#1 SEO Company, Professional SEO Services We pick our SEO Marketing battles

An SEO company is a firm that implements marketing tactics aimed at search engines (SE). The O in “SEO” stands for Optimization. This generally refers to the changes that need to occur on a website for search engines to notice your optimization efforts and reward you with higher ranking in search results. In short, SEO is the process of making changes to the design and contents of your website to make sure it is attractive to all search engines.

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Whether you should or shouldn’t hire an SEO company depends on several factors such as your budget, your available time, your knowledge, and your business goals. You should consider hiring an SEO company: -If you want to focus your time on the operative side of your business-You know little or nothing about SEO and what it entails-You don’t have time to learn everything you need to know about search engine optimization… An SEO company is a collection of individuals with the knowledge and the passion for making any website or platform stand out from the crowd and stay there indefinitely. Usually, they bring the firepower you need to take on battles that seem impossible to win. Having a solid SEO firm by your side will not only bring the needed exposure and traffic related to increased online presence. It also shields you from sudden changes in search engine algorithms or even penalties. We only recommend that you do SEO yourself if you have a lot of time in your hands…

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Finding the right SEO company for your business depends on many factors. What´s ideal for some, might be actually pretty harmful for others, and there are various reasons for that. Digital marketing is a term that encompasses too many factors for an SEO company to cover them all. They all specialize in a few areas, often leaving others unattended. For example, you might have a website with a sound On-Page structure working perfectly in technical sense. So, hiring an SEO company that only focuses on optimizing your structure, responsiveness, load speeds and overall design will not make much sense. The same goes with startups with a strong branding awareness. They usually create awesome products and content, but struggle to get noticed by Google and social media platforms. These startups certainly benefit from having a team of experienced technical SEOs. They often only need people who know the ins and outs of search engines. That means that digital marketing agencies that focus on content creation and branding will not be as…

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You can waste a lot of time – yours, and your chosen SEO company’s – trying to puzzle out what they actually do. And how they go about doing it. But being realistic, there’s little (if any) you can really do with that information. A powerful SEO firm is not there to teach you the world of SEO any more than your doctor is there to teach you medicine. SEOs are there to study, diagnose, strategize and execute. To know what needs to be done, and do it, even when you don’t. Especially when you don’t! Don’t get us wrong, just as a skilled doctor would, an effective SEO firm will keep you well informed and on the loop of everything that’s going on. But there’s a long gulf between keeping you informed and in the loop, and teaching you the whys and whens of all that’s going on. Just like you would with a doctor, the best you can do is hire the most qualified one you can afford,…

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There’s a lot of content online, Video tutorials, guides, articles, podcasts, books, that you can use to learn SEO. Moreover, there are varying degrees of technical depth and challenge in all of them. However, SEO is a broad discipline that encompasses several other branches of knowledge. Along the way, you’ll pick up insights on various topics. These range from tech and marketing, all the way up to psychology and effective communication. As for the best way to learn SEO, you’ll probably want to figure out what it is you are trying to accomplish first. Do you want to learn SEO as a profession? Or maybe just want a basic idea so your team understands your goals? Do you have a more practical/results-oriented goal in mind? Depending on the answer, some avenues provide more advantages than others. Let’s go over some of them to figure out which one suits your needs best. Learn SEO as a Profession Books are probably your best source of reliable, comprehensive knowledge. Reading in-depth texts on SEO…

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If you have reached this article, you probably Googled “How do I SEO my WordPress Site?” or something along those lines. We are here to give you 5 actionable tips, that you can start implementing now if you have a WordPress site and want to start gaining visibility using Search Engine Optimization. Before taking any steps to optimize your site, check that your visibility settings are configured in a way that allows search engines to crawl an index your site. You can do this by going to Settings> Reading>Search Engine Visibility, unticking the box and clicking “save changes.” Once we are sure our site is actually being crawled, we can start implementing SEO strategies that will have your WP site moving up the search results rankings. 1.     SEO my website´s default permalink One of the first things I learned when I first attempted to SEO my website was how to change permalinks. WP’s permalink is an odd code that looks somewhat like this: ?p=[id]. This doesn’t really tell search engines anything…

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One of the main factors that drives SEO costs up is salaries. According to Payscale, an SEO manager in the United States has a median salary of just over US$66, 000 a year. However, it depends on different factors such as geographic location, education, experience, and the company where they work. An SEO manager can be anywhere between 44 and 100K per year. Apart from their salary, managers should also generate extra income via bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing. This can also affect annual SEO cost by up to 30K. How about SEO Managers in other countries? Salaries of SEO Managers in other countries in North America: In Canada, an SEO manager makes between C$31, 000 and 71, 000 which is equivalent to between US$26, 000 and US$55, 000 per year. In Mexico, the average salary of an SEO manager is just over 122, 000 Mexican pesos, which is roughly US$ 6, 500. If you live in the U.S., it may seem like a low salary. But it is actually 4.7…

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Generating quality content is the bread and butter of any SEO strategy. To write articles that are SEO friendly, you need to apply at least a few of the most common SEO strategies. These include keyword research, topical relevance, proper formatting, and most important of all: provide value to your audience. The internet is built mainly on content. We tend to put a lot of weight into the mechanical side of Search Engine Optimization, the side that only considers algorithms, SERPs, and metadata. However, you should never forget that, at the end of the day, you are producing content for human eyes with human needs and human minds. There is a golden rule for writing SEO friendly and relevant articles (even beyond the technical advice that follows). Never forget who your audience is, and cater to provide what they seek. Once you know the type of content you want to base your article on, there are plenty of steps and strategies you need to apply to have an SEO friendly piece…

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SEO can be free, if you take care of it yourself. When we talk about SEO, we discuss strategies intended to feature online content more prominently on search engines results. Some of these approaches (like setting up pay-per-click ad campaigns) require an investment in money. However, many other SEO practices can be implemented at no monetary cost if you learn how to do them yourself. Do keep in mind that any SEO practice you engage with on your own require a time investment at the very least. Depending on your technical know-how, this investment might end up being quite high. Fortunately, there’s a lot of documentation online that can help you in this endeavor. Moreover, taking care of your own SEO – at least initially – will grant you a few advantages. For one, you’ll benefit right from the start by improving your content until you are able to hire an agency to take it to the next level. For another, you’ll begin accumulating some knowledge on the subject. This will come in handy…

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SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization. It revolves around the different digital marketing strategies used to improve a piece of online content prominence and exposure on the internet. SMO stands for Social Media Optimization. It relates to all strategies used to achieve a better image and standing using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Online marketing is all about making sure people are finding your products and interacting with your brand before that of your competitor’s. It’s basically about connecting with your customers. Today, social media has become one of the most powerful online marketing platforms. Roughly 70% of the United States population has some form of Social Media presence. This right off the bat speaks volumes about the potential of these platforms for marketing. By their very nature, Social Media platforms are the ideal ecosystem to nurture all those valuable elements every business should be trying to boost. Of course, we´re talking about brand awareness, projection, positive client interaction, and reputation management. What is SMO? SMO means shaping…

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SEO versus SEM is often a discussion held in many marketing meetings across the board. Objectively speaking, neither practice is better than the other. Both, Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing are disciplines that try to accomplish the same goal: Improving your content’s exposure. However, they go about it in slightly different ways. They approach marketing and lead generation using different approaches and strategies. With that in mind, which of the two is subjectively better depends significantly on your specific goals. This must take content and the resources you have available to meet them into consideration. Depending on your particular situation, one or the other can serve your needs better. Let’s take a look at each practice individually to see where they shine and where they lack. This will help you be better equipped to determine which one can serve you best. Both approaches aim to increase your content’s exposure, that´s obvious. However, it might be useful to reiterate that SEO focuses on using techniques to organically grow your content’s…

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Effective search engine optimization requires an amalgam of disciplines. Most of the skills needed for SEO fall on the realm of advertisement and marketing, technology and software, and creative content production. Conversations about the skills needed for SEO are commonplace in the industry. For one, most clients express curiosity about it and ask to better understand what goes into the job. Then, there is always people looking to get into the SEO business. They are eager to learn what the most effective path for success is. In any case, those three major fields fulfill a role to different degrees in almost any SEO project. It is fair to say that every SEO professional specializes in all of them. However, there are many additional skills and knowledge sources that also complement them. To better understand what skills you need for SEO, we will divide them into categories. Let´s take a closer look at the role they play. Marketing and Advertisement Basically, optimizing content for search engines is an advertisement endeavor. No…

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Not surprisingly, the two terms are closely related. They both refer to practices intended to achieve the same goal: drive more visitors to your online content. However, they go about it in slightly different ways. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about organically increasing your site’s ranking over time. Search Engine Marketing (SEM), on the other hand, tries to achieve this by taking advantage of paid digital marketing models such as Pay-Per-Click ads. It is good to point out that sometimes the term SEM is used as an umbrella term to encompass both approaches. SEM sometimes refers to the implementation of organic SEO techniques, combined with paid digital marketing. However, it is important to make a clear cut distinction since each practice comes with its own set of advantages and challenges. In fact, depending on your goals and budget, one might fit your needs better than the other. Let’s go over some of these differences to help you better gauge which approach might suit your particular situation best. Advantages of an SEO focused approach…

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A good SEO agency is staffed with experienced marketers, designers, content writers and SEO specialists who are also assertive enough to be part of the decision-making process. Each one of these tasks are necessary for a campaign to succeed. You might want to hire the best for each position and have them work their magic, but things are not that simple. First, you need to know what success looks like for you. Then, you need to envision a way to get there through articulated goals that can be measured. But also create a flexible process that allows you to insert changes as the campaign evolves and new data flows in. If you leave every expert to their own devices, they might do a superb job separately, but you will end up with an unworkable mess. That´s why digital marketing agencies exist. This first thing an SEO agency must do is to understand what success means to the client. Some just want to increase their sales in Ebay or Amazon. Others…

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SEO specialist is a term we can use for both, a person or a company. Their expertise mainly focuses on Search Engine Optimization and areas related to it. Initially, the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO) almost exclusively referred to strategies used to influence the visibility of content (websites, profiles, videos, etc.) on the results pages from sites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. However, it has slowly become more of a blanket term. It now describes not only Search Engine Optimization proper but many other tangential online marketing approaches that can be implemented toward the same goal. An SEO specialist is someone who has acquired – through study and experience – a number of skills that allows them to effectively devise, implement, and supervise digital marketing solutions. Ensuring their client’s online content is displayed more prominently on search engines result pages. Technical aspects of being an SEO specialist From a technical standpoint, there are a few things considered vital for an SEO specialist to do their job right. First, a close understanding of…

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Basically, SEO marketing is the art and science of increasing visibility, traffic, conversions and brand awareness online. It relies on the use of specialized tools to analyze a website from all possible perspectives. This helps find correlations between its elements and ranking factors. An SEO then uses this information to effectively impact the right factors and help clients achieve their goals efficiently. However, clients might have completely different things in mind when deciding it is time to create a website. An online store will not merely need increased traffic. Visits for them are of no use if they don´t convert into sales. Contrastingly, an organization focused on raising awareness on certain social issues will have different definitions for conversion. They usually want people to share their content or create mailing lists. Many also seek to turn visitors into activists without necessarily having to make a single sale. SEO Marketing as Science A good online marketing agency will always focus on measurable data in order to create their strategies. These should…

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Local SEO is the use of online marketing strategies and tools but with a more laser-focused approach. Local SEO is the great equalizer of internet marketing. You can outrank your competitors without having to dish out tons of money in Google Ads. The rise of local SEO is deeply rooted in how Google tries to serve their customers. The fact that 46% of Google searches have a “local” intent tells us something important about where our SEO efforts should aim. Moreover, more than 75% of local searches result in clients walking in and making a purchase. This means that businesses that offer extremely customized content and products, have an edge over brands who have a more universal approach. How is Local SEO different to vanilla SEO? In principle, they´re not that different. Both depend on a well-crafted website, filled with engaging content. They both focus on efficient use of keywords, and a sound backlink building strategy. So they´re very similar in terms of philosophy. However, the execution is where you…

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SEO services allow your organization to objectively find measurable actions that make it easier for your website to convert. Often, the number of actions is vast enough to require a highly specialized group of people to execute them effectively. These can include lead generation, running targeted advertisements, providing measurement and sales tools, building sales channels to reach new customers, and the creation of content and design specifically directed at your target audience. In spite of a popularity surge in recent years, many people are still reluctant to hire SEO services. The most common reasons they blurt out when asked are associated with the perceived size of their own operations. There is a common misconception that only big companies need or can afford to invest in SEO services. But this myth is easily debunked by just pointing out some hard-data-based facts. SEO as an Equalizer We like to say that SEO is the great market equalizer. You might not have the marketing resources of a multi-billion-dollar corporation. However, you can create…

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You can start improving your website’s SEO by taking care of a handful of critical tasks grouped in three areas that search engine algorithms pay a lot of attention to. However, most people tend to neglect this to varying degrees. When done right, your site´s coding and formatting, content and data analysis improve SEO stats overall. Let´s see these three elements in detail. Improvements to your Site’s Coding and Formatting: This is one of the most straightforward areas to fix if you want to improve SEO indicators. Given that it requires at least some understanding of the technical side of things, most people tend to have websites with subpar coding and formatting. This ends up playing against them with search engine algorithms. This area is all about making sure that the nuts and bolts of your pages are all tight, and in a way that will help algorithms understand what your content is about, and that your site is healthy and current. Checklist: Optimize page titles and metadata descriptions Use…

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Search Engine Optimization is a set of strategies designed to get traffic from free, organic Google search results to a website. Internet users perform online searches using keyword or keyword phrases. SEO aims to help websites appear in the first pages of search results. Search engines use algorithms which determine what pages “deserve” the first spots. The tricky part is that these algorithms get constant updates. These updates often impact the way search engines rank websites. Only those who truly understand how SEO works, and have been implementing the right strategies from the get-go, are fully prepared for these changes. Optimize your site by carefully choosing the keywords that best describe what you write about, the products you sell or the services you offer. Then add these keywords to each page of your site by using meta tags and meta descriptions. You can also optimize the images you use by strategically including relevant keywords in the Alt and Title texts. Once your site is optimized and ready for the world…

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The moment you ask yourself “how do I improve my website?”, you take a step into the world of SEO. In general, there are three factors that you need to take into consideration when improving a website: design, content, and performance. These three aspects play an essential role in providing any visitor with a good -or a bad- user experience, prompting them to continue browsing or to move on to the next search result. So, what can you do to improve your website? In Terms of Performance: 1.     It needs to be mobile-friendly first. There are 3 billion mobile phone users around the world. 60% of of them access websites via a mobile device. Making sure they can easily read and browse your website’s content from any device, be it a cell phone, a tablet, a laptop or a pc is crucial. In fact, experts now advice to make your website mobile-friendly first, and then adapt it to other devices. 2.     It needs to load fast. Loading speed has been…

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If you have reached this article, you probably Googled “How do I SEO my WordPress Site?” or something along those lines. We are here to give you 5 actionable tips that you can start implementing now, if you have a WordPress site and want to start gaining visibility using Search Engine Optimization. Before taking any steps to optimize your site, check that your visibility settings are configured in a way that allows search engines to crawl an index your site. You can do this by going to Settings> Reading>Search Engine Visibility, unticking the box and clicking “save changes.” Once we are sure our site is actually being crawled, we can start implementing other SEO strategies. They will have your WP site moving up the search results rankings. 1.     Change the default permalink WP’s permalink is an odd code that looks somewhat like this: ?p=[id]. This doesn’t really tell search engines anything about your site, or the page itself. There are two ways of improving this. The first one is substituting the…

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According to Payscale, an SEO manager in the United States has a median salary of just over US$66, 000 a year. However, depending on different factors such as geographic location, education, experience, and the company where they work, an SEO manager can make between 44k and 100K per year. Typically, SEO managers also generate extra income from various sources. These can be via bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing, which can increase their annual wage by 30K. How about SEO Managers in other countries? Salaries of SEO Managers in other countries in North America: For instance, an SEO manager in Canada makes between C$31, 000 and 71, 000 which is equivalent to between US$26, 000 and US$55, 000 per year. At the other end, the average salary of an SEO manager in Mexico is just over 122, 000 Mexican pesos, which is roughly US$ 6, 500. If you live in the U.S., it may seem like a low salary. However, it is actually 4.7 times higher than the average general salary. Salaries…

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A PPC specialist is a marketing professional that specializes in creating and implementing PPC campaigns. Basically, their job is to maximize the advertiser’s ROI. Some of the responsibilities of a PPC specialist include creating and planning PPC campaigns across different digital media, monitoring and optimizing campaigns, analyzing trends and performance, and copywriting. On the other hand, PPC or Pay Per Click is a digital marketing strategy where the advertiser pays a fee every time someone clicks on their ads. These ads are displayed on websites and social media platforms. Additionally, businesses pay search engines to place them on the first page of search results as ads. What skills should you look for in a PPC specialist? When hiring a PPC specialist, you should look for these essential skills: Openminded Organized Timely Understanding of the business With excellent communication skills, both verbal and written Creative Knowledgeable – but willing to continue learning Analytical A PPC specialist can work with a marketing agency or be self-employed. If you already hired the services…

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SEO friendly means that a website is set up in a way -from its code to its design, text, and images- that it makes easier for search engine crawlers to index the content, determine what the site is about, and show it in search results pages. Being SEO friendly can help a website appear in the first pages of search results and with more than 2 billion websites, and more than 3.5 billion daily searches, you want your site to rank as high as possible. But what exactly makes a site SEO friendly? Your website’s title pages are unique, and you should tell Google by using title tags. Titles should be concise but descriptive. Use meta tags to describe what each page is about accurately; meta tags should include the most relevant keywords so that you let search engine crawlers know precisely what your site is about. Use an effective meta description or description meta tag. Meta information is what Google displays when your site appears as a search result….

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An article in SEO terms is a piece of written content aimed to improve a website’s ranking and visibility on search engines. Writing SEO articles is different from other types of written content in that they are done with a concrete goal in mind. To accomplish that goal, certain guidelines need to be followed. Writing an SEO article is not only about having excellent writing skills. Yes, good writing skills will allow you to make the piece interesting and easy to read. However, it is necessary to know the specific SEO guidelines you need to stick to. Part of the writing process consists on figuring out how to smoothly intertwine SEO elements into the article. Some of the strategies that will allow your SEO article to help boost your site’s ranking are: The tactical placement of keywords and keyword phrases You need to consciously choose your keywords after a thorough research and analysis. Ideally, SEO writers perform their keyword research before starting the writing process. There are many different tools…

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Basically, an SEO or Search Engine Optimization strategist is a digital marketing professional. However, they specialize in developing and analyzing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns. They use tools such as Google Analytics to monitor and learn how a website is performing. They are interested in knowing where traffic is coming from to develop a plan to increase said website´s ranking in search engine results pages. Often, an SEO strategist works in close collaboration with content creators, web developers, graphic designers, and other marketing experts. Together, they create and execute strategies that will bring more organic traffic to their clients’ sites. What are the responsibilities of an SEO strategist? An SEO strategist must wear a lot of hats in order to be efficient and successful. Here are some of their responsibilities. Carry out online research about consumer trends relevant to their clients. Collect and analyze data using monitoring software. Some of this data includes traffic sources, bounce rate, and others. Learn and understand consumers’ preferences and buying habits, and identify potential…

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SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and, simply put, SEO writing is creating content that will help you optimize your content for Search Engines. And what is Search Engine Optimization? It Is a set of strategies that help websites rank better in search engine results pages. However, the first rule of SEO is that users come first. Yes, it is called Search Engine Optimization, but the primary objective of search engines is to provide their users with the best content available for their search terms, so your ultimate goal is to offer valuable, engaging content to those looking for information over the internet. That being said, what does SEO writing entail? SEO writing consists of following certain guidelines and strategies to help a website’s content naturally gain visibility. In order to do this, here is what you need to know. Find the Right Keywords And use them strategically throughout the text. Keywords are those terms that users type on Google or other search engine’s search bar when they are trying…

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If you distilled the answer to why we do SEO all the way down to a single purpose, it’d probably be to connect. We do SEO because we want to connect our content with that vast pool of information that is the internet. We do it because we want that content to connect effectively with search engine algorithms, reliably and productively. We do SEO because we want our content to connect with as many interested people as possible. So, let’s look at the answer from those three perspectives to illustrate the purpose of SEO better. To connect with the internet: The internet, in and of itself, is a vast network of interconnected content, and search engines serve a crucial function that has helped shaped the way it has evolved over the years. If you wish to find something – anything – on the internet that you have no previous connection with, you need to use search engines. Most importantly, if you wish for people who might be interested in your content to find it…

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SEO Experts are professionals who help webmasters increase the amount of organic traffic to their website. An SEO expert analyzes the search trends, keyword search volumes, competitor data, incoming/outgoing links, content, meta tags, URL structure and monitors the overall site activity via tools like: Google Search Console, Bing Webmasters and Other known tools.They provide expert guidance to business owners looking to increase organic search traffic to their website. The field of SEO is expanding and everyday we are witnessing new changes in the search algorithms.An SEO expert must always keep up with such changes and catch up on the search behavior trends in order to provide the best services to the clients.

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Now get the Best SEO Report delivered to you, see what your website is missing — and how we can fix the most important issues, to ensure your site has the best rankings. We offer the ultimate reporting solution for people around the world who own websites.Whether you are a small business owner, a big corporation, or own a website in between. Key: You need to know your SEO Score and see how the search engines are viewing your website. That way, you know what changes to make.As a Top SEO company, we can do it for you or you can do it yourself. If there is one thing in SEO that every one needs, it’s a detailed, professional SEO Report. So, let our professionals give you the SEO insights you need. We are not the cheapest, but we are certainly not the most expensive!

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Let us handle all your S.E.O needs and put a Top SEO company to work managing and monitoring your search engine positions. To help you get more new customers. Choosing the right SEO company is difficult. Because you have to trust the people you select to help achieve your goals. Not to mention the fact that you’re continually approached by “experts” who tell you, “Hey, I am an SEO Expert! Hire me.”Anyone with a computer can try to sway you with false promises. They will offer to get you on the”golden 1st page” of search results for a cheap price. But truth to be told, they don’t have enough man hours to handle all the work required.They’re just after quick cash. So if anyone promises to get you on the first page of search results for $100, $200, $300 or even $400 per month … please be suspicious.

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PageSpeed Insights by Google measure the speed a web page loads for mobile and desktop devices.It analyzes the URL of your website twice: once for mobile and once for desktop.The PageSpeed Score is very important. The higher your score, the better your website in the search engine’s eyes. A score of 85 and up is very good; it means that your site is performing well. But a low score means as low loading website and pages; this can lead to low user engagement, increased bounce rates, and low average time spent on a page. Anyone can test their web pages for free with Google’s PageSpeed Insights.In the past few years,Google has invested millions of dollars on PageSpeed. So that’s a sign you should make any changes they suggest. Here’s the bottom line: A fast website = better user experience = better search results.

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Off-Page SEO concentrates mostly on things outside of your website and your control. There are many techniques that can improve the position of your website in search engine results, including linking to relevant, high-ranked websites. And while people tend to connect off-page optimization with link building, that’s only a small part.Mainly it’s about your promotion methods and techniques. Search Engine Optimization (on and off site), is never a one-step process. There are no magic tricks or shortcuts. It is long, hard work that must be don one step at a time, with creativity and passion. If you want to rank as high as possible in search engines, know this: The harder you work for it,the more likely you are to get it.By working harder we mean that you need to be constantly active in all places relevant to your niche– websites, web-pages or blogs with a solid traffic and what’s called “trust-flow.” The more credible a web site is that links to your site, the more likely it is that…

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Content writing is one of the essential foundations of Search Engine Optimization. Just as Bill Gate’s immortalized in his famous essay “Content Is King,” it is content what drives the internet today. This means that both notions are best understood via their interaction and dynamic: Content is what you produce to provide value to your audience. SEO are the techniques you use to make that content stand out. More specifically, content writing – when viewed under the lens of SEO – refers to any piece of writing that has been optimized to be easily found and prominently showcased by search engine algorithms. In any type of content (a website, blog post, or even multimedia,) you want on optimize for better internet exposure, and writing always plays a vital role. Even videos and images usually reach with titles, descriptions, and hidden keywords intended to tell search algorithms what they are, and suggest their value and relevance for people doing searches. And notice that the word value keeps popping up. Yes, optimization is made for machines and algorithms, but…

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Get high quality PR back links from relevant websites and add huge improvements to your organic search rankings. We take the articles you create and distribute them to highly-relevant blogs and websites. This creates quality links with high authority, so you rank higher in search. Fine-tuning what keywords to promote and what anchor tags to use inside your blog – this is just some of what we do to help improve your rankings.We find outdated links to your site using our proprietary tools and Google’s webmaster tools. Then we tell the relevant site to update their link or disavow corrupted links. Tip: Keep an eye on your back links and their relevancy. Because many businesses change their brand and/or name; when that happens, they are no longer relevant to your website niche. And the wrong backlinks can hurt you.By using our services, we make sure your website does everything possible to meet the search engine’s guidelines. We can create a standout blog for your company, an RSS feed, press releases,…

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We will manage your Google Analytics/Google Webmasters Tools account, Google webmaster account and other stats systems to ensure the best results.One of the most powerful and useful SEO tools on earth is Google Webmaster Tools. It contains no commercial SEO add-ons. It is not a toy to play with. It’s a serious tool that comes from Google. And it offers vital SEO insights for you. We will manage your Google Webmasters Tools and make sure your site complies with the latest search engine guidelines. Google Analytics is another amazing tool from the house of Google. It monitors traffic on your website like no other tool can. It gives any website owner an enormous amount of solid, valid information about who visited your website, when, for how long, what they were interested in, and how they “experienced” your site’s search engine optimization overall.We will manage your Google Analytics for you, while giving you powerful, up-to-date reports from Google Analytics and other in-house tools we use. So you can rank higher in…

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Search Engine Optimization is a discipline that combines skills in the realm of tech, marketing, and social engineering. A particular set that is not easy to come by. Most of the time, whenever you need SEO solutions for your online content your best bet is to hire an SEO/ Digital Marketing agency. Other options are hiring a freelancer/consultant to help you out, or learning to do it yourself. By going with an agency, you’re instantly benefitting from several key advantages that dramatically improve the chances you’ll get the best possible service and the results you want. By hiring an agency, you get to skip out all the time, effort, and harsh lessons you need to go through when learning to do so yourself. On top of that, you get to start benefitting from the improvements made to your content in a shorter timeframe. SEO & Digital Marketing agencies tend to be divided into departments. Each focused on different tasks that come together to form a solid SEO strategy that works…

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“Google search operators” or “advanced search operators” are special characters used to improve your search. They help you narrow down your query, and they’re useful for any type of search. You can benefit from learning how to use them, whether you need to do a simple content search or a technical SEO audit. Advance search operators are a very powerful tool. They can save you time and help you find exactly what you are looking for. How do you use search operators? You type them directly into the search bar just as you would type a search term. Some of the basic operators include words such as “OR” and “AND” which most people already use. There are other less common operators that work wonders, making searches more accurate. Here are examples of other basic search operators you probably didn’t know: Inverted commas (“ ”) to find results for an exact match. Using a minus (-) in front of any term (including operators) excludes them from the results. Using an asterisk…

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The concept “above the fold” is centuries old. It all started with the early days of the printing press. Back then, newspapers were printed on large paper sheets. They had to be folded when they were displayed on the newsstand, which only made visible the top half of the paper. The industry quickly found a way to draw people’s attention using of that visible part of the paper. They had to present eye-catching headlines, images, and content on this top half. This remains true to this day, and now it is applied to digital content. Websites obviously don’t have an actual fold like newspapers do, so the “fold” in the WWW refers to the scrollbar. On a website, everything you see before you need to start scrolling down is what’s known as above the fold content. The part of the page that needs scrolling so you can see the content is called “below the fold.” The amount of information displayed on a web page varies from one website to another….

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Google AdWords is now known as Google Ads, and it’s Google’s advertising service. Your website can appear on the top of search results pages (SERPs) by paying for one or several specific keywords. It is known as paid search. This means that your site will appear above the organic searches as a search ad. Google lets users know it’s an ad by adding a small green label that reads “AD.” However, if you are not paying attention, you might mistake it for an organic result. Besides Google, Bing also has its own advertising platform called the Bing Network. How does it work? Basically, you choose one or several keywords related to your niche. These terms are the ones think a person searching your products or services might use. Then, you need to create an ad that will appear on the SERPs when people search the terms you chose. However, chances are you’re not the only business doing this. Your competitors can bid for the same search terms you do and….

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An affiliate website is one that promotes the services or products of a company in exchange for a commission. This is usually done through an affiliate network, and it’s based on revenue sharing.

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If you want to promote a product or service on your website, you need to sign up for the affiliate network that the company works with. Or you can sign up to several networks and decide which products you want to promote. They give you affiliate links, which is how they track where sales came from. You can place those links on your website, on YouTube, or social networks. When people click on them and buy the products or services, you are promoting through your link. When your audience takes the desired action, you get a commission. Some affiliate networks offer Cost Per Action (CPA) programs. This means that the desired action is not always buying a product or service. It can be filling out a form, downloading a freebie, or opting in to receive a newsletter. Affiliate marketing is a great way for a business to get organic traffic and increase conversion rates.

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Generally speaking, an algorithm is a set process to solve a problem. Algorithms are all about finding solutions, and the faster and easier, the better. Search engines use them to gather information and determine what results to return for a search query. When referring to search engines, you will usually read about “THE” algorithm. However, it is actually a set of algorithms that work together to determine how significant a website is for a specific search term or terms. Think of it as a main algorithm and several sub-algorithms and formulas. The main algorithm is the one that determines how the others are considered to produce the results you see on a SERP when you search for something. Each search engine has its own set of rules (algorithms and sub-algorithms). And they work together to “decide” what results we see when we look for something online. These set of rules is also what determines whether a site is spam or not and if it as relevant and useful information for…

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Alt text stands for alternative text. It is also known as alt attributes or alt descriptions. You will also find it as alt tags, though this is technically incorrect. Alt text is used a part of an HTML code used to describe the appearance of an image on a page. They provide a context and image descriptions so search engines can index it properly. Alt text is used to make the web more accessible. People who are visually impaired and use screen readers can have the software read the alt text to gain a better understanding of the page. Alt attributes will be displayed when an image file cannot be loaded. Using alternative text in your images makes it possible for all users to understand what the content of your site is whether they have limited use internet, or have a visual disability. Alt text improves user experience, and that is always good for SEO. But beyond that, it provides crawlers with the necessary information to classify your site’s visual…

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AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It refers to a project developed by Google to improve the experience of end-users. Have you ever entered a website and been forced to waste minutes of your life waiting for the page to load? It is super frustrating, right? In today’s world, speed is critical to keep customers happy. A slow response in a website can make you lose potential clients. With that in mind, Google came up with a way to speeds up the response of the website, improving the user experience. AMP can make your website’s pages load faster for mobile users. This can help you keep your customers happy while standing out in Google’s result pages. The format looks to create optimized versions of the original pages by removing any function that might be slowing them down. Some of the functionalities of the page might be limited for the sake of speed. In more technical words, the code of the page is cleaned and modified according to Google’s Content Delivery…

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Amplification is advertising your brand by distributing content through different online media. It is a powerful way increase your website traffic and create sale opportunities. Content is still the king of any online business. However, creating engaging and relevant content is not enough to increase your website’s traffic. Guiding people towards your content is as important as writing top-notch pieces. The first step is to create interesting and useful content that people will love to read. Distribution increases your chances of being seen. But it will be the quality of the content you share that will make people stay on your site and take action. Make sure it is relevant and appropriately designed for your target audience. Once you have top-quality content, study which channels suit your business better, and design posts that adapt to the format of the platform. The internet offers many possibilities to promote your content and your brand. These include social media and email. Most platforms have free ways to distribute your content, but you also…

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In the simplest words, anchor text is the clickable text that links to another page within the same site or another site online. Anchor texts have been widely used as part of a strong SEO strategy. It creates the opportunity to have leads and increase the organic traffic to your website. However, they are also an easy way to be banned by Google for over linking pages. There are several types of anchor text. These include branded anchors, naked link anchors, and generic anchors. You can also find LSI anchors. These kinds of anchors use variations of the main keyword. Branded anchors use the name of the brand as anchor text. Naked anchors use the URL directly within the text. Generic anchors use common terms to link to a page, for example “click here”, “this website”, and “more info”. Another type of anchor text has nothing to do with the text itself but with the image. As you know, images cannot be seen as text, but Google reads the Alt…

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Anchor text has an impact on the website to which it links. Therefore, it can modify the rank of a site in the results offered by a search engine. The effect of anchor texts can be positive or negative. That is why link building strategies must follow the specifications established by Google. Two of those conditions include using only keywords that are related to your niche or topic and using the anchor text in 1% of the content or less.

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Analytics is a program used to gather and analyze data about the use of a website. You can find both paid and free analytics software. Google Analytics, for example, offers both free and paid services. Search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing are here to stay. They have changed the marketing and advertising arena by providing customers exactly what they are looking for. Nowadays, the ranking of an online business is determined by the overall user experience they offer. Some of the criteria used to evaluate user experience include page loading speed, relevant and up-to-date content, usability, and others. These aspects make visitors stay on the website and even want to come back. Analytics software study and register the interaction between a website and its users. It gathers information about each visit. This includes number of visitors, location, time of higher number of visits, and even how long users stay on a page. This kind of software can provide valuable information to website owners and marketing professionals, helping them optimize…

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API stands for Application Programming Interface. It consists of a set of functions and procedures that allow access to features of an operating system. In simpler words, APIs are two applications communicating with each other. Even though it looks like a fancy and complicated concept, most people have used APIs. Every time you have used an app on your phone, this app sends your request to the internet and then to a server. The server receives the input, processes it, and sends the answer back to your phone’s app. The app displays it in readable language for you. This is the generic definition in the computing field. Now, let’s take a look at the term in the SEO world. An API is designed to help business owners see and analyze all the information about their website. It provides marketers, webmasters, and SEO specialists data from the interactions between a site and the users in a condensed way. APIs are very popular today because of their fast access to the information…

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Async is short for asynchronous and refers to the process of loading individually the resources of a web page. Let’s break this concept down. A resource is every item included in a web page: Images, text (HTML pages), cascading style sheets (CCS), they are all resources. For users to see the web page as it was designed and enjoy all the features and functionalities, the resources must be totally downloaded. In the past, every resource downloaded sequentially, which means that one resource had to be downloaded entirely for the second to start downloading, and so on. It worked perfectly for those early years on the web. However, things have slightly changed ever since. Nowadays, businesses depend significantly on SEO to succeed in the online world. In other words, they must provide customers with a great user experience to achieve the highest ranking possible in the search engine result pages. One of the main aspects of good user experience is the loading speed of a website. That is when asynchronous resources…

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An authority site is a respectable site among other websites in its industry. The main feature of these sites is the high-quality content and a significant amount of incoming links. It becomes a reference for other websites in similar niches. A good example of an authority site would be Wikipedia. More often than not, Wikipedia is among the top results of the most popular search engines. The reason? It has relevant information about a huge range of topics, and every page is backed up by references of other respectable sites. The goal of authority sites is to offer useful information about their niche. They must answer their users’ questions and make them want to share it with others. Authority sites should cover their topic thoroughly by providing only trustworthy information. They commonly rank higher than other sites because they become a tool or a resource for users. Another important characteristic of authority sites is that they target a very specific audience, and cover every aspect of their topic of interest….

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Automatically generated content or auto-generated content is produced using software. This is done with little or no human involvement in the process. Most of the times, it makes no sense and is not useful at all. A significant part of today’s online business success depends on SEO. SEO is based on giving a good user experience to website visitors. The level of optimization on a website is measured by its pages loading speed, user-friendly features, content relevance. Content is at the top of the ranking factors pyramid. It has to be relevant, useful, and original for a site to rank high in the results. Auto-generated content is not relevant, not useful, and definitely, not original. So, it can severely hurt your website ranking and even lead to banishment. Google has some strict standards regarding their optimized content policy. Its web crawlers can identify what content provides real help to the users and which has been introduced to manipulate search ranking. Just in case you’re wondering what Google considers auto-generated content,…

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The phrase “10 blue links” is an expression in the world of SEO used to refer to the traditional format of presenting search results. It used to be that, when you entered a query on your search engine of choice, the site came back with 10 blue link entries as suggestions. Now, you might be thinking that that remains the way the biggest search engine around – Google – works. The fact is that the search titan, who held to the tradition longer than most, has discretely moved beyond it. Yes, through the years, Google has kept to a pretty consistent format of presenting its search results. Namely, a list of blue links deemed to most closely match your query and the information you want to access. However, search for any famous artist right now on their engine, and you’ll notice the information goes way beyond the titular links. A news block usually heads the page, and probably a profile immediately to its right side. A handful of links followed…

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Bounce rates refer to one of the most used, and most important website traffic analytics used in SEO to determine a site’s performance. A “bounce” alludes to a person that gets to your site and leaves without further interacting with other pages. Bounce rates, then, are the percentage of people who get into your site and immediately leave. It is calculated by taking all the single-page sessions your website gets and dividing that number by the number of total sessions received. Generally speaking, high bounce rates are considered a bad thing, while low bounce rates tend to be desirable. Having said that, there’s a bit more to unpack than just that. Is a high bounce rate always bad? More often than not, yes. Very rarely does a website success hinges on viewers interacting with a single page, but in such cases, a high bounce rate would make sense. Like it happens with some blogs. However, if your site works as most do, using landing pages to “convert” visitors making them…

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Broken links, also known as dead links, are hyperlinks on your website that for some reason no longer direct to their intended destination. Broken links are a problem for two main reasons:• They tarnish UX: The quality of your content is a reflection of your online persona. When a user clicks on a link in your site and gets a 404-error page, they might get frustrated and never come back.• They undermine Optimization: Broken links affect the way link equity flows through your website. This, in turn, can negatively affect your rankings. When your site encounters a broken link, it usually is caused by one of these reasons:– The wrong link was entered when you created the link.– The destination site removed the page being linked to.– The destination site’s URL structure changed.– The destination site no longer exists or has permanently moved to a new address without properly redirecting.– The user has some software (like a firewall) that’s blocking his access to the linked site.– The link is pointed…

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A blog is essentially a type of website that originated from the format many online journals had back when the internet was new. It is characterized by having its content presented in reverse chronological order, meaning that newer content appears first. They are primarily used as content delivery platforms, most often including texts – called “Blog posts” – images, videos, and animated gifs. Initially, they came about as a way for people to share their content with others. Following a very basic mechanic: You posted a new entry on your blog, people read it and commented on it, and then you got to interact with through comments. It is a basic formula that remains alive even to this day. That being said, blogs today tend to be a bit more involved and provide many more opportunities than just interacting through comments. What makes Blogs different from regular websites? Blogs and websites hold differences in both form and function. Websites tend to be static – for the most part – digital…

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Having varied uses and implementations the specifics vary, but at its most essential a bot is a software application programmed to run automated tasks online. Initially, they were designed to take care of simple and structurally repetitive tasks, much faster than a human being ever could. Since then, bots have grown in sophistication and capabilities, which has allowed their use on much more complex tasks. An excellent way to truly understanding the concept is to take a look at some of the most popular (and important) implementations of bots right now. Types of Bots • Web Crawler: Arguably one of the most relevant kinds of bots right now, these bots are an integral piece of how the internet functions. Web crawlers – also known as “spiders” – are automated scripts in charge of fetching, analyzing, and indexing information from web servers. A process which is closely tied to SEO.• Text-reading Algorithms: Another commonly used type of bot, these programs pour over excessive amounts of text and analyze it according to…

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What is a backlink? Backlink is a term often used in the SEO community to describe any incoming links to a website. This means that whenever a site creates a hyperlink connecting it to another site, it creates a backlink. They are a ubiquitous term in search engine optimization due to their significance then and now. It used to be that backlinks were the number one metric used by search engines to rank websites. The assumption was that if many sites were pointing to a particular one, that site held valuable information that people would like to see. Thus, pages with a lot of backlinks tended to rank higher on all major search engines. Google included. While search algorithms have significantly evolved since then, backlinks remain an essential piece of the optimization game, and a lot of SEO’s terminology reflects it. Popular Backlink nomenclature, tied to SEO • Link Juice: A popular phrase used in this context, it denotes a site conveying credibility and relevance when it links to another….

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In SEO, breadcrumbs are links that let users track their path from the page they are currently viewing on your site, to your homepage. They are an important piece of a well-designed website, as these navigational aids help improve user experience while helping search engines understand your site’s structure. They are usually located at the top of a website and denote a users’ position relative to the home page. A typical breadcrumb might look like: Home >> Blog >> What are Breadcrumbs. With each instance along the path being a clickable link that aids navigation. Types of Breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs are often classified into three types. • Location breadcrumbs: In website navigation structure today, they tell the position of a page within the site’s hierarchy. They help users visit a page that hosts similar sites.• Path breadcrumbs: These are probably the most common type, and the one discussed above. They show the path a user has taken through your site.• Keyword breadcrumbs: Similar to location breadcrumbs, they use keywords instead of…

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A bad idea. Black hat SEO is a blanket term referring to an assortment of search engine optimization practices that are either frowned upon or outright forbidden by most search engines. These practices are intended to trick search engine algorithms into ranking pages higher on SERPs, not based on quality but technicalities. This is a big no-no to most search engines since it runs directly against their primary focus: Delivering accurate, useful, and quality results to their users. Search engines actively hunt and penalize sites engaging in these practices, so they are best avoided altogether. Black hat SEO is most often associated with shady or scammy businesses and services, as it is known to hold no long-term effectiveness. What are some common black hat SEO practices? It is useful to be at least aware of the most common practices in black hat SEO so that you can avoid them entirely. Some of these are:• Content Automation.• Doorway Pages.• Hidden texts or links.• Keyword stuffing.• Sneaky redirects.• Link Schemes.• Link Farms.And…

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B2B is an abbreviation of “Business to Business,” which refers to the practice of commercializing business-oriented goods or services. In other words, when the ultimate target of a business’ products is another business. Types of B2B products While listing all the things B2B businesses commercialize would be impossible, they usually fall under one of these classifications:• Entering goods and services: Products or services that become part of other products. Raw and processed materials and basic and advanced component parts all fall under this category.• Foundation goods and services: Products used to make other products, like real estate and accessory equipment. Office buildings or machinery would be goods that fall in this category.• Facilitating goods and services: Products and services that help businesses achieve their objectives. This is probably the most varied classification, encompassing things from marketing research services to cleaning supplies. Types of B2B products While listing all the things B2B businesses commercialize would be impossible, they usually fall under one of these classifications:• Entering goods and services: Products or…

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B2c is an abbreviation of “Business to Consumer,” which refers to the practice of commercializing consumer-oriented goods or services. In other words, when the ultimate target is a business’ products is a person. Most companies selling directly to consumers fall into this category, which contrasts with B2C practices. Traditionally, B2C refers to mall shopping, restaurants, pay-per-view services, and the like. Mostly using television to reach the intended audience. Now, the rise of the internet has brought a new scope to the practice in the form of e-commerce, meaning selling goods and services over the internet. Popular online B2C business models Most online B2C business practices fall under one of these models:• Direct sellers: The most common model. Here, people buy goods directly from online retailers, which can include manufacturers or just online versions of department stores.• Online intermediaries: These are go-betweens who don’t own products or services, but bring buyers and sellers together.• Advertising-based B2C: this model involves using free content to get traffic into a website, and generate revenue…

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To have your site de-indexed means to have it either be temporary or permanently taken out from search engine rankings – In other words, no matter what search term a person uses, a de-indexed site will never appear on SERPs. Search engines like Google are constantly sending out bots called web crawlers, whose sole function is to navigate content and record what they find. This information is then organized and stored on the search engine’s “index.” Search engines don’t fetch results from the internet in real time. Their algorithms match users’ queries to these extensive indexes and select from them the results to be shown. A de-indexed site receives no such web crawlers and does not appear on a search engine’s index, so it can’t appear in search results. De-indexing can be imposed as a penalty by search engines due to wrongful practices, or voluntarily by a site webmaster. Why would someone de-index their own site? While seemingly counter-intuitive, there are several possible reasons for someone to want to prevent…

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In the realm of local SEO, distance refers to the proximity of a search result, to the point where the search originated from. Distance is believed to be one of the most critical factors that come in play when ranking for platforms based around location. While regular SERPs rely mostly on indicators like quality/authority, diversity of inbound links, and keyword relevance, distance seems to supersede those for things like Google Local Pack and Maps. Other essential elements to rank for local SEO are:• Proper category associations for a business’ profile.• Consistency in citations.• Physical address.• Completeness of a business listing.• Verification of listing. Organic results vs. Location-based Experimentation goes a long way to show the role that distance and proximity play in location-based search engine results. Taking Google as an example, localized organic results (the blue links shown in the regular list) still seem to rank based on traditional factors. They remain somewhat consistent regardless of distance. Results on Google Local Pack and Google Maps, on the other hand, appear…

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It refers to having the exact same information appear in two or more websites at the same time. According to Google, “Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar.” Having duplicate does not automatically earn a penalty, but it can affect a site’s rankings. Search engines tend to dislike duplicate content since it presents a lot of challenges:• Determining which version of the content to include or keep out of their indexes.• Determining how to allocate link metrics.• Determining which version should be ranked in SERPs. When is duplicate content bad? When someone purposely takes, copy, and slightly alter content to manipulate search engine rankings. Google calls this “copied content.” This is the type of practice that might trigger penalties. From Google: “Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results” Depending…

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A Domain or domain name is a term used to refer to a website’s unique, human-readable identifier or “address.” They are comprised of three parts: A top-level domain, a domain name proper, and an optional subdomain. Technically speaking, “Domain” refers to the three elements together, while “Domain name” indicates the middle part. Top-level domains must be registered with the Web Internet Registry, and a yearly fee is required to maintain the registry. The pieces of a domain name Top-level Domain (TLD): This is the official designation to the suffix at the end of a domain name. The most recognizable being: .com, .net, .org, and .edu. However, there are over 1000 other possible TLDs to choose from. Some designate territories (.ca for Canada) or even things (like .book) Domain name: This is the second level of a domain’s hierarchy. Domain names are usually purchased from a registrar – a company that manages the reservation of domain names – and represent the unique and specific location of a site. Subdomain: This is the third level of hierarchy…

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Domain authority (DA), also known as thought leadership, is a concept that refers to a website’s “relevance.” Presumably, search engines algorithms place a lot of importance on this aspect of a site, which directly affects its ranking. It is often described as consisting of four main aspects: Prestige of a website and its authors, quality of its information, centrality (amount of unidirectional connections), and the competitiveness of its niche. Domain authority and MOZ Usually, when most people reference domain authority, they are actually referring to Moz’s DA rank. An algorithm and metric that accounts for interpretations of DA’s aspects, to predict a website’s performance in SERPs. By looking at the domains that point to a site, the number of inbound links, and other proprietary characteristics, Moz assigns sites a number between 0 and 100. This number is supposed to mirror the appraisal that search engines – like Google – have for the site, thus suggesting its likelihood of ranking. Moz’s DA rank is meant to be used in a comparative…

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Directory links refer to links that originate in a web directory – also called link directories – that act as list or catalogs of websites. Although still in use, web directories and directory links are legacy elements from the early internet. As their name implies, they were used to list entries of people or businesses online, such as their homepage address and contact information. Web directories today also tend to include entries about a website that contains links to their content, organized into categories and subcategories. Besides a link, entries can also have the page’s title and a summary of its content. In most link directories, entries cover entire websites rather than their individual pages. For organizational purposes, most sites are eligible for inclusion in only a handful of categories within a directory. The initial idea behind web directories is to provide an alternative way to find information online by browsing topics instead of searching by keywords. Today, most directories allow for searches within their database. Directory links and SEO Submitting a…

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A Dead-end page is a webpage on your site with no outgoing links. They include no header or footer links, no main navigation sections, and no breadcrumbs, thus creating a dead end. Such pages give users no further navigation options other than backtracking to where they landed from, or manually inputting a new address. Dead-end pages are synonymous to bad user experience. They truncate navigation through your content and increase the chances of a visitor leaving. However, with so many templates and accessible web development tools available today, genuinely dead-end pages are relatively uncommon. Fixing a Dead-end page While potentially very detrimental for UX, dead-end pages can be easily fixed:• Add a main navigation menu that links back to your home or other parts of your site.• Use a sidebar, header, or footer that enables them to go back to a previous page, or move forward to a new one.

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A deep link refers to a hyperlink that directs to a specific – generally searchable and indexed – page on a website instead of the site’s home — for example, linking to “https://www.overthetopseo.com/seo-services/” instead of “www.overthetopseo.com.“ Deep links contain all the information necessary to point to a particular page – OTT’s SEO services page in the example – instead of just the information pointing to the highest level home page of our site. Deep link disadvantages While a common practice, some commercial websites object to other sites providing deep links to their content. It is an understandable concern for several reasons depending on the site’s monetization scheme, as deep links allow people to: • Bypass advertisements on the main pages.• Might suggest the content belongs to the site providing the link.• Provide access to content behind paywalls or some other conditions. Deep linking has led to companies taking legal action in the past, but it remains a common practice. A site that doesn’t want search engines to deep link, or only wants…

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In SEO, disavow usually refers to the action of rejecting or discarding harmful backlinks to your site. It is an available action in Google Search Console that can help you fix, or prevent your site from getting, a manual action. When you have a manual action against your site due to unnatural links – or if you think you are in risk of getting one due to a backlink scheme – you can disavow these links. Doing so tells Google that you don’t want them to take these links into account when assessing your site. Disavowing, then, removes harmful links from Google’s consideration. When to use Google’s disavow tool? You might want to disavow malicious links when:• Your site receives a manual penalty.• Your site receives an algorithmic penalty.• When you detect toxic backlinks on your site’s link profile. How to use Google’s disavow tool? Usually, Google does a good job of figuring out which links to trust without additional input, so you won’t be using this tool regularly. Try and only use…

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Do-follow is an attribute that hyperlinks can have in HTML code. As opposed to the “no-follow” tag, do-follow instructs search engines web crawlers to continue crawling/navigating through to the linked sites. By default, all links are do-follow links unless they get designated as no-follow, which can happen manually by the person uploading the content or automatically by a website setting. Do-follow links and SEO Within the SEO community, it is common to state that do-follow links provide “link juice.” To most search engine algorithms, links function – among other things – as votes for quality. These algorithms make a note of sites that are continually being linked to, and factor that information when considering how highly a website should rank in SERPs. No-follow links don’t provide this advantage and are mainly there just for the users’ benefit. In HTML, a do-follow link would have this format: “<a href=”https://www.overthetopseo.com”>Amazing SEO services</a” While the same link as a no-follow variant would follow this format: “<a rel=”nofollow” href=” https://www.overthetopseo.com “>Amazing SEO services</a>”

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Doorway pages – bridge pages, portal pages, jump pages – is a name given to pages explicitly designed for ranking benefits. Their sole purpose is to rank highly for specific search queries, and they are fully developed around this intent. Considering search engines but not users. A doorway page affects the indexes of search engines by inserting results for specific phrases. They send users to a different page than expected or to intermediate sites that aren’t as useful; without the user’s knowledge and employing cloaking. Using doorway pages is considered a black hat SEO practice and search engines like Google penalize it. Common examples of doorway pages:• Using multiple domains – or pages targeting specific locations – that funnel all users into the same destination.• Pages generated just to funnel visitors to the actually useful portion of your site.• Extremely similar pages that are closer to search results than a clearly defined, browsable hierarchy. Why are doorway pages frown upon by search engines? On paper, doorway pages might not sound as damaging…

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Dwell time is a metric that refers to the amount of time that passes between the moment a user clicks on a link in a SERP to the moment they go back to the SERP page. It is a common practice in online navigation for a user to focus their attention between sessions looking at search results, making dwell time an important SEO metric. Search engines place a lot of importance into the duration of these sessions. After all, the time spent by a user on a site consuming its content can be directly linked to the value the user found there. Alongside Bounce Rates and Time on Page, dwell time is often cited as an important metric in many optimization strategies. Dwell time and Google There’s some debate among many SEOs about the extent of the importance Google places on this metric. On their end, Google has neither confirmed nor denied any ascribed importance to dwell time. However, there have been instances where Google employees suggest its relevance. Mainly…

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Also called “direct access,” direct traffic is a term to designate when a user arrives directly on a website, without clicking a link on another site. Direct traffic usually comes from four sources:• Users who know your site’s URL and type it directly in their browser.• Users who have bookmarked your website or saved it as a “favorite.”• Users who arrive via a link shared by another person (in an email, for example).• Users who follow a link on an HTTPS page to an HTTP page. Depending on the platform used to analyze this data, sometimes continuing visits – when the referrer page is also on your site – are also considered direct traffic. Direct traffic is regarded as a valuable metric to keep tabs on, as it is often linked to the portion of your audience most loyal to your content. For this reason, direct traffic tends to have notably higher conversion rates, and it is often the object of optimization strategies.

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In contrast with static URLs, a dynamic URL results from a search within a website-driven search by a database running on some script. When said site’s database is queried, it generates a dynamic URL. Only the data is changed while the HTML code remains the same. When it comes to optimization, dynamic URLs are mostly seen as subpar compared to static ones, for a number of reasons: • They tend to have lower click-through rates.• Higher chances of cutting off at the end when copy/pasting, increasing chances of 404 errors.• Lower keyword relevance and prominence.• Extremely difficult, if not impossible, to type manually or remember.• Unusable in branding/print campaigns.• Counter-intuitive for users.

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Faceted navigation allows users to narrow down a website’s content according to what they want to find. You can typically see it when you go to an e-commerce or listing site such as Amazon or Yelp. With faceted navigation, you can easily apply filters on different categories to get the results you want to see while browsing through thousands of products or services. Why is it important for SEO? Faceted navigation is very useful for visitors when it’s done right. However, it can be a burden when it comes to optimizing a website. Websites with faceted navigation can have a high number of live URLs that shouldn’t be indexed, but end up being picked up by crawlers. Why shouldn’t they be indexed? The large number of pages that sites with faceted navigation have for a single product can compromise crawler’s efficiency. Additionally, the pages can be considered duplicate content and dilute link equity (the authority a link can pass from one page to another). This, in turn, affects the website’s…

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A featured snippet displayed on top of Google’s first search results page. It’s a summary of the answer to a user’s search. This snippet is taken from a website’s page, and it includes its title and URL. Featured snippets are there to attempt to answer the user’s query instantly, without them having to click on the results links. There are three main types of featured snippets:• Table• List• Paragraph While the first two are self-explanatory, a paragraph snippet is showed as a text, but it can also contain an image as part of the snippet. There are certain types of search queries where featured snippets are more commonly showed: mathematical, DIY processes, financial, searches for requirements, and health-related searches. A study done by Ahrefs determined that nearly 100% of featured pages were already on the top ten spots of Google’s SERPs. Getstat, on the other hand, discovered that 70% of the snippets were not on the first organic position. Another interesting statistic obtained from Ahrefs’ study is that about 12% of search queries…

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There are a few steps that need to happen before you can see a web page. When you type the URL of the page you want to access or click on the link you found on a search engine, your browser sends a request to the website server. The server finds the page and sends it to the browser, and then the browser downloads the page and shows it on your device’s screen. If the size of your page is too big (images, CCS, JavaScript, and other files add to it) you’ll run into trouble and it will slow down the load process. This is a big problem nowadays because internet users have grown impatient as internet speed has evolved. So, improving how fast your site loads is always good both to improve your site’s SEO performance and your users’ experience. A way to achieve this is file compression. File compression is the process of encoding data using less bits, which reduces file size. Compression can reduce files size by…

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Findability is the quality of a website to be easily discovered by both users and search engines. In a world with more than 1.6 billion sites, ensuring that yours is more easily findable than your competitors’ can make a big difference for your business. There are two aspects of a website’s findability: on-site findability and external findability. • On-site findability has to do with how easily can a prospective customer find the information they are searching for in a specific site. This is achieved by user-centered web design. • External findability, on the other hand, this has to do with how easily your website is found on search engines. External findability is a matter of strategic branding and search engine optimization. The bottom line is: can your prospective customers or visitors find your site? Can they find the content they want once they have arrived at your website? Even if they have been misdirected by a link or a search engine to the wrong page?

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The term e-commerce is short for ‘electronic commerce.’ Essentially, it’s any business transaction made on the Internet. E-commerce is about selling or buying items electronically and transferring money or data to execute these transactions. It’s one of the many ways to do business online. Another one is M-commerce or ‘mobile commerce’ where the user needs a smartphone or device in order to make the transaction. E-commerce has become an everyday commodity now that the Internet has turned into the most powerful marketing tool. Carrying out purchasing transactions via your website now only requires you to have an e-commerce platform to operate. This feature should have all the necessary tools a company needs to buy and sell anything. There are many benefits to using and/or owning an e-commerce site. However, as useful as it may be, it also has its disadvantages. Advantages of online shops over physical stores You can virtually buy whatever you need in one place and without ever leaving your home. Users have the chance to purchase anything…

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There are four types of e-commerce: Business to consumer (B2C): when a company or store sells items to consumers. For example, when you buy a sweater through the Target webpage. Business to business (B2B): when the purchasing transaction is carried out between two companies. For example, a software firm sells an antivirus program to another company. Consumer to consumer (C2C): when consumers sell goods to other consumers. For example, someone who sells jewelry on Etsy to other consumers. Consumer to business (C2B): when users sell their product to businesses. For example, a freelance graphic designer that offers its designs to a company.

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An editorial link is a form of link building. These are links a website earns by posting valuable and original content. The owner of the website doesn’t pay for, or asks for them. These links naturally attracted by sharing useful information on different online platforms, including social media like Instagram, Facebook, or Reddit. Editorial links are known to be more valued than acquired links, which are the ones obtained by the site owner through payment or distribution. Paid advertisement is the most popular acquired link there is. Although these links offer some value to websites, they don’t offer the same benefits as editorial links. However, many marketers in the SEO business keep using acquired links for a few reasons: • They are an easy sell. • The selling proposal outline is very simple. • It attracts clients. • They help agencies with their profits. • They help improve a website’s ranking. Unlike acquired links, which don’t have any merit to them, editorial links are an indication that the website is…

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When it comes to link building strategies, sometimes one needs to get creative. That’s when ego-bait enters. This type of linking is not so much about SEO techniques, but about human psychology. Ego-baiting is a way to attract high-end links and clients to your website through out-right flattery. How does it work? Well, it’s simple. You appeal to influential people and certified professionals in your niche. When writing a blog post or article, you showcase their strengths and abilities, as well as their accomplishments, products, and/or services. Because, who doesn’t like to be praised? With this type of link building, you encourage them to share your content with their audience and even link to your site, just because they want to tell everyone what people are saying about them. It’s a different approach than merely linking to a page of their site in your content, hoping they pay you in kind. Types of ego-bait content There are different types of ego-bait content and you should choose which to use depending…

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Email outreach refers to the sending of emails for a specific purpose. It could be for advertisement, business development, promoting a a recently launched product, etc. To promote a business the right way, email outreach must be authentic and personalized. How to accomplish successful email outreach? There are many ways to craft good email content and tools to make the process easier. You can use automated templates or go for a more personal approach. However, there are certain guidelines you should follow if you want to create successful email outreach campaigns. • Get personal. Avoid using only templates, as they often become repetitive and boring. Establish one-to-one communication with your audience to attract more people. • Be sure you are targeting the right audience. Don’t send emails that have nothing to do with what the user does, or their interests. Do your homework, and don’t create content blindly. Browsing through Facebook groups or studying your followers’ interests on Instagram is a great way to start. • Always have a goal…

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The primary purpose of Search Engine Optimization is to improve a site’s ranking and increase traffic. These goals are very hard to reach if you only use technical SEO strategies. That’s where engagement comes to play. When defining a brand or business’s content strategy, marketers take into consideration two things: their target audience, and keyword and user intent research. After those two key elements are determined, content is created and optimized for search engines. Said content should be helpful (valuable to users) and engaging. ‘User engagement’ shows how much visitors interact with an app, website, or social media profile. It also refers to people who take action either on your website or on your social media pages, instead of skimming the site and then leaving. This metric is an indicator of how valuable your offer is to your audience. This is crucial for SEO and digital marketing, as it tells you is users find your content, or offer valueable and it has been strongly correlated with profitability.

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Engagement matters to SEO because it allows search engines to find websites that are excelling at eliciting a reaction from their users. This means that what you post sparks the interest of those who reach your site. Depending on your platform or business type, the metrics that you should track can vary. However, there are a few that work in almost any context. • Pageviews. As the name indicates, this metric shows how many times users have seen a webpage on your site. You can measure pageviews using Google Analytics. • Most viewed content. Blog posts or articles that have been seen the most for a given period can be a powerful metric to track. • New vs. returning customers/visitors. It’s good to keep an eye on these figures. They are both a sign of quality content and attractive offers. • Time people spend on your site. This can help you determine if your content is boring or exciting. Also, it is the perfect metric to use for future content…

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Entities are possibly the most essential concept to grasp in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). An entity is far more than a noun, object, or place. They cover everything from colors to ideas; it can be a computer, the color black, the laws of thermodynamics, etc. The reason they are so crucial for SEO is that search engines use the connection and relationship between keywords and entities to understand the intention of the search, allowing them to find content more accurately. So, how does Google recognize these entities and ranks them? There are a few factors that the search engine considers when ranking these entities: • Relatedness. When you search for words that are related to each other, Google makes the connection. For example, if you type ‘Leader’ and ‘Radiohead’ you immediately get the result that Thom Yorke is the leader of the band Radiohead. • Notability. Google uses a method that superficially is not very logical. The formula consists of studying how notable the entity is (determined mainly by links,…

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First, anchor text is the text that’s visible and clickable in a link. It is the best way Google has to recognize the relevance of any website. Anchor texts can offer relevant information to both users and search engines about the content of the page. Anchor text is considered an exact match when the keyword used matches the content on the site linked. For example, when you type the keyword ‘SEO strategies’ and it links to a page that talks about SEO strategies. They can increase your site’s rankings significantly, but they can also hurt you. This is mainly because of the 2012 Penguin update Google introduced. This update changed the way link building operates, targeting low-quality links that it deemed ‘spammy.’ It makes link building a little bit more challenging, but not impossible. The solution? Not having 100% of your backlinks with the same anchor text as your website. You need to understand how and when to use it, so Google doesn’t penalize it. However, exact-match is just one…

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E-A-T stands for Expertise-Authority-Trust. It’s the metric Google uses in its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines to judge page quality and provide its users with high-quality search results. These are the guidelines that people who manually review websites on Google use. To fall into the high-quality page category, Google reviews both people and websites. If a person who writes valuable content has a low-quality website (or vice versa), Google won’t consider it a high-quality site. So, what do expertise, authority, and trust look like in the context of both the website’s owner and the site itself? Expertise is very important in both cases. This means that businesses must have credentials. They can be in the form of prizes won in their respective fields, for example. For individuals, this means having credibility in their niche as well as the appropriate certifications. Authority is what measures how well your business or website stand out among other options available. It’s not only about expertly written content but also how valuable your contributions to your…

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External Links are hyperlinks to any domain other than where the link exists. In simpler terms, any website that includes a link to your site in one of their pages is considered as an external link to your website. This works both ways; if you link a site other than your own, this is also an external link. The page where the link exists is called the source while the URL that is linked is called the target. How should you link to external sites? Your anchor text should be a word or phrase that describes what the target page is about. However, you need to use different anchor text to avoid triggering spam detectors. You need to consider the authority of the sites you are linking to since this can influence your reputation. Why are external links so important? SEO experts consider that external links are the most critical factor when it comes to ranking. These types of links pass some of their equity to the sites they are…

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A head term, also known as ‘head keyword,’ is a common keyword which generates high search volumes. This term is the opposite of long tail keywords, which are 3+ words that are very specific to what is being promoted. Since head keywords generate the most volume, it would be logical to use them for your site, right? Well, it depends. When you are creating your keyword strategy, there are two factors that you must consider. These are competition and search intent. Competition is simple. You must be aware of the competitors you have. Since head keywords lack the specificity of long tail keywords, it could be challenging for you to rank on search engines for those. There are too many competitors placing high bids, and they could bury you in searches. On the other hand, we have search intent, which is the purpose of a user’s online search. When someone types a word or phrase on a search bar, he or she is performing a ‘query.’ There are three types…

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Header or heading tags are pieces of HTML code used to organize and format the content on your website. They go from H1 to H6 and help identify headers and sub-headers from other types of text. H1 is the most important one as it is the main header of your site. It’s usually more significant than the others and has a sense of prominence. You are not required to use H2 to H6 tags, but they are an easy way to organize and maintain the flow on a webpage’s content. Using these tags can be beneficial to both users and search engines. For consumers, it provides a sense of structure and allows them to know what the site is about without reading whole paragraphs. From the search engine point of view, header tags make it easier for crawlers to scan your site and identify what it’s about, its relevance, and value. How should I use header tags? The main reason for using header tags is to provide order. Give your…

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A headline or heading is the title of an article or blog post. Your post’s title needs to be thought of carefully. They are the best opportunity for you to grab your reader’s attention. In order to attract as many readers as possible, your headline needs to command attention instantly. They need to pull your audience in. Headings need to be clear instead of clever (but if they can be both, great!). It is better to go with one that is specific and useful than one that appeals to users’ curiosity. Another aspect to keep in mind is your audience’s problems. What specific problems or issues are they facing? What is it that they are searching for the most? By answering these questions, you get a sense of what they need. Headlines should be able to target a specific problem by offering a viable solution. Studies show that using numbers on your headline is a very effective way to catch people’s attention. For example, imagine that you have a headache…

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Hidden text is essentially text that is not visible to human visitors. However, this text can be detected by crawlers that scan your site. So, can I use hidden text to rank higher on search engines results pages (SERPs)? Although it may be true that putting keywords as hidden text can boost your rankings, search engines nowadays are more sophisticated and able to pick up on these tricks. If crawlers scan the keywords and see that they are unnoticeable, they could get your website penalized. Using hidden keywords to increase a site’s keyword density is also frowned upon and can be considered spamming. When can I use hidden text? While hidden text can impact your website negatively, there are some valid reasons to use it. • When you offer a paid subscription for part of your site’s content. • To improve navigation and user experience. • To improve a site’s responsiveness. Sometimes, SEO experts also use the hidden text command to hide links. Having too many of them on the…

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The Hilltop Algorithm is a search engine algorithm implemented by Google in 2003. It works by identifying and ranking authoritative websites. In order to identify such pages, it worked together with PageRank, another ranking algorithm. But what is an authoritative website? Having authority means becoming a likable expert; one that the audience can relate to and turn to when they want information about a specific subject or topic. To reach this status, the site’s content must combine meaning and fascination. Being considered authoritative means helping your audience solve a problem they care about. But you do it in a relatable way. How does the algorithm work? It’s simple. The Hilltop Algorithm establishes which websites are the experts on their niche first. This gives it a sense of what a high-ranking site should look like. Then, from the links on them, Google starts ranking other sites. With this protocol, the chances of finding high-quality sites increased tremendously.

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The algorithm had a profound effect on SEO too. Having your website linked on major sites like Yahoo, DMOZ, and BOTW increased your visibility. Thus, it was an opportunity for search engines to rank your site higher. Websites had a chance to become more relevant by having their articles or websites featured on many famous and important sites. Even though it is argued that Hilltop is no longer relevant for SEO, it can serve as a foundation from which companies and bloggers can optimize websites. Some ways to do that are by identifying authoritative websites, mixing your site’s link profile, networking, and connecting with real people.

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HITS stands for Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search and serves as an algorithm for search engines to rank pages. It was developed by Jon Kleinberg. HITS uses hubs and authority to define relationships between pages. Hubs are highly valued lists for a given query. An authoritative page is one that many hubs link to, and a hub is a page that links to many authorities. How does Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search work? The first step that the algorithm takes is to retrieve the data of the search query. This is the information people type on search engines to obtain a specific result. Then, it performs a computation only regarding these results, without taking into consideration other websites. After that, authoritative and hub values are defined, and a process of iteration begins. In the iteration process, two updates are done: the authority update and the hub update. For HITS, an authoritative website is a site that has valuable content. These types of websites tend to rank higher on the search engine results page because…

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The main page of a website where users can find information about the business, and that also links to other subpages, is called homepage. In the HTML source code, the homepage receives the name of ‘index.html.’ Sometimes, it can also be called ‘index.htm’ or ‘index.php.’ The homepage is where the site’s owner showcases its offer. It provides a detailed description of the business, and it also stores the links to other pages. Sections like ‘About Us,’ ‘Contact Us,’ or even ‘Blog,’ are some of the links usually included in a website’s homepage. The design of your homepage must be fresh and clear. Some information that are usually shown on this page is: • Your contact information • A brief product description with relevant call-to-action • Frequently asked questions (FAQs) Homepage SEO best practices The homepage is the place for you to set up some keywords and lure search engines into ranking your website on the high side. Hence, your content marketing strategy needs to be top-notch. After doing your keyword…

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To understand what an hreflang attribute is, one must know the definition of attribute first. All HTML elements can have attributes. They provide additional information about an element and are always specified at the start tag and usually come in name/value pairs like name=’value.’ An hreflang attribute is an HTML tag that tells search engines what your target language is. This way, users who are searching in that language can find more accurate results. Other names for it are rel=’alternate’ or hreflang=’x.’ Where do I write this tag? The attribute can be applied in one of three ways: on the sitemap, in the HTML <header> of the page, or the HTTP header. Here’s an example. In order to write the attribute on the HTML header section of the page, you must use the rel=’alternate’ or hreflang=’x’ commands. It would look something like this: rel=”alternate”, href=”(URL here)”, hreflang=”x” rel=“alternate” lets search engines know there is an alternative version of a page. href=”(url here)” tells them where that page is located. hreflang=”x”…

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HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is the base for building websites. Any text, links to other documents, markup language, headings, paragraphs, etc., go inside the HTML code. It gives the website structure and is a powerful tool that is heavily used nowadays. By using HTML, you can publish online documents by creating a website from scratch with headings, text, tables, lists, photos, etc. HTML uses elements and attributes so people can write the source code for their sites. All its features are important, but a few of them stand out from the rest: • <meta> Meta elements are used to specify page description, keywords, author, when the document was last modified, etc. • <head> This represents the Head element or section. This section contains metadata that is not displayed on the site. Information within <head> can include the title of your page, links to fonts, link to the style sheet, and others. • <div> This command divides your content into sections, which you can style later. With this,…

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So, what does this mean? The client, in this case, could be a PC or laptop. The HTTP server is a web host that runs web server software. When you click on a website, the browser sends a request to the corresponding server, responding with an HTTP status code. If the URL is deemed valid and actually exists, the connection is granted. Then, the server will send your browser (the ‘client’) the specific site, and you will be able to see all the related files. Have you ever found yourself frustrated by the ‘404 File not found’ error? This is one of the HTTP’s status codes, along with others that you’ll find below. They tell you what went wrong with the process. Some standard HTTP status codes include: • 200 – the request was successful. • 301 – it means that the current website has moved. Usually, the browser redirects you to the new URL. • 401 – you need to log in with a valid ID and password to…

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conditions are met, the protocol will render a site secure. Thus, adding some sense of protection for the users. Websites need to ‘show’ a valid certificate in order to classify as secure. This certificate needs to be signed by trusted authorities, indicating that the site is secure. If any of these conditions are violated, then the site is viewed as insecure, and access is denied. This allows users to feel safe and not worry about getting viruses or hackers accessing their computers. For people who don’t have antivirus on their devices, this can be especially useful. Advantages of HTTPS over HTTP • It ensures the communication established between server and browser is secure. • It protects users’ data by encrypting the information. Even if hackers find a way to access said data, they won’t be able to read it. • It protects website users’ privacy by hindering hackers’ spying attempts on browser-server communications. • It increases the speed of data transfer when compared to HTTP. In 2018, Google started making…

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If you want your website to rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP), you need to structure your content and keywords for that to happen. A couple of strategies to achieve that are hub pages and internal linking. So, what are hub pages? They are a central page for specific topics with a set of interlinked, related content that goes back to that page. These can be topics that you regularly cover on your website. They usually contain information that targets high volume keywords and attracts many users. The content you publish on a hub page needs to pertain to your niche. If you own a blog or company about pets, for example, then everything you write about on the hub page must be pet related. It must also be high-quality content that includes relevant keywords for the search engines to index it properly. For those who are familiar with keyword research, try and insert only the best keywords on the hub page. How does a hub page…

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Usually referred to as ‘links’ or ‘web links’ a hyperlink is anything that links to another file or object. It can connect two different documents as well as various sections of the same document. I bet you never gave it much thought but, imagine how powerful a hyperlink is. Without hyperlinks, you would have to know every URL of every page on the internet in order to access it. They are a great tool that lets you hop from page to page and from one website to another without having to enter a URLs. For usability purposes, hyperlinks’ color can change. For example, after you click on a website’s link from the search result pages, the link becomes purple. This is to tell you that it has already been clicked. However, when you see a link that you haven’t click on yet, it appears blue. Types of hyperlinks Outbound links – these are the links from your site to another site with a different domain. They should be to high-quality…

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the most vital factor to keep in mind when running a website. A top-notch SEO strategy will make your business attractive in both the eyes of users and search engines. There are three main approaches to SEO that work together so websites rank higher: technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. Off-page SEO refers to actions happening outside your website that influence your rankings on search engine result pages. Also called off-site SEO, this practice encompasses the enhancement of search engine and user insight of a site’s popularity, relevance, trustworthiness, and authority. To accomplish this, a relevant number of reputable websites or people need to link to or promote your site. That way, they’ll be attesting to the world that your site handles quality content. Search algorithms have changed dramatically over the years. And with them, so have ranking factors. SEO professionals are well aware of the fact that an effective off-page SEO campaign is extremely fruitful for a business and its ranking.

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When running a website, keeping Search Engine Optimization in mind is vital for succeeding. In today’s world, as competition gets tougher, website owners need to up their game when it comes to optimization to boost their site’s traffic and visibility on SERPs. As opposed to off-page SEO that deals mainly with link building and external features, on-page SEO handles the features within a webpage that make it distinguishable and compelling for users. The primary purpose is to provide benefits to your target audience. Tailoring your website around great user experience is crucial for readers to choose you and your products. When search engines scan your site, on-page SEO plays a significant role. Crawlers look for particular features when ranking and indexing pages. Thus, having a calculated on-page SEO strategy will improve your chances of ranking higher when the keywords you are targeting are searched. What elements are present in an on-page SEO strategy? Your site’s content and HTML source code are the two pillars of on-page SEO. By playing with…

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Whenever a subscriber or user triggers an application and grants permission for a brand or business to send them emails, we are talking about opt-in. Every time you send newsletters or personalized promotions, you are giving consumers the opportunity to either opt-in or opt-out of them. Almost any website out there has this feature enabled. This practice is most common in email marketing campaigns as it allows websites to gain traffic through subscriptions. You need to keep user consent in mind. After that has been established, you can build a relationship with your readers and push them to convert. When a user converts, it goes from being a bystander to an actual customer. It’s the ultimate goal for any business, and its proper term is user conversion. Also, earning user consent is an indication that people are interested in your offer. The advantages that opt-in brings are more significant than what meets the eye. Besides helping brands stand out in their niche, they offer a voluntary way for users to…

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In an ideal world, website owners should gain rankings and conversions through SEO. When everything on your site is done by the book, following search engines’ best practices and proper techniques, you are implementing what’s called organic SEO. With it, your site can move up on the SERPs’ ranking positions in a natural way. Also, when done right, it can considerably boost your traffic. Organic Search Engine Optimization fortifies both your site as a whole as well as its pages. This practice makes your content more easily and correctly indexed by search engines, and relevant to what users are searching for. As competition gets tougher and niches start to saturate, you need to implement techniques that make your brand stand out among competitors. There are three types of organic SEO: technical, on-site, and off-site. Each of them brings something different to the table, and implementing them all will make your business succeed in no time. Website owners tend to ignore technical SEO, and this is a huge mistake. Although these…

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Millions of people use search engines every day to find information about practically anything. Whether their purpose is to make a purchase, educate themselves on a specific topic, or for mere entertainment. For website owners, earning a top spot among the first page of search results can be challenging, but not impossible. Getting your business to show up on the first results page is every website owner’s dream. After all, studies have shown that only 10% of searchers go to the second or third page when looking for information. If your site ranks high among the SERPs without the need for paid advertising, we are talking about organic ranking. It’s the result of optimizing your site and its content for search engines. This can bring a wealth of benefits for your business. How do you improve your organic rank? The first step you need to take is to determine where your website stands right now. By understanding how you rank against your competitors, you’ll be able to see where you…

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The term organic search is relatively recent, but since it was first used in 2004, it has become a massively popular expression within the SEO community. It refers to all those search terms that people enter on a search engine’s search bar that yield unpaid search results. The results rendered are based on relevance to users’ search query, links, and domain authority. The best way to make sure you appear at the top of search engine result pages is by implementing natural or organic practices. Although it may take longer to obtain results, once you reach the first page of search results, you just need to stay consistent on your SEO practices to keep your rankings. Crawlers are most interested in finding relevant and high-quality content to be displayed when a search query is made. Making your website easy for crawlers to navigate is key when optimizing your website. Executing keyword optimization and link building strategies is essential to improve your site’s performance and increase its visibility among SERPs.

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When it comes to search results, two types tend to stand out: organic and paid. Organic search results are derived from how relevant websites’ content is to the search query done by a user when compared to all the other content indexed on a search engine. Paid results, on the other hand, are those that search engines show when a business has placed a bid to appear for a given keyword or keywords. If you want to win your audience’s respect and trust, getting your website to rank organically among the search results is a must. This is more appealing to users than a bunch of paid results. If your site appears in the first results page without paying anything, it means that it contains valuable and relevant content that users would want to read. How can your website appear on the top organic search results? A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is crucial when running a website. With it, you can boost your site’s performance and visibility among search…

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Website traffic generates from paid or organic search results. The first one refers to people who land on a page due to paid advertisements. Websites who implement this strategy can appear higher on the results page. Paid traffic doesn’t necessarily mean good traffic, though. Organic traffic, on the other hand, refers to visitors that land on your site as a result of unpaid search results. They reach your pages because you offer content that search engines consider valuable and of good quality. This type of traffic is the most recommended among SEO experts, and it’s what all of them work hard to achieve. How can I increase my website’s organic traffic? Let’s be real; obtaining a huge chunk of traffic over a short (or long) period can be challenging. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Although it takes patience and lots of creativity to make it happen, the outcome is rewarding enough. Setting up a website and hoping for the best is not a sound strategy to drive traffic to your…

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Imagine opening a page only to see an error that says you can’t reach it. That somehow, the page is lost, or the link is broken. How frustrating would it be? For website owners, this is their worst nightmare. Any page that doesn’t have any links to it or which crawlers aren’t able to index is called an Orphan Page. This is a serious problem, and if you find yourself facing it, you need to address it fast. Search engines can find and index your pages properly in two ways. Bots navigate through your site with the help of links. When your website has a well-crafted structure and link-building strategy, it makes the crawlers’ job easier. Bots can also find your site’s pages URL through your XML Sitemap. Orphan pages pose a significant threat to your SEO strategy. Ultimately, these pages are not being indexed, and you’re decreasing your chances of visibility on search engines. What causes orphan pages? The two most common issues that cause them are:  – When…

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Links are essential for search engines. Having a well-crafted link-building strategy will increase your website’s chances of ranking higher among search results. Crawlers use all types of links to navigate through pages and understand their content. Links within a website’s content helps bots adequately index and rank a website. Any hyperlink on your site that points to a domain different than yours is called an outbound (or external) link. Also, links from other sources that link back to your site are considered outbound. Mainly, they direct visitors from pages on your website to other sites on the internet. External links are considered as third-party votes by search engines. They are highly valuable because they relate to the importance of your site within your niche. By having many websites link to yours, you can slowly (but surely) become a credible and reliable source in the eyes of both users and search engines. What’s the importance of outbound links? Having your site rank on the first page of search results means that…

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Imagine you just created an original piece of content. You start your day by promoting it on your social media channels. You use features such as videos, infographics, emails, but nothing seems to be paying off. You’re still not driving enough organic traffic to your site. You then start to panic and think that you’ll never be successful. It can happen to anyone. If you work in a very competitive niche, this is a common situation. Outreach marketing can help you overcome this. Outreach marketing aims to get your website recognized by people who can easily reach your target audience. To do this, you need to pitch your content to highly influential people who share the same target audience as yours. This part is crucial: you only want to associate with experts who share your same values and target market. Outreach marketing is also known as influencer marketing. By letting these influencers link to your site or promote your product or services, you’ll be gaining a huge boost in authority….

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to running a successful website. Almost all website owners these days use these strategies to make the most out of their pages and obtain high rankings on search engine result pages. But, what happens when you get caught up on it and start over-optimizing? As the name suggests, over-optimization is when your SEO efforts get to the point where they hurt the quality of your site. You need to stay clear of overstuffing your website in an effort to rank higher. But how do you know if you’re overdoing it? Here are a few signs that point to over-optimization. If you are doing any (or all) of these, chances are that you’re excessively optimizing your site.  – You are using too many keyword-rich anchor texts in your internal links. Having the same keywords in both your anchor text and in your links’ URL doesn’t mean it will rank higher. Relying heavily on this technique can get your site penalized for keyword stuffing.  –…

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XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. Its primary purpose is to store and transport data. It’s a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation that was designed as a flexible, independent, and self-descriptive tool. XML shares some similarities with HMTL as both contain markup symbols that describe pages or a file’s content. However, they were designed for different purposes. At its core, HTML defines a webpage’s content only regarding how it’s displayed. It focuses on how specific data looks in terms of text and graphic images. XML, on the other hand, was created only to carry data. Everything is embedded within the data, and there’s no need to pre-load its structure to store information. How is an XML document formed? Similar to HTML, this markup language also uses tags to define its elements. All properties have a beginning and an ending tag. Additionally, an XML document has a ‘root element.’ This is the tag that contains all other items within the file. One benefit of using XML for any SEO company…

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Besides relying on content, backlinks, and keywords, website owners must implement different techniques to drive organic traffic to their site and increase conversions. Keeping an eye on your on-page SEO is absolutely fundamental to make your site stand out against your competitors. Search engine optimization is a broad field covering many aspects that help enhance a website’s performance and rankings. One element that plays a significant role in that process is robot meta tags (or directives). Robot meta directives serve as instructions that tell search engines how you want your site to be indexed. Depending on how and where they’re used, they can be classified into two groups:  – Robot meta tags are embedded in your site’s HTML source code and give crawlers firm orders on how to handle your pages. When they are discovered by a search engine, the parameters entered serve as strong suggestions for crawler indexation behavior.  – X-robots-tags, on the other hand, are included as part of the HTTP header of your website. With them, you are able…

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Schema markup was developed by four top search engines in 2011: Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex, and its principles can be found on schema.org. They started the collaboration to create a set of microdata designed to enhance the descriptions that appear on search engine result pages (SERPs). But what is microdata? It’s a list of semantic vocabulary tags that, when added to your site’s HTML, improves how search engine read it and present it on SERPs. Why is Schema Markup important? It provides search engines with context. This helps search engines better index a website or webpage and improves the quality of search results shown for a given query. For example, let’s say your site publishes cooking recipes, one of your sections is dedicated to chocolate dishes, and its URL is “yourwebesite.com/chocolate.” Chocolate is a very general term, it can refer to the raw material, but it can also be about any product made with it, or even a color or flavor. You can use schema markup to tell search engines…

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Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is area of internet marketing that focuses on promoting websites through paid listings. It aims to increase a site’s visibility by paying search engines to show it at the top of SERPs. Each search engine has its own advertising platform and tools, but Google Ads is probably the most popular one. SEM tools help marketing professionals optimize and manage search ads. An SEO agency would typically carry out keyword research, set a budget, and run advertising campaigns using these tools, and keep track of how well your campaigns are doing. The goal of any SEM campaign should be to get qualified traffic to your website. It is especially useful to target keywords that you are probably not going to rank for organically (those that are too competitive).

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Search engine optimization is more commonly known by its acronym: SEO. It is the set of strategies and techniques implemented to rank high on search engine result pages (SERPs) and increase website traffic. Even though it is called search ENGINE optimization, the process is both about search engines and people. They are, after all, the ones who will be visiting your site, reading your content, or making a purchase. SEO is about learning what your target audience needs and how they search for it online. It is also about using this knowledge to build and grow your website in a way that lets crawlers know you have the answers your prospects are seeking. Optimizing your site for search engines will not only have a positive effect on the amount of traffic that is driven to your website but also on the quality of said traffic. Why is SEO important? The answer is simple: at least 73% of all traffic on the internet from search engines. And over 90% of people…

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(SERPs) for a given query. Depending on the query, there can be several result pages. Search rank is not only about the position within a SERP but also about which page the site appears on. For example, it is not the same to be on the first position of page one than to be on the first position of page 2. The first spot on the first page gets more than 36% of all the clicks for a search query, while the 10th spot gets less than 3%. And that’s only on the first page. Most people don’t even bother to go to the second or third page of search results. Many factors determine the rank of a page. These include the domain’s age and authority, relevance and freshness of the content, whether the site is responsive or not, the quality of the links from and to the site, whether it’s a secured site or not (HTTPS vs. HTTP), and more. How can I improve my site’s search rank? According to…

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SERP stands for search engine result page(s). It is where you find the result of a search query after you entered it on the search bar. The acronym has become a widespread term when talking about SEO, search engine marketing, and web developing topics. It’s typically used for conciseness or when writing the whole term “search engine result page(s)” becomes too repetitive. SEO and SEM professionals tend to use it to refer only to the first page of organic search results. However, technically, it encompasses all search results returned for a given query. Every user’s SERPs are unique. This is true even if you and a friend perform a search for the same query using the same keywords and the same search engine on the same day. How is this possible? Search engines want to present users with the best set of results available. To do this, they take user-specific data so they can tailor the results presented. This produces slight changes every time a result is rendered. So, even…

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Google works with more than 10 thousand search quality raters from all over the world. They are real people who evaluate search results, rating the quality of pages that show up at the top for given queries. To do their job, they use the search quality rater guidelines. These guidelines tell quality raters in great detail the aspects they should take into account when assessing a page. The guidelines are about 200 pages long and contain information about the type of pages to be examined and how to evaluate them. The document includes the characteristics low and high-quality pages should have, examples of each, and more. The goal of quality raters is to determine whether the results they check meet the needs of searchers. However, they don’t alter Google’s results directly. The data obtained through this process is used to improve how algorithms and indexing work.

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A search query, search term, or simply query, is the word, phrase, or group of words that a user types into a search engine search box. Search queries can be misspelled, in the wrong order, or match a keyword to a tee. They are real terms that real people use to find information, products, services, and more on the internet through organic or paid results. Think of what you typed into the search box that brought you to this page. That was a search query. While a search query and a keyword may overlap, they are not the same thing. A keyword is an inference of what users might type into the search box when looking for a specific product or service. The information used to generate keywords comes from search query data gathered by search engines. SEO professionals use these approximations to optimize websites with the help of tools such as Google Ads keyword planner, Bing keyword research tool, or others. As search engines have evolved to provide users…

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SEO firms spend the majority of their time and efforts implementing strategies to drive traffic to their sites. One of the main factors to consider when doing this is keyword search volume. Keywords are the backbone of SEO and, when used wisely, your website has higher chances of ranking at the top of SERPs. Search volume is the average number of user queries generated for a given keyword within a specific time frame, usually searches per month. A high score here means that topic, product, or service is of high interest to users. Knowing how many searches a specific keyword is generating, is crucial when optimizing your site. Why? If you use keywords that no one is looking for, all your efforts will be pointless. If, on the contrary, you use highly sought after keywords, then you need to look into other factors to ensure you focus on the right ones to position your site. This factor is an essential metric for your SEO campaign. It shows you the relevance…

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Do you love seasons? Do you immediately get excited whenever Summer or Winter is around the corner? What about Christmas or Halloween? Just like you look forward to all those holidays every year, so do SEO experts. Specific events that happen throughout the year are an excellent opportunity for website owners to up their game. Coming up with an attractive offer and a well-planned marketing strategy can successfully boost sales. Seasonal Trends are those spikes in sales of certain products for a specific, predictable time of the year. There is an SEO marketing sub-niche that handles optimization for these occasions. It’s called Seasonal SEO. These trends are used to drive conversions based on themes and a finite period. There are two types of seasonal SEO strategies:   – Time-based. These encompass the seasons themselves or any other monthly trends.   – Event-based. These refer to specific occasions such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Saint Patrick’s Day, Halloween, etc. Focusing on user intent is the primary factor you need to consider when implementing…

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When deciding to optimize your website, so it ranks better on search engines, you are presented with the daunting task that is keyword research. Choosing the right set of terms you want to target within your site can be exhausting. The number of terms available can be overwhelming for some niches, and there are many factors to consider when deciding on the few that will make your site stand out. Targeting the right ones will be crucial for your site’s rankings. The first step of keyword research is to identify your seed keywords. Also known as primary keywords, these are the foundation of the whole process and the backbone of SEO. They typically consist of one or two words and are fundamental to understand the context of your niche. For example, if you specialize in the weight loss, you seed keywords should look like ‘diet,’ ‘fitness,’ ‘lifestyle,’ etc. Choosing your primary keywords will pave the way to identifying your long-tail keywords. Each seed keyword can generate 50 or more long-tail…

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Sentiment Analysis is the process of identifying and categorizing opinions expressed in a piece of text using calculations. This is done by specialized software. Sentiment analysis helps determine whether the writer’s attitude towards a particular topic or product is positive, negative, or neutral. Search engines are always looking for ways to improve the results they show to users through algorithm updates and by improving their ranking and indexing process. For them, understanding searcher intent is fundamental. Over the years, a series of technological advances in AI and machine learning have made this possible, and sentiment analysis has played a key role. Now, search engines use it to better understand what a person is looking for to provide the most relevant yet balanced results. In 2008, Google introduced what we now know as featured snippets. These are selected search results that are included on top of Google’s SERPs, before organic results. Their primary purpose is to answer users’ questions right away. A site that’s displayed among these results gets additional brand…

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Every website owner out there should be aware of the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It refers to a set of strategies implemented by business owners or digital marketers to increase a site’s ranking and visibility on SERPs. Unless you are an SEO expert yourself, you’ll need to hire a professional or a company that provides SEO services. They can steer you towards your ultimate goal: a successful and authoritative website ranking among the top results. But what do SEO services entail? SEO professionals implement a set of steps and strategies to increase your site’s traffic and rankings. Here are some of the services that an SEO agency may provide to optimize your website:   –  Keyword research   –  Competition analysis   –  SEO site audits   –  Optimization of specific pages within your site   –  Crawler directives such as meta tags and robots.txt   –  Source code optimization   – Social media marketing   –  Others All of these features are crucial when optimizing a website for…

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Nowadays, your site success is heavily tied to your SEO efforts. Virtually every website owner out there should perform Search Engine Optimization tactics to increase their rankings and popularity among the SERPs. Thus, relying on organic methods to improve your site’s performance is a must. Whenever you want to know how your website is doing, efficiency-wise, you must perform an SEO audit. With it, you can analyze which features of your campaign are being fruitful and which aren’t. It’s an essential task you must implement now and then. However, ranking factors have changed tremendously throughout the years, and those metrics that were relevant in the past may not be today. Besides optimizing keywords, backlinks, and content, there are many other elements you must keep in mind. Responsive and mobile-friendly sites are precious in today’s world. Search engines are now considering mobile versions as its top priority when it comes to ranking and indexing. What should I check when performing an SEO Site Audit? Even for the most professional business owners,…

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Originally designed to replace IP Addresses, URLs are text stings (and sometimes numbers) that serve as a way for computers to communicate with servers. They also are able to identify a site’s file structure. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is comprised of three elements: a protocol, a domain name, and a path. Now that you know what a URL is, you may be wondering what does it have to do with SEO? Well, there are ways a well-crafted URL can improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.   –  They can improve user experience (UX). With URLs, both users and search engines can easily understand what the destination page is all about. This allows readers to decide whether that specific page is relevant to them or not.   –  They provide opportunities to use keywords. Although a site’s URL doesn’t play a significant role when it comes to ranking, placing specifics keyword in them could. Search engines use URLs to identify relevancy when it comes to users’…

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It’s only logical to think that all marketers out there want their campaign to succeed. Running an efficient marketing and PR campaign can boost your site’s rankings and authority on SERPs. So, how can you measure that success? One way to do so is by calculating your brand’s Share of Voice. This refers to the number of times it is mentioned in relevant conversations. It’s a great way to measure your brand’s visibility in diverse advertising/publishing channels, how much you dominate the market, and how it compares against your competitors. With all the recent updates from search engines, calculating this data is easier than before. People rely on it to optimize their websites and make sure they stand out among the crowd. While this metric is mostly used to explain a brand’s paid advertising market share, it can also include other elements of advertising and digital marketing such as social media mentions or keyword-specific traffic. If you want to know your brand’s share of paid advertising, you can calculate Share…

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Every time someone uses a search engine to find information, they directed to a page that displays a series of results. These are called search snippets and consist mainly of four parts.   –  Title   –  URL   –  Description   –  Sitelinks Snippets offer a brief description of a page’s name, its location, and the type of content that they handle. For SEO purposes, titles, URLs, and meta descriptions can be optimized with on-page strategies. Improving them allows a website to appear at the top of the SERPs. Another feature that appears in a search snippet is called sitelink. Sitelinks are shown below the description of a page and are automated by search engines. Let’s take Google as an example. The search engine’s algorithm points to additional pages that it thinks are relevant to a user query. This means that you can’t manually add them to a page’s snippet. So, if you don’t have a direct influence over sitelinks, why should you pay attention to them? Well, even…

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Search engines are fully committed to displaying the most relevant results for any given query. To this purpose, crawlers or bots read, organize, and index all data on the internet. They are responsible for navigating through your site and identifying what your content is about and whether it’s valuable enough to show users. If they find it so, they’ll place your site somewhere among the SERPs. Creating a sitemap of your website can help boost your its rankings. Sitemaps or XML sitemaps are a list of all existing pages on a given website. XML stands for ‘extensible markup language,’ and works as a way to display information that’s both human and machine-readable. At its core, a sitemap makes a crawler’s job easier, as they help them index your site correctly. Your website’s sitemap will tell search engines the following information:   –  The location of a specific page on your website.   –  The exact time when it was updated.   –  How frequent is a given update happening.  …

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Backlinks are considered a top priority when it comes to rankings, as search engines use them to identify a site’s authority. But, throughout the years, a series of updates have established that when it comes to links, quality matters more than quantity. Link building strategies are a must in your SEO campaign. Ideally, you want to get natural or organic backlinks, those that your site obtains for creating valuable and relevant content. Sitewide links are becoming a very debatable topic among the SEO community. Some claim that implementing them is right for your overall campaign, and others think not so much. So, what exactly is a sitewide link? It’s a link that appears on most (or all) of a website’s pages. But, when using sitewide links, you need to be careful. Depending on how you implement them, they can end up flagged as spam. Here are two common places where sitewide links may appear:   –  At the footer. If a site uses a template for its footer, any link…

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In SEO, link building strategies are well known to drive more traffic to your site and increase its authority among search engines. Many methods have been implemented by website owners to optimize their backlinks. In 2015, a new technique called The Skyscraper was introduced. Its primary purpose is to improve on existing popular content and replicate its backlinks. How does Skyscraping work? The method works under the premise that people are always interested in finding the best information. Even if they already have read a fantastic article about a given topic, users always crave better content. To execute this technique, you need to follow three steps. 1. Explore the web to find the best pieces of content in your niche. Pick one that has many backlinks, and it’s popular among your niche. You can do this by using tools like Content Explorer or Site Explorer. 2.After establishing which topic you want to work on, begin your process by creating something way better. It’s time to grab that piece of content…

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With the internet’s rapid rising, social media is becoming more and more influential these days. Currently, there are an estimated 2.7 billion social media users worldwide. This represents an enormous array of opportunities for your business to grow if you leverage your social media channels effectively. How can you do this? With Social Media Marketing or “SMM.” Social media marketing involves creating and sharing content on – you guessed it –your (business’s) social media networks. This can help you reach and interact with your prospects directly and achieve your marketing and branding goals. SMM consists of creating and posting different types of content in one or several social media networks and promoting content through paid partnerships and sponsorships to drive user engagement. It’s a fresh way to deliver content and keep your target audience engaged and interested in your brand. Before starting an SMM campaign, it’s imperative that you set goals. Going into it without clear objectives is a recipe for failure. Ask yourself a series of questions to get a better…

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Social platforms have a series of features that display human interactions. They are called social signals, and they also serve as metrics for social media marketing. Some examples of social signals include likes, dislikes, shares, votes, pins, views, etc. With them, business owners can measure how popular their content is and if people identify with it. Virtually every brand or company has a social media account associated with their website. Whether they rely on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or other social network, businesses can use these to get their message across for a wide range of people. SEO experts argue that social signals didn’t have much weight as ranking factors in the past. However, with the never-ending development of search engines’ algorithms, it’s no wonder that they are now taken into consideration. Mostly, they are a way to increase your rankings organically. Social signals can impact rankings directly or indirectly. Direct impacts can derive from:   –  The amount of people that like your company on Facebook.   –  The…

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Content syndication is publishing and promoting original web content through one or more third-party websites. The given information expands to articles, blogs, and videos. This strategy is known to drive organic traffic to your site and increase its visibility among SERPs. Due to the widespread use of social media channels these days, it’s only logical that a similar term would apply to them. This is the case of social media syndication, and it refers to the method of sharing your blog or website page onto your social media accounts or those of brand partners. Many tools allow you to program when and where you want your content published, and how often. It’s a great alternative to paid marketing campaigns where businesses often spend thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to make their brand stand out. With social media, the possibilities are endless. You can utilize compelling posts, live videos, tutorials, partnerships, and so much more. What are the best practices for social media syndication? As with anything, strategies…

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spam is through email. Spam emails are the most aggressive and irritating ones for users and are typically sent in bulk. Ever since the birth of the internet, spam has been present. It is always lurking in the shadows, waiting to claim its next victim. Use two-factor authentication for your email or other apps that allow you to implement it to prevent information phishing. This protects you against possible hackers trying to steal your information. They might be able to get your username and password, but not the other pieces of information they need to access your account. Webspam Spam messages can be found on forums, text messages, blog comments, and social media. For both users and search engines, spam is a waste of time and resources. It can be present on your website due to several things. Sometimes, it happens without your knowledge, introduced by hackers or via intrusive marketing campaigns. Exposing your site to hackers can result in more than merely annoying messages. When this happens, you need to…

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Any website owner’s nightmare is to have their site penalized. Whether you participated in black hat SEO techniques or have problems with your marketing campaign, you wouldn’t want your website to be removed from a search engine’s index. One crucial aspect you need to avoid on your site is spam. All that unwanted and unsolicited information that appears in your pages or channels needs to go and fast. For that purpose, Moz, an SEO software developer company, created a way to calculate “the percentage of sites with similar features that have been penalized or banned by Google.” They have identified 27 common denominators in websites that have been penalized or banned by Google and used them to evaluate a domain. The metric, which can be obtained through the Link Explorer, is called Spam Score. The tool provides several data sets that allow you to evaluate your site’s quality. A site with a high Spam Score is not necessarily spammy. However, it means that you need to assess your site’s quality and…

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Similar to the real world, where people are consistently doing the wrong thing, the digital sphere is no different. The majority of website owners play by the rules and implement strategies on their site that drive organic traffic. But what about those who don’t? There are still people out there practicing black hat SEO techniques. These refer to frowned upon methods to boost a site’s rankings among SERPs. These are usually against search engine guidelines and best practices. They are also known as spammy tactics. Overall, they hurt your site’s performance, and if caught by search engines, they will get your site penalized or even banned. Which are the most popular Spammy Tactics? Nowadays, there is a massive chunk of dubious strategies that help increase a site’s ranking, albeit momentarily. They go from lousy typography to poorly executed advertisements like pop-ups. Here are some of the most popular spammy tactics that people find themselves relying on. Some of these tactics include:   –  Duplicate content. Your website’s content is the…

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Search engines implement a crawling and indexing process that allows us to find virtually any information we are looking for on the internet. With those processes, they are able to analyze pages and identify which are relevant to a specific user query. But how exactly do they do this? They have a built-in computer program that automatically searches documents on the internet. Commonly known as crawlers, spiders, or bots. They are in charge of navigating through sites looking for information and categorizing it. Spiders are programmed for repetitive actions so that browsing is automated. How do Spiders work? In order to gather all the information search engines need to render relevant results, spiders take three steps: First, they scan throughout the internet looking for information. Then, they assign the information they find to certain categories depending on the content and its context. Third, they index and catalog those pages that are relevant, so the information is available for users. Besides being responsible for indexing websites, spiders can also be used…

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For those new to search engine optimization, learning all the specific terms can be challenging at first. There are so many definitions you need to know to communicate with your peers or with SEO professionals effectively. Let’s take webpages as an example. When it comes to pages, there are two definitions that people often misinterpret. These are landing and splash pages. There’s a vast difference between the two of them and knowing what each of them is about is crucial to ensure your site offers a great user experience. A landing page is a standalone page created to fulfill a conversion goal. Typically, it involves a contact form that users need to fill to get a specific reward — the most popular being a sign-up form. A splash page, on the other hand, is a screen that pops up when a user first enters a site. It’s basically the introduction to your website, and it delivers critical information, like a promotion or an appropriate disclaimer. Within these pages, website owners…

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Search Engine Optimization is vital when running an online business. Assuring that your website always works at its full capacity will make your rankings increase among SERPs. These strategies don’t deliver benefits overnight, and sometimes, a lot of experimenting is involved. Split testing (or A/B testing) is the process of conducting precise and randomized tests. Its primary purpose is to improve a website’s metrics such as clicks, form completions, or purchases. How does it work? The process is relatively simple. Your website’s traffic is spread between the original page and one or more variations of it. People who visit your site are unaware of this experiment. Then, the tester waits until a significant difference in user behavior surfaces. Lastly, the results from each variation are compared to determine which one performed the best. This method is often employed to test changes in forms, registration pages, calls-to-action (CTAs), or any other factor within a website that’s measurable. Marketers and web developers test many features to optimize a website properly. Some of…

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For search engines, a website’s security is of the utmost importance. In fact, Google started using HTTPS as a ranking signal in 2014. If a page renders as secure, it will serve as a vote of confidence for search engines, and thus, it will increase its rankings on SERPs. To make your site safe, you need to implement an SSL Certificate. SSL Certificates are small data files that digitally connect a cryptographic key to a company’s details. They are installed on a web server and are responsible for activating the padlock and HTTPS protocol. The latter is extremely important to ensure a secure connection between a browser and a server. They are also responsible for providing secure credit card transactions and data transfers. Recently, they’re also becoming popular for fortifying browsing of social media sites. Providing secure connections is crucial for user experience. Who would want to enter a site only to see that their information is not safe? By adding this layer of security, you’ll be guaranteeing that your users feel…

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For search engines, every little detail about your website matters. They take into consideration hundreds of factors when indexing and ranking your pages. Thus, your SEO strategies need to take into consideration all the factors that can be controlled from your end to ensure your site’s success. A little aspect of websites that people sometimes disregard is the URLs. Mainly, there are two types of URLs: dynamic and static. The first one leads to dynamic pages that change according to a specific user. They can be personalized or updated on a regular basis. These changes don’t require any human input as they are conducted automatically through databases. Static URLs, on the other hand, lead to webpages that always remain as they are. Thus, they are not customizable for users. Every person who enters the site will see the same information in all the pages they visit. The specific type of URL you should use is a somewhat debatable topic among the SEO community. Although Google has stated that it has…

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HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is the protocol used to transfer data over the web. If a webpage fails to load, it will render an HTTP status code. When talking about HTTP status codes, we are referring to those responses given by website servers that are considered standard. Their primary purpose is to identify the cause of a problem when a webpage or other resource does not load correctly. They are sometimes called browser error codes or internet error codes. So, how can we read these status codes? HTTP response status codes are divided into five categories. The first digit of the code defines the class of response. The last two digits don’t pertain to any type or categorization role. There are five values for the first digit:   –  1.These are informational and mean that the request was received.   –  2.These are counted as successful. Here, the request was received, understood, and accepted.   –  3.These fall into the redirection category. A search engine needs to take further action…

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Stop words those that are skipped or filtered out by search engines. They are words that occur in natural language but have little to no meaning by themselves. Examples of stop words include an, the, in, many, about, after, if, etc. Here, you can find a comprehensive list of stop words. Many SEO professionals consider that using stop words can hinder a site’s ranking on search engine result pages. However, this is not entirely accurate. It is true that most of the times, they are not useful for SEO purposes. Search engines skip these words to save space in their database, and to speed up the process of crawling and indexing, but also when retrieving search results. That being said, when one of these words changes the meaning of a query, then search engines do consider it when retrieving results. For example, someone searching for “The Raven” (Edgar Allan Poe’s poem) vs. someone searching for “raven” (information about the bird). In this case, using the stop word “the” does change the…

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The first step web developers (or you) take when creating a website is choosing its domain. Primarily, it serves as your site’s name and will define its URL. When creating it, you also have the chance to add a subdomain. These are third-level domains that are part of the original top-level one. For example, let’s say the example.com is your primary (or root) domain. Now imagine that your business expands nationally and has branches both on the west and east side. If you want to divide your root domain into more specific ones, you could add the following subdomains: east.example.com or west.example.com. These are often useful when a business expands globally and wants to cater to foreign markets. You’ll need to add a subdomain for your site according to the language you wish to target. Subdomains are also used is by big companies who want to stratify their products. However, if your website does not fall into any of these categories, you should stay clear of subdomains as they can…

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It is (or it should be) every webmaster’s goal to have their site visible among search engines. Instead of waiting for crawlers to come across their site and index it, they can do what is known as search engine submission. It refers to the action of letting search engines know that your website exists. Usually, crawlers are able to find them organically but, if you have a newly created site, you could use this tactic to let them know manually. By doing so, you’ll be promoting your website and helping it increase their rankings. Also, if you recently updated one of your pages, submitting it to search engines will make them recognize the update more quickly. There are two main methods you can use when it comes to submission: one page at a time or the entire site. Either one of them will depend on your current needs and stage of your website. Typically, people submit only the home page of their site since crawlers are smart enough to scan…

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Attracting visitors is the perfect indication that your SEO efforts are paying off. However, are you driving relevant traffic to your site? In other words, is the traffic qualified? Qualified traffic refers to users who effectively make purchasing decisions when entering your website. They are not just visiting the site but are potential customers interested in buying what you’re offering. Although writing quality content and placing online ads can work, there are other elements that you need to pay attention to. For example, if you fail to connect with your readers, chances are you won’t drive qualified organic traffic to your site. The term ‘qualified,’ however, doesn’t mean the same for every SEO company since not all of them share the same goal. Depending on what that objective is, website owners will define their own parameters for what qualified traffic is. How Can I Measure Qualified Traffic? Evaluating your site’s conversion rate is essential when determining qualified traffic. That factor will tell you if you’re succeeding in attracting the right…

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For any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign to be successful, there’s a powerful element you need to master: content. I’m sure you’ve read the phrase ‘content is king’ across the web, and probably heard it a few times if you’ve ever worked with any SEO agency. Well, it’s true. If your pages don’t have compelling content, your business is doomed to fail. A well-crafted content marketing campaign focuses on statistics rather than attributes. That’s where the difference between regular and quality content lies. You should focus your efforts on the latter. Pay attention to data and create your content based on that. Basing your content strategy on statistics and how your readership reacts to what you publish guarantees that the decision of what to publish is not subjective. This is important because what you may consider high-quality, valuable content can differ from what your readers will deem worth reading. How Can I Create Quality Content? If you ask any Search Engine Optimization firm out there, you’ll get the same response…

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A quality link, or high-quality link, is one that sources from a high-quality website. Backlinks are one of the pillars of an effective SEO strategy. They are essential to driving organic traffic and increasing your site’s authority. In addition, search engines consider them one of their top three ranking factors. There are many SEO auditing tools that can help you analyze your backlinks’ performance. They let you decide whether earning a link from a specific site is worth your time and effort. Auditing tools determine if any given link is authoritative enough for it to try to pursue them linking back to your site. They evaluate the value of a link by establishing Domain Authority (DA) and other proprietary metrics. However, obtaining a high DA number doesn’t mean that a particular website is a good match for you -or even an overall high-quality link. What Are Good Quality Websites? You need to study several factors before deciding on which companies you want your backlinks shown. You want to find a…

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It’s commonly known that search engines (especially Google) use hundreds of ranking factors to influence search results. Mainly, four groups encompass all those metrics: Technical SEO On-page SEO Off-page SEO Performance SEO, SERP analysis Within each group, there are different aspects that search engines take into consideration when ranking and indexing sites. Query Deserves Diversity (QDD) is an algorithm that SEO experts believe is implemented by Google to adjust results to provide broader match results to searchers. How does Query Deserves Diversity work? The primary purpose of QDD is to display relevant results pertaining to specific queries but in a broader spectrum. It shows a varied set of results that meet different needs, even though it’s not entirely sure of what the particular searcher intent is. Google has a user-feedback feature that it uses to understand the requirements surrounding a given query. Thanks to that tool, the search engine is able to identify that queries are not always that evident. QDD allows Google to provide a more diverse array of…

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Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) is another part of Google’s core algorithm used for ranking search results. Everything trendy and newsworthy falls into the QDF category. Google uses it all the time to display time-sensitive information. It shows relevant events that are happening over a short period. It’s the algorithm responsible for displaying news articles, live events, concerts, conferences, elections, etc. Crawlers continually can and will index everything on the web, from photos to texts. Thus, they are always up to date about what’s happening in the world (regarding user queries). Therefore, they are able to provide relevant, timely, and specific results that match user intent. How Can I Use QDF to My Advantage? When the algorithm was first introduced, not everyone was happy. For some sites, it meant a loss in ranking and visibility on SERPs. However, for others, it served as a boost in those same aspects. So, what is the difference between those sites? QDF is an indication that a particular site’s content is trendy and up to…

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JavaScript is a programming language. It was developed by Netscape and is used to add interactivity, graphic enhancement, and automation to websites. Essentially, there are three elements when designing websites from scratch: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML is basically the core of your website, and it is the one that gives it structure. Although it is the most important one, this code is static and doesn’t add much functionality or dynamic elements to the page. CSS goes a little beyond that and allows you to add style to the HTML code. With CSS, you are able to add color, backgrounds, layouts, and other formatting features. You can add these directly on the HTML code or through a separate file. JavaScript works with client-based scripting. This means that the code is processed on the client’s side, in this case, your computer browser. HTML, on the other hand, runs on server-side scripting, processing the information on the servers. JavaScript code can be written directly in the HTML source code, by using the…

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The term stands for JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data. It’s a lightweight Linked Data format, and its sole purpose is to structure data. JSON-LD is analogous to Microdata and RDFa, and it implements the Schema.org vocabulary. This vocabulary covers entities, which are defined by Google as “A thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable,” and the relationships between them. The base of JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data is the JSON format. With this format, it is possible to structure and map data and, in some cases, send the information from a server to the web. Search engines use these configurations to find and access data more directly and automatically. How does JSON-LD work? JSON-LD takes the elements of a page, and it structures them so search engines can make sense of them. Search engines then analyze the data and create facts about the entities, creating a more organized information web. Similar to JavaScript, the JSON-LD code can be written in the HTML document. It is…

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Caching is the process in which calculated values are stored in a temporary storage area called cache. The files are saved in the computer’s “random access memory” (RAM). Every time a calculated cache value is requested, the browser will pull the value from the cache memory. How does caching work? The first time you visit a website, the browser needs to load everything in the HTML code (headers, footers, widgets, etc.). After a request is made, and it gets processed on the servers, the resulting site is sent to your browser, where it is displayed. When caching is enabled, the browser saves the HTML file into the RAM. So, the next time you visit that page, a significant part of the site’s code is already stored in your device’s RAM. Then, it can access the stored information instead of making the same requests every time you go to the site, taking less time to load pages that have been cached. How does caching affect loading speed, and why is this…

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Caffeine is a Google update that was introduced on June 8, 2010. It serves as a new and improved web indexing system. This update allowed the most popular search engine to store data more efficiently. By Google estimates, they were also able to display 50% fresher results. These are the results that are ‘timely’ and relevant to what is happening at the exact moment a related query is made. How does this work? In order to understand Caffeine, one must first understand how the previous indexing system worked. Pages and content were classified based on the perceived freshness requirements. Then, based on this classification, crawlers were deployed, and while some of them looked for changes, others were tasked to re-index changed pages. If the site appeared to have fresh content, then the bots would add said content fairly quickly. If not, the site would be re-indexed only every couple of weeks. This process was true for most websites out there. The problem with this boils down to the fact that…

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A call-to-action (CTA) is a prompt phrase that tells people to take specific actions when reading a piece of content. It describes precisely what the person will encounter upon clicking on it. A CTA takes the form of a button or hyperlink and it usually includes commands like ‘Log In,’ ‘Free Trial,’ or ‘Sign up,’ among others. They compel your visitors to dig deeper into your site. They can also be used to link other pages within your website. It’s extremely specific, clear, and it should not try to be clever. Why is it important? Having clear and multiple calls-to-action will help you increase your site’s conversion rate. They are a way to send a strong message, and it tells your readers that you know what you’re doing. Without a clear CTA on your site, users could get confused as to what steps they need to take once they enter. If you’re selling a product and don’t have a CTA, readers might just leave the site since nothing is prompting…

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Canonicalization was introduced in 2009 by Google, Bing, and Yahoo! A canonical tag or rel=“canonical” is how you tell search engines that a specific URL is the one you want to be ranked for. They are especially useful when a website has similar or duplicate content in different URLs. Canonicalizing is the best way to go if:   –  The content from the duplicate and the original URL are identical or remarkably similar.   –  The content from both URLs serves the same search intent.   –  You are updating or refreshing your content. With the use of canonical tags, Google intended to eliminate problems with ‘duplicate’ content. These issues occur when the same or very similar content appears on multiple URLs. Sometimes, something as insignificant as different font types in various sections of your website gets marked as duplicate. That’s why using the canonical attribute to mark the original URL is necessary. Duplicate content can have adverse effects on your SEO strategy. Search bots can miss on a lot…

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Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is one of the most important tools for web developers. It’s a language that allows you to style your website however you want by applying commands to your HTML source code. You can change the font size, font color, background color, layout, among many other things, using CSS. An advantage of using this tool is that it can let you change the styling on multiple websites that share the same HTML code. If you own more than one site, this feature is convenient. Also, by styling with CSS, you can have a separate document where all the commands are stored. This allows the HTML source code to stay clean and easy to access. Thus, website maintenance becomes much more manageable. How does CSS improve SEO? Using CSS can make your website SEO friendly. Search engine bots (or crawlers) can go through your HTML much faster if it’s clean and concise. Bots don’t need to scan through both the HTML and CSS code since the styling is…

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The term stands for ‘country code top-level domain’. It is basically a sequence of characters that have been assigned to a specific geographical area. They are found after the final period of a domain name, and they tell search engines which country the website is registered in. Country code TLDs use the ISO 3166-1 country codes. For example, the site http://www.example.fr has ‘fr’ at the end, which stands for France. Other examples are:   –  http://www.example.com.uk (United Kingdom)   – http://example.com.de (Germany)   – http://example.com.es (Spain)   – http://example.com.ae (United Arab Emirates) There are more than 240 country-based top-level domains, pertaining to the majority of the countries in the world. When you change the location on your computer and try to search for specific information, Google will only display content that is relevant to that area. The ccTLD string will vary according to the country code, and even the language of the website changes. Another type of top-level domain (TLD) is the generic one. Generic (gTLD) domains includes strings like .com, .org, .net, .gov,…

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In layman’s terms, a citation is a reference to your business or company name on other peoples’ websites. It works by assigning a NAP, which stands for ‘business Name, Address, and Phone number.’ This allows users to refer to your website more easily. They are also a way Google uses to verify your site’s authority. How are citations important in SEO? Citations are one of the main factors that search engines use when ranking businesses on local search results. They allow you to either rank up or down on the search engine results pages (SERPs) for local queries. If many websites reference your NAP on theirs, you’ll likely move up on the rankings. This is especially true if the websites where the business is mentioned are relevant to its niche. Additionally, citations are used by search engines to corroborate businesses’ contact information. But citations are not only important because of their effect on your business’s local rankings, but they also help increase the chances of people finding you online. If…

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Client-side and server-side are terms that web developers use to specify in which application the code runs. In the client-server model, users’ devices communicate through a network of centrally located servers. Devices such as laptops, smartphones, etc., are considered ‘clients’ in this scenario. So, the ’clients’ are the ones who request the servers to load a specific website or application. Client-side refers to the information that’s displayed on the users’ devices. This information is exactly what the user sees, like text, images, etc. Client-side rendering takes place on the browser and is done by JavaScript. So, when people request a website, they don’t receive the information directly from HTML content. Instead, they obtain a bare HTML document alongside a JavaScript. The javaScript does the rendering on the browser. Initially, client-side rendering can be slow, since the browser hast to make several requests to the server to acquire the information. But, thanks to the JavaScript framework, whenever you want to load the same webpage again, the process is exponentially faster. Client-side…

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Cloaking is an SEO technique where the content or information presented to users is different from that presented to search engine crawlers. This can be done for two reasons: for better indexing and to lead users to pages that they were not looking for. Cloaking is also implemented to mislead search engines into giving a site a higher ranking and promoting spam. The use of cloaking in the SEO community This method is very debatable. Knowing what cloaking is, this strategy could be considered illegitimate, depending on your intentions. Black hat cloaking, on the one hand, is used as a ruse to trick search engines into ranking sites for search queries that have nothing to do with what will be shown to users. These usually drive traffic to deceitful or spammy websites. If you are caught, Google can remove your site from its index. White hat cloaking, on the other hand, is when people use the technique because it is the right thing to do, or so they think. The term…

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Internet searches are always done with a purpose in mind. It might be looking for general information, information about products or services, or searching for something to buy or sell, etc.   The string of words that users enter into search engine search boxes to find such information is called a search query. A search query can have four primary intents: navigational, informational, transactional, and commercial investigation. Informational queries are typed when users want to find information about something in particular. They would be typed in terms such as “Giraffe,” or “what to do during a long layover in New York.” Navigational queries are used when the searcher wants to find a particular website. For example, they’d Google ‘Yelp or ‘TripAdvisor.’ Transactional queries are those that are typed for purchasing purposes. Commercial investigation queries are those done by a searcher who wants to compare a product or a service and find out which one is best for them. A commercial investigation query search can be done only for the purpose…

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As the name suggests, competitor analysis is the method used when you want to know what your competitors look like, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how you can exploit the latter. You might want to find out if they are outranking you, what the reasons for this are, how they drive traffic, etc. This analysis can help you get insights into what strategies work for others in your industry, and how you can improve on them and adapt them to your business. There are many ways for you to accomplish this. You just need to look in the right direction and keep track of your competitors’ websites, features, content, and social media marketing strategy. The first thing to do is to identify your biggest SEO competitors. Are they the same as last year? Have new ones appeared since then? What do their websites look like? It doesn’t matter if some of them are not in your niche. The thing you need to look for is keywords. If other…

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Content, or web content, refers to all the information available on your website. Well-written content will always attract people and keep them engaged. It’s also a way for you to gain and keep your readers’ trust and establish a relationship. What is SEO content? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of website traffic through organic search engine results. Thus, SEO content is basically any content that has been created to improve search engine traffic. There are a few things to keep in mind when creating SEO content: Keyword research. This is the first step to publishing content that generates traffic. Keyword research will provide insights into what keywords to use on your website according to your niche. Familiarize yourself with the common keywords people use to find your product or service, and make a list of possible keywords to use, keeping in mind your topic and business. When deciding which keywords you want to target, you need to take search volume,…

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Content marketing is the strategic creation of text, imagery, audio, or video, that delivers a relevant and compelling message to customers or prospects while paving the way for a sale. This strategy is being used by 86% of businesses today. There are three significant advantages of a thought-out content marketing strategy: it can increase your sales, reduce costs, and help you gain better and more loyal customers. Elements for an effective content marketing strategy Content marketing plays a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO). It is one of the pillars any SEO strategy you want to implement as search engines recognize businesses that constantly publish highly valuable, relevant content. However, not all strategies for content generation work. If you don’t provide value-added content, then it won’t help your business grow. Take into consideration the following elements for a more effective content marketing strategy. Define your target market. You need to know exactly who you are creating content for. Normally, you need to target people who would be interested or could…

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Content syndication is a win-win situation between you and third-party websites, where your content is re-published by other people. This allows other sites to generate more traffic and showcase a specific piece of information that may be useful to their customers, for free. For you, it means an increase in visitors thanks to the backlinks you get. Any content can be syndicated: blog posts, articles, infographics, and images. The effectiveness of content syndication depends on what your business is about and what you want to achieve. Its benefits include: Boost brand awareness or follower count on social media. This can be achieved through social media syndication. Maximize the use of your content. If you have fantastic content but limited traffic, content syndication is a scalable way to gain exposure.  Strategically choosing in which websites you want your content syndicated is crucial. Ideally, you would want your content to be on sites more authoritative than yours. That way, when it’s linked back to your website, you can attract more people, generate traffic…

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Conversion is when site visitors take specific actions that were intended by the site owner (site goals). These actions include making a purchase, filling out a contact form, subscribing to an email newsletter, or others. It is said that a user has ‘converted’ when that person goes from being a visitor to a buyer or returning customer. One of the most important aspects of conversion rate optimization is calls-to-action (CTAs). They are prompts that tell users to take decisive actions regarding your business or product. When a website has a clear call-to-action that leads users to take specific actions, the conversion rate will definitely be higher. Having ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Subscribe’ buttons all over your website’s pages is an excellent way to make customers pay attention and click on them. Filling out forms or calling a number displayed on the site, is also considered conversion. Even something as easy as opening an email can go a long way for the conversion rate of the website. In marketing, site traffic alone…

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What is considered OTT? OTT stands for “over the top.” Any content service provider that offers content online via streaming as its only product is considered an OTT service. It is most commonly used to refer to video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Video, but it can also be used to refer to messaging services such as WhatsApp or Telegram, Internet-based calling services, or audio streaming such as podcasts. You can access OTT services as long as you have access to an internet connection. These types of services can be monetized through paid subscriptions, advertising, or in-app purchases. Who is OTT? OTT, or “over the top,” refers to services that are provided bypassing the traditional delivery channels. The term OTT became popular after Netflix gained a significant number of subscribers and became the go-to form of video enterntainment preferred by millions. However, OTT services are also available in other platforms incl such as iTunes for podcasts (audio services), WhatsApp, Duo, or Skype for messaging and long-distance calling, and more….

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Conversion rate is used to quantify the number of users that convert on your website. When a user converts, it means that the person went from being just a visitor to an actual customer or buyer. The rate is specified as a ratio that needs to be multiplied by 100 after knowing how many users converted. Therefore, this ratio is always shown as a percentage. For a better understanding of how to measure conversion rate, take this example: Imagine you own a fitness website that gets 3,000 visitors monthly. Your ultimate goal is that those who come to your website buy your fitness program. The moment a person makes a purchase would be considered as the site’s user conversion. Now, let’s say that 40 of the visitors who came to your website on month X bought the program. Only the number of visitors or users who actually made a purchase or took decisive action on your website can be considered as a conversion. Then, the conversion rate is calculated as…

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Cornerstone content should be one of the foundations of your website and some of its most pivotal factors. With this type of content, you will stand out from your competitors and become authoritative in the eyes of search engines. You should aim for cornerstone content to rank for the most competitive keywords relevant to your business. What counts as cornerstone content? It is the most relevant and pivotal content of your website. It’s how you show new visitors, prospective customers, and search engines what you have to offer. Cornerstone articles, blog posts, or pages are generally long-form (+2500 words) and tend to be structured like guides. They should provide in-depth insights on key topics for your niche, and you should be able to draw many sub-topics from your cornerstone posts. What elements make a great cornerstone page? Putting all the information described above into a page is no guarantee that it will attract more users. This material needs to be crafted perfectly, and expertly including the following elements is a…

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Cost per acquisition (CPA) is a financial term used in marketing to measure how much is the total cost of acquiring one paying customer on a campaign. By tracking this, business owners can figure out the net cost of advertising. Most marketers prefer this pricing model because it lets them set a goal of acquisition before paying for a marketing campaign. So, they only greenlight a project when that desired goal of purchase is met. Some marketing mediums that use CPA are pay-per-click (PPC), affiliate, display, social media, and content marketing. So, how do you calculate the cost per acquisition? To calculate the CPA, you need to take the total amount you spend on advertising and divide it by the numbers of acquisitions (sale, click, or form submission) generated. How can CPA be optimized? Writing amazing copy and ads is the ultimate way of increasing the cost per acquisition. This is done by implementing a well-planned content marketing strategy. This should generate significant traffic and attract customers by sharing valuable…

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Cost-per-click (CPC) is the cost a business pays every time a user clicks on their website’s ads. This number will determine how successful your PPC campaign is and how much the ads will cost. It will also help you determine how wise it is to invest in search engine marketing. The formula for calculating CPC is relatively simple. You only need to divide the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.  For example, if an advertiser paid $300 for a campaign and it received 53 clicks, then the CPC would be $5.66. That $5.66 is the result of 300/53. Devising a successful pay-per-click campaign can be challenging, but it is not impossible. The easiest way to ensure you get what you pay for is to follow a top-down approach and adjust the elements of paid search accordingly. These include: A strategic marketing campaign. A paid search marketing campaign can contain different ad groups. You could take advantage of specific dates of the year to launch different groups. For example, for a Father’s Day Sale,…

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Cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) or cost per mile, represents the total amount an advertiser pays for 1,000 impressions on their page. If a publisher charges $4.00 CPM, then the advertiser must pay $4 for every 1,000 clicks of the ad. CPM vs. CPA vs. CPC Cost per mile (CPM) is one of the most used pricing models for online advertisement. There are other popular models such as cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). In CPC, the site owner pays every time a user clicks on an ad while in CPA, the advertiser pays only when the visitor makes a purchase. If your campaign focus is directed to a niche audience making a purchase, cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) are more convenient price models for your business. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM), on the other hand, is a better method for businesses interested in creating or boosting brand awareness or expanding, promoting a new product, or for those products with already large markets. CPM is also used by people who want to develop…

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The most common crawl directive is called ‘Robots Meta Directives,’ also known as ‘meta tags.’ These tags serve as guidelines for crawlers, so they know how to crawl or index your site. Another directive is the robots.txt file; This is a file that serves the same purpose as meta tags. These guidelines are read by search engines and, depending on what you want them to do, they act accordingly. However, the crawlers or bots may not always respond to instructions. Since they are not programmed to follow these rules strictly, it is possible that they sometimes ignore the code. Depending on your needs, some of those instructions (as code form) can be:   –  noindex: it tells the bots not to index a page.   –  index: this is the default instruction, and it means that the crawler can index the page.   –  dofollow: this tells the crawler to follow the page and its links even if it’s not indexed.   –  nofollow: it tells the bot a link…

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A search engine is a tool and a service that allows its users to look for information via the internet. This can be done from PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices. How do search engines work? Generally, a user types its query, which can consist of one or more words, into the search bar. The platform then returns a list of possible matches that should contain the information the searcher intended to find. The list of results is called search engine results page or SERP. Most display their results in many ways. It can be websites, videos, images, or others. Nowadays, technology allows users to do voice searches as well. Even though when we think of search engines, only a few come to our minds (Google, Yahoo, Bing). Actually, there are many others available. Some of these  include:   – Duck Duck Go   – Yandex   – Dogpile   –  Yippi How do they decide what results to show? When a person enters search terms into the…

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Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed by the many newsletters you are suddenly subscribed to? Well, you’re not alone. Keeping track of every site you sign up to can be challenging. Sometimes, websites fail to stay true to their promise of maintaining the emails periodicity short and sporadic. It makes users frustrated, and in the end, the probabilities of them signing off are high. The process of unsubscribing from a newsletter or other form of mailing list is called opt-out. It’s a very common term used in email marketing, and it can hurt your overall SEO strategy. However, you can offer a way for subscribers to opt out on good terms and provide you insights on their reasons for not wanting to receive your emails anymore. User experience is an essential factor in any SEO campaign, and companies must always offer an opt-out alternative so users can leave whenever they want. That way, you’ll be ensuring that your website is user-friendly and doesn’t take them for granted. The advantages that…

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The critical rending path (CRP) is a series of events that take place in order to render (display) the initial rendering of the website. For it to happen, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files need to be analyzed. The necessary steps involved in rendering include: ‘constructing the object model,’ ‘constructing and painting the layout,’ and ‘adding interactivity with JavaScript.’ This process is essential, as it determines the speed at which your webpage loads. It is commonly known that your website speed is critical when a search engine determines SERPs rankings. The faster the speed, the higher the ranking, the higher the ranking, the higher the traffic. Site loading speed is also important once a visitor reaches your site. It can affect site conversion and bounce rates. Critical rendering path is sometimes optimized to drop a couple of loading seconds off your site. Every second that is reduced from your site’s speed is a win. How to optimize the critical rendering path? To optimize the critical rendering path, taking these few steps…

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Cross-linking is the process of creating links between two websites. It can be done by either linking another site you own or a third-party website. It is done to show content that is similar to yours or that you think your audience would like to read. How does cross-linking benefit SEO? This method can be handy for SEO strategies. It helps you attract more traffic and rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). When you use this strategy within your site pages, cross-linking can be an excellent way to make visitors stay for a more extended period on your site. Thus, improving the way search engines index your pages. When done right, cross-lining can:   –  Enhance the relevancy of your site’s pages.   –  Help search engines better understand what your website is about.   –  Improve the perceived authority for some of your page’s in the eyes of search engines. Dos and don’ts of Cross-linking Don’t include a link to the same site on every page…

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A content management system, or CMS, is an application people use to manage content. The information is stored in a database, and it is accessible to everyone in the organization. The basic features of CMS are content creation, content storage, workflow management, and publishing. WordPress is the most popular content management system, but there are others available:   –  Drupal   –  Joomla   –  Magento   –  ModX   –  Squarespace   –  Wix   –  Weebly Advantages of content management systems   –  They are collaborative location-independent tools. Users across the world can contribute to create, edit, and optimize the content managed through a CMS. They can be accessed anywhere, and in some cases, even from various mobile devices thanks to their user-friendly interfaces.   –  Since it doesn’t rely much on HTML and CSS, CMS can be understood by people from any background. You don´t have to be a programmer in order to create content using CMS.   –  Content management system also uses administrators. They are…

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