Category: SEO rankings

The whole purpose of going digital today is to give an extra boost to your small business.

Something you should keep in mind is the importance of local SEO (search engine optimization).

The first perception people have of your business depends on where it is in local search results.

To know how to upgrade your SEO marketing, read the local SEO tips below.

1. Google Business Profile Engagement

Formerly known as Google My Business (GMB), optimizing and being active in your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the most critical aspect of local SEO.

Watch this video from a BizSugar Mastermind Community Webinar to fully understand how to claim, optimize and engage on your Google Business Profile:

2. Make the Best Use of Google Lens

Google Lens gives you the option of visual search optimization. People project that when it comes to local SEO, buyers will make Google Lens the most frequently used search engine.

For example, if you are running a shoe store, then Google Lens will show your specific audience an image that people can tap to decide whether to buy from you or not.

In fact, it is really important for marketers to seize the opportunity of Google Lens’s technology in order to run their businesses smoothly.

3. Optimization Via Voice Search Queries

Before moving towards digitalized marketing, it is extremely important to understand each of the features of SEO marketing.

Voice search queries are a new and amazing feature for running your business competitively and easily.

Voice search queries are basically a process where somebody asks any question and Google Voice triggers the markup points that sellers provide on their websites. It then shows relevant results to the askers.

But what is important about voice search for local SEO? Select a good assistant, such as Google Assistant, in order to get in Google’s common markup list.

That way, if anyone searches through conversational queries, they can get instant access to your website.

To get in the list of voice search queries on Google’s local SEO, you need to make sure to provide common and well-defined markups on your websites.

These include mentioning your opening and closing hours, payment methods, favourites list, cell phone number, address, and city. Other than this information, make sure to use sentences that begin with W’s, e.g., what, why, where, when, and who.

4. NAP Consistency

SEO marketing is worth nothing if you fail to depict the same NAP at all your logins. NAP stands for name, address, and phone number.

Even before the time of information technology, all of the top MNC’s (multinational corporations)—if they were still ruling as number one—had their business listings at the top of readers’ lists.

NAP consistency is must for promoting your local business through SEO.

What does Google really want? Well, if you correctly provide your NAP on the major directories on Google, you can easily catch your potential buyers.

If your business is small and you cannot afford to dive into a large pool of world-class business directories, then try the best you can to get listed within local business directories.

Another good tip is to be reviewed on the best listings. If your business gets 5-star ratings on various directories, that will enrich the development of your business.

5. Online Local Influencers

In 2017, www.daraz.pk, a number one ecommerce website of Pakistan, earned millions just on Black Friday.

The major reason behind the site’s phenomenal success was its dealing with online local influencers.

To jumpstart your SEO marketing, get access to online local influencers. Now the question is, who are online influencers?

They can be any bloggers, social media activists, or marketing campaigners. One of the major local SEO strategies is promotion through a popular social media personality.

For example, is there any blogger who is posting about ongoing events in your city and has access to many followers on Twitter or Facebook?

If so, then try to get your business associated with his or her social media platform.

Doing so can be the best way to promote your business in your location.

How does Google link to the influencer? Since 2010, Google has had the capability to show the results of an appropriate search of your choice by locating online influencers in its search results.

6. Get Hands-On Maximum Backlinks

Getting information on how to do local SEO is not like an economic theory, but is rather a practical process.

To give a boost to your business via SEO marketing, the very first step you should take is to get backlinks.

What is a backlink? It is when you link your website to another site’s domain. For example, if you sponsor a college concert with some cash or credit, that university will promote your business or brand name in its promotional campaign on its website.

Local SEO Will Grow Your Business

The advice above includes some of the best and most informative tips for you to promote your local business while working on proper SEO marketing techniques.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the most important tools required in order to build a successful blog or website today.

Optimizing a website for search engines offers a variety of benefits that help to boost online visibility while ultimately increasing the number of page views and visitors you receive each day.

Implementing a few healthcare SEO tips when working in the healthcare industry can help to keep medical practices in the game and competing online for visitors and visibility.

Research Trending Topics and Keywords in Your Healthcare Niche

Research the latest trending topics and most relevant keywords in your niche using tools such as Google Trends and Google Analytics.

Post content and share updates using trending words and phrases to help boost your website’s SEO while also attracting the right audience and demographic.

Choose Appropriate Page Titles and Headers

Always use proper grammar and punctuation when crafting new page and post titles for your website. Avoid using hyphens whenever possible.

• Create titles based on the most significant topic covered in each piece you share.
• Research the keywords you want to use in your title to compare popularity and the current trend of the search.

Optimize each of your post’s titles each time you create and update.

Share Links to Other Content of Yours in Your Posts

Sharing links to other posts you have on your website or blog with each new update is a way to boost SEO.

It also increases page views from visitors who are actively browsing.

Including links to other content on your site with each new post is a quick way to create a sitemap.

A sitemap helps search engine bots to virtually “crawl” your website much easier and in less time.

Use a CMS That Support SEO Plugins

Use a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress that allows you to install SEO-related plugins.

With the right SEO plugins and a CMS such as WordPress, always guarantee that each piece of content you publish is fully optimized for all search engines.

• Implement tags, meta tags, and other keywords for each page
• Use your choice of SEO plugins and CMS

If you are unsure of how to go about implementing CMS such as WordPress and want an optimized healthcare website, consider hiring a professional web design company.

Using an advanced CMS is highly recommended for optimal tools to manage and apply these healthcare SEO tips and content management.

Allow Guests to Contribute Their Posts to Your Website

Allow other medical practitioners, dental SEOs, and professionals to contribute guest posts to your blog.

They are likely to share a link to your website using their social media profiles or official websites and blogs, boosting your SEO.

The more interaction you gain from other websites, the higher up your website will appear within the first pages of search results.

Guest Blog on Another Site

Connect with other medical professionals in your field to inquire about guest-blogging on their websites or social media pages.

In exchange, offer them a spot on your blog or within the next update you publish on social media.

When you share your posts on other professional pages or websites, you increase your credibility while building a positive, professional relationship for yourself in the medical field online.

The more your website’s link and optimized headlines appear on other websites, the better your search engine ranking.

Create and Link Your Social Media Accounts

Creating social media accounts is necessary for most professionals and companies to survive and thrive today.

Having a social media page specifically for your medical practice or its blog is a way to connect with potential patients. Social media also boosts your website’s SEO with each update you share.

Updating social media pages consistently is key to generating more followers while keeping loyal users genuinely interested in what you have to say.

• Cross-post your updates using multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
• Choose the top keywords in your medical niche to grab the attention of new potential followers.

Create a posting schedule to prevent your followers from becoming bored or disinterested in your content.

Share Relevant and Engaging Updates on Social Media Using Relevant Keywords

Share relevant and engaging updates in your field of medicine on social media. Be sure to use relevant keywords in the title of the post you link.

Also include your selected keyword in the update you share on social media itself.  This link explains how to choose keywords.

Social media is a great tool to quickly boost your website’s overall search engine optimization organically.

The more optimized your website and online presence is, the easier it becomes to reach potential patients and clients in any field or industry.

Ready to Apply These Healthcare SEO Tips?

Implementing the right healthcare SEO tips and tricks can help you to quickly boost your medical practice’s overall ranking in both local and international search results across top engines today such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

Also read and watch the video on optimizing your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) in 6 Ways to Upgrade Your Local SEO Marketing Strategy.

People are always curious about what new SEO trends are coming. In this post, we will be discussing the eight most important trends that every SEO should start implementing in order to stay ahead in the SEO game.

The Top SEO Trends to Look Out for Are:

1. Voice search or voice assistants (such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home devices)
2. In-depth content and link building
3. Mobile-first indexing
4. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
5. The Knowledge Graph: Featured Snippets, and Quick Answers
6. Google RankBrain: AI & Machine Learning
7. User experience for SEO
8. Video and image search

So let’s get started and break each of these down.

1. Voice Search or Voice Assistants

Voice search was popular in 2017, but we will see the popularity of voice search increase.

The main reason why usage of voice search will grow is because of its convenience. No one likes to type longer keyword searches on their phones.

People use voice search on a daily basis to make phone calls, ask for directions, and get information without using a keyboard.

For multitasking addicts, voice search offers a great way to search online while doing something else, such as cooking, watching TV, and driving.

“Voice Search is one of the next big things in SEO, and this is something we can’t ignore as marketers.”

The following interesting facts make voice search or voice assistants the Next Big Thing in SEO:

• Nearly 71% prefer using voice search.
• “Google’s Voice Search can recognize 40 different core languages. It also recognizes various accents, including Australian, Indian, English, and more.” Source

The question is, what can you do about voice search from an SEO perspective?

When it comes to optimizing content for voice search and virtual assistants, SEOs or brands should start thinking about and implementing a different type of SEO strategy.

They need to focus more on long-tail keywords or natural language queries (the terms and phrases people use in everyday speaking).

The following is an example of a long-tail keyword or natural language query.

2. In-Depth Content and Link Building

We all know content and links are the most important ranking factors.  In-depth content and backlinks always play vital roles.

Without both, we cannot rank higher on the first page of search results.

Google’s spiders always love to index fresh, valuable, and detailed content that can help searchers learn about particular topics.

If we are going to talk about in-depth content, we need to consider the following points:

1. To write in-depth content on a subject, try to include all the information for which users could be searching. What do they need to know? Include it, and aim for 2000 words or more.
2. Find synonyms whose meaning adds value to your keywords and are worthwhile for your content. They will help the search engines and your potential readers.

To find synonyms or related keywords, you can do the following:

• Search your main keywords, and look for the keywords around the bolded keywords. Many of these are your important keywords, and you should consider adding them to your content.
• Now scroll to the bottom of the “Searches related to…” section. The words in bold here are also your important keywords.
• There are free tools, such as KeywordTool.io and Answer the Public, that can help you find related keywords.

Links are still important and this will not change, but it is important to focus more on quality rather than quantity.

Linkless mentions (backlinks) are also becoming a trust signal for search engines because search engines now have the ability to connect the mentions of brands with their corresponding web pages.

3. Mobile-First Indexing

Mobile-first indexing is the latest development by Google to make the web more mobile-friendly.

A study by BrightEdge found that 57% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, which means that most people love to search on mobile.

But Google’s current ranking system is typically based around the desktop version of a page’s content, and it shows the same content to mobile and desktop users.

This situation can cause issues with mobile pages because the current algorithms are not evaluating the relevance to the mobile user.

To make the results more relevant according to search query, Google now focuses on mobile-first indexing.

Here are some simple steps to help you prepare for mobile-first indexing.

A. Your Content Should Be Consistent Across Desktop and Mobile

With the mobile-first index, Google will first evaluate mobile content instead of looking at your desktop content.

This is why you should prepare your site for mobile-first index.

If your mobile site has less content on a mobile page than it has on your desktop site, then Google will probably consider the mobile version with less content in mobile-first indexing.

So you want to display the same amount of site content on both your desktop and mobile versions.

Let me explain that Google will not give full ranking weight to content that is hidden in tabs, accordions, and expandable boxes.

But with mobile-first index, Google will give full weight to these types of content if you implement them to enhance the user experience.

John Mueller has said, 

So the mobile-first indexing will index the mobile version of the page. And on the mobile version of the page it can be that you have these kind of tabs and folders and things like that, which we will still treat as normal content on the page even. Even if it is hidden on the initial view. Source

 B. Move Your M. Version to Responsive Design

If you have an m.xyz.com version of your site, switch over to a responsive design right away.

C. Don’t Forget to Add Structured Schema Markup

Adding schema markup code on your website can give it a significant boost in rankings.

D. Improve Your Page Loading Time

Site speed is always one of the most important factors for SEO, and with mobile-first index it is critical. So head over to Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Enter your website URL and click to “Analyze.” The tool will give you results within seconds to help improve your page speed.

E. Make Your Site Mobile Optimized, Not Just Mobile-Friendly

Many sites technically work on mobile devices. But when it comes to the quality of the websites, there is a huge gap when people actually use them.

A truly mobile optimized site should resize for multiple screens and resolutions.

If you are not sure whether your website is mobile optimized, check this Mobile-Friendly Test tool from Google.

Enter your URL and hit “Run Test.” The tool lets you know if you are on the right track or not.

4. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

Google is currently rolling out Accelerated Mobile Pages in its mobile search results.

The question is, what is AMP? AMP is a framework designed to create fast-loading mobile web pages.

AMP consists of three basic parts: AMP HTML, AMP JS, and AMP CDN. While creating for AMP, we need to be aware of the following:

• There are certain HTML tags you can’t use for AMP.
• You need to use a streamlined version of CSS.
• Third party JavaScript is not allowed with AMP.

I recommend you read this Quickstart guide here to get up and running with AMP.

For more details on how to create your AMP HTML page and on how it differs from basic HTML, check out the basic list here of required markups that your AMP HTML page should have.

Google also started highlighting AMP in its mobile search results, and you can test your pages on Google’s AMP Test tool.

5. The Knowledge Graph: Featured Snippets and Quick Answers

According to Wikipedia, “the Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base that Google and its services use to enhance the search engine’s results with information gathered from a variety of sources.”

The Knowledge Graph, Featured Snippets, and Quick Answers are the next big SEO trends.

The popularity of these resources has increased, and brands are now trying to appear in “position zero” in the SERP (search engine results page).

Featured snippets are the summaries of user queries, displayed at the top of Google’s organic results. To rank for position zero, work on the following steps:

1. Identify which questions Google users are asking according to your niche.
2. Create your best content for the purpose of answering questions. By doing so, there is a chance that Google will pick your content as a featured snippet.
3. Add a Q&A section to your website with an attractive, illustrative image.
4. Your content should be between 40 and 50 words, according to SEMrush’s analysis.
5. Results for queries such as, “how does,” “how do,” “how to,” “what is,” “why,” and “what” are more likely to earn a spot in the featured snippets, says stonetemple.

6. Google RankBrain: AI & Machine Learning

RankBrain is the third most important ranking signal in Google’s search algorithm and it is going to be even more important.

But what exactly is RankBrain? And how do you optimize for it?

RankBrain is a machine learning, artificial intelligence system that helps Google sort the search results.

Google RankBrain has already changed the whole search space.

Google is displaying organic search results with answer boxes, ads, carousels, featured snippets, and quick answers sections, all for a personalized experience.

The following information comes from this Search Engine Land article:

What Is Machine Learning?

Machine learning is where a computer teaches itself how to do something, rather than being taught by humans or following detailed programming.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

True artificial intelligence, or AI for short, is where a computer can be as smart as a human being, at least in the sense of acquiring knowledge both from being taught and from building on what it knows and making new connections.

RankBrain mainly refines queries according to user searches and measures how users interact with the search results. Then it ranks the pages accordingly.

For example, you might search for “padmavat” in Google. Google contextualizes and personalizes the search engine results pages for your search term.

Here’s what happens when you search the keyword “masala chai.”

Say that the #1 result appeals to you. You click it, bounce back due to its content, click on the #4 result, and find that content worth reading.

So you stay longer on that site and check everything out.

RankBrain considers these metrics and gives the #4 result a ranking boost. It focuses mainly on the following factors:

• How long users stay on your web pages
• Click-through rate (the percentage of people who click on your search result)
• Whether people used complex long-tail search queries

7. User Experience (UX) for SEO

User experience will play a greater role in search rankings and will become even more important.

Here are some UX factors that affect rankings:

• Page loading speed
• Mobile responsiveness
• Quality, informative, and in-depth content
• User behavior and interaction with content
• Structure markups
• Site navigation
• Bounce rate
• Site security
• Optimization of text, images, and internal links

 8. Rise of Video and Image Search

Video and image searches (we can call them “visual search content”) take the user experience to the next level. We will see a huge growth in visual search content and should start creating and prioritizing it. Here are some visual content stats:

1. 37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content for their businesses. (Source)
2. 74% of social media marketers “use visual assets in their social media marketing.” (Source)

The following are types of awesome visual content you can use:

1. Data-driven visual content, which can be easily embedded in other sites
2. Infographics with relevant data
3. Gifographics
4. Videos embedded on your blog or page content
5. Screenshots

Conclusion

So these are the SEO trends that are continually changing. Feel free to share any other SEO trends we should consider for the coming year.

Don’t forget to incorporate featured snippets, rich content (such as videos), links, and UX into your strategy.

 

Featured Photo by Joseph Rosales

Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.—James Cash Penney, founder of JCPenney

The path to growth for startups and small businesses is not due to a singular business process or function.

Instead, businesses grow as a result of strong processes and functions working together to create an integrated, dynamic company.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that startups and small businesses should invest in as a staple of their growth models.

A strong SEO strategy fuels business growth through increasing engagement, producing qualified leads, and driving conversions.

Like any other core business process or function, SEO comes at a cost. It entails highly complex and technical work.

In order to maintain an effective SEO strategy, a small business/startup needs to devote ample resources towards its success.

For many small businesses and startups, however, the money for bringing in external resources to help with SEO services is simply unavailable.

But if you have the guts and will to start your own business, you can handle SEO. There are critical, manageable SEO services that startups can carry out in-house.

Three SEO services that are particularly manageable in-house are local SEO optimization, content strategy, and social media.

Small businesses and startups should create and invest in an in-house SEO strategy.

This strategy should focus on these SEO services so that you can help your business grow.

This article explains the value of an SEO strategy. The post will outline how these three SEO services in particular help to fuel startup and small business growth by driving online exposure and engagement.

Understanding SEO and Its Value

To create and carry out an effective SEO strategy, businesses first need to fully understand what SEO is.

SEO is a blanket term that describes services and efforts designed to increase traffic to a website through organic search results.

The value of SEO for any company is based on the traffic that the top results of a given search query receive.

The higher your site places in search results, the more traffic comes to your site.

Increased traffic creates more leads and signals to Google that your site is a relevant and popular destination for a certain search topic.

This in turn further helps your site’s search ranking.

This positive feedback loop associated with SEO, while almost seeming idealistic, is exactly what a company should aim for with its SEO strategy.

Use In-House Resources for SEO Services

Google’s PageRank algorithm determines whether a certain key term earns top search results.

Google considers a bevy of factors about a site, including complex technical structure and content.

Most small businesses are unlikely to have the talent or expertise to carry out a comprehensive, technical SEO strategy.

However, growing companies that need help with SEO can refer to their most valuable asset: their employees.

There are simple, manageable SEO services you can perform in-house that will boost your revenue and expand your consumer base.

These strategies drive exposure, draw traffic to your site, and draw links back to your site.

There are three very manageable SEO services around which growing businesses should base an in-house strategy.

These are local SEO optimization, content strategy, and social media marketing.

1. Local SEO Optimization:

Take Advantage of Google My Business

One category of SEO services that almost every small business needs to focus on in-house is local SEO.

Local SEO services help your site appear among the top search results for target terms in your location.

Given the rising use of mobile search and location-based search queries, local SEO can make a big difference for a growing firm.

First and foremost, businesses need to claim their  Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) listings.

Find out how to claim, optimize and drive engagement in the video below:

Take Advantage of Other Quality Local Directories

In addition to Google, claim and optimize your listing on online local directories, such as Yext, Angie’s List, and Yellowpages.

Optimizing your listing means ensuring that key information any potential customer might want about your business is available.

Businesses should optimize their listings to the fullest extent possible.

For example, if a directory listing allows you to provide customer reviews and ratings for your company, allow the directories to display that info.

The more information you can provide to an online customer, the better.

Verify Your NAP is Identical Across All Business Listings

It is paramount that the information you list for your business is consistent across every listing you open, especially your name, address, and phone number (NAP).

It is an obvious benefit to provide accurate information to customers about your business.

But consistent information also helps Google accurately index key information about your business and avoids common local ranking issues.

Local directories provide huge potential for businesses that operate primarily within a single location, and most small businesses do.

These directories are relevant only to consumers of their local areas. So listing on these sites guarantees exposure to a key demographic—local consumers.

2. Content Strategy: Blogs and Article Marketing

Small businesses and startups can also turn to in-house teams to produce content for both on and off-site promotion efforts.

Google favors high-quality and relevant content when ranking for search terms.

Great content directly addresses searcher intent and answers user questions. Creating high-quality content is time-intensive.

However, your staff is the best resource to speak to your area of expertise in a unique way.

The strongest content strategy includes blogging on your own site and producing content to post and market on other sites.

Blogging

Curating a business blog is more than just putting words on paper. Thinking it is only that is a mistake many businesses make.

They know having a blog is important, but they fail to devote adequate resources to its upkeep.

Your content needs to be well-structured, high-quality and thought-provoking. If your content is not well-written or interesting, nobody will read it.

Producing inferior content makes blogging a total waste of time.

It’s also important to note the difference between having a company blog and curating a company blog.

You need to regularly post on your blog. If you are strapped for time, shoot for one post a month.

It’s not the end of the world if you miss a month or two, but consistency matters. The older content gets, the less relevant it becomes.

Article Marketing

The second aspect of content strategy small businesses should invest in is article marketing. [Not what we used to call article marketing.]

Produce articles to publish on other sites in order to draw links back to your site.

Use the same approach for article marketing that you do with your company blog.

Article marketing allows you to display your content to audiences who would otherwise be unfamiliar with your site or company.

3. Social Media

Perhaps the most manageable SEO effort for small businesses and startups to carry out is social media.

Social media creates potential for links back to your site, arguably the most important factor for determining search rankings.

Businesses can use social media to support and promote their content efforts. And Google often pulls social media posts for display in search results.

If your company does not currently use social media, start doing so immediately.

Active social media channels allow small businesses and startups to increase exposure and traffic to their sites.

This increased exposure sends positive signals to Google about the relevance of your site to a certain topic.

It also creates an opportunity to engage on a more granular level with target audiences.

That engagement in turn increases the chance those users will click through to your site.

Small Businesses Can Use SEO to Spur Growth

Small businesses and startups should invest resources in SEO in order to help business growth.

SEO helps companies achieve standards for business growth through engaging with target audiences through search.

This engagement produces more leads, drives more conversions, and ultimately boosts revenue.

A full-scale SEO strategy involves highly complex technical efforts. Most small businesses and startups cannot afford professional SEO services.

But they can look in-house to manage three SEO efforts—local SEO, content, and social media.

Together, these services create an SEO strategy that will enhance a company’s digital stature and drive awareness of its site.

There is certainly a time commitment associated with SEO.

But the returns and potential for growth companies gain make SEO an important business function that small businesses and startups should pursue.

Do you run an eCommerce store? Are you looking for ways to boost your online store sales?

Ranking better than your competitors on a search engine results page (SERP) is a must in order to clinch the market.

But what if you don’t know what will actually get you to the top of the SERPs?

Or what if you are still following old and slow-to-respond techniques that will get you nowhere near the top of the search rankings page?

As time has passed, proven SEO techniques have changed. Far better methods and guides have evolved in the market.

These techniques offer better results more speedily so that you can rank well.

In this article, you’ll discover five must-follow proven SEO techniques that work faster for your eCommerce website.

They will help you achieve better results than your competitors in a short time.

1. Complete Your SEO Audit for Your eCommerce Website

No website can rank well on a SERP unless you kick-start the site in the right way.

An SEO audit of your eCommerce site allows you to analyze the reasons behind low traffic count on your website.

You can also identify the actual reasons for your low sales.

Why is your website performance so important? A survey found that 79% of web shoppers who have trouble with website performance say they won’t return to the site to buy again.

Around 44% of them would tell a friend if they had a poor experience shopping online.

You can use auditing tools such as SEMrush and Seoptimer to identify critical errors on your website and find out how to avoid these errors.

Analyze each and every aspect of your website and its pages. Here are a few points you need to consider while doing an SEO audit:

1. Do all pages contain relevant and fully optimized meta tags?
2. Are all pages and their content optimized for your target keywords?
3. Do the URLs of all your pages work fine and follow search engine guidelines?
4. Do all your images contain alt tags (a must for eCommerce websites)?
5. Are you using links properly within your content?

2. SEO Optimized Landing Page

Now it’s time to optimize landing pages for your products. Creating an SEO optimized landing page is a must if you are looking to improve your sales and lead generation.

In short, the more and better-optimized landing pages you create for your users, the more traffic you’ll get. And the better your website sales will be.

Go the extra mile to create attractive landing pages. You can drive traffic through press releases, SEO link building, and other forms of marketing.

Here’s how to perfectly optimize an eCommerce landing page.

Here are some key factors that play a pivotal role in strong landing pages:

1. Informative title tags (use your primary keyword)
2. Useful and informative product descriptions
3. Appealing calls-to-action, such as to sign up for your product or service
4. Providing no option for navigation (if you are looking for users to stay on your page!)

3. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

Mobile friendliness plays a huge role when it comes to eCommerce websites.

Whether or not you get a lot of traffic and sales depends on how your website is behaving on mobile.

As per data released, more than 60% of searches are now performed on mobile.

Last year, Google introduced an update to its search algorithm that boosts the organic search traffic of mobile responsive websites.

Here are some key elements you need to evaluate during your mobile responsiveness check:

1. Are your products displayed properly on mobile?
2. Is your navigation displaying properly and working fine?
3. Is your method of payment working ok on mobile?
4. Does your content display in the right order?
5. Are your website and web pages mobile friendly? Check them here.

4. Organize Products Properly

If you are seriously looking to establish a brand, you need to do your research well and be thorough as you work on your website.

You need to categorize your products properly and have good website navigation so that users know where they are.

Keep your website structure simple. Make it easy for your users and search engines to find the pages on your site.

Organizing all your products by category is highly important for SEO purposes and the user experience. Note the architecture of the PetSmart website.

Let’s say you want to shop food for your cat. You go to the homepage and click “shop by pet” and select cat from a drop-down menu.

Then click “Food and Treats.”

Now you have a list of their products. No product is more than three clicks away from the homepage on the PetSmart site.

5. Integrate Your Blog with Your Website

Integrating your blog with your website can offer you a great chance to beat out your competitors in the eCommerce race.

With a blog, you can better connect with your target audience and can also keep informing your readers about your current and incoming products.

At the same time, the periodic addition of relevant pages on your website will allow it to appear high on the SERPs and offer a better chance to grab the attention of searchers.

With the right approach to your blog, you can win half the battle against your competitors.

Strategize Proven SEO Techniques for Your eCommerce Store

A successful eCommerce model depends on how you devise your strategy for promoting your website.

At regular intervals, you need to analyze, track, and conduct deep research on your competitors’ activities in order to remain ahead of your rivals.

Which of these proven SEO techniques will you use? Do you want to share with us below in the comments?

 

Photo by Štefan Štefančík

SEO is constantly evolving. The best marketers are the ones who continue to revamp their existing SEO strategies in order to drive the best results.

Google makes changes to its ranking algorithm almost every day, so it is critical for businesses to adapt to these constantly changing ranking factors.

A business website that remains updated as per the nature of the ranking algorithm gets a respectable share of the top three organic search results and is able to reach more customers.

9 Essential SEO Strategies

I have compiled a list of nine SEO strategies that every SEO should follow in order to stay ahead in the game of organic rankings.

1. Build AMP Pages

If you have been browsing search results using your mobile device, you must have noticed that some websites load faster than others.

Pages that load quickly are actually AMP pages that have the word “AMP” written at the bottom of the search carousel that Google returns.

The key takeaway here is simple. AMP pages load faster than other types, thereby improving the mobile browsing experience for the searcher.

Above all, Google directly recommends creating pages using AMP HTML so that they load faster and across multiple platforms.

I understand most of us are aware of the advantages that AMP offers, but still haven’t implemented AMP for some reason.

If you are one of those, I suggest you get started asap.

Here is how you can create AMP pages in an extremely easy manner:

• Read the Google search guidelines for creating AMP pages.
• Create your AMP pages using the markup provided here.
• Add small tags in both AMP and non-AMP pages in order to let Google discover both of the pages accurately.
• Check your AMP page using the AMP test tool and upload it to your server.

2. Optimize Sites for Featured Snippets by Using Q&A Content

Searchers love featured snippets because they make it easier to find direct answers to questions.

As Google explains, “The featured snippet block includes a summary of the answer, extracted from a web page, plus a link to the page, the page title, and URL. “

Search Engine Land says, “Google Now Displays Rich Answers For 19.45% Of Queries.”

And this percentage is expected to rise in the coming months. You must make every effort to get your website ranked as a featured snippet.

 

So how do you get your site ranked in the answer box in the zero position?

Nick Van published a case study on Moz, and here are some key takeaways out of this study:

• Answer the question preferably within the first three paragraphs, and include the target keyword in crawlable parts of the content.
• Do not include fluff. Simply answer the question straightforwardly.
• Include the keyword in the title and the H1 tag.
• Create separate landing pages for each question.
• Build backlinks to the newly created Q&A content pages.

3. Choose Social Channels Based on Target Audience Persona

Traffic plays an important role in SEO. The more traffic you can drive to your website, the higher your Alexa rank will be.

Sites having lots of traffic can indirectly generate a buzz, which can impact the organic rankings on Google.

You should base your selection of social channels on your target audience persona and the presence of micro-influencers.

You can easily identify micro-influencers using tools like Influence.co and use the influencers to reach your target audience.

Moreover, hashtags remain an underutilized strategy when it comes to social marketing. Most of us simply use a word or two as hashtags and share the content. Is that enough?

Here are some great ways to pump up your social marketing efforts in order to scale traffic and drive positive results:

Twitter

Ideal for: Every type of business or individuals looking to promote their services

Post frequency: Multiple times a day

Strategy: Twitter is ideal for interacting directly with customers, networking with potential customers, sharing informative content, and improving your overall branding efforts.

Engage in Twitter chats and use the hashtag holidays calendar by SproutSocial. Tweet out questions, use visuals, and make use of cards.

You should also use  Twitter analytics tools and curate and connect with retweets and replies.

Facebook

Ideal for: Almost everyone

Post frequency: 1-2 times a day

Strategy: Do not blindly follow your competitors. Instead, create a strategy that closely matches your business needs.

Use videos, Facebook Live, and Facebook Stories. The latter two are known to increase engagement levels.

The ideal day for posting content is Thursday, and the best time is around 1 PM. Head over to this article to get more insights.

Instagram

Ideal for: Restaurants and fashion businesses

Post frequency: Once a day

Strategy: Instagram is a great platform for marketing your restaurant because it uses images and has a large character allowance for captions.

Apply tactics for restaurant marketing on Instagram, and use more than 11 hashtags.

Posts with over 11 hashtags are able to generate the highest number of interactions. Here is a list of 75 popular Instagram tags as listed by ShortStack.

LinkedIn

Ideal for: B2B businesses

Post frequency: Once a day

Strategy: Have a clear strategy and post useful updates to improve your brand awareness. Be careful and do not share excessively promotional posts.

Use attractive visuals and take every chance to connect with customers by using personalization at scale.

Join groups and don’t forget to foster relationships.

Have a look at some of the top brands who are nailing it with their LinkedIn marketing strategies.

4. Adopt a Content Relaunch Strategy

Brian Dean was able to improve organic traffic by more than 260% using a content relaunch strategy.

 

The strategy is pretty simple and is summarized in the three points below:

• Identify all the underperforming content pages on your site using GA. Visit Analytics ->Behavior -> Site Content -> Landing Pages.
• Revise the content and improve its quality, length, and presentability. Match it with the searcher’s intent.
• Republish your content once you have updated it.

With a content relaunch strategy, you don’t need to identify new keywords or content topics. Simply improve the existing content and start seeing the results. The process is efficient and easy.

5. Optimize for Mobile Micro-Moments

People try to live in the moment. In the words of Google, “Thanks to mobile, micro-moments can happen anytime, anywhere. In those moments, consumers expect brands to address their needs with real-time relevance.”

 

Google is making it easy for searchers by presenting the search results that closely match the micro-moment. Here is how you can optimize for micro-moments:

• Compile a list of keywords that your potential customers will use when researching for products or services that your business is selling. Know your customer journey, and align your main marketing strategy with it.
• Make your website fast by using AMP HTML and CDN service, optimizing JS and CSS files, and leveraging lazy loading. Also, use HTTP response headers, adopt browser caching, and test your site under Page Speed Insights.
• Identify the keywords users will enter when searching for your business locally. Technically, we call such keywords “near me” searches. Ensure you have a properly structured and highly usable website with lots of local business listings having a correct NAP.
• Have lots of genuine and positive reviews from loyal customers. Reviews help millennial audiences to make decisions in your brand’s favor.
• Measure the results consistently, and make changes accordingly.

6. Improve User Experience with the GA Metric, “Session Quality”

SEO is all about getting potential leads and generating conversions. Understanding marketing analytics is extremely important for uncovering important data related to goals.

“Session quality” is a new metric that Google Analytics (GA) launched recently.

In the words of Google, “Using similar machine learning as with Smart Lists and Smart Goals, Analytics calculates the Session Quality and Average Session Quality metrics to estimate a user’s proximity to conversion.

User engagement is evaluated for each session, and the resulting proximity to conversion is expressed as a score of 1-100 for each session during the date range, with 1 being the farthest from and 100 being the closest to a transaction. A value of 0 indicates that the metric is not calculated for the selected time range.”

The session quality report is useful for e-commerce sites. You need a minimum of 1000 e-commerce transactions before you can see this data in your GA report.

You can find this report under GA -> Audience -> Behavior -> Session Quality.

Identify sessions that have a low-quality score, and try to enhance the user experience so that you can improve the score.

Maybe the keywords that are bringing audiences to low-quality score sessions are different from the keywords in high-quality score sessions.

You can also use Google Optimizer to understand the refinements needed in your site content to easily convert users.

7. Keep Your Website Safe from Malware and Hacking

Google does not like sites that are repeatedly infected with malware. You might waste all your SEO efforts and organic rankings if your site is caught in the trap of hacking. Here is what you can suggest as an SEO in order to keep the site safe:

• Update all the plugins you use, and follow the best practices to keep the site safe from malware and hacking.
• Make use of web application firewalls to block malicious traffic from visiting your site.
• Ensure your server has round the clock monitoring and takes everyday backups.
• E-commerce sites selling products online should be PCI compliant.
• Keep a backup of all files and encrypt the login files.
• Scan your site regularly using tools such as Sidelock and Sitecheck.
• Make sure your site is HTTPS because HTTPS is more secure and is also a minor ranking factor.
• If hacking occurs, then quarantine your site and take it offline. Use Search Console and access the malware damage. Identify the type of vulnerability and clean your site. Lastly, request a review.

8. Produce In-Depth Content and Follow the UPA Approach

Google prefers long-form content in contrast to shorter pieces. Sites having 2000+ words of content are preferred over shorter content as displayed in the graph below:

 

We recommend you suggest your clients produce longer content based on relevant search queries so that they rank higher in Google.

However, content quantity won’t do any good if the quality is not strong. The three pillars of content quality include authority, utility, and presentation (UAP).

 

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind while preparing content:

• Do not produce duplicate content. Ensure that your content is unique.
• Don’t publish pages having too little content in them. The more content, the better.
• Add images and videos wherever necessary.
• Do not skip proofreading. Ensure the content is free of any grammatical errors.
• Keep your focus on helping your audience.
• Make it easy for readers to scan your content. Use proper bullet points and subheadings wherever necessary.

9. Optimize for Voice Search

Voice search is gaining popularity more rapidly than you might think. The trend is similar to the one we saw between desktop searches and mobile searches.

Moreover, Google has already started to prioritize mobile index. We are not too far away from experiencing a tremendous boost in the number of voice search queries. The below graph illustrates this trend:

 

Here is how you can optimize for voice search:

• Prepare a list of all long tail keywords that people might say when searching for your business on search engines.
• Claim your NAP, and ensure you have the correct and consistent NAP.
• Get your local SEO right as voice queries mostly have local intent.
• Add accurate microdata because it provides more specific information.
• Provide direct answers to questions instead of writing an article on a topic. Voice search is about conversation queries using natural language put mostly in the form of questions.
• Keep the FAQ page updated. Google can take several answers from the FAQ page itself.

SEO is both an art and a science. What works best for your business might not be useful for any other. It is important to understand this concept and apply all the strategies in a manner that helps to solve the pain points of your target audience.

Which SEO strategy that you used recently has given you the best results? Please share it with me in the comments below.

As an in-house SEO consultant, your job is not limited to acquiring better visibility for a website in SERPs.

Your job is also to bring in more leads and sales for the business.

The role as an agency SEO consultant is very different than an in-house consultant.

So if you’re just making the transition to a career as an in-house SEO consultant, here are a few things you should know.

• Agency SEOs Have Clients; There Are No Clients for In-house SEO

This sounds like an obvious statement, but in my experience this can have a major impact on your daily routine.

When you’re working at an SEO agency, your daily routine includes a list of clients to whom you send daily project updates.

And you check in with them via email, as well as check their SERP rankings and make adjustments if necessary.

When working in-house, you only have one client, and your daily work routine includes:

• Understanding the need of that business.
• Verifying content created meets search intent.
• Ensuring the quality of work.
• Looking in to what competitors are doing.
• Keeping track of how many new leads and sales your SEO practices are acquiring.

Instead of sending SERP progress to the clients, you have to send reports directly to your superiors.

And you are often solely responsible for ensuring the success of various websites, blogs, advertisements, and/or campaigns.

You also have to pitch ideas to your directors for new and innovative plans to increase the company’s SERP rankings and bring in more leads for the business.

Pro Tip: As an agency SEO expert, your job is more directed towards making your clients happy, whereas in an in-house role you are more responsible for sales and reporting the progress of newly launched online marketing techniques to your directors.

• Different Tools to Play With

Marketing tools can give you insight into the website you’re working on and what you need to do in order to optimize it for maximum online traffic.

When working in an agency you are generally limited to tools like Google Analytics, Moz.com, and few other commonly available programs.

Working in-house can give you the opportunity to work with more advanced tools such as Kiss Metrics, Majestic SEO, and various other new and exciting programs.

It’s great to get your hands on number of different tools, but don’t fall into the trap of trying to use every SEO tool out there—more data sometimes can be more confusing than helpful.

When working in-house you need to be smart when it comes to dealing with data.

Focus on how you can benefit by converting that information into more business and branding for your company.

Pro Tip: When you first make the transition to working in-house, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data you can accumulate.

Decide what data is most important to your company and only focus on those numbers.

If you don’t see online traffic rising after a few weeks, re-evaluate your data to decide if you’re concentrating on the right areas.

• You are Surrounded by Business-Minded People

The major difference I see between agency and in-house roles is that in an agency you are surrounded by digital marketers.

But in an in-house role you are surrounded by business-minded people who work hard to get more sales for the business.

In an agency you can discuss ideas and work together to find solutions to problems.

But when working in-house your colleagues will often be more interested in the bottom line than in the strategies you used to get those results.

This means that you may be on your own when it comes to planning, launching, and troubleshooting new marketing techniques.

Pro Tip: When working in-house, construct your reports to revolve around the sales and profits of the company rather than the tools and strategies you used to get them.

Unlike agency reports, these need to be all about the bottom line.

• Master an Industry

When you are working as an agency SEO consultant you have to deal with multiple clients at once—possibly from several different industries.

In-house SEO consultants, on the other hand, generally work within one specific industry.

This gives you the opportunity to become an expert in your company’s niche and allows you to learn specific tricks and tools that work best for your company.

As an in-house SEO expert, it’s your job to stay on top of industry standards and trends.

Using standard SEO protocols may be enough for an agency, but will not foster the kind of results expected from hiring an in-house expert.

Pro Tip: Find what gap hasn’t been filled yet in your industry and fill it. Write bold, new ideas that will interest potential clients, not just content pieces that will up your SERP ranking.

• Limitations

Agency SEO consultants face many limitations including slim budgets, outdated tools, an overwhelmingly wide range of clients, and more.

Working in-house often eliminates many of these limitations, allowing consultants to put in their full efforts to get the best possible results for the company.

In an agency environment you are limited to a strict budget that limits both the time and tools you can use to get the job done.

When working in-house, particularly if you’re hired by a large and/or successful company, your time is significantly less limited.

And often, a single great presentation is all that’s needed to secure a budget increase for a new project.

Pro Tip: In-house SEO experts should present their ideas by explaining the sales and branding benefits that the company can expect out of them.

Ideas without clearly explained expected results are often dismissed by boards unfamiliar with advanced SEO tactics.

Do You Want to Be an Agency SEO?

Making the transition from working at an agency to working as an in-house SEO expert can be rough—many of your colleagues and superiors will be more focused entirely on results and won’t understand the strategies you use to get them there.

However, if you can stick it out and learn to speak the lingo of the business world, the opportunities provided by an in-house position can make it more than worth your while.