Spread Link Love

If you're anything like me, then you're looking to understand why certain things work the way they do. Keep an eye on organic search and watch out for drops in search performance, attribute those drops to specific actions, and develop a game plan for recovery and beyond. As a rule, the best thing you can do to create a successful blog and show up high in search results is put quality at number one. Provide value, solve readers’ problems, and make your content and SEO practices natural and relevant. In the end, the users, the marketplace, content and links will determine the popularity and ranking numbers.

If your current website isn’t using HTTPS then you should start scoping out a migration. There are few things more frustrating and downright annoying than investing a large amount of money into a well-researched, written and designed piece of content — that nobody sees. Website owners used to litter their content with tons of keywords in order to rank higher on Google. Now, the search engine penalizes for those practices. On powerful social media sites, the hyperlinks you include in your posts don’t get counted as a link that will help improve your backlink profile. Also, on a lot of websites, they’ll have what’s called a “no-follow” link.

Google has stated on the record that page loading speed is an SEO ranking signal. You can boost your site speed by using a CDN, compressing images, and switching to faster hosting. SEO isn’t a quick tactic that will suddenly boost traffic to your website; it’s a long-term commitment, Poor spelling has always had the potential to be a negative ranking factor in Google if the word that is incorrect on the page is unique on the page and of critical importance to the search query. If the content isn’t right, it’ll be hard to promote it effectively. It’s like creating a product that no one wants to buy. How do you promote something useless?

Clearly define your objectives in advance so you can truly measure your ROI from any programs you implement. Dealing with a Google algorithm change like the page layout update can feel like falling into an abyss of constant web design changes over and over again. "Search volume" refers to how many times a particular phrase is searched for. It’s a handy way to gauge how much traffic you’ll receive from a specific query, though you should know that volume tends to fluctuate over time. According to SEO Consultant, Gaz Hall: "Like titles, search engines typically give headings a higher priority. Clear headings that describe the content that follows make it easier for search engines to detect the major themes of your site."

You’ve got to understand that authority, niche-specific and generic blogs that publish related content can do the same. Always remember to find natural local keywords. Simply stuffing in unnecessary mentions of the residing town may actually do your SEO more harm than good. Anyone with a site that provides useful content and has the right network can now drive organic traffic. The words that make up a query are commonly referred to as “keywords,” a foundational element of SEO. Since the ultimate goal of your SEO strategy is to help people who are looking for your business or products, what more logical place to start than optimizing your site to best match customers' searches?