7 Reasons Why Your Organic Traffic has Dropped! And Yes, It’s Not Google’s Fault!

With a huge change in the field of SEO landscape in the past few years, the organic traffic of a website may appear and then disappear. This has made many website owners think about reasons for organic traffic to drop? Here are some reasons the organic traffic has dropped:

1. Search Behaviour and Trends Changes

Sometimes, the drop is simply not related to content or external links. It may occur for reasons beyond one's control. Algorithms for Google are constantly changing which invite additional changes in the manner search results are returned to users. However, this is not out of control for the owner of the site completely. Ignorance to the latest trends will have a huge influence on your website’s search visibility.

A decline in traffic and rankings have got declined for your website's key landing pages, refreshing  keyword targets will make sure you are up to date with what people are searching for. The Google Trends is definitely a great place to start. It will help you measure targeted sharp decline or gradual fall in key phrases. You may also refer to Search Console Search Analytics data of Google to achieve recent snapshot of things users are currently searching for to find your services and products.

2. Uninformed Changes in Site

Apart from search marketing fundamentals, some developers like to make changes to your website sans giving any prior information to stakeholders and the marketing department. Hence, any drop in organic traffic should be dealt with a super quick catch up with developer or even senior colleagues to determine any dramatic changes that have been made to the site. Thereafter, you may place a request for another crawl of the domain with the help of tools like Screaming Frog to identify pages marked as 'no-index' (stripped off) content. Reviewing of new content is crucial.

3. Indexing Sans Content Pruning

One of the major reasons there's a drop in your organic search traffic is indexing of all pages without pruning content. Google makes dedicated efforts to improve the search algorithm and detecting high quality content. No wonder it has rolled out the Google Panda 4.0 update. It deranks very low quality content and then boosts those of high quality. A website with evergreen content tends to attract organic traffic. However, some pages act as deadwood. So if you are serious about not getting search traffic dropped in the Google Index, include the pages that you are interested in ranking.

Polluting traffic of your website with overloading unnecessary pages makes no sense. Remember that pages having poor quality or obsolete content is of no use. This do not interest the visitors. Hence, these must be pruned to ensure good website health. Poor quality of pages will affect performance of the entire site.

4. Penalties - Manual or Algorithmic

A dramatic drop in organic traffic may be because you have been hit by algorithmic or a manual penalty. When a site is flagged for not adhering to Google's quality norms, a manual penalty is issued. As a result, your rankings will be penalized. It is easier to spot manual penalties. A notification is sent through messages from Google in its Manual Action section of your Google Search Console account.

5. Search Console Manual Actions

As mentioned above, manual penalties are visible in your Google Search Console account. However, this is not the case with algorithmic penalties. These are more common and occur naturally. Google issues an update to their search algorithms and sends penalties wherever applicable. Hence, it can be hard to know if you’ve been hit by an algorithmic penalty. No notifications will be received here as in the case of manual penalties. So if you have noticed a drop in organic traffic, audit your website for harmful backlinks that it has recently acquired. You also need to identify any duplicate or poorly written content. Some of the Crawl tools such as Screaming Frog are quite helpful in pointing out pages on your site with low word counts. The Ahrefs can identify external links (spammy or irrelevant to the  content) acquired recently.

6. Redesigning Your Website & Not Doing 301 Redirects to Old Pages

It is possible to lose any traffic to your site when migrating website from one domain to another. And the worst part is that all of your new visitors will be greeted with a 404 page. All organic search traffic you enjoyed will be a memory, especially if you fail to do 301 redirects. However, it is possible to transfer all of the organic search traffic to another domain with only a few lines of code!

301 permanent redirects a visitor (including search engines) to your new website. Everything from direct traffic to authority, age, and reputation of your old website will get transferred to the latest web address.

7. Ignoring Technical SEO

Most individuals get caught up in the practice of churning out fresh content for their websites. However, they simply end up neglecting technical aspects of SEO. There are certain things to look into so that the organic traffic for website doesn't drop. First, you need to check if robots.txt file is blocking some of the pages from being crawled by search bots. Also assess if there are pages on your site marked up with the noindex tag.

Having multiple pages covering similar themes or targeting the same keywords is also a problem. You need to canonicalise these pages appropriately to refer the original page that you wish search engines to return.

Make sure the website is mobile friendly. This is the major ranking signal of Google. Get rid of pages that are slow to load.

Summary

Keeping tabs on the above listed points will help you know about the exact reason behind drop in organic traffic and search engine ranking. Good Luck!

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5 Best Ways Landing Page Optimization Tips to Lower Your CPC

Have you been looking for a Google AdWords campaign that's high-converting and costs less? This means, you require a very well-structured campaign that targets the right number of keywords and ensure relevance for the searcher. Generating magnetic ads is a must for increasing CTRs. Also bid the right amount so as to increase spending.

To start with, you need to emphasise on landing pages. Remember that relevancy and quality of your landing pages have a direct impact on Quality Score. This also directly affects cost per click (CPC). Hence, optimizing landing pages saves money and improves conversion rates.

Here are 5 amazing ways that help you to lower your CPCs with landing page optimization:

1. Relevance of Landing Page to Search Query

Quality score is of utmost importance for Google AdWords. All accounts with quality scores of 6 or above are granted a 16-50% decrease in CPC. On the other hand, accounts having 4 or lower Quality Score get 25-400% increase in CPC. A significant part of high Quality Score measurement is comprised of the landing pages. As per experts from the field of AdWords, irrelevant landing pages rarely get a quality score higher than 3. Connect landing pages with buying intent of ad groups as well as their respective keywords. Keywords have different intent. According to a theory, keywords are separated into three buckets. This categorization is made as per their intent:

- Informational keywords – These perform searches for answering queries or learn something.
- Commercial investigation keywords -  These perform searches for researching about a product or service.
- Transactional keywords – These perform searches for buying a certain thing.

2. Keyword Intent Funnel

Segmenting keywords into the above three intent levels is a common practice while doing keyword research. This helps with creating ads and landing pages perfectly adapted to these intents. It also increases Quality Score (and conversion rate) due to higher relevancy. For instance, when a visitor searches for "top foundation creams to look for 2017", the query intent falls into the commercial investigation. The query will help you create landing pages that successfully features an ebook or a special page dedicated to the best foundation creams to look for 2017. The landing page must emphasise on providing information to visitors, not selling. When this landing page matches the searcher's intent, it benefits from higher relevancy and Quality Score which automatically lowers CPC.

3. Quality Score

A lot of people tend to ignore quality score. Once you have followed and implemented the first tip here, you will be happy to see the side effect. This side effect is pleasant and delivers you exactly what you expected. The higher quality score is the side effect you receive for relevancy. Once you start creating highly targeted ads to a specific keyword, the click through rate (CTR) goes up. With this, the CTR goes up and quality increases. Once the landing page has its quality scores going up, it helps ad rank move up. The CPC lowers.

4. Emphasise on One Thing

Nothing can be worse than expecting a visitor to do all of the guesswork. People do not have time to keep guessing what they have to do with the landing page. They don't want to waste time understanding what a page is about. Also such situations will deter your landing page from making any sales. The best landing pages focus on a single thing - one problem, one solution. These pages also have a unique value proposition and a single goal. So make sure you focus on one thing at a time. You need to focus on one of their problems and then the solution. Let the page discuss how can you help them and what do you have to offer them.

The unique value proposition is equally important. Let your target audience know the 'unique' thing you offer them and why should they spend valuable time visiting your page. If you are serious about making them buy from you, add one CTA.  This is an “Add to Cart” button. In case, you want them to mail you, add, “click to mail” button. Similarly, if you wish them to call you, add “click-to-call" button.

5. Click Through Rate

Speed is the best thing about pay-per-click marketing. The results of efforts can be seen very fast. This helps the user determine the best direction to take. Here, it is very important that you create brand new ads to compete against all of your winning ads. In short, do not stop after a CTR of 6 per cent with a single winning ad. You need to make constant efforts to improve it. At last, even if you reach 10/10 quality score, keep making efforts on finding better words to use, using better call to action to implement etc. You can also find out more beneficial offers for visitors. Make sure you keep testing them all.

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A Guide to SEO for E-commerce Websites

Organic traffic is very crucial in the world of online business and eCommerce. However, it is getting tougher to rank higher these days. A huge variety of eCommerce platforms are out there and anyone can start a copy-cat store! SEO for e-commerce site will help. Here's how you go about it:

Focus on URL Structure

Page URL should have a profitable structure. The best strategy to follow for URL structures is:

'KISS' = Keep It Simple Store-Owner

The structure needs to be very simple, highly relevant and understandable by humans as well as search engines. Remember that a number of things may go wrong with this URL structure. One cannot get an  idea about a product just by looking at the URL. Now this can be very confusing for humans. If it does not contain relevant keywords for search engines, things are bound to get tougher.

The idea is to place keywords you want search engines to pick up on, right after your domain. This helps search engines understand what the page is all about. Once your product shows up in search results, Google will bold the keywords in the URL Hence, searchers know precisely what to expect when they click on your link.

Trust Breadcrumbs

These are navigational links that appear near the top of a page. Breadcrumbs help customers figure out where they are in your store. You are actually strengthening your SEO strategy by enabling them. These links build internal links to other pages on your website which further define your link architecture.

Boost Relevancy with Title Tags

This enhances relevancy to humans and search engines. A title tag is a brief description of product page  content. Main keywords need to appear at the start of the tag. This the acceptable title tag formula:

'Primary Keyword | Secondary Keyword | Brand Name'

You can add brand name to secondary keywords if applicable. This will add uniqueness to each product page title tag. It solves the problem of having multiple products of the same type. You can add unique words describing your product to each product title tag. Also try considering other words that customers may search for.

Optimize Product Page

Focus on optimizing titles for product page. The title should be very descriptive and well optimized for search engines. Make the product / service obvious to anyone who sees it. Also try including keywords in H1, H2 and H3 tags. Although termed as weaker signals, these do count. Use of header tags in page content breaks it up and simplifies reading.

Description of Product

The product description is usually underestimated. This is a sales pitch and the best way to give your store an edge over copycats. Understand that there are too many eCommerce stores having product descriptions written by manufacturers. Using manufacturer written product description can play negative in most situations. For instance, descriptions get distributed to all of the other online stores selling similar products. This makes search engines see multiple websites with similar content. Duplicate content will invite penalty by Google. Also manufacturer descriptions are written in a fashion to sell the product. These simply describe the product specs and are extremely boring to read. Search engines likes unique and interesting content. Make it descriptive enough to help your customers while making a decision on a product. Lastly, use 'rel=canonical' tag to convey Google that a specific content is not duplicated.

Product Reviews

According to studies, it is revealed that over 70 per cent of individuals look forward to online reviews prior to making a purchase. In fact, they base maximum part of their decision on reviews. So if your eCommerce store does not have product reviews, just add them. Your target audience is hungry for product reviews. Additionally, search engines love product reviews!

Product reviews help your site get updated with fresh and unique content. It is free user-generated content and makes for a very affordable way of adding new content to product pages. These are also very effective in optimizing your product page for long tail keywords. Remember that customers leaving reviews may use similar keywords consumers are searching for! This will work for your advantage.

You can optimize reviews for product page SEO. Reviews add micro-data to a page. Micro-data gets displayed as a line of text under each search result. This ensures more context to your content. It helps customers decide if they should click on the result.

Social Media Buttons

Distracting customers from buying a product is the worst thing yoou can do to your site. So make your   customer first buy a product and share it later. Social shares send signals to search engines about the  popularity of the products. Each share is like upvote and an indication that your product is interesting enough for people to refer to their friends. Lastly, each share may bring back additional traffic to your site!

Product Images

Product images can help improve conversion rates for your online store to a significant amount. However, you need to optimize these well for search engines. So start off via using descriptive image file names and Alt tags. Make sure these incorporate important keywords. The alt text is alternative text used by browsers when they cannot render the image. A keyword-rich description is helpful for both search engines and humans. The image file sizes shouldn't be large enough to take a long time to load. This slows down page speed and make your customers drop off. The search engines will ultimately lower your ranking.

Product Videos

Did you know a video enhances understanding of your product among consumers? Also these videos drive viewers to actually try out / buy the product! Product videos make for an amazing tool for conversion rates. Also, these help you create a unique place in search results. No wonder millions of users flock to YouTube to know about a product, its uses and other demonstration related queries.

Uploading product videos to YouTube will work! Make sure titles, tags and descriptions are well optimized for your keywords while uploading. This is important to make your videos searchable on YouTube. When optimized well, these may even show up on a Google search!

Once your product is up on YouTube, imply embed it on your site. Also allow others to embed it. The more number of people embeds your video, more it will get ranked higher in Google.

Summary

Well, you won’t start ranking on the front page of Google, immediately. The process takes time. However, once you are successful in integrating SEO into your website smartly, your store will start emerging higher for some specific keywords. This will also help you beat your competitors. Good Luck!

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Top Reasons To Optimize Your Website For Voice Search

Each one of us have fantasised a technology that promises solutions to queries sans any delay. The wish is not far fetched; at least not in this era where Google, Bing and Amazon Echo have already set into the path of fulfilling it for their dedicated users. Voice and conversational search is the most sought after technology, these days.

Change is the buzz word. Each one of us would love to embrace a change that promises to make our lives easier. No wonder interactive search queries are more in demand than the old text queries. These promises to save users a lot of time. As per a research, it has been revealed that 55 percent of adults and 41 percent of adults use voice search every day. This is because people like the idea of getting direct answers as compared to links. Hence, the voice search SEO strategy is the most sought after. It ensures a bright future for businesses online.

Voice Search

With improvement in technology, voice chat has been recognised highly reliable. In the past few years, word error rate was around 20 per cent. However, speech recognition, word error rate is very low (8%).

Smart Search

Did you know only a few people type the way they speak? In most cases, people use short hand kind of language while typing. However, voice search comprises of full question. No wonder some of the programs such as Siri, Cortana, and Google Now have become very popular. These have got better and more refined with time. Studies have revealed a sharp increase in the use of these programs.

Conversational Voice Search

Google can answer queries without any hassles. For instance, a query - “Where is the Qutub Minar”. Now if you ask “Show me pictures ” google understands the actual reference of Qutub Minar.

Location Based Queries

This is a major benefit. For instance, you are based in Noida and search for “Restaurants”, google knows your location and will return queries based on your location. So expect a list of the best Restaurants in Delhi.

Algorithm

Google is blessed with a machine learning based algorithm. This is smart and can easily learn about the  individual. It is capable of directly handling transactions related queries such as “Buy a pair of lenses”. So it will remember your power and instantly takes you to the catalog of products displaying lenses suitable for your eyes.

SEO Impact

Voice Search definitely has a tremendous impact on Search Engines. Most organizations are focusing on long tail keywords than the shorter ones. The content gets more specific and user-centric. Understanding people typing a query and their needs will help businesses a lot.

Long Tail Keywords

Focus on long tail keywords makes the voice search more specific to a specific topic which the user would want to find answers to. This saves their time in searching or going through content on a very vast topic.

Schema Markup

Search engine usually looks for query context in general searches. Context refers to the previous question. It may even refer to any individual or location. The HTML add-on facilitates search engines understand the content, context easily, and help you rank well in normal searches. This will also make you more relevant in specific queries made through voice search.

Metadata Optimization

Metadata of a website is usually stored on robot.txt and sitmap.xml files. Proper focus on the sitemap and robot file will make these easily readable and visible to search engines.

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Hiring the Best SEO Company in India - 6 Perks You can Enjoy

Looking forward to make your business a sure shot success? If a dynamic online presence for your site is your dream, simply focus on hiring the best SEO company in India. This will also help you with increasing your ROI (Return on Investment).

Listed below are some of the best advantages of hiring a reputed SEO company:

Experience and Skill

Search engine optimization may seem to be very easy, but it takes real practice and knowledge to employ the best. Trial and errors are also needed to become highly proficient in the domain. Hence it is no surprise that it could take a couple of months or even years to gain the experience and a rank of being an expert to undertake and accomplish a successful SEO campaign. Choosing experts for the job, will benefit your website to a great extent.

Attract More Customers

This is the prime reason for hiring skilled specialists holding years of experience for your SEO campaign. The process will increase your clientele base. It is definitely worth investing in SEO services. All businesses having an SEO optimized website have attracted more customers than those that are not using such services. With effective SEO, you can expect your website to grow faster. So focus on hiring an advanced and highly reliable SEO services from top organizations in India.

Additional Support

Looking forward to add more support to your SEO campaign? Professional and experienced SEO service providers are capable of offering it to you than other online advertising options. Specialists working for a top SEO company in India are capable of handling social media marketing campaigns. They can also do email marketing, pay-per-click advertisements, and YouTube marketing all at a time. You can also benefit from the latest responsive or a mobile friendly website. Another brilliant service offered include online reputation services. So if you are seeking an all-in-one online marketing package, simply hire the best SEO service.

Tools and Resources

More number of high quality websites are being indexed by leading search engines. Hence, there is often fighting for the top of the results page. Since Google frequently changes their algorithm, it is crucial to stay updated on these changes. Experienced and expert SEO professionals will spend time to get acquainted with advanced tools and resources. This enables them to run a successful SEO campaign for customers. It can be really tricky to run a successful campaign without these tools and resource. Experts are always ready with these resources.

No Shortcuts

Experienced and professional SEO services do not believe in taking any shortcuts. However, this is not the case with unprofessional and novice service providers who mainly run scam campaigns to attain the top of the search engine rankings. Google and other search engines are smart enough to notice the errors as Black Hat SEO techniques committed by these providers and ban their sites. This means if you give back links to your website that direct users to the wrong places, your website may be penalized for it. Luckily, the best SEO company in India are equipped with the best tools and knowledge to prevent any such things. There will be no problem with your website.

Investment

Many times, people are in doubt about investing huge amount of money in employing SEO services for business. However, a professional SEO campaign such as Get Top Rank is a solid investment that will provide you with brilliant returns in the long run. The only thing you should be concerned about is reaching out to the best company.

Consider these six crucial reasons will help you decide on whether or not to hire an SEO company in India.

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Top 15 Predictions for Digital Marketing in 2017 – The Trends to Expect!

Worldwide adoption and prominence of digital marketing has increased through the years. The marketing concept has helped consumers have the world at their fingertips. It successfully created a global marketplace where businesses (big and small) compete on the same platform!

So what's in store for the year 2017? Well, the year promises a wonderful year from the digital marketing perspective. Here are top predictions for the year:

1. Cross-Device Marketing

People these days are using multiple devices. They have at least two digital devices (laptop, smartphone, tablet). So marketing across channels and devices is the new trend and a standard that has been set. So businesses need to be where the customers are. Marketing endeavors require being coordinated. This will allow for a consistent feel across multiple devices possessing varying resolutions and screen sizes. Mobile optimization of a business website is a first must-have. The email settings should be established for both desktop and mobile readers. All of your marketing campaigns need to be optimized for desktop and mobile. Keep a clear count of ROI per campaign, per device. This will keep you informed about your success rate and the places where your audience is most responsive.

2. Influencer Marketing

This concept is all set to explode this year. Social proof of brands and products is important for consumers. So when a favorite celebrity or blogger promotes a product, they are more inclined to trust that endorsement as compared to any email campaign or plain advertisement coming directly from the brand.

3. Mobile First

Mobile is the trend of 2017. From your business website to email campaigns, everything needs to be formatted for mobile. Optimize for mobile before the desktop. Remember all of your potential clients are viewing websites, reading email, and perusing social media on their mobile devices.

4. Personalization

Increased personalization is a trend that's going to explode in 2017. Personal touch and recognition is highly valued by customers. Regardless of their position in the customer lifecycle, the kind of customization goes demands marketing efforts to addressing several things, including consumer behaviors, device preferences, spending habits, time zones, and languages. So it is time to embrace points of differentiation of target audience and categorize your customers accordingly.

5. Rise of Small Business

Expect a rise in small businesses tapping into Twitter’s Dashboard app, Facebook Insights, and Instagram analytics. They will use these platforms to meet customers’ needs. The platforms are easy to understand and ensure easier access to relevant insights. This means one doesn't need to be a data wizard to make sense of the information. All you need to do is invest in understand these metrics and watch your business thank you!

6. Shrinking Organic Listing

This will come as a shock to the SEO world! Organic listings will shrink as PPC and Local Paid Inclusion takes hold. It is true that Google will turn into a pay-to-play space with top few organic rankings getting continual search traffic (mainly for information-centric websites).

7. Mobile Domination

As already discussed, mobile will dominate the traffic on the web.

8. Voice Search

This is going to exceed half of all searches. Now you will see the concept of keywords flipping as people speak more than typing.

9. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

They are here finally! Although new, they will make a decent place in the field of digital marketing.

10. Growth of PPC

This is going to experience exponential growth. The first screen will entirely be dedicated to paid ads! After all, how do you think Google makes money? Organic listings are certainly the answer!

11. Shopping on Instagram

Instagram will be adored by Shopaholics. The storefronts and affiliate programs will experience massive growth. The Instagram shopping field will thrive.

12. Overflow of Social Media Ads

Yes, the overflow on social media will continue to grow! Although an inappropriate channel for ads, ads are doing really well!

13. Change of Virtual Room Behavior

There will be a significant modification in behavior around virtual social rooms. All social media users and platforms will innovate and adopt new means of social engagement. This will be preferred against the customary approach of meeting people in person. Virtual reality (VR) chat rooms will turn into a brand new social experience.

14. Content will Remain the King

Of course, this will continue to remain the significant SEO focus. This is what's going to drive most projects round the year. The quality of the content will be judged critically. Hence, content for content’s sake will not prevail!

15. Advent of New Tools

This will facilitate content marketers produce targeted, high-quality content at the publishing stage. Content writers will demand more data. They will become more technically expert, bold and prefer easy-to-use tools that provide traffic and competitor SEO stats.

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Top 26 SEO Interview Questions You Should Be Prepared For in 2017

1. Define SEO and its types?

Ans: SEO is an acronym to Search engine optimization which is a process of changing web page or website position frequently in search engine results. This is one via using keywords or phrases.

The two main types of SEO are:

- On Page Optimization
- Off Page Optimization

2. What SEO tools do you prefer using?

Ans: I presently use Google analytic, Alexa, keyword search, open site explorer, and Google Webmaster.

3. What is Backlink?

Ans: Backlink is the incoming links to your website or webpage.

4. What are outbound links?

Ans: These are website links to another webpage or website.

5. What is Googlebot?

Ans: Googlebot is software used by Google to index a webpage. The software collects details from that specific webpage and the following:

- Caching
- Crawling
- Indexing

6. Explain Cross linking and its function?

Ans: Cross linking refers to the process of linking one site to another while ensuring a way to allow access to it. It has several functions such as providing users with reference sites comprising of content relevant to the search, methods built on the Internet, display page on the search engines using SEO techniques, etc. Ranking of a website is calculated on the basis of the website relevance before reflecting on the search engine. SEO tools offering reciprocal links and inbound links are used.

7. Why keyword is used in SEO?

Ans: Keyword is actually a single word. A combination of these makes phrases. Both keywords and phrases are used by search engines to populate various subjects on the internet. The search engine stores keywords in the database. Once a search is conducted, these will emerge with the best possible match.

8. Explain body content relevance function?

Ans: A text without images on a web page is referred to as body content relevance. It is also known as non-image text. Content relevance ensures efficient optimization of websites and boosts search engine ranking.

9. What are Spiders, Robots and Crawlers? Explain their functions?

Ans: There is no difference between spiders, robot and crawler. They are all same and referred by different names. These are software program that follows, or “Crawls” varied links across the internet. Thereafter, it grabs content from other sites and adds to the search engine indexes.

10. How will you check the impact of your SEO campaign? How will you come to know if it is working?

Ans: When offering SEO services for small business or any industry giant, I will check the website statistics that give information about the origin of traffic. Another way is to conduct a search based on the relevant keywords and key phrases and assess the search result. The search result number will let me know if the SEO campaign is working or not.

11. What do you know about competitive analysis?

Ans: The process compares the website that is being optimized with the website ranked highly in search results.

12. What if your SEO technique does not work?

Ans: I will first assess the root cause / problem and resolve them one by one:

- If the project is new, I will re-check the key words.
- I will search for relevant key-words.
- If all webpages of the website are indexed appropriately and the site does not appear on the first 10 pages - of search engine result page, I will make some changes in titles, page text, and description.
- In case, the website is not indexed well or has been dropped from the index, it has some serious issues which I will focus on and re-work.

13. Define PPC?

Ans: PPC is an acronym for Pay Per Click. It is actually an advertisement campaign hosted by Google. The campaign is categorised into two different modules:

CPC ( Cost per click) – Flat rate
CPM ( Cost per thousand impressions) – Bidding

CPC advertiser is charged only if the user clicks on the advert.

14. What do you know about 301 redirect?

Ans: 301 redirect is a technique that redirects user to new to old page url. This causes a permanent redirect which is also beneficial in directing the link juice to new url from old url.

15. What are Webmaster tools?

Ans: It is a service by Google, which offers crawl errors, information on the backlink, the indexing data, search queries, CTR etc.

16. Define keyword density. What is the formula for determining keyword density?

Ans: Keyword density helps stand out, your content from other websites. Yes, there is a formula that determines the keyword density:

The total number of keyword/total number of words in your article multiplied by 100.

17. What is robots.txt? 

Ans: Robots.txt is a text file that gives instruction to search engine crawlers about indexing and caching of a specific webpage, domain, or website file.

18. Assume that the company website you are working for decides to shift all contents to a new domain. How will you handle this situation?

Ans: First, you need to update the previous site with a permanent redirect to new page for all pages. The second step will be to remove previous content from search engine to avoid issues related to duplicate content.

19. Is it possible to optimize a website with over millions of pages?

Ans: Integration of extra special SEO stuffs for a dynamic website will serve this purpose. These include Good Internal link structure, Dynamic XML sitemap generation and Generation of dynamic title and description.

20. Bring up the latest update in SEO?

Ans: Panda and Penguin are the latest update in SEO.

21. What is meaning of “pizza box” in term of Google?

Ans: “Pizza Box” is when the google server comes in a standard case.

22. What is the difference between soft 404 and 404 error?

Ans: An error that shows without http//error form is known as soft 404 error. On the other hand, a normal 404 error that shows as http//error is 404 errors.

23. What are the key aspects of Panda update?

Ans: Panda improves Google search. The latest version of Panda focuses on high quality content, excellent design, speed, appropriate use of images and many more.

24. Explain key aspects of Penguin update?

Ans: Penguin is actually the code name for Google algorithm. The main target is to decrease website ranking that violates guidelines of Google Webmaster. Guidelines get violated by using black hat techniques such as keyword stuffing, cloaking etc.

25. What is the limit to robot.txt file?

Ans: At present, google enforces 500 kilobytes (KB) size limit.

26. What is the best way to neutralize a toxic link to a website?

Ans: Using a 'Backlink Quality Checker' will let you know who links to your website. Now, go to ‘Toxic link’ report. This is the place where you can find links harmful to your websites. Any link in ‘Toxic link report’ matching with the link on your website can be removed with the help of ‘Google Disavov tool’.

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8 Dynamic Strategies for Promoting Your YouTube Videos

So you have a YouTube channel and videos that display your products and services in the best light. Now what? It is now time to promote these videos as well. Here are 8 best strategies that help you make videos viral online:

1. Get Listed

You must get your videos and YouTube Channel page listed with the major search engines. So be prepared to list them on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Later on, integrate SEO strategies to ensure better listing placements.

2. Start Promotion Activity

Start off with promoting your videos to your friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbours. Also promote these to your existing happy clients. You should ask them to watch your video (s) and share them with their online / offline friends.

3. Use SEO to Promote YouTube Videos

Don't you wish your videos and channel pop up first when target audience search for content? Most people have the best video content, but doesn’t really show up in the first few results on Google / YouTube search. This is not good because the video will not get any views from search engines.

If you have a video that displays your products and services and want it to be the first in the list, make it visible and relevant to search engines. You can do this by placing appropriate keywords in the right places.

4. Cross-promote Teasers and Videos

Whether you have just created your YouTube account, thinking of uploading videos, or just started adding initial content to your channel, make sure you get into action early on building the excitement. Your target audience should get the news about your new venture in an exciting way.

5. Video Thumbnails

Make sure the YouTube thumbnails are less than 2 MB in size. Also take care that the resolution is 1280 x 720. Although smaller in size, video thumbnails are arguably one of the biggest things to focus on especially to promote videos successfully across different social media platforms.

Try imagining that the YouTube thumbnail is your business card for the page. It will show up on the homepage, to target audience when they search for a specific video, and once a video is shared.

It is possible to create custom and actionable YouTube thumbnail via using Canva to drive more traffic to a website. You need to upload specific dimensions. The rest of the design will be taken care of by Canva. All you need to do is click on homepage tab - “use custom dimensions” tab.

Use very simple, crystal clear text describing a video when creating a thumbnail. Also integrate logo in one of the bottom corners. Brighter colours are the best choice for thumbnails. For a positive impact, follow consistency with your brand. It is better to stick with the same font type, color scheme, and/or general layout. This will make videos noticeable as your brand.

6. Analytics are Important

For a new YouTube channel or one that hasn’t been active since long, the analytics may go inaccurate. So keep tabs on Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, or kind of social platform that you are active on.

You should know what day(s) of the week and time are your fans most active. Also know the type of content that get the most traction. For successful promotion of the YouTube channel, it is important that you know your analytics well.

7. Keywords and Phrases for Videos

It is crucial to know that Google and YouTube have complex algorithms. So when it comes to selecting search results, they can be tough. Don't worry. You don’t need to get deep into the algorithm concept. Simply knowing that appropriately placed keywords and increased views boost relevance of videos in searches is enough.

So start making efforts towards boosting your placement on Google searches. Prepare a list of phrases and keywords to use. Know what phrases your target audience will use to find you. Some of the most common searches include, “How to _____” and “What is a _____?” So including these into your video phrases and keywords will really help.
For instance, a beauty vlogger can use keywords for a skin whitening tutorial such as “How to get fair skin,” “skin whitening,” “clear skin,” and, “brighten skin.” Make sure you fit these words and phrases naturally into your title. Also include in the description of your video. Keep keyword density on the lower side. It should look natural.

Allow primary keyword or phrase to appear in your title. Also write a long description that gives you ample opportunity to naturally fit primary and secondary keywords and phrases into the text. Make use of the video tag box to add relevant keywords.

8. Hire a Professional

If budget allows, hire a reputed YouTube video marketing company. The team of experts will allow you to plan and implement a highly effective  online promotional campaign for your YouTube videos.

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Best Marketing Tips for Using Google Plus For Business - Take Your Business to the Top

Google Plus marketing is one of the best options for business options these days. Unfortunately, most people are not really aware of this. Yes, according to studies, Google+ enjoys over 150 million active users on a monthly basis. Interestingly, 50 per cent of its users sign on almost every day! That's incredible!

Marketing on Google+ is an amazing idea. There are a number of benefits  G+ promises over other social networks. For instance, its influence on SEO is one of the major advantages. You can also go for some of the incredible tools that cannot be found in other places such as Google Plus Ripples, Google Hangouts etc.

Use of Google Plus for online business makes for one of the most powerful ways to reach out new audience. You can easily boost your SEO and sales. Here are some of the best marketing tips to take you to the top:

Personalize for Business

First and foremost, you need to personalize Google Plus for your brand. As soon as your page gets personalized, you will be all set for marketing your product. Personalizing profile is crucial! The 'About Us' page should stand out, reflect personality of business in the best possible way, and direct page viewers to relevant pages.

This is possible if you describe your business clearly. Include references or write description to show what your business is all about. Thereafter, you can hyperlink text as a call to action for visitors to click through to your website.

Next, you need to claim a Google Plus Page Custom URL. This option is added by Google to supply your Google Plus page with a custom, personalized URL. The process helps with branding your page via making URL company related as compared to a random string of numbers.

Relevant Community on Google

It is very important to build a community around page to ensure effective. Apart from having a community, you should also focus on having a community relevant to your niche. There are some amazing great ways to build up the Google Plus Community.

First, you need to search through Google+ and see if anyone is mentioning your business. The process is easier for establishing page as people have tagged you in the post. For others Google Plus search bar is the best place to start. You can find people individuals who have mentioned your company name without having tagged you in the post.

You can use 'Google Ripples' and know who shares your content. Content sharing does not necessarily mean credit to the content, your services or products. In fact, the content may be getting shared abruptly and for no reason at all. Thankfully, with Ripples by Google Plus, it is easier to locate and trace these shares. It also helps in finding all kinds of people who have actually shared your content. It also works as a competitor research tool. Simply have a look at who shares posts of your competitor and who you would like to connect with.

Regular posts to Build Audience and Promote Your Page

While building up community, you can post consistently to your page. In case, people add you to their circles, you need to provide them with quality content. Automation tools such HootSuite will help with consistent flow of content. Make sure you interact with those who shares your content. You may either leave a comment or give it a +1 to show your appreciation. Using hash tags is one of the best ways to increase interaction with your posts. Hashtags categorize your posts and allow anyone to discover what you write while searching for that hashtag. Google automatically gives one or two hashtags to posts. However, you should focus on adding as many as you wish to on your own.

Another good way is to make use of custom formatting options. Google Plus facilitates you to customize appearance of text which means you can easily bold, italicize, or strike through text in your posts. This way, you can get your message across clearer or even draw attention to certain parts of your post.

Google Hangouts

These are a free video chat that provides you with the ability to host a chat with around 10 participants. It also opens up limitless possibilities. This means you can easily host webinars, add question answer sessions, provide customer support, live stream chats to YouTube and much more.

Local Google Plus for Local Businesses

Google Plus has come up with a powerful amazing feature for local businesses. It promises to help them in various ways. The feature is quite similar to having a local business page on Facebook which allows for setting location, business type, and a lot more. Clients can easily leave ratings and reviews seen by other people visiting your page. The reviews act as social proof. Here, the reviews are displayed to people with reviewers in their circles. In short, they can have a close look at reviews written by people they know.

Make sure you inspire fans to review your business. One good way is to incentivize the whole thing for them. Offer something exciting in exchange for a review.

Boost your business in the search results within Google Plus and Google itself. Users can easily search on Google Local by location for desired business. Simply ensure that your location is placed in correctly, including the following to boost business in local results:

- Contact info
- Keywords

Google reviews can be seen in the regular search result. Thereafter, you can have a look at business information taken from its G+ page inside the box on the side. The box provides relevant info, directions, and also includes some call to actions, such as asking for a review and follow on Google+.

Another good  way to boost business is via setting up a Google Local page correctly and optimizing it with keywords.

Final Words

Google+ is surely one of the best things with a lot to offer your business through its unique features enabling you to establish a strong connect with the audience and through its significance for Search Engine Optimization.

Following the above listed tips will help you to get the best of the benefits of Google Plus for business success!

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Be Aware and Beware: Your Competitors Can Hurt Your Rankings

Most people believe that finding a great SEO campaign that does its job well is not all that you need. In fact, it is only a small part of your ranking battle. Once your website gets hosted and established, its time to think about competitors seriously. They can simply swoop in and disturb all of the hard work you had put in. Although unfair and unethical, it does happen. Each website owner should be aware of these things and know how to stop it too!

Various types of competitors can hurt your rankings. Some may be ethical and other unethical. However, the key to online business success is to know how to handle this well. Here's what you need to do in this respect:

Out Rank

If a competitor has a better marketing campaign and rankings than you do, they will certainly out rank you. It is a two-way competition. Just as you pushed others down to climb up the ranking ladder, your competitors will do the same to push their business forward. You need to continue with good marketing and ethical SEO tactics. This will help you outrank your competitors.

Understand that not everyone can hold the number one position. It is better to aim for top five. This increases your odds to get to the top and marketing gets simpler. Also, there are dim chances of being pushed out by a competitor while staying aggressive and updated with your marketing campaign.

Link Building is Important

Link ONLY to reputable sites while undergoing a link building campaign. It is also important to check back on the websites to ensure these are worthy of your link. In case, a website loses authority via using bad SEO tactics (linking to poor quality sites / creating spam to increase traffic), everyone linked pays the price and suffer from lower rankings.

Competitors tend to follow the strategy to lower the ranking system and bring down competitors. They may have your link backs placed on non-desirable sites. So keep constant tabs on your link backs. Also use disavow tool from Google to remove links. Always be vigilant while monitoring your website. Contact website owner and ask to have the link removed.

Review Sites

These are the best options to build your brand. These help in driving traffic to your website and establish authority on a specific industry. However, these may even destroy your reputation. Your competitors may be writing these reviews.

In case, an actual consumer writes a negative review, comment on the review and visually display your plan to rectify the situation. For competitor review, speak to the review site directly, and ask them to take down the reviews. Also try to respond to each review personally. Review all the top review sites regularly.

Find Bad Links

Trust the backlink monitoring tool for locating bad links.  It will display all of your backlinks. These can be sorted by backlinks passing PageRank - ones having no SEO value (nofollow) absolutely and those that get completely ignored by Google.  Pay attention to those Google acknowledges and ones that link back to you.

You can check backlinks profile manually. Also sort these by anchor texts and check the ones that look suspicious. Make sure you sort links by social shares. This helps with locating bad links. Remember that 95 per cent of bad links have 0 social shares.

Common Bad Links

Here are some of the common bad links to spot:

- Auto approved comments from un-moderated sites
- Links from pages with less or no content
- Link directories
- Social bookmarking websites
- Websites offering duplicated content
- Links from irrelevant websites

Check Anchor Text

Since many of the backlinks come from images or hidden from users, these may really tough to spot. You can find these by checking the anchor text used on that specific link. The location of the link will be highlighted once the anchor text is copied and pasted into your browser. To find hard to locate links, simply view the page source.

Tag bad links you see and eliminate after checking them.

Get Rid of Bad Links

It is easy. You simply need to get in touch with the webmaster and ask them to remove the bad links. In most cases, webmasters do not have any problems (especially if you are polite). They will remove it without bothering you much. However, if they do not do so, there are other ways you can get rid of these.

There are webmasters who will simply ignore your request. So instead of wasting time returning your request. Remember that the longer bad links are associated with your website, the longer rankings suffer. Also, if a webmaster wants to respond to your request, he/she will do it within 48 hours. In case, you don't get any response within this period, proceed to the next step and get the links removed.

Contact the hosting company and place a request to remove your link. Let them know that a specific site they host has been spamming your website.

Disavow

Using the Google disavow tool can be helpful. It is an effective and easy to use that comes absolutely free of cost. You can go through the tutorials on 'how to use the tool' offered by Google. Although it may take longer, the tool is quite effective. When no one is ready to adhere to your instructions / rules and you simply cannot remove links removed using normal communications, the tool is just the right and best way to get what you want (without any foreign assistance).

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9 Best Ways to Optimize Your Images For an SEO Boost

Do you run an online store? If yes, then image optimization is an art that you want to master. Right from attracting target audience to perusing Google images for minimizing website load time, image optimization makes for a crucial part of developing a successful eCommerce website.

Many times, you must have noticed that your product pictures never show up while doing a Google image search. Have you been wondering if adding "Alt Tags" to images will do good for your website?
JPEG, GIF and PNG - What difference does it make?

Here, you will get to know about the 9 best ways to optimize your images to boost SEO:

1. Name Your Images

Make sure you do it descriptively. Also use simple plain English while doing so. Do not get into the habit of keeping the default file name given by your camera. Use of acceptable keywords will help your webpage rank well on search engines. Effective image optimization demands highly descriptive, keyword-rich file names. Search engines will crawl the text on your webpage. They will also search for keywords within image file names.

2. Optimize Alt Tags Wisely

Alt tags are a great text alternative to images, especially when a browser is unable to render them. In cases, where image is rendered, hovering over it with mouse pointer will let you see the alt tag text developed for that image. This depends on your browser settings. The alt attribute adds SEO value to the website. Better rankings for a website can be achieved by adding appropriate alt tags to the images and associating keywords with images. Use of alt tags is the best way for eCommerce products show up in Google image and web search. For image optimization, fill out each alt tag for each product image on your website.

Make sure you follow simple rules for alt tags:

- Describe images in plain English.
- Selling products with model number or serial numbers? Use these in your alt tag too.
- Strictly avoid keyword stuffing in your alt tags.
- Do not use alt tags for decorative images. You may be penalized by search engines for over-optimization.

Carry out a sanity check on your website on a regular basis. You must take a close look at the source of your web pages. Assess properly to see if your alt tags are filled out.

3. Create a Strategy for Image Dimensions and Product Angles

Displaying multiple angles of a product is a trend that has caught up really well these days. The best way you can capitalize on these pictures is to fill out alt tags. Simply create unique alt tags for each product shot. Add descriptions to base alt tag. This will help potential searchers land on your website. Google will reward you with searchers.

Avoid placing the largest image on your webpage as it lengthens the page load time owing to the larger file size related to the large image. The idea is to shrink the dimensions using source code. Give an option to view larger image in a pop-up or let it displayed on a separate webpage.

4. Reduce the Image File Size

Making your target audience wait for 3 seconds for a website load is ok. 5 seconds is too much! It is a sin! As per a research report published by Amazon, the company lost around $1.6 billion in a year if their pages slow down by 1 second. It is important to understand that Google uses page load time as a crucial factor in their ranking algorithm. So if your images take a lot of time to load, you are actually bidding adieu to your customers.

The best thing to do here is to decrease the image file size on your webpage. "Save for Web" command in Adobe Photoshop is a good way to do that. Ecommerce images should be kept under 70kb. Adjust the image to the lowest file size acceptable when using the command.

Use some of the other online tools if you do not have Photoshop. image editing. Some of the best image editing tools include PicMonkey, Pixlr, and FotoFlexer.

5. The Best Image File Type to Use

Three most common file types used to post images include:

- JPEG
- GIF
- PNG

JPEG (or .jpg) images are the old file type. These have turned into standard image of the World Wide Web. These images can be compressed significantly, resulting in high quality images with small file sizes.

GIFs (.gif) are lower quality images. These are used for more simple images. For instance, webmasters use these as icons and decorative images. The format supports animation and using these for plain and simple images on a webpage is a great option. However, for complex images and pictures, GIFs do not make for an attractive option.

PNG images are gaining popularity faster as an alternative to GIFs. The format supports a wide range of colors as compared to GIFs. The best part is that these do not degrade over time with re-saves. The file sizes may be larger as compared to JPEG images.

Be cautious while using PNG-24 image which is over three times larger in file size than the PNG-8 version.

Here are some tips to follow when choosing file formats:

- JPEGs make for the best option for most ecommerce sites. These are high on quality and the smaller file size.
- Strictly avoid using GIFs for large product images. The size is very large and cannot be reduced. Use of GIFs for thumbnails and decorative images is good.
- PNGs are a good alternative for both JPEGs and GIFS. PNG-8 is better than PNG-24 when using pictures for a product. PNGs are great as simple decorative images owing to their extremely small file size.

Use of an image editing software will let you save images to any of the file types discussed above.

6. Learn To Handle Thumbnails

Most ecommerce sites use thumbnail images. These provide an excellent way to scan category pages fast sans taking up too much space. Although thumbnails are great, you need to be careful. These can affect page loading times negatively. You may lose customers when they hold up category pages from loading. So you need to reduce the size of thumbnail file sizes as far as possible. Also vary the alt tag text. Duplicate text use bigger versions of the same image. Create the different alt text. Lastly, Allow thumbnail to be indexed instead of the large image.

7. Decorative Images – Beware!!

Most websites have an assortment of decorative images. These may include buttons, background images, and borders. An image that's irrelevant or unrelated to product / service is tagged as 'decorative'.

Decorative images tend to add aesthetic appeal to a webpage. However, these usually lead to huge combined file size. Also it slows down the load times. Hence, you need to take a closer look at decorative images to stop them from impairing your website's capacity  to convert visitors into customers.

The first thing to do is assess the file sizes of decorative images on web pages. Thereafter, you must make use of a template that reduces file sizes for website pages. Some of the best ways you can reduce file sizes of decorative images include:

- Convert borders or simple patterns into PNG-8 or GIFs.
- Use CSS for creating colored areas instead of using images.
- Large wallpaper-style background image should be reduced in size as far as possible sans ruining the quality of the image. Try cutting out the middle of the background image. Try converting it to a flat color or transparent. This is one of the best ways to reduce file size to a significant amount.

8. Be Cautious While Using Content Delivery Networks

Content delivery networks (CDNs) are now categorised as the most profitable place to host images and other media files. These help increase load times for your page and help fix bandwidth issues. The only drawback is backlinks. Backlinks are critical for SEO. The more you have, the better your website performs in the search engines.

Placing images on content delivery network will remove the images from your domain and placing it on a content delivery network domain. This means when someone links to your images, they link to the content delivery network website. In short, you must keep yourself from the temptation to follow anything just because it is "trendy". Assessors if it is the best move for your business before joining the bandwagon.

A CDN makes for a great choice if your website does a lot of business each month as it fixes bandwidth issues. For a website that gets "thousands" of visitors a day, simply continue with present hosting situation as it will easily handle the load.

Getting professional help will strategize your move in a way that's best for your business.

9. Test Images

The ultimate aim of image optimization is to help boost your bottom line. Once you have focussed on reducing size of files and getting search engines index these, it is time for testing images and see what precisely converts into more business.

You should test number of product images per page. Many non-hosted ecommerce sites face problems with loading time, the main thing to focus on is to reduce the number of images on a single page. This helps boost click-through rates and sales. However, in some cases, supplying a lot of images per page may actually boost user experience and result in more sales. The best way to find out what works is to test.

You can test angles preferred by your target audience. Providing views your clients wish to see will ultimately increase overall loyalty. Try surveying customers about their preferences while viewing product shots.

Also test the number of product listings you need to have on category pages. This will help you see what works best for your target audience and their shopping experience.

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6 Best Ways To Build Powerful Whitehat Backlinks to Rank Your Niche Site

Attracting high authority backlinks is the best, long term and sustainable way to rank on top of Google search rankings. According to a research by Moz, it is revealed that there’s a direct relationship between high quality backlinks and Google search rankings. The higher the quality of backlinks, higher your search rankings.

However, the most important thing to understand is the way link building has changed after the Penguin era. Yes, now it is not as easy as writing a huge bunch of spun articles with backlinks and post them to various article directories and websites. In earlier days, people used to get irrelevant spun articles in huge number and then add to websites. The best part is that they still got amazing rewards by Google.

Unfortunately, that's not the case today! First, it is important to understand that all links are not equal. Only the right links can get you promoted in search results. On the other hand, the wrong ones will get you penalized. In some severe cases, you will even get blacklisted by Google.

Hence, prior to getting backlinks from a specific domain, ask the following questions to yourself:

- Is the link relevant to the content of your site?
- Does it have a high DA score?
- Does it link to you naturally?

Apart from relevance, the following factors should be considered prior to choosing a domain for backlinking:

- Domain authority (DA)
- Page authority (PA)

In other words, DA and PA are the new PageRank. Presently, PR is an outdated metric for SEO and should not be taken seriously.

1. Calculating DA

It is easier to calculate the DA of a domain. All you need to do is install the MOZ SEO toolbar. DA makes for a crucial component of the Google ranking algorithm. Creating high quality content and indulging in efforts such as spreading the word will help you get quality backlinks.

Listed below are some very powerful ways to build pure whitehat backlinks that rank you higher for your niche:

2. Use Guestographics

One of the most popular forms of content capable of attracting backlinks is infographics. These get shared more frequently on social media. When combined with a comprehensive guest blogging strategy, it will attract a huge number of authority backlinks.

Guestographic approach makes for a wonderful shortcut to landing guest posts on all high authority blogs in your niche. All you need to do is use BuzzSumo for researching the most popular content in your niche. This will provide you with a list of blog posts with the highest social shares. Thereafter, you can identify a topic and collect a good amount of data and numbers about it. Now convert it into an infographic.

For instance, if your niche sector is beauty services, develop a data driven infographic on tips for beauty and associated issues such as those that helps one look younger and beautiful in 10-15 steps. Get a nice infographic designed by a professional designer within your budget. Follow these steps once the infographic is ready:

Step 1 - Publish infographic on your blog.
Step 2 - Focus on making it Embeddable via using the embed code generator.
Step 3 - Reach out to the websites that have published similar content.
Step 4 - Offer these sites the infographic.
Step 5 - Offer a short unique guest post to the blog describing the infographic. Also include your link in this short guest post.

3. Claim Your Links

There are times when people may mention your name or blog in their content. However, they may get the link wrong. Sometimes they don’t link at all. In case, you are successful in reaching out to them, there is greater probability of getting a backlink. This kind of approach will help you unearth some high links.

There are a number of tools you may use to find these mentions. Some of the best ones include Ahrefs, BuzzSumo, or Mention. Try setting up some Google alerts for your brand and name of the blog. Thereafter, you can keep tabs on new mentions from time to time. See if you these mentions are linked to your site properly the moment you get them. In case, you are unable to see the link, simply reach out and ask the blog owner if she/he could add the link. Be courteous, polite, and appreciate that he/she mentioned you on his blog.

4. Link to Relevant Content and Reach Out

According to research and studies, link out to other people’s content frequently will increase your chances to gain backlinks yourself. Many experts recommend linking to 4-5 outside sources (at a minimum) in every 1000 words. However, when it comes to the increasing probability of gaining backlinks back, reach out to bloggers you link to is very important.

There are several ways to do that. Try out Twitter. Mentioning on Twitter directly will allow influencers review your post and provide you with a quick RT. Although it is not a backlink, it exposes your content to several other individuals who will link back to you.

Another best way is to send email to influencers after publishing a blog post where you have mentioned an outside source.

5. Content Submission to Link Parties and Round-ups

Blogs in most niches run weekly or monthly link roundups. These roundups are majorly mainly the “best of the month/week” kind of posts. This is precisely where the author shares links from varied blogs.
Searching for roundups is easier. All you need to do is use some search queries in your niche such as:

- “your niche + best of the month”
- “your niche + weekly roundup”
- “your niche + link party”

Simply land on each website once in order to get link juice. The process is certainly worth investing time and efforts.

6. Submit Website to Web 2.0 and Website Feedback Services

Web 2.0 backlinks make for a powerful way to help rank higher in search results. However, this is possible only if you do it the right manner. Choosing the wrong way means hurt your rank. Remember that Google will catch you easily via manipulating its algorithms. Here is a list of some of the popular Web 2.0 sites that you can use to build high quality backlinks:

- WordPress.com
- Edublogs.org
- Blogger.com
- Sites.google.com
- Joomla.com
- Tumblr.com
- Weebly.com
- Bravesites.com
- Jimdo.com
- Beep.com
- Puzl.com
- Yolasite.com
- Webstarts.com
- US.Webnode.com
- SnackWebsites.com
- Jigsy.com

Another way to find backlinks easily is by submitting your website to varied website review services.

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Make Your Landing Page Land the Best Conversion Rates

Organizations that follow a structured approach towards optimization of conversion are more likely to witness a boost in sales. Unfortunately, most businesses do not focus on conversion optimization as an option.

Businesses that witness higher conversion rates do things differently. Here are some tips on enhancing conversion rates for your landing page:

Clear Unique Value Proposition

It is important for your visitors to see on your homepage or landing page the reason they should do business with you. Make sure it includes the benefits of the same. One of the best examples in this respect is 'MailChimp'. With a huge number of email service providers out there, it is very tough for MailChimp to carve a niche. However, the company made themselves unique via focusing on making email campaigns easy. It is really important to make things easy.

Having a huge fan following on Facebook and followers on Instagram is a plus point for your conversion rate.

Know the following to be able to boost conversion rates for your website:

- The reasons customers should buy from you.
- Are they impressed by a money back guarantee?
- Do they want free shipping.

Test Calls-to-Actions

According to Hubspot, one of the companies featured on their blog witnessed conversions by about 105.9%. This happened by:

1. Having a crystal clear call-to-action leading to a white paper which informs visitors about the company and what they offer.
2. Creating an effective headline.
3. Using highly effective graphics to be able to guide the user.

The above listed three changes doubled up the conversion rate.

Another great example is that of Mozilla which witnessed an increase in downloads of their popular Firefox browser by just having a more dynamic and appealing call-to-action -

“Download Now – Free”

The above mentioned call-to-action performed better than -

“Try Firefox 3”

The company made it very clear that Firefox was 'free' and asked the viewer to download the program.

Proflowers is yet another website known for its high conversion rates. One of the major reasons is that they make the process of buying flowers really easy for customers. They have removed all obstacles customers usually face while making a purchase. If some obstacles to prospects purchasing from you are:

Most people may not feel comfortable purchasing from a small, relatively new company. Listed below are some ideas to help potential customers overcome this fear:

- Include a behind the scenes video of your company. Let your customers know how the operations work.
- Make sure you include a banner right at the top with customer testimonials. Each one should show for a few seconds.
- The unique value proposition should be displayed right at the top. Let your customers know how long you’ve been in business, the number of orders shipped, customer satisfaction rate, etc.

Understand Pain Points

Make sure you ask your customers questions to receive their feedback. Understand pain points of your customers. Knowing what they are looking for can actually help you design a website that converts higher.

Headlines Test

Did you know, the headline can make or break your website? Yes, it is powerful enough to convert or lose a sale forever! First impression is formed instantly and headline certainly makes for a huge part of that impression. It is crucial to assess and see what appeals to your visitors. Remember, there's nothing like a magic or foolproof formula. All you can do is follow some guidelines.

You must have a clear headline comprising of a unique value proposition. It should show instant (true) benefit to your audience. Give them a reason to do what you want them to. Test and see what really works.

The best headline is the one that’s clear and avoids language that lands it in the spam folder. So try being creative with your headlines and inform visitors about the benefits of your products/services or what you do.

Short Forms are Important

Many conversion experts recommend restricting forms to only the essentials. It is very irritating for customers to get encountered with over 25+ fields to fill in. Visitors will prefer to leave that site. Respecting users' time will definitely win your laurels and respect. Once you are successful convincing users to sign up, prevent letting them drop off just because your form is too long. The key is to ask only what is needed. Avoid the following:

- Username
- Security questions
- Birth date
- Verification code
- Re-enter password field

Simplifying forms and making them clearer must be aimed at while starting iterating.

Other Techniques

• A “Chat Now” button will increase free sign up form fills.
• Including a security seal work.
• Discount information in the title will boost added to cart conversions significantly.
• Boost landing page's value with benefits, social proof and credibility indicators.
• Include people on your homepage for enhancing conversions.
• Integrate pain point in a headline.
• Change of call-to-action button from green to red works.
• Buy Now button to double conversion rate.
• Change button from “See Plans and Pricing” to “Get Started Today” for boosting conversions.
• Turn CAPTCHA off to minimize conversions lost and spam mail.
• Display of testimonials will promote validation.
• Boost conversions by about 25-40% by using natural language on forms.
• Have a mobile site to double conversions.
• Segment users to boost conversion rates and give relevant content to the user.
• Put call-to-action button to boost conversions.

Some Important Points:

- A headline and landing page should compel and consumers within '0-8' seconds. After 8 seconds, most of the visitors simply leave.
- Remember that about 96 percent of visitors that visit your website are not ready to make a purchase.
- More landing pages, number of leads you are likely to get.
- It is revealed through a study that product videos boost sales of a product by around 144%.
- One second delay in your website speed may lead to 7 per cent reduction in conversions.

Most importantly, one must keep testing and experimenting. Know what works for you and stick to it?

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Everything You Need to Know About Search Engines

Understanding Search Engines

These are scripts or programs widely used on the Internet aiming at supporting users find exactly what they are looking for simplicity. This is done through typing in a specific keyword, phrase or question within the query box of a search engine.

Functioning of a Search Engine

The Search engine uses automated software applications that scan websites for the information requested within a search query. Some of the common examples of these applications include spiders, robots, or bots. Each search engine makes use of its own complex mathematical formula for displaying results. It is also referred to as an 'algorithm'.

Google is one of the leading search engines that provide a unique formula which has emerged as the standard for all other search engines. Hence, most business owners strive hard to base their SEO from those standards.

The algorithm of search engine makes use of key elements of the page to display results. The following listed are some of these key elements used:

- Page title
- Keyword density
- Content

Search engines cannot see images, design aspects or even any of the visual factors on a website. Hence, the text has always been considered the King for successful ranking. No wonder the following are always the matter of discussion when web pages get optimized for search engines:

- Image ALT tags
- Meta tags
- Descriptions
- Various other areas of content within a page

A search engine browses through several millions or even billions of websites to help bring the most relevant to the top of search engine result pages (SERP’s). Spider or crawler used by search engine visits each page and then indexes it within the database.

This process involves:

- Recording links within a page/content
- Assessment of density of keywords
- Stripping out stop words
- Removing information on the page (images and media)

All information gathered is used to locate the page quickly as per the relevance within a search and rank the page for suggesting where it will display in the SERP’s.

Understanding SEO

An acronym for search engine optimization, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and the quality of the traffic earned from a website through organic search engine results.

Traffic quantity and quality are some of the most crucial aspects of SEO quantity of traffic. Organic traffic is known to be the best type as it’s free and makes you enjoy the benefits of increased revenues via following the SEO guidelines of a search engine.

Google Penalty – What is It?

A Google penalty negatively impacts your website’s rankings, and in some cases it can delete your page from the searches entirely. Google’s standards are high, and they require yours to be as well if you want to get in the top SERP’s, but if you use shady strategies or practices, it can not only impact your rankings, it can destroy them.

Since the year 2000, Google has been busy upgrading its algorithms. It all started with a toolbar extension. None of the business owners knew the importance about ranking on search engines. All of a sudden everyone struggled to get to the top. Google's tweaking of algorithms made visitors being provided with the top, most relevant search results. This is how penalties came into play.

Penguin update surfaced in the year 2012. This created an impact on 1 out of 10 search results. A huge number of websites were erased from the massive index of Google. Shockingly, these became almost non-existent to millions of people. The main aim was to push low quality websites off the map. These were also eradicated completely from the searches. Thankfully, the ritual of using keywords overly to gain attention went extinct. This gave birth to brand new age of quality content.

There are a number of websites that get hit with penalties. With more updates rolling out on a consistent basis in the near future, the trend will certainly continue until everyone adopts the trend and follow guidelines of search engine giant.

It is crucial to read and understand the latest 'Google Webmaster Guidelines' to stay away from a Google penalty as far as possible.

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Understanding The Difference Between External and Internal Links

It is crucial to know the difference between external and internal links and use it strategically as part of your overall digital marketing plan. In fact, each type of link holds a special place in the strategic SEO plan aimed at enhancing rank of your website on the SERP (search engine results page).

What's the Difference?

External Links

- These points from one domain to a different domain.
- External links may emerge from your website to another website in order to provide additional information for readers.
- In some cases, these may be linked from your website towards an affiliate program.
- These are links from other websites into yours.

Internal Links

- These links just point within your own specific domain or website.
- The menu bar at the top of your site has internal links.
- Links from web pages on your site to your contact page are also an example of internal links.

To Sum Up

External links - These points to a separate domain.

Internal links – These points to content within the same domain.

How to Use External and Internal Links for SEO

First and foremost, both external and internal links hold a special place in an SEO strategy. Listed below are some tips on using these strategies:

External links help building visibility. Coming from other websites into your content, these serve as a great source of free traffic. The links are a crucial component of search engine algorithm of Google. For better results, it is important to concentrate on quality and the quantity of links. Fix or remove links from poor-quality sites immediately to avoid negative consequences.

Do the following to encourage links into your website:

- Add only rich, highly relevant content to your website.
- Develop an outreach program and ensure offering to guest post on various other sites in your niche in exchange for a link into your own site.
- Add link-embedded infographics with HTML code (these need to be copied and used on other sites)
- Make direct requests to webmasters for adding links.

External links help readers more than website owners as they add very little in terms of strategic SEO value. These links may connect readers to resources such as information or products. Here, the benefits of SEO benefits will accrue for the website you link to and not your own.

Internal Links

These links build your SEO and come with varied SEO benefits. Once search engine spiders locate your website, they will follow links to explore additional pages on your site. Internal links form overall website structure. A logical linking structure is attractive visually and very effective as it facilitates content organization on your website and assists visitors find requested info without any delay. Sprinkle the following throughout the website to help readers and search engines discover your content:

- Common page elements
- Concise menu bar
- Natural page links

Locate and Fix Broken Links

Broken links are dangerous for your SEO score. Links not in working condition any more are referred to as broken links. These may not work due to the target website for a specific external link being offline. Another reason is that one of the pages has moved. A broken link or two may not affect your rankings. However, multiple broken links may cause a lot of risk. Broken links result in poor reading experience and low traffic rate. So make sure you identify and fix these links to boost your website.
The best way to get rid of these problems is to locate and fix broken links via using tools such as Broken Link Checker. This is a free tool that scans your website and finds out broken links. This will help you to visit each page, find the link and then remove it.

Links – Just the Start

According to SEO experts, the calculation of website's position on SERP (search engine page results) by Google and all other major search engines is based on consideration of 100 and 200 elements. Internal and external links are a small yet crucial part of this exercise.

It may take time to build your links and fix any that are broken, but all of your efforts will pay off in the long run by a boost in traffic and position in the SERPS. And that makes the effort worth it.

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