Important Announcement
PubHTML5 Scheduled Server Maintenance on (GMT) Sunday, June 26th, 2:00 am - 8:00 am.
PubHTML5 site will be inoperative during the times indicated!

Home Explore beginners-guide-to-seo

beginners-guide-to-seo

Published by sivakumarmanimca, 2016-04-13 08:10:39

Description: beginners-guide-to-seo

Keywords: book sample

Search

Read the Text Version

THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TOwww.positionly.com 1

Who is this Guide for?In this guide we provide you with the complete and up-to date knowledgeabout Search Engine Optimization.If you're a beginner, you'll learn everything you need to know about theprinciples and benefits of SEO, which will help you understand howsearch engines work and how to use that knowledge to get more highly-targeted traffic to your website for free. We'll walk you through the basicslike planning your website’s structure, on-page optimization and keywordresearch.If you’re already familiar with SEO you’ll also find something for yourselftoo. In the later parts of the guide we discuss how to fix the most commonissues with SEO that you might encounter during your journey. Finallywe’ll go through the off-page optimization basics with deep focus on linkbuilding.Let’s get started! 2

Table of contents:1. What is SEO 4-82. Start Your SEO Journey 9-173. Choosing The Proper Keywords (On-page SEO) 18-264. Optimizing Your Website’s Content (On-page SEO) 27-325. Building Quality Links to your Website (Off-page SEO) 33-416. Measuring Your SEO Efforts 43-49 3

KEYWORDS UPDATEWHAT IS SEOSEARCH CONTENT CHAPTER 1 5

IntroductionSEO is the practice of getting a website to rank highly in the search engineresults pages (SERPs). When a user types in a word or phrase into a searchengine, a sophisticated algorithm returns all relevant web pages, ranked sothat the most relevant results appear at the top of the first page of results.There are many factors that search engines use to determine which pagesshould be ranked higher for a particular search query, including the contentthat appears on the page and the other sites that link to it. SEO meansoptimizing for all of these factors to help the site move up the rankings onpopular search engines, such as Google.For example, in order to make a webpage appear in the search engineresults page when a user searches for \"florists in Boston\" it would have to:• include the words \"florists in Boston\" in the on-page text• get links that points to it from other websitesThese signals to the search engine that the page is relevant andappropriate to display for the search query.A Brief History of SEOThe world’s first search engine, known as Archie, was created in 1990 tohelp people find information online. Google followed Archie’s footsteps in1996; it has since grown to become the biggest player in online search.Roughly 70 percent of all searches are now conducted using Google.SEO was born when website owners realized that they could get morevisitors by figuring out how to alter their sites to meet the standards of thesearch engine’s algorithm and make them rank more highly in searchengines. 
 5

Early SEO techniques were very primitive – websites could get trafficsimply by repeating a common search term over and over again in the on-page text or in the HTML tags. As search engines evolved, they becamemuch more sophisticated at telling the difference between spammyattempts to manipulate them and sites that could offer real value to visitors.Why Your Website Needs SEOSearch engines changed the way we seek for information, products orservices. We type in a query and we receive information in the matter ofseconds. That means that your website can be found by a highly specificaudience. The better the visibility of your website, the higher the chancethat your business will be discovered by users looking for services likeyours.Studies suggest that the first organic result (the first result which occursbelow the ads) on Google gets about 20 percent of all searchers’ clicks.That’s a lot of visitors that you may be able to turn into customers!Literally thousands of people from around the world generate thousands ofsearches daily. For example, if you optimize a web page around thekeyword “flower delivery,” which is searched for around 165,000 timesevery month, then you could potentially have 33,000 visitors a month if youget your page to rank as the top result on Google – and that’s just from onesearch engine.Google is the most popular search engine, but traffic from Yahoo and Bingcan also contribute to your business’s online success.Implementing SEO in your marketing strategy is the right choice, as itmeans that the people you attract to your site are those who are actuallylooking for the products and services that you offer.
 6

LEARN MORE • Why SEO Will Grow Your BusinessMore Benefits of Improving Your SEORanking at, or near, the top is the ultimate goal of SEO, but that's just thebeginning. Three of the most important benefits from improved SEO are:1. A better user experience - By simplifying navigation and streamlining your content, site visitors will be able to find what they want much more quickly. That improves conversion rates, which leads to the second improvement.2. Measurable ROI for your site - Businesses have treated advertising like a sunk cost because nobody was able to track how effective it was compared to word of mouth and referral traffic. With website analytics, you can see where your money is going and how much your changes impact revenue.3. Stronger market position - Brand reputation is measured by how well known you are and how people feel about your company. Making customers feel welcome on your site, and making it easy for them to find what they need, improves your reputation and social mentions across the web.4. More targeted traffic - Bounces don't help anyone. When someone clicks on your site and clicks away, neither you nor the user gets what they want. SEO improves your conversion rates, along with your reputation, as an authority in your field. When your keywords, titles, 7

meta-tags and images are all coordinated on a specific topic, searchers will find your site useful and compelling.5. Better brand exposure - One of the greatest aspects of an online presence for smaller businesses is that it levels the playing field in terms of brand exposure. Companies that can't afford prime real estate on the main shopping street or giant billboards can get just as much exposure through shared content and social proof that comes from an effective SEO strategy.Can You Do SEO By Yourself?Many SEO agencies claim to be able to get your site to the top page ofGoogle, but there are actually many benefits of managing your own SEO.DIY SEO can be an extremely cost-effective way of getting traffic,compared to using an SEO agency or paying for ads to bring in traffic. Youcould start by spending just a few hours a week on:• keyword research• optimizing your present web page for keywords and better usability• building links• creating keyword-rich content for your siteHowever, if you don't want to hire an in-house SEO specialist and you don'thave the time to do it yourself, an agency can be a good option - just makesure that you know exactly what techniques the agency is using to improveyour site's ranking. You need to make sure that your site’s SEO is builtaround a safe long-term strategy, not cheap tricks designed to get quickgains by manipulating search engine algorithms.LEARN MORE• What to Ask an SEO Agency Before Working With Them 8

START YOURSEO JOURNEYCHAPTER 2 10

IntroductionIt's never too late to start using SEO as part of your marketing strategy.Things have changed so much in the world of technology, but theprinciples of SEO have pretty much stayed the same. You may have anadvantage by starting now, over businesses that are still operating the old-fashioned way.A few more words about SEOIn our increasingly mobile world, people normally only click on the first fewresults from any search. Ranking at the top of theSERPs can be thedifference between being found and being forgotten. SEO techniquescover all the changes and improvements you can make to your website tohelp you be found more easily and turn visitors into customers.While the Internet has brought people together who never would have metotherwise, many searchers are still frustrated trying to find what they wantonline. The engineers who build search engine algorithms are alwaysrefining their programming to better understand what people reallywant, compared to what they search for.That makes SEO an ongoing process, as businesses try to give thealgorithms what they need to boost the rankings for specific search terms.Global competition is increasing, language is changing all the time andsearch on mobile devices is becoming the new normal. All these add up tothe fact that getting found is getting harder than ever. Better SEO is theanswer. 10

Main Elements of SEOSEO consists of on-page and off-page elements. You need to use bothsimultaneously to help your strategy reach its full potential.On-Page ElementsSITE STRUCTUREStructural elements of your site, such as the way its pages link to eachother, can affect SEO. Search engines “crawl” through this link structure tofind and index pages. You need to structure your site so that all off itspageswould be easy to index by search engine crawlers.Creating a clear websitestructure will not only make your website more accessible for searchengines, but most of all, more friendly to the end users.CONTENTSearch engines love original content, just much as people do. By sayingoriginal content, we mean what is unique and can not be found anywhereelse on the web. Filling your site with regularly updated content, includingtext, images and videos, is one of the best ways to improve SEO.KEYWORDSIncluding keywords in your content lets search engines know that yourpage is relevant to people who are searching for those keywords. You willneed to include keywords naturally throughout your on-page content,including:• headlines• subheadlines• bolded section of text 11

Remember not to over do it! Over-stuffing content with too many keywordsand unnecessary stuff will make it look spammy. This kind of content couldturn your visitors away instantly and what’s worse - could be a threat fromthe SEO point of view.PAGE URLA SEO-friendly URL is one that includes the main keyword which the pageis targeting. URLs are displayed in a web browser and on SERPs. There aretwo types of web addresses:static:www.yourwebsite.com/category-type/product-pageand dynamic:www.yourwebsite.com/category-type/?p=0254007While search engines can easily understand both URLs, for human beings,dynamic URLs are completely illegible. A searcher can’t define what can befound on a particular website. Not to mention that you miss the chance toput one of your relevant keywords on the URL if you choose a dynamicweb address.TITLE-TAG & META-DESCRIPTIONTitle-tag should define a site’s content in a concise and clear way. Youshould keep it short, max 50-60 characters. Be sure to include at least twoof your most important keywords along with your brand’s name.A title tag plays a significant part in SEO, as it appears in SERPs, on externalwebsites and directly in browsers.Meta-description is a short paragraph displayed under a title tag on SERP.Meta-description gives you the opportunity to introduce your brand before 
 12

a searcher views your website and actually see the products you offer. Theoptimal length of a meta-description is between 150-160 characters.RICH SNIPPETSRich snippets seem very similar to meta-descriptions. They describestructured data markup that site operators can add to their existing HTML.Search engines use them to present richer search results.Whenever your website shows up on SERPs, search engines show the sitetitle, URL and meta-description you have assigned to the page. However, ifyou use rich snippets, a search engine is able to use it to display moreinformation about your site, such as whether the link is a review, a person,a product, a business and more. 13

LEARN MORE • A Beginner’s Guide to Rich SnippetsALT-TEXT OF IMAGESWhile images, videos and interactive elements are fantastic for appealingto human visitors, the Google crawler relies on text to find out whatinformation is contained on a web page. Written information should beincluded as text, since words displayed in images or videos are notrecognized by the crawler.You should also use ALT attributes in your tags to describe images on yoursite to both search engines and visually-impaired readers. For example, ifyou have a page that is focused on the keyword \"iPhone 5\", then photos ofthe phone should be tagged with the keyword \"iPhone 5\" so that Googleknows the photos are relevant to that particular search query. 14

INTERNAL LINKINGInternal linking is also an important part of SEO. Search engine algorithmscrawl through your site by following links from one page to another,indexing each page that they find along the way.Key concepts, products and services, when discussed, should behighlighted with hyperlinks redirecting readers to other related resourceson your site. Internal links ensure that every page on your site will beindexed and therefore appear on the SERPs. LEARN MORE • On-Page Optimization Checklist: A Foolproof Guide To Optimizing Your ContentOff-Page ElementsEXTERNAL LINKSLinks stand hand-in-hand with on-page optimization and are the foundationof visible appearance in Google. Receiving links to your website from otherreputable sites in your niche can help with getting better exposure.Each time someone visits your store from an external website, you justgained a backlink! And you should definitely keep going and try to gainmore of them. The reason why backlinks are so important in SEO is thatsearch engines determine the popularity of a website by the number ofbacklinks it has gained. There are many strategies for link building, whichwe cover in later stages of this guide.This is how a list of gained backlinks looks like in Positionly:
 15

SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNALSYou may be surprised how social media engagement and interaction canaffect your website’s rankings in search results. Nowadays, social media isincreasingly playing a bigger role in SEO. Providing a social mediapresence for your store should be an integral part of your marketingstrategy.It is not that you have to be on every single platform that is out there - twoor three will do. Just make sure that once you appear somewhere, youupdate it regularly with engaging content. It could be fun, creative,interesting or informative - whatever fits your brand best.One thing you should keep in mind is that social media is all aboutdialogue and interaction. Each time a user asks you a question, leaves afeedback or expresses their opinion, you should not leave it without aresponse. 16

LEARN MORE • The Top 4 Opportunities to Leverage SEO & Social Media ***Now that you know exactly what SEO elements you should be focusing onto get your website rank higher in search engines, you’re ready to beginyour SEO journey and we are more than happy to accompany you alongthe way. 16

CHOOSING THEPROPER KEYWORDS (ON PAGE SEO)CHAPTER 3 19

IntroductionIn this chapter, we will show you how to choose the best keywords for yourwebsite. This will help you get better exposure in search engines andattract more visitors that are looking for particular products or services.KeywordsAs you begin your foray into the world of SEO, you'll hear a lot of buzzaround the role of keywords in optimizing your site's content. So why arekeywords such an integral part of SEO?Simply put - keywords, as they relate to search engines, are words andphrases that match search queries that people type in when looking forspecific information. Each time a user writes a particular term in a searchbar, an engine algorithm returns pages on the Internet that contains thatkeyword or phrase.It's essential to optimize your site's content with proper keywords, sopeople will be able to find it. How is this accomplished? Welcome to thewonderful world of keyword research.The Google Keyword ToolOne useful tool for picking the right keywords is Google Keyword Planner.The tool helps answer the question \"what are people looking for?\". TheKeyword Tool is only available with an AdWords account; however, you canuse it for free.Once you set up your account, put in your domain name and type in theproducts or services that you offer. Doing this will allow you to see keywordsuggestions for your business.
 19

The tool provides information on individual keyword searches, along withmonthly estimates on how often the searches are performed. 20

The number of average monthly searches shows how many people aresearching for that keyword - a larger number is better. High competitionsuggests that many brands are using this particular keyword in their paidads.The happy medium is somewhere in the middle - finding a keyword withlow or medium competition which still has enough searches to be worthtargeting. LEARN MORE • Keyword Research Masterclass - Using the Google Keyword Planner 21

Types of KeywordsAfter doing extensive research, you will get a list of many differentkeywords. Before you decide which ones are the best for generating highquality traffic to your website, you need to learn how to distinguishbetween different types of keywords.Here are the main types of keywords:Generic KeywordsThose are unspecific and very general terms that people use for searchqueries. They could sound like: “Kids Clothes” or “Digital Cameras”. Inmost cases, such terms provide a really good amount of traffic, which at thesame time is not very targeted - it means that people who visit your websitemay be a really random audience. By a “random audience” I mean peoplewho are more interested in finding specific information rather than buying aparticular product or using a service.What is also very distinctive about generic keywords is that they are verycompetitive. It is usually very difficult to rank high in SERPs when using onlygeneric keywords.Broad Match KeywordsBroad match terms, such as: “Kids Clothes for Girls” or “Digital Camerasfor Beginners”, provide a good balance between the traffic volume andrelevance with your website. Not so many websites try to rank for exactlythe same broad match keywords, so it will be easier to optimize yourwebsite for these keywords. 22

Also, you can expect a pretty decent amount of conversions from the broadmatch terms - which means that it will be much easier to turn visitors intoclients.Long Tail KeywordsGenerally speaking, they are long phrases (sometimes even wholesentences) that people type into search bars. Something like: “where tobuy original clothes for girls” or “digital SLR photography tips forbeginners” are treated as long tail terms.These types of keywords will not bring a lot of traffic to your website.However, the visitors that they provide you with will be your most engagedclients.Every type of keyword mentioned above has its own pros and cons. Thebest strategy is to mix them and use all of them simultaneously to optimizeyour store’s website. LEARN MORE • Keyword Research – How to Select Top Keywords for SEO • Eight Ways To Find Long Tail KeywordsTracking Your KeywordsOnce you’ve picked the most relevant keywords for your website, youshould start tracking them to monitor how they perform. To do it quicklyand effortlessly, log in to your Positionly account, click on Websites in theupper section of your Dashboard and choose your website. (You can trackmany websites depending on what plan you’re on). 23

In the Search Rankings section of a particular website, you’ll see a shortsummary of its performance and detailed information about keywordsrankings and changes in keywords positions. You can compare the searchresults to your organic, paid and referral traffic.You can also select different search engines or modify time periods in orderto receive more specific data. What’s also important here is you can selectyour competitors and compare their average positions against yours. 24

Go to the Keywords section to get more detailed information about aspecific keyword. You’ll see a list of all your keywords with their positionsmarked (as well as the changes that appeared recently), the volume ofcompetition, groups and links to a web page that appears in SERPs for aspecific keyword.If you have a heavy amount of keywords that you’re tracking, it isrecommended that you group them to keep organized and clear. Go to the“Groups” section in the “Search Rankings” menu and create your firstgroup.After performing the analysis, you should know exactly which keywords tofocus on to make your website rank higher in SERPs and to drive morehigh-quality traffic to your online store. In common practice, the best is tomix generic keywords with broad and long tail ones. This way, you will getstrong and long-term results. 25

Now that you know what types of keywords are out there, how to doresearch and how to track keywords that you’ve chosen, it’s high time todiscuss the best and most effective ways to use that knowledge. 26

OPTIMIZING YOURWEBSITE’S CONTENT (ON-PAGE SEO)CHAPTER 4 27

IntroductionAccording to Google’s guidelines, websites that are rich in usefulinformation tend to rank higher. Google and Bing recommend filling siteswith quality content, rather than ads or affiliate links. Content creation isalways a time-consuming task, nevertheless, optimized content providesSEO results that are invaluable and long-term.In this chapter, we will give you tips about content creation and promotion.We will show you how to plan the content on your website and also how tomake it both user and SEO-friendly.Content PlanningContent planning is the process of answering some questions during thedesign of a marketing campaign.• What is the purpose of your content?• Who is your target audience?• What is your goal?• What kind of content could possibly engage your visitors?SEO is considered to be a long-term strategy, and so should your content.It is good practice to prepare a regular publishing schedule so you canengage your audience for a longer period of time. LEARN MORE • The Ultimate Guide to Building a Rock Solid Content 28

Content CreationOnce you have a basic road map for your content, it’s time to create it.Regardless of what form the content takes, it is important to understandwhat the audience is concerned about and what problems they really wantto solve.In some cases, it will make sense to contract out or collaborate withcontent specialists like ghostwriters, copywriters and video creators toproduce it. In other cases, it may make sense to keep the entire process in-house.Regardless, if you are responsible for creating the actual article, script oroutline, you should be an expert in the subject matter being discussed. Thiswill help you build your personal brand and pose you as an authority inyour niche.While creating the actual content, you have to keep two additional factorsin mind - quality and attractiveness. People read articles differently on theInternet. They tend to scan the text, rather than read it from cover to cover.Try to provide a clear structure with headlines, subheadlines, bullets andbold font in the most important sections of your content. This will improveyour readers’ experience and let them find the information they are lookingfor a lot quicker.As for attractiveness - no one likes to read boring stuff, right? Try make yourcontent a bit more vivid - use pictures, examples and videos to illustrate theinformation better and make your content memorable. 29

LEARN MORE • Content Creation Checklist • Must-have Tools for Effortless Content CreationOptimizing Your Content for Search EnginesWe've discussed the importance of creating content that addressesproblems that your readers want to solve. However, you also need to letyour audience know that this content exists. Otherwise, it's like building adeluxe apartment complex without telling the public that the units areavailable for lease.That’s why every post or article should be SEO-friendly. Period. But whatdoes it really mean? . Besides the information you would like to present toyour audience, your content should be properly prepared from thetechnical side.Content lengthPosts should be of sufficient length in order to thoroughly explain the topic.it should contain around 650 words at least. As a content creator, youshouldn’t add content just for the sake of adding it. Content discovery isone thing, but attracting your reader and building trust around your projectis a totally different thing. Remember, at the end of the day, your contentwill be read by real people. 30

TitleContent should be titled so that those interested in the topic can find it. Thesubject of the post should be something that people are actually seekinganswers for, either through forums, social media or a search bar.Target keywords should occur in the title, as well as naturally throughoutthe rest of the text. In order to make the content is easy to read, try not tooverdo the on-page optimization. Feel free to use similar keywords,synonyms and other variations. They are known as secondary keywords.When these other words are used, it's an indication to search engines thatthe content is potentially topic-relevant. LEARN MORE • How to Combine Content with Keywords That will Boost Your RankingsDuplicated ContentYour content shouldn’t appear elsewhere on the Internet. It should beoriginal. It's okay to reference other ideas, but using other people’s contentcan getyou into some trouble. Webmasters and content creators can bepenalized if duplicated content is found on their website. In order to avoidthis, you can easily learn how canonical tags can be used. LEARN MORE • A Beginners Introduction To The Canonical Tag 31

Content PromotionGood content is enough to attract traffic from search engines. Well, notquite. Unfortunately, when good content is created, it doesn't magicallyshow up in front of Internet users to solve their problem. While goodcontent promotes the business, the content itself needs to be promoted.Higher rankings for a specific keyword aren’t built in a day. As wementioned before, and we will continue to cover this in the next chapters,they are affected by the number of backlinks your web page receives fromother reputable websites. You can imagine those backlinks as votestowards your content. The more votes it gets, the more visible it will be.Due to this, content should be shared across all available social mediachannels, as well as communities within a specific niche. It will help yougain maximum visibility so the others will have a chance to read it andmaybe refer to it through their work.While content creation allows for a great deal of freedom in how it’simplemented, the ways you can promote your work are quite limited. It’sdifficult to create an outstanding piece and receive backlinks manually.Fortunately, there are ways to achieve that. LEARN MORE • Effective Content Promotion Tactics • Content Marketing for Grown-Ups & Serious Businesses 32

BUILDING LINKSTO YOUR WEBSITE (OFF-PAGE SEO)CHAPTER 5 33

IntroductionGoogle and other search engines rank pages according to how useful theythink each result will be for the searcher. Part of this assessment involvesthe relevancy of each returned page - how closely the content matches thesearch query entered. Another factor that plays into the ranking of aparticular page is its popularity. Search engines rank more popular pageshigher, because they are much more trustworthy and more likely to matchwhat the searcher is looking for.Link Signals: How Search Engines AssessPopularitySEO has been a well-documented field of study since the beginning ofsearch engines. Over the years, one element of high-ranking sites hasremained consistent: the number of high-quality, authoritative inboundlinks.Why Links MatterLet's frame this in terms of social media. On your Facebook timeline, you'llnotice that stories with a higher concentration of \"likes\" display higher upon the feed. This is partly how Facebook’s algorithm determines whichcontent is the most valuable. In other words, think of an inbound link as avote for your site.Of course, search engines’ algorithm looks beyond just the sheer numberof inbound links. These inbound links have to be trusted and authoritative.For instance, if a bunch of authoritative sites link to relevant content onyour site, some of that \"authority\" is transferred to your site.In a nutshell, these sites are legitimizing your site just by linking to yourcontent. What is the result? Your content is viewed as authoritative on a 34

subject or keyword and has a good chance of appearing on the first pageof your desired search engine.The Problem with LinksInbound links are valuable, but can also pose a problem — primarily thatrelying on external inbound links alone leaves the ranking of your site inthe hands of another site. For instance, if no authoritative sites link to yoursite, your chances of ranking on the front page of a search engine are slimto none — regardless of the quality of your digital branding. No businesscan or should leave this up to chance.To take control, companies hire a professional or an agency that can helpthem build authority through a process called link building. Of course youcan also build links by yourself.Link Building BasicsIf you don’t go about link building the right way, your efforts can backfire.Before we talk about how to get it right, let’s quickly look at a warning listof the link building strategies that will harm, rather than help, your site:• Link exchange schemes - used to be a popular way of building links. Webmasters would publish links to other sites in exchange for links to their own site. Recent Google algorithm updates penalize these kinds of link schemes.• Buying links - although buying links can give you immediate results, it can also quickly get your website penalized and wiped out from SERPs.• Commenting - on blogs and forums with a link to one’s own site (and not much else in the way of content) is spammy and can harm SEO, 35

particularly if the place where the link is being dropped is totally irrelevant to the topic of the linked site.• Article directories - allow site owners to publish articles which include a link back to their site. However, most article directories have been hit hard by Google algorithm updates, which means that they no longer provide high-quality links.Links provided by these kinds of schemes are generally low-quality and willnot improve your SEO. They could even damage it! Rather than taking aget-rich-quick approach to link building, you need to put in consistent effortover the long term.How to Get High Quality LinksAccording to Google Webmaster Guidelines, good links are ‘natural’ links.That means that your primary focus should be on creating content thatpeople naturally want to link to. However, there are a couple of linkbuilding strategies that can help you.Social MediaLinks from social media sites to your site are often ‘no-follow,’ which meansthat they don’t have a direct impact on SEO. However, having a brandpresence on social media can increase referral traffic to your site and buildyour site’s reputation in general. The more visible your content is on socialmedia, the higher the chances are that people will share it via blog posts,forums, social bookmarking sites (like RSS) and other avenues, naturallyincreasing your link profile. 36

YouTube and PinterestOne way to draw traffic to your site is to post rich video or image contenton YouTube or Pinterest. These sites have very good domain authority,which means they rank well in search engines, and they also have largecommunities of users who can discover your content. Create useful and/orsharable content, such as tutorial videos, and promote them on socialmedia. Make sure you include a link to your site in either the videodescription or the link attached to your Pinterest image.Guest BloggingGuest blogging is a practice where one blogger offers to write a post onanother person’s blog. The post would usually include a link back to theguest blogger’s site. The guest blogger benefits by gaining a link from asite in the same niche, while the blog host gains high-quality content forfree.The two key success factors to guest blogging are relevance and quality.As a guest blogger, you need to be picky about who you write for. Youshould be targeting high-quality blogs that are highly relevant to your site,rather than participating in generic blog exchange networks. LEARN MORE • Risk Link Management for Guest Blogging Strategy • Guest Blogging for SEO – How to Build Traffic and Not Overdo It • How To Get More Organic Traffic To Your Website • The Great to Banned Link Building Techniques Lifecycle 37

Link Building: Quality is KingIf you are interested in guest blogging, find out who the best bloggers inyour field are and get in touch with them directly. Be careful though to notoverdo it. Large scale guest blogging for a link purpose is also consideredas a technique which violates Google’s rules. In SEO, slow ones are thewinners.When it comes to link building, quality matters. Don’t waste time buildinglinks from low-quality or unrelated sites. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content, publicizing it in different websites and buildingrelationships with the best bloggers in your niche.How to Keep an Eye on Your LinksAs soon as you implement any of the proper link building strategies, youshould start monitoring your efforts - not only to know if your hard work ispaying off, but also to make sure that you’re not hurting your rankings withlow-quality inbound links.Log in to your Positionly account, add a website which links you’d like tomonitor and go to the Inbound Links section. We gather the most recentinbound links that you receive from other websites. We give informationabout the source - who and where publish links to your website, theanchor text - how the link looks like, and the quality of the links.What is awesome is that at a glance you can see the overall quality of yourinbound links and how the links trend looks like. 38

Below you’ll see a chronological list of links that link to your website. Youcan analyze their quality, source, anchor text, country, as well as thelink and follow type.To make the analysis easier, you can filter the list and search by a daterange, quality or a particular source. 39

For instance, you can see all the high-quality and do-follow links that youlost or see from which countries you’ve gained poor-quality links recently.Also, you can download your lists in a PDF or CSV format at any time.Authoritative Links DefinedObtaining authoritative inbound links is not rocket science, but you’ll needto have a plan about what websites you want to reach to receive a qualitybacklink. Here are a few key indicators of a quality inbound link:• Their site is relevant to yours• Their site's content is high quality (not spammy or stuffed with keywords)• You have some sort of relationship with their site’s owner• Their site's content is valuable to your audience• Their site is viewed as a thought leader in your industry 40

Conclusion: Be Patient and Diligent with YourLink Building StrategyIt's true. Link building is not complex, but it is also not easy. Gatheringappropriate links can take time and diligence to ensure that only thehighest quality sites are linking back to your site. Link building, in anutshell, is a long-term strategy.Stay away from strategies that guarantee overnight success throughspamming practices. These strategies will quickly and significantly harmyour rankings on SERPs. Keep in mind that link building, at its core, is allabout building relationships with other companies and sites that youtrust. 41

MEASURING YOUR SEO EFFORTSCHAPTER 6 42

If You Can Measure It, You Can Improve ItWhen it comes to the SEO game, success is determined by traffic, rankingsand conversions. All of those should be measured as soon as any SEOstrategies are implemented within a website. In this chapter, we will talkabout how you can use Positionly to check whether your SEO efforts arehelping you get better rankings.Let's take a look at the fundamentals of SEO tracking and measurementstrategies.Top Three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)First thing's first, what's a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)? In very basicterms, a KPI is a measurement of performance. In regard to SEO, KPIs arethe performance metrics that matter the most. While there are severalperformance indicators that are helpful in understanding how to improve anSEO strategy, there are three main KPIs that help ensure SEO success.Organic TrafficThis is among the most talked about KPIs because it's a signal that peopleare engaging with your product or service. But there's a lot more to trafficthan just numbers; these numbers actually have to mean something. Ingeneral, there are two aspects of inbound traffic that you should monitor:Volume (the number or percentage of daily/monthly visitors) and Quality(the type of visitors).• Traffic Volume: When it comes to the sheer number of inbound visitors, organic traffic is the holy grail. For the uninitiated, organic traffic occurs when users are referred to your site via a search engine. SEO success in the traffic volume department is usually indicated by the percentage of 43

organic traffic you receive from major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. You can check organic traffic in your Google Analytics account. Go to the Acquisition section to see all your traffic.Also, you can use Positionly to check and compare organic traffic withyour rankings. Once you log in and connect your account with GoogleAnalytics, go to the Overview section of the Search Rankings and youwill be able to see how the positions of your website influences theamount of the organic traffic that you have. 44

• Traffic Quality: Determining traffic quality is a little less straight forward, as you need to know exactly what to look for. Some of the most common metrics for determining traffic quality include: pages per visit, bounce rate, time on site and click-through rates (CTRs). In a nutshell, traffic quality generally means that your site visitors are staying and engaged on your site and consuming content that moves them through your conversion or sales funnel. 45

LEARN MORE • How to Measure SEO: KPI of Organic Search • How to Master SEO with Google Analytics – BeginnersSEO RankingsAccording to Search Engine Watch, organic search results on the first pageof Google get up to 92% of the traffic, as opposed to a measly 18% if yoursite ends up on the next page. Translation? Keyword rankings still matter.Improving your ranking isn't necessarily rocket science, but it does take abit of finesse to get this right. Be patient in your quest for higher searchengine rankings. It will pay off in the long-run.As it was mentioned before, improving your SEO requires that you trackyour rankings and analyze how they change in line with your optimizationefforts. You should keep an eye on your rankings on a daily basis.In the the Search Rankings section, you will see an overview of yourrankings for a selected time period and particular search engine. You cancompare your rankings not only with organic, but also paid and referraltraffic. Just mark which traffic you want to compare your rankings with. 46

Also, what’s very important is that you can compare your rankings with allof the competitors that you’ve added earlier in the sign-up process (or youcan add them now).And see how they rank in different search engines compared to yourwebsite. 47

Below the graph, you can also take a quick glimpse of the averagerankings of your keywords as well as any keyword changes. The data isupdated daily.ConversionsThis is the \"why\" behind your SEO strategy. All search optimization has —or at least it should have — clear, definable goals that can be measured.When these goals are accomplished, this is called a \"conversion.\" Also, aconversion doesn't always have to mean a monetary transaction. In manycases, a conversion is something as simple as a newsletter subscription ora document download. In any case, your site conversions can and shouldbe tracked - for example, with Google Analytics. LEARN MORE • How to Measure SEO: KPI of Organic Search • How to Measure the ROI from SEO Campaigns 48

Conclusion: Track EverythingSEO tracking is all about data. The more data that you have at yourdisposal, the more knowledge you will have to make a big impact on youraudience. This means that you can track just about any activity via youranalytics dashboard. This includes everything from social mediaengagement, to display ad click-throughs, to video streams on yourwebsite. The key is to understand which performance indicators reallymatter to your business. ***Well, this is basically it. We’ve gathered all the SEO essentials that everyonline entrepreneur should know in one place. We hope that we just madeit a bit easier for your to optimize your website’s visibility, drive morevisitors to your website and convert them into paying customers. If youhave any questions, suggestions or simply want to give us your feedback,just drop an email at: [email protected], if you find this ebook useful, spread the word about it and help yourfriends optimize their online businesses! 49

TRY POSITIONLYCheck out the simplest and the most user-friendly tools. Monitor daily changes and your competitors, measure SEO performance and improve your search engine rankings. GET STARTED NOW 1


Like this book? You can publish your book online for free in a few minutes!
Create your own flipbook