secret. This nifty Chrome plugin.
Note: Just don’t go out there buying mass forum signature and profile links.
Research How an Author Did it I love this technique because I can sort of see how someone I look up to got to where he is today.
I could see how hard they worked, how they did it, the creativity they showed and more!
I could then do something similar and set myself apart from what he already did.
I talked about this extensively on the newsletter and I mentioned it on my post over here.
Supplier Websites This is mainly for e-commerce websites where you have suppliers that have sites. Just ask for those links.
If you are a business or a blog and have someone you work with that has a site, then you can also ask for a link from them. Easy, high quality links are always welcome.
Do Successful Content BETTER As mentioned in my previous post, my go-to strategy when it comes to link building is simply just doing better content than what’s already working out there and get all their links!
It basically means that people are interested and you can get those links.
Brian Dean calls this the Skyscraper Technique so if you want to learn more about this, check out his blog post!
Comment Scouting Comment scouting is a way for me to simply get ideas from the comments area (be it in my own blog or another blog) and create content for whatever the need I see there.
Then you contact the commenters and commenters on other blog posts with a similar topic.
I am creating a post about this and I’ll be posting it soon. Signup for our newsletter so you never miss an update!
③⓪① Build Category Specific Sites – 301 Them Category pages on a website are probably the hardest pages to get links for. E-commerce sites will benefit from getting links to these pages greatly so one way of getting links is by creating separate websites.
Cultivate them, get them links and then 301 those domains to your main category. #WIN
Since you read all the way here, here are a few bonus strategies that aren’t in the infographic!
Speaking and Conference Links Volunteer to speak in front of an organization or a conference. That’s almost a guaranteed link.
Does the conference have sponsors? They probably mentioned the conference on their website as well. Ask for a link back to your site!
Management and Sponsor Links Let’s say you are working on a celebrity’s site, then get a link from her agency’s site. Get links from her sponsors and magazines that mention her.
Are you getting paid to show off products? Get links from your sponsor’s website!
WikiPedia There are certainly different ways to get WikiPedia links. Knowing a moderator, sheer luck or WikiGrabber.
Use it and find a way to get a link. Don’t forget your etiquette.
Infographic Links Lastly, infographic promotion. Submit it to directories, reach out to sites that already publish infographic posts or sites that can be granted exclusivity.
It’s really a versatile way to build links so you can get really creative with it.
BTW, if you liked this infographic, please use our embed code that you saw at the bottom of the infographic.
Tell us about it and we’ll help you promote it. We’ll even write a unique intro for you!
Everything Else
Once you get to this point, it’s basically icing on the cake. Most of these are things that can’t be qualified under the categories above.
Some are minor, some are really vital once you start ranking and some are just for maintenance.
Social Media
I had to start it off with this.
When it comes to discussing social media’s direct effect to SEO, it will almost always be controversial. No matter what people say, social media is a part of our online and offline brands moving forward.
For me, social media does not have a direct effect, but a more indirect one. Actually, there are plenty of indirect ones!
The point of this being included here in the checklist is that you need to make sure that your website is set up properly and linked to your brand’s official social platforms.
Create those social media accounts – these basically help with SEO indirectly as they carry your brand name.
Adding social sharing buttons can potentially help you acquire new users and eventually links.
Link these social media accounts to your website – For example, Google+ can ask you to verify your site and page.
Also, you can use Schema to link your official social profiles.
Conversion Rate Optimization
CRO, which is an art on it’s own, does have processes that affect your overall SEO. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to convert more of your existing visitors.
Some of the things you need to do are:
Continue to speed up your website
Check your bounce rates
Be sure you don’t cause duplicate content when A/B testing
Track if you are ranking the correct page (that is converting)
Sound familiar? They should be.
Knowledge Graph
The knowledge graph is still a mystery for many. If your brand is still not an entity within the Knowledge Graph, then you need to start taking some steps to include yourself there.
Start by getting a Freebase account (by the time you read this, Google might have moved over to WikiData)
Check out Andrew Isidoro’s post as well as Krystian Szastok’s post.
Rank Tracking
Rank tracking is not as talked about as it used to be but if you are serious about your SEO work, then it’s still a must.
The Google Webmaster Tools data you get about your rankings are simply an average of where you place.
If you want more accurate data, be it local or country specific, then you need to track it yourself, be it using software (we use Rank Tracker and Advanced Web Ranking) or one of the many cloud hosted rank tracking tools out there.
Just to throw it in here: I get this question a lot. Does it hurt your ranking if you keep checking the rankings daily? I haven’t seen any evidence of it as I track things pretty aggressively.
Reputation Management
Skeptical?
Let’s start by mentioning that you need to claim your brand’s identity everywhere. It will save you a ton of time and headaches in the future when the brand you are working on is big enough.
You also need to monitor mentions about your brands either to stop negative things from escalating or get links.
So, can online reputation management be a part of SEO? Definitely.
Ongoing Server Configuration Checks
Your server will need to be tweaked regularly. Especially as you grow your traffic more and more.
The last thing you want is a slow site or a site that is down for long periods of time.
Things can get misconfigured, it’s just the way it is so doing regular checks are important.
Other Avenues to Improve Branding Online
You can do more besides traditional link building.
You can build up your brands on different ecosystems that are also crawled by Google.
From YouTube, to Apple and even Amazon. These are all major search engines on their own and building your brand within them can add to your SEO… and they take up space in Google’s results so that’s another bonus for you.
Keep Up with New Google Guidelines
Google’s guidelines will keep on changing. It’s just the nature of the game.
If you don’t monitor SEO news regularly, make it a point to pick your favorite SEO websites and subscribe to their newsletter (like ours) or RSS feed. Schedule a time in the month to do quick reading sessions to keep yourself up to date.
Schedule On-Page SEO Checks
As you publish more and more content, things can get lost in the shuffle.
Maybe you don’t have a system in place yet for other authors that publish within your site. Maybe you are just forgetful when it comes to SEO and just want to focus on creating content.
Doing a regular on-page SEO checkup will only help you in the long run so don’t overlook this.
Screaming Frog is our favorite but Google Webmaster Tools can also give you some good data.
Schedule Regular Backlink Profile Checks
This is probably the most ignored thing EVER. I cannot stress the importance of this especially if you are already working on a popular site or a competitive market.
Things can go wrong rather quickly (penalty/de-indexed) or it can be the reason why your site is being held back from improving in the rankings.
Checking your link profile regularly will help you see what’s wrong. Maybe you are over using your anchor text, maybe somebody is sending you spammy links or maybe you just aren’t doing enough.
I would suggest using and even Google Webmaster Tools when doing link profile checks.
Now Here’s How You Can Put It to Use
As I mentioned earlier in the article, we created a FREE SEO checklist that you can download and print out.
It’s basically a group of printable checklists, including 2 checklists for on-page and off-page local SEO.
Here’s where you can download the checklist:
Grow your digital presence to get more leads with this FREE newsletter (and free resources)
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How to Think About SEO
email marketing is typically performed
Don’t you hate how it takes forever to get results when it comes to SEO?
Everyone says it takes 6 months to a year and even in some cases many years to see results.
Well, I have some bad news and some good news for you.
Let’s start with the bad news…
SEO is a long-term strategy. It’s not about doing it for a few months and forgetting about it. And if you stop focusing on it eventually your competitors will outrank you.
And now let’s get on to the good news.
You can get results in the short run. You may not get all of the results you want right away, and you may not rank for your ideal keywords, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get results within 90, 60, and even potentially 30 days.
So how do you get results within a few months?
Well first, let’s rewire your brain so you think about SEO in the correct way.
SEO isn’t just content and links
If you want to rank number 1 on Google, what do you need?
Well, the data shows you need to write lengthy content. Because the average web page that ranks on page 1 of Google contains 1,890 words.
And of course, what’s content without links? Because the 2 most important factors that affect rankings according to the SEO industry are domain level links and page level links.
But here is the thing: SEO isn’t what it used to be. Until 2010, you used to be able to add keywords in your meta tags and you would get rankings within a few months.
And as the web got more crowded, you could then get results by doing the same old thing but you also had to build a few links. That worked really well between 2010 and 2013.
As more businesses popped up, everyone started focusing on content marketing. That was the hot thing. From 2013 to 2017, if you created tons of text-based content, got a few social shares, and picked up a few natural backlinks you could dominate Google.
But now, there are over a billion blogs if you include WordPress.com, Medium, and Tumblr.
That means Google has their choice when it comes to determining what sites to rank at the top.
In other words, just because you write lengthy content or build backlinks it doesn’t mean you are going to ranks. Millions of other sites do that as well.
And even if you got in early and your site is 10 years old, it’s no longer that easy to dominate the web.
Just look at sites like Wisegeek. They used to dominate the web as it’s a site with thousands of informative articles.
And now look at their traffic…
According to Ubersuggest, they get roughly 49,211 visitors a month from Google within the United States. It may seem like a lot, but their traffic is continually going down.
When I met the founder years ago it was in the millions… but not anymore.
It doesn’t even matter that the site has 8,761,524 backlinks from 74,147 referring domains.
Now you may make the argument that Wisegeek doesn’t have the best content. But I have tons of examples of sites with amazing content that have the same issues.
For example, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers creates great content. Just go check out some of his blog posts if you don’t believe me.
But let’s dive into his traffic stats…
According to Ubersuggest, he gets roughly 26,640 visitors a month from Google in the United States and he has 993,790 backlinks from 5,678 referring domains.
And he ranks for some great terms. Just look at the top pages he is ranking for with terms like “how to become more confident.”
But even Social Triggers has struggled to keep their traffic over time. It’s nothing to do with Derek, he’s a smart entrepreneur, but he decided to quit and focus on his new venture Truvani, which has been doing well.
In other words, content and links don’t guarantee success.
So, what’s the best way to get rankings these days?
You have to go after low hanging fruit.
Sure, you need content, you need links, and you need to optimize for the other 198 factors Google keeps track of the optimal amount of traffic.
But it’s UNREALISTIC for you to do everything. Even if you hire an SEO agency to help you out.
And there is no way you can wait 12 months to get results from an SEO campaign.
Which means your only solution is going after the low hanging fruit.
Now I wish I could tell you the exact low hanging fruit to go after, but it varies for every site. What I can do is show some of the simple tactics that have worked for me and are easy to implement.
Strategy #1: Don’t put dates in your URL
I used to have dates in my URL because it was a default option from WordPress. I didn’t think twice about it. But the moment I removed the dates from my posts, my search traffic went up by 58%.
youtube
Best of all, it only took 30 days to get the boost in traffic. 🙂
Strategy #2: Link to the most popular posts in your sidebar
Have you noticed that I rank for terms like “online marketing” and “SEO”?
I’m currently number 2 for the term online marketing:
And number 5 for the term SEO:
Do you want to know a hack that helped me rank higher for those terms? Well, I’ll give you a hint… you’ll find it in my sidebar.
As you can see, I’ve linked to all of my major guides in my sidebar. It helps give them the juice they need so they can rank higher for terms like SEO and online marketing.
If you haven’t done this, you should consider trying it out as it will provide a quick win.
You won’t see the results in 30 days, but within a few months, you’ll notice that those pages will climb in the ranks.
Strategy #3: Land and expand
I’ve talked about this one a lot in the past, but only because it works really, really, really, well.
It’s also one of the main reasons I’ve made Ubersuggest into a robust SEO tool. Not just for you, but also because I use it for the land and expand strategy to grow my search traffic.
It’s how I get 2,105,896 visitors a month from just Google…
So, what’s this land and expand SEO strategy I use?
You need to first log into Google Search Console.
Once you are logged in, click the “performance” link and you’ll see a list of keywords you are currently ranking for.
Then click on the most popular term you rank for. Make sure that keyword isn’t your brand name.
Then click on “pages.” You’ll see the page that is ranking for that keyword.
I want you to then head over to Ubersuggest and type in that keyword. Once the report loads click on “keyword ideas” in the sidebar. You’ll see a report that looks something like this:
You’ll see a long list of keywords that are variations of the main keyword that you already rank for. Most of those terms are pulled from Google Suggest.
If you take the popular phrases that are related to the main term you already rank for and integrate them into that page, you’ll notice within 30 to 60 days your search traffic will shoot up.
But when leveraging this strategy you need to make sure you adjust your content. You can’t just shove in more keywords, you have to rework your content so it makes sense and it flows naturally.
The reason this SEO strategy is my favorite tactic of all time is that content marketing is a hit or miss. Just because you write content and build links, it doesn’t guarantee success. But if you expand the pages that Google already loves, there is a high chance that you’ll get more traffic.
Strategy #4: Expand internationally
In many of my companies, I generate more revenue from outside of the United States than I do within the United States.
For that reason, plus it was a piece of advice I got from a Google employee, I’ve translated my site into multiple languages.
Just look at my traffic from Brazil…
And here is my traffic from Germany…
And the Spanish market…
What I learned from a Google employee is that they lack content in regions where English isn’t their primary language. So if you focus on these regions, you’ll quickly notice a quick traffic boost and your conversion rate from visitor to customer within those regions should also go up.
Strategy #5: 5-minute brand hack
Google loves brands. It really is the future of SEO. In addition, brands are more defensible.
As the EX-CEO of Google said:
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
In other words, if more people search for your brand name on Google, you’ll notice that your rankings will go up.
As more people typed in “Neil Patel” within Google, my traffic went from 185,980 a month:
to 454,382 visitors a month:
That’s a huge increase considering I saw the increase in a 6-month time frame. And even though I pulled that off back in 2016, it works even better today.
Building a brand isn’t easy and it is a long-term approach. But I am going to give you a head start… one that only takes 5 minutes.
Before I break it down, it follows the rule of 7. Someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they build up loyalty to it. In other words, if you can keep getting people to come back to your site in the short run, you’ll start building a brand and you’ll find your brand queries increase in the long run.
Now here’s a screenshot of my stats so you can see it in the works:
So far, I’ve gotten 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. That’s roughly 4 times, which means I have 3 more to go according to the rule of 7.
How did I do this?
I used a tool called Subscribers.
In which I send out a push notification every time I release a new blog post:
Plus, it allows me to generate 4,000 plus visitors for every push I send. 🙂
Strategy #6: Optimize your click-through-rate
You don’t have to write new content or build links to boost your rankings.
You can do something as simple as optimizing your click-through-rate.
Just think of it this way, if 1,000 people performed a Google search and everyone clicked on the second listing instead of the first listing, what does that tell Google?
It tells Google that the second listing should, in theory, be the first listing. And that’s what Google does… they take the listings people are clicking on and move it up to the top and move down the ones people don’t click on.
If you want step-by-step instructions to increasing your click-through-rate, follow hack #1.
It works really well and fast too. It’s how I boosted my search traffic for one of my main keywords by 1,289 visitors in 30 days.
Strategy 7: Update your old content
SEO and paid ads have something in common, in which if you stop doing it your traffic goes down.
Paid ads are a bit worse in which once you stop paying your traffic goes back down to where it was.
With SEO, once you stop you’ll see a slow decline over time.
Now, this strategy is so effective that I employ a full-time person to help me out with it and this is all they do.
Remember how I talked about there being over a billion blogs on the web now?
Well, I have one full-time person updating my old content to ensure it doesn’t get out of date.
Because Google has so many options to choose from when it comes to ranking sites for any keyword out there, they are going to rank sites that are fresher.
By updating your old content, not only do you ensure that you’ll maintain your traffic, but you’ll also get more traffic.
There isn’t any real strategy to this other than to go through your old pieces of content that get traffic and make sure they are up to date.
Sometimes you won’t have to make any changes, other times you may have to change a few sentences or links, and hopefully, not too often will you have to re-write a whole article.
And every blue moon you’ll need to delete a page or a post because it is irrelevant. For example, I’ve deleted my older blog posts that discuss social networks like MySpace that no one uses.
Conclusion
Yes, SEO does take time if you think about it the same way everyone else does.
But if you think about it from a strategical perspective, you’ll find new opportunities that can provide quick results.
You may not get all of the traffic you want tomorrow but going after the low hanging fruit will give the quickest results.
If you want help finding the low hanging fruit with your SEO campaign, you can always reach out to my ad agency and someone will help out. Or you can leave a comment below.
So, are you going to stop thinking of SEO as just link building and content and start thinking of ways to get quick wins?
Youtobe
0 notes
Text
How to Think About SEO
Don’t you hate how it takes forever to get results when it comes to SEO?
Everyone says it takes 6 months to a year and even in some cases many years to see results.
Well, I have some bad news and some good news for you.
Let’s start with the bad news…
SEO is a long-term strategy. It’s not about doing it for a few months and forgetting about it. And if you stop focusing on it eventually your competitors will outrank you.
And now let’s get on to the good news.
You can get results in the short run. You may not get all of the results you want right away, and you may not rank for your ideal keywords, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get results within 90, 60, and even potentially 30 days.
So how do you get results within a few months?
Well first, let’s rewire your brain so you think about SEO in the correct way.
SEO isn’t just content and links
If you want to rank number 1 on Google, what do you need?
Well, the data shows you need to write lengthy content. Because the average web page that ranks on page 1 of Google contains 1,890 words.
And of course, what’s content without links? Because the 2 most important factors that affect rankings according to the SEO industry are domain level links and page level links.
But here is the thing: SEO isn’t what it used to be. Until 2010, you used to be able to add keywords in your meta tags and you would get rankings within a few months.
And as the web got more crowded, you could then get results by doing the same old thing but you also had to build a few links. That worked really well between 2010 and 2013.
As more businesses popped up, everyone started focusing on content marketing. That was the hot thing. From 2013 to 2017, if you created tons of text-based content, got a few social shares, and picked up a few natural backlinks you could dominate Google.
But now, there are over a billion blogs if you include WordPress.com, Medium, and Tumblr.
That means Google has their choice when it comes to determining what sites to rank at the top.
In other words, just because you write lengthy content or build backlinks it doesn’t mean you are going to ranks. Millions of other sites do that as well.
And even if you got in early and your site is 10 years old, it’s no longer that easy to dominate the web.
Just look at sites like Wisegeek. They used to dominate the web as it’s a site with thousands of informative articles.
And now look at their traffic…
According to Ubersuggest, they get roughly 49,211 visitors a month from Google within the United States. It may seem like a lot, but their traffic is continually going down.
When I met the founder years ago it was in the millions… but not anymore.
It doesn’t even matter that the site has 8,761,524 backlinks from 74,147 referring domains.
Now you may make the argument that Wisegeek doesn’t have the best content. But I have tons of examples of sites with amazing content that have the same issues.
For example, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers creates great content. Just go check out some of his blog posts if you don’t believe me.
But let’s dive into his traffic stats…
According to Ubersuggest, he gets roughly 26,640 visitors a month from Google in the United States and he has 993,790 backlinks from 5,678 referring domains.
And he ranks for some great terms. Just look at the top pages he is ranking for with terms like “how to become more confident.”
But even Social Triggers has struggled to keep their traffic over time. It’s nothing to do with Derek, he’s a smart entrepreneur, but he decided to quit and focus on his new venture Truvani, which has been doing well.
In other words, content and links don’t guarantee success.
So, what’s the best way to get rankings these days?
You have to go after low hanging fruit.
Sure, you need content, you need links, and you need to optimize for the other 198 factors Google keeps track of the optimal amount of traffic.
But it’s UNREALISTIC for you to do everything. Even if you hire an SEO agency to help you out.
And there is no way you can wait 12 months to get results from an SEO campaign.
Which means your only solution is going after the low hanging fruit.
Now I wish I could tell you the exact low hanging fruit to go after, but it varies for every site. What I can do is show some of the simple tactics that have worked for me and are easy to implement.
Strategy #1: Don’t put dates in your URL
I used to have dates in my URL because it was a default option from WordPress. I didn’t think twice about it. But the moment I removed the dates from my posts, my search traffic went up by 58%.
youtube
Best of all, it only took 30 days to get the boost in traffic. 🙂
Strategy #2: Link to the most popular posts in your sidebar
Have you noticed that I rank for terms like “online marketing” and “SEO”?
I’m currently number 2 for the term online marketing:
And number 5 for the term SEO:
Do you want to know a hack that helped me rank higher for those terms? Well, I’ll give you a hint… you’ll find it in my sidebar.
As you can see, I’ve linked to all of my major guides in my sidebar. It helps give them the juice they need so they can rank higher for terms like SEO and online marketing.
If you haven’t done this, you should consider trying it out as it will provide a quick win.
You won’t see the results in 30 days, but within a few months, you’ll notice that those pages will climb in the ranks.
Strategy #3: Land and expand
I’ve talked about this one a lot in the past, but only because it works really, really, really, well.
It’s also one of the main reasons I’ve made Ubersuggest into a robust SEO tool. Not just for you, but also because I use it for the land and expand strategy to grow my search traffic.
It’s how I get 2,105,896 visitors a month from just Google…
So, what’s this land and expand SEO strategy I use?
You need to first log into Google Search Console.
Once you are logged in, click the “performance” link and you’ll see a list of keywords you are currently ranking for.
Then click on the most popular term you rank for. Make sure that keyword isn’t your brand name.
Then click on “pages.” You’ll see the page that is ranking for that keyword.
I want you to then head over to Ubersuggest and type in that keyword. Once the report loads click on “keyword ideas” in the sidebar. You’ll see a report that looks something like this:
You’ll see a long list of keywords that are variations of the main keyword that you already rank for. Most of those terms are pulled from Google Suggest.
If you take the popular phrases that are related to the main term you already rank for and integrate them into that page, you’ll notice within 30 to 60 days your search traffic will shoot up.
But when leveraging this strategy you need to make sure you adjust your content. You can’t just shove in more keywords, you have to rework your content so it makes sense and it flows naturally.
The reason this SEO strategy is my favorite tactic of all time is that content marketing is a hit or miss. Just because you write content and build links, it doesn’t guarantee success. But if you expand the pages that Google already loves, there is a high chance that you’ll get more traffic.
Strategy #4: Expand internationally
In many of my companies, I generate more revenue from outside of the United States than I do within the United States.
For that reason, plus it was a piece of advice I got from a Google employee, I’ve translated my site into multiple languages.
Just look at my traffic from Brazil…
And here is my traffic from Germany…
And the Spanish market…
What I learned from a Google employee is that they lack content in regions where English isn’t their primary language. So if you focus on these regions, you’ll quickly notice a quick traffic boost and your conversion rate from visitor to customer within those regions should also go up.
Strategy #5: 5-minute brand hack
Google loves brands. It really is the future of SEO. In addition, brands are more defensible.
As the EX-CEO of Google said:
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
In other words, if more people search for your brand name on Google, you’ll notice that your rankings will go up.
As more people typed in “Neil Patel” within Google, my traffic went from 185,980 a month:
to 454,382 visitors a month:
That’s a huge increase considering I saw the increase in a 6-month time frame. And even though I pulled that off back in 2016, it works even better today.
Building a brand isn’t easy and it is a long-term approach. But I am going to give you a head start… one that only takes 5 minutes.
Before I break it down, it follows the rule of 7. Someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they build up loyalty to it. In other words, if you can keep getting people to come back to your site in the short run, you’ll start building a brand and you’ll find your brand queries increase in the long run.
Now here’s a screenshot of my stats so you can see it in the works:
So far, I’ve gotten 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. That’s roughly 4 times, which means I have 3 more to go according to the rule of 7.
How did I do this?
I used a tool called Subscribers.
In which I send out a push notification every time I release a new blog post:
Plus, it allows me to generate 4,000 plus visitors for every push I send. 🙂
Strategy #6: Optimize your click-through-rate
You don’t have to write new content or build links to boost your rankings.
You can do something as simple as optimizing your click-through-rate.
Just think of it this way, if 1,000 people performed a Google search and everyone clicked on the second listing instead of the first listing, what does that tell Google?
It tells Google that the second listing should, in theory, be the first listing. And that’s what Google does… they take the listings people are clicking on and move it up to the top and move down the ones people don’t click on.
If you want step-by-step instructions to increasing your click-through-rate, follow hack #1.
It works really well and fast too. It’s how I boosted my search traffic for one of my main keywords by 1,289 visitors in 30 days.
Strategy 7: Update your old content
SEO and paid ads have something in common, in which if you stop doing it your traffic goes down.
Paid ads are a bit worse in which once you stop paying your traffic goes back down to where it was.
With SEO, once you stop you’ll see a slow decline over time.
Now, this strategy is so effective that I employ a full-time person to help me out with it and this is all they do.
Remember how I talked about there being over a billion blogs on the web now?
Well, I have one full-time person updating my old content to ensure it doesn’t get out of date.
Because Google has so many options to choose from when it comes to ranking sites for any keyword out there, they are going to rank sites that are fresher.
By updating your old content, not only do you ensure that you’ll maintain your traffic, but you’ll also get more traffic.
There isn’t any real strategy to this other than to go through your old pieces of content that get traffic and make sure they are up to date.
Sometimes you won’t have to make any changes, other times you may have to change a few sentences or links, and hopefully, not too often will you have to re-write a whole article.
And every blue moon you’ll need to delete a page or a post because it is irrelevant. For example, I’ve deleted my older blog posts that discuss social networks like MySpace that no one uses.
Conclusion
Yes, SEO does take time if you think about it the same way everyone else does.
But if you think about it from a strategical perspective, you’ll find new opportunities that can provide quick results.
You may not get all of the traffic you want tomorrow but going after the low hanging fruit will give the quickest results.
If you want help finding the low hanging fruit with your SEO campaign, you can always reach out to my ad agency and someone will help out. Or you can leave a comment below.
So, are you going to stop thinking of SEO as just link building and content and start thinking of ways to get quick wins?
The post How to Think About SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.
from Online Marketing Tips https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-to-think-about-seo/
0 notes
Text
How to Think About SEO
Don’t you hate how it takes forever to get results when it comes to SEO?
Everyone says it takes 6 months to a year and even in some cases many years to see results.
Well, I have some bad news and some good news for you.
Let’s start with the bad news…
SEO is a long-term strategy. It’s not about doing it for a few months and forgetting about it. And if you stop focusing on it eventually your competitors will outrank you.
And now let’s get on to the good news.
You can get results in the short run. You may not get all of the results you want right away, and you may not rank for your ideal keywords, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get results within 90, 60, and even potentially 30 days.
So how do you get results within a few months?
Well first, let’s rewire your brain so you think about SEO in the correct way.
SEO isn’t just content and links
If you want to rank number 1 on Google, what do you need?
Well, the data shows you need to write lengthy content. Because the average web page that ranks on page 1 of Google contains 1,890 words.
And of course, what’s content without links? Because the 2 most important factors that affect rankings according to the SEO industry are domain level links and page level links.
But here is the thing: SEO isn’t what it used to be. Until 2010, you used to be able to add keywords in your meta tags and you would get rankings within a few months.
And as the web got more crowded, you could then get results by doing the same old thing but you also had to build a few links. That worked really well between 2010 and 2013.
As more businesses popped up, everyone started focusing on content marketing. That was the hot thing. From 2013 to 2017, if you created tons of text-based content, got a few social shares, and picked up a few natural backlinks you could dominate Google.
But now, there are over a billion blogs if you include WordPress.com, Medium, and Tumblr.
That means Google has their choice when it comes to determining what sites to rank at the top.
In other words, just because you write lengthy content or build backlinks it doesn’t mean you are going to ranks. Millions of other sites do that as well.
And even if you got in early and your site is 10 years old, it’s no longer that easy to dominate the web.
Just look at sites like Wisegeek. They used to dominate the web as it’s a site with thousands of informative articles.
And now look at their traffic…
According to Ubersuggest, they get roughly 49,211 visitors a month from Google within the United States. It may seem like a lot, but their traffic is continually going down.
When I met the founder years ago it was in the millions… but not anymore.
It doesn’t even matter that the site has 8,761,524 backlinks from 74,147 referring domains.
Now you may make the argument that Wisegeek doesn’t have the best content. But I have tons of examples of sites with amazing content that have the same issues.
For example, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers creates great content. Just go check out some of his blog posts if you don’t believe me.
But let’s dive into his traffic stats…
According to Ubersuggest, he gets roughly 26,640 visitors a month from Google in the United States and he has 993,790 backlinks from 5,678 referring domains.
And he ranks for some great terms. Just look at the top pages he is ranking for with terms like “how to become more confident.”
But even Social Triggers has struggled to keep their traffic over time. It’s nothing to do with Derek, he’s a smart entrepreneur, but he decided to quit and focus on his new venture Truvani, which has been doing well.
In other words, content and links don’t guarantee success.
So, what’s the best way to get rankings these days?
You have to go after low hanging fruit.
Sure, you need content, you need links, and you need to optimize for the other 198 factors Google keeps track of the optimal amount of traffic.
But it’s UNREALISTIC for you to do everything. Even if you hire an SEO agency to help you out.
And there is no way you can wait 12 months to get results from an SEO campaign.
Which means your only solution is going after the low hanging fruit.
Now I wish I could tell you the exact low hanging fruit to go after, but it varies for every site. What I can do is show some of the simple tactics that have worked for me and are easy to implement.
Strategy #1: Don’t put dates in your URL
I used to have dates in my URL because it was a default option from WordPress. I didn’t think twice about it. But the moment I removed the dates from my posts, my search traffic went up by 58%.
youtube
Best of all, it only took 30 days to get the boost in traffic. 🙂
Strategy #2: Link to the most popular posts in your sidebar
Have you noticed that I rank for terms like “online marketing” and “SEO”?
I’m currently number 2 for the term online marketing:
And number 5 for the term SEO:
Do you want to know a hack that helped me rank higher for those terms? Well, I’ll give you a hint… you’ll find it in my sidebar.
As you can see, I’ve linked to all of my major guides in my sidebar. It helps give them the juice they need so they can rank higher for terms like SEO and online marketing.
If you haven’t done this, you should consider trying it out as it will provide a quick win.
You won’t see the results in 30 days, but within a few months, you’ll notice that those pages will climb in the ranks.
Strategy #3: Land and expand
I’ve talked about this one a lot in the past, but only because it works really, really, really, well.
It’s also one of the main reasons I’ve made Ubersuggest into a robust SEO tool. Not just for you, but also because I use it for the land and expand strategy to grow my search traffic.
It’s how I get 2,105,896 visitors a month from just Google…
So, what’s this land and expand SEO strategy I use?
You need to first log into Google Search Console.
Once you are logged in, click the “performance” link and you’ll see a list of keywords you are currently ranking for.
Then click on the most popular term you rank for. Make sure that keyword isn’t your brand name.
Then click on “pages.” You’ll see the page that is ranking for that keyword.
I want you to then head over to Ubersuggest and type in that keyword. Once the report loads click on “keyword ideas” in the sidebar. You’ll see a report that looks something like this:
You’ll see a long list of keywords that are variations of the main keyword that you already rank for. Most of those terms are pulled from Google Suggest.
If you take the popular phrases that are related to the main term you already rank for and integrate them into that page, you’ll notice within 30 to 60 days your search traffic will shoot up.
But when leveraging this strategy you need to make sure you adjust your content. You can’t just shove in more keywords, you have to rework your content so it makes sense and it flows naturally.
The reason this SEO strategy is my favorite tactic of all time is that content marketing is a hit or miss. Just because you write content and build links, it doesn’t guarantee success. But if you expand the pages that Google already loves, there is a high chance that you’ll get more traffic.
Strategy #4: Expand internationally
In many of my companies, I generate more revenue from outside of the United States than I do within the United States.
For that reason, plus it was a piece of advice I got from a Google employee, I’ve translated my site into multiple languages.
Just look at my traffic from Brazil…
And here is my traffic from Germany…
And the Spanish market…
What I learned from a Google employee is that they lack content in regions where English isn’t their primary language. So if you focus on these regions, you’ll quickly notice a quick traffic boost and your conversion rate from visitor to customer within those regions should also go up.
Strategy #5: 5-minute brand hack
Google loves brands. It really is the future of SEO. In addition, brands are more defensible.
As the EX-CEO of Google said:
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
In other words, if more people search for your brand name on Google, you’ll notice that your rankings will go up.
As more people typed in “Neil Patel” within Google, my traffic went from 185,980 a month:
to 454,382 visitors a month:
That’s a huge increase considering I saw the increase in a 6-month time frame. And even though I pulled that off back in 2016, it works even better today.
Building a brand isn’t easy and it is a long-term approach. But I am going to give you a head start… one that only takes 5 minutes.
Before I break it down, it follows the rule of 7. Someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they build up loyalty to it. In other words, if you can keep getting people to come back to your site in the short run, you’ll start building a brand and you’ll find your brand queries increase in the long run.
Now here’s a screenshot of my stats so you can see it in the works:
So far, I’ve gotten 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. That’s roughly 4 times, which means I have 3 more to go according to the rule of 7.
How did I do this?
I used a tool called Subscribers.
In which I send out a push notification every time I release a new blog post:
Plus, it allows me to generate 4,000 plus visitors for every push I send. 🙂
Strategy #6: Optimize your click-through-rate
You don’t have to write new content or build links to boost your rankings.
You can do something as simple as optimizing your click-through-rate.
Just think of it this way, if 1,000 people performed a Google search and everyone clicked on the second listing instead of the first listing, what does that tell Google?
It tells Google that the second listing should, in theory, be the first listing. And that’s what Google does… they take the listings people are clicking on and move it up to the top and move down the ones people don’t click on.
If you want step-by-step instructions to increasing your click-through-rate, follow hack #1.
It works really well and fast too. It’s how I boosted my search traffic for one of my main keywords by 1,289 visitors in 30 days.
Strategy 7: Update your old content
SEO and paid ads have something in common, in which if you stop doing it your traffic goes down.
Paid ads are a bit worse in which once you stop paying your traffic goes back down to where it was.
With SEO, once you stop you’ll see a slow decline over time.
Now, this strategy is so effective that I employ a full-time person to help me out with it and this is all they do.
Remember how I talked about there being over a billion blogs on the web now?
Well, I have one full-time person updating my old content to ensure it doesn’t get out of date.
Because Google has so many options to choose from when it comes to ranking sites for any keyword out there, they are going to rank sites that are fresher.
By updating your old content, not only do you ensure that you’ll maintain your traffic, but you’ll also get more traffic.
There isn’t any real strategy to this other than to go through your old pieces of content that get traffic and make sure they are up to date.
Sometimes you won’t have to make any changes, other times you may have to change a few sentences or links, and hopefully, not too often will you have to re-write a whole article.
And every blue moon you’ll need to delete a page or a post because it is irrelevant. For example, I’ve deleted my older blog posts that discuss social networks like MySpace that no one uses.
Conclusion
Yes, SEO does take time if you think about it the same way everyone else does.
But if you think about it from a strategical perspective, you’ll find new opportunities that can provide quick results.
You may not get all of the traffic you want tomorrow but going after the low hanging fruit will give the quickest results.
If you want help finding the low hanging fruit with your SEO campaign, you can always reach out to my ad agency and someone will help out. Or you can leave a comment below.
So, are you going to stop thinking of SEO as just link building and content and start thinking of ways to get quick wins?
The post How to Think About SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.
How to Think About SEO Publicado primeiro em https://neilpatel.com
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Text
How to Think About SEO
Don’t you hate how it takes forever to get results when it comes to SEO?
Everyone says it takes 6 months to a year and even in some cases many years to see results.
Well, I have some bad news and some good news for you.
Let’s start with the bad news…
SEO is a long-term strategy. It’s not about doing it for a few months and forgetting about it. And if you stop focusing on it eventually your competitors will outrank you.
And now let’s get on to the good news.
You can get results in the short run. You may not get all of the results you want right away, and you may not rank for your ideal keywords, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get results within 90, 60, and even potentially 30 days.
So how do you get results within a few months?
Well first, let’s rewire your brain so you think about SEO in the correct way.
SEO isn’t just content and links
If you want to rank number 1 on Google, what do you need?
Well, the data shows you need to write lengthy content. Because the average web page that ranks on page 1 of Google contains 1,890 words.
And of course, what’s content without links? Because the 2 most important factors that affect rankings according to the SEO industry are domain level links and page level links.
But here is the thing: SEO isn’t what it used to be. Until 2010, you used to be able to add keywords in your meta tags and you would get rankings within a few months.
And as the web got more crowded, you could then get results by doing the same old thing but you also had to build a few links. That worked really well between 2010 and 2013.
As more businesses popped up, everyone started focusing on content marketing. That was the hot thing. From 2013 to 2017, if you created tons of text-based content, got a few social shares, and picked up a few natural backlinks you could dominate Google.
But now, there are over a billion blogs if you include WordPress.com, Medium, and Tumblr.
That means Google has their choice when it comes to determining what sites to rank at the top.
In other words, just because you write lengthy content or build backlinks it doesn’t mean you are going to ranks. Millions of other sites do that as well.
And even if you got in early and your site is 10 years old, it’s no longer that easy to dominate the web.
Just look at sites like Wisegeek. They used to dominate the web as it’s a site with thousands of informative articles.
And now look at their traffic…
According to Ubersuggest, they get roughly 49,211 visitors a month from Google within the United States. It may seem like a lot, but their traffic is continually going down.
When I met the founder years ago it was in the millions… but not anymore.
It doesn’t even matter that the site has 8,761,524 backlinks from 74,147 referring domains.
Now you may make the argument that Wisegeek doesn’t have the best content. But I have tons of examples of sites with amazing content that have the same issues.
For example, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers creates great content. Just go check out some of his blog posts if you don’t believe me.
But let’s dive into his traffic stats…
According to Ubersuggest, he gets roughly 26,640 visitors a month from Google in the United States and he has 993,790 backlinks from 5,678 referring domains.
And he ranks for some great terms. Just look at the top pages he is ranking for with terms like “how to become more confident.”
But even Social Triggers has struggled to keep their traffic over time. It’s nothing to do with Derek, he’s a smart entrepreneur, but he decided to quit and focus on his new venture Truvani, which has been doing well.
In other words, content and links don’t guarantee success.
So, what’s the best way to get rankings these days?
You have to go after low hanging fruit.
Sure, you need content, you need links, and you need to optimize for the other 198 factors Google keeps track of the optimal amount of traffic.
But it’s UNREALISTIC for you to do everything. Even if you hire an SEO agency to help you out.
And there is no way you can wait 12 months to get results from an SEO campaign.
Which means your only solution is going after the low hanging fruit.
Now I wish I could tell you the exact low hanging fruit to go after, but it varies for every site. What I can do is show some of the simple tactics that have worked for me and are easy to implement.
Strategy #1: Don’t put dates in your URL
I used to have dates in my URL because it was a default option from WordPress. I didn’t think twice about it. But the moment I removed the dates from my posts, my search traffic went up by 58%.
youtube
Best of all, it only took 30 days to get the boost in traffic. 🙂
Strategy #2: Link to the most popular posts in your sidebar
Have you noticed that I rank for terms like “online marketing” and “SEO”?
I’m currently number 2 for the term online marketing:
And number 5 for the term SEO:
Do you want to know a hack that helped me rank higher for those terms? Well, I’ll give you a hint… you’ll find it in my sidebar.
As you can see, I’ve linked to all of my major guides in my sidebar. It helps give them the juice they need so they can rank higher for terms like SEO and online marketing.
If you haven’t done this, you should consider trying it out as it will provide a quick win.
You won’t see the results in 30 days, but within a few months, you’ll notice that those pages will climb in the ranks.
Strategy #3: Land and expand
I’ve talked about this one a lot in the past, but only because it works really, really, really, well.
It’s also one of the main reasons I’ve made Ubersuggest into a robust SEO tool. Not just for you, but also because I use it for the land and expand strategy to grow my search traffic.
It’s how I get 2,105,896 visitors a month from just Google…
So, what’s this land and expand SEO strategy I use?
You need to first log into Google Search Console.
Once you are logged in, click the “performance” link and you’ll see a list of keywords you are currently ranking for.
Then click on the most popular term you rank for. Make sure that keyword isn’t your brand name.
Then click on “pages.” You’ll see the page that is ranking for that keyword.
I want you to then head over to Ubersuggest and type in that keyword. Once the report loads click on “keyword ideas” in the sidebar. You’ll see a report that looks something like this:
You’ll see a long list of keywords that are variations of the main keyword that you already rank for. Most of those terms are pulled from Google Suggest.
If you take the popular phrases that are related to the main term you already rank for and integrate them into that page, you’ll notice within 30 to 60 days your search traffic will shoot up.
But when leveraging this strategy you need to make sure you adjust your content. You can’t just shove in more keywords, you have to rework your content so it makes sense and it flows naturally.
The reason this SEO strategy is my favorite tactic of all time is that content marketing is a hit or miss. Just because you write content and build links, it doesn’t guarantee success. But if you expand the pages that Google already loves, there is a high chance that you’ll get more traffic.
Strategy #4: Expand internationally
In many of my companies, I generate more revenue from outside of the United States than I do within the United States.
For that reason, plus it was a piece of advice I got from a Google employee, I’ve translated my site into multiple languages.
Just look at my traffic from Brazil…
And here is my traffic from Germany…
And the Spanish market…
What I learned from a Google employee is that they lack content in regions where English isn’t their primary language. So if you focus on these regions, you’ll quickly notice a quick traffic boost and your conversion rate from visitor to customer within those regions should also go up.
Strategy #5: 5-minute brand hack
Google loves brands. It really is the future of SEO. In addition, brands are more defensible.
As the EX-CEO of Google said:
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
In other words, if more people search for your brand name on Google, you’ll notice that your rankings will go up.
As more people typed in “Neil Patel” within Google, my traffic went from 185,980 a month:
to 454,382 visitors a month:
That’s a huge increase considering I saw the increase in a 6-month time frame. And even though I pulled that off back in 2016, it works even better today.
Building a brand isn’t easy and it is a long-term approach. But I am going to give you a head start… one that only takes 5 minutes.
Before I break it down, it follows the rule of 7. Someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they build up loyalty to it. In other words, if you can keep getting people to come back to your site in the short run, you’ll start building a brand and you’ll find your brand queries increase in the long run.
Now here’s a screenshot of my stats so you can see it in the works:
So far, I’ve gotten 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. That’s roughly 4 times, which means I have 3 more to go according to the rule of 7.
How did I do this?
I used a tool called Subscribers.
In which I send out a push notification every time I release a new blog post:
Plus, it allows me to generate 4,000 plus visitors for every push I send. 🙂
Strategy #6: Optimize your click-through-rate
You don’t have to write new content or build links to boost your rankings.
You can do something as simple as optimizing your click-through-rate.
Just think of it this way, if 1,000 people performed a Google search and everyone clicked on the second listing instead of the first listing, what does that tell Google?
It tells Google that the second listing should, in theory, be the first listing. And that’s what Google does… they take the listings people are clicking on and move it up to the top and move down the ones people don’t click on.
If you want step-by-step instructions to increasing your click-through-rate, follow hack #1.
It works really well and fast too. It’s how I boosted my search traffic for one of my main keywords by 1,289 visitors in 30 days.
Strategy 7: Update your old content
SEO and paid ads have something in common, in which if you stop doing it your traffic goes down.
Paid ads are a bit worse in which once you stop paying your traffic goes back down to where it was.
With SEO, once you stop you’ll see a slow decline over time.
Now, this strategy is so effective that I employ a full-time person to help me out with it and this is all they do.
Remember how I talked about there being over a billion blogs on the web now?
Well, I have one full-time person updating my old content to ensure it doesn’t get out of date.
Because Google has so many options to choose from when it comes to ranking sites for any keyword out there, they are going to rank sites that are fresher.
By updating your old content, not only do you ensure that you’ll maintain your traffic, but you’ll also get more traffic.
There isn’t any real strategy to this other than to go through your old pieces of content that get traffic and make sure they are up to date.
Sometimes you won’t have to make any changes, other times you may have to change a few sentences or links, and hopefully, not too often will you have to re-write a whole article.
And every blue moon you’ll need to delete a page or a post because it is irrelevant. For example, I’ve deleted my older blog posts that discuss social networks like MySpace that no one uses.
Conclusion
Yes, SEO does take time if you think about it the same way everyone else does.
But if you think about it from a strategical perspective, you’ll find new opportunities that can provide quick results.
You may not get all of the traffic you want tomorrow but going after the low hanging fruit will give the quickest results.
If you want help finding the low hanging fruit with your SEO campaign, you can always reach out to my ad agency and someone will help out. Or you can leave a comment below.
So, are you going to stop thinking of SEO as just link building and content and start thinking of ways to get quick wins?
The post How to Think About SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.
0 notes
Text
How to Think About SEO
Don’t you hate how it takes forever to get results when it comes to SEO?
Everyone says it takes 6 months to a year and even in some cases many years to see results.
Well, I have some bad news and some good news for you.
Let’s start with the bad news…
SEO is a long-term strategy. It’s not about doing it for a few months and forgetting about it. And if you stop focusing on it eventually your competitors will outrank you.
And now let’s get on to the good news.
You can get results in the short run. You may not get all of the results you want right away, and you may not rank for your ideal keywords, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get results within 90, 60, and even potentially 30 days.
So how do you get results within a few months?
Well first, let’s rewire your brain so you think about SEO in the correct way.
SEO isn’t just content and links
If you want to rank number 1 on Google, what do you need?
Well, the data shows you need to write lengthy content. Because the average web page that ranks on page 1 of Google contains 1,890 words.
And of course, what’s content without links? Because the 2 most important factors that affect rankings according to the SEO industry are domain level links and page level links.
But here is the thing: SEO isn’t what it used to be. Until 2010, you used to be able to add keywords in your meta tags and you would get rankings within a few months.
And as the web got more crowded, you could then get results by doing the same old thing but you also had to build a few links. That worked really well between 2010 and 2013.
As more businesses popped up, everyone started focusing on content marketing. That was the hot thing. From 2013 to 2017, if you created tons of text-based content, got a few social shares, and picked up a few natural backlinks you could dominate Google.
But now, there are over a billion blogs if you include WordPress.com, Medium, and Tumblr.
That means Google has their choice when it comes to determining what sites to rank at the top.
In other words, just because you write lengthy content or build backlinks it doesn’t mean you are going to ranks. Millions of other sites do that as well.
And even if you got in early and your site is 10 years old, it’s no longer that easy to dominate the web.
Just look at sites like Wisegeek. They used to dominate the web as it’s a site with thousands of informative articles.
And now look at their traffic…
According to Ubersuggest, they get roughly 49,211 visitors a month from Google within the United States. It may seem like a lot, but their traffic is continually going down.
When I met the founder years ago it was in the millions… but not anymore.
It doesn’t even matter that the site has 8,761,524 backlinks from 74,147 referring domains.
Now you may make the argument that Wisegeek doesn’t have the best content. But I have tons of examples of sites with amazing content that have the same issues.
For example, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers creates great content. Just go check out some of his blog posts if you don’t believe me.
But let’s dive into his traffic stats…
According to Ubersuggest, he gets roughly 26,640 visitors a month from Google in the United States and he has 993,790 backlinks from 5,678 referring domains.
And he ranks for some great terms. Just look at the top pages he is ranking for with terms like “how to become more confident.”
But even Social Triggers has struggled to keep their traffic over time. It’s nothing to do with Derek, he’s a smart entrepreneur, but he decided to quit and focus on his new venture Truvani, which has been doing well.
In other words, content and links don’t guarantee success.
So, what’s the best way to get rankings these days?
You have to go after low hanging fruit.
Sure, you need content, you need links, and you need to optimize for the other 198 factors Google keeps track of the optimal amount of traffic.
But it’s UNREALISTIC for you to do everything. Even if you hire an SEO agency to help you out.
And there is no way you can wait 12 months to get results from an SEO campaign.
Which means your only solution is going after the low hanging fruit.
Now I wish I could tell you the exact low hanging fruit to go after, but it varies for every site. What I can do is show some of the simple tactics that have worked for me and are easy to implement.
Strategy #1: Don’t put dates in your URL
I used to have dates in my URL because it was a default option from WordPress. I didn’t think twice about it. But the moment I removed the dates from my posts, my search traffic went up by 58%.
youtube
Best of all, it only took 30 days to get the boost in traffic. 🙂
Strategy #2: Link to the most popular posts in your sidebar
Have you noticed that I rank for terms like “online marketing” and “SEO”?
I’m currently number 2 for the term online marketing:
And number 5 for the term SEO:
Do you want to know a hack that helped me rank higher for those terms? Well, I’ll give you a hint… you’ll find it in my sidebar.
As you can see, I’ve linked to all of my major guides in my sidebar. It helps give them the juice they need so they can rank higher for terms like SEO and online marketing.
If you haven’t done this, you should consider trying it out as it will provide a quick win.
You won’t see the results in 30 days, but within a few months, you’ll notice that those pages will climb in the ranks.
Strategy #3: Land and expand
I’ve talked about this one a lot in the past, but only because it works really, really, really, well.
It’s also one of the main reasons I’ve made Ubersuggest into a robust SEO tool. Not just for you, but also because I use it for the land and expand strategy to grow my search traffic.
It’s how I get 2,105,896 visitors a month from just Google…
So, what’s this land and expand SEO strategy I use?
You need to first log into Google Search Console.
Once you are logged in, click the “performance” link and you’ll see a list of keywords you are currently ranking for.
Then click on the most popular term you rank for. Make sure that keyword isn’t your brand name.
Then click on “pages.” You’ll see the page that is ranking for that keyword.
I want you to then head over to Ubersuggest and type in that keyword. Once the report loads click on “keyword ideas” in the sidebar. You’ll see a report that looks something like this:
You’ll see a long list of keywords that are variations of the main keyword that you already rank for. Most of those terms are pulled from Google Suggest.
If you take the popular phrases that are related to the main term you already rank for and integrate them into that page, you’ll notice within 30 to 60 days your search traffic will shoot up.
But when leveraging this strategy you need to make sure you adjust your content. You can’t just shove in more keywords, you have to rework your content so it makes sense and it flows naturally.
The reason this SEO strategy is my favorite tactic of all time is that content marketing is a hit or miss. Just because you write content and build links, it doesn’t guarantee success. But if you expand the pages that Google already loves, there is a high chance that you’ll get more traffic.
Strategy #4: Expand internationally
In many of my companies, I generate more revenue from outside of the United States than I do within the United States.
For that reason, plus it was a piece of advice I got from a Google employee, I’ve translated my site into multiple languages.
Just look at my traffic from Brazil…
And here is my traffic from Germany…
And the Spanish market…
What I learned from a Google employee is that they lack content in regions where English isn’t their primary language. So if you focus on these regions, you’ll quickly notice a quick traffic boost and your conversion rate from visitor to customer within those regions should also go up.
Strategy #5: 5-minute brand hack
Google loves brands. It really is the future of SEO. In addition, brands are more defensible.
As the EX-CEO of Google said:
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
In other words, if more people search for your brand name on Google, you’ll notice that your rankings will go up.
As more people typed in “Neil Patel” within Google, my traffic went from 185,980 a month:
to 454,382 visitors a month:
That’s a huge increase considering I saw the increase in a 6-month time frame. And even though I pulled that off back in 2016, it works even better today.
Building a brand isn’t easy and it is a long-term approach. But I am going to give you a head start… one that only takes 5 minutes.
Before I break it down, it follows the rule of 7. Someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they build up loyalty to it. In other words, if you can keep getting people to come back to your site in the short run, you’ll start building a brand and you’ll find your brand queries increase in the long run.
Now here’s a screenshot of my stats so you can see it in the works:
So far, I’ve gotten 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. That’s roughly 4 times, which means I have 3 more to go according to the rule of 7.
How did I do this?
I used a tool called Subscribers.
In which I send out a push notification every time I release a new blog post:
Plus, it allows me to generate 4,000 plus visitors for every push I send. 🙂
Strategy #6: Optimize your click-through-rate
You don’t have to write new content or build links to boost your rankings.
You can do something as simple as optimizing your click-through-rate.
Just think of it this way, if 1,000 people performed a Google search and everyone clicked on the second listing instead of the first listing, what does that tell Google?
It tells Google that the second listing should, in theory, be the first listing. And that’s what Google does… they take the listings people are clicking on and move it up to the top and move down the ones people don’t click on.
If you want step-by-step instructions to increasing your click-through-rate, follow hack #1.
It works really well and fast too. It’s how I boosted my search traffic for one of my main keywords by 1,289 visitors in 30 days.
Strategy 7: Update your old content
SEO and paid ads have something in common, in which if you stop doing it your traffic goes down.
Paid ads are a bit worse in which once you stop paying your traffic goes back down to where it was.
With SEO, once you stop you’ll see a slow decline over time.
Now, this strategy is so effective that I employ a full-time person to help me out with it and this is all they do.
Remember how I talked about there being over a billion blogs on the web now?
Well, I have one full-time person updating my old content to ensure it doesn’t get out of date.
Because Google has so many options to choose from when it comes to ranking sites for any keyword out there, they are going to rank sites that are fresher.
By updating your old content, not only do you ensure that you’ll maintain your traffic, but you’ll also get more traffic.
There isn’t any real strategy to this other than to go through your old pieces of content that get traffic and make sure they are up to date.
Sometimes you won’t have to make any changes, other times you may have to change a few sentences or links, and hopefully, not too often will you have to re-write a whole article.
And every blue moon you’ll need to delete a page or a post because it is irrelevant. For example, I’ve deleted my older blog posts that discuss social networks like MySpace that no one uses.
Conclusion
Yes, SEO does take time if you think about it the same way everyone else does.
But if you think about it from a strategical perspective, you’ll find new opportunities that can provide quick results.
You may not get all of the traffic you want tomorrow but going after the low hanging fruit will give the quickest results.
If you want help finding the low hanging fruit with your SEO campaign, you can always reach out to my ad agency and someone will help out. Or you can leave a comment below.
So, are you going to stop thinking of SEO as just link building and content and start thinking of ways to get quick wins?
The post How to Think About SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.
How to Think About SEO
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How to optimize for user intent in search
User intent. Also known as searcher intent, it is a theory that unashamedly stands up to the more primitive pre-Penguin and Panda tactics of optimizing purely for keywords.
User intent and optimizing for it has come into being via a combination of three key factors:
Latent Semantic Indexing, Hummingbird, Rankbrain. All have fantastic and mysterious sounding names but all underpinned by the fact that Google’s algorithm is not exactly made up of high school algebra. Google is clever, real clever. The algorithm understands more than just the specific keywords that a user types into the search bar.
As a result of the aforementioned ability, people trust Google. They may not trust them as a business that will pay their fair share of tax but they trust the search engine to understandtheir query and as such will ask more complex questions rather than utilising pure keywords. To ‘Google’ is a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary!
The internet and Google (among other search engines) have made unfathomable amounts of information accessible to the masses. As a by product, Google is often the first port of call for more than just purchasing actions. More on this later.
Voice search has further stamped on the throttle for user intent with more and more never before seen searches due to the conversational nature of voice search. As such, if you are still basing your SEO strategy around keywords you should probably start to think a little bit deeper around user intent.
Finally, and this is an important one. Optimizing for user intent is not just about providing solutions or using synonyms. The majority of SEO campaigns are built around driving revenue and whilst rankings are great and indicative of campaign success, in reality you won’t retain clients without providing ROI.
Fully optimizing for user intent requires an understanding of how your potential customers buy via your inbound marketing channels. As a result, make sure that you have identified these sales funnels as they are crucial for capitalizing on optimizing your website for user intent in search.
User intent: An overview of the basics
What is user intent? In short it is the reason why someone is searching for something in Google. What are they actually trying to achieve as a result of typing (or saying) that search term?
Traditionally, the intent has been categorized as either navigational, informational or transactional although some like to define commercial intent or use different terminology such as ‘to buy something’, ‘to do something’, ‘to find something’, ‘to learn something’, ‘to go somewhere’ and so on.
These questions or intents can then help to you to identify your Buyer Personas and the stage that they are at within your inbound funnels. Again, various inbound funnels utilize different terminology, but I am a fan of Hubspot’s methodology:
Image credit: Hubspot
How do you figure out what the user intent is behind a search term? Honestly, it’s pretty easy. Just about everyone uses Google. Put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and ask yourself, “if I used that search term, what would I be looking to do?”
Also look at the types of search results that Google returns for a given search term; this is a great indicator of the user intent that Google itself attaches to that particular query.
Focus on VALUE for the user
Even if you don’t read on, here is a very simple tip that should permeate your entire SEO strategy. Ask yourself this question:
Does what I’m doing here add value for the user and if so, how can I make it as valuable as possible?
If you are taking into account what your user is looking to achieve and therefore providing as much value for the user as possible (forget SEO and rankings for one second), you will put yourself in a great place to have a successful campaign both now and into the future.
It is the primary focus for Google as a search engine, so you should make it your focus as well!
An easy place to start is evaluating each piece of content that you are writing. Does it complete the journey that the user is taking? If not, are there quick call to actions to pages that will? Your content will preferably be the former, providing solutions and value directly to the searcher.
In addition, if you continue to put the user first (instead of being keyword-focused) you will naturally create better, deeper, more complex and solution led content, thus satisfying the aforementioned LSI, Hummingbird and Rankbrain. Write for search engines first and you run the risk of lowering the content quality, in turn lowering the quality of your results.
How to align your SEO strategy with user intent
Targeting transactional search terms
For years SEOs have focussed on the sharp end of the funnel. and for good reason: the search terms with transactional intent bring in revenue. Let’s be clear, these search terms should remain a staple of any website focussed on ROI.
However, there are a few optimization tips associated with transactional search terms. As above, they are all focused around value for the user:
How easy is it to make a purchase from that specific page?
Are the call to actions clear?
Have you provided the user with all the information required to make that purchasing decision?
Is the language used focused around the purchase?
As SEOs, we have to make it abundantly clear to Google that if someone types in a purchase based search term, that our page is the very best result for that search term.
I hate to hammer it home, but it is the webpage that will complete the desired outcome for the user and therefore offer the most value.
Targeting informational search terms
This is where a sit down with the team and the drawing up of a content strategy that is aligned to your user intent (and therefore inbound funnels) can unlock serious content marketing magic.
Real results you say? Surely informational searches only result in you giving away free information? Exactly.
Let me take you all the way back to the inbound methodology and the fact that people use Google as a source of information. Creating great informational content can have the following impact:
Providing value earlier in the consumer buying process
They may be wanting to research a product or service prior to making that buying decision. The more awesome information you give them the more aligned with your brand they become. When the time comes for that purchasing decision guess who they will lean more favorably towards? Of course there is a little caveat in that all other things are equal.
Earning links
Even if no sales come as a result of your informational content (unlikely), if it is good enough it will earn links as people reference the content…funnily enough to provide further value for their own users. These links will subsequently improve the authority of your website and help you rank for transactional search terms. It’s a warped digital version of karma.
Understand your user flows
This is particularly relevant for transactional and informational search terms. Top notch SEO incorporates more than just onsite optimization, content creation and link building. It should pull in all marketing channels, including design. It’s all well and good generating traffic, but it counts for nothing if the website does not convert them.
Identify your key user flows and actions that you want your users to complete on your site according to where they are in the funnel. Are they an informational searcher? The website needs to encourage them to continue their hunt for information on your website or start to transition them further down the funnel to a purchasing decision.
Really understanding user intent and user flows will only help you with your conversion rate optimization.
Adjust your appearance in search
In the same vein as design supporting CRO, your appearance in search should be aligned with the user intent. The two standard influencers here are your title tag and meta description, although additional factors such as schema markup can also be implemented.
For example, if the search term is transactional make sure that the metadata is enticing and using purchase driven vocabulary. Whereas if the search term is informational make sure that it hints towards how the information on the corresponding web page will solve the searchers’ problem.
Use your outreach skills
I thought we were talking about content here? Yes, on the whole we are but there are opportunities within link building as well. Some users will turn to Google not simply to provide them with the best result, but also a list of the options available to them. Common examples of how a small change to the wording can result in this alteration to user intent are as follows:
Tailor London > Best Tailor London
Or
Tailor London > Tailors London
The addition of an adjective or the plural version of a keyword can often result in lists being supplied by Google. Not all of the results will be these lists, but for those not already in the top results they do offer an opportunity.
Contact these sites to get listed – we saw a considerable increase in conversions by doing this for a software platform client recently.
Don’t forget local search
Mobile search vs desktop search is a mainstream conversation nowadays, with some stats showing that mobile search has a 75% chance of action being taken by the user.
With this in mind, don’t forget to optimize your local listing in order to sweep up all of the traffic (over 50% globally now) using Google via mobile devices.
Some useful tools
Keyword research is critical in identifying valuable search terms, whatever the corresponding user intent is. We have listed a few options below, hopefully you are already using these tools alongside Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz’s Keyword Explorer or whichever tool you use to look at traffic. These tools can provide content ideas that will drive your campaign:
Answer The Public
Using a who, what, when, why, how style format, Answer The Public will give you a list of search terms. Use these prompts to create content ideas.
Keywordtool.io
In a similar vein to Answer the Public, Keywordtool.io will display search volumes (if you pay for it) and commonly asked questions that relate to your keywords.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo allows you to view the most shared pieces of content via social for a given subject. Don’t just rely on data fed to you, check how popular these subjects are in real life!
Google Autosuggest
Use Google’s own user oriented functionality to understand the commonly asked questions and search terms for a given subject. Start typing and let Google do the rest.
Impressions via Search Console
We always warn against purely using Search Console and Google Analytics data as the basis for decision moving forward, purely because it is reactive data.
However, you can look at search terms for which you are gaining impressions but potentially a low CTR and adjust the content accordingly. It may be as simple as making your metadata more attractive in the SERPs.
Horses for courses
The base theories will have to be adapted slightly to suit your particular needs. Some businesses may focus on impulse buys where others are deemed comparison goods and will benefit more from informative, longer sales processes. It is a ‘horses for courses’ scenario.
If you understand what you are trying to achieve via your SEO campaign, the journey taken by your user during the buying process, the various relevant searcher intents and align your strategy accordingly, it will place you in a great position to increase organic traffic and also your conversion rate.
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How to Think About SEO
Don’t you hate how it takes forever to get results when it comes to SEO?
Everyone says it takes 6 months to a year and even in some cases many years to see results.
Well, I have some bad news and some good news for you.
Let’s start with the bad news…
SEO is a long-term strategy. It’s not about doing it for a few months and forgetting about it. And if you stop focusing on it eventually your competitors will outrank you.
And now let’s get on to the good news.
You can get results in the short run. You may not get all of the results you want right away, and you may not rank for your ideal keywords, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get results within 90, 60, and even potentially 30 days.
So how do you get results within a few months?
Well first, let’s rewire your brain so you think about SEO in the correct way.
SEO isn’t just content and links
If you want to rank number 1 on Google, what do you need?
Well, the data shows you need to write lengthy content. Because the average web page that ranks on page 1 of Google contains 1,890 words.
And of course, what’s content without links? Because the 2 most important factors that affect rankings according to the SEO industry are domain level links and page level links.
But here is the thing: SEO isn’t what it used to be. Until 2010, you used to be able to add keywords in your meta tags and you would get rankings within a few months.
And as the web got more crowded, you could then get results by doing the same old thing but you also had to build a few links. That worked really well between 2010 and 2013.
As more businesses popped up, everyone started focusing on content marketing. That was the hot thing. From 2013 to 2017, if you created tons of text-based content, got a few social shares, and picked up a few natural backlinks you could dominate Google.
But now, there are over a billion blogs if you include WordPress.com, Medium, and Tumblr.
That means Google has their choice when it comes to determining what sites to rank at the top.
In other words, just because you write lengthy content or build backlinks it doesn’t mean you are going to ranks. Millions of other sites do that as well.
And even if you got in early and your site is 10 years old, it’s no longer that easy to dominate the web.
Just look at sites like Wisegeek. They used to dominate the web as it’s a site with thousands of informative articles.
And now look at their traffic…
According to Ubersuggest, they get roughly 49,211 visitors a month from Google within the United States. It may seem like a lot, but their traffic is continually going down.
When I met the founder years ago it was in the millions… but not anymore.
It doesn’t even matter that the site has 8,761,524 backlinks from 74,147 referring domains.
Now you may make the argument that Wisegeek doesn’t have the best content. But I have tons of examples of sites with amazing content that have the same issues.
For example, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers creates great content. Just go check out some of his blog posts if you don’t believe me.
But let’s dive into his traffic stats…
According to Ubersuggest, he gets roughly 26,640 visitors a month from Google in the United States and he has 993,790 backlinks from 5,678 referring domains.
And he ranks for some great terms. Just look at the top pages he is ranking for with terms like “how to become more confident.”
But even Social Triggers has struggled to keep their traffic over time. It’s nothing to do with Derek, he’s a smart entrepreneur, but he decided to quit and focus on his new venture Truvani, which has been doing well.
In other words, content and links don’t guarantee success.
So, what’s the best way to get rankings these days?
You have to go after low hanging fruit.
Sure, you need content, you need links, and you need to optimize for the other 198 factors Google keeps track of the optimal amount of traffic.
But it’s UNREALISTIC for you to do everything. Even if you hire an SEO agency to help you out.
And there is no way you can wait 12 months to get results from an SEO campaign.
Which means your only solution is going after the low hanging fruit.
Now I wish I could tell you the exact low hanging fruit to go after, but it varies for every site. What I can do is show some of the simple tactics that have worked for me and are easy to implement.
Strategy #1: Don’t put dates in your URL
I used to have dates in my URL because it was a default option from WordPress. I didn’t think twice about it. But the moment I removed the dates from my posts, my search traffic went up by 58%.
youtube
Best of all, it only took 30 days to get the boost in traffic. 🙂
Strategy #2: Link to the most popular posts in your sidebar
Have you noticed that I rank for terms like “online marketing” and “SEO”?
I’m currently number 2 for the term online marketing:
And number 5 for the term SEO:
Do you want to know a hack that helped me rank higher for those terms? Well, I’ll give you a hint… you’ll find it in my sidebar.
As you can see, I’ve linked to all of my major guides in my sidebar. It helps give them the juice they need so they can rank higher for terms like SEO and online marketing.
If you haven’t done this, you should consider trying it out as it will provide a quick win.
You won’t see the results in 30 days, but within a few months, you’ll notice that those pages will climb in the ranks.
Strategy #3: Land and expand
I’ve talked about this one a lot in the past, but only because it works really, really, really, well.
It’s also one of the main reasons I’ve made Ubersuggest into a robust SEO tool. Not just for you, but also because I use it for the land and expand strategy to grow my search traffic.
It’s how I get 2,105,896 visitors a month from just Google…
So, what’s this land and expand SEO strategy I use?
You need to first log into Google Search Console.
Once you are logged in, click the “performance” link and you’ll see a list of keywords you are currently ranking for.
Then click on the most popular term you rank for. Make sure that keyword isn’t your brand name.
Then click on “pages.” You’ll see the page that is ranking for that keyword.
I want you to then head over to Ubersuggest and type in that keyword. Once the report loads click on “keyword ideas” in the sidebar. You’ll see a report that looks something like this:
You’ll see a long list of keywords that are variations of the main keyword that you already rank for. Most of those terms are pulled from Google Suggest.
If you take the popular phrases that are related to the main term you already rank for and integrate them into that page, you’ll notice within 30 to 60 days your search traffic will shoot up.
But when leveraging this strategy you need to make sure you adjust your content. You can’t just shove in more keywords, you have to rework your content so it makes sense and it flows naturally.
The reason this SEO strategy is my favorite tactic of all time is that content marketing is a hit or miss. Just because you write content and build links, it doesn’t guarantee success. But if you expand the pages that Google already loves, there is a high chance that you’ll get more traffic.
Strategy #4: Expand internationally
In many of my companies, I generate more revenue from outside of the United States than I do within the United States.
For that reason, plus it was a piece of advice I got from a Google employee, I’ve translated my site into multiple languages.
Just look at my traffic from Brazil…
And here is my traffic from Germany…
And the Spanish market…
What I learned from a Google employee is that they lack content in regions where English isn’t their primary language. So if you focus on these regions, you’ll quickly notice a quick traffic boost and your conversion rate from visitor to customer within those regions should also go up.
Strategy #5: 5-minute brand hack
Google loves brands. It really is the future of SEO. In addition, brands are more defensible.
As the EX-CEO of Google said:
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
In other words, if more people search for your brand name on Google, you’ll notice that your rankings will go up.
As more people typed in “Neil Patel” within Google, my traffic went from 185,980 a month:
to 454,382 visitors a month:
That’s a huge increase considering I saw the increase in a 6-month time frame. And even though I pulled that off back in 2016, it works even better today.
Building a brand isn’t easy and it is a long-term approach. But I am going to give you a head start… one that only takes 5 minutes.
Before I break it down, it follows the rule of 7. Someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they build up loyalty to it. In other words, if you can keep getting people to come back to your site in the short run, you’ll start building a brand and you’ll find your brand queries increase in the long run.
Now here’s a screenshot of my stats so you can see it in the works:
So far, I’ve gotten 42,316 people back to my site 174,281 times. That’s roughly 4 times, which means I have 3 more to go according to the rule of 7.
How did I do this?
I used a tool called Subscribers.
In which I send out a push notification every time I release a new blog post:
Plus, it allows me to generate 4,000 plus visitors for every push I send. 🙂
Strategy #6: Optimize your click-through-rate
You don’t have to write new content or build links to boost your rankings.
You can do something as simple as optimizing your click-through-rate.
Just think of it this way, if 1,000 people performed a Google search and everyone clicked on the second listing instead of the first listing, what does that tell Google?
It tells Google that the second listing should, in theory, be the first listing. And that’s what Google does… they take the listings people are clicking on and move it up to the top and move down the ones people don’t click on.
If you want step-by-step instructions to increasing your click-through-rate, follow hack #1.
It works really well and fast too. It’s how I boosted my search traffic for one of my main keywords by 1,289 visitors in 30 days.
Strategy 7: Update your old content
SEO and paid ads have something in common, in which if you stop doing it your traffic goes down.
Paid ads are a bit worse in which once you stop paying your traffic goes back down to where it was.
With SEO, once you stop you’ll see a slow decline over time.
Now, this strategy is so effective that I employ a full-time person to help me out with it and this is all they do.
Remember how I talked about there being over a billion blogs on the web now?
Well, I have one full-time person updating my old content to ensure it doesn’t get out of date.
Because Google has so many options to choose from when it comes to ranking sites for any keyword out there, they are going to rank sites that are fresher.
By updating your old content, not only do you ensure that you’ll maintain your traffic, but you’ll also get more traffic.
There isn’t any real strategy to this other than to go through your old pieces of content that get traffic and make sure they are up to date.
Sometimes you won’t have to make any changes, other times you may have to change a few sentences or links, and hopefully, not too often will you have to re-write a whole article.
And every blue moon you’ll need to delete a page or a post because it is irrelevant. For example, I’ve deleted my older blog posts that discuss social networks like MySpace that no one uses.
Conclusion
Yes, SEO does take time if you think about it the same way everyone else does.
But if you think about it from a strategical perspective, you’ll find new opportunities that can provide quick results.
You may not get all of the traffic you want tomorrow but going after the low hanging fruit will give the quickest results.
If you want help finding the low hanging fruit with your SEO campaign, you can always reach out to my ad agency and someone will help out. Or you can leave a comment below.
So, are you going to stop thinking of SEO as just link building and content and start thinking of ways to get quick wins?
The post How to Think About SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.
Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2019/02/how-to-think-about-seo.html
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Is Keyword Ranking Irrelevant in Today's SEO?
Given that the intro of search engines, the structure for constructing an effective SEO campaign has been keyword research study. Some have argued that keyword rankings are not pertinent. Others declare that keyword optimization is as essential as ever. Which faction has it right?Strings Not Things Prior to the intro of Knowledge Graph, search was essentially about matchingkeywords to questions. Online search engine relied on web designers to offer signals relating to what a page had to do with. Strings of meta tags and keyword density played a big function in how a page ranked.Google acknowledged early on the constraints of this system. They sent
a patent application in March of 2005 for a system and technique for supplying search inquiry refinements. Bill Slawski recently pointed out this patent was additional upgraded, in January of this year.Things Not Strings The main goal for search query refinement was to much better understand the context of a search query. Google summed it up like this:"Take a query like [. taj mahal] For more than 4 years, search has actually basically had to do with matching keywords to inquiries. To an online search engine the words [
taj mahal] have been just that-- two words. We all know that [ taj mahal] has a much richer meaning. You might think of one of the world's most beautiful monoliths, or a Grammy Award-winning artist, or perhaps even a casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Or, depending on when you last consumed, the nearby Indian restaurant. It's why we have actually been dealing with a smart model-- in geek-speak, a" graph"-- that understands real-worldentities and their relationships to oneanother: things, not strings". Source: Google Authorities Blog Site, May 16, 2012 Google even more enhanced the functionality of the understanding graph with the present of Hummingbird. It provided users with a method for contrast searches as well as presenting conversational search. As it stands now, 20% of Google mobile searches are now voice. As Google Home acquires broader adoption, it's inevitable that voice will continue to play a larger function in search. Some have actually predicted that voice and image searches will consist of a minimum of 50%of all searches by 2020. The current algorithm update to much better comprehend entities and their relationships is RankBrain. This synthetic intelligence system can
take a word or an expression it isn't familiar with, make a guess as to what the words or phrases might imply, then filter a result accordingly. Google validated RankBrain as the third most important ranking aspect on October 26, 2015. Why Keywords Matter At its core, SEO is still about getting a website ranked for high-value search queries. If your company is constructed on the sale of blue widgets, it's pretty important to be ranked # 1 for that
expression. Excellent keyword research study will likewise reveal opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked.Why Keywords Are Unimportant Numerous argue that keyword rankings are irrelevant for a multitude of factors, most especially: Due to individualized search, there are no universal search results.With the brand-new Google page designs featuring paid outcomes at the top, there's insufficient property worth chasing. This is particularly real on mobile.Perpetual algorithm modifications cause regular SERP changes.My take is this:
While not irrelevant, keywords must not be used as THE most crucial measurement for SEO success. You can't foot the bill with Google SERPs. I would argue the better method to measure SEO success is to track: Organic Browse Traffic User Habits Conversions Sales Revenues That stated, enhancing keyword ranking is often the fastest and most effective way to achieve those results.The Evolution of Keyword Research"Keyword research "and implementation was a quite basic process early on. It started with utilizing the Google keyword tool and/or Google Analytics to find words and phrases yielding a high volume of searches. At the time, Google Analytics was an abundant source for
keyword information. The next action was
to pack those keywords into every meta tag, then consist of excessive discusses of that keyword on a page. The icing on the cake was
to buy precise match anchor text links pointing
to that page.Since the Google algorithm used strings of metadata to return search results, this procedure was a foolproof method to arrive of the SERPs. Spammers loved it. Google hated it. The initial step in fixing the problem was to get rid of keyword data from GA.The" Knowledge Chart Effect "on Keyword Research study Understanding graph ushered in the age of"semantic search."The days of one-to-one search results page based exclusively on a relationship in between a query and metadata were over. Knowledge Graph made search results page more appropriate by comprehending entities and the subtleties
in their meaning. This was a big shift in search, requiring a new method to carry out keyword research.It's no longer essential for a phrase to appear in the metadata and even on the page in order to rank. You might be interested in discovering about"statistics on material marketing ": Note the fourth result, which appears on SEJ: 8 Stats That Prove Material Marketing Is the Best Brand Marketing. Nowhere on the page or in the metadata will you discover the expression "statistics on content marketing "however because the page is plainly associated to the topic, it still shows up in the search results page. One advantage originated from this: the ability to obtain great deals of traffic from keywords that
are not specifically targeted or even tracked.As Google's search algorithm continues to enhance, the capability to rank short-tail phrases will diminish. Effective keyword research study now includes a focus on topical styles, rather than on prize keyword expressions. Here's a guide for doing keyword research the best way in 2017. The Disturbance of Browse as We have actually Known It In case you missed it, the death of 10 blue links occurred on May 5, 2015.
That was the day Google revealed that more searches happen on mobile gadgets than computers. Attempt doing a search on your phone for "
accident legal representative"and you'll see exactly what I mean.Smart assistants, like Amazon Echo and Google House, are also having an extensive effect on search, pressing it in a more conversational instructions. Other technologies, like virtual truth, augmented truth, and wearables could likewise have an effect on how people search and how the Google algorithm develops. It's even possible that Google might lose its dominance in search, as this advancement occurs.Is Keyword Ranking Irrelevant in Today's SEO?If one considers keywords in the framework of topical styles, then yes. If you are still doing SEO like its 2011, you remain in for some rocky times.
Source
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/is-keyword-ranking-irrelevant-in-todays-seo/188483/
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How to optimize for user intent in search
User intent. Also known as searcher intent, it is a theory that unashamedly stands up to the more primitive pre-Penguin and Panda tactics of optimizing purely for keywords.
User intent and optimizing for it has come into being via a combination of three key factors:
Latent Semantic Indexing, Hummingbird, Rankbrain. All have fantastic and mysterious sounding names but all underpinned by the fact that Google’s algorithm is not exactly made up of high school algebra. Google is clever, real clever. The algorithm understands more than just the specific keywords that a user types into the search bar.
As a result of the aforementioned ability, people trust Google. They may not trust them as a business that will pay their fair share of tax but they trust the search engine to understand their query and as such will ask more complex questions rather than utilising pure keywords. To ‘Google’ is a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary!
The internet and Google (among other search engines) have made unfathomable amounts of information accessible to the masses. As a by product, Google is often the first port of call for more than just purchasing actions. More on this later.
Voice search has further stamped on the throttle for user intent with more and more never before seen searches due to the conversational nature of voice search. As such, if you are still basing your SEO strategy around keywords you should probably start to think a little bit deeper around user intent.
Finally, and this is an important one. Optimizing for user intent is not just about providing solutions or using synonyms. The majority of SEO campaigns are built around driving revenue and whilst rankings are great and indicative of campaign success, in reality you won’t retain clients without providing ROI.
Fully optimizing for user intent requires an understanding of how your potential customers buy via your inbound marketing channels. As a result, make sure that you have identified these sales funnels as they are crucial for capitalizing on optimizing your website for user intent in search.
User intent: An overview of the basics
What is user intent? In short it is the reason why someone is searching for something in Google. What are they actually trying to achieve as a result of typing (or saying) that search term?
Traditionally, the intent has been categorized as either navigational, informational or transactional although some like to define commercial intent or use different terminology such as ‘to buy something’, ‘to do something’, ‘to find something’, ‘to learn something’, ‘to go somewhere’ and so on.
These questions or intents can then help to you to identify your Buyer Personas and the stage that they are at within your inbound funnels. Again, various inbound funnels utilize different terminology, but I am a fan of Hubspot’s methodology:
Image credit: Hubspot
How do you figure out what the user intent is behind a search term? Honestly, it’s pretty easy. Just about everyone uses Google. Put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and ask yourself, “if I used that search term, what would I be looking to do?”
Also look at the types of search results that Google returns for a given search term; this is a great indicator of the user intent that Google itself attaches to that particular query.
Focus on VALUE for the user
Even if you don’t read on, here is a very simple tip that should permeate your entire SEO strategy. Ask yourself this question:
Does what I’m doing here add value for the user and if so, how can I make it as valuable as possible?
If you are taking into account what your user is looking to achieve and therefore providing as much value for the user as possible (forget SEO and rankings for one second), you will put yourself in a great place to have a successful campaign both now and into the future.
It is the primary focus for Google as a search engine, so you should make it your focus as well!
An easy place to start is evaluating each piece of content that you are writing. Does it complete the journey that the user is taking? If not, are there quick call to actions to pages that will? Your content will preferably be the former, providing solutions and value directly to the searcher.
In addition, if you continue to put the user first (instead of being keyword-focused) you will naturally create better, deeper, more complex and solution led content, thus satisfying the aforementioned LSI, Hummingbird and Rankbrain. Write for search engines first and you run the risk of lowering the content quality, in turn lowering the quality of your results.
How to align your SEO strategy with user intent
Targeting transactional search terms
For years SEOs have focussed on the sharp end of the funnel. and for good reason: the search terms with transactional intent bring in revenue. Let’s be clear, these search terms should remain a staple of any website focussed on ROI.
However, there are a few optimization tips associated with transactional search terms. As above, they are all focused around value for the user:
How easy is it to make a purchase from that specific page?
Are the call to actions clear?
Have you provided the user with all the information required to make that purchasing decision?
Is the language used focused around the purchase?
As SEOs, we have to make it abundantly clear to Google that if someone types in a purchase based search term, that our page is the very best result for that search term.
I hate to hammer it home, but it is the webpage that will complete the desired outcome for the user and therefore offer the most value.
Targeting informational search terms
This is where a sit down with the team and the drawing up of a content strategy that is aligned to your user intent (and therefore inbound funnels) can unlock serious content marketing magic.
Real results you say? Surely informational searches only result in you giving away free information? Exactly.
Let me take you all the way back to the inbound methodology and the fact that people use Google as a source of information. Creating great informational content can have the following impact:
Providing value earlier in the consumer buying process
They may be wanting to research a product or service prior to making that buying decision. The more awesome information you give them the more aligned with your brand they become. When the time comes for that purchasing decision guess who they will lean more favorably towards? Of course there is a little caveat in that all other things are equal.
Earning links
Even if no sales come as a result of your informational content (unlikely), if it is good enough it will earn links as people reference the content…funnily enough to provide further value for their own users. These links will subsequently improve the authority of your website and help you rank for transactional search terms. It’s a warped digital version of karma.
Understand your user flows
This is particularly relevant for transactional and informational search terms. Top notch SEO incorporates more than just onsite optimization, content creation and link building. It should pull in all marketing channels, including design. It’s all well and good generating traffic, but it counts for nothing if the website does not convert them.
Identify your key user flows and actions that you want your users to complete on your site according to where they are in the funnel. Are they an informational searcher? The website needs to encourage them to continue their hunt for information on your website or start to transition them further down the funnel to a purchasing decision.
Really understanding user intent and user flows will only help you with your conversion rate optimization.
Adjust your appearance in search
In the same vein as design supporting CRO, your appearance in search should be aligned with the user intent. The two standard influencers here are your title tag and meta description, although additional factors such as schema markup can also be implemented.
For example, if the search term is transactional make sure that the metadata is enticing and using purchase driven vocabulary. Whereas if the search term is informational make sure that it hints towards how the information on the corresponding web page will solve the searchers’ problem.
Use your outreach skills
I thought we were talking about content here? Yes, on the whole we are but there are opportunities within link building as well. Some users will turn to Google not simply to provide them with the best result, but also a list of the options available to them. Common examples of how a small change to the wording can result in this alteration to user intent are as follows:
Tailor London > Best Tailor London
Or
Tailor London > Tailors London
The addition of an adjective or the plural version of a keyword can often result in lists being supplied by Google. Not all of the results will be these lists, but for those not already in the top results they do offer an opportunity.
Contact these sites to get listed – we saw a considerable increase in conversions by doing this for a software platform client recently.
Don’t forget local search
Mobile search vs desktop search is a mainstream conversation nowadays, with some stats showing that mobile search has a 75% chance of action being taken by the user.
With this in mind, don’t forget to optimize your local listing in order to sweep up all of the traffic (over 50% globally now) using Google via mobile devices.
Some useful tools
Keyword research is critical in identifying valuable search terms, whatever the corresponding user intent is. We have listed a few options below, hopefully you are already using these tools alongside Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz’s Keyword Explorer or whichever tool you use to look at traffic. These tools can provide content ideas that will drive your campaign:
Answer The Public
Using a who, what, when, why, how style format, Answer The Public will give you a list of search terms. Use these prompts to create content ideas.
Keywordtool.io
In a similar vein to Answer the Public, Keywordtool.io will display search volumes (if you pay for it) and commonly asked questions that relate to your keywords.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo allows you to view the most shared pieces of content via social for a given subject. Don’t just rely on data fed to you, check how popular these subjects are in real life!
Google Autosuggest
Use Google’s own user oriented functionality to understand the commonly asked questions and search terms for a given subject. Start typing and let Google do the rest.
Impressions via Search Console
We always warn against purely using Search Console and Google Analytics data as the basis for decision moving forward, purely because it is reactive data.
However, you can look at search terms for which you are gaining impressions but potentially a low CTR and adjust the content accordingly. It may be as simple as making your metadata more attractive in the SERPs.
Horses for courses
The base theories will have to be adapted slightly to suit your particular needs. Some businesses may focus on impulse buys where others are deemed comparison goods and will benefit more from informative, longer sales processes. It is a ‘horses for courses’ scenario.
If you understand what you are trying to achieve via your SEO campaign, the journey taken by your user during the buying process, the various relevant searcher intents and align your strategy accordingly, it will place you in a great position to increase organic traffic and also your conversion rate.
source https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/07/31/how-to-optimize-for-user-intent-in-search/ from Rising Phoenix SEO http://risingphoenixseo.blogspot.com/2017/07/how-to-optimize-for-user-intent-in.html
0 notes
Text
How to optimize for user intent in search
User intent. Also known as searcher intent, it is a theory that unashamedly stands up to the more primitive pre-Penguin and Panda tactics of optimizing purely for keywords.
User intent and optimizing for it has come into being via a combination of three key factors:
Latent Semantic Indexing, Hummingbird, Rankbrain. All have fantastic and mysterious sounding names but all underpinned by the fact that Google’s algorithm is not exactly made up of high school algebra. Google is clever, real clever. The algorithm understands more than just the specific keywords that a user types into the search bar.
As a result of the aforementioned ability, people trust Google. They may not trust them as a business that will pay their fair share of tax but they trust the search engine to understand their query and as such will ask more complex questions rather than utilising pure keywords. To ‘Google’ is a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary!
The internet and Google (among other search engines) have made unfathomable amounts of information accessible to the masses. As a by product, Google is often the first port of call for more than just purchasing actions. More on this later.
Voice search has further stamped on the throttle for user intent with more and more never before seen searches due to the conversational nature of voice search. As such, if you are still basing your SEO strategy around keywords you should probably start to think a little bit deeper around user intent.
Finally, and this is an important one. Optimizing for user intent is not just about providing solutions or using synonyms. The majority of SEO campaigns are built around driving revenue and whilst rankings are great and indicative of campaign success, in reality you won’t retain clients without providing ROI.
Fully optimizing for user intent requires an understanding of how your potential customers buy via your inbound marketing channels. As a result, make sure that you have identified these sales funnels as they are crucial for capitalizing on optimizing your website for user intent in search.
User intent: An overview of the basics
What is user intent? In short it is the reason why someone is searching for something in Google. What are they actually trying to achieve as a result of typing (or saying) that search term?
Traditionally, the intent has been categorized as either navigational, informational or transactional although some like to define commercial intent or use different terminology such as ‘to buy something’, ‘to do something’, ‘to find something’, ‘to learn something’, ‘to go somewhere’ and so on.
These questions or intents can then help to you to identify your Buyer Personas and the stage that they are at within your inbound funnels. Again, various inbound funnels utilize different terminology, but I am a fan of Hubspot’s methodology:
Image credit: Hubspot
How do you figure out what the user intent is behind a search term? Honestly, it’s pretty easy. Just about everyone uses Google. Put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and ask yourself, “if I used that search term, what would I be looking to do?”
Also look at the types of search results that Google returns for a given search term; this is a great indicator of the user intent that Google itself attaches to that particular query.
Focus on VALUE for the user
Even if you don’t read on, here is a very simple tip that should permeate your entire SEO strategy. Ask yourself this question:
Does what I’m doing here add value for the user and if so, how can I make it as valuable as possible?
If you are taking into account what your user is looking to achieve and therefore providing as much value for the user as possible (forget SEO and rankings for one second), you will put yourself in a great place to have a successful campaign both now and into the future.
It is the primary focus for Google as a search engine, so you should make it your focus as well!
An easy place to start is evaluating each piece of content that you are writing. Does it complete the journey that the user is taking? If not, are there quick call to actions to pages that will? Your content will preferably be the former, providing solutions and value directly to the searcher.
In addition, if you continue to put the user first (instead of being keyword-focused) you will naturally create better, deeper, more complex and solution led content, thus satisfying the aforementioned LSI, Hummingbird and Rankbrain. Write for search engines first and you run the risk of lowering the content quality, in turn lowering the quality of your results.
How to align your SEO strategy with user intent
Targeting transactional search terms
For years SEOs have focussed on the sharp end of the funnel. and for good reason: the search terms with transactional intent bring in revenue. Let’s be clear, these search terms should remain a staple of any website focussed on ROI.
However, there are a few optimization tips associated with transactional search terms. As above, they are all focused around value for the user:
How easy is it to make a purchase from that specific page?
Are the call to actions clear?
Have you provided the user with all the information required to make that purchasing decision?
Is the language used focused around the purchase?
As SEOs, we have to make it abundantly clear to Google that if someone types in a purchase based search term, that our page is the very best result for that search term.
I hate to hammer it home, but it is the webpage that will complete the desired outcome for the user and therefore offer the most value.
Targeting informational search terms
This is where a sit down with the team and the drawing up of a content strategy that is aligned to your user intent (and therefore inbound funnels) can unlock serious content marketing magic.
Real results you say? Surely informational searches only result in you giving away free information? Exactly.
Let me take you all the way back to the inbound methodology and the fact that people use Google as a source of information. Creating great informational content can have the following impact:
Providing value earlier in the consumer buying process
They may be wanting to research a product or service prior to making that buying decision. The more awesome information you give them the more aligned with your brand they become. When the time comes for that purchasing decision guess who they will lean more favorably towards? Of course there is a little caveat in that all other things are equal.
Earning links
Even if no sales come as a result of your informational content (unlikely), if it is good enough it will earn links as people reference the content…funnily enough to provide further value for their own users. These links will subsequently improve the authority of your website and help you rank for transactional search terms. It’s a warped digital version of karma.
Understand your user flows
This is particularly relevant for transactional and informational search terms. Top notch SEO incorporates more than just onsite optimization, content creation and link building. It should pull in all marketing channels, including design. It’s all well and good generating traffic, but it counts for nothing if the website does not convert them.
Identify your key user flows and actions that you want your users to complete on your site according to where they are in the funnel. Are they an informational searcher? The website needs to encourage them to continue their hunt for information on your website or start to transition them further down the funnel to a purchasing decision.
Really understanding user intent and user flows will only help you with your conversion rate optimization.
Adjust your appearance in search
In the same vein as design supporting CRO, your appearance in search should be aligned with the user intent. The two standard influencers here are your title tag and meta description, although additional factors such as schema markup can also be implemented.
For example, if the search term is transactional make sure that the metadata is enticing and using purchase driven vocabulary. Whereas if the search term is informational make sure that it hints towards how the information on the corresponding web page will solve the searchers’ problem.
Use your outreach skills
I thought we were talking about content here? Yes, on the whole we are but there are opportunities within link building as well. Some users will turn to Google not simply to provide them with the best result, but also a list of the options available to them. Common examples of how a small change to the wording can result in this alteration to user intent are as follows:
Tailor London > Best Tailor London
Or
Tailor London > Tailors London
The addition of an adjective or the plural version of a keyword can often result in lists being supplied by Google. Not all of the results will be these lists, but for those not already in the top results they do offer an opportunity.
Contact these sites to get listed – we saw a considerable increase in conversions by doing this for a software platform client recently.
Don’t forget local search
Mobile search vs desktop search is a mainstream conversation nowadays, with some stats showing that mobile search has a 75% chance of action being taken by the user.
With this in mind, don’t forget to optimize your local listing in order to sweep up all of the traffic (over 50% globally now) using Google via mobile devices.
Some useful tools
Keyword research is critical in identifying valuable search terms, whatever the corresponding user intent is. We have listed a few options below, hopefully you are already using these tools alongside Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz’s Keyword Explorer or whichever tool you use to look at traffic. These tools can provide content ideas that will drive your campaign:
Answer The Public
Using a who, what, when, why, how style format, Answer The Public will give you a list of search terms. Use these prompts to create content ideas.
Keywordtool.io
In a similar vein to Answer the Public, Keywordtool.io will display search volumes (if you pay for it) and commonly asked questions that relate to your keywords.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo allows you to view the most shared pieces of content via social for a given subject. Don’t just rely on data fed to you, check how popular these subjects are in real life!
Google Autosuggest
Use Google’s own user oriented functionality to understand the commonly asked questions and search terms for a given subject. Start typing and let Google do the rest.
Impressions via Search Console
We always warn against purely using Search Console and Google Analytics data as the basis for decision moving forward, purely because it is reactive data.
However, you can look at search terms for which you are gaining impressions but potentially a low CTR and adjust the content accordingly. It may be as simple as making your metadata more attractive in the SERPs.
Horses for courses
The base theories will have to be adapted slightly to suit your particular needs. Some businesses may focus on impulse buys where others are deemed comparison goods and will benefit more from informative, longer sales processes. It is a ‘horses for courses’ scenario.
If you understand what you are trying to achieve via your SEO campaign, the journey taken by your user during the buying process, the various relevant searcher intents and align your strategy accordingly, it will place you in a great position to increase organic traffic and also your conversion rate.
from IM Tips And Tricks https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/07/31/how-to-optimize-for-user-intent-in-search/ from Rising Phoenix SEO https://risingphxseo.tumblr.com/post/163639803515
0 notes
Text
How to optimize for user intent in search
User intent. Also known as searcher intent, it is a theory that unashamedly stands up to the more primitive pre-Penguin and Panda tactics of optimizing purely for keywords.
User intent and optimizing for it has come into being via a combination of three key factors:
Latent Semantic Indexing, Hummingbird, Rankbrain. All have fantastic and mysterious sounding names but all underpinned by the fact that Google’s algorithm is not exactly made up of high school algebra. Google is clever, real clever. The algorithm understands more than just the specific keywords that a user types into the search bar.
As a result of the aforementioned ability, people trust Google. They may not trust them as a business that will pay their fair share of tax but they trust the search engine to understand their query and as such will ask more complex questions rather than utilising pure keywords. To ‘Google’ is a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary!
The internet and Google (among other search engines) have made unfathomable amounts of information accessible to the masses. As a by product, Google is often the first port of call for more than just purchasing actions. More on this later.
Voice search has further stamped on the throttle for user intent with more and more never before seen searches due to the conversational nature of voice search. As such, if you are still basing your SEO strategy around keywords you should probably start to think a little bit deeper around user intent.
Finally, and this is an important one. Optimizing for user intent is not just about providing solutions or using synonyms. The majority of SEO campaigns are built around driving revenue and whilst rankings are great and indicative of campaign success, in reality you won’t retain clients without providing ROI.
Fully optimizing for user intent requires an understanding of how your potential customers buy via your inbound marketing channels. As a result, make sure that you have identified these sales funnels as they are crucial for capitalizing on optimizing your website for user intent in search.
User intent: An overview of the basics
What is user intent? In short it is the reason why someone is searching for something in Google. What are they actually trying to achieve as a result of typing (or saying) that search term?
Traditionally, the intent has been categorized as either navigational, informational or transactional although some like to define commercial intent or use different terminology such as ‘to buy something’, ‘to do something’, ‘to find something’, ‘to learn something’, ‘to go somewhere’ and so on.
These questions or intents can then help to you to identify your Buyer Personas and the stage that they are at within your inbound funnels. Again, various inbound funnels utilize different terminology, but I am a fan of Hubspot’s methodology:
Image credit: Hubspot
How do you figure out what the user intent is behind a search term? Honestly, it’s pretty easy. Just about everyone uses Google. Put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and ask yourself, “if I used that search term, what would I be looking to do?”
Also look at the types of search results that Google returns for a given search term; this is a great indicator of the user intent that Google itself attaches to that particular query.
Focus on VALUE for the user
Even if you don’t read on, here is a very simple tip that should permeate your entire SEO strategy. Ask yourself this question:
Does what I’m doing here add value for the user and if so, how can I make it as valuable as possible?
If you are taking into account what your user is looking to achieve and therefore providing as much value for the user as possible (forget SEO and rankings for one second), you will put yourself in a great place to have a successful campaign both now and into the future.
It is the primary focus for Google as a search engine, so you should make it your focus as well!
An easy place to start is evaluating each piece of content that you are writing. Does it complete the journey that the user is taking? If not, are there quick call to actions to pages that will? Your content will preferably be the former, providing solutions and value directly to the searcher.
In addition, if you continue to put the user first (instead of being keyword-focused) you will naturally create better, deeper, more complex and solution led content, thus satisfying the aforementioned LSI, Hummingbird and Rankbrain. Write for search engines first and you run the risk of lowering the content quality, in turn lowering the quality of your results.
How to align your SEO strategy with user intent
Targeting transactional search terms
For years SEOs have focussed on the sharp end of the funnel. and for good reason: the search terms with transactional intent bring in revenue. Let’s be clear, these search terms should remain a staple of any website focussed on ROI.
However, there are a few optimization tips associated with transactional search terms. As above, they are all focused around value for the user:
How easy is it to make a purchase from that specific page?
Are the call to actions clear?
Have you provided the user with all the information required to make that purchasing decision?
Is the language used focused around the purchase?
As SEOs, we have to make it abundantly clear to Google that if someone types in a purchase based search term, that our page is the very best result for that search term.
I hate to hammer it home, but it is the webpage that will complete the desired outcome for the user and therefore offer the most value.
Targeting informational search terms
This is where a sit down with the team and the drawing up of a content strategy that is aligned to your user intent (and therefore inbound funnels) can unlock serious content marketing magic.
Real results you say? Surely informational searches only result in you giving away free information? Exactly.
Let me take you all the way back to the inbound methodology and the fact that people use Google as a source of information. Creating great informational content can have the following impact:
Providing value earlier in the consumer buying process
They may be wanting to research a product or service prior to making that buying decision. The more awesome information you give them the more aligned with your brand they become. When the time comes for that purchasing decision guess who they will lean more favorably towards? Of course there is a little caveat in that all other things are equal.
Earning links
Even if no sales come as a result of your informational content (unlikely), if it is good enough it will earn links as people reference the content…funnily enough to provide further value for their own users. These links will subsequently improve the authority of your website and help you rank for transactional search terms. It’s a warped digital version of karma.
Understand your user flows
This is particularly relevant for transactional and informational search terms. Top notch SEO incorporates more than just onsite optimization, content creation and link building. It should pull in all marketing channels, including design. It’s all well and good generating traffic, but it counts for nothing if the website does not convert them.
Identify your key user flows and actions that you want your users to complete on your site according to where they are in the funnel. Are they an informational searcher? The website needs to encourage them to continue their hunt for information on your website or start to transition them further down the funnel to a purchasing decision.
Really understanding user intent and user flows will only help you with your conversion rate optimization.
Adjust your appearance in search
In the same vein as design supporting CRO, your appearance in search should be aligned with the user intent. The two standard influencers here are your title tag and meta description, although additional factors such as schema markup can also be implemented.
For example, if the search term is transactional make sure that the metadata is enticing and using purchase driven vocabulary. Whereas if the search term is informational make sure that it hints towards how the information on the corresponding web page will solve the searchers’ problem.
Use your outreach skills
I thought we were talking about content here? Yes, on the whole we are but there are opportunities within link building as well. Some users will turn to Google not simply to provide them with the best result, but also a list of the options available to them. Common examples of how a small change to the wording can result in this alteration to user intent are as follows:
Tailor London > Best Tailor London
Or
Tailor London > Tailors London
The addition of an adjective or the plural version of a keyword can often result in lists being supplied by Google. Not all of the results will be these lists, but for those not already in the top results they do offer an opportunity.
Contact these sites to get listed – we saw a considerable increase in conversions by doing this for a software platform client recently.
Don’t forget local search
Mobile search vs desktop search is a mainstream conversation nowadays, with some stats showing that mobile search has a 75% chance of action being taken by the user.
With this in mind, don’t forget to optimize your local listing in order to sweep up all of the traffic (over 50% globally now) using Google via mobile devices.
Some useful tools
Keyword research is critical in identifying valuable search terms, whatever the corresponding user intent is. We have listed a few options below, hopefully you are already using these tools alongside Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz’s Keyword Explorer or whichever tool you use to look at traffic. These tools can provide content ideas that will drive your campaign:
Answer The Public
Using a who, what, when, why, how style format, Answer The Public will give you a list of search terms. Use these prompts to create content ideas.
Keywordtool.io
In a similar vein to Answer the Public, Keywordtool.io will display search volumes (if you pay for it) and commonly asked questions that relate to your keywords.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo allows you to view the most shared pieces of content via social for a given subject. Don’t just rely on data fed to you, check how popular these subjects are in real life!
Google Autosuggest
Use Google’s own user oriented functionality to understand the commonly asked questions and search terms for a given subject. Start typing and let Google do the rest.
Impressions via Search Console
We always warn against purely using Search Console and Google Analytics data as the basis for decision moving forward, purely because it is reactive data.
However, you can look at search terms for which you are gaining impressions but potentially a low CTR and adjust the content accordingly. It may be as simple as making your metadata more attractive in the SERPs.
Horses for courses
The base theories will have to be adapted slightly to suit your particular needs. Some businesses may focus on impulse buys where others are deemed comparison goods and will benefit more from informative, longer sales processes. It is a ‘horses for courses’ scenario.
If you understand what you are trying to achieve via your SEO campaign, the journey taken by your user during the buying process, the various relevant searcher intents and align your strategy accordingly, it will place you in a great position to increase organic traffic and also your conversion rate.
from Search Engine Watch https://searchenginewatch.com/2017/07/31/how-to-optimize-for-user-intent-in-search/
0 notes
Text
HTC U11 Review: The “more and the less” conventional flagship
The argument in 2016 is that smartphones were getting boring, and one of the companies that used this as the main purpose for its then flagship was HTC. We can’t really say that the HTC 10 addressed any of the boredom that HTC claimed, but one thing it did do is prove that HTC was back. The company we once admired for making great smartphones made a solid comeback with that device.
Now, 2017 is a very interesting year for flagships. We have companies experimenting with taller displays and new aspect ratios, and we’re one digital assistant short of forming a basketball team. All of this is cool. Yes, we need flagships to continue pushing the bar of innovation, but like with every new thing, it’s clear that some of these features are still solutions in search of a problem.
As a result, and given the price hike of some of these devices, some people actually don’t like anything about this new approach. Be it cool or not, some people just want a conventional flagship that’s powerful, capable, and beautiful enough. If you’re looking for a more conventional approach, there’s pretty much just one flagship this year that does address some of the problems already in need of a solution, but in ways that are actually not conventional. We’re talking about the HTC U11, and it’s time for our full review.
Hardware
The HTC U11 is a very interesting approach to hardware design. Notice I didn’t begin this review giving you the typical sob story of how bad things are for HTC, or how the HTC U Ultra didn’t really do more than become a source for mockery.
Actually, the U11 is a very different animal. More the result of a company that has matured in many ways over the years. Just set this phone on its front over a table, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. This phone is gorgeous, eye catching, and an immediate call for admiration. This 3D formed glass finish that HTC is dubbing liquid design is a very different approach to curving glass. Instead of making it about adding features, the whole purpose is to make this rather large phone feel pleasant in the hand, and that it definitely is.
The curves extend to the glass front, leading to this pebble-like shape that’s easily noticeable. I also love that HTC chose to stick to a black finish at the front, regardless of what color option you pick. I find black bezels to be more immersive for content consumption. The company decided to wait on the whole trend of 18.5:9 displays, and you know what, I’m not going to complain. As it stands pillar boxing is what I hate most about competing devices. There is still a good list of apps that’s not ready to support new aspect ratios, and whatever more pixels you would’ve gained are compensated by the dedicated capacitive buttons on the U11.
This is a Quad HD Super LCD 5 with punchy color and decent blacks. It does get very bright, up to the point of offering good visibility in direct sunlight, even if you’re wearing polarized sunglasses. The only problem is that oddly, if you launch the camera while wearing polarized lenses, you have to view the display from an angle for the UI to be visible. About my only complaint is the size of these bezels, leading to a 71% screen to body ratio, at a time when competitors that stick to 16:9 like the OnePlus 3T go above 80.
Precautions that I would recommend with this phone is not setting it on its front over a table as the curves seem notorious to minor scratches from dirt, and also be ready to clean this phone constantly, as the reflective coating in the back really loves fingerprints and smudges.
Tucked inside the shell we have almost everything a flagship needs. Snapdragon 835, 4 gigs of RAM, 64 gigs of expandable storage, and my review unit includes the bonus of dual-SIM capabilities if I ditch the microSD. We also get IP67 water and dust resistance, another crucial feature you should look up to in 2017.
Software
HTC Sense makes a return to power all the hardware of the U11. This is a combination of HTC design, and a commitment with Google to avoid bloat. As a result, there’s just one Calendar, one Calculator, Google Photos supersedes the Gallery, and so on and so forth. The result is a phone that manages RAM far better than competitors, and all leading to zippy performance all around.
Graphics intensive games launch quickly and work like a charm. Even this proprietary launcher and services like BlinkFeed work without a stutter, something devices like the Galaxy S8 fumble with in the basics.
The HTC Sense Companion finally started working for me, but the implementation still feels hit or miss. One day it noticed I had an early appointment and suggested I set an alarm in the morning, something I honestly appreciated. The only problem is that every other time, all it does is tell me I use my phone too much… like really?
HTC’s Edge Sense is one of those new features that I’ve come to love and hate. I seriously love the simplicity of squeezing lightly to get the Google Feed, as OEMs continue to ignore it, or the long squeeze to launch the flashlight. I still consider this hidden button to be genius. The problem if you set the sensitivity to light, you’ll find the phone activating the feature when you don’t want it to, and going the opposite direction makes the gesture feel awkward on borders this thin. You can always just switch this off. It’s a nice little convenience, but I honestly don’t see the point in going through all this trouble instead of simply adding another button.
Camera
The camera experience on the HTC U11 only gets better if you compare it to its predecessor. DxOMark claims this to be the best camera of 2017, and even if I won’t go as far as to call this my favorite, it does a great job.
I love the color saturation and detail provided during the day, and at night it shines as a solid performer. Even with the Ultra Pixels being reduced to 1.4 microns, the bump in aperture does compensate. Juan’s real camera review should shed some more light on our final verdict for how this camera competes.
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I love features like the 3D audio recording for video, making the experience more immersive as the camera captures audio from the direction of the source.
My only complaints are the death of stabilization on the front facing shooter, and how it also stepped back the Ultra Pixel hardware approach brought by the U Ultra.
Performance
I’ve been using the HTC U11 for nearly two weeks between New York City and Honduras. There are things in which this phone is great, and others where it’s simply the expected performance of a flagship. For example, this phone has proven to be a champ in retaining to Wi-Fi and Cellular signal, even when compared to other 2017 flagships. Oddly I feel that call quality over the ear piece has gotten slightly tinier compared to the HTC 10, even if the speakers have gotten louder. As of the moment of this review this is the only 2017 flagship with dual-firing speakers, but more on that in Juan’s Real Audio Review.
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My biggest problem with Audio is the death of the headphone jack. Yes HTC, all 2017 flagships have one, except the U11. This feels like the time when HTC kept insisting that 4 Ultra Pixels was all you needed in a smartphone camera. Minimalism in design makes sense, but not in features. Yes, I do get the point of HTC U Sonic, and yes, I love the acoustic noise cancellation that can only be provided by having these headphones draw power from the phone and use the four microphones. It’s not as great as on my PXC 550s, but far better than any headphones I’ve tested that came bundled in the box. The problem is the need to be carrying this specific dongle everywhere else, since like with all the current cases of phones requiring them, these are proprietary, meaning the dongle on a Moto Z won’t work on this phone. Why does this matter so much? Well if OEMs gave us two USB-C ports, that would be awesome, but try to charge this phone on a long flight while listening to music. Yeah, forget it.
And then you’ll stay that there is amazing fast charging on this phone, and that the battery is amazing. Sadly, charging your phone is something you’ll be doing quite often. I had very high hopes for the optimizations on Android 7.1.1, but as it stands, the 3000mAh power pack on the U11 is just average, barely scratching to the end of day of moderate use.
We received a lot of heat in our video review given the “awake” indication on our battery stats. As it stands, our experience has been the same with or without this “awake” indication being shown as you’ll see in the screen shots, and remember this review is focused on consumers, so hacking anything to fix that isn’t something we can discuss as part of this review.
Pricing and Availability
As of the time of this review, only Sprint had picked up the HTC U11. Every other carrier requires you to buy the unlocked variant, and yes, this even includes Verizon. At $649, this is definitely not an affordable device, but if you think of the fact that you’re getting a lot more bang for your buck than paying that same amount of money for a 32GB iPhone 7, and yes, the small iPhone 7, then you’ll understand why we don’t complain about the price tag at all.
Conclusion
To conclude, there’s a lot to like about the HTC U11. This is gorgeous hardware, matched by up to date specs, and with a set of unique features like U Sonic, and Edge Sense, that help this phone stand apart from the standard set of competitors out there.
I’d even say that my experience using the U11 has been delightful enough for me not to miss devices like the Galaxy S8 or the LG G6. The only reason why I’ve ended up drifting back to these other devices is because I wish HTC and other OEMs would stop copying Apple in the things they shouldn’t. Removing the 3.5mm headphone jack is not innovation, nor courage. If anything it’s lack of ingenuity in solving a problem. The day Bluetooth grows up to support better quality audio, and the day OEMs agree on a solution to avoid proprietary dongles, and also the day smartphones can last more than a day on a charge, then I’d say it’s time to move on. Sadly as it stands, proprietary solutions are always an exercise in frustration in the long run.
Even with its short comings, I have no problem in recommending the HTC U11. This is definitely a great phone in absolutely everything else. The question is if you’d be willing to give HTC another chance? Make sure you share your final thoughts in the comments down below.
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