Sunday, May 17, 2015

Basic On-Page Optimization



On-Page SEO should be the first stop in any of your optimization approaches. The reason for this is that in order for your off-page tactics to become successful, they have to be directed to a website that’s proving to the search engines to be a valuable addition within their SERPs. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest things to remember when doing On-Page optimization.

It’s just like school, do your homework for once!

The first thing that you need to do is research keywords that you’re going to target with your site. This way you know exactly what kind of changes and implementations need to be made on both sides of the SEO fence. Once you have a good list of keywords, you’re ready to continue on with your journey to achieving SEO success.

The META Life - No, it’s not a fraternity or sorority.

We’re talking about all kinds of cool things such as titles, descriptions, and keywords. While there’s a lot more entailed within the META life, these are the most important. Is your mouth watering yet? Alright, without further ado here you go.

     META Title - This is where you set the title that’s displayed at the top of of browsers. Search engines use it for the first line of the listing as well as to determine the relevance of each web page. The key here is to create something to entice people to click while naturally dropping in your keyword.
     META Description - This is what searches see below the title. It describes each page, and search engines use this to determine relevance as well. Create something that’s beneficial to those who read it while dropping in a keyword naturally to see the best results possible.
     META Keywords - This is how search engines really find out what search phrases you should come up on. Drop in keywords that are relevant to your site or page to let them know exactly what kind of searches you’re targeting.
For a quick reference on META tags. click here.

Your Content

The thing about content is that Google looks at it very closely these days. Their most powerful updates have targeted shoddy copy which ended up in a lot of websites losing their rankings. If you don’t know how to effectively write SEO copy, your best bet is to actually find a proven writer who does. By proven, I mean look for who stands out in the industry. Ask your AM or look in our Facebook group to see whether or not there’s a writer there that can help fulfill your needs.

 

The Map to the Treasure Chest

The treasure map for search engines is a sitemap. You want to always have one that stays updated to ensure that all of your pages get ranked. The best bet for this is to use a plugin if your website is powered by Wordpress or use the Google Sitemap Generator.

The easiest way by far to do all of your on-page SEO is to use Wordpress with plugins that help you accomplish the needed tasks. Wordpress not only makes SEO easier, but it also makes it easier to perform updates on your website. You can learn more by visiting the official Wordpress website.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Basic Off-Page Optimization


Once you’ve done your on-page optimization, it’s time to move on to the world of off-page optimization. While off-page optimization does have to do with building backlinks, there are some things that you do need to look at in order to ensure that you have the most solid off-page optimization strategy possible. Let’s get into it.

 

Relevance Rules

You always want to make sure that the links pointing to your site or page are on a relevant website or blog. This means that they need to be coming from a website or blog that’s in the same niche of the site that you’re promoting. This will help Google and other major search engines realize that your site is relevant to the keywords which you’re targeting via on-page optimization as well as off-page optimization.

 

Is the link coming from an authority?

Links from authority websites produce the best value. Try to get links from as many authorities within your niche as possible. For example, if your website is about technology, a link from Mashable is priceless. When you get authority websites to link to you, it signals to search engines that your website provides enough value to be mentioned by the best.

 

Anchor text matters, to a point.

Thanks to the recent Google Algorithm updates, the use of anchor text in off-page optimization has changed. While you still want to use relevant keywords in your anchor text, you need to use them in a way that makes it look as natural as possible. This means adding variations instead of only using your keywords in the text that links to your site. Simply put, make sure that it’s not nonsense and that it’s as readable as possible.

 

Where exactly is the link placed?

This is something that has generated a wide array of opinions. Search engines have picked up on the fact that links are commonly sold within the footer and/or sidebar of the website. Links within the content itself are the most valuable, so try to make sure that you get as many of these as you possibly can.

 

How many links are there to the site or page?

In order to rank, you need to know how many links you need in order to rank for your target keywords. You can find this out by seeing how many links your competitors have pointing to them. When you find the number, build just enough links to rank. You don’t want to have a ton of them as this will alert search engines that shady link building practices may have been used.

As you can see, there are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind. The truth is that this always changes, so you need to make sure that you stay on top of the latest Algorithm updates by following trusted search engine news sources. As you do this, make note of anything that has changed as well as new tactics that can be implemented in order to assure the best SEO strategy possible.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Backlinks & Free Backlink Resources


If you haven’t read the off-page optimization section, now is the time to do so. This part is going to continue where that particular part left off. You can either go about building these backlinks yourself or hire an SEO expert to do it for you. Either way, make sure that it’s done in an ethical manner in order to prevent search engines from penalizing your website for low quality backlinks.

Directory Submissions Provide a Good Foundation

There are tons of people that say directory submissions are dead, but that’s far from being realistic. What’s realistic is that low quality directories are dead as Google has realized that these are nothing but link farms. There are still some good directories out there and honestly it’s a great way to kick off your off-page optimization campaign. You can either find a directory list and do this yourself, or you can find a high quality link builder to do it for you. Either way, make sure the links generated are of decent quality so that they help your website instead of hurt it.

Using Content to Your Advantage

This can be done by guest posting on quality blogs relevant to your niche as well as article directories like Ezine Articles. If you can craft beautiful copy (or have a writer that can) you can easily use that to build some great links for your website. Just make sure that you don’t fall into the trap of copying and pasting the same article while having it published at multiple sources. You want to see the best links built, not ones that Google won’t even consider to be a good addition to their search engine data.

Discover Natural Link Building

Links have the opportunity to build themselves, but in order to do this you will need an active website with a good following. The way this is done is creating valuable content that sets yourself apart from your competitors as a true authority within your niche. This can include providing solutions to unsolved problems, keeping people updated on breaking news within your industry, or even creating something that encourages them to link to it or share it in exchange for the opportunity to win something or get something for free.

Embrace Press Release Services

Press releases can be valuable, but you need to be experienced in crafting quality press releases or have a writer that can. Not only will you be exposed to the readers of some of the top news sites, but the links that are built from it are truly priceless. When going about using this method for your off-page optimization, don’t fall for the free services. You only want to be featured on the most notable media outlets.

Comments Can Build Upon Your SEO Foundation

Commenting on blogs within your niche is a very simple way to build some quality links to increase your worthiness to search engines. Make sure that they’re “dofollow” or they won’t provide any link juice. A good strategy is to actually balance out “nofollow” links and “dofollow” links to make it look as natural as possible.

Free Backlink Resources

Here are a few resources that you can use to create free backlinks:

●     ArticleCity.com
●     Article Dashboard
●     ArticlesBase.com
●     CommentHunt.com
●     Ezine Articles
●     GoArticles.com
●     Helium
●     IdeaMarketers.com
●     Squidoo