seo

In this modern age of digital marketing, it’s crucial for you to update your techniques and strategies in order to stay afloat. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of those strategies that you need to improve continually. With an average of 80% of a website’s traffic reliant on search queries, your brand must be not only visible on search engines but also rank high, and SEO will help you do that.

Better visibility means more traffic, conversions, and eventually, revenue for your business. However, modern SEO techniques aren’t just caring about what search engines think of your brand; in addition, Google also updates its algorithm, so SEO techniques also need to keep evolving.

You need to find the proper SEO approach for your business, and here are a few for your consideration:

1. Write compelling title, heading, and meta tags

The title of your content should always be compelling enough for readers to click on it—increasing organic clickthrough rate (CTR) is one of the many ways your page can increase its ranking. If you want some suggestions on how to make your title, heading, and description irresistible to readers, look no further than ad copy.

Understandably, ads should also be enticing for its audience. Other than that, Google Adwords ads are also a good source for your title, heading, and meta tag ideas because they have been tested for effectiveness in maximizing clicks. Look for ads with an engaging copy for competitive keywords that you can incorporate into your title and meta tag.

2. Aim for authority sites

Backlinks, usually gathered from your link building strategy, remain as a leading ranking factor. However, you first have to be sure that you’re getting quality links so your site can rank higher. The best way to do this is to source links from authoritative sites. Backlinks from sites that have high domain and page authority help your overall trustworthiness.

You can use Alltop to find sites that you can link to. Once you have these sites, you can link the page to your content as a data source, or communicate with them and ask to link back to your content.

3. Use long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords help reach your niche because they tend to be highly specific, but there are other reasons to utilize long keywords or phrases.

• To target a geographic location: You can be more descriptive with your title and meta description by targeting a geographical area. This can improve your local search visibility and reach those customers who may be doing a local search—for example, using “pizza delivery in Brooklyn” instead of just “pizza delivery.”

• To target a period of time: You can also be more specific about time, especially when publishing posts that you can keep on updating. This allows you to inform readers and search engines that the content is relevant and up-to-date (i.e. “Content Marketing Trends [Updated for 2019]. Plus, you can do this every year.\

Using long-tail keywords (perhaps a combination of two keywords) on your title can also help you rank faster, as opposed to using just one term. This will increase your chances of search engine visibility because you are not aiming for bottleneck keywords.

4. Maximize local directories

A study found that around 46% of Google searches are from users looking for local information, or business near them. Details such as telephone number, address, or opening hours are important for them. Therefore, you should aim to be searchable for users who may need your products and services. 

You can easily do this by including contact details and directions to your location on the website. But, another thing you can do is to submit your business to directories like Google My Business, Bing Places for Business, Yahoo Local Listing, and many other local directories. You may also consider the following:

• Local Data Aggregators: These services can help you build your directory listings. Something like Bright Local will save you the trouble of painstakingly re-entering the same information over and over again and avoid errors.

• Local Directory Management Service: These are services like Moz Local and Yext, which scan local directories, interact with data aggregators, and correct old information.

• Schema: Schema is snippets of additional information to search users and search engines about a business. It doesn’t require extra coding and can be inserted by using Google’s Schema markup generator. Schema can give local searchers details like the company’s hours, location, general information, and more without having to visit their page.

5. Fix other site’s broken links

Here’s a quite nifty way to optimize your site: do outreach and recommend your content to publishers as a reference in order to fix their broken links or improve their content’s reliability. One website where you can do this is Wikipedia. Some professionals may find it not that reliable as a reference, and its links are technically no-follow, but it undoubtedly has high domain authority and trust level from Google.

There are two types of links you can take advantage here: citation neededor information that requires a source, and dead links or details that previously link to its original source but the source has since been taken down for some reason.

You can use a tool called WikiGrabber to get a list of Wikipedia articles that need citations or have dead links, or you can also just Google it by using the search term, site:wikipedia.org “Keyword/phrase” “dead link.” You can then write a post about the topic you found and cite it as the source to get valuable links from Wikipedia.

6. Be mobile-friendly

Outside of content, optimization also relies on your mobile web design. In May 2016, Google updated its algorithm to prioritize mobile indexing. It significantly boosted organic search rankings for websites that are optimized for mobile; therefore, having responsive mobile web design became an SEO ranking factor. This is because most searches, or over 60%, are currently being done on mobile every day.

Responsive design is where desktop webpages can still be viewed in a display or web browser that is different in size from that of a standard desktop. This means that a website must offer the same support to a variety of devices.

WordPress already has mobile-friendly themes built with HTML5. If you want to be sure that your website is already optimized for other devices, you can use Google’s free Mobile Testing Tool.

Going Beyond Search Engines

These SEO techniques may be quite complicated compared to your basic keyword research and link building, but they are incredibly effective. You need to be always on the lookout for new tactics to implement, especially considering Google’s frequent algorithm changes and webmaster guidelines edits. You have to be flexible and adapt quickly to give your business an edge against the competition.

Aside from that, remember that your audience is human—you’re merely not doing SEO for search engines. Focus on user experience and intent when coming up with your own strategies. Try and experiment with these techniques, as well as others that you may find, and reap the benefits of taking risks.

Digital marketers who do SEO have probably come across the concept of local SEO a bunch of times. In a nutshell, this is a sub-tactic that optimizes your website to rank better for a local audience. It should be at the top of your mind if you’re running a business in a specific area, such as a gift shop, beauty salon, or grocery store. This is so when audiences in your area key in a search such as “salon near me,” your shop will be on one of the top results.

Brand visibility is one of the main goals of SEO, and this is what local SEO aims to do as well: putting your business on the spotlight in your neighborhood. It encourages people to visit you and favor you over competitors that are too far out for them to visit or those that don’t provide location information. Consumers are all about convenience and what’s practical, after all.

The thing is, if you haven’t optimized your business for local SEO, you may be losing out on sales. For starters, 70% of smartphone users click on the “call a business” option on the Google results page. This alone could translate to more website clicks, store visits, inquiries, and leads.

Here are more ways local SEO can impact your business and how you can execute it.

1. Provides complete information to your target audience

Optimizing your business for local SEO will benefit from 97% of search engine users who type a query to find a local business. If your address details are incomplete or not up on the SERP, it may frustrate your target audience and compel them to turn to another company who can give them the information they need. Plus, 86% of consumers rely on the internet to get information about local businesses—that’s significant!

2. Boosts website traffic

Once users find the information that they need in a glance, they won’t hesitate to click on your website and check out more information, such as store hours, products and services offered, etc. Optimizing your page for local SEO improves your search ranking in this regard as well. Notice how stores with Google My Business profiles appear on the upper right corner of the Google SERP on the desktop and the first search result on mobile. Couple that with the fact that 86% of people look up the location of businesses on Google Maps. This helps in brand visibility and clicks too.

3. Converts website visits to sales

Every business wants to earn a profit. Well, good news: Local SEO can help you achieve your goals faster. Those visits you’ll be getting won’t just be empty clicks. Stats show that 78% of local mobile searches result in an in-store purchase. Once your target audience finds what they need on your website, and they know where you’re located, they will be more compelled to visit your shop. If this doesn’t motivate you to set up your local SEO, nothing else might!

4. Attracts refined leads

Following the trend that your web clicks will be converted to purchases, businesses optimized with local SEO get high-quality leads who are willing to perform actions related to your brand. You will come across users with intent to buy or those who are more willing to engage with your promotions and events. Information and behavior of these leads will help you study your target demographic further, continuously improving your user experience and satisfaction.

5. Establishes trust and brand credibility

Since optimized web pages rank higher and provide complete information to users, users who frequently see your shop will likely deem you as trustworthy. This is an essential foundation in business, as trust can cultivate loyal customers and build a lasting relationship.

Optimize for Local SEO

Despite the apparent benefits of local SEO, only 44% of business have claimed their Google My Business listing. If you are one of the companies who’ve failed to do so, it’s time to reevaluate your online strategies.

Taking advantage of local SEO in your digital marketing approach will put your business at the limelight when people search for related companies in their area and can help you stand out from competition, since many have not been implementing this strategy yet. Local SEO is an advantage to any business—get yours up and running before the competition catches up!

As a digital marketer, you’re constantly on your toes trying to boost the ranking and traffic for your site. Whether you’re handling search engine optimization (SEO a.k.a. organic search) or search engine marketing (SEM a.k.a. paid search), you need tools to carry out data-driven marketing campaigns. The good news is, you don’t always need to invest in bank-breaking tools when free tools can do just the same by providing all the data you need.

Here are top SEO and SEM tools worth checking out:

Free Tools for SEO

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics’ treasure trove of data shows you everything about your website’s performance—from amount of traffic per source to the most popular keywords and insights about your audience. This free tool lets you keep track of these metrics, so you’ll know where to focus your resources and efforts as you try to optimize each of your web pages.

2. SEOQuake

You can find this SEO tool as a plug-in on the SEMRush browser. As a browser extension, SEOQuake’s main use is to help you check the stats of any webpage, whether it’s your own or that of your competitors’. You can then export the results in a CSV file.

You can either use the toolbar found on the webpage you’re viewing or the alternate SEO dashboard to get information about that particular site’s Google index, Bing index, SEMRush ranking, Facebook likes, and backlinks, among others.

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is the tool to use when you want to check backlinks from third-party sites to yours. You can also get an analysis report about your competitor’s backlink data, so you can determine if you’re missing out on backlink opportunities from other high domain authority (DA) sites.

Apart from its backlink analysis capability, Ahrefs is also helpful in monitoring your website’s organic traffic, what keywords your competitors are using, and top-performing content on the web, giving you the comprehensive data you need for effective SEO strategies.

4. MozBar

MozBar is another free tool (it can be downloaded and installed on your Chrome browser) that lets you analyze your site’s keyword opportunities, check on competitors, or get a website’s SEO data. When you use MozBar to search for top performing pages or domains, you’ll see metrics pertaining to page or domain authority. It also lets you analyze a website’s on-page elements, such as page title, description, and load time, to mention a few.

5. SEO PowerSuite

A must-have for SEO beginners and experts alike, SEO PowerSuite is a free-to-download software that offers a complete range of tools to support your goals, such as improved SERP rankings, site audits, and better link building campaigns.

Free Tools for SEM

1. Keyword Tool IO

Keyword Tool IO builds on Google Autocomplete—a feature that predicts your search query as you type keywords in the search box. Keyword Tool gives you as many as 750 long-tail keyword suggestions by analyzing what keyword ideas Google Autocomplete would normally serve you and then draws out related terms that are hidden in Google’s Keyword Planner. In effect, you get more insight as to what queries are relevant to your target audience and which ones can be helpful in boosting your paid search campaigns. 

2. Google Data Studio

Among various marketing activities, data reporting can be particularly challenging since you have to cull the necessary information from several data points. Tools like Google Data Studio provide a way for you to import your data, filter them for the metrics you’re trying to measure, and consolidate the results in visually engaging reports that help you add more impact to your reporting strategies.

3. Ubersuggest

If you’re looking for more keyword ideas other than what the Google Keyword Planner offers, you can leverage Ubersuggest’s ability to pick up all the search query suggestions for the keyword you’re trying to rank for.

There are a couple of ways that Ubersuggest is able to do this: First, Ubersuggest scours the web (including images, news, and more) for search suggestions based on the keywords you specified. In addition, Ubersuggest looks for all the possible search query combinations by adding more keywords to your original search query.

4. Google Ads

When it comes to keyword research, Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) is your ideal starting point since the Google Ads platform allows you to set up, manage, and optimize your SEM campaigns. By setting up an account with Google Ads, the Keyword Planner tool can show you search volume data as well as relevant keywords that can help you decide what keywords to include in your campaigns.

Moreover, you can use its Preview Tool to see how your ad looks on the search results page without adding up to your ads’ impressions. This is crucial since every time you look for your own ad on Google without clicking on it, Google interprets it as a sign that it should stop showing you that ad, lowering the click-through rates (CTRs) for your advertisement and preventing your ad from appearing as often as it should.

5. TitleCap

Using TitleCap helps you with the nitty-gritty of writing your ads’ copy without you having to worry if you’re following capitalization rules correctly. TitleCap makes your ads look neater, bolder, and more captivating to help you gain the clicks you’re aiming for.   

Optimize Your SEO and SEM Campaigns

Your day-to-day tasks as SEO or SEM specialist require that you have access to key metrics and data about your brand’s online performance as well as what information, products, or services your target market is looking for. This will equip you with the technical and creative skills to launch highly effective SEO and SEM campaigns. You can leverage these free tools by using them individually or in unison with other tools, so make sure you know and understand their features and capabilities for optimum results.