SEO i.e. Search engine optimization it’s a term which has people crying and many a webmasters losing their hair as they lose all of their traffic overnight. The future of SEO is something which can’t be predicted just by looking at the major search engines or the people who are ranking well these days. With lots of non predictive algorithms in place we can’t even tell which strategy might work well in the long run. With the recent Hummingbird algorithm update by Google things have become more unusual than ever. People who were on the top of their game have lost significant traffic.
Players who were nowhere to be seen are on visible everywhere now. But one thing is for sure these days, what’s most necessary is to have a coherent strategy. Everything has to be taken into account from the ground up. Once you have a proper strategy in place things might become a little easier. So what are the top seo trends to follow for 2014, let’s discuss them in detail.
Top seo trends to follow in 2014: The points to keep in mind.
1.) Social media integration with content: What once was an optional point for people while doing SEO is now one of the pillar points in SEO.
The emphasis now is on shareable content. People want to read stuff that hasn’t been written anywhere else already. They are not interested in the news rather they are interested in what a particular writer thinks about something. That’s the trend these days. The social media strategy for any website should be in alignment with the content strategy. Posts should be shared on different platforms according to the platform relevance. Job specific posts and career related opportunities and professional updates should be front lined for networks like LinkedIn. Real time content which is relevant only for one or two days should be promoted only on Twitter and other real time update platforms. Engaging content which can draw out user response should be shared on Facebook and Google+. Gear up your site for easy pinning on Pinterest and social sharing should be included for easy sharing options. Don’t make them stand out too much or don’t go other way and make them too bland. The right social buttons are those which are easily accessible and fit in with the user interface (UI) but still entice the user enough for clicking on them.
2.) Making really awesome content: The whole of 2013 passed with people screaming on the top of their voices that ‘Content is the king’ . This statement has carried itself forward in 2014. Content marketing is still the dominant strategy for getting lots of promotion in a limited time. Awesome content also helps in building a unique brand profile for your own. Awesome content can include anything from Infographics, interview series posts of experts, simple memes about any topic to analytical content which includes surveys and questionnaires.
3.) Focus on building your own brand: Building your own brand requires time and patience. You have to make sure you are visible everywhere and on every platform. A single branding strategy should be in place. What kind of brand image do you want to convey? Is your website a self help website with focus on helping the user, then your brand should inculcate qualities like supportive, easy to access, user friendly etc. By clearly defining what you offer you can stay in the user’s mind for a long time and decrease your reliance on search only traffic. Creating a cool brand image requires you to be active on mediums people use for various activities. You can use Instagram to upload cool photos so as to build your brand identity.
4.) Ensure you update old content: What is visible these days is that people time and again focus on the new and forget the old. You must update your old content weekly in order to make sure your old posts get that edge in SERPS. Google loves fresh content and so does everyone else. By regularly updating your old content you gain over the people who had posted articles on the same topics a year or two ago and haven’t updated it since ages.
5.) Clean your design: What’s the use of having a website loaded to the brim with UX elements and features if the user doesn’t like it. Minimalism and flat design are trends that are here to stay. What is needed should be used on the site, and the whole site should have a coherent design. There should be proper call to action buttons like sign up for our newsletter, download our eBook, buy our product and other stuff like that! The typography plays an important part in the whole user experience. Make sure your design is well structured on the inside and outside.
Related: Find out why StudioPress themes are used by over 112,000 website owners around the world today. Read more here.
On the inside you can check the layout of your site by adding missing schema components, you can add DC i.e. Dublin core code and apple touch icon to improve your site’s seo score.
These are some of the top SEO trends to follow in 2014. To read more about great SEO tips and money making tutorials, keep visiting ReginaldChan.net
This post was contributed by Aditya Nath Jha and sponsored by MyRefers.com, a unique peer to peer referral based job search platform.
Google PageRank update took place on December 6, 2013 and probably, the last PR update for the year. Now, if you have yet to check on your PageRank, you can check your ranking here.
Today, this blog is 5 months and 24 days old. After the Google PageRank update, I received a nice Google’s pat on the back by getting Google PageRank 2.
Thank you Google for that!
It is indeed a long road with all the Google surprises we had encountered during this year especially with Google Hummingbird and Penguin 2.1.
Finally, I truly understand the meaning of “hard work paid off”.
Now, let’s take a look at how my blog did in the past 5 months as of today:
PageRank 2
Domain Authority – 45/100
Page Authority – 52/100
Root domain links – 357
Total links – 7,950
The secret recipe to get high PageRank
There are probably thousands of ways to achieve high PageRank and over the course of 5 months, I really tried to think out of the box. I wanted to be different and I ended up creating my SEO blueprint.
For those who had no idea what SEO blueprint is all about, allow me to explain to you in simple words. I created my own SEO strategies and start working out from phrase to phrase. Here are several techniques I did according to orders:
Build at least 50 quality blog posts on my site
Practice internal linking among all related articles
Building reputation and engage in the influence market
Guest postings on high PR blogs and related niche
If you think I did all that in just under 2 months, you are wrong. I did that for months (every single day). I do skip some days from time to time … hey, I am also human right?
1. Building the right blog content and not applying with guest posting (yet)
For me, content is everything and when I mean everything, it means A to Z.
My ‘A to Z’ means that publishing the right blog content with has high value and quality. Don’t even think of creating evergreen blog posts as I don’t believe in that. What works yesterday might not be useful in tomorrow’s world.
The keyword here are focus, focus and focus. Focus in building a blog full of resources and not only that, focus in building a blog which is outstanding. Why would you want to build a blog which offers the same information with probably a dozen blogs out there?
If you have less than 50 quality posts on your blog, you can (literally) forget about guesting posting. I know hundreds or thousands of bloggers out there who are looking for guest posting but have they ever thought what would happen if they don’t have any quality blog post to share?
For example, you may be able to publish a post on some PR 5 blog but what do you want to backlink to? Linking back to your above average blog post? Hell no!
You want to link back to your crazy and epic blog post, you know … creating the wow factor and start building more readership.
I took the road less taken and decided to focus on quality content over guest posting for starters. Building quality content isn’t easy and I found out that most readers dislike reading articles over 1,000 words.
Wait a minute! My blog posts are usually over 1,500 words and how?
The solution is simple. Creating hype and work from there. Feeling mushy and lost? Here’s an example:
Title: Opps! I Accidentally Increased Google+ Traffic By Over 700% ‘¦ But How?
Content: Make the introduction short and straight to the point. Then, provide images and stats to proof your point.
When I shared this on one of Google+ community, it became (almost) the hottest topic of the day. Readers are responding, sharing and discussing over it. Now, that’s what I call epic blog post.
Out of 100 readers, 50 would probably click on it due to the title itself while 30% will still click on it while believing it is just a scam. This is where quality content and images (stats) close to the introduction paragraph will ‘bribe’ them to continue reading.
Of course, you will have around 20% who wouldn’t even given a damn and not even bother clicking it but guess what? It doesn’t matter because you already have 80% of the reach!
Here are some of my favorite posts that you can dig in:
2. Practising proper SEO with internal and external link building techniques
Backlinking is like building a bridge and connect two different areas at the same time
If you are focusing on external link building only, you are definitely missing something really big. You need to focus on internal backlink as well if you want to have a higher PageRank.
Matt Cutts said sharing backlink ranking from one article to another is possible as long as it is legit. So, what I did were on my own blog:
Find the top 5 blog articles that gain the most organic traffic
Place 2 to 3 related backlinks (each) on the top 5 posts
Repeat the process on lower traffic blog posts
With the above, I am able to share my ranking score from highest traffic blog to moderate and low traffic blog posts.
The truth is, I had over 80 blog posts and there is no way I could cover them all. Therefore, choose the right blog posts to ensure that you are making both search engines and visitors happy.
For those who are asking, I focus more on internal link building prior to external link building. This is to ensure that my blog is always prepared in case if I ever get a backlink or trackback from a higher PageRank site.
3. Getting involved in the influence market and the effects on blog ranking
I am a huge fan of social media and from the first day of blogging here, I am always focusing on referral traffic.
Before we proceed, do you think that influence market can affects your PageRank?
I didn’t want to be just like the other 164 million blogs out there. I wanted to build my brand … the ‘Reginald Chan’ brand name. So, I started to spend time on several, high profile sites to build my brand name on a daily basis.
Through my experience, building authority and influence could easily be achieved with social media. All you ever need are timing and the right planning. Before you even decide to go into influence marketing, ensure that you know everything about that niche or else, you are going to destroy your reputation.
The biggest misconception about influence marketing is that it is a short term ‘investment’. Building an authority takes time and patience. Personally, I have been doing blog marketing since day one until now. Not even a day rest!
4. Guest posting and its effects on Google PageRank
Proper guest blogging will help boost backlink and increase PageRank
For me, guest posting is a privilege and forever it will be. So, only invest time and effort into guest posting when you have complete the first 3 steps above.
We all know that guest posting is a great way to build backlinks but the biggest question is … how do you do guest posting correctly?
Guest posting works in two ways; Building authority and backlinks. However, that wouldn’t be possible if you do not have quality content to share right? This is where the ‘quality content’ part as said above is very important.
Here’s an example. I noticed many guest bloggers who applied on my site are either submitting spinned articles or low quality ones. For Christ’s sake, please avoid doing so. Instead, submit an article which you had spend hours constructing and are high in quality.
If you are spending 1 hour in writing a blog post for your own site, take 3 hours or more to do a guest post. Guest post must always be more than just good. It has to be epic and it has to be really, really that good.
The truth is that submitting 100 guest posts will not guarantee you a better Google PageRank. Instead, focus in submitting quality guest posts to ensure that each one of them counts.
Bloggers, don’t make the same mistake over and over again. Stop submitting countless guest posts just to build backlinks. Instead, provide quality articles and you would definitely get more than what you ‘asked’ for ~ Self quote.
When it comes to guest posting, this is my guest posting checklist to ensure high chance of approval and building reputation.
What do I think about Google PageRank update?
For me, Google PageRank is a great way to measure how much work you had done to your blog and when I say “work”, I mean real work such as guest posting, quality contents and a dozen more SEO techniques. While it is just a way to determine how your site rank in the eyes of Google and search engines, I got to admit that it certainly felt good to see a boost in PR. It shows that hard work paid off.
In a nutshell, Google PageRank is determined by various factors such as the number of backlinks, SEO enrichments and a dozen more factors. It is not advisable to over focus in getting higher PageRank as it will easily cloud your jjudgment
So, how does this recent Google PageRank update affected you? Tell me using the comment form below.
If you thought that Google Hummingbird was the only surprise for us, you are terribly wrong. In just a short period of time, Google had released two huge updates (with Google Penguin 2.1 as the latest) which had basically shaken the whole blogging industry.
I cursed and swear at Google as I was hit not once but twice which affected me dearly. Both my affiliate revenue and traffic plunged down the ravine and it certainly felt like it’s the end of the world. Of course, I tried my best and kept the anger under wraps with this post.
Here’s a quick recap of what I think about both the updates:
Google Hummingbird – focused on small sites that are ranking rather well even though they are new
Google Penguin 2.1 – focused on longer and more specific search queries
So, how did Google updates affected my blog?
I lost 50% of my keywords ranking, 75% daily impression count and my earnings was affected so badly.
Yup, it sucks to be me right? Haha!
What do we know about Google Hummingbird?
Google Hummingbird was released from the cage for that one main reason only; Penalizing and slapping hard on sites which are relatively new but are ranking very well.
Most websites that are affected are mainly:
Less than 1 year old
Ranking a lot of keywords
Moderate to low traffic
The above really smells like Google is doing some ‘cleaning up’ on micro niche sites. Frankly, a huge number of micro niche sites experienced between 30 – 70% traffic drop thanks to the Google Hummingbird update.
Why did micro niche sites get affected so badly?
The answer is easy. It is a known fact that most of these sites are ranking well thanks to focusing on keywords only and not facts. Even though no black hat tools are involved, certainly this is definitely not one of those SEO techniques recommended by Google.
Consider this as affecting the balance and ecosystem of search queries.
And it didn’t stop there! Google releases a new update called shortly after.
I read this when I was having my lunch and … I nearly choked on my food.
Google and Matt Cutts said that it was focused on improving search queries and ensure that Google is returning more quality search results. Okay, that part is correct.
However, does it has a hidden agenda behind those words?
Yes, think hard my friend.
When Hummingbird was released, do you remember seeing people’s tweet and Facebook status updates that they are not seeing much traffic lost even though they are running niche sites?
And guess what happened after Google Penguin 2.1 was released. Traffic was scaling down and so does the earning.
The secret organic SEO strategies to use after Google Penguin 2.1
Do you REALLY want to know what are the organic SEO techniques after Google Penguin update?
I hate Google a lot and this not because of their frequent updates. It is because every time an update take place, I am off to my secret room down the basement and start planning my next SEO blueprint.
I realized that there are probably hundreds of do’s and dont’s on the best SEO techniques after Google Penguin and you are free to follow any of those that deem fit. However, remember that what I am sharing with you below are mostly organic SEO strategies which could have a very positive impact on your blog.
Here are simple list of my recommended organic SEO strategies to counter attack Google Penguin 2.1 and possibly, any other future updates too (if lucky).
If you are still wondering what is organic SEO, I have explained it using the video below:
1. Goodbye PageRank, Page Rank or PR
PageRank is one of the most discussed topic when it comes to SEO. Seriously speaking, we are all thinking too much about it! Yes, even I do too!
Deny all you want people but trust me, PageRank is going down soon.
Currently, PageRank isn’t dead and it is still functional because there are too many algorithms counting on it. Google updates each website’s PageRank on a daily basis (backend) but the information is not shared out to the public.
Sharing this info out will possibly bring millions of dollars in revenue to SEO agencies around the world and indirectly, messing up the whole SEO ecosystem.
Here’s my take: Google will soon remove PageRank and in return, substituting PR with Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA). Plus, I am expecting this to happen somewhere in 2014 or 2015 latest.
What do you think?
Adesanmi Adedotun wrote an interesting write up and discussion on this and you can check it out here.
2. Hello Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA)
Both of these have long been in this industry and still, it is very surprising that not many people who actually know about them.
Domain Authority is your root domain score and it is calculated based on the number of links pointing towards it. The higher the authority of that link, the more ‘points’ added to the Domain Authority.
Page Authority on the other hand is the score of your article. The score is calculated exactly like Domain Authority.
Now, do you know that both Domain Authority and Page Authority are inter-related to one another?
For example, having a higher DA score could possibly increase your PA score and vise versa.
Backlink or link building isn’t dead yet. Forget about what other SEO experts are saying.
The more links you are building for your website, the better it would be. However, there’s something seriously important when you are thinking of building links.
You need to focus on two very important factors which are:
Linking to your domain page (example – https://www.reginaldchan.net) [also known as Domain Authority or DA]
How many of you publish a guest posting just for backlinks? Come on guys, put up your hands.
The truth is, guest posting is a great way to build backlinks. The bigger truth is you aren’t getting a backlink on your guest posting if your writing sucks.
Okay, I am know I might sound bold and straight forward here but hear me out. What’s the point of submitting for a guest posting if you know that you are NOT going to get approved?
You are not only going to waste your time but as well as the editors too.
Now, back to the topic. Guest posting is a good way to build trust and yes, backlinks if you are doing it correctly. The right way for guest posting is to ensure that you are constantly writing quality write ups and be very specific with your anchor texts.
Don’t just focus everything on ‘blogging tips’ or ‘SEO strategies’ for example. Instead, ensure that your links are given a variety of anchor texts.
Do you know your articles get ranked better if there are more social shares and engagements?
Reality is that I don’t have the enough data to prove that but through my short experiments done recently, I noticed those articles of mine who receive 100 or 200 social shares get ranked better on search engines compared to the rest.
There are probably tons of websites talking about social signal and the importance of social share as we speak. Personally, I don’t think this is something you should ignore.
So, how do you REALLY get more social shares?
In order to get more social shares, you need to:
Be more active on social media
Share more articles of other bloggers or writers
Build more relationship with others
This is important … please write something that is worth sharing
When it comes to social media, you do not need to spend all your time on all the social media platforms. Instead, focus on those who gives you the best ROI (return of investment).
You probably hear this saying in nearly every blogging site you came across. The truth is very real and content is more important than ever.
Do you think that you can get better ranks, backlinks and social shares with low quality articles?
Obviously not! In today’s blogging world, you need more than just good content. You need GREAT contents and accompanied by proven facts and data. That is one of the reasons why I have a rather strict guest post requirements.
Just have a look at any of CopyBlogger’s articles. They are sardine packed with facts and proven test results. Well, it is a great tactic since humans are easily attracted to images and stats compared to the plain ol’ wall-of-text.
Writing content is an art and usually, it is called content writing. To be a good blogger, you need to know:
What your readers are looking for
The topics and information that could turn heads
And probably, a killer title too
Anyone can become a great content writer. All you need are a dying passion and burning flame of enthusiasm.
To recap, this is what organic SEO is all about … in slides!
Popular weapons to build more organic SEO strategies
If your blog is hit or affected by Google Penguin 2.1, it is time that you need to take your SEO to the next level. You may use Yoast SEO for your WordPress but personally, that could only help you that far.
I am talking about precise SEO … SEO tools that are easy to use and possibly, beating most competitors out there.
Scribe offers out of the box content optimization that works within seconds. Basically, Scribe SEO (as what it is called) analyzes your keywords, full written article and the whole website itself.
It will then generate a Page Score and Site Score which you can use to further optimize or improve the article.
Scribe SEO doesn’t only analyze your article but the whole website itself. Besides that, Scribe SEO also offers:
Keyword research (competition and chances of ranking)
Link building between articles
Content optimizer to enrich your article by providing relevant suggestions on your post
Scribe SEO is focused to ensure that your articles and websites get a better rank on search engines and dominate the search results. And because of this, Scribe SEO comes with a pretty hefty price tag of $97 per month.
I would always consider SEOPressor as a cheaper alternative for Scribe SEO. SEOPressor works in a pretty similar way compared to Scribe SEO and it really makes content optimization easier.
SEOPressor makes content optimization easier thanks to easier and straight forward user interface.
It offers:
Keyword suggestion
Keyword density
Keyword decoration (using bold, italic and H1 to H3 tags)
Over optimization warning
SEOPressor is a great choice for bloggers especially if you are looking for a SEO tool that has all-in-one package when it comes to optimization.
With the one time payment of $97, SEOPressor makes it easier for you to plan your organic SEO strategies without hassle and with the one-click function, it makes novice bloggers look great when it comes to SEO.
I know how much Google Hummingbird and Penguin 2.1 had affected all of you. The biggest question is, what did you do to improve your website ranking? Did you have any organic SEO strategies that you would like to share with us all?
Google Update on Small Sites or Google Hummingbird in short could possible be the biggest overhaul done by this giant search engine after Caffeine update. We all know that the latest Google Update took place on 21st August 2013 and at that time, Google didn’t break the news which left everyone wondering.
On the eve of Google’s 15th years celebration, the search engine giant decided to break the ice and basically, took the world by storm; Introducing Google Hummingbird Update.
What is Google Hummingbird?
The Hummingbird update is said to be a major update in terms of how the search engine index works and linking of search queries. Here’s a snippet from a very popular SEO site:
Hummingbird is a definite expansion of Google’s semantic capability evident at the search interface level that reveals, significantly, two things,’ said David Amerland, search engine expert and author of Google Semantic Search, ‘First, Google has increased its ability to deal with complex search queries which means that it also has got better at indexing entities in Web documents. Second, it has got a lot better at relationally linking search queries and Web documents which means that its Knowledge Graph must be considerably enriched. – Search Engine Land
And my take on Google Hummingbird update are as below:
Hummingbird update was rolled out to focus more on the meanings behind the words. For example, search queries will now concentrate more on each word in the search query instead of the keywords only. This means that Google will take account what the whole conversation, sentence or question is all about with the hopes to return more exact search results.
What do you understand from the above? Personally, I love SEO and been a huge fan of it since early 2010. This update seems to be very focused in several parts and which will affect us all dearly;
Choices of keywords
Possibility of new requirements to get blogs and articles indexed faster
The importance of human factor (human intent)
Behold~ Here’s my disclaimer: The above are just the icing of the cake. I will also share with you not one but three simple SEO techniques which can (and possibly) help you rank better on search engines below. So yes, expect this to be a long article. Bookmark this right now and come back for more, from time to time.
Google Hummingbird’s search queries update
How did Google Hummingbird affected user’s search queries?
As seen above, Google said that they had updated the search queries and for me, this affected a lot on micro niche sites. Before we go deeper into the topic, here’s a simple food for thought question.
How often do you type a two letter words on Google? Possibly one out of ten times maybe?
That’s the whole point!
Nowadays, we are typing nearly a complete sentence whenever we are searching for information. Google algorithm update affects how the search engine figures out what you are actually searching for. In other words, this makes Google better at solving complicated search queries.
This also means that every blog or website has a greater chance of ranking well on search engine if you are using the right keywords. And this my friends, is just one part of it.
Using the right keyword does have its advantages in terms of ranking but there are also many factors you need to consider such as keyword density, using the related keywords and most importantly, the overall SEO practices for the whole website.
Did Hummingbird update really affected the way a blog or website get indexed?
How fast can your website get indexed by Google?
Honestly speaking, I have no idea and if I would, I could possibly be working with Google right now!
I did a quick test recently and I noticed that some of my articles got indexed rather fast (faster than usual). I am not talking about weeks but in terms of days!
So, is this really the effects of Google Hummingbird? What do you think?
Personally, I think there is a strong connection here. Basically, sites who gets lots of ‘publicity’ and social signals could prove to the search engine that “Hey, people are sharing my writings and so should you (Google)”.
More social shares could help to speed up the time needed for search engine indexing.
Like what I said above, there are many factors affecting how a blog or article get showed up on search engines but it is safe to say that proper keyword usage is more important than ever.
Google understands that everyone (including you and me) are often using specific keywords to rank an article. However, the biggest question for this is how far does that particular keyword helps in enriching the article?
Just because we had used that keyword a dozen times doesn’t prove that it is related to the article at all.
Top SEO techniques to counter-attack Google Hummingbird
If you got hit by Google Hummingbird, how do you recover from the impact?
It doesn’t matter if Hummingbird affected your website but you are here because you want to rank your blog better. If you are not, please … please click on the ‘X’ button on the top right of the screen now.
Before I disappoint you, allow me to be completely honestly with you. These are not your usual SEO techniques but they work extremely well for me.
My goal is to have a balance mixture of psychology (human intent), content and authorship to boost the overall SEO ranking. Personally, I call this indirect SEO.
These SEO techniques I am about to share with you are mostly two sided blades. A wrong move could easily crumble your SEO strategies and even backfire on your blog. However if practiced correctly, you stand a good chance to skyrocket your blog traffic.
1. Content do not need to be SEO rich
Over optimizing your website is not good in terms of SEO
Yup, you hear me right. If you have focus a lot on your blog or website content and positing well on search engines, you do not need to pay thousand of dollars to SEO agencies to do it for you. Plus, you can get all the basic SEO strategies using Yoast SEO plugin.
Seriously!
Gone were the days where SEO is the only factor when it comes to blog ranking. It is not debatable that SEO still plays a factor in terms of blog ranking but there are far more important factors which could affect it.
If you are about to publish a blog post, ask yourself these, “Will my readers be happy with what they read? Is this what they are looking for?”
You see, building a good and strong presence is vital when it comes to surviving in this blogging industry. This is why you need all hands on deck and making sure your content is not only able to fulfill but to satisfy your readers which leads to point #2.
If you want to score well in SEO, then you need to know the basics and you can start off by checking out these articles:
Content still plays an important role in terms of SEO
This is some sort of a no-brainer. Words around popular search engine forums are saying that Google is looking for more unique content than just plain articles.
Now let’s see this in the perspective of a reader, shall we?
Imagine reading through 5 different blogs and all of them are sharing the same information. The only difference between them are the titles and headings. Does this really enrich your search experience?
Definitely not!
When you are blogging, make sure that you are NOT doing what others are doing … or at least try not to. Of course, with over 60 million blogs out there, this is rather insane and impossible to accomplish but at least, you don’t copy and paste everything that you read.
Readers love to read contents which are unique and they could possibly not find any of those anywhere else (yet). Do this and you will find them coming back for more and if Google sees good traffic coming from your blog, it is a signal to send even more traffic towards your blog.
Take a moment to think about this. Does this makes all the sense to you?
Do you agree that Google Authorship plays a role in terms of blog ranking?
Let us go back memory lane for a moment. When Google+ was first announced, it was a huge hype and everyone was trying to enable Google Authorship on their blogs.
We all thought that it was a good way to boost SEO and so long live the hype until recently. A long discussion was done recently among Google+ community and it was confirmed that Google Authorship doesn’t affect SEO at all.
So, here’s the question, “What is the relationship between content authorship and Hummingbird?”
This is because content seems to be the biggest emphasis for Hummingbird update, it is very likely that authorship (which is rather useless somewhere now) will become an important factor when it comes to optimization.
We all know Google had long been trying to compete with Facebook and thus, Google Authorship could be the only thing that distinguish both the social media platforms.
With proper Google authorship settings, Google is able to attribute the content back to the author and yes, publishing a pretty face right below the URL.
And you might be thinking … you ain’t got the time to enable Facebook graph, fail to enable Twitter cards or probably, had no idea what Google Interactive Post is all about. I got it, really.
Personally, I have always wanted to enable these features with some coding but thanks to my limited knowledge on the matter, most of the time it ended up as a disaster until recently.
I came across WPSocial thanks to Ana Hoffman from Traffic Generation Cafe when she published Schema Markup. I wouldn’t even thought of bringing this up until Hummingbird update and all the hype about Google Authorship plus the open graph features.
Then it struck my mind on how important Open Graph and all these microdata is for bloggers. Thank God I was using WPSocial SEO Booster.
In short, WPSocial SEO Booster is used to make sure that proper markups are done correctly for your blogs. It may and may not have a difference when it comes to the naked eyes but this is a whole different scenario when it comes to search engines.
If you have read above, you would know that authorship is important and it is a great way to prove to search engines that you are genuine. WPSocial SEO Booster will help you in terms of:
Creating correct microdata for your blog
Enable authorship markup
Facebook Open Graph integration
Twitter cards
Increase site performance
Review features, social sharing button and Google Interactive features included
And a dozen more features …
The main reason for me to bring this up is because it had helped me a lot in terms of additional marking up features. Don’t get me wrong. I love Genesis Framework and the HTML5 markup is extremely useful.
However in this SEO and blogging industry, I need more than that to compete and therefore, I opt to try WPSocial which turned out to be great!
You can try WPSocial today for only $29.60 and ask for a refund if you are not happy with it. No strings attached and there’s an offer Mike (developer of WPSocial) is throwing in … a whopping 20% discount if you try it out during October 2013.
Again, don’t take my word for it as it might be biased. However, I see no reason why you shouldn’t give it at least a try since you are given a guaranteed refund and a nice discount right?
So, what is the future that lies in Google and search engines algorithm?
The way I see it, Google is trying to make its search queries even easier to manage and control. This means that producing better search results for all of us.
And if you ask me, I dare to say Google Hummingbird have affected many sites. I noticed is that many micro niche and general blogs were hit pretty bad from this update even though I know some survived the impact.
Personally, I know a few niche bloggers who had huge drop in traffic from about a thousand visitors a day down to 250 or less.
Here’s my take on this. Google is trying to reduce the number of micro niche blogs showing up on search engine result pages and I totally understand it. Not just any micro niche blogs but those with low quality.
From Google’s perspective, it could mean that bloggers are trying to ‘influence’ the search engine rankings just to earn extra income. And trust me, it is rather easy to rank well on search engines as long as you are able to find low competition keywords.
Furthermore, how many micro niche blogging sites that are really that good in terms of quality? Most of them are living of affiliate sales or Google Adsense. So yes, go figure!
From the point of a blogger myself, running a micro niche blog doesn’t mean that we are doing any black hat SEO. We are just trying to rank well using low ranking keywords. Of course, we are sharing information that we might not know at all and practicing keyword stuffing which isn’t really right.
Well, I am not saying that all micro niche bloggers are bad as I know quite a number of bloggers who are really experienced and sharing specific niche blogs to help others.
It’s just that there are many other bloggers who are trying to replicate the same success with the hopes of earning more money online and indirectly, affecting the search results one way or another.
So, Hummingbird update could be a way to control the number of micro niche sites showing up on search engines. This means that Google want those niche blogs to rank well only if they have quality contents.
For me, that’s a very good deal indeed. Okay, I know this is going to spark a lot of controversial and thus, I am going to leave it as what it is right now.
Did I miss out anything?
Let’s face it guys. Google is continuing its journey where ‘Content is King’ and understanding user search intent is the end goal. It is all about improving the search engine results and I think it is doing very well indeed.
However, this had a great impact on bloggers and the latest update from Google really says it all. SEO is ever changing and the biggest question now is, “Are you (and your blog) up for the challenge?”
What do you think about this? Agree to disagree? Hit the reply button below and let’s discuss.
Since the last Google algorithm update, there are many rumors about link building and the white hat SEO strategies. I recently wrote about the importance of social engagement in contrast to SEO and it became a pretty hot topic. I believe the biggest question nowadays would be the important the the old school link building method.
Before we go any further, this is a snippet from Google Webmaster Tool:
Previously, Google said …
‘In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.’
And everything changes now with …
‘In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share.’
Does this really means the end of link building techniques in search engine optimization? Of course not!
This doesn’t prove that link building is no longer in use. In fact, this makes link building even richer and more valuable! And at the same time, this new Google algorithm makes link building … yes, you got it right … harder but definitely not impossible.
Important disclaimer: This article is more than 2,000 words and I dare you to do read it in just one go. If not, bookmark this page right now and come back anytime when you are ready!
What did we learn from the latest Google update?
Oh no! Another Google update?
Every time an update takes place, there are many things Google are showing us … or at least, hinting us. Here are some things that I had learned which are the number of backlinks, using the right link building techniques and even using the right search engine optimization methods. And the only way to learn this is by watching those videos posted by Matt Cutts and his team.
So let’s discuss on the proper link building strategies that work for search engines today.
1. Using the right SEO tools for link building
For those who really into SEO, it’s a very known fact that you probably need at least one SEO tool to help you with those ranking and link building tactics. Seriously.
I know many people who uses paid SEO tools like this one are having crazy time trying to create more quality backlinks to their articles. I would say, maybe they are having the time of their lives! 🙂
You might be thinking that, “Hey, take that you !@#$ paid SEO tools!”. Here’s the reality check. These SEO tools will actually … and still be rocking like any other days.
Yes! Let me repeat; link building isn’t dead but it just got tougher. That’s all.
For those who are using various link building tools, well, you just got to play smarter. You need to change the game plan but slowly.
Why? Google still loves quality backlinks and this doesn’t mean that you can’t get the best out of ‘virtual assistance’.
One thing for sure is that using SEO tools will not make you any safer from Google updates. You need to use SEO tools the right way and focus in your strategies. Always remember that misusing these SEO tools will actually destroy your traffic and your SEO ranking.
*p/s Looking at this article length, I’m going to write the so call ‘SEO game plan’ on another post.
2. Write articles for readers and not for bots
Optimize your website for your readers and not for search engines
Link building isn’t really link building only. For me, link building also means website marketing and communications. The more visibility people has on your website, the better chances you are going to create the ‘brand awareness’.
And with that (assuming you write great articles), people are going to share your articles even more!
More shares = More love from Google.
There ain’t any trick about link building and content sharing if you ask me. Write good stuffs, get your name out and let the people (readers) do the rest for you.
What you really need to learn about link building is you can’t get everyone to love your writing or even share your articles. Okay, remember that every visitor who comes to your site is a potential ‘buyer’.
Take the opportunity to get them spread the word for you and how you can possibly do that?
It really depends on how generous are you. For me, I do a win-win situation for my readers. I am using CommentLuv for WordPress and what this plugin does is simple. It allows users to share one of their links after they commented.
Wait! That isn’t all.
For those who share my articles on social media, they will automatically get a DoFollow link back. Sounds good right?
You see, blogging is all about giving and just not taking completely. I see absolutely no reason why one should be so secretive about backlink.
3. The relationship between backlink, social communities and tribes
Recently, I’m very active on several sites such as BizSugar and Triberr. I wasn’t actively sharing my links though. Instead, I was commenting and sharing other articles I felt useful.
The effect? One word: Tremendous.
As I had said about in #2, sharing is caring and there’s no better way than helping a fellow blogger to share their articles. Heard about karma or what goes around, comes around?
Whenever you share an article on social networks, you are creating a good chance for others to visit your website in return. And most of the time, they would probably return a favor by giving a shout (hey, that’s free publicity) for you.
Blogging isn’t everything about yourself. Instead, it is all about relationship building and sharing of information. Grow your audience indirectly by doing good to others.
So, stop being a link whore and start linking out to others!
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…
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Yes mate. Right now! Don’t worry, I’ll wait!
4. Link building is closely related to sitemap
You have written an excellent article and you published it. After one week or probably a month, you ain’t getting a hit and you are no closer in creating a viral article that drives hundreds of traffic to your website. So, what’s wrong?
Okay. Here’s the deal. You want to build good traffic, link building etc. You probably won’t go far if you are not focusing enough on SEO. One of the search engine optimizations best practices is to have a sitemap.
Google just won’t put you on first page of SERPs if Google is not aware of your existence. This is where sitemap plays a huge role in your website ranking.
So, yes. The first thing is to get your sitemap up immediately … (moments of silence) …
What’s a sitemap? Site what?
A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for Web design, or a Web page that lists the pages on a Web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. There are two popular versions of a site map. An XML Sitemap is a structured format that a user doesn’t need to see, but it tells the search engine about the pages in your site, their relative importance to each other, and how often they are updated. HTML sitemaps are designed for the user to help them find content on the page, and don’t need to include each and every subpage. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.
Makes any sense to you? Maybe this image from Google might help out.
Sitemap usually gives search engines a list of links that you have on your website
If you are using WordPress, you can probably use WordPress for SEO (which comes with Sitemap functions) or Google XML sitemap. You won’t wrong with any one of those.
Creating a sitemap is no hassle and you can do that within 5 minutes or less. Once you have your sitemap ready, head over to Google Webmaster Tool and Big Webmaster Tool to submit your sitemap.
5. Guest posting – The pros and cons in link building techniques
We can’t deny the importance of guest posting especially when you are looking for a quality backlink. Writing good guest post will certainly drive traffic to your website without fail but there’s something you need to know first!
Backlink building from guest posting is a double sided blade. Handle with care at all times.
Google and other search engines understand that many bloggers are actually trying to gain momentum and getting some quality backlinks from good page rank sites. When it comes to guest post, there isn’t any difference.
Don’t get me wrong. Guest posting is definitely worth it considering the quality of backlink. However, you do not want to over do it to avoid any penalty. The easiest methods which I see best fit for guest posting are:
Writing quality articles
Use maximum of three links per post
Taking advantage of the rel”nofollow”
Huh? Isn’t that rel=”nofollow” means zero backlink?
Yes indeed. This is my link building strategy. You don’t want search engines to consider your site as a link juice or link farm. Therefore, if the content in the link doesn’t provide quality information for your readers, it is better off with a no follow rule.
Do you understand why I say it as a double sided blade now?
6. The viral factor and link building under one roof
Go nuts … like Holmer!
Have you heard about viral video or viral content? So, what does the word, viral actually means?
For me, it means an action which is hit the world by storm … unintentionally. Here’s an example:
Years ago, a kid made a video to promote his band and uploaded it to MySpace. Sounds like, “duh” right?
The video was about a kid who ran around the garden smashing two Barbie dolls together, throwing tomato source all over the place and screaming the name of his band in a variation of pitches while his MySpace page flashed at the bottom of the screen.
And, guess what?
He received two million hits to his band’s MySpace … in just two days.
The kid didn’t do much … and probably took around 20 minutes trying to clean up the mess he did plus uploading the video.
Viral content, whether it be images, videos or quizzes – has the potential to drive massive amounts of traffic and generate a large amount of business leads or subscribers.
So, what the heck this has to do with link building?
Take the kid’s case study for an example. Do you think that out of the two million hits the kid got, how many people actually share the video or his band?
I call this … indirect link building since … it’s viral and we can’t really control it, could we? I totally understand that there is no possible way to actually create a perfect viral content.
Math lesson: Let’s say you manage (accidentally) create a viral content and it drives you tons of traffic. Do you know how much website traffic you are going to gain?
7. Old fashioned link building techniques. Are they dead?
I read so many articles about changing SEO techniques, so on and so forth. Question is, do you really need the traditional SEO building strategies now?
From what I see it, yes you need them and it is never advisable to ditch them. With all these Google Penguin and Google Panda, it is harder to score points with the old methods. But, each point you earned will worth even more than ever!
Fair deal for you?
We discussed about guest blogging, marketing techniques and SEO tool like this one above. Anyone of these could help you with SEO and this certainly doesn’t prove that ancient SEO methods won’t count anymore. Remember that most search engine optimization methods are based out of the trusted, ancient ‘recipe’.
Since so many algorithms are calculated based on page ranks and number of links, I bet you totally understand where this is heading.
Personally, I would advise you to start changing your game plan. Like me, my approach to SEO is way different than three years back. I even created SEO Blueprints library which consist of every SEO techniques I’m practicing right now.
8. Avoid the BIGGEST link building mistakes
Oh no! Holmer does it again!
For me, the biggest sin you can ever do when it comes to SEO is when you think you had done enough. The truth is … you aren’t able to to completely do SEO.
Why?!
Because SEO is a learning process and it has many implementation phrases. This means that what works today, might not work for tomorrow.
Now, tell me if you have ever (and I really mean e-v-e-r) thought of giving up.
Yes, you thought search engine optimization is too hard and you probably done everything you could. Yet, you’re ain’t seeing the results. People say you need to be patience and you waited for months and still, goddammit nothing happens!
Sounds familiar? Don’t be shy and admit it. It happens to you, to me and nearly every blogger out there. It felt like a never ending war right?
Now, this is the cold hard fact. SEO doesn’t happen overnight and certainly, there isn’t any proven methods for us to judge how far we had done or accomplished.
Giving up hope is definitely a no-no here. Content, article and website optimization are all, ever growing activities which will always keep you on your toes (and for some, might even make you stay awake at night).
Agree to disagree?
Back to you
Wow! This is a longest post (as of now) which I had written! So, how do you like it? If you had read this in just one shot, I’m going to give you my salute. No doubt on that.
As for the topic, these are the top 8 workable link building techniques that we all can practise to build authority and at the same time, traffic. I used these nearly every day and whenever I’m blogging.
What do you think? Tell me what you think and you can easily do it right below.
*If you like this article, could you please share this for me using the red Google+ button below?
As I had written about the effect of the latest Google update, building links pointing deep into your root directory will not only save you from any future Google updates but also provide healthy website authority in the eyes of search engines. This is deemed one of the best search engine optimization techniques post Google Penguin update.
Even this post on Famous Bloggers written by Adam highlighted the many ways to build some quality backlinks (and of course, one of the methods are below).
SEO Link Building? What?
I have a whole different perception when it comes to SEO link building. With today’s competition, building links the normal way is not enough if you want to compete with the big boy. I received this comment which I think it is rather interesting (and mind blowing).
Thank you Louis for the comment! It got me thinking the whole night!
Many people talk about SEO or search engine optimization. However, how many people actually practice the right search engine optimization techniques? I wrote several articles including the currently popular, Best SEO Tool For Website Optimization. I had stated (numerous times) that in the current world now, you need to think out of the box to do SEO.
*p/s Some of them would have links which you can easily click on and check on the articles or SEO tools which I recommend.
As you can see above, it only took 7 steps to properly optimized my website and it boosted my website in many ways (both traffic and SEO wise). This isn’t any BS talk as I have facts to show.
I know you love seeing images and photos instead of just wall of text right? I posted my results in my article, How Website Optimization Can Save You From Google Panda/Penguin Update?
Most of the above requires some reading but I am sure those will help you when it comes to doing SEO analysis or choosing the right SEO techniques for your website.
Today, let’s talk about SEO techniques #3 and #4 only. I could go for all but I am afraid you will consider this article as a bedtime story instead! Go figure!
Create SEO link building starting from your deep links outwards
Creating low quality backlink will increase the chances of being penalized by Google
The rule of thumb for SEO link building technique is to create links pointing back to articles and pages instead of the root domain.
When I talk about SEO link building, I am talking about deep, deep links. Google and other search engines loves deep link building.
This means that building link not pointing to your main website but to specific articles. The more you use this SEO technique, the better chance you are going to create good search engine optimization ranking for your website. Period!
Always remember that 10 quality backlinks worth more than 100 low quality backlinks.
It’s a no brainer that search engines love backlinks. Because of this, take the opportunity to build even better quality backlinks. Anyone can create quality backlinks and therefore, do you want to be normal or be able to stand out from the crowd?
Bet you want to stand out of the crowd right? Then start building backlinks using deep article link building technique. The deeper it is, the better chance it will rank!
If you are looking for free Google resources to help you with some search engine optimization, maybe this would help.
Less means more in smart SEO link building techniques
What do you understand about backlinks from this image? Make any sense to you?
What the hell am I talking about? Anchor text of course for Christ’s sake!
What is anchor text?
The anchor text, link label, link text, or link title is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. The words contained in the anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines – Wikipedia
Okay so anchor text is something search engines care for. Great! What’s next?
Using the right anchor text is another SEO link building technique. You want search engine to index your page or article and therefore, giving a good description is indeed, more than a great choice.
See below for the examples for good anchor text examples for ReginaldChan.net:
Using 6 different anchor texts for my website will ‘inform’ search engines that the site isn’t only about search engine optimization, but also consist of several different topics but are linked closely to the main topic (in this case, search engine optimization).
Make any sense?
Having more anchor words doesn’t confuse search engines IF you are using them correctly. Instead, it will provide deeper and better chances of optimizing your website in terms of keywords.
A great tip when it comes to anchor text is always make sure you are using the right words to describe your links. A badly written example could easily reduce SEO ‘points’ for your website.
So, what have you learned today about search engine optimization?
This Google Penguin update not only brought search engine optimization a whole new level, it also make many SEO tools look bad. Of course, a few great SEO tools like this one for content optimization still able to perform well due to quality and performance. Of course, you can find the full list of my favorite SEO tools by clicking here as well.
Are you building links correctly for your websites or blogs? Tell me if the last Google Update affected yours and how did you overcome that?
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