Category: SEO

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SEO

E-A-T in SEO: What Does It Mean to You?

Expertise. Authoritativeness. Trustworthiness. These three components make up the E-A-T acronym, one of the most important acronyms you need to keep in mind when you are developing your website’s SEO campaign.

The concept of E-A-T was first introduced back in 2014. Quite by accident, actually. Someone accidentally leaked some of Google’s Search Quality Guidelines and the SEO world went a little nutty over it. Time has shown us just how important the theory is when it comes to overall page quality.

Is this theory completely new to you? It’s time to start paying attention.

E is for Expertise

Let’s say you are running a website dedicated to helping people better understand their finances. You’ve identified this as a strong niche and have a great marketing plan. You have a team of writers and you are working to create quality content.

The finance niche is pretty specialized. So when a reader lands on your page and starts reading your articles or blogs, how will they know you have the expertise to actually give financial advice? Do you have an industry expert contributing content? Do you you have an industry expert offering critiques? Are you citing industry experts as sources within your page content?

What are you showing on the page that tells your readers (and Google) that someone with actual financial experience is behind the content being shared?

This isn’t to say your writers have to be financial experts. They do have to be professional enough to find real expert sources to quote within your articles. They have to be expert fact-checkers. Pair your quality writers with a top-notch editor and you’ll have content that oozes with expertise.

A lot of websites mess up in the expertise category because they publish vague content. A true expert can provide specific details and flesh out ideas, not just gloss over the topic with hasty generalizations. You honestly can’t be an authority in any area of expertise without experience.

A is for Authoritativeness

It’s not enough to simply have expert writers on staff. You need to make sure you are giving them credit in order to add an air of authority to your site.

If your writer is a financial expert, you should add a byline with his name and job title. A short two to three line biography outlining their financial experience and credentials is perfect. Include a link to your expert’s professional website or include a link to a full bio within your website if the writer is a regular, full time-contributor to your website.

Your writer doesn’t necessarily have to be an expert on the subject. They can still contribute authority to your pages as long as they are citing their sources. Google actually loves it when you link back to relevant content. Include the author’s name and very brief biography that highlights their experiences writing on the topic.

In both cases, including a photo of your writer as part of the formal built-in bio section creates a sense of transparency your readers will appreciate.

Another way to establish authority is by finding influencers who are willing to share your message. When Google sees those who are already considered authorities linking back to your content, the search engine will see it as valuable. Why would someone already ranked ahead of you link back to you if your content were not?

T is for Trustworthiness

Why should your reader trust you? Why should your reader choose your content over the content shared on another website? And – ultimately – why should your reader choose to do business with you, buy a product from you, or click on your affiliate links instead of partnering with a competing website? Why is your site more trustworthy than the rest?

The most important thing to remember is that your content is being developed for the reader, not purely for “SEO” value. That’s a hard pill for some to swallow. Your content needs to share quality information, share a specific point of view, entertain, or provide some other form of value.

Yes, keywords are important. No, you can’t keyword stuff in the hopes that Google will prioritize your page in the search engines. Naturally weaving a few good keywords into your content ( at least where it makes sense) is far more beneficial than adding the same keywords over and over again throughout your content.

When your reader lands on your page, will he feel as though he’s found something of value, or will he feel like he found a keyword stuffed landing page that was merely designed to guide him towards a sale? The answer really needs to be the former. The latter will come naturally.

E-A-T and YMYL Websites

E-A-T is an important concept to keep in mind when developing any website, but it is most important on YMYL sites (Your Money or Your Life). YMYL sites are websites that Google views as having the potential to actually influence a person’s “life, income, or happiness.” In other words, if your advice could make or break a person’s finances, you’d better have expertise and authority on your side.

Your Money or Your Life site examples:

  • Any site that talks about finances, especially when it comes to investment advice, taxes or retirement savings
  • Any website that talks about personal issues like estate planning, family law, divorce, child support, or immigration
  • Websites that could be dangerous if the information contained within them is inaccurate. For example, sites teaching someone how to change the brakes on their car or how to install a ceiling fan in their home

E-A-T Should Be Your Best Practice

When it comes to establishing your website’s best practices, E-A-T needs to be a part of the equation. It’s going to play a huge role in how Google determines your site’s overall value. Meeting a need or solving a problem are excellent goals – but only if your site’s practices are transparent, not spammy, and specific.

Expertise. Authority. Trustworthiness. Make sure every piece of content you put on your website meets this standard and you’ll find your organic rankings and traffic improving at a notable rate. But there is another side to the story – and that’s how to strategize your SEO to best fit your content. Reach out to me here to talk about how I can help you achieve your goals.

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SEO

Google’s Broad Core Update: What You Need to Know

Google confirmed back in early August, via a tweet by Danny Sullivan, that the brand new Google broad core update had officially rolled out. While broad core updates come out several times per year, this most recent change is almost as major as Panda and Penguin were when they first rolled out.

As you might have suspected,  August’s major broad core update contains some pretty significant changes. In this post, I’ll lay out what these changes are, how you might be affected, and what steps you can take to stay on the right side of the SEO tracks.

What are Broad Core Updates?

Google makes updates to the core algorithm on a daily basis. Sometimes updates come as often as twice a day. These updates are minor tweaks that help to improve the way the crawlers respond to search engine requests so that they can provide better results. The Broad Core Algorithm updates happen a few times per year and, as usual, Google remains very vague about what the updates included.

What we do know is that Google says the update’s primary focus was to improve search results (sure, that seems kind of overly obvious, but stay with me). They claim that sites that lost ranking did not do anything wrong, but that sites that deserved better rankings are also now receiving more ranking to compensate.

The consensus is that there is nothing that can be done to fix the sites that did lose rankings, and that while the changes focused on page content, they had nothing to do with quality.

Confusing, right?

Google is not usually very transparent when it comes to core algorithm updates, and it is generally assumed that the updates target low-quality content. In this case, though, it seems as though Google announced the update so quell some of the rumors and panic, especially among site owners that did lose some ranking.

The problem is that site owners who were affected may think they did something wrong.  Some people were spending hours trying to figure out which unspoken rule they broke.

At the end of the day, that’s just not exactly the case. Google has clearly stated that this particular update addressed better query results in the search engines. It isn’t about penalizing, it’s about improving the base algorithms to better target “quality content.”

Who Did the August Update Impact?

While Google still isn’t telling us much, there is some info we know. According to Jamie Pitman of BrightLocal, it appears as though the majority of sites impacted were in the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niche. Most, albeit not all, focus on diet and nutrition. It also seems to have had an impact on random advice pages, especially those that have no EAT value (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).

The majority of SEO experts noted changes in both organic and local pack rankings. Especially affected are small local business clients and those who have had multiple locations.

Establishing Website Expertise and Authority

Despite what Google claims, sites that have lost ranking should attempt to regain it. That means that, while there may be no real “fixes” out there, the focus should remain on creating high-quality, authoritative content from trustworthy sources.

In other words, you should probably look to see if your site is affiliated with someone credible and trustworthy. But exactly what that means depends on your niche or industry. For the most part, you should be attempting to partner with at least one industry professional who can add expertise and accreditation’s to the mix.

For example, financial information pages should be somehow affiliated with content from bankers, brokers, and established industry experts. Medical websites and pages should be affiliated with credentialed healthcare professionals. Sites offering legal content should have some sort of affiliation with a licensed professional.

I’m not saying you have to depend on (or pay for) highly-trained professionals to create all of your content. I am saying you need to have them review it, fact-check it, and add their personal thoughts and opinions to it. This is an instance where knowing the right people pays off.

The real consideration, especially with YMYL sites, is that Google believes these sites have the ability to influence major consumer life decisions. The search engine is, in essence, attempting to protect the consumer by making sure the information presented within page content has been created in good faith and by people who have some expertise in the field.

Increasing Your Organic Ranking

A new broad core update is not a reason to stop striving for a better online ranking, no matter how harsh or unfair it might seem to those affected. Make sure you continue to monitor the web for mentions of your brand on other websites. When you see them pop up, send a brief thank-you message and ask the site owner if they’d be willing to add a link back to your website to the mention. This is surprisingly effective.

Review your site from time to time. Give under-performing content the boost it needs. Remember that a tiny portion of your site’s content usually drives most of your traffic, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing that some pages outperform others.

Use keyword research strategies to figure out which of your pages need a boost. Then, figure out which of your better-performing pages is the right place for internal linking. This technique is really the most beneficial if your higher-performing pages have a lot of external links pointing back to them already.

Continue to create high-quality content for your website. Remember, E-A-T. Bring in the experts, interview others who are authorities in your field, and create content that your readers (and Google) will find trustworthy, informative, and safe. Don’t forget to mix up your content formats to include text, images, infographics, and even video. It shouldn’t be all-text-all-the-time.

Have an older piece of evergreen content that doesn’t get as much traffic anymore because of its age? Give it a boost by making some timely updates, switching the references around, and then republishing it as a new article with a current date. You will improve your on-page SEO for targeted keywords and updating your website architecture at the same time.

I can’t say enough about how important I think it is to constantly improve your organic ranking, even when “times” get tough. The takeaway here is that no one will ever know exactly what Google has changed in any algorithm update, let alone a Broad Core update. The fact that they made any statement at all on this type of update speaks volumes and should give you a good reason to focus on quality content creation. With a consistent effort and dedication, you’ll continue to do well and grow over time – regardless of any shocking changes.

Have you been affected by the most recent broad core update? If you’re struggling, I’m available for consulting. Get in touch with me using this link.

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SEO

Optimizing Your Google My Business Listing

A lot of small businesses tend to place a lot of emphasis on the development of their websites and, subsequently, their SEO efforts. While your website is a critical element to your SEO strategy, claiming your Google My Business (GMB) listing can make a huge difference to your organic ranking and website traffic as well as to your ability to show up well in other Google products like the Maps, Local Pack, and Local Finder.

That’s really what I want to focus on today – using your GMB listing the right way to maximize what you get out of your efforts.

Start by Verifying Your Listing

The very first thing you need to do, if you haven’t already, is claim and verify your listing. Visit www.google.com/business to claim your listing. Verification involves Google sending a postcard to the address on your listing. Once you receive it, you’ll go back to your Google Business account and enter the code from the card. Entering your passcode gives you complete access to your listing profile and details. This process may seem a little lengthy, but it prevents people from claiming profiles they don’t use in order to commit fraud.

Regularly Check Your Basic Details

Have you ever been looking at a Google My Business listing and noticed the “suggest an edit” button? The general public sees this on every listing, which means they can suggest what they perceive as corrections to your address, phone number and other details. This feature can be a benefit or a disadvantage depending on who sees it.

If a customer visits your listing and sees something missing, he may try to make that correction for you. But on the same token, if someone you just managed to deeply anger with bad service sees it, they might decide to vandalize it, too.

Anyone can make edits.

That includes competitors that visit your listing, too.

Check your profile over carefully. Make sure all of your basic business details are completed, including your address, phone number, hours, and website URL. Fill in anything missing.

Service based businesses should make sure their service-areas are updated as well. When you are in the address section of your listing, make sure you click “yes” next to the button that asks about whether or not your deliver goods and services to customer locations. You can choose a zip code or mile radius so that your potential customers know how far you are willing to travel.

Edit the About Us Section

Google didn’t have an official “About Us” section on business listings for quite a while, but it’s back now. This is your chance to tell people what sets you apart from the crowd. Hit the “Info” button and you’ll be presented with a text box. You only have 750 characters to work with, so be creative with your wording and make your message stands out.

Upload Photos

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Google automatically pulls a few photos from your website and other online sources, but you can upload your own as well. Make sure you upload a few photos of your office, staff, products, customers – whatever will give people who land on your listing a feel for the type of business you run.

Avoid slapping on stock photos (especially of people) just to fill up space; one or two is fine. Too many can make your profile feel forced, shallow, or fake. A few natural pictures of your office taken with a decent camera go a long way.

By the way, you can upload videos to the photo section as well. I’ve talked about video marketing being a huge component to SEO and content marketing, so make sure you’re uploading some of your new content here when you create it.

Update Your Services

The services section new and isn’t showing on all listings yet, but if it’s available to you, you will see “Services” in the menu within your Google My Business profile. You can use this section for products or services This is great for getting additional product or service keywords into your listing, especially since some business owners don’t always agree with how their businesses are categorized. Make sure you are utilizing this section if you have access to it.

Turn on the Messaging Function

This is a relatively new feature that seems to be available in the US but not necessarily to other countries. Messaging allows visitors to send a text message to your business. All they have to do is click on the business listing and you’ll receive a text message that you can reply to. Your personal number won’t show to customers, either. This is a great way to quickly answer questions your potential customers may have.

Monitor Your Reviews

You get an email every single time someone leaves a review on your Google My Business listing. Establish protocol for reply to reviews and do so on a regular basis. Some businesses reply to all of their reviews while others only reply to negative reviews. According to BrightLocal, about 30 percent of people surveyed said it’s important to them to see that a business is reply to reviews – especially the negative ones.

That said, you’ll need to be careful about your wording. If you run a medical office, for example, you’ll need to make sure your replies don’t violate HIPAA guidelines. Replying to reviews does show the public that you’re listening, conscious, and aware of what people are saying about you; and it shows you are willing to resolve issues amicably.

Google Posts

Perhaps one of the most underutilized sections of the Google My Business is the Posts section. Many business owners just don’t seem to realize it’s there yet. You can add a post via your dashboard and it will show right on your business profile in the Google search results. You can showcase an article, a special, or some other piece of content. The posts usually expire within two weeks, so you’ll want to update this section regularly.

Don’t Make These GMB Mistakes

Make sure you check Google once in a while to make sure there are no duplicate business listings. Sometimes they are added when your name is misspelled, or when someone creates a listing with your name and your business name together (this is common with doctors). You’ll want to claim and remove duplicates to avoid confusion. Don’t create a new listing if your business moves; just update the address.

There is a significant amount of effort and work in achieving “good SEO,” especially if you want to stay on the ‘white hat” side of things. That said, having an updated business listing that you’re constantly monitoring and updating can go a long way in making it easy for your potential clients or customers to find and contact you.

Google has been making a lot of changes that will have visitors interacting more on your GMB listing; this is mostly positive, but it also means they won’t necessarily be clicking through to your website. Making sure your profile is in tip-top shape will ensure you’re able to play along as the SERPs continue to change.

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SEO

Common Google Penalty Triggers Explained

Hell hath no fury for a marketer like a manual penalty from Google. As an SEO expert, I often find myself cleaning up issues for clients who find themselves at the mercy of penalties. Often, these penalties stem from actions taken by black hat SEO experts who promise the world, yet deliver little in the way of real organic growth.

Google penalties are notoriously difficult to overcome. Depending on the nature of the penalty, it can take weeks, months, or even years to fully bounce back. This is one case where an ounce of prevention is honestly worth a pound of cure.

I believe that knowledge is power, especially when it comes to navigating Google’s complex SEO rules. To help you better understand penalties, I’m going to break down a few of the most common. We’ll end with an overview of one penalty webmasters overlook far too often.

Hacked or Exploited Websites

Web technologies (like HTML, CSS, ASP, etc.) are much more evolved than they once were, making them more secure. But vulnerabilities like broken authentication, session exploiting, SQL injection, and guessed passwords/logins all still exist, as does Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and remote scripting.

Google can (and often does) sandbox hacked websites for containing exploits, phishing attempts, or malware. Your site will still show in results for a time, but when visitors attempt to follow the result, they see a red box with a warning instead of visiting your site. This can be devastating to a website with a significant following.

The best way to prevent a penalty from unauthorized access is to monitor your site regularly for symptoms. Deal with exploits lightning-fast, even if it means taking your site offline for a time. Most importantly, be proactive by practicing good webmaster security strategies at all times.

Keyword Overuse

Keywords: depending on who you ask, they’re either the worst or the best thing to happen to the SEO industry.

The problem?

Too many webmasters and “SEO experts” use keywords incorrectly or inefficiently. They stuff them into hastily-written text in percentages as high as 10 or 12 percent, thinking that more is better – and then find themselves swiftly sandboxed from Google for SERP manipulation.

Older-generation SEO experts actually valued using high percentages of keywords; it was an effective way to rank at the time. Google’s Penguin update did away it, devaluing the use of keywords in comparison with other more organic strategies that fostered valuable, well-matched content.

How much is too much? While there’s no magic number for how much is too much, generally, if you have to think about it, you’re probably trying to hard to fit them in. Structure your content around categories and specific niche topics, not keywords; stop worrying as much about hitting a percentage as you do about crafting high-quality content with great use value.

Markup Manipulation or Spam

Markup manipulation is a serious issue, but it can also be seriously confusing for webmasters. We hear stories about well-intentioned webmasters logging in one day and suddenly seeing this message on their Analytics dashboard:

Markup on some pages on this site appears to use techniques such as marking up content that is invisible to users, marking up irrelevant or misleading content, and/or other manipulative behavior that violates Google’s Rich Snippet Quality guidelines

Whew. That’s a mouthful! It’s not hard to see why some webmasters get confused about what this message actually means. Let’s break it down so we can better understand it.

First, let’s talk Rich Text Snippets (RTS). RTS isn’t an inherently negative strategy; in fact, Google created it to help webmasters showcase their content on search results more clearly. An RTS is just the short, ~160-character description paired with links on Google’s search results.

Webmasters have the ability to define a specific RTS using markup, or they can let Google parse something automatically from the page. Generally, it’s better to define your RTS because it gives you more control.

Take a look at our RTS for Sachs:

Short, sweet, and to the point – exactly how it should be.

Where RTS becomes a problem is when webmasters use markup to define an RTS that’s either deceptive or somehow intended to manipulate searcher behavior. Misleading visitors with markdown (for example, putting “click here for free money!!” in your RTS, even though it leads to a product page) is a clear violation example.

If you plan to use RTS, be sure they’re on-topic and don’t mislead visitors. Be exceptionally careful with website plugins like Yoast that may base RTS selection on imperfect algorithms; these plugins can sometimes choose the wrong RTS, and should always be manually reviewed before publishing.

Spammy or Purchased Backlinks

Google sees backlinks as proof people find your content useful enough to link to; theoretically, they expect these backlinks to be genuine and not bought, borrowed, begged, or stolen. But as we all know, the Internet is a bit like the Wild West, and if there’s a way to exploit something, someone will find a way to make it happen.

Enter the era of guest blogging, backlink networks, and for-pay backlinks. Entire websites cropped up during the mid ‘00s; their sole intention was to link to websites for pay or some other benefit. These large-scale blog networks and link farms often appeared legitimate, at least at first glance, but upon scrutiny, often contained thin, duplicate, or spun content. Their sole purpose was to manipulate SERPs by inflating backlinks for customers.

Over time, it became very obvious that webmasters were abusing this tactic. Some purchased thousands of links, temporarily boosting their PageRank (when PageRank still existed in numerical format).

But as with any other strategy that seems a little too easy, the search engine giant caught on. Google Penguin successfully caught and sandboxed more websites for this transgression than ever before, changing the entire industry in the process.

So, what’s the best way to prevent a manual penalty for spammy backlinks? Don’t buy, borrow, beg, steal, or ask for backlinks, full stop. Backlinks aren’t all bad, but they should never be something you’re paying for – they should be earned if you want to see real, organic results. Create useful content with viral attributes that people want to link to because it’s so useful, and the rest will happen naturally.

Most importantly, If you bought spammy backlinks in the past, disavow the links now using this tool.

Over-Reliance on Reciprocal Links

This is a segue from the previous section, but it bears further explanation. Reciprocal linking (trading link-for-link with other websites) might seem innocent, but Google considers this deceptive SERP manipulation, too. Technically, it’s a form of spammy or manipulative backlinks, even if it’s just a one-off with a friend.

Anytime you make an agreement with someone to trade links, Google sees it as technically trying to manipulate SERPs. If you do it too often, you will eventually find yourself penalized or sandboxed.

Does that mean strategies like guest blogging or trading the occasional link with a partner is totally out? Probably not. A one-off or the occasional guest blog on high-authority sites isn’t usually a problem.

The same standard rule applies: make sure you’re creating content of value and trading links with sites that actually make sense because they’re helpful, not just because they’ll boost your rank. Linking a plumbing service website to your healthcare business won’t help you and might even harm you instead.

Too Many 404s

Websites change over time – that’s just a fact of life. Whether you update the content, refresh it, remove it, or just change your navigation, some links may still lead visitors to the older removed pages. When they attempt to access that removed content, the server returns an HTTP 404 Not Found Error, advising them that it could not locate the requested information.

404 errors aren’t necessarily negative; you should use them temporarily when changing your website or altering pages and content. But too many 404s can confuse web crawlers, making them think your website is full of old, outdated content. Worse yet, it can also look like you have no real content at all if there’s enough 404s.

Exactly how much of an issue is this? You can’t avoid all 404s, really – nor should you try to deceptively avoid them. A few one-off instances here and there won’t hamper your SEO efforts, but 10+ 404s at the same time might. In rare circumstances, this could lead to a manual penalty from Google because your site is too difficult or cumbersome to crawl.

Controversially, not everyone in the SEO agrees that having excessive 404 error pages influences SEO in any meaningful way. Some still believe having a 404 is better than leaving old content in place, where it may harm your campaign. Either way, there’s one fact we can all agree on: 404s increase bounce rates because visitors are more likely to leave your site in search of the content they want. A high bounce rate won’t result in a manual penalty, but it will affect your ranking negatively in other ways. Correct them as quickly as you can, using these best practices, as often as possible.

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SEO

Facebook Cracks Down on Instagram Engagement Pods

Those who don’t hang out in a lot of Facebook groups may be unfamiliar with Instagram engagement pods. In short, engagement pods are either groups on Facebook or chat groups within the Instagram platform within which all members have agreed to like or comment on each other’s posts every day.

The technique was considered a great way to game the Instagram algorithm, creating consistent engagement on the involved pages, thus resulting in more exposure. An organic Instagram post, much like a Facebook post, is only shown to a percentage of the page’s followers. Once a post receives likes or comments, the algorithm score determines whether or not to show it to even more people.

Sounds good, right? Wrong. There’s not a social media platform out there that likes hearing that people are gaming the system, using black hat tactics to increase visibility to the detriment of users who are creating content, posting it, and promoting it naturally and within the rules.

Engagement Pods are Out

That’s exactly why Facebook, which also owns Instagram, just started cracking down on engagement pods. During the first week of May, Facebook suspended and removed at least 10 large groups that were serving as engagement pods. Most of the groups that were suspended had at least a few thousand members, with a couple ranging from 25,000 to 200,000.

According to BuzzFeed News, which takes credit for reporting some of the groups to Facebook, the engagement pods contained threads in which members were able to coordinate engagement exchanges. Some of the threads encouraged users to like each other’s accounts, while others coordinated likes and engagement on specific posts. Sometimes users shared links in the group while other groups encouraged users to create “pods” within the Instagram messaging platform.

Why is this so bad? The fake likes and comments boosted the perceived popularity of the posts in the Instagram algorithm, boosting some of the posts to the tops of news feeds when they did not deserve to be there.

While alluring to many users, this type of engagement baiting is against the terms of service of Instagram. Facebook cited TOS as their reason for banning and removing the groups in question, but BuzzFeed noted that Facebook hadn’t seemed to notice or care about the groups, which were all clearly named as engagement pods, before they were pointed out to them. And while those first 10 were deleted, there are likely many others with more creative names that continue to exist.

Try Not to Be Weird and Scammy

Alright. So what can you do to boost the engagement on your Instagram posts without being unethical about the entire process? It may take more time to do it legitimately, but this is what usually works best for me.

Do Not (Ever) Use Bots

If you are using them. Stop. Bots are used to automatically follow accounts, follow back, unfollow, automatically like posts, automatically comment, and even delete posts. They seem like helpful time savers, but Instagram can recognize them and utilizing them will tank your numbers. Stop. Now.

Come Up With a Strategy for Hashtags

Don’t use the exact same set of hashtags over and over again. A couple may be important to your brand, but the rest should be shaken up a bit from post to post. You’ll also need to keep an eye out to make sure you aren’t using banned hashtags, which is hard to do since there isn’t an actual list backed by Instagram. You can tell if a hashtag is banned by searching for it on Instagram. Banned hashtags will have a message about community guidelines.

Experiment with Video

People love videos. Go live on Instagram from time to time. Upload a 30-second (maximum) pre-recorded video clip. Use an app to turn a still image into a 10-second video. Add a little music and you’ll instantly brighten up your feed. Don’t forget to utilize closed captions and subtitles to make your videos more accessible to all users.

Create High-Quality Content

One of the biggest mistakes Instagram users make is posting inconsistently. Set a schedule and stick to it, whether it’s 3 times a week or daily. Remember, though, that quality is more important than quantity. If you can’t create enough quality content to stick to your schedule, scale it back a bit. If you start posting junk, your fans will likely keep scrolling past you. Too busy to maintain a regular schedule? Find a scheduling tool and upload your content in advance.

Incorporate a Call-To-Action (CTA)

Every post should encourage engagement without saying, “please like or comment on this post.” Ask a question about the picture. Ask what color paint they would have used on a craft project you finished. Ask what their favorite ingredients are for a certain recipe. Making cookies? Ask them what their favorite kinds are. Inquire about what they’re up to for the weekend, or how they like a new book or TV show. Natural engagement is key.

Use Instagram Stories

Make sure you are using the Instagram Stories feature. Regular users have found that those who get engagement within their stories also see higher engagement rates on the posts in their regular feed. Make sure you add text to your story so that those who are looking without sound still know what it’s about.

Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)

If you’re marketing a brand, ask your users to participate by sharing their own content. Create a custom hashtag for your promotion and ask your followers to use it in their own posts. You’ll be able to monitor the hashtag for engagement and curate some of the best content for use in your own campaigns.

Instagram is a fun, visual platform with a ton of potential – if you stay on it’s good side. Take your time using ethical techniques to build you your brand’s visibility and you will find, over time, that Instagram will become a very valuable part of your branding and marketing strategy. And don’t forget, I’m available for consulting if you need a hand.

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SEO

7 SEO Tips for Mobile-First Marketers

Google is now actively practicing mobile-first indexing. That means the search engine giant is actively showing preference to websites that mobile-optimize well across a wide variety of devices. Unfortunately, not every website was (or is) ready for this change; a long list of businesses still don’t mobile-optimize because they just don’t see it as being worthwhile. I believe that’s a mistake.

Wherever you are in your mobile optimization story, change is coming; you should start preparing and tweaking now. All signs point to mobile-first marketing becoming an official industry standard, especially with Google fully backing it and other engines like Bing close behind. Let’s chat a bit about how you can align your website for mobile-first indexing without suffering in the process.

Stop Automating Optimization

There are plugins for platforms like WordPress and Joomla that completely automate the process of creating a “mobile port.” Unfortunately, the results are often subpar at best, and in some cases, may be outright damaging to your rank or user experience rating. That’s because they rely on algorithms that don’t necessarily do the best job of arranging SEO-friendly content.

If you’re using a plugin now, or if you used one in the past, this is a great time to reassess your mobile port. Optimize manually this time (or hire a developer who can), whether it means fixing just a few issues or reworking the entire site. The boost in rankings and accessibility is well worth the cost.

Focus on Positive Experiences First

Even Google admits that user experience can (and must) come before a rules-only development environment. That’s why the search engine manually reviews a small subset of websites each month rather than allowing algorithms to manage the entire process. They, like most developers, really do want to encourage people to develop better websites for the people they serve.

What does that mean for you in a mobile-first indexing environment? Primarily, you should hold off on reworking your website if all you can currently provide is a sub-par, hastily-thrown-together mobile port that’s lacking in finesse. Once you do start working on a mobile-first presence, take every action only after asking yourself, “how does this better serve my audience?”

Use Separate URLs for Mobile Content

When Google says they show a strong preference for mobile-first indexing, they don’t just mean they want you to have mobile content available. They want you to have mobile content available on a specific mobile-optimized subdomain or suffix. Websites with mobile-specific URLs, such as m.yoursite.com or yoursite.mobile.com., may see a ranking boost just for using separate URLs.

Whichever approach you take is up to you, but here’s a sage tip on how to get it right. Don’t try to create different content for your mobile website; mobile versions should match desktop versions almost identically whenever possible. Creating a stripped-down version of your desktop site won’t help your rank and may even be perceived as taking shortcuts.

Turn to AMP for Mobile Pages

Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) technology is an open-source technology first drafted by Google in early 2016. At its heart, AMP is a library that makes creating speedy, highly efficient mobile content pages easier and more uniform than ever. It isn’t quite a web development technology; think of it more like an industry standard with guidelines to help you better serve your visitors.

AMP pages fall into three categories:

  • AMP HTML
  • AMP JS
  • AMP CDN

 

For the purposes of mobile content on websites, let’s focus on AMP HTML. Both regular HTML and AMP HTML use hundreds of the same phrases and commands to achieve similar outputs; the main difference is that AMP HTML is restricted in certain areas to cut down on code size and/or length. Less code = less bloat, and that means better load times.

Why use AMP? Google prefers it – there is evidence to show that AMP pages may rank better, especially in mobile-first indexing, than non-AMP pages. The fact that coding in AMP provides better efficiency is also worthwhile, as faster pages also tend to rank higher at the same time, too.

Want to learn AMP? If you know basic HTML/CSS, you’re already ahead of the game. In fact, the AMP project provides an easy-to-follow tutorial here.

Add Rel=Canonical and Rel=Alternate Tags

Google’s guidelines say that mobile and desktop versions should essentially be the same or nearly identical, at least when it comes to what visitors see. This includes text, images, video, products, and anything else relevant to your visitors’ needs. Unfortunately, following their advice results in syndication, which sometimes appears to crawlers like duplicate content.

To fix this, add rel=canonical and rel=alternate tags to your mobile and not-mobile pages. Google plans to give mobile websites preference, so it may be best to place your rel=canonical tag there and then use rel=alternate on the desktop version. Still, it matters more that you place the tags at all, so don’t spend too much time agonizing over which should go where.

Check Your Mobile Page Speed

If you’re already working with a fully-optimized mobile website, you’re a step ahead. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to work on; in fact, most older mobile ports are bloated and suffer from long page loading times. That’s because older technologies just used responsive design to scale down desktop-optimized files, rather than making mobile-specific content available.

With Google also indicating page speed is about to become a significantly powerful ranking factor, you should run a page speed test on your mobile content. Anything that takes more than three or four seconds to load is too slow.

If you find a problem, go back to square one. Reassess your website, cut back on bloat where you can, and consider getting rid of known sources of bloat like Javascript elements. Crawlers don’t carry out javascript actions in most cases, so you won’t benefit from their presence if you choose to leave them in.

Troubleshooting After Creation

You did the work. You put in the time. You have excellent mobile-specific content available to visitors on a separate mobile-friendly URL. Yet you’re still experiencing high bounce rates and suffering in rank. What’s the problem?

Only audience research, analytics, and time can help you determine exactly what it is your visitors want and why you’re not currently fulfilling that role. In the meantime, try out Google’s Mobile-Friendly Web tool; it gives you the power to check your own website against a host of their most commonly reported concerns.

If the tool finds mobile usability issues, it will list them and give suggestions to help you fix the problem. To the right of the results is an in-page frame containing a full navigable render of your mobile content, showing you how your page appears to visitors when you load in. Just below the results, you’ll find helpful links to documentation and support forums in case you need help.

As always, I’m available for consultation if you need more guidance. Just send a message through the website or call.

Categories
SEO

Step-by-Step Guide to How and Why You Should Create SEO Friendly PDFs

If you’ve been in SEO for any length of time, you know search engines can index PDFs, also known as Portable Document Format.

But, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do it.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using PDFs, and making sure they are as SEO friendly as possible if you decide you need to use them.

 

Pros of Using PDFs

1. Easy to Build

PDFs are some of the easiest documents to create, because all you have to do is save your document from whatever native program – Word, Illustrator, PowerPoint, and so on – and save as PDF.

If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can create PDFs within the program, without having to save as in the native program. This allows you to combine multiple files from several programs into a single PDF – even adding other PDFs to the file. You can also control the final file size a bit better with compression options found in Acrobat. This is not the same as the Adobe Acrobat Reader – a free program that opens PDF files.

You can take any information you want, from case studies and press releases, to presentations and product data sheets, and convert them into what’s basically a web-ready format in a matter of seconds. If you don’t have any kind of HTML programming knowledge, the PDF is a quick and easy way to publish web content.

2. Also Use Meta Data

Like websites, PDFs use meta data like descriptions and meta keywords. You can edit the meta data in any PDF file in Adobe Acrobat by going to File > Properties.

Meta data doesn’t have the impact on SEO that it used to but the meta description is basically a free sales pitch from the search results page. Write a description that not only tells your audience what they can expect from the file, but also entices them to click. If you don’t write it yourself, the search engines will choose the description for you – often using the first sentences of your content.

3. Can Use Links

Just like a webpage, you can also include links in a PDF. The best thing is, the search engine robots can also follow those links. You can set the anchor text of those links, too.

4. Content is Indexable

In most cases, all content within the PDF file is readable and indexable by search engine bots. To make sure the search engine bots can read your PDF, make sure it is created as a text file, rather than an image. Ideally, you should create the PDF from the originating program.

 

Cons of Using PDFs

1. Documents are Hard to Navigate Between

If you rely too much on PDFs for your website content, you won’t have a way to make sure your visitors can get to other pages on your website. Sure, your PDFs can rank organically, and if someone finds your file from the search engines, that’s wonderful. But, if they want to get elsewhere on their site, it’s not easy. They have to take the initiative to navigate away from the PDF URL to your main domain. Not all users will know how to do this, and not all those that do will take the time to do it.

2. Documents Can Get Lengthy

Since it is so simple to save a document as a PDF, it’s easy for the documents to get incredibly long. It’s not a common practice to break the files up into multiple smaller documents, so you could have a short document with a few pages, or essentially a novel with hundreds of pages.

While shorter documents aren’t really an issue, the longer documents can be problematic in terms of SEO.

3. Can’t Control Organization

If you’re working within a content management system like WordPress, PDFs aren’t going to be treated like pages, but downloads. This means you can’t control the organizational structure of the files, so it’s not an ideal approach.

4. Can’t Edit Code

With HTML, you have the ability to go in and edit the code as needed. You can optimize your images with tags and such, but you cannot do this with a PDF. If you need to change the PDF for any reason, you must go back to the source document and make changes, then recreate the PDF.

As such, you may run into issues with 508 compliance because you can’t add alt tags to your images inside the PDF.

5. Can’t Use Structured Markup

Structured markup can improve visibility in the search engines. Because PDFs don’t work the same way HTML does, you can’t apply the structured markup to PDF files at all. If you’ve got a cookbook in PDF format, you can’t use the recipe schema, which tells Google to include your recipes in the recipe organic search.

6. Can’t Track Within the PDF

Of course, you can track the number of downloads of a PDF with Google Analytics, but you can’t see what people are doing inside the PDF after they download it. You can’t even be sure they’re actually opening and reading the content. With HTML, you can use heat maps to determine the areas of a page where people are paying the most attention.

 

How to Properly Optimize PDFs for SEO

1. Use Text-Based PDF Files

When at all possible, create your source document in a word processing program like Microsoft Word. If you use another program, it may or may not be a text-based file, which means the search bots cannot read the content. If you want the content indexed, it must be possible for the bots to read the content.

If your PDF features images, it may still be indexed, but the content won’t be read. It’s also possible the bots won’t even index it at all.

2. Use an SEO Friendly Filename/URL

Your PDF file name will likely become part of the URL when you upload it to your website. As such, you should consider your keywords when you are naming the PDF. It’s easy to save it as whatever the program recommends, and you can do this, but it will mean taking an extra step to rename it once it’s on your server.

If the document comes to you and it’s already in PDF, do some keyword research and competitor analysis to find a file name that’s in line with user demand. As you name the file, use hyphens to separate words and capitalize the first letter of each word, to make it easier to read.

3. Link Internally to the PDF from Elsewhere on Your Site

It can be hard to include your PDFs within your internal links on your website structure. Generally, your PDFs are high value assets, but because they are specific, people won’t call on them as often as they will a product or a service page, for instance. As such, when looking at the site hierarchy, they often end up as orphaned pages, directly impacting your SEO potential.

Google’s John Mueller said in a 2016 interview: “If we are not able to index those pages[…] it might just be that we are saying we have enough content indexed from your website already. We are not ready yet to add a significant batch of more content.”

If you contextually link to your PDFs from other pages on your site, you’re telling Google they need to see these pieces of content, because you want them indexed and ranked. Though there isn’t as much significance placed on anchor text as there used to be, optimizing the anchor text on those internal links can help, too.

4. Compress the Images

Use a tool like TinyPNG to compress the images you’re including in the PDF file whenever possible. Your page load speed is a ranking factor, and PDFs tend to be larger files. Compressing the images helps keep the final PDF size as small as possible, meaning they won’t take as long to load.

 

PDFs and SEO

These efforts will help ensure your PDFs are indexed and ranked so your visitors can find them in the search engines. But, ultimately, your SEO goals for PDF files will be different from the goals you have for the other pages on your website. When someone downloads your PDF, that’s a micro conversion of sorts – especially if that’s how they’re entering the site and they’re taking the initiative to download the file.

Do you use PDFs on your website? Have you considered how they affect your SEO before? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Categories
SEO

A Complete Guide to How to Do Quick and Easy Keyword Research

Even the most talented content marketers and writers struggle with one of the most essential parts of creating successful content – keyword research. Sure, there are several tools out there to help make the job easier, but for many, it’s a monotonous task and you can never really be sure you chose the best possible keywords for your content.

I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to spend hours pouring over countless tools worth of search data to determine topics for your articles. In fact, spending too much time on it can cause you to get stuck – spending more time in analysis mode than actually producing content – and if that’s what you’re best at, that’s what you need to be spending the most time on.

Let me show you how to get the keyword research done quickly and effectively so you can move on to crafting content that speaks to your audience.

 

Why You Must Spend Time on Keyword Research

Unless you’re spending time on keyword research, you’re taking shots in the dark about what your audience is looking for, and what your competition is doing to get their attention with those keywords. It may be your least favorite part of the job, but it’s necessary for the best results.

You may find there’s a widely searched keyword that others aren’t providing a good answer for. When you discover that kind of low hanging fruit, you can create a piece of content that drives a lot traffic – and hopefully conversions – to your website. You don’t always have to think of the ideas yourself to be successful. The data can point you in the direction of a hit if you know how to use it.

 

1. Focus on Blog Categories

Organizing all your blog posts into five to 10 categories can help improve your rankings for the popular topics in your niche. It also helps your readers find more relevant content, and keeps your blog organized.

Start by evaluating top websites in your industry. Find the most common items in their navigation menus, and take a peek at their blogs to see what categories they’re using. If you look at this blog, you’ll see our categories are: digital marketing, content marketing, SEO, social media, and outreach. We also have a topic for company news, but that’s not a main focus of the content I create for the blog.

Use Google’s advanced search operators to dig deeper in the top industry sites for extra little nuggets that could be useful to you.

Next, turn to Google Suggest to get some ideas. Search for your main topic, but don’t press enter. Make note of what you see in the drop down. That’s what Google knows to be the most common searches, so you should use that to your advantage. If you have time, or you’re just curious, you could also search, without pressing enter for “keyword a” “keyword b” and so on to get suggestions associated with your keyword and each letter of the alphabet.

 

2. Check the Google Keyword Planner

Now, take your aggregated keyword list, and use the Google Keyword Planner to figure out which of them are the most popular based on average monthly Google searches.

Step 1: Paste your keyword list into the box and click “Get ideas”.

Step 2: Evaluate the search volume for each phrase and save it, keeping in mind the limited data. Also consider that Google may change your keywords slightly, so it’s important to pay attention when you’re choosing what to name your blog categories. Sort your keywords from highest to lowest monthly search volume to make sure you don’t miss anything that could be a valuable category.

 

3. Check the Moz Keyword Explorer

Before you finalize your list of categories, take a look at Moz Keyword Explorer. Create a new list in Moz and paste your list of keywords in the “Enter Keywords” box. Once the data comes back, sort by average monthly search volume, and choose the ones you believe are the most popular and relevant to your site. Choose the main categories, and then choose others to use as subcategories if you want.

 

4. Take a Look at Answer the Public

Here I am again, talking about one of my favorite keyword research tools. Answer the Public gives you access to questions people are asking related to keywords. It’s a great way to come up with content for a FAQ page, or come up with topics for blog posts.

All you have to do is search for your product or service. If we continue with the digital marketing example, we’re presented with questions like:

  • what are digital marketing trends
  • we are digital marketing
  • what are digital marketing metrics
  • what are digital marketing agencies
  • what are digital marketing jobs
  • what are digital marketing essentials
  • what are digital marketing skills
  • what are digital marketing tactics
  • what are digital marketing objectives
  • what are digital marketing solutions
  • what are digital marketing
  • what are digital marketing services
  • what are digital marketing platforms
  • what are digital marketing activities
  • what are digital marketing campaigns
  • what are digital marketing strategies
  • what are digital marketing techniques
  • what are digital marketing tools
  • what are digital marketing channels
  • are digital marketing certification worth it

 

And that’s just some of the “what” questions. That doesn’t cover the how, why, who, when, or where questions you can use to generate content. You can filter them out however you’d like, and export the data into a CSV for easier tracking or inclusion in your editorial calendar.

Now, add the questions to a keyword list in Google Keyword Planner and Moz Keyword Explorer. Repeat the steps above to check the search volume and choose the ones you want to focus on.

 

5. Research Your Competition

Go to SimilarWeb. Search for your competitors and look for their 10 most popular pages. Take the time to evaluate each one of those pages and derive insights about why they are most popular for the audience. This helps you in creating a strategy that not only meets your audience’s needs, but ensures you do it in such a way to stand out from the competition.

 

6. Take the Keywords and Run

Once you know what keywords you’re working with, you’re ready to start working on an editorial calendar and cranking out content. The entire keyword research process should take you less than an hour – if you can manage to resist the urge to avoid Facebook, YouTube, and other time-sucking distractions, anyway.

And if you really want to get ahead, check Google Trends for seasonal content ideas – and get the content out there months before the spikes. This way, it has time to rank and is there waiting for people to find it.

What’s your stance on keyword research? Love it? Hate it? Hire someone else to do it? Tell me in the comments below.

Categories
SEO

A Complete Guide of the Best Practices for URL Redirects

A redirect tells search engines and users to a different URL from the one they originally asked for. They are necessary when making changes to a website’s URL structure, or when moving content from one domain to another. You can use them to associate common web conventions (http://, www., and so on) with one another to help maximize domain authority.

When implemented correctly, little to no ranking is lost, but if not done right, a website can lose most of, if not all, its clout with Google and other search engines. This guide explains the types of redirects and how to implement them.

 

301: Moved Permanently: Best Choice for SEO

A 301 redirect permanently redirects from one URL to another. It passes 90% to 99% of the link juice, or ranking power, to the redirected page. 301 is the HTTP status code for this kind of redirect. Most of the time, this is the best kind of redirect for a website, since it helps keep all current SEO ranking in place.

The 301 tells browsers and search engine crawlers that the page has changed location, and the content, or at least an updated version of it, can be found at the new URL. This allows all link weight from the original page to the new URL.

Transferring content will become more complex if you choose to change your site’s domain, or move content from one domain to another. As a result of spammer abuse, if you’re using 301 redirects between domains, it takes more time for them to be implemented.

 

302: Found/Moved Temporarily

In HTTP 1.1, this is known as 302 Found, and in HTTP 1.0 it was known as 302 Moved Temporarily. Though some Google employees say there are instances where both redirects are treated in a similar manner, Moz says the best way to ensure you maintain all your SEO credit is by using a 301.

 

307: Moved Temporarily

In HTTP 1.1, the 307 code comes into play for Moved Temporarily.  While most crawlers treat it like a 302 in many situations, it is almost always best to continue to use the 301 redirect. The only situation where you should use the 307 redirect is when you really have only moved the content temporarily, such as when your website is undergoing maintenance, and the server has been identified as HTTP 1.1 compatible. It’s fairly difficult to determine whether or not the search engines can determine a page is compatible, so it’s best to use a 302 redirect on content that you’ve moved on a temporary basis.

 

Meta Refresh

A meta refresh is a type of redirect executed at the page level, rather than the server level. They are generally slower, and therefore not recommended for SEO purposes. They are most often associated with the “If you are not redirected within five seconds, click here” messages seen on many websites. A meta refresh will pass some link juice, but isn’t the best choice for SEO because you will lose a lot of link juice and because of poor usability.

 

Redirect Best Practices

Redirects have three core parts: the source, the type, and the destination. The source is the page you don’t want your audience to see. The type refers to whether it’s a 301, 302, or 307. The destination is the new page that you do want your audience to see.

When you move a site or a section of a site, implement 301 redirects on a one to one content basis. If you have three URLS, A, B, and C, A should have a redirect to A’s new location; B should have a redirect to B’s new location, and C should have a redirect to C’s new location.

Make sure you double check and triple check your robots.txt file to make sure you’re not blocking the redirecting URLs.

Remember, each redirect adds another request to your browser, meaning it will take additional time for your website to load. Don’t chain a lot of 301 redirects together – pointing one old URL to another old URL to another old URL before getting to the new one. If the chain gets too long, search engine bots won’t even follow it. You want a website that loads quickly and easily, both for user experience and search ranking purposes, and redirects are one of many factors that affect website speed.

Use the rel=canonical tag to indicate to search engines that what they see is not the official version of the page. This is ideal when you want people to be able to see and access both versions of a page, but only one version accessible and visible to search engines. This is the best way to address multiple versions of a page or piece of content – such as when you have a print version of an article, or you have multiple products that can fit into a single color category. You’ll want to do this for any content you’ve released for syndication on other blogs or websites, too. Don’t abuse the tag, however. Use it only when you want to avoid duplicate content issues.

 

Implementation Method 1: Editing Your Site’s .htaccess File (Apache Servers Only)

If your host allows access to your .htaccess file, open the file from your FTP program. The file is hidden by nature, so make sure your program is set to allow you to view hidden files.

Add a line in the file for each redirect. This tells the server what you want it to do. If you want to redirect a page use:

RedirectPermanent /old-file.html http://www.domain.com/new-file.html

If you want to redirect an entire domain, use:

RedirectPermanent / http://www.new-domain.com/

When you’re finished adding all your redirects, make sure there is a blank line at the end of the file. This is to tell the server you’re finished with the file, since it will read everything line by line.

 

Implementation Method 2: Using IIS (Windows Server Only)

If you’re using a Windows server and have access to the administrative tools, navigate to the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Choose the site you want to work on from the panel on the left-hand side.

You’ll need to have the URL Rewrite module installed. If you do not, install it on your server first. Once installed, double click to open it.

On the right-hand side, click “Add Rules.” From there, choose “Blank Rule.” You should see it under the “Inbound Rules” section. Type a name for your rule.

Now, go to the Match URL panel. Set the requested URL to “Matches the Pattern” and “Using Regular Expressions.” Then, you’ll be able to tell the serve whether you are redirecting a single page, a group of pages, or your entire domain.

  • Page: Type the page name under Pattern.
  • A Group of Pages: directory/(.*)
  • Entire Site: (.*)

 

Make sure the “ignore case” option is checked.

Now, move to the “Action Panel” and select “Redirect.” In the “Action Properties” type in your new URL. If it’s a single page, type in the new address. If it’s a group of pages or entire domain, type your new destination with a back reference, {R:0}. That reference keeps all page URLs intact with the new domain. It would look like this: http://www.newdomain.com/{R:0}

If you want to keep using the tracking parameters you’ve had on the old URLs, check “Append Query String.”

In the “Redirect Type” field, choose “Permanent (301).”

In the Actions column at the top right, click “Apply” to save. At this point, your rules are saved into your web.config file, which you can edit as needed.

 

Implementation Method 3: Creating a 301 Redirect in WordPress

There are several plugins to help you get this done, if you’re not too much of a techy. If you’ve got the premium version of Yoast SEO, there’s a built-in feature to help you. It’ll even tell you if the redirect you’re about to make will create a redirect loop, which effectively shuts down your website. Otherwise, you can use Simple 301 Redirects.

 

Implementation Method 4: Placing Code at the Top of Each Page

If you can’t modify everything on your server and don’t want to use a plugin, but your pages use ASP, Java, PHP, or another language that allows you to make changes to the response headers, place code at the top of each page to do your permanent redirects.

If you’re brand new to the world of SEO, redirects can be intimidating. But with this guide, they don’t have to be. If you have any questions or need any help with 301 redirects as part of a site migration, let me know.

Categories
SEO

8 More Solid Link Building Methods

Last week, I wrote a post with 9 solid link building methods to help you strengthen your SEO. This week, I decided to continue that with a list of eight more options. Even with the 17 of them together, there are still countless other ways you can build links. Some are fairly quick, while others will take time and effort before you really start to see the effects. I recommend you use a combination of all the methods so you’ve got some constant link building effort going on.

1. Start a Blog

Adding a blog to your website gives you a way to consistently create content on a regular basis. It builds internal links, because you can use previous blog posts as reference points for your readers. Not only this, but it lets you naturally attract links to your content. The blog itself isn’t going to build links, but what you do with the blog that will. If your website is built on WordPress, you’ve already got the structure you need to start a blog, so what are you waiting for?

You can then submit your blog to various blog directories. But, it’s important to remember that not all blog directories are created equally. Some will pass great value, while others won’t really offer much.

2. Contribute to Other Blogs

Bloggers sometimes struggle to create content on a regular basis. To make up for the difference, bloggers often accept guest posts from other bloggers to fill in the gaps. You can pitch those bloggers to ask if you can guest post. You can get a link from the post, and you can drive traffic from the post to your website.

You can search for “niche+guest posts” or “niche+write for us.” Visit the websites you’re interested in contributing to, and add them to a spreadsheet. This way you can make notes about topics you’d like to pitch, and keep track of who you’ve already pitched and who has responded. This way you can make sure you’re on a schedule you can keep up with.

If you’re not finding as many as opportunities as you’d like, there are platforms to help connect you with bloggers who are specifically looking for guest posts. Check out My Blog Guest and Blogger Link Up to get started. There are some who say guest blogging is dead. If the links to your blog aren’t dofollow, you won’t get any juice from the domain, but it can still be a good way to expose your blog to new audiences.

When you write a guest post, keep these things in mind:

  • Write quality content – take your time with it, and make sure it has something of substance for the audience.
  • Don’t include your link in the article itself unless it fits contextually – the blogger will include it in a bio for you.
  • Have multiple, useful outbound links in your posts – don’t just think about your target site.
  • Link to other blog posts internally, to help the blogger you’re guest posting for, too.
  • Include images and/or video where appropriate.

3. Promote Your Content on Social Media

People aren’t going to link to your content if they don’t see it, so social media will play a key role in helping you promote your content. Not everyone will link to your content, so it’s important to get the content in front to the right people.

But the last thing you want to do on social media is constantly toot your own horn. If that’s all you do, people aren’t going to pay attention to you anymore. A good rule of thumb is to share eight or nine other pieces of content that don’t originate with you, for every one of your own. It’s okay to schedule multiple tweets and posts with the same content, as long as you’ve gotten some space between them.

4. Build Relationships with Others

Taking time to build relationships with others, online and in person can help you build links. It’s true you may not directly get links from the relationships you build, but you never really know. Over the long term, you can expect a portion of those relationships to turn into links. So, how can you build the relationships you need?

  • Participate: Participate in surveys if someone in your network is looking for people. Find and engage in Twitter chats relevant to your niche or industry. Be active in groups and communities where your customers are found.
  • Network at Conferences: Go to conferences for your industry to connect with people face to face. Search the conference beforehand to connect with attendees on Twitter, so you can take the online conversation one step further in person.
  • Really Interact with Them: Show them you are more than a picture. When someone posts about their kid’s birthday, share your happy birthday wishes. If their son just graduated high school, congratulate them.
  • Random Acts of Kindness: Be nice to others as often as you can. Always look for ways to help, because you never know when someone may be able to return the favor. That doesn’t mean you should act with the expectation of something in return, however. Just be nice and wait for the karma to come back to you.

5. Use Images to Your Advantage

Images are often overlooked as a source of links. People everywhere are looking to find relevant images to use in their content, and you can take advantage of that, if you have quality images you’re willing to license.

When people use your images, you’ll get an attribution link in return – if they’re honest. Always have your camera, especially if you’re at an industry event. If you take 100 photos and only publish half of them on your site for use, there’s good back linking potential there.

If you’re not much of a photographer, you can create quote graphics with a tool like Canva and ask that people provide attribution in exchange for free use. If you generate a lot of images, you may want to add a media gallery to your website. Then, do some image SEO so you they rank for various image search queries. If people steal them, don’t panic. You can always reach out to them and ask them to include a link. Make it easy for them by including the necessary HTML they need to include a link back to you for them to copy and paste.

You can do the same thing with video. Just build up a library of them and make them available for webmasters to embed them. Include your attribution link in the embed code so you get the back link.

6. Write Columns on High Authority Websites

Rather than looking for guest blogs to contribute to, you can look for authority websites in your niche to become a regular contributor to. The high authority websites in the business arena, like Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., and various others are hard to gain authorship on, but can help you build credibility. Not only this, but they have high traffic volumes to expose your column to thousands of readers.

7. Use Help a Reporter Out

Help a Reporter Out is a resource for journalists to find sources for upcoming stories. When you sign up, you can find a list of things people are looking for sources for, so you can secure coverage for your business. Check the platform daily and subscribe the relevant niches so you can get alerts accordingly. Pay attention to the details of the request, and be quick to respond with what the reporters are looking for. Remember, just because you respond to the journalist doesn’t mean you will hear back. They are busy people with deadlines, just like you. Even if you don’t get a response, keep trying. You’ll eventually get coverage and even if you don’t, you can build relationships that may be beneficial later.

8. Crowdsource Posts

Getting answers from a group of industry experts can attract links. When you’ve got a great piece and some influencers to help you spread it around, you can attract an exponential number of links. The experts mentioned in the article will do a lot of promotion for you.

Look for people who are crowdsourcing their posts, too. This is another place where building those relationships comes in handy. When you become an expert mentioned in one of those posts, you can promote it to your audience, and get exposure from a new one. You’ll get a link back to your site with your quote or contribution to the piece, as well.

Build Link after Link After Link – Naturally

Link building is a task some people love, and some people hate. It takes time, and Google knows this. Of course, you want to build as many links as possible, but don’t stress about the speed at which they’re built. Too many too quickly, and your hard work could backfire.

At my agency, Sach’s Marketing Group, SEO is what we do. And link building is a major part of that effort. If you find you’re one who hates it, get in touch. We can help you build the right kind of links at the right pace, so you can focus on the things you really enjoy.

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