On 25th October, Google released what it calls the most important update to its search algorithm in years — BERT. Naturally, everyone from business owners to digital marketers has been in a tizzy since then. While some people saw a dramatic fluctuation in their rankings, others saw barely any change and started questioning whether BERT really is an issue in the first place. So, to manage some of the hysteria currently surrounding this update, we decided to break down BERT for you. We’ll talk about what this update is all about, how it’s going to affect search engine rankings, and how you can respond to it in the best possible way. What is BERT really about? BERT is short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. While this may sound intimidating, its implications are actually fairly straightforward. It simply means that the Google search algorithm can now understand the context of words in a search string. Does that sound a bit confusing? Let’s break it down even further. With the BERT update, Google now uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) to understand the importance of transformer words (like “to” and “for”) within the search term that a user inputs. Previously, the search engine would focus only on the keywords, without giving much thought to these transformer words and how they actually affect the meaning of the search query. We can take a look at one of Google’s own “before and after” examples to see how BERT really works. Let’s take a search for “2019 brazil traveller to USA need a visa.” If the importance of the word “to” in this search is not understood, then Google wouldn’t have been able to figure out whether the query is about a Brazilian travelling to the USA or vice-versa. Before BERT, this search term therefore also returned results about US citizens travelling to Brazil. Now, with BERT, the search engine is able to understand that the word “to” is actually very important in this context and changes the meaning of the search query completely. Here’s what the before and after search results look like: Why BERT could have affected your rankings adversely If you’re one of those people who saw a dramatic fall in their rankings right after BERT was released, here are some possible reasons. They may not all apply to you, but one or more definitely will. Your ‘informational search’ game isn’t strong Informational searches are those types of searches where users are seeking specific information about something. A Penn State research study shows that 80% of Google searches are currently informational searches. These searches are the most likely to be affected by BERT because they usually use more transformer words. If you don’t have the kind of content that would rank high for an informational search, you may have lost out on your rankings in a big way. You were ranking high for irrelevant searches Let’s take the example above. Say your website provides information for US citizens travelling to Brazil. Earlier, a query like “2019 brazil traveler to USA need a visa” might have shown your result page in the rankings, but not anymore. This is probably not such a bad thing as you don’t need to rank higher for search queries that aren’t relevant to your content. Local SEO is winning now Local SEO tends to rely very heavily on transformer words like “for”, “at”, and “in” so there’s a chance that these searches are now throwing up more local results, pushing your website down. Keyword stuffing has become even more obsolete For years, SEO experts have been saying that Google is looking more at quality content, than mere stuffing of keywords. This particular update is another step in the same direction. So if you still have content that’s designed more for search engines rather than for end-users, it’s probably time to rethink your strategy. What you can do about BERT today If you have been affected by BERT in a big way, try some of these tips to get back into the game. Even if your rankings haven’t been affected in particular, it might still be a good idea to implement these suggestions anyway because things will keep shifting in the next few months as websites keep evolving to adapt to BERT. Stop pretending it’s 2009 and get rid of keyword stuffing This is probably the most important advice to keep in mind. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, many businesses started churning out poor quality articles that made little sense for readers but were stuffed with keywords and designed to satisfy the search engine algorithm only. In the last few years, most of the Google search engine updates have focused on preventing this from happening, and BERT is no exception. Since BERT uses NLP, it emphasizes more on natural-sounding content that is valuable to end-users, rather than content that is stuffed with keywords in an unnatural, inorganic way. So in case you haven’t done this already, it’s high time you revamp your content in a way that makes it more amenable to readers vis-a-vis search engines. Take another look at how you’re capturing informational searches If your rankings have gone down dramatically after BERT, start by examining which keywords and search terms are no longer performing as well. Search for those keywords and look at the kind of content that is now making it to those high ranks. Find ways to incorporate what’s working for this content into your existing content or create new content which is more geared towards informational search. At the end of the day, BERT is not some crazy, out-there update. It simply builds on Google’s underlying goal — which is to make Search more useful and relevant for users. If you’ve already been building content geared towards end-users, chances are BERT won’t affect you in a big way in the long run. If you’re still in the “create content for
Category: SEO
Afraid of Competition from the Bigwigs? Here are 5 Ways You Can Compete with Industry Giants
Having worked with small businesses across India on SEO and content marketing for over a decade, there are some questions we hear very often. The one that probably tops the list is – “Is there even a point in investing money in SEO? Especially, when there are huge MNCs who are investing so much more money than me?” Luckily, the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Of course, there will always be businesses in your competitive sphere who will have more resources to devote to SEO, and who might have been in the SEO game a lot longer than you. However, SEO is no longer about money or muscle — it’s really about what webpage is most relevant for the searcher. So even as a small business, you can still rank high on the search results, as long as you’re smart and focused when it comes to your SEO strategy. Here are 5 amazing SEO hacks that can help you stay competitive, even amidst industry giants who have tons of resources. Find a niche This is probably the golden rule for any small business that’s serious about playing the SEO game. You have to pick a specialization and stick to it. Let’s say you’re a content writer running a small freelancing business. You might be able to write all kinds of content but ranking for all categories would be incredibly hard. You’d end up having to compete with almost every content marketing agency out there, and many of them will have better resources. So instead, figure out which areas interest you, what you can write comfortably about, and where there’s a demand. Then pick a niche accordingly. Ranking high for a specific niche — whether it’s to do with SaaS content or healthcare writing— is much easier than being a generalist. Don’t scrimp on the website Google rewards websites that are polished, professional and filled with relevant content. Not only that; users too prefer websites that are clean, easy-to-use, and professional-looking. Ideally, you should get your website set up by a professional. If you already have an amateurish website, focus on making it look and feel more elegant and meaningful, by preferably hiring someone experienced to do it for you. As a next step, make sure you conduct a website audit before you even begin any kind of SEO work. This review would include basic things like keyword density, broken links, metadata, alt text for images, loading speeds, and so on. The goal is to make sure your website is as good as the best websites in your industry, or almost as good for now. Long-tail keywords all the way Similar to finding a niche, using long-tail keywords is a great way for smaller businesses to crack SEO. There are two kinds of keywords that users search with — short-tail and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords are search terms that usually have 2-3 words and are more generic. Because of this, there tends to be more competition for these keywords, with many companies spending big money trying to rank for these keywords. In contrast, long-tail keywords are much longer (usually 5-10 words) and tend to be more specific. For instance, “fluffy eggs” is a short-tail keyword, while “how to make your eggs fluffy” is a long-tail keyword. This means that while there are fewer people searching for these terms, there’s also less competition from an SEO point of view. So the chance of ranking higher for these long-tail keywords is much more. As a small business, a small but solid stream of customers should be more than enough. That is why using long-tail keywords is a much better strategy in the long run. You can use Google’s Webmaster tools to do research on long-tail keywords that will work for you. Become a recognized expert If you are selling a product that requires you to educate your customers, try to create content that positions you as an authority in your field. For instance, if you’re a small IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) firm, your blog should provide insights for readers in a way that few other blogs can. Since you’ve already figured out a niche and are catering to a focused clientele, you’ll be able to deliver unique content that’s targeted specifically to their problems. Once you’re recognized among your target audience as a go-to entity for valuable expertise, chances are they’ll turn to you when they need professional help. Leverage local search This is another great tool you have at your disposal that big companies usually don’t, so make the most of it. As a small business, chances are that most of your customers belong to a small geographic area around your location. This means you can use local search to great effect. Today, 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information, so ranking high on local searches can lead to immediate business outcomes. Plus, most big businesses will be servicing a much larger area, so they won’t be able to optimize for local search in the same way as you will. To get started, try getting some local reviews and spending time on filling out your Google My Business profile. Another great idea is to have local offline events and use them for online coverage, thereby building your local search ranking. Finally, you can actually create hyper-local content, using neighbourhood-specific keywords. This will help Google pinpoint your locality and give you a head-start on local searches. We understand that SEO can be quite intimidating, especially if you don’t have ample resources to invest in it. At the same time, SEO is no longer just for the big players. As long as you buckle down and find your niche, and use your status as a small business to build a sleeker and defined SEO strategy, you will definitely get the results you need. Watch: 6 SEO Myths that you need to trash today
How to Write Content That is Future-Proofed for Google Algorithm Updates
Did you know that Google made 3234 algorithm updates in 2018? That’s an average of 9 updates a day! Savvy SEO executives who keep a watch on their keywords’ ranking every day notice the subtle changes. A website that was lost in the depths of page 5 suddenly starts ranking on page 1. Another great link suddenly disappears from page 1 causing a flutter. What we don’t get an immediate answer is to the ‘why’ as we don’t know what’s changing in the algorithm.Even then, Google shares visibility to the bigger updates – also called core updates, like Penguin and Panda. The last confirmed update happened in June 2019 which revolved around quality and site diversity. With so many changes happening every day, SEO specialists need to future-proof their site to possible updates that can have a big impact. Although this sounds difficult, we have some insights on predicting the future based on our past experiences with Google updates. After all, there is no point in looking at Google’s update with trepidation. It’ll be great to instead be prepared with content that can only rank higher with every update. When Google algorithm updates can work better for you than some of your competitors Google wants to constantly improve its search experience. Most people want to take the shortcut to rankings and end up creating bot-pleasing content piles that may get them going in the short run. If you have competitors who follow this strategy, it is likely that they may outrank you in the short run but with every Google update they are going to find it harder to sustain their rankings until they switch to white hat practice. Google is looking for ‘useful’ content. As long as you can access the utility of your content from a user perspective on an ongoing basis, your rankings should change only marginally How to access your content’s utility With hundreds, sometimes thousands of pages in a website, many of them being dynamic, it can be a daunting task for anyone to evaluate content periodically. Content cannot be the SEO manager or Content manager’s sole responsibility. In fact, everyone in the organisation should be vested in ensuring that the content is accurate and updated. Create a Content responsibility Google sheet Let us assume that your website has 20 products and related pages, a blog and standard pages about the organization. In addition to this, there are some technical functionalities built within the site. The site may also have campaign banners and content from the HR team promoting company initiatives. Each page identified within a function should be assigned to the functional head to ratify its content. If there are hundreds of products, the ratification group will have to be expanded. While the marketing team would be in charge of the blog pages, the HR in the company will be responsible for showcasing the latest updates from the organization. The performance content marketing services team will be the best to evaluate which campaign banners will show. Democratizing the responsibility of the content now gives both SEO content and Content mangers better ways to handle constantly evolving content. Make yourself unique Most marketers do a keyword evaluation, pick the relevant keywords with high search volumes and begin to write a blog. Often such keywords are also competitive and there is existing content available. Do a detailed analysis of content that is currently ranking high for the keyword. Think of ways how your content cannot be incrementally better but exponentially useful for readers. a. Here are a few things that can make your content unique Data or case studies from campaigns you’ve run: A campaign will generally give you access to a treasure trove of data and learnings that is unique. You can leverage some open information from such campaigns to build a unique case for your brand Your own research/surveys: While a survey and its result is generally good fodder for creating original content, you can cut various slices of this content to make it snackable or even build infographics and image visuals A quote from the relevant people in the company: A company quote and a PR angle is a great way to ensure your content is original Create new forms of content: Content need not be limited to text. From ads to blogs to gifs to social stories to infographics, modifying the type of content can give it a unique twist in perspective. b. Make it meaty The crux of the content and the summary should be interesting enough to drive high click-through rates. If you are talking about the one secret strategy to getting your keywords right, the secret strategy should be something that is really worth the readers 7 minutes of reading time. c. Build trust by showcasing expertise Think of all the industry blogs that you go to check often when you need detailed information on a topic. If the topic you are researching is on improving click-through rates on organic rankings, you know that you are likely to find answers on backlinko.com or Neilpatel.com or Moz.com All of these sites present convincing data from self experiments, in depth analysis and detailed screenshots on how-tos to help you solve your problem. They automatically qualify as the industry expert on the related topics over a period of time. It is not easy to gain expertise and showcase it with content. But the hard work definitely pays off. d. Let the devil lie in the details Content with typos and grammatical errors is simply unacceptable. It brings down the credibility of the website as a whole. It is simple to use tools like Grammarly to get your content house in order. Make sure that anything that is published is of optimum quality. The exception here only lies for UGC. User-generated content is generally full of short forms and sometimes riddled with mistakes. But that goes to show its authenticity that it is not written by a professional but a
How to Increase Traffic & Improve SEO with Structured Data Markup
SEO is generally divided in on-page, off-page and tech, each requiring a complete understanding of how search engines ‘view’ the website. While on-page and off-page can be taught to a novice, tech SEO requires some basic understanding behind the science of search engines. It doesn’t mean you should know to code but it would be a definite advantage to have the knowledge. One look at the execution requirements of structured data will make you wonder if it is worth the trouble. The question makes most SEO specialists give up before they start. Don’t lose heart. If you are one of the non-tech background SEO experts and want to start with structured data, this blog can be your starting point. Here’s why you should have structured data for your website Rich search results: May include styling and images Rich cards: Similar to rich snippets for mobile users Enriched search features: An immersive popup or an advanced interaction feature (see how job search results are featured these days) Enhancing Knowledge graph: Share information about the brand Enhanced breadcrumbs: Adding breadcrumbs to search results Carousel: Works great for news and videos Higher ranking Better traffic Higher CTR: Structureddata helps Google understand your website better. Three points to remember before starting Talking to machines is often about having a logical approach to things. For example, if you were to define a recipe, you would have the title, the ingredients, the prep time, the cooking time etc clubbed together followed by the step by step recipe. If you can logically define the hierarchy of things, you should eventually get a hang of structureddata. Have a tech person be ready on standby to help you before you start. Some parts of structureddatais straight forward. Other parts aren’t that simple. It’s best to have someone on standby to help you wade through the murky waters Always take a backup before you start. Once you implement the new code and something breaks, you can always go back to the old site and then figure how to fix things. Otherwise, you’ll be fighting fires on both ends. What is structured data? As the name suggests, structured data involves giving a structure to the data by organizing it in a way that gives a better understanding. This is also called ‘schema markup’. These terms are interchangeably used in the industry. While Google is smart enough to understand what your data says, it (and you) will be better off if Google can understand what your data means. Here’s a brief description for a microwave cake: In microwave safe bowl, put 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp honey. Whisk well. Put in 1 tbsp flax seeds, 2 tbsp peanut butter and milk meal. Stir in. Then fold in dry ingredients – whole wheat flour, ½ tbsp cocoa powder, ½ tsp baking powder and a pinch of baking soda. Top up with peanuts. Put in the microwave at 800 power for 2 minutes. It will be ready. While this works for humans to an extent here’s what makes it simple for Google to understand. This followed by the step-by-step instruction, clear headers on the cooking time, calorie count and even user reviews, recipe rating, video and images can give Google a full view of the content of the web page. Let’s say, for example, that you have a cookbook website with recipes in the format of blogs and vlogs. Each recipe will have the name of the dish, the ingredients, their measurements, the cook time and the steps to make it. So, weren’t we always told that we need to write for humans first? The key difference to note here is that we may still classify things under these headers for humans but Google needs a little more than that. So how do we make things better for Google (and humans)? We use schema markup or structured data. There are three types that search engines will typically support – Microdata, JSON-LD, and microformats. Microdata is integrated via the page’s HTML while JSON-LD uses a Javascript object. Of these, JSON-LD is the most commonly used format (because Google supports it) so we will limit to it for our explanation here. It’s now time to have a look at schema.org where you’ll find A LOT of information on the implementation of schema markup for your website. It can be confusing if you aren’t accustomed to seeing codes. The good part is you don’t have to know all of it. Start by looking at Google’s guidelines on adding structured data. Here’s what it says: “Google Search works hard to understand the content of a page. You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page to Google by including structured data on the page. Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content; for example, on a recipe page, what are the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories, and so on” Here’s a quick view of a couple of key terms you need to know from an SEO perspective 1) Itemscope: Consider this to be the topic header Let’s try with our previous example. Below is the standard code we will write for the page. <div> <h1>Microwave cake</h1> <span>Recipe: Microwave cake in 5 mins</span> <span>Sweet Delights </span> <a href=”../bakery/microwave-cake.html”>Cup cake</a> </div> For the above, here’s how we will inform Google that this section is about a microwave cake recipe To start, we can change the first line of code to define the topic <div itemscope> <h1>Microwave cake</h1> <span>Recipe: Microwave cake in 5 mins</span> <span>Sweet Delights </span> <a href=”../bakery/microwave-cake.html”>Cup cake</a> </div> This means all the items defined within the itemscope now belongs to the particular topic. 1) Itemprop This allows you to tell google about the properties of the individual items. In our case, this can be the name of the dish. The code will look like this <h1 itemprop “name”>Microwave cake </h1> <span itemprop “Ingredient”>Wheat flour</span> <span itemprop “Ingredient”>Honey </span> You can find more examples here
How to Rank on Position Zero in Google
We know that Google is constantly experimenting with search results. For search engine optimizers, goals keep shifting. SEO earlier was about ranking against competitors in the same category. Now it has moved to a point where SEO is about having a sustained approach against Google’s changing algorithm. Ranking on position 1 is yesterday. SEO is now about ranking in position zero. What is position zero? Position zero is the ‘featured snippet’ that shows above the first search result. It looks different as it is highlighted in a grey outline box and features the answer in the first few lines. For a typical query, you are highly likely to find your answer in this snippet, so much so, that you may not go beyond if the snippet gives you the answer you need. You are also much more likely to click on this result compared to others that appear below. How do featured snippets work? Here’s what Google has to say: Here’s the nice additional bit that a lot of people miss – “Featured snippets commonly contain one listing, but more than one may appear.“ This means Google is picking the most definitive reply to a query which is most likely based on its historic performance. It is highly likely that these are: It’s high ranking in organic search based on various existing parameters of the search algorithm High click rate on the query Likely answer to the exact question in the format of an answer in a few lines and also a detailed explanation for support The average amount of time spent on-page and a lower bounce rate which is a signal that the answer is relevant Are there different types of featured snippets? Well, the are different types of content that get featured. This includes paragraphs, numbered lists, bulleted lists, tables, YouTube videos, images, and charts. Why are featured snippets important? Other than the most obvious fact of added visibility, featured snippets are also what you hear as an answer if you do a voice search. Not just that, 55% of households are expected to own smart speaker devices by 2022. From this lens, if you are not in the featured snippet, nothing much else will matter. The good part is that more than one result can be in the featured snippet. Here’s an example of what multiple featured snippets looks like We searched for ‘top 10 places to holiday in India’. While the main featured snippet read ‘According to Travel Triangle’, it also had ‘View 5+ more’ on the top right corner. The result takes you to a page where Travel Triangle is still featured in the first two search results and also as a first result in the answer box. Then you’ll see search results from competitors like Thrillophillia and MakeMyTrip among others on the same topic. Here’s another thing that grabs attention – the featured snippet is not a paragraph directly taken from the page. The snippet program is built in a way that it will scan the entire page, select content from the page in parts, gather it and show it in the more relevant and effective manner. With this instance of the Travel Triangle blog, you’ll see that Google has reformatted the content and just picked up the list for display with minimal or no text from within each list item. Another reason to care about position zero in terms of search is also that it is shown before the ads. It takes up significantly more real estate space than regular results garnering more attention – and there is no way you can pay to get here. And now the question you are really seeking the answer to – How do I get to rank in the featured snippet? As with all things SEO, there are tips and tricks to get yourself into position zero. Here are some things that can help First – get to the first page of search results – the higher the better. This is half the battle won for any SEO. Now, even a no. 10 listing on page 1 has a chance to get into position zero, however, the majority of featured snippets come from results that rank between 1 to 5. Work backward – what is the most likely question for which your particular blog can be the best possible answer. Provide the right information in the right format. Include all possible information through that one page Include rich media including infographics and video on the page in the same context Keep updating the page as often as possible. Keep a timeline check on when the page was last updated and if it the latest page is crawled Optimize the title by adding a part of the query to it as an H tag. Also, add the year/month where relevant. For example, something like ‘2019’s most definitive list to get to position zero on Google’. Keep the page engaging by opening comments so that there is always fresh user-generated content on the page that gives the impression that the page has useful information. From a content perspective, answer the 5 Ws of who, what, when, where, why. This is most likely to cover the questions in context. Google’s answer box about the topic is likely to give you the questions people are already asking. Don’t forget to answer the How. Many questions seek instructions as answers on how to do or make something. If you have a video, image or content that answers this, make sure you include it in the page Add definitions: Definitions help solve the ‘What’ part of the question in a way that can keep it simple to understand and complex enough to intrigue someone to click through. Do a comparison: An a v/s b approach can be a great winner for a featured snippet people like to get information in context. For example, do a simple cat vs dog search on Google, you will see a featured snippet, featured videos, answer
How to Get High-Quality Backlinks: Strategies That Work in 2019
A young startup recently came to us thoroughly confused and exasperated by SEO. They had begun to think of SEO as this black box where things are constantly shifting and they just never quite knew how to get it right. There were so many elements to SEO — content, keywords, website optimization, meta tags and so on — that they often ended up feeling confused and directionless. Plus, with SEO evolving so much every few months, what worked one day would just not be as effective later. However, as we explained to this client when it comes to SEO, there are some things that are evergreen. And one of these is high-quality backlinks. A quality backlink basically says that a well-reputed website considers your content relevant enough to send their audience to it. In Google’s eyes, that automatically increases the value of your content and brings it much higher in the search engine results. Yet, most people, just like our client, are so intimidated by the idea of generating high-quality backlinks that they simply don’t know where to start. So, we decided to break down some of the strategies that have worked really well for us in the recent past and are likely to work in the near future as well. Reporting Broken Links This is a way to build high-quality links with some smart research and well-timed outreach. Here’s how: For starters, you need to find a list of sites that have either changed names, stopped offering a service, moved to a new URL, shut down, etc. Of course, these sites should have content similar to the content you offer. Use a backlink checking tool like Ahrefs to see which websites had links to these sites that are now defunct. In other words, all these websites will now have broken links that don’t lead to real content, undermining their user experience in a big way. Then email the people who are still using these outdated links and give them a heads up. In the same mail, you can mention that they could link to your website content instead. Chances are they’ll be a lot more receptive to your outreach because you’re doing them a huge favor. Skyscraper content A great way of generating high-quality backlinks is to create that one piece of content in your industry that truly stands out. It should be evergreen, comprehensive, extremely detailed, and at least 5-10x better than any other article on the subject. To know what to build this content around simply find a piece of content in your industry that has already performed well in terms of backlinks. And then create a more comprehensive, in-depth piece on the same subject. Make sure you aggressively share the article with influencers and bloggers in your industry as well as companies and brands that have been mentioned in the article. This will ensure you get the retweets and shares that you need. Before you know it, your content will generate the maximum number of backlinks for you. Turning brand mentions into backlinks This is a simple one. Use a social listening tool to get an alert every time someone mentions your brand on their blog. They’ve mentioned you so you already know they like you. All you need to do is send them a friendly email requesting them to convert the mention into a link, and voila, you have a high-quality backlink right there. Guest Posts Guest posts used to be one of the most effective methods for link-building. Over time, companies began mass-producing low-quality guest posts and publishing them across websites. This led to Google issuing a warning about guest posts with the result that a lot of marketers began staying away from this technique. However, guest posts continue to be one of the most effective ways of building high-quality backlinks. It’s a win-win situation where the owner of the blog gets free content and you get a quality backlink. The key is that the content should be top-notch. Also, it’s important to find the right websites for guest posts. A great starting point is to do some research on the guest posts of your competitors. If these websites have published something from competitors, they’re likely to accept guest posts from you. Use content formats that have a proven track record Did you know that 75% of all online content gets 0 backlinks? It’s very easy to create content that falls into this category. To create content that is among the other 25%, you should stick to content formats that have been proven to work. Take a look at this table for instance: As you can see, things like videos, infographics, lists, “how-to” and “why” posts are particularly successful when it comes to link-building. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should just create lists, how-to guides, and infographics. But they provide a good starting point around which you can build a comprehensive content marketing strategy. Find authority resource pages Authority resource pages are absolute gold when you’re looking to generate high-quality backlinks. Here’s an example of the perfect resource page: Hence, all you really need to do is find relevant resource pages and then send them the link to your content, simply asking to be added to the list. Of course, most people don’t refer to them as resource pages so finding them can be a little tricky. People usually refer to them as “helpful resources”, “useful resources”, “further reading”, and “additional resources”. So simply google any of these phrases together with the relevant keywords to find the right article. Conclusion Many people are still skeptical about whether link building actually works. Of course, misguided black hat SEO techniques like link building generators will only be counter-productive. However, painstakingly building high-quality backlinks is still the best way to build SEO in the long run. The techniques listed in this article should be your go-to as you look to build a long-lasting and
5 Amazing Home Page Design Templates That You Can Use
There are many misconceptions that home pages simply don’t matter anymore. Why bother with a perfect home page when you can just create targeted landing pages for each of your marketing campaigns? But the truth is that the homepage is here to stay. Whether you like it or not, it’s the face of your company, especially when someone searches for you online. It welcomes new users and explains what your company is all about. However, what is changing is the way we visualize and design home pages. There was a time when the home page crammed in as much information as possible. They tried to tell users everything they could in just that one page. But that led to extremely overwhelming and confusing user experience. For instance, many homepages had carousel sliders that allow you to showcase multiple things at once. But over time, tests showed that they ended up negatively affecting conversions, SEO, and page loading speed. Today, homepage design is all about user experience. This means keeping things clean, simplistic, and minimal while telling users what they need to know when they first come to the site. Here are 5 diverse homepage design templates. Over the years at JustWords we’ve found that close to 85% of our clients’ websites fit into one of these design templates. You can figure out which one suits you best and adapt it for your own site. Template 1: Mint.com Mint is a budgeting app that people use to plan and manage their personal finances. With products like Mint that handles confidential financial information, designers always have to find that line between building trust and still being extremely user-friendly. The Mint homepage finds the perfect balance. The first thing that strikes you about the Mint homepage is that the design is extremely simple, without any added frills. The headline and sub-headline are strong and impactful but without having any unnecessary jargon. Their CTA is both simple and compelling – “Sign Up Free”. Finally, the homepage doesn’t try to perform too many functions at once. Its purpose is simply to tell you what the app can do for you and every section talks about this in different ways. Template 2: Kiva Kiva is a microlending platform that connects smaller entrepreneurs in developing countries with sponsors and donors from all over the world. Kiva had a dual goalkeeping things simple and impactful while also motivating people to take action. Here’s what they get right: Their template is extremely minimalist. The design is as simple as possible and there are plenty of white spaces. The headline and sub-headline are really hard-hitting. Being an impact sector company, Kiva’s goal is to showcase the impact of what they do. And the headline and sub-headline together with the cover photo do this very effectively. Their home page feed tries to accomplish only 3 goals — build trust in Kiva, showcase the range of offerings and get people to take action. There is no overcrowding and confusion on the home page. Finally, Kiva also needed to find a way to make visitors understand what value they could get. Hence, they decided to go for a pop-up overlay with a simple email subscription. This can be a risky move that may backfire. However, with clever content and right timing, a pop-up overlay can exponentially increase conversions. Doing several rounds of A/B testing to find the right content and timing is the way to go. Template 3: Jill Konrath If your business is built around your personal brand, Jill Konrath’s homepage is one template you need to see today. Whether you’re a life coach, a freelance copywriter, or a dietician, this homepage is personal branding 101. There are no frills and unnecessary technical terms. The headline and sub-headline tell you exactly what Jill Konrath is all about and why she’s so effective. A large part of Konrath’s website is about establishing her credibility as an authority in the sales field as well as her credentials as a keynote speaker. She has all her thought leadership materials as well as her press coverage prominently displayed on the homepage. With a personal brand website, there are two things that become even more important — making it easy for people to reach out to you and getting more subscribers to your content. Both the Contact Us and the Newsletter subscription are very accessible on the homepage. Image Source Template 4: MailChimp If you want to build a homepage with a razor-sharp focus on conversions, look no further than MailChimp. MailChimp has just one CTA (Call to Action) button above-the-fold on the home page. Above-the-fold refers to what you see when you first click on a website without scrolling down. In a way, this completely reduces the choices the user has when they visit the website. Given that more choices actually lead to higher decision times and sometimes no decisions, this is actually a good thing. MailChimp also uses negative spaces or white spaces very effectively. All the white space around the primary CTA makes it that much more prominent. The MailChimp homepage also uses a photography trick called the “rule of thirds” which means it puts the most important elements in the middle of your line of sight. In the example below, the design is helping you subconsciously prioritize a page hierarchy. Template 5: Evernote Evernote is a really interesting homepage design because, over time, the product evolved from a simple notes app to a whole range of productivity software. This could potentially make for a very messy website but Evernote navigates this problem successfully. Evernote emphasizes on the broad range of its tools but summarizes them into a few important benefits. This keeps the messaging simple but still shows customers the range of functions. The background colors are rich and muted which in turn makes the CTA (Sign Up for Free) more prominent. Conclusion Your homepage is the storefront of
11 Must-do Tactics for High Ranking Videos on YouTube
If you’ve been looking for YouTube video optimization ideas, you’ve most likely been through the regular tactics – adding proper tags, adding keywords in the title or description and the likes. This article is ideally for people who want to delve deeper into the core aspects of YouTube SEO, to go above and beyond and experiment, and find their niche to rank better. So let’s start with the fundamentals. People search differently on YouTube and Google This is one big reason why YouTube optimization can’t simply be an extension to your regular search optimisation process. You need to remember that the consumption of content is very different depending on the medium delivering it. The same video may have a lower watch rate on Facebook and higher one on YouTube. The rate of consumption also changes drastically on whether a video is sponsored or organic. This core understanding allows one to think differently on how you are creating videos and how you are disseminating it. You can rank and rank well even if you don’t have a huge subscriber base If you can engage, entertain, you can gain visibility even if you don’t make videos for the masses and are limited to a specific industry. SEO cannot outperform content Being visual, engaging and also a medium of choice, the quality of content you create here is directly proportional to the rank you achieve (all other factors of SEO being equal). The easiest example is the scores of recipe videos available on YouTube. If you look for Broccoli soup, you’ll see videos where the chefs are ambling for a while about the benefits of Broccoli before getting to the actual recipe. Within the recipe too, some spend time to show the detailed chopping of vegetables just to prolong the video. Other videos will simple show the accelerated recipe with captions describing the ingredients and method. While both show the exact same recipe, no prizes for guessing which video is likely to have a higher watch and completion rate. So now let’s get down to business What is YouTube SEO? YouTube SEO, as Google describes, is the process of optimizing your videos, playlists and channel to rank high when searched on YouTube. Videos are ranked based on their title, description and content. This definition, while sounding simple, allows us to form the base of the important factors that form the foundation of SEO for videos The title and description are super important – You need to feature your keywords here It is important to align with the user’s search intent – Think of the context in which you want your video to rank, evaluate who is already ranking and then provide a better context. Your video should be engaging enough: Engagement has many metrics on YouTube. It depends on how many people watch your video for the first six seconds and then go beyond it. It checks on how many people watch the full video – a metric that works disproportionately for longer videos. Here is a checklist of the top YouTube video optimization techniques. Searching for the right video keywords: The way we search has generally evolved with the adaptive intelligence of search engines or vice versa. From searching for ‘London Hotels’ to ‘Which hotel in London has the best reviews’, the way people search is now conversational. In YouTube too, you will see a lot of keywords starting with ‘How to…’ like “How to make Sanjeev Kapoor style butter chicken”. Tools for video keyword research Google Keyword Planner: Just like you do for regular search, pick out the keywords with the highest potential search volume. These give a base to start cover your ground, especially for the tags you’ll add during the optimization process Youtube auto suggest: Start typing the most likely terms someone might use to search for your video and YouTube will automatically drop down a list of phrases that are being searched. These give an idea on how to frame your title AHREF YouTube keyword search volume: AHREF comes the closest in terms of providing the YouTube search volume for keywords and phrases. Competitors: Stealing keywords from competitors isn’t a new SEO practice. Tools allow you to swoop on enough and more information on competitor strategy. See who is currently ranking for your prized keywords, analyze their video length, quality, backlinks, title and description optimization and also engagement ratio. This will give you a fare predictive model on what you need to achieve in the next three to six months to beat your closest competitors. How to optimize the title and thumbnail of your video The book is only as good as its cover. In this case, the title (a key part of your cover) is a big contributor in allowing easy discovery of your video. YouTube titles are similar to your blog headlines and you can pretty much use the same guidelines to create click-worthy headlines. A few tips to remember Include your most important keyword phrase in your title: Including the key phrase in your title gives validation to the user that your video is close to being the answer to what they are searching for. Solve a problem in your title: The intent to click on a video is high if the video is closest being the solution to the user’s query. For example, if the user is typing “How to make Origami Peace Crane”, having ‘Origami Peace Crane’ in the title is a must. Along with it, also include words like the easiest tutorial or quickest tutorial or such phrases that make your video closest to the user intent of learning to make the origami crane. The video thumbnail is essentially the make or breaks factor when it comes to clicking on your video. Choose your thumbnail to either include the finished product or value proposition so that viewers know what to expect by watching. Optimize your tags for SEO Tags give you the perfect opportunity to add Latent Semantic Indexing
Google and the Future of SEO
This is one undisputed fact – Google, being one of the top search engines, has a massive influence on key SEO practices. The algorithm used by Google can essentially make or break the future of your online venture by determining its positioning in the search engine results. While Google fervently guards its search algorithms to provide unbiased information to its users, savvy SEOs have, over the years, developed a pretty good knack of getting an idea of what works and does not work in that mechanism. To keep its secret sauce really secret and prevent people from manipulating it, Google keeps changing its algorithms. This makes it essential for SEOs to remain updated. Here are some of the most prominent changes brought about by Google which may help you in redesigning your SEO strategy in an optimal manner. 1) Getting on the first page just got more difficult One of the most significant tweaks made by Google is related to the number of results displayed on the first page. It is a fairly known fact that search listings beyond the first page get significantly lower organic traffic, so SEOs try their best to hit that golden spot. The top listing on the Google search page may get 33 percent of the traffic while for the second position holder, the traffic drops down to 18% and keeps getting lower for subsequent listings. However, Google now frequently features less than 10 listings on its first page. Keep this in mind while designing your new SEO strategy so as to ensure that your website features on the first page. 2) Richer Snippets Google has changed its layout in a way that in many cases, the users do not even need to click on the relevant links to get the desired information. Snippets have now become the new battling ground for SEO. It has been observed that when there is a featured snippet, the topmost organic search result gets less than 20% of all the click-through. The richer content in the snippets now translates to lesser traffic for the concerned websites. In such cases, SEOs may need to redesign their websites to ensure that more Google users are converted into traffic for the website. Using a table with summary on your website or designing your website to be mobile friendly is a clever strategy to harness this new development. Further, you can rearrange the information on the website in such a way so that the snippet readers are motivated to get further information by visiting the website. These snippets are mainly based on the meta-description of the page and hence it may help to tweak the meta-description of different pages on your website. Ideally, the meta-description should be 300-320 characters long and should also be relevant to the content of your page. 3) Paid Search Results Google constantly revamps its search page to increase its efficiency as well as monetary value. Lately, these tweaks have brought paid search results to the fore. These paid results are displayed more prominently than organic search results as Google is all set to have four text ads instead of the current three, right above the organic listings. Hence, it is advisable for SEOs to remain vigilant and adaptable to ensure that their strategies are able to make the best of this situation. A smart mix of SEO and paid ads can be employed or better content and headlines can be used by a business to attract more traffic and distract them from paid ads. 4) Combine SEO with Other Tools While SEO is here to stay, the developments have made it imperative for marketers to combine SEO with other online marketing tools. Some of the most important such tools are page load speed optimizer and whole query placement. It is also time to pay attention to informative and high-quality content rather than just cramming it with keywords. You should also use relevant images to improve the overall readability of the website. As a matter of fact, 1 image for every 100 words is considered to be ideal these days. Regularly updating the website to provide the most relevant information is another way to ensure that your website is featured high on the search page. Also, keep in mind that a large population of the world is still offline. The SEO scene is likely to change drastically as more and more people go online. Overall, it is safe to assume that Google will keep playing a big role in online marketing policies adopted by brands. However, to stay on top of these developments, it is important to have a well-diversified online marketing strategy, using a wide range of tools. The SEO strategy also needs to be flexible to incorporate new changes without requiring substantial alterations and expenses. So, work today to make your SEO strategies future proof.
Do This & Don’t Do That While Executing Your Content Marketing Plan
When you are in the business of content, people always want to know how to increase traffic to their website/business quickly. Is there a right or wrong way of doing content marketing? So here it is – a list of what to do and what not to do when you are doing content marketing. One of the first things I do when I sit down with a prospective client to discuss content marketing is asking him what his goals are. Is it be Do know what you want to achieve From a client, that’s totally understandable, and yet I sit down another 15 minutes to make them understand that knowing what you want is very important since that will determine the content platforms and avenues that have to be used for the desired result. Each of the above goals will need to a slightly different, yet important strategy, which will drive in the results. For eg, for those interested in driving traffic to their website should use more content in their SEO strategy. In short, use more blogs, more social media sharing among relevant groups, invest in more fresh content on content-specific platforms like Quora, voice your opinions in relevant groups etc. The same sort of aggressive content generation might not be required if you are looking to just rank on the first page of Google for keywords relevant to your business. Successful as a brand To be on the first page of search engines Generate Leads Add more traffic to the website Hence, the first thing to DO is to know your Goal. Once you have that clear, ask your content strategist to chalk out a detailed road map for the next 3 months. Think whats actually workable for the business as a whole. Also, try and stick to something that can be adhered to and is wholly sustainable in the long run Don’t do what everyone is doing. Know who is your customer is and where can they be found Content marketing should always be unique and fresh. The same package cannot usually apply to everyone. If you are doing social media, be sure you know why you are doing it. Will it help you reach your client? Yes, there will be a tendency to be everywhere – coz that’s what everyone is doing – but that does not help your purpose since your customers are unique to your business. Explore where you should be and ask yourself what sort of content aligns with your business. Ask yourself 5 times why you have chosen a particular medium. The best way here is to get your team to look online at the various forums, online groups, discussion boards and websites, to know who is looking for your services. A few hours a week will immediately give you a sense of which platforms to target. . Do build a community Building a community around your product is the best and cheapest way to create momentum for your product. Here is how you should do it Look for pockets of active users who are interested in your product/service. Use emailers to touch base with new members, or even using your existing contact list to follow you somewhere else. Get more people to sign up for your newsletters Build content for your community – Once them sign up, you have to keep their interest alive. Create content for them, stuff that provides useful knowledge about your product, industry and how they can benefit from it. Offer ebooks, whitepapers and guides that useful for your community. content can be how-to guides, insightful researches, best practices and trends, anything that your user community sees value in. Make sure your members find value from their involvement with your community. Do arrange industry events Okay, this might not be for all, but it’s a great way of crafting a healthy networking path and engaging your community, ultimately leading to lead generation. Build social into your event and create as much buzz as you can about the event through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Try getting a micro-site up, and linking your social media to it. When done with the event, always create a post talking about all the positive insights into the event, for people to help jog-up with the insights and inner happenings of the event. Do not forget to tag albums with people featured in them. You never know, you might be opening windows to new buyers and leads! Don’t take the pushy salesman approach Educate, inspire, enlighten and entertain your audience, but do stay away from acting like a pesky salesman. One thing that would resonate with your audience would be transparency – and in all modesty, please leave the used car salesman act at home. Think from the buyer’s angle, and be enlightening and inspirational, and provide value wherever you can. Don’t forget to Explore Content marketing, today, goes beyond the realms of blogging and has proved its prowess everywhere – from traditional data sheets, case studies and videos; to infographics, eBooks, SlideShares and podcasts; to tweets and Facebook posts. Be certain that you understand the pulse of every medium and give your audience a well-encapsulated experience, which will resonate leaving a deeper impact and impression. Another good idea would be to get yourself enrolled in websites where you are most likely to get acquainted with professionals of your field. These platforms and discussion-based forums is a great way to build your brand identity, further on networking with the like-minded audience there. However, be sure to make the commenting on the forum approval based. Don’t ever skip the editing of the content that you publish Grammatically wrong, spelling mistakes and the content gap is simply not cool. Make sure you sift through tons of pages evaluating them both quantitatively and qualitatively. On-page SEO, keyword usage and hyperlinking to your main website/blog is a must. However, that being said, go ahead and use slangs and other informal speech conventions — do not treat this