Summit Ghimire, Author at Outpace SEO | Page 3 of 6

Author: Summit Ghimire

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

Do you find yourself struggling to keep up with the latest content marketing strategies? It can be difficult to stay on top of all the new developments in an ever-changing industry. This blog post will help you create a strategy that is sure to work for your business. 

Determine who your customer is

First of all, you need to define your customer. Who are they? What do they want? Where can you find them online? How old are they? It is essential that the content created matches your audience’s interests and needs.

Figure out what kind of information your customers need

Once you know your audience and their interests, it’s time to figure out what type of information they need. This allows you to create a content marketing strategy that provides value instead of content designed around selling products or services. The types of information customers typically look for include: FAQs, industry analysis, expert opinions on topics related to the business sector in which they work.

Create a content calendar

To keep up with all the various tasks associated with creating effective blog posts, infographics, ebooks, etc., it is essential to have an organized system in place. A spreadsheet can help plan upcoming projects, so there are no delays due to lack of preparation!

Choose how you are going to say it

Once you have done the groundwork, it is time to actually create content. There are a few options for this step: bring in an expert from within your organization; hire a freelancer or agency to write on your behalf; outsource production of written works and visual aids to a company that specializes in such projects.

Establishing guidelines

When it comes to blogging, there are specific guidelines you should follow. A blog is different from other types of content because the tone must be conversational and informal! Each post should contain keywords related to your industry and backlinks to your site and social media profiles for increased SEO benefits. Make sure all images used have a proper alt-tag so search engines can “read” them properly.

Understand who will be responsible for creating the content

You might have a team dedicated full-time to producing new blog posts or articles on topics related to what your business does. If not, consider hiring someone part-time to help create relevant content at least once per month. Think outside of publishing too! Do you have employees with exciting stories about their experiences working in education or healthcare industries etc.? Why not interview them yourself and write up an article from their perspective? Someone on staff should also be able to answer questions from customers and post them online.

Determine how often you should publish new content

You will need to decide what schedule works for your business. If you have a team dedicated full-time to creating relevant content, then publishing more than once per week may be possible (and is recommended). However, if this isn’t the case, one blog post or article every month might work best for now. Make sure that it has been edited by someone on staff too! Don’t forget about social media, either! New posts can go live there once they are finished being written up, so make sure that you share the link on all your social media profiles. 

Be consistent with messaging

It’s also vital that everyone involved stays up-to-date with messages about topics related to what you create for customers. Make sure there aren’t any conflicting messages being shared across different content. You can even use social media to ask your followers what they think about specific topics and ideas related to your business while sharing links for them to click on to read more!

Customize the blog post or article

Make sure that you customize each piece of published content by adding information specifically tailored toward the customer reading it. Don’t forget to link out (or include hyperlinks within) any direct sources too! Include images if possible as well, but make sure they are relevant enough so readers will continue scrolling down through all of the text without getting bored quickly! Remember, not everyone has unlimited time online; keep this in mind when writing up posts. Most importantly? Always double-check grammar before publishing anything live online!

Ensure you measure results

Now that everything has been created don’t just let it sit there! You need to measure how effective different kinds of content marketing strategies are so that improvements can be made over time. This involves tracking page views, visits, leads generated (from blog posts), social media shares/engagements, etc. It may take some trial and error before determining what works best with regard to specific kinds of content.

Since different content marketing strategies are most effective for certain types of businesses, it’s essential to customize blog posts or articles by adding information specifically tailored to customers. Also, keep in mind that measuring results is vital, so improvements can be made over time!

Understanding How Search Engines Work: Crawling And Indexing Pages

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

When it comes to SEO, there is a lot of talk about “crawling” and “indexing pages.” But what does that mean? 

Here’s a simple explanation, crawling is the process by which search engines discover new content on the web. Indexing, on the other hand, is the process of adding new content to the search engine’s database. In other words, crawling is like going on a treasure hunt, while indexing is like adding treasure to your hoard. 

This blog post will take a more in-depth look at how search engines crawling and indexing pages works. By understanding how this process works, you can optimize your website for crawlers and improve your chances of ranking high in search results.

An elementary understanding of Search Engine

Search engines are programs that search the internet for websites that match the keywords entered into the search bar. Search engines work by indexing, or cataloging, all of the websites on the internet. When a user enters a keyword into the search bar, the search engine uses its index to find websites that contain that keyword. Search engines are essential for finding information on the internet. Without them, users would have to manually browse through every website to find what they were looking for. 

Did you know?

  • The most popular search engine, Google, handles over 3.5 billion daily searches.

Except for google, other popular search engines include Bing and Yahoo. Search engines are constantly evolving, with new features frequently added. For example, Google now has results from news articles and maps in its search results. As the internet continues to grow, so do the capabilities of search engines.

Main parts of Search Engine: Web crawler, Search Index, & Search Algorithm(s)

Search engines are one of the most commonly used tools on the internet, but how do they work? 

The main parts of a search engine are the web crawler, search index, and search algorithm. 

  • The web crawler explores new and updated websites and adds them to the search index. 
  • The search index is a database of all websites and pages the web crawler finds.
  •  The search algorithm then uses this index to match websites with user queries, considering factors like relevancy and popularity.

Extensively explaining, search engines maintain a database known as a search index containing billions of documents across the web. The search engine uses a complex algorithm to scour its index and return relevant results when you perform a search. 

The search algorithm considers factors like:

  • The location of the document’s search terms.
  • How many other websites link to that document? 

At their core, search engines rely on these three main components.

How does Search Engine Ranking work?

Search engine ranking is how search engines like Google order search results. It’s a complicated process. Google considers more than 200 factors to determine which websites to show on the first page of search results and which to deliver on later pages.  

Some of the factors that search engines look at when ranking websites include:

  • The quality and quantity of the site’s content, 
  • The number of other websites linking to it, and 
  • The speed and usability of the site. 

Search engine ranking is an important factor in determining how much traffic a website receives, and it can have a big impact on a business’s bottom line. That’s why many companies invest heavily in search engine optimization, or SEO, improving a website’s search engine ranking.  

Introduction to the functions of Search engines

A. URLs

The URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the starting point for all search engine queries. The URL is the first thing the search engine checks when you enter a question into a search engine. If the URL matches the query, the search engine will return results from that website. If not, the search engine will search other websites until it finds a match. The URL is thus essential for finding the right results in a search engine query. 

How does Google discover URLs?

Google uses a variety of methods to discover URLs. 

One common method:

When Google crawls the web, it follows links from one site to another.  As it does so, it discovers new URLs that it can add to its index. 

Google can also discover URLs:

  • By crawling XML sitemaps that website owners submit. 

These sitemaps help Google find pages that might not be easily discoverable through traditional link crawling. 

Note: Google also offers a URL submission tool that allows website owners to manually submit their URLs for inclusion in the search index. 

URL submission tool is often used for new websites or for pages that have been recently updated and still need to get indexed through other methods. 

By combining these different methods, Google can keep its search index up-to-date with all the latest URL discoveries.

B. Crawling

It all starts with spiders! 

When you enter a search query into a search engine, it scours its index of websites to find the best possible matches for your question. The search engine uses special software called web crawlers, or spiders, to crawl and index web pages.

Spiders start at a list of known good pages (typically provided by the search engine operator) and then visit each page. As they visit each page, they read the content and follow any links. They then add those new pages to their list of available pages, and the cycle continues. The more pages a spider crawls, the larger the search engine’s index. And the larger the search engine’s index, the more accurate its results will be when you search.

For example,

Google uses a crawler called Googlebot to crawl the web and index pages. When Googlebot visits a site, it reads the page’s HTML code to identify links on the page. It then follows those links to discover new pages. Once it has uncovered new pages, it adds them to its list of pages to crawl in the future. In this way, crawling is essential for search engines like Google to keep their results up-to-date.

Types of crawling

  1. Depth-first crawling
  2. Breadth-first crawling

Depth-first crawling explores a website by starting at the home page and then going down through the links to find new pages. This crawling finds new content quickly.

On the other hand, Breadth-first crawling starts at the home page and then goes out to explore all of the links before moving on to the next page. This type of crawling is often used for websites with many pages, ensuring that all pages get crawled eventually. 

There are also hybrid methods that combine both depth-first and breadth-first approaches. Ultimately, the best method depends on the specific website and what type of information is being sought.

Can crawlers find all the content?

  • Crawlers are the unsung heroes of the internet- they help search engines index content so that we can find the information we need. 

But can crawlers find everything? 

  • The answer is yes and no. 

Crawlers are very good at finding static content that is updated frequently. This static content includes things like the following:

  • Product pages, 
  • Blog posts, and 
  • Articles 

However, they need help finding dynamic content, such as user-generated content or comments. This difficulty happens because this dynamic content is often created or updated in real-time, making it harder for crawlers to keep up. As a result, search engines do not index some ranges. 

Additionally, crawlers can sometimes have difficulty accessing certain types of content, such as Flash or JavaScript. So, website owners need to take measures to ensure that crawlers can easily find and index their content. 

Note: Self-indexing can involve using Crawler Instructions, which guide how to find and index specific types of content. 

These steps help website owners ensure that their site’s content is properly indexed and crawled.

The crawling errors when accessing URLs

When you try to access a URL and receive an error, it’s often due to the following:

  • 4xx Codes
  • 5xx Codes

4xx codes are client-side errors, which means there’s something wrong with the request you’re sending.

Common 4xx codes include:

  •  404 (not found) and 
  • 400 (bad request). 

5xx codes are server-side errors, which means the problem is on the website’s end.

Common 5xx codes include:

  • 500 (internal server error) and 
  • 502 (bad gateway)

While 4xx and 5xx errors can be frustrating, there are ways to troubleshoot and fix them. 

Note: 4xx errors are usually due to incorrect URLs or syntax issues, while 5xx errors happen due to overloaded servers or database issues.

If you encounter a 4xx or 5xx error when trying to access a URL, 

  • Check the address for typos, and make sure you’re using the correct syntax. 
  • If that doesn’t work, contact the website’s owner or administrator to report the issue. They should help you resolve the error so you can access the content you’re trying to reach.

C. Indexing

Indexing is a crucial process for optimizing the performance of databases. By indexing data, DBMSs can more quickly locate and retrieve specific records. There are several different indexes, each with its strengths and weaknesses. 

The most common index type is:

  • B-tree index (which organizes data in a hierarchical tree structure)

The B-tree index efficiently retrieves records based on their key values. 

Another popular index type is:

  • The hash index (which uses a hashing algorithm to map key values to specific records)

Hash indexes are particularly well suited for performing equality comparisons. 

Finally, there is:

  • The bitmap index (encodes data as an array of bits)

Bitmap indexes are very space efficient and can efficiently answer range queries. You can create indexes on almost any data type, including numerical data, text data, and images. Indexes can be made on one or more columns in a table and can even be created on expressions that combine multiple columns. 

Database administrators can create indexes manually, or the DBMS can automatically generate them. You must carefully choose indexes to strike the right balance between performance and space usage. Too many indexes can result in excessive disk usage, while creating too few indexes can degrade performance. Indexes are a powerful tool for optimizing database performance, but you must use them judiciously to achieve the best results.

Search engine interpretation and restoration of pages

Indexing is the process that search engines use to interpret and store your pages. 

  • To do this, they first need to understand what your pages are about. This is done by looking at the content on your pages and any metadata you may have included.
  • Once they understand your pages well, they can start indexing them.
  • Indexing involves storing your pages in a database to easily retrieve them when someone searches for a relevant term. However, indexing can also store other information, such as the popularity of your pages or the number of inbound links. This information can help determine how to rank your pages in the search results.

As you can see, indexing is a vital part of how search engines work, and it is important to ensure that your pages are properly indexed to ensure that they are visible in the search results.

However, sometimes these algorithms can misinterpret a page, or a website can change and no longer be about the same topic. In these cases, it’s important to submit a request to the search engine to have the page re-indexed so that it can be accurately represented in search results. This process is called “restoration.” 

By restoring pages that have not properly been indexed or are no longer relevant, search engines can provide more accurate and helpful results to users. As a result, restoration is essential to maintaining a healthy website.

How to tell search engines to index your site faster?

1.  Check Your Site’s Indexing Status

Before you can tell search engines to index your site, you must check its current indexing status. You can do this using a tool like Google Search Console. Enter your website’s URL into the tool, and Google will show you which pages are currently indexed.

2.  Submit a Sitemap

If you want search engines to index all of the pages on your site, you need to submit a sitemap. A sitemap is a file that contains a list of all the URLs on your website. This sitemap makes it easy for search engines to find and index your content.

3.  Use robots.txt

Another way to tell search engines which pages on your site to index are by using the robots.txt file. This file contains instructions for how search engine bots should crawl and index your website.

4.  Add Structured Data Markup

Structured data markup is code added to your website’s HTML code that helps search engines understand the meaning of your content. This data can tell search engines what type of content is on each page, such as articles, products, or events. Adding structured data markup to your website can improve search engines’ chances of indexing it.

5.  Promote Your Content

Once you’ve ensured that search engines properly index your website, you need to promote your content so people will see it in the search results. The best way to do this is by creating high-quality content that people are likely to search for. You can also promote your content through social media and other online channels.

How to index your content faster?

1. Use sitemaps

A sitemap is an XML file that contains a list of all the URLs on your website. By submitting a sitemap to the major search engines (Google, Bing, etc.), you’re giving them a road map of your site so they can easily find and index all your content. There are two types of sitemaps: XML and HTML sitemaps. XML sitemaps are meant for search engines, while HTML sitemaps are for human visitors to your site. Generally speaking, you should submit both sitemaps to the major search engines. That way, they can find and index all your content as quickly as possible.

2. Optimize your robots.txt file

Your robots.txt file is a text file that contains instructions for the search engine bots that visit your site. You can use it to tell the bots which areas of your site you do or don’t want them to crawl and index. 

For example, if you have pages on your site that are still under construction and not ready for public consumption, you would add those URLs to your robots.txt file so the bots wouldn’t try to index them (and they would eventually get an error message). 

You can also use wildcard characters in your robots.txt file, so you don’t have to list out each URL you want to block individually; block all URLs that match a certain pattern. 

3. Submit individual URLs directly to the search engines 

If you have new content on your site that you want to be indexed right away, one of the best things you can do is submit those URLs directly to the major search engines using their respective webmaster tools platforms: Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Once you submit a URL, you will add it to the queue of pages waiting to get crawled and indexed; generally speaking, it will be picked up and indexed within a day or two (sometimes even faster). 

4. Diversity is Key

One common mistake people make when trying to improve their SERP ranking is keyword stuffing—adding too many keywords into their content to game the system. However, this is unnecessary and will hurt your chances of being ranked well by the search engines because it creates a bad user experience (UX). Instead of stuffing keywords into every nook and cranny of your site, focus on ensuring each page has high-quality, keyword-rich content relevant to what people are searching for. In other words, focus on quality over quantity—the opposite of what most people think they need to do! 

Focus on making sure each page has high-quality, keyword-rich content that’s relevant.

5. Include images & videos 

In addition to text-based content, another great way to improve your SERP ranking is by including images and videos on your website wherever possible—especially if those images and videos get optimized with keywords! Not only will this help improve your ranking, but it will also help keep visitors engaged with your site longer (which is always a good thing). 

Indexing vs. Rendering

The two important steps in search engine optimization (SEO) are: 

Indexing: Adding web pages to a search engine’s database. This addition enables the pages to be found and displayed in search results. 

Rendering: The process of generating HTML code for a web page. This code displays the page in a web browser. 

Indexing is generally performed by bots or crawlers, while browsers perform rendering. Both processes are important for SEO, as they determine what content a search engine can find and how it will get displayed in search results to users. Google indexes first, followed by rendering, allowing the search engine to show users the most up-to-date web page version. 

How do searchers interact with your site from search results?

When someone enters a query into a search engine, it scours its indexed pages to find the most relevant results. A complex algorithm determines the order in which these results get displayed. The search engine considers dozens of factors, such as: 

  • The quality of the content, 
  • The popularity of the site, and 
  • The user’s previous search history. 

However, even the most well-optimized site will not get many clicks if its listing isn’t eye-catching and informative. This is why it’s important to understand how searchers interact with your site from the search results page.

Types of searchers

There are different types of searchers, each using another method to find the information they are looking for.

Searcher #1: Navigational

One type of searcher is the navigational searcher. These users already have a specific website in mind that they want to visit. They use the search engine to find the correct URL. For example, if you wanted to visit Amazon, you might type “amazon.com” into the search bar.

Searcher #2: Informational

Another type of searcher is the informational searcher. These users are looking for specific information but need to have a particular website in mind. They use the search engine to find the best source of information for their needs. For example, if you wanted to learn about the history of pandas, you might type “panda history” into the search bar.

Searcher #3: Transactional

The last type of searcher is the transactional searcher. These users are looking to buy something online. They use the search engine to find websites where they can purchase. For example, if you want to buy a new pair of shoes, you might type “shoes” in the search bar.

Types of Queries

a. Keyword query

The most common search engine query type is a keyword query, which consists of one or more keywords that the user enters into the search engine.

b. Boolean query

Search engines rely on algorithms that match the keywords to relevant websites to interpret keyword queries. Another type of query is a Boolean query, which uses operators such as “AND” and “OR” to combine multiple keywords. Experienced users search these queries to narrow their search results. 

c. Natural language query

Finally, some users may enter a natural language query, a sentence or phrase describing what the user is looking for. Natural language queries are typically processed using artificial intelligence techniques. 

By understanding how different types of searchers interact with search engines, businesses can design their websites and content in a way that is more likely to be found by potential customers.

Relationship of queries and SERP Features

Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) feature snippets directly result from users’ search queries. The snippets are generated algorithmically by matching the user’s query with the content on web pages. 

The relationship between queries and SERP features is important for anyone who wants to optimize their website for search engine ranking. 

Note: When a user enters a query, the search engine looks at the SERP features to determine what information to return. 

The SERP features have two categories: 

  • Organic 
  • Paid

Organic SERP features are unpaid results displayed based on relevance to the user’s query. 

Paid SERP features are the results that are displayed because the website has paid for them to Google to show. The goal of SEO is to rank high in the organic results, as this will result in more traffic to the website. 

Did you know?
  • Google uses an artificial intelligence system that ranks 
websites based on user engagement called RankBrain.

Several factors determine how well a website will rank for a particular query. Still, one of the most important is the relationship between the question and the SERP features. If a website can optimize its content and structure to align with the SERP features, it will likely see an increase in its search engine ranking.

This way, a searcher types the query and gets its required information through search engines.

[Bonus] How does Google adjust SERP order in response to searcher engagement?

Google is constantly tinkering with its search algorithms to provide the best possible user experience. 

  • A major factor in determining the order of results on a given search engine results page (SERP) is engagement. 

One of the most important factors that Google takes into account when ordering results is the–

  • Clicked-through rate (CTR). 

CTR measures how often searchers click on a particular result when it appears on the SERP. It stands to reason that Google would prefer those results that get clicks more often, as they are more relevant and useful to searchers. 

In addition to CTR, Google also looks at other engagement metrics, such as–

  • Dwell time 
  • Pogo-sticking

Dwell time is what a searcher spends on a particular website after clicking through from the SERP. 

Pogo-sticking refers to clicking back to the SERP after quickly realizing that the clicked-through result is irrelevant. Again, it makes sense that Google would prefer those results that keep searchers engaged once they click through. 

By taking into account a variety of engagement metrics, Google can deliver more relevant and useful results to its users.

However, engagement happens due to several factors, such as:

  • The relevance of the result to the user’s query
  • The title and description of the result
  • The overall reputation of the website. 

Google considers all of these factors when determining SERP order, and it is constantly tweaking its algorithms to provide the most relevant and engaging results for users. 

As a result, businesses that want to ensure their website appears prominently on SERPs must focus on creating relevant and engaging content for users.

About Outpace

Outpace is an SEO agency with calculated strategies, strengthening businesses with long-term vision. We are a team of computer scientists and business minds with an average experience of 10+ years. We leverage our understanding of search engine algorithms and your business objectives to focus on the metrics that matter the most. Our custom approach creates effective data-driven SEO strategies for businesses and helps deliver outstanding ROI at turbo speed.

Generating results across the US for over 10 years

  • Ranked #1 among 142 SEO companies in Oklahoma
  • Current clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies
  • Providing business growth insights to executives across Forbes & Entrepreneur

Connect with us and get your first SEO consultation FREE!

 

Guide To Choosing Keyword Optimized Topics For Your Blog

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

Keywords are people’s words or phrases when searching for something online. Similarly, keyword optimization is the process of improving the ranking of a website or web page on search engines. The higher the ranking, the more likely people find the site. When you strategically select keywords relevant to your blog post topic and include them in your content, you’re more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), meaning more people will see your content. You’ve been told repeatedly that keyword research is essential to the success of your blog posts. But how do you choose keyword optimized topics for blog posts? 

Did you know?

  • Google rewards well-researched sites that provide high-quality content by ranking them higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Here is Outpace’s quick guide to help you select the perfect topics for your next batch of blog posts, ensuring they are keyword-optimized and search-engine friendly.

What are keyword-optimized topics?

Keyword-optimized topics are specifically chosen to target certain keywords or key phrases. When creating content around these topics, the goal is to:

  •  Use those keywords as often as possible without sounding unnatural. 

Keyword-optimized topic improves the site’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) and draws in more organic traffic. By incorporating the right keywords into your content, you can make it more visible and relevant to potential customers searching for related terms.

You can use specific keywords on the following:

  • Throughout the blog
  • Title 
  • Metadata

Note: Including keywords in a topic’s title and header further improves the blog’s visibility and ranking.

Importance of keyword-optimized topics for your blog posts

The importance of keyword-optimized topics for your blog posts cannot be overemphasized. When creating a post, you want to ensure that you are targeting a particular keyword or phrase. 

a. Content discovery

One reason keyword optimization is important for blog posts is that it helps to ensure that the right people are finding your content. Using the right keywords can attract readers interested in what you say and help them find your content more easily.

Note: You can do keyword research to determine which keywords are being searched for the most and focus your content around those keywords.

b. Increases rankings in SERPs & improves blog visibility

Topic-based optimized keywords are a great way to improve your blog’s visibility in SERPs. When you target a broader topic, you’ll rank for more long-tail keywords, which means you’ll get more traffic from people searching for specific information. And since people are more likely to click on links near the top of the SERPs, ranking high for relevant topics can help improve your blog’s visibility and attract more readers.

Note: When you target specific keywords with your content, you make it easier for Google to understand your blog.

c. Improves click-through rates

Keyword-optimized blog topics can improve the click-through rate (CTR). CTR is the percentage of people who click on a link in a SERP after seeing it. Keyword-optimized topics can help improve click-through rates because they are more likely to appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). This increment of appearance in SERP means that people looking for information on a particular topic will be more likely to see your content near the top of the results. This result can lead to more people clicking through to your content, improving overall traffic and engagement.

Note: A high CTR means more people are interested in what you offer and are more likely to visit your website. 

d. Evergreen content generation

To focus on keyword-optimized topics means creating evergreen content on your website. By understanding what keywords people are searching for, you can create relevant and interesting content for your target audience. Not only will this help you improve your rankings, but it will also help you generate leads and attract new customers.

Note: When people search for specific topics, Google wants to give them the best possible results. By making your content around these keyword-optimized topics, you are telling Google that your content is one of the best possible resources.

e. Generating valuable backlinks

The content around specific optimized keywords can help increase rankings on search engines, leading to an influx of valuable backlinks. Using keyword research to determine the best topics to target, you can create content that is both valuable to your audience and attractive to other publishers. 

Note: When other websites link to your content, they essentially endorse it as a valuable resource – helping to improve your SEO ranking.

The relationship between popular keywords & SEO rank

The relationship between popular keywords and SEO rank is complex. Generally, the more popular a keyword is, the higher it will rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). However, there are several factors that can affect a keyword’s ranking, including as follows:

  •  Its competitiveness 
  • The relevance of the content on a website

The relationship between popular keywords and SEO rank is that: 

Popular keyword  = High rank in search engine results pages (SERPs)

Note: Search engines use algorithms to rank websites based on their relevance to a user’s query. 

It is important to note that writing blogs with optimized popular keywords can help improve a website’s SEO rank, but it is not the only factor that matters. A website must also have high-quality content relevant to its target keywords to rank high in SERPs. However, many other factors also play a role in SEO ranking, such as the following:

  • Website authority 
  • On-page optimization
  • Backlinks
  • User experience

SEO rules: Choosing and placing the right keywords

When it comes to SEO, keywords are essential. You need to choose the right ones and place them in the right places to help your content rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Rule 1: Strategic keyword placement

When choosing keywords, you want to consider where they will impact your audience the most. Generally, you’ll want to place them in the title tag and the meta description. You should also use them in image titles and file names. You should use your keywords in the first few sentences of your content or your blog’s body text.

All in all, the most important place to include keywords is in the title of your content. Google will use this to determine your content, so it’s important to use your target keyword(s) here. 

Note: You should avoid overusing keywords, as this can lead to a penalty from Google.

Rule 2: Repetition of keyword

A good rule of thumb is to use your target keyword(s) 3-5 times throughout your content. 3-5 instances of your target keyword throughout your content is generally enough, although you may want to use more if your keyword is particularly competitive. 

Note: Cramming your content with keywords will negatively affect you, so focus on quality and relevance over quantity.

For example,

Suppose you’re a wedding photographer. In that case, you might want to use your target keyword phrase “wedding photography” throughout your website’s text, especially in the following places:

  • The title of your website or blog
  • The headline of each page
  • In the first sentence of each paragraph
  • In the keywords meta tag
  • In the alt attribute of images on your website
  • As the filename for each PDF or document on your website

Rule 3: Do keyword research and use it in relevant topics and audience 

Choose keywords that are relevant to your topic and audience. You can do keyword research for this. Think of it as a way to understand your audience and what they are looking for online.

Doing keyword research is important for a few reasons:

  • First, it can help you determine what topics to write about and which audiences to target. 
  • Second, it can help you understand what people are searching for online so you can create content that better meets their needs. 
  • Finally, it can help you track your performance over time to see if your content is resonating with people and helping you achieve your desired results.

By understanding the keywords that people are using to find information on your topic, you can better target your content and make sure it addresses the needs of your audience. 

Note: Relevant keywords with perfect keyword research can help you identify potential advertising opportunities. You can target your ads to those most likely interested in what you have to offer.

Rule 4: Variation in keyword format

 Use a variety of keyword formats, including single words, phrases, and long-tail keywords.

Keyword formats can vary in length, from a single word to a longer phrase. They can also be tailored to fit the specific needs of your content. Some common formats include:

  • Single words: The simplest type of keyword can target a specific term or phrase. For example, if you’re writing about cats, you might use the keyword “cats” to help people find your content.
  • Phrases: They are longer keywords targeting specific topics or concepts. For example, “cat breeds” could target information about different types of cats.
  • Long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are more specific than general terms. They’re often used when you want to target a specific audience or when you want to rank for a particular search term. For example, “How to train your cat, not to scratch furniture” is a long-tail keyword that could be used to find information on training cats not to scratch furniture.

Note: Long-tail keywords, in particular, can be very effective at targeting niche audiences already interested in your offer. 

Keyword formats can help improve your SEO in a few ways:

  • First, multiple keyword formats can help you capture more traffic from different search engines.
  • Additionally, keyword phrases can help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) since those phrases are more specific and therefore considered more relevant by the search engines. 
  • Finally, using a variety of keyword formats can help you create content that is more engaging and relevant to your audience.

List of keyword research tools to choose the right keyword

There are various keyword research tools that will help you get started with your SEO efforts. The most popular ones include Google AdWords Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Ubersuggest, and word tracker.

Keyword Research Tool

  

        Type                                    

Description

Google AdWords Keyword Planner

Free

Offered by Google, that allows you to find keywords related to your business. You can enter a keyword or phrase, and the tool will provide a list of related keywords, along with monthly search volume and competition data.

SEMrush

 Paid

Provides detailed keyword data, including search volume, competition, and CPC data. You can also use SEMrush to find competitor keywords and spy on their website traffic.

Moz’s Keyword Explorer

Paid

 The MozBar Chrome extension provides useful information about a website’s SEO, including the number of backlinks and MozRank.

Ubersuggest

Paid

 Generates a list of potential keywords based on a particular topic or keyword.
Wordtracker

Paid

 Provides keyword data, including search volume and competition levels. You can also use Wordtracker to find long-tail keywords for your business.

Guide to selecting keyword-optimized topics for your blog posts

As mentioned before, the most important factor in determining the success of your blog is the topics you choose to write about. If you focus on keywords relevant to your niche, you’ll be more likely to attract readers interested in what you have to say. 

Steps to use keyword-optimized topics to craft posts:

Step 1: Have a keyword list

The first step is to find a keyword list. One way to find keywords is to think about what you want your content to rank for. 

  • What are you trying to sell or promote? 
  • What are people likely to type into a search engine when looking for information related to your offer?

You can use Google’s Keyword Planner, semrush.com, or ahrefs.com. 

Note: You can also brainstorm keywords by thinking about what people might type into a search engine when looking for your business information.

Once you have your keyword list, you must develop a post topic. Choose a keyword from your list and come up with a topic that is relevant to that keyword.

Step 2: Figure out keyword opportunities

One way to find keyword opportunities is to analyze your competitors. See what keywords they are targeting and try to find keywords you are not currently targeting that have a high search volume. 

Note: You can also use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to find keywords with a high average monthly search volume and low competition.

Step 3: Look at the search volume and difficulty

When looking at search volume and difficulty, it’s important to consider what the numbers mean. Search volume measures how often a particular keyword is being searched for. The difficulty, however, measures how competitive that keyword is.

The higher the search volume and the lower the difficulty, the easier it will be to rank well for that keyword. The lower the search volume and the difficulty, the harder it will be to rank well for that keyword. It is because competition for high-traffic keywords is fierce, while competition for low-traffic keywords is relatively low.

Step 4: Brainstorm blog topics around that keyword(s)

When brainstorming blog topics around a keyword, it can be helpful to develop a list of potential angles to explore. 

For example, 

If you’re brainstorming blog topics around the keyword “travel,” you might come up with ideas like as follows:

  • How to save money on travel
  • The best budget-friendly destinations for travel
  • Tips for packing for a trip
  • How to stay healthy while traveling
  • The best apps and websites for booking travel

Note: You can either fill the context gap with your blogs or create a unique topic to write on.

Step 5: Create a catchy headline

Start by thinking about what your article is about. Try to come up with a few potential headlines that summarize your article. Then, choose the best one and make it catchy!

You can do a few things to ensure your headline stands out and catches people’s attention. 

  • First, try to make it as short as possible. 
  • You also want to use strong, action-oriented verbs and ensure your headline is relevant to the content of your article. 
  • Finally, be sure to test different headlines to see which one performs the best.

Note: One way to do this is to use strong verbs and adjectives and interesting facts or statistics. You can also try using a question or a provocative statement in your headline.

Step 6: Write high-quality content designed for link building

The goal of high-quality content is to provide value to the reader. This means that you should focus on writing well-researched, informative articles that are interesting and engaging to read. In addition to providing value to the reader, high-quality content also helps with link-building. You can help improve your website’s SEO and increase its visibility online by including links to authoritative sources and other relevant content.

Steps to make blogs engaging & SEO-friendly with keyword-optimized topics:

Step 1: Find and use one main keyword for each blog

When you start a blog, it is important to find the main keyword to focus your efforts on. This will help you to create content that is relevant to your target audience and that will rank well in search engine results pages. 

To find a good main keyword, you should consider

  • What your blog is about, 
  • Who your target audience is, and 
  • What keywords they would likely be searching for?

 You can then use one of these keywords as the focus of your blog content.

You should also make sure to use your main keyword throughout your blog, including in the title, the body of the content, and the keywords section of your blog’s settings. Doing this will help to improve your blog’s SEO and will help you to attract more readers.

Step 2: Use exact keywords in the title & title tag

When it comes to using keywords in your title, you want to be as specific as possible. Generic keywords like “running” or “fitness” are going to be much more difficult to rank for than more specific phrases like “how to start running” or “5 easy tips for getting fit.”

The same principle applies to title tags. Rather than using a general keyword like “fitness,” try targeting a specific phrase like “cardio workouts for beginners.” This will help you rank higher in search engine results pages and attract more qualified traffic to your website.

Step 3: Use the chosen keyword in the introduction, conclusion, and subheadings (H1, H2, H3)

The keyword should be used at the beginning of the introduction, preferably as the first sentence. It should be introduced and explained in a way that provides context for the rest of the paper.

The keyword should also be used at the end of the conclusion, preferably as the last sentence. It should be summarized and explained in a way that provides context for the rest of the paper.

E.g.,

The keyword “online marketing” can be used in the introduction, conclusion, and subheadings (H1, H2, H3) of a content piece to explain its purpose. In the introduction, it can be used to introduce the reader to the topic of online marketing. In conclusion, it can be used to recap the article’s main points. And in the subheadings (H1, H2, H3) can be used to break down the content into specific topics further.

Step 4: Write a unique meta description for each blog

When you write a blog, it’s important to include a unique meta description that will entice people to click through. This description should accurately represent the content of your blog post and make readers want to learn more. 

By writing a custom meta description for each post, you can ensure that your readers will see the most relevant information before deciding whether or not to read your blog.

Step 5: Use internal links between posts

Internal links are important for a few reasons. 

  • First, they help search engines understand your site better. When you link to another post on your site, you’re telling the search engine that the two posts are related. This can help your site rank higher in search results.
  • Second, internal links help keep people on your site. If someone reads one of your posts and then likes what they see, they may want to read more. By linking to other posts on your site, you make it easy for them to do that.
  • Finally, internal links can help you improve your SEO. When you link to a post on your site, you’re telling Google that the post is important. This can help your post rank higher in search results.

Step 6: Put the chosen keyword in the HTML title

The keyword should be included in the HTML title to help with search engine optimization (SEO). Including the keyword in the title will help ensure that the page is returned in search engine results pages (SERPs) for queries containing that keyword. 

Adding the keyword to the HTML title can help improve the site’s ranking for that term. This is because the title is one of the factors that Google uses to determine the site’s relevance to a search query.

Step 7: Customize the URLs for each blog post

When you write a blog post, you want to give it a unique and easily identifiable URL. This way, when people want to share your post, they can do so easily, and you’ll also be able to track how often your post is being shared.

  • To set a custom URL for your blog post, add /?p= followed by the name of your post. So, for example, if your blog post is called “My Awesome Post,” You could set the custom URL as http://mysite.com/?p=my-awesome-post.
  • You can also set a custom URL for your blog’s home page. To do this, add / instead of ?p=. For example, http://mysite.com/.

Further, the URLs for blog posts can be customized in various ways, depending on what is needed. 

For example,

If a post is part of a series, the URL can be customized to include the post’s number in the series. This can be helpful for users who want to keep track of the posts in a series. Additionally, customized URLs can be used to make it easier for users to find specific posts. This can be done by including keywords or topics in the URL.

Step 8: Set up an SEO plugin & monitor SEO with the search console

Google’s search console is a great way to keep track of your website’s SEO. It shows you how your website performs in Google searches, what keywords you rank for, and how your website’s pages perform.

  • To set up the search console, you first need to create a Google account if you don’t already have one. Then, go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ and click “Add a site.” Enter your website’s URL and click “Submit.”
  • The next step is to verify your website. There are two ways to do this: by adding a meta tag to your website’s header or uploading an HTML file to your website’s root directory. For detailed instructions on how to do this, go to: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6073543?hl=en&ref_topic=3576922
  • Once you’ve verified your website, the search console will show you all of the data for your website. You can then use this data to improve your website’s SEO.

SEO plugin

WordPress has a variety of plugins that can help with SEO. One such plugin is Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO helps you to set up your site for optimal search engine performance. It also monitors your site’s SEO with the search console, so you can see how well you are doing and make necessary changes.

Monitoring SEO with the search console

A search console is a free tool from Google that allows you to track your site’s SEO performance. You can see how your site is doing in terms of organic search traffic, impressions, clicks, and ranking. You can also see which keywords drive traffic to your site and which pages perform best. This information can help optimize your site for better search engine visibility.

How relevant are keyword-optimized blog topics for ranking higher in SERPs today?

Keyword optimization is still a valuable tool for SERP ranking. However, recent updates to Google’s algorithm have placed more emphasis on engaging content that provides value to the user. This update means that a blog topic relevant to your target audience and provides useful information is more likely to rank higher than optimized for keywords.

A Beginner’s Strategies For Link Building SEO

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

One of the most important aspects of SEO is strategies for link-building. Link building is acquiring links from other websites to your own. When link-building works, it’s about getting high-quality links from authoritative websites, which means that the website you’re getting the link from is trusted by Google and has a high Domain Authority (DA). Links are important for SEO because they act as a “vote of confidence” from one site to another. Besides, the increased backlinks will increase the website’s rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Did You Know?

  • Backlinks are among search engines’ top three ranking factors.

Overall, link-building/backlinks help search engines understand the following:

  • What is your page about?
  • How popular is your page?

Link building can be complex and time-consuming, but it’s worth it—high-quality backlinks will help improve your website’s visibility and organic traffic. This article will give you Outpace‘s beginner’s guide to link building for SEO. We’ll cover everything from how to build a successful link-building strategy for your SEO campaign to how to acquire them.

What is successful link-building?

Successful link building is all about creating valuable links to your audience. It would help if you focused on creating links that are:

  • Interesting 
  • Relevant 
  • Helpful to your readers 

When you do this, you will naturally earn the trust and respect of your audience, and they will be more likely to link to your content. Successful link-building strategies for your SEO campaign are essential to your website’s success. Without links, your website will not rank as high as you would like in the search engines, and you may not be able to generate as much traffic as you would like. To build successful link-building strategies, you must first understand how links work and what factors influence their value.

Understanding key differences: Link-building vs. Link-earning

Link-building: The process of acquiring links to a website from other websites. 

Link earning: The process of acquiring links from other websites naturally, without using any manipulation or deception.

The goal of link-building: To increase a website’s visibility and improve its search engine rankings. 

The goal of link earning: To create content and marketing initiatives that are so compelling that other websites will want to link to them naturally. 

Links are important for two reasons: 

  1. They help crawlers index new pages on a website, and 
  2. They are a ranking factor contributing to a website’s search engine ranking.

Note: Links from high-quality websites are valuable for the same abovementioned reasons. 

Starting steps: Structure of link-building SEO campaigns

Step 1: Identifying goals and targeting the audience

The first step in successful SEO link-building is identifying your goals and target audience. Once you know who you’re trying to reach, you can develop a content strategy that will appeal to them and help you achieve your desired results. 

Note: This content should be relevant to your niche and provide value to your readers. You should also ensure that your site is well-optimized for search engines, so you can get the most exposure for your content and improve your SEO rankings.

Step 2: Compiling a list of potential link-building targets

Next, you’ll need to compile a list of potential link-building targets. These targets could include websites related to your industry or those considered high-quality and authoritative. You can use various online tools and resources to research potential link partners, including Google’s Search Console and MajesticSEO.

Note: To compile a list of potential link-building targets, you could start by researching websites related to your industry. Start with industry publications, trade organizations, and other websites considered high-quality and authoritative.

Step 3: Building relationships with your target

Once you have a list of targets, it’s time to start building relationships with them which you can do through email outreach, social media, or other online channels. The best way to grow relationships with your targets is to personalize your messages as much as possible. Make it clear how partnering with you will benefit them. 

For example, 

If you’re a company that sells software, you might emphasize how your product can help them save time or increase their profits. Be sure to follow up regularly. If you can make a powerful case for why these targets should work with you, you’ll be well on winning their business. 

Note: You should also clarify your interest in a long-term relationship, not just a one-time deal. Stay in touch with them even if they don’t initially become partners.

Step 4: Tracking progress and monitoring results

Finally, monitoring your progress and your results over time is important. Use analytics tools such as Google Analytics or Moz Pro to track your website’s search engine rankings and organic traffic levels. These tools will help you to track your website’s progress over time and determine whether or not your link-building tactics are effective. 

Note: If your website’s rankings or traffic levels start to decline, you can use these tools to identify the decline’s sources and adjust your link-building strategy.

Type of links you need for an SEO campaign

a. Request links

A request link is a URL to request specific content from a web server. 

For example, 

A request link for a page on a website might be “www.absolutesummit.com/page.html,” while a request link for an image might be “www.absolutesummit.com/image.jpg.”

Request links are important in link-building because:

  • They allow you to tap into a pre-existing relationship that the other site has with its audience. 

When you request a link from another site, you ask them to vouch for you by adding a link to your site on their page. It allows you to piggyback off the trust and credibility the other site has built up with its audience.

b. Manually-add links

A manually-add link is a process of adding links to a web page by manually inputting the link’s text and destination URL. It often happens when the site owner wants more control over the links on their page. Or when the site owner wants to include links not automatically generated by a content management system.

You can manually add links to a page by clicking the “Add a link” button in the editor toolbar. A dialog will appear where you can enter the URL of the page you want to link to. Also, the text you want to use as the link. 

  • First, find the website you would like to include in your document. 
  • Copy the website URL and paste it into the insert link function. 
  • Click the “OK” button, and the system will insert your link into your document.

c. Earn links

Earn link is a way for people to make money by referring others to a service or product. When someone signs up for a service or product through a referral link, the person who referred them gets a commission. 

  • It helps you get more shares and links to your content by identifying and targeting influencers who will likely share it.

Strategies for successfully building link-building  for an SEO campaign

Common link-building strategies:

a. Creation of high-quality linkable assets

Some assets are more linkable than others. This difference can be due to several factors: 

  • Quality of the asset. 
  • How well it resonates with the target audience. 

When creating an asset, it is important to focus on quality and resonance to create something people want to engage with. High-quality linkable assets are those that are both high-quality and likable. They are often useful, helpful, or entertaining, and people enjoy using them. Such assets can help to build a strong brand and encourage customer loyalty. Creating high-quality linkable assets can help increase the success of an SEO campaign by the following:

  •  Providing a strong foundation for link-building strategies. 
  • Encouraging other websites to link to them will help to improve your site’s search engine rankings. 

Note: The increased visibility and exposure that comes with being linked to other high-quality websites helps to boost traffic and engagement levels on your website.

b. Utilization of broken link building

Broken link-building is about finding broken links on a website and suggesting replacements to the webmaster. You can do this manually or through a variety of tools. By providing valid links to the webmaster, you can help improve the website’s navigation and also provide value to your website.

Broken link-building is a successful link-building strategy for your SEO campaign for several reasons. 

  • First, it is a great way to find potential links from high-quality websites. 

When you find a broken link on a website, you can contact the web admin and offer your resource as a replacement. It not only helps you build links, but it also helps you create relationships with other website owners. 

  • Additionally, broken link building is a perfect way to improve your website’s SEO ranking. 

By replacing broken links with links to your website, you are helping to improve the overall quality of the web page. This improvement can lead to higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) and more traffic to your website.

To utilize broken link building, start with the following:

  • Find websites already linking to broken URLs. 

Note: You can do this using Ahrefs or Open Site Explorer. 

  • Once you have identified a few potential link partners, reach out to them and let them know about the broken links on their websites. Politely suggest that they replace the broken links with links to your content. 

Note: Many website owners will be happy to do this because it helps them improve their website’s SEO.

c. Restoration of lost backlinks

When a website loses links, it cannot be easy to regain the same level of authority and ranking that you once enjoyed. However, using various techniques such as email outreach and link building, it is possible to slowly but surely restore lost backlinks.

The process of restoring lost backlinks can get done through various methods. Such as:

  • Do this through the use of link recovery tools. 

These tools can help to identify and then restore any lost backlinks. You can also use these tools to improve your overall link profile.

  • Or through search engine optimization (SEO). 

By improving your website’s SEO, you can make it more likely that your website will rank higher in SERPs. This SEO score will lead to more people visiting your website. 

Additionally, you can contact the websites that used to link to your website and ask them to restore the link. They may be willing to do so if they are still interested in your website.

d. Creation of content-based link-building

The purpose of content-based link-building is to create links to your website from other websites using content that you have made. 

This content can be the following:

  • Articles
  • Blog posts
  • Infographics (or any other type of content) 

By creating high-quality content and publishing it on other websites, you can make links that will help improve your website’s SEO.

There are several reasons why creating content-based link-building can be a successful strategy for an SEO campaign. 

  • First, you can attract links from other websites by creating high-quality content relevant to your target audience. 

Note: This content not only helps to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) but also helps to build your brand’s reputation as an authority in your industry. 

  • Additionally, regularly publishing fresh content can help keep your website’s visitors engaged and regularly returning, improving your website’s SEO rankings.

To improve its visibility and ranking, you can do this:

  •  Reach out to other websites and blogs with similar content and ask them to link to your article or blog post. 

Note: You can also use tools like BuzzSumo or Google Alerts to find relevant websites and blogs that might be interested in linking to your content.

Exclusive link-building strategies:

a. Participating in strategic guest posting & contributor-ship

Guest posting and contributorship are great options for building links because they allow you to get your content in front of a new mass. 

  • You can also include a link to your web page or blog in your author bio when contributing to a publication. 

Note: This contribution is a great way to get your site’s exposure and build links that can help improve your SEO ranking.

When you contribute content to other websites, you provide high-quality content that their readers will appreciate. In turn, they will likely feature your article on their website, which will help to drive traffic to your website and improve your SEO ranking. 

Note: By including links to any website in your article, you are helping to build backlinks to your site.

To participate in strategic guest posting and contributorship,

  • Start by finding blogs and websites that fit your content well. 
  • Then, reach out to the owners or editors of those sites and pitch your idea. If they like it, work with them to create a content plan that meets their needs and yours.
  • Once the content is published, promote it on your social media channels and website. 
  • Be sure to thank the site owner or editor for publishing your content, and let them know if you’d like to collaborate again.

b. Finding unlinked brand mentions

This strategy identifies instances where a brand gets mentioned but not linked. It can help understand:

  • How often a brand gets mentions without being linked.
  • Identify potential opportunities to link to the brand’s website.

This information can then be used to create targeted marketing campaigns and track the success of those campaigns.

It is a great way to find potential link-building opportunities for an SEO campaign. 

  • When a brand gets mentioned without a link to the company’s website, there is an opportunity to reach out to the author or publisher and suggest adding a link. 

Note: It can be a successful strategy for driving website traffic and improving rankings on search engines.

To find unlinked brand mentions, you can use various tools, including Google Search and Ahrefs. 

In Google Search, 

  • Use the “site:” operator to find all website pages that mention a particular brand. 

E.g.,

If you wish to find all of the pages on Forbes.com that mention Coca-Cola, you will type “site:forbes.com coca-cola” into the Google search bar.

If you want to track unlinked brand mentions on a larger scale, you can use Ahrefs. 

Note: Ahrefs is a tool that allows you to track all of the links between websites. 

You can use Ahrefs to find all the websites that mention your brand but don’t link to your website. 

  • Type your brand name into the “Site Explorer” tool on Ahrefs and click “Inbound Links.” 

This tool will show you all the websites that mention your brand but don’t link to your website.

c. Guest blogging

This strategy is a fantastic way to build relationships with other bloggers in your niche and get exposure to a new audience. 

When you guest blog for someone else,

  • You write a post for their blog and then include a link to your blog in the author bio. 

Note: This strategy helps to get your name out there and increase traffic back to your blog.

Guest blogging can help an SEO campaign in a few ways:

  • First, it can help build links to the site because when a blogger writes a post about another site, they often include a link to that site in the post. This backlink helps the site rank in search engine results pages (SERPs) because it means more links to the site from other websites. 
  • Second, guest blogging can help increase traffic to the site. When a blogger writes a post about another site, they may include a link in their blogroll or website. This blogroll will help bring traffic to the site from people who visit the blogger’s website. 
  • Finally, guest blogging can help increase brand awareness. When a blogger writes a post about another site, they may mention its name or logo. This mention will help people learn about the site and may encourage them to visit it.

d. Imitating competitor’s backlinks

This strategy is a great way to build your backlink profile and find potential link partners. When you see a competitor has a link from a high-quality website, try to get one for yourself. 

Imitating competitors’ backlinks can help an SEO campaign in a few ways.

  • First, it can help you determine which websites link to your competitors and provide you with a list of potential websites to target. 
  • Additionally, if you can find websites linking to your competitors but not to you, you may be able to convince them to link to your website instead. 
  • Finally, imitating your competitor’s backlinks can help you copy their successful link-building strategies and improve your SEO campaign.

When you are looking to build your backlink profile for your website,

  • You can best look at your competitors and see where they get their links. This idea will give you a good starting point for finding high-quality link opportunities for your website.
  • One way to mimic your competitor’s backlinks is to use the tools they often use to find their links. 

For example, If they use a tool like Majestic SEO or Ahrefs, you can use the same tool to find the links they are getting.

  • Find your competitor’s backlinks by using their website as a search engine. Type in their domain name followed by “inurl:links” and hit enter. It will return all their website’s pages with links pointing to them.
  • Once you have found a few of your competitor’s backlinks, you can try replicating them. One way to do this is by contacting the websites, linking them, and asking them to link to you. 

Note: You can also try using a tool like BuzzStream or Followerwonk to find Twitter users who are linking to your competitor and then reach out to them, asking for a link.

  • Finally, you can use your competitor’s backlink data to develop new content ideas you can create yourself. 

Note: If you see that many websites link to a particular article on your competitor’s website, you can try creating something similar.

By imitating your competitor’s backlinks, you can quickly and easily build a strong backlink profile for your website that will help improve your SEO ranking.

e. Resourcing page link-building

One way to build links for an SEO campaign is through resourcing page link-building. This strategy involves finding pages likely to link to your site and contacting the web admins or owners of those pages to request a link. 

There are several ways to find potential link partners: 

  • Search engines, 
  • Directories, and 
  • Social media sites.

Once you’ve identified a list of potential link partners, 

  • You can begin contacting them to request a link. 

Note: When contacting them, including information about your site, such as its URL, what it offers, and why the reader should visit it. You can also have a brief excerpt from your site’s content to help persuade the web admin or owner to link to you.

Getting a few links from high-quality sites can help improve your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) and may lead to more traffic and conversions.

f. Claiming bonus links with reverse image search

You can use this strategy to find unlinked bonus images that you can use to bolster your link-building system. By submitting a picture of a bonus link (or any other type of link) to a reverse image search engine, you can often find websites that are already using the image on their website. It can be a great way to contact website owners and request they add a link to your website.

To do this,

  • Upload the image to a reverse image searches engine such as TinEye or Google Images and look for websites hosting the image without a link back to your website. 
  • Contact these website owners and ask if they would like to add a link to your website in exchange for sharing the image.

Note: Mainly use it to find websites hosting your images without giving you credit. 

You can build a successful link-building strategy for your SEO campaign by claiming these bonus links.

g. Using link intersect to crack likely linkers

One way to build links for an SEO campaign is to:

  •  Use link intersect to find likely linkers. 

The link-intersect tool lets you see which websites link to your website and your competitors. It is a successful link-building strategy because it targets websites likely interested in linking to your website. It also helps you identify websites already linking to your competitors, which can help you create a more effective outreach strategy. This strategy can help you identify potential partnerships or link-building opportunities.

To use link intersect, 

  • Enter your website’s URL and your competitor’s URL into the tool. 

The tool will help you to show you a list of websites linking to your and your competitor’s websites.

h. PR mentions, publicity, and social media

Publicity and social media are great ways to generate links for an SEO campaign. By issuing press releases, contacting journalists, and engaging in social media, you can create a buzz around your site that will result in links from high-quality sites.

Note: PR mentions and publicity can result in links from high-quality websites. Social media can also generate links by promoting content and encouraging users to share it.

  • When you mention or link to other websites in your content, they may share it on their own social media pages or blog, which can help to drive traffic back to your site. 
  • In addition, many websites keep track of which websites mention them and often feature those on their home pages or press sections.

How to identify quality backlinks?

There are many ways to build links, but only some are created equal. Some links, like those from spammy websites or link farms, can hurt your website’s ranking. That’s why it’s important to build high-quality links from authoritative websites.

Step-by-step identification of quality backlinks

Step 1: Check for relevancy.

Relevancy is important for identifying quality backlinks. Pages not relevant to your site will not provide any value in link juice or referral traffic. 

To check for relevancy, 

  • You can use various methods such as search engine results pages (SERPs), analyzing the content on the page, and using a tool like Majestic SEO.

Note: When checking for relevancy, it’s important to consider your site’s topic and the keywords you are targeting. 

  • You want to ensure that the pages linking to you are relevant to your topic and that the links come from high-quality sources.
  • If you’re looking for links from high-quality sources, you can use a tool like Majestic SEO to analyze the backlinks of a website. 

Majestic SEO will show you the number of links a website has and the quality of those links. This quality check can help you to identify websites that may be interested in linking to your content.

Step 2: Check its domain authority to see if it’s trustworthy

One way to check if a backlink is trustworthy for identifying quality links is to look at the website’s domain authority (DA). 

Domain authority (DA) metric by Moz measures the overall strength of a website. 

Note: A higher DA means that the website is more likely to be a reputable source of information. This authority makes it more likely that the website will rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs). A low DA means that the website has few or no high-quality backlinks, which may indicate that it is not a reliable source.

To check a website’s DA score, 

  • You can use the Moz Bar Chrome extension. The Moz Bar displays a website’s DA score and other SEO metrics, such as Page Authority (PA) and Domain Rating (DR).

To use the Moz Bar, 

  • Visit the website you want to check and click the Moz Bar icon in your Chrome toolbar. 
  • The Moz Bar will display the website’s DA score and other SEO metrics.

Step 3: Check its placement

Checking the placement of a backlink is one way to identify quality backlinks. 

By checking where the link is, 

  • You can get a concept of how much authority the site has. 

High-quality sites tend to have their links placed in high-quality locations, such as in the:

  • Body of the article or in a prominent area on the page. 

Low-quality sites often have their links placed in the:

  • Low-quality locations are in the sidebar or the bottom of the page.

Note: The best way to check the quality of your backlinks is to use a tool like Ahrefs or Majestic. 

Also, this tool will help you see how many links you have and where they are coming from. If you have a lot of links from low-quality websites, it could hurt your ranking on Google.

Step 4: Check for authority score.

When looking for quality backlinks, it’s important to check the authority score of the websites. This check will show you how authoritative and trustworthy these websites are. 

There are zero definitive answers to this question, as the authority score of a given backlink will depend on various factors. However, some methods for checking a backlink’s authority score include using tools like MozBar, Majestic SEO, or Ahrefs. 

  • You can look at the number and quality of domains linking to a page and evaluate the PageRank or Domain Authority of the pages linking to the target page.

Note: The higher the DA and PA, the more likely the website is an authoritative source of information.

Step 5: Check its anchor text

There are a few ways to check anchor text for quality backlinks. 

  • The first way is to look at the backlinks themselves. 

Note: Quality backlinks will have a diverse anchor text; only some links will use the same keyword or phrase. If the anchor text is generic, like “click here,” the backlink is less valuable.

  • Another way to check is using a tool like Majestic SEO or Ahrefs. These tools will show you the distribution of anchor text for each backlink. 

Note: Most of the backlinks should use a different keyword or phrase than the anchor text.

Step 6: Check for page authority.

The page authority metric measures the overall quality of a given web page. This metric is determined by evaluating several factors, including the following:

  • The number and quality of backlinks to the page.
  • The age of the domain name.
  • The overall popularity of the website. 

Note: Pages with high page authority are likelier to rank high in SERPs, making them valuable for obtaining high-quality backlinks.

To check a page’s authority, 

  • You can use a tool such as Moz’s Open Site Explorer or Majestic’s Site Explorer. 

Both tools allow you to enter a URL and view a report that includes information on the number and quality of backlinks to the page and other metrics such as domain authority and citation flow.

Step 7: Check its page rank.

Google PageRank (PR) is one way that Google determines a website’s authority. A website’s PR builds on the number and quality of backlinks from other websites. Websites with a high PR are considered more authoritative than those with a lower PR. 

  • You can use Google PageRank Checker to check a website’s PR.

Note: The higher the page rank, the more likely the backlinks are from high-quality websites.

Step 8: Check the number of links you’ve built.

There are a few steps to track the number of links you’ve built.

  • Use a tool like Google Search Console. 

This tool will show how many links you’ve built and how many links are from high-quality sources. High-quality links are important for your website’s SEO because they tell Google that your website is a reputable source of information.

Note: Checking the number of links you’ve built is important because it can help you identify any quality backlinks you may have missed.

  • Use a link popularity checker. 

A link popularity checker will show you how many websites link to your website. The more links you have, the more popular your website is, and the higher your website will rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Note: It can help you determine how your website performs in link acquisition and whether you need to focus on acquiring more high-quality links.

But, having a high number of high-quality links is important for your website’s SEO because it tells Google that your website is a reputable source of information.

Is link building still relevant in 2024?

Yes, link-building is still relevant in 2024. The importance of backlinks in SEO has stayed the same and will likely continue to be important for many years. Basically, good links from high-quality websites are still the most important factors that search engines consider when ranking websites. 

Therefore, if you want your website to rank higher in the search results, you must focus on link-building strategies.

Tips For Creating A Successful Email Marketing Strategy

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

Whether to get prospective customers to open your email or for a click and a purchase, an email marketing strategy is integral to gaining a successful email marketing result. Your strategy may revolve around knowing your target audience or creating a personalized experience that drives sales. Whatever your end goal is, we have created the perfect guide for creating a successful email marketing strategy and how this strategy can improve your marketing campaign. 

What is an email marketing strategy?

An email marketing strategy can be defined as a set of processes that email marketers can identify, set up, and implement to communicate with their target audience. These strategies are implemented through email advertising channels and methods. Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels, and creating a strategy to fit the necessary ideals and goals is an essential process step. We provide you with the required tools and tips to up your game in your email marketing process. 

Where to start with your email marketing strategy?

Email marketing strategies can be a daunting task to take on. Whether your content marketing strategy is to build your brand, get that customer attention, maintain retention, or garner engagement, your strategies can all be very different or similar depending on the end goal. However, the first question to ask is where to start. Here, we provide a simple roadmap of what those initial steps in your strategizing process can look like. Once we have laid out these first steps, we detail the various elements within the strategies and how they can be approached. 

Set Your Goals And Means To Measure Metrics

The first thing you need to do is to set a goal for your email marketing campaign. What are the results that you are trying to achieve through the campaign? Whether it is to drive sales, increase click-through purchases, or connect with customers and inactive customers. You can set your goal according to what your result would be.

When setting a goal, follow the SMART rule, making your goal – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. When you have placed your plan within these peripheries, you can set the metrics to calculate the results. This could include your click-through rates, engagement with CTAs, and more. 

Figure Out All You Need About Your Target Audience

Before we go anywhere with the strategy, you may hear this often, but the first thing to keep in mind is your target audience. We mention this first because of its importance and the simple result keeping your audience in mind can bring. If you have a customized approach to your strategy, then it has the potential to work. A generic strategy that does not consider the potential target audience differences can slack off in the initial phase itself. If you are personalizing your campaign and want a more niche approach, you may have to go beyond your audience’s demographics. For this, a few simple questions must be asked : 

  • What are the preferences of your audience, buying habits, and behaviors?
  • What are their needs, and how are the interactions between the sales team and the customers usually?
  • What time schedules will be the most effective for sending an email?
  • What are the qualities that are unique among this audience niche?
  • What values do they lean towards? 
  • Social media and blog engagement among the customers

These questions may seem daunting in the initial stages; however, this approach requires time. Only after a few campaigns will you be able to put together this data and utilize it for further improvements to your campaign. So, frame these questions in the initial stages to get your campaigns’ results and implement them further. 

Build An Email List

Getting subscribers that are interested in your content and have opted to get your emails or would appreciate your content is necessary. Whether you are trying to build an existing list of subscribers or you are focused on getting a new set of subscribers, there are various ways in which you can accomplish this. Here, we have listed the best possible ways to go about this. 

  • You can create a signup form on your website for anyone wanting to stay in contact with the content you put out from your brand. You can set up a pop-up on your website that collects data from manual signups that your customers can fill up. 
  • You can also create a simple sheet where anyone who comes in to look at your brand can sign up and learn more about whatever you are trying to sell through your brands. 
  • Another method includes using your social media channels to drive your email subscribers. Whether you may have a social media following, you can always drive your email subscriptions through your social media pages to gain more subscribers. 
  • If you are trying to engage your existing customers and want to gain subscriptions from them, holding an offer or a discount for an email subscription can be a smart idea. 
  • Another important thing you can consider is to make your email shareable across social platforms. If your content is valuable to your readers, this can be a great way to incentivize your content. 
  • A good landing page can be the deciding factor for your customers whenever you are working on an email marketing campaign. Creating a compelling landing page for your CTA’s could drive your email subscriptions. 

Email List Segmentation

You have an email list of your subscribers, which is the perfect place to start your segmentation. Whether you have 100 or more subscribers, sending a generic email to all without customization may not yield the desired results. When you are strategizing for your email marketing campaign, segmenting your email list of subscribers according to their needs, wants, and preferences can be the key to getting results. A targeted email marketing campaign has a higher chance of reaching customers and getting the engagement you want. You can segment your email list based on various factors such as :

  • Time of engagement
  • Demographic
  • Location
  • Frequency of engagement 
  • Purchase history 
  • Position in the sales funnel
  • Interest in content and engagement
  • Review-based and more. 

Focus On Content

Once you have a segmented list of email subscribers, you get to customize your email campaign accordingly. Remember that customization and personalization go beyond names and sending emails with specific content; you must keep in mind that you are building a sense of trust with your customer base. You need to anticipate their needs and provide them with content that provides them with value for their time. So, sending them detailed personalized offers, discounts, content, and more can be all a part of your initial strategies to create a successful email marketing strategy. 

How do you create a good email marketing strategy?

Once you have a base to work on for your email marketing strategy, the most important bits come into play. How do you strategize for the most effective way to gain results from your email marketing campaign? We have already laid out the necessary steps to get to where you can start to build your email marketing strategy on, so we now focus on the steps to create a good email marketing strategy further. 

Define Your Personalization Boundaries

We have mentioned ways you can personalize your email content. However, personalization must also include setting boundaries. Personalized email content has a 29% higher rate of being opened and 41% higher chances of click-through rates; however, you have to be careful not to cross boundaries when creating familiarity with your customers. So, make good use of your subscription data and personalize it to the requirements, and not more than necessary. 

Use email marketing templates.

Email marketing templates can be an email marketing tool that provides both values of time and streamline the email marketing process. When using an email marketing template, you can personalize the emails without building an entire email from scratch. All the necessary elements are already placed within the template, including the design, CTA placements, images, brandings, and more. So, your email layout is also a part of the email marketing template, allowing you to focus on your content more. 

Use email automation

Having email automation set up can help you with your email marketing campaign. You can set up email automation through software to include email time stamps, subscriber actions, and other conditions that you can pre-set onto the automation. Examples could include an automated welcome email, which can be created with a pre-existing email template. Another example could be an automated newsletter email. Either way, having CRM with email automation set up could streamline your email marketing process, making it more efficient and providing the required frequency.

Create Compelling Content 

Your email content is just as much an important part of your email marketing strategy as anything else. A few key elements can help take that email marketing strategy to the next level. Here are some of the most important factors that we believe must be included in your email marketing content to ensure the best possible results from your email marketing campaign. 

Include short and engaging subject lines

Subject lines are the first thing your customer will have their eyes on when sending out your marketing email. So, take your time to frame a subject line that makes promises that will be delivered. You can create compelling subject lines by keeping them simple, straightforward, and, most importantly, short and appealing. Do not overdo it, and make sure you do not bait your customers with your subject line. It is one thing to impress and another thing to exaggerate. So, ensure your subject line aligns with your content and customer intent. 

Provide value to customers

Without the right content and value to your customers, the entire process provides no results whatever strategies you use. Your content can make or break the engagement, which can only be done by providing your customers with the value they are looking for. Whether this is done through anticipating their interests and needs, ensuring you are showing your presence and care, or more, content can be an essential part of your strategy. So, strategize your content accordingly to provide value. 

Check grammar

Ensuring there are no errors in grammar, content, and all parts of your email should always be your priority. As much as personalization goes a long way, so does making sure your content is error-free and ready for consumption. 

Do not overload the copy.

Your copy must be well-written and include all necessary information; however, that does not include a text-heavy jam-packed email. Though text-heavy emails can be just as relevant as ones with images, you need to ensure that your email is short and has all the necessary information with a guise of mystery that points towards your call-to-action. Provide your customers with content and ensure they do not get frustrated while consuming it. 

Include a call to action

A call-to-action is required in any email marketing campaign. Call-to-actions provide metric data, user engagement, and more. Including a well-intended and well-placed call-to-action in your email content is essential. 

A/B testing 

Whenever you are testing out your strategy for your email marketing campaign, it is crucial to test out more than one variation of your strategy. Whenever you have a segmented list ready, you can test between variables of email content and elements within your plan. You need to check the right metrics to ensure that your test results are compared and that the correct data is implemented in the campaign. 

Some of the metrics that you can use to measure the success of your testing can include: 

  • Bounce rate
  • Email signups
  • Unsubscription
  • Email open rate
  • Subscription rate

Leverage social media

Whether you have a long or short email list, you can always leverage social media to increase your email list. Moreover, you can also make sure your email campaign content is shareable across social media platforms to create more opportunities for your campaign’s success. The most important thing is to link to social media without seeming too spammy. 

Re-engage with inactive customers

Last but not least, inactive subscribers need a different strategy to approach their interests and needs. If the content you generate at the moment does not cut, then strategize to engage inactive users with deals, offers, and other content methods to re-engage interests. Another important thing you can do is to try and find out whether the content is at fault or what the users have faced with losing interest in your email content. This can be done through surveys and more. Either way, showing that you care and providing inactive users with opportunities to re-engage with your content is important.

Next Steps: What happens after your email marketing strategy is ready?

Implementing your email marketing strategies may get you the expected results, but you must always revisit your strategy and remember to incorporate some key elements into your plan.

  • Broaden your focus and always ensure you are looking for ways to improve your strategies. Implement your testing results and provide your customers with the best possible content. 
  • Be creative with your marketing strategies and look for ways to differentiate your content without being too over the top. 
  • Current trends can be a good place to tap in with your customers, especially when unsure where to start your content marketing. 
  • Track metrics and use your data to provide customers with the best possible experience. 

Guide To Creating The Perfect Email Marketing Template

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

Contrary to what most people think, email marketing is an effective way to get a good return on investment for your marketing efforts. Moreover, spending time and attention on creating a curated email marketing template can be both beneficial in the long run and provide you with the opportunity to increase your chances of result-oriented marketing strategies from your prospects and customers. HubSpot has recently provided data that businesses that use emails to generate leads get 50% more leads that are active buyers and at a 33% lower cost. Email leads can increase sales opportunities by 20% compared to non-nurtured leads. 

Since there are multiple ways and methods in which you can curate that perfect email marketing template for your business, we provide you with a well-rounded guide on how to create that email template that will get you the response you expect for your business. Let us get right into it! 

What is an email marketing template

Before we get into the curation of email marketing templates, a few may be unsure of what creating an email marketing template entails. 

Whenever a marketer is to have a starting point for their email, a template provides a guide that does not require the email to be built from scratch. Email marketing templates can be categorized for all sorts of purposes and are based on the business and goal the marketer aims to reach through their marketing strategy. Every time a marketer starts an email campaign, aspects such as the design, mobile friendliness, aesthetics, and other elements of the email are already laid out through an email template. Now, the marketer gets the opportunity to spend their time creating content that their readers will value, engage with, and will be useful to them. 

Creating that perfect well-rounded email marketing template will provide value to your customers and increase their chances of interacting with your content. So, instead of trying to come up with fresh content every other time, you can use email templates to provide value to your time and those reading your content. 

What are the types of marketing emails?

Before creating that perfect email marketing template, you need to identify your email’s purpose. Whether you curate your content for engagement or retention, email marketing provides value through information. So, what types of marketing emails can marketers include in their inbound marketing strategies? We have listed four useful email marketing types below. 

Email marketing newsletters

A newsletter is one of the most common and sought-after email marketing strategies. A well-curated email newsletter includes helpful tips, knowledge, and tools the reader wants. When sending an inbox to your subscriber, sending content that adds value is the most important factor. Creating engaging content that includes thoughtful information, provides direction through guides, and informs of your service are all important. A well-written and curated newsletter includes content that engages, retains, and builds a relationship with your customer. 

Retention emails 

A retention email is a way to keep an open line of communication with your consumers and subscribers. One of the issues email marketers face is the loss of response and engagement with prospective and existing customers. So, a retention email strategy can be considered a request for feedback or even an offer to your customers who have lost contact with your campaign. Retention email templates must include persuasive and sincere content that gives users the assurance of being thought of. 

Emails aimed at promotions

Another email marketing campaign includes promotional emails. These emails aim to drive your sales, signup for email subscriptions, and provide product or service information. These emails are written to promote and encourage the consumers to buy or engage with the product or service you are providing them with. These emails can also be a useful method to provide value to your existing customers through offers, exclusive products, and services, driving subscriptions based on content, and cross-selling your products to increase your customers. 

Emails aimed at customer acquisition

An acquisition email provides a lot of value to your business through lead generation. When you have subscribers who are not active consumers of your product or service, creating acquisition emails can help customers see the value in becoming active users of your service. Moreover, this method of email campaign drives revenue and helps your prospective customers seek interest and value in the content you share with them. 

When do you use an email template?

Now that you have identified your email marketing campaign objective, it is necessary to identify when using an email marketing template is the best way to go. For many marketing campaigns, you may opt out of using a pre-made template; however, reusing an email template in other cases can be the best option. 

For an email list where your objective matches with another, you do not have to consider a special case for using an email template. The elements of a template can apply to most email marketing campaigns. 

  • A pre-made template can deliver value to your time if you want to offer customer care and provide information to your client list. 
  • Building networks and potential partnerships can include the use of email templates. 
  • Another campaign where an email marketing template is beneficial includes loyalty programs and other offers you send to your customers. 
  • Seasonal product and service information and event recall could be sent through an email template. 
  • Confirmation emails for orders and details of an order. 
  • Emails aimed for feedback and surveys. 

Using an email marketing template also entails checking what content and template work best with your customers. Email marketing tools and analytics are key to identifying the response and engagement. We discuss this in detail further in the article. 

What should an email marketing template contain?

Once you identify the method and position for your email marketing strategies, you can add elements to your email templates that will benefit your curation. So, what does an email marketing template contain, and what other factors are excluded from one? We have provided a list below. 

Company branding

Always include your company logo and brand colors in your email marketing templates. This can help your customers identify their correspondence. Including your company branding can help prospective clients recall your content through this identification. 

Unique value proposition

The next thing to include is a value to your offer. Most email user behavior statistics pinpoint the attention span of email readers as a scant 6 seconds. So, a direct and clear-cut value offer visible through bullets, numbers, statistics, and links can help get that response. 

A Call-to-action

A call-to-action is a must in an email marketing template for your conversion goal to be met through your email. A call-to-action can be in the form of a button, a link, an image, or anything that supports the agenda for the email objective. 

Relevant images

Adding relevant images is somewhat self-explanatory. A text-heavy email that only includes chunks of content can be overwhelming for a consumer to skim through. Break the piece of text with relevant images that provide context and information for your customers. 

Unsubscribe links and email preferences

An email marketing template must always adhere to the required guidelines and include an unsubscribe link on the footer. It should have clear footer content for changes to email preferences in front of your customers, allowing them to make necessary changes whenever they wish to and adding to your credibility as a marketer!

What is the ideal format for email marketing templates?

All the necessary information that needs to be added to an email template is subjective to the objective of the email, the prospect of your clients, and more. However, you can create an initial skeleton through the format that works best among your customers and what is perceived well.

An ideal format can for email marketing templates includes: 

  • A clear subject line
  • Must consist of preview text that showcases your company branding
  • A body copy 
  • May have images based on whether you are designing a text only or image had email content
  • A footer that consists of an unsubscription and email preferences content
  • It can include the logo and company branding based on preference
  • Social sharing and other forms of links to relevant content and product/ service pages

The structure of your email marketing template can defer based on the kind of content you are going for. You must have a pre-designed idea of the incusing of branding, design, colors, and logos that must be within the template. Moreover, you can also choose to differentiate between what a text-only or an image/design-based email template looks like. 

How do you create an effective body copy of an email marketing template?

As much as a template is required when creating an effective email marketing campaign, a well-written body copy and subject line are the base of the template. However much you design the email template to be effective, well-written copywriting will be necessary for your consumers to engage and respond to the email for your marketing strategy to gain results. So, here are a few tips to nail that body copy and subject line for your email. 

Nail Your Subject Line 

For your email to stand out, you need to grasp your readers’ attention and engage them through your subject line. After all, this is what makes your breaks entire email campaign. So, ensure to nail that subject line by keeping in mind a few tricks that can help you get better results. 

  • Make use of actionable language. 
  • Ensure to personalize the message when sending it to existing customers. 
  • Make the subject line as clear as possible. 
  • Engage the reader with a catchy but comprehensible subject line. 
  • Always ensure the subject line and email copy are well aligned and relevant. 

Create a compelling body copy

Once you have come up with a subject line that delivers, the next step is to create a body copy that follows. For a body copy, one must consider various factors that can garner attention while engaging users. So, here are our two cents on how one can create that body copy that users would read. 

Relevancy is key

Establishing relevancy is the key to creating a body copy that readers will perceive as necessary. If you are sending someone an email and writing to them, the users must first know why they are being written. As much as intrigue can be important, in email marketing – intrigue could lead to frustration. You want your user to understand the relevance of the content you are sending them, so establish a clear-cut message where the reader understands the motive of the email. 

Outline your benefits

Outlining the value you provide the client can be the best thing you do to ensure engagement. Whenever you are trying to sell a service or product, outlining the benefits will be more beneficial than only talking about the features. With benefits, you get to create value that a consumer has an opportunity to engage with. 

Talk in the second person.

If you are writing to someone, talking in the second person creates a relationship by allowing the conversation to be drawn towards the reader, not the brand. You are creating dialogue through a medium that is usually perceived to be one-sided. So, writing with “you,” “your,” and “yours” in the second person can be more effective than just giving information through “we” and “I.” 

Keep it understandable

An email should not be long and incomprehensible. Keeping it short and brief allows the reader to get all the information they need without the content being too much to take. Do not try to paint the whole picture through one email. You cannot possibly get this done without overwhelming the reader. So, grasp the attention and give enough to make the reader want more through contact. This is where call-to-actions then come in. 

Your call-to-actions matter 

A call-to-action is necessary to make it easy for the recipient of the email to know where they need to go for the next steps. A well-readable and understandable call-to-action will be identifiable and easy to grasp in a single ski. So, spend some time and effort to place your call-to-action effectively. This can be well worth the step. 

Is using an email marketing template deemed unprofessional?

Opposite to being unprofessional, an email template can help you elevate your email marketing template to create a polished and professional look. How you personalize your emails after this is up to you. When creating an email marketing template, you need to ensure you have the basics nailed down. Adding other elements to the email is like adding garnish to a dish that has its base done. You need to ensure you customize the templates based on the necessities and not rely entirely on the template to ensure that the results are as expected. 

Next steps after you create that perfect email marketing template

Once you have the perfect template, that is only the start; You need to practice some email marketing best practices to ensure that your email template delivers results. So, here are a few things you can remember once the email marketing template is complete. 

  • Track the results of your email marketing campaign. 
  • You need to make use of email marketing automation. 
  • If your email consists of promotional events or specific content that requires a landing page, make sure you create that and link it to the necessary pages. 
  • Add social media links and sync to your social media. 
  • Personalize the templates when required.

Key takeaways

Creating a perfect email marketing template for your campaign can include multiple factions. For the campaign to gain the result you expect, ensure that your initial stage of creating a template is a boon to the process and adds value. Spend the right energy and time to create an effective template that will add more value to your campaign than you anticipate. 

What is Email Marketing?

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

What is email marketing? To start with, it is the most effective marketing channel out there. It performs better than social media, affiliate marketing, and even search engine optimization. 

Even though many people claim that email marketing is outdated and old, it has the highest return on investment. It is used by almost every big “business to business” and “business to consumer” company.  

So how does marketing through email continues to be one of the best places for digital marketers to invest their time and money? To answer that, we need to look at what email marketing is and what it has evolved over the years.

This article is just one of many from our email marketing series, which will help businesses understand the ins and outs of marketing with email and provide them with some tools and best strategies to help them succeed!

But before we get into the advanced practices and the best ways to automate your email marketing strategy, we need to know exactly what email marketing is.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the process of sending commercial-based messages directly to email subscribers in mass quantities. It is a marketing strategy that leverages a person’s prior interest in a company’s products and services to nurture them into buying something. More precisely, email marketing is a message that includes advertisements, a business request, or soliciting sales.

Email marketing is one component of the broader topic of internet marketing which includes marketing lines such as search engine optimization, content marketing, social media, search engine marketing, and pay-per-click advertising. These marketing lines all add up to your overall website traffic.

Since marketing through email is a permission-based technique – a user has trusted a business with their email and is allowing the company to send promotional, commercial-based, and sales emails to them. Moreover, by sending these emails, marketers can quickly evaluate the performance of their email marketing campaigns. The marketers can then see the return on investment (ROI), monitor the campaign’s effectiveness in real-time, and gather feedback on the performance and effectiveness of a certain email.

A History of Emails

Emails have come a long way since their inception in 1971. The first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer, and consisted of a string of numbers and letters. However, sending the first email was not enough for Ray, as he wanted to leave his mark on emails even more. Tomlinson also introduced the idea of using the ‘@’ symbol in email addresses.

Fast forward to May 1, 1978, when Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp, sent out the first mass email for marketing means. With a list of 400 subscribers, Gary proved how effective email marketing is in generating a great return on investment. Whereas, by sending out 400 marketing emails, Thuerk could generate $13 million in sales!

Well into the digital age, email has become available to everyone worldwide. With over 4 billion email users worldwide, it is estimated that 333.2 million emails are sent every day! However, improved direct communication mechanisms have resulted in the need for regulatory actions. Whereas marketers and automated email machines have generated billions of spam emails. This has provoked governments to take action and enforce spam laws such as the United States Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) and the European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

That being said, spam laws should not detour businesses from engaging in email marketing. They should be careful, is all. A great way to avoid being considered spam is to send valuable information and do it periodically. Moreover, companies should avoid daily email blasts and only send transactional emails.

How Does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing can be conducted by using different types of emails. Each type utilizes a different strategy to increase interest and nurture potential customers along their buying journey. Businesses will use customized and personalized messages to generate trust and credibility to facilitate this process. The two types of emails include:

1. Transactional emails: 

Transactional emails are typically triggered by a customer’s action. The email must have the primary purpose of facilitating, completing or confirming a sale. For example, a transactional email would be sent when a customer purchases a product on an e-commerce site. The email might include information such as confirmation of the purchase, shipping details and tracking information. 

In addition to sales-related transactions, transactional emails can also be used for password resets, account confirmation and other types of notifications. By definition, transactional emails are triggered by an action taken by the recipient. As such, they typically have high open and click-through rates. However, it is important to make sure that the content of the email is relevant and useful to the recipient, or else the message will be perceived as spam.

2. Direct emails: 

The email’s purpose is not to sell something to the receiver but to communicate with them to build trust, credibility, and brand awareness. In the world of business, relationships are key. Whether you’re trying to establish a new partnership or maintain an existing one, keeping the lines of communication open is essential. One way to do this is through direct emailing. By reaching out directly to your contact, you can keep them updated on your latest products or services, and remind them of your company’s existence. 

This keeps you top-of-mind, and increases the likelihood that they’ll think of you next time they need something in your area. Additionally, by taking the time to nurture your relationships, you show that you’re interested in more than just making a quick sale. This can help build trust and foster a lasting connection. So next time you’re looking to solidify a business relationship, don’t forget the power of a simple email.

Why is Email Marketing Important?

An email marketing strategy can be a cost-effective and easy way for businesses to engage with their existing customers and community. Targeted and personalized emails can foster interest and lead to future sales. One of the best reasons to use an email marketing campaign is to develop trust with the email subscribers. 

Email marketing is important because it allows businesses to reach their existing customers and community members cost-effectively. By sending targeted, personalized, and non spam emails, businesses can foster interest and develop trust with their subscribers. 

These email campaigns can lead to future sales and help businesses to build relationships with their customers. Additionally, email marketing can be a useful tool for customer retention. By regularly staying in touch with subscribers, businesses can keep them engaged and encourage them to continue doing business with the company. Email marketing is an essential part of any business’s marketing strategy.

How To Do Email Marketing?

Email marketing can seem like a challenging marketing channel to use if a business has never done it before. However, it can be a simple process if it is broken down into actionable steps. Below is a brief account of how to do email marketing. 

Step 1: Build an email list

To perform marketing with email, you need to have an email list. The easiest way to do this is by placing a banner on your website asking people to subscribe. Simply asking for it, will have a low conversion rate, however. Therefore, the best practice is to incentivize the transaction by providing something of value in return for the email. This could be an e-book, free audit, checklist, or template. 

By giving people something that they want or need, you increase the chances that they will give you their email address in exchange. Once you have a robust email list, you can begin planning your marketing campaigns. But remember, always get permission from people before adding them to your list, and always provide a way for them to opt out if they no longer wish to receive your emails.

Step 2: Provide great content

While sending emails, businesses need to provide their subscribers with valuable and unique content. Moreover, the content should meet the expectations of the email recipient, whereas if they expect timely updates and information, but the business misses this, trust and credibility will diminish.

Finally, make sure the emails are not all commercially and transactional based. If a company continues to spam its email list with ‘buy now’ and ‘buy this’ emails, it will quickly lose its subscribers. Focus on providing value and furthering the individual’s understanding of the topic.

Step 3: Email Marketing Analytics

After sending out emails to subscribers, it is important to monitor and evaluate the campaign’s performance. Using email analytics such as open and click-through rates can give valuable insights into how well the email strategy is working. 

If the open rates are low, it could be a sign that the subject line needs to be more appealing. If the click-through rates are low, it could be a sign that the call to action is not effective. By constantly monitoring and evaluating email analytics, a digital marketer can make necessary adjustments to improve the performance of future campaigns.

Key Takeaways 

Email marketing has evolved significantly since the first email of numbers and letters was sent in the early 1970s. Now, it is one of the best-performing marketing channels available to businesses. With a high return on investment, low-cost entry points, and easily scalable and automated, all companies should utilize email marketing.

Marketers and business owners can no longer claim to not know what email marketing is or to not understand why it is beneficial. 

It is a proven marketing mechanism that has produced tremendous monetary results, helped build substantial brand recognition, and generated new customers while increasing repeat customers. 

If you have a business and you’re not using email marketing, now is the best time to start! 

What is Click-Through Rate: Everything You Need to Know

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

Click-Through Rate or CTR refers to the percentage of visitors that click on a specific item that a website presents them to. In other words, it is a metric that measures the number of clicks advertisers receive on their ads per number of impressions. 

It is a known fact that search engines place a high value on a good CTR. For instance, in the pay-per-click model, the more clicks received, the more money search engines can generate. However, CTR is also essential to advertisers.

Visitors use search engines when they have a question and are looking for an answer. And as we know, search engines are so great that they tell what users are exactly looking for! Therefore, creating a relevant ad is the first step in fulfilling that need.  

This blog will explain what click-through rate is, what a good CTR is, how it impacts your ad rankings and when a low CTR is okay.

What is Click-Through Rate (CTR)?

CTR is the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click. For example, if there are 250 total clicks and 500 people saw it, that means you have a 50% click-through rate. Also, CTR helps show you how relevant your ads are for searchers. 

If you have a high CTR, that means searchers find your ad highly relevant, whereas a low CTR means less relevant. 

The goal of any PPC campaign is to get qualified leads to come to your website and take the desired action. For example, making a purchase, filling out a form, downloading a guide, etc.). CTR is the first step to improving the relevance of your ad and generating those desired results.

Examples of Click-Through Rate

Few common examples of where CTR can be used and measured include:

  • A call-to-action link in an email
  • A hyperlink on a landing page
  • A PPC ad on a search engine results page
  • An ad on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn

What is a Good CTR?

A good CTR depends:

  • on your industry
  • the set of keywords that you are using related to your niche
  • individual campaigns that run within a PPC account. 

Does CTR Impact Your Ad Rank?

Ad rank decides the position of your ad on the search results pages. Therefore, CTR also plays a part in your Ad rank in the search engine. PPC campaigns are not like auctions, where the top position goes to the highest bidder but to the advertiser with the highest AD rank. And CTR has a contributing factor in the Ad rank formula.

However, Ad rank is more complicated than we think it is. Google measures the expected CTR against your actual CTR. For instance, if you have run many ads with a low CTR, Google will assume that any new ads you add to your Google Ads will also have a low CTR and might rank them lower on the page. Therefore, it is essential to understand the role of CTR in your ads and try to improve them.

How Does CTR Impact Quality Score?

A Quality Score is a measure that helps you to understand how well your ad quality is compared to other advertisers. This can be related to your ad content, keywords, and landing pages. 

A Quality Score is high when your ads and landing pages are more relevant. It is calculated by the search engine’s measurement of expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Therefore, a good CTR will help you increase your Quality Score.

CTR and A/B Testing

CTR is an insightful tool when conducting A/B testing. If a website runs an A/B test for conversions on a product page, the conversion objective would be the number of product purchases completed by the customers. 

Another metric that can be monitored is the CTR of shipping information. If the shipping information has a high CTR, it shows potential customers are interested in the shipping process. In this instance, it is beneficial to research the shipping information process and page further to gain insights and improve and increase conversions.

CTR is also a handy metric in conversion optimization. It helps identify user behavior and interest and can be used to build insights during A/B testing. Therefore, CTR can help to give a holistic view of user behavior in A/B testing. 

So, When is a Low CTR Okay?

You could write “Free Macbook” and get you a great CTR, but unless it is a measure of business success for your company, such ads won’t help your business become profitable. Therefore, focusing on your business metrics first, then CTR is important. 

For example, if your goal is to sell many products as possible at the lowest cost, then you should optimize PPC campaigns for cost per sale. In the same way, if you want to generate more leads under a certain cost per lead, then optimize campaigns for cost per lead.

It is important to note that unless your goal is to drive a high volume of PPC traffic, CTR should not be your main KPI. Low CTR doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. There are times when a low CTR is absolutely okay! For instance, when you are dealing with keywords that are ambiguous in nature. When you have an ambiguous keyword, break it down and make it more specific to your niche. 

Don’t let a low CTR stop your ad campaigns unless it is not bringing anything to the table. Despite a low CTR, if you are getting a high lead volume, let performance be your guide. Low CTR is absolutely okay if your ads and keywords perform well based on your business goals and objectives. 

Click-Through Rate Takeaways

Click-through rate is an important metric that should be monitored to understand how your campaign performs. Optimizing for CTR can lower your website’s bounce rate and increase conversions. While optimizing for CTR, don’t forget to optimize your business metrics to help lead a successful campaign.


What is Domain Authority and How To Increase It

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

Building a successful website isn’t easy, so is wanting to rank at the top of the search engine. Some organizations and companies use Domain Authority (DA) to observe and evaluate their brand’s performance in the digital world. 

But what does this metric really do? What does it mean to have a high domain authority? Does our company need to improve it? Will a good domain authority help us to rank better on Google?

Besides just using SEO strategies to increase rankings on search engines, domain authority is a very important metric that will help to know the status of a website in relation to similar competitors. But, it isn’t a ranking factor for Google. 

What is Domain Authority?

To create the right path for your digital strategy, it is important to understand what domain authority is and what it is not. 

First developed by Moz, Domain Authority (DA) is a metric that predicts how likely a domain appears in the search engine results compared to its competition. 

It’s important to note that Google does not use Domain Authority to decide how to rank a website. Therefore, it will not contribute to improving your website’s ranking in search engine results. However, domain authority can be used as a good indicator to assess the performance of your website in relation to your competitors. 

How is Domain Authority calculated?

Domain authority can be calculated by assessing various factors such as linking root domains and the total number of links into a single DA score. Then this score can be used to track your website’s ranking strength over time when compared with your competitors.

Since DA is based on machine learning calculations, your website’s score is likely to fluctuate sometimes more or less depending on different data points’ availability and incorporated into those calculations. For example, if twitter.com acquired a billion new links, then every other site’s DA would automatically be lower than Twitter’s. As more established and authoritative domains like Twitter will have larger link profiles, they acquire more of the high-DA position, leaving less room at the higher slots for other domains with less stronger link profiles. Therefore, it is easier to grow your website score from 10 to 20 than from 70 to 80. Hence, DA is rather used as a comparative metric rather than an absolute one.

What’s a Good Domain Authority Score?

Moz’s Domain Authority search engine ranks a website from 1 to 100 – the higher numbers indicate the probability of better results in the search engine results. And the metric considers both the quality and quantity of links that a webpage receives. 

A website with backlinks from a high authority page – such as governmental sites, renowned newspapers, or magazines – will have a higher probability of having a better score. It also depends on the type of industry or the attributes of the website; there will be higher chances, easier, and more useful to get some backlinks over others. 

For instance, a newspaper publication may seek links from government sites or academic articles. On the other hand, startups will probably prefer being linked to regional newspapers or industry-related magazines since those backlinks add more credibility to the startups’ target audience and goal, even if they don’t necessarily have the highest domain authority. 

Therefore, determining a good domain authority differs from industry to industry. However, it’s vital to analyze your industry competitors and develop solutions tailored to your website, based on your ranking and of your competitors. 

How Can I Check My Domain Authority?

Lately, DA is not only used by Moz, but SEMrush has also developed its authority metric. Therefore, go through any tool and check your website’s domain authority. For now, we will be using Moz’s free DA checker. You need to enter your domain’s main URL (like https://outpaceseo.com/), and your webpage’s domain authority score will appear automatically. 

This analysis tool will provide additional information such as unique external linking domains that are linking root domains, the total number of keywords the website is ranking for (within the top 50 positions on Google) and. In simple words, the spam score shows a number of meaningless and spammy backlinks that actually do more harm than good. 

Building A Domain Authority:

Now, taking into account all that we’ve learned: How do you build domain authority and rank better than your competitors?

Google has mentioned that it isn’t just about the number of links to your website but rather the quality of those links that are relevant to your site and easier to understand what your website is about. 

Here are a few tips you can use to build domain authority for your website:

Quality over quantity: Your priority should be focusing on quality and relevant backlinks instead of gathering hundreds of links that add no value to your website or content. 

Analyze your backlinks:

Check where your backlinks are coming from and ensure that all interesting and informative sites with backlinks have a do-follow.

Content is King:

Highlighting the importance of content is never enough and plays a key role in attracting your audience. Create quality content that will make it easier to get natural backlinks.

Audience-focused content:

As mentioned above, content is everything and is the easiest way to attract your audience. Generate content that your audience would love and go viral quickly!

Update your content:

If you don’t have time to produce new content, you can go back through your older content and update those pages. You can also focus on updating content on pages that have low page authority or pages with unindexed content. 

Identify your competitors and compare:

Checking for things that you do and don’t do can help you analyze your strategy, which leads to increasing your website’s visibility quickly. 

Study your competitor’s backlinks:

Where do your competitors get their backlinks from? Is there a way that you can get similar backlinks too?

Spread your web content:

Use different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to create various content. You can also do guest posts and write a newsletter for different online publications. Don’t limit yourself to blogs, and create unique content to increase visibility.

Domain Authority single-handedly will not increase the quantity and quality of your leads; therefore, following the above actions will help you get better results. 

Building a good Domain Authority will take time; it is a long-term strategy, and you won’t see immediate results. However, consistency and following these guidelines will eventually help you increase your website’s visibility on search engine results to increase traffic to your website.

10 Proven Ways to Increase Website Traffic

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

It’s a fact that online businesses struggle to generate new and creative ways to increase website traffic. Adding more to it, there is numerous misinformation online about the best way to increase website traffic, which eventually leads to trying to implement the same strategies over and over without any benefits.

 

If you want to increase your website traffic by using both organic and paid methods, we have listed ten ways to yield results for your online business. 

 

1. Conduct Keyword Research

 

An essential thing that you should do is include relevant keywords in your content. Keywords play a major role in ranking your content and should be organically used throughout your content. Keywords should not be overused or “stuffed,” which may distract your readers. Moreover, the keywords must be used in your title tags, meta descriptions, headings, URLs, and throughout the actual piece of content.

 

In order to conduct keyword research, you can utilize tools like Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, or Ubersuggest. These tolls will provide valuable data regarding keywords that your competitors are ranking for, how often readers are searching for a particular keyword, keyword difficulty, related keywords, and the cost of keywords for pay-per-click ads.

 

Hiring an SEO agency is always an option as well. An SEO agency will provide you invaluable insights regarding your website and its performance and perform site audits that will help identify issues that might be blocking your content from being shown in search engines.

 

2. Create a Unique Content

 

Publishing content won’t do it by itself. Your content needs to be unique and offer valuable information that can cut through the clutter. Informative, relevant, and insightful content is an effective way to increase website traffic. 

 

People use search engines like Google to look for the best answer to their specific questions and locate accurate and trustworthy information. Therefore, it is imperative that your content can address various queries that are being asked in your niche.

 

One easy way to do this is by creating a blog for your website. In fact, websites that have blog content on them generate 434% more search engine indexed pages than websites that don’t have one. Additionally, websites that post at least 16 posts per month receive an outstanding 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish less than four blog posts per month.

 

The key takeaway is that if your website produces valuable content, is posted consistently and regularly, and has answers to queries your readers are searching for, your website traffic will significantly improve.

 

It is important to note that without content, it will be difficult to rank for anything. Therefore, content writing is essential for SEO and increasing website traffic.

 

3. Guest Blogging

 

Guest blogging for other websites in your niche helps develop new backlinks, boost referral traffic, and increase your overall search engine results page (SERP) ranking. However, before you take the giant leap into writing other blogs, you must thoroughly research the website to ensure that they are trustworthy and worth writing for. Remember that not all backlinks are made equal.

 

One of the first things to do is to check the website’s content and determine if it is high quality or not. You can also look at the website’s domain authority and conduct an overall audit to understand as much information as possible. If you think the website is trustworthy and credible and want to do a guest blog post for them, inquire if they will promote your blog on social media platforms and tag you in it.

 

4. Active Social Media Pages

 

Undoubtedly, social media plays a massive role in attracting traffic to your website. It is worth noting that while you track your traffic from social media, even though it is supposed to be referral traffic, it may get classified as direct traffic for several reasons. Ensure to be aware of this while you track your traffic sources in Google Analytics.

 

Social media pages can help build traffic and strong brand identity. Therefore, you need to create engaging posts for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn Platforms to increase social traffic. We want to highlight how social media can be utilized to increase traffic.

 

  • Publish content (blogs, ebooks, infographics, white papers, and videos) across all of your social media platforms
  • Interact with your audience by responding to them, reposting their content, and tagging them to increase engagement
  • Research and utilize relevant hashtags
  • Regularly updates your bio to contain links to your new content and promote it when it gets published
  • Use blurbs and important data from your content to influence to click on your content

 

5. Increase Website Traffic Through Advertisements

 

You can use paid advertising by developing tactics for search, social media, and display ads to pay dividends in increasing website traffic. However, each type has pros and cons to it. For instance, users can block display ads from showing up. Google Ads can be costly, with the cost per click ranging between $1 and $2 per click. To make the most of your campaigns and save money on ads, it is crucial to set a budget and realistic goals before partaking in an ad campaign.

 

When conducting a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, you must start with only one campaign with a few different ad groups that will target various keywords and audiences. After the campaign begins, you can monitor it and see how your audience interacts with your ads and how they behave to multiple keywords. For example, one of your keywords only generated impressions but did not increase website traffic, while the other ad groups resulted in increased website traffic. For this, the best thing to do is engage in some A/B testing to help you pinpoint which ad and method are the most effective.

 

6. Email Newsletters

 

You can send newsletters to promote your recent content to increase website traffic. A few simple yet effective ways to use email marketing can be seen below:

 

  • Strategically place your enticing information from your content in the subject line and the body of your email
  • Insert a link to call to action (CTA) that subscribers can click to read more of the content
  • Emails should be mobile-friendly, with links that are easy to see and open! This is a crucial factor as 46% of all email opens are done on smartphones
  • Personalize emails by including the name of the subscriber in them
  • Make the email visually appealing and use well-designed templates
  • Conduct A/B testing to which email campaigns receive more opens and clicks

 

7. Influencer Outreach

 

When we say influencers, it doesn’t mean you reach out to every possible influencer you can get hold of. Reach out to industry influencers to get your content in front of a larger audience, especially in front of their followers, since they are already interested in your industry. Some ways a business can reach out to influencers include:

 

  • Tag the influencer in a social media post if your content references their research or content
  • Ask the influence if they’d be interested in an interview. This will help to get valuable information from them. After your content is ready, ensure to share it on social media, and don’t forget to tag them so that they can share it with their followers
  • Conduct online/events with multiple influencers, for instance, 10 Experts Share Simple Yet Effective Ways to Increase Website Traffic in 2022. Once more, after the content has been developed, ensure to post it on social media and tag all influencers that were involved
  • Pay influencers to run sponsored posts on their social media pages with your content in it

 

If you’re new to influencer outreach or not sure whom to reach out to or engage with, tools like HypeAuditor and BuzzSumo will help you find the right influencers for your business. You can also reach out to a digital marketing agency to help you. 

 

8. Provide a Tool or Piece of Content

 

It’s a known fact that allowing your visitors to receive something of substantial value can be a great way to drive more website traffic. One example is providing a free downloadable keyword research template or any other free relevant tools. And of course, you’ll need an email address in return, though!

 

These tools can significantly maximize your returns and find new leads through acquiring email addresses and other personal information. Ensure that you promote all of the tools on social media platforms, especially on industry-related groups, as like-minded people are already talking about related topics.

 

9. Submit Press Releases

 

When you produce any major piece of content like press releases, whether it’s for your business or client, it’s important to be proactive with its distribution. Therefore, it is essential to push the press release and distribute it to influential websites and publications in the specific industry.

 

To reiterate, whenever you have an important announcement to make or main content for your client, you must send it to industry-leading publications and blogs that your audience reads. Also, include contact details on the press release so you can collect new leads and boost referral traffic to your website. 

 

10. Exchange Backlinks

 

Online businesses are working consistently to increase their website traffic but miss that there are also many opportunities for backlink exchanges. You can search for other relevant websites in your niche and reach out to them to manually set up beneficial backlinks for both websites.

 

Backlinks significantly improve website authority and your overall SEO ranking in the eyes of Google. You can consider these backlinks as votes of confidence which will tell Google that your content is relevant, credible, trustworthy, and offers insightful content. Referral traffic can also be increased through the link, as many visitors can arrive on your website after seeing your link!

 

Key Takeaway

Though these ten steps look simple and easy, it is important to note that some methods can pay off immediately while others may take considerable time. However, the best thing is to be consistent with these methods and ensure that you make improvements every day. We believe that the best way to grow your website traffic is to work on small steps regularly, eventually build up to your goal, and ultimately gain sustainable website traffic for the long run.

 

Everything You Need To Know About Core Web Vitals

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

A website’s core web vitals are the essential elements that Google looks for when determining a site’s rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). If you want to improve your organic rankings, it is essential to ensure that your website’s core web vitals are in good shape. This blog post will discuss what these vital elements are and how you can optimize them to help your website rank higher in SERPs.

Why are core web vitals important?

In 2020, Google announced that it would be looking at a set of elements grouped as “core web vitals” to determine the organic rankings. These elements include loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability of a website. Marketers need to focus on these factors to rank higher on SERPs.

What are the core web vitals?

The three main core web vitals that Google will be looking at are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Largest Contentful Paint: measures how long it takes for your site’s main content to load. This can be an image or text block that appears above the fold when someone visits your page from a mobile device. The ideal score for this metric is less than two seconds, according to Google’s WebPageTest tool.

First Input Delay: measures how long it takes for a user to start typing in a search query after landing on your page. This metric is important because the faster someone can input information into your site, the more likely they are to stay on your page. The ideal score for this metric is less than 500 milliseconds (ms).

Cumulative Layout Shift: measures how much a website’s layout changes as a user scrolls down the page. This metric looks at scroll position, size of elements, and font sizes. According to Google’s Lighthouse tool, the ideal score is less than 0.50.

How to improve core web vitals?

With the newest announcement, businesses rushed to improve their core web vitals. But without concrete information on how to improve them, many struggled. Fortunately, we are two years into studying the newest update, and there are a few things to consider if you want to start improving your core web vitals.

Optimize your WordPress hosting

If your site is not loading fast enough for users, you may need to switch hosting providers. Some WordPress hosts claim that their servers are optimized specifically for the platform. Still, in reality, they’re just using shared hosting with little customization other than installing some plugins or changing settings within the wp-admin panel. We recommend using an SSD-based VPS server (such as DigitalOcean) instead of traditional web hosts such as GoDaddy or BlueHost. This allows more control over how resources are allocated on a per-site basis rather than sharing them amongst others on one large server, which can slow down everyone’s sites if there are traffic spikes due to another website’s popularity hosted by the same company.

Optimize images

Images often take up significant space on a website and can slow down the loading of your pages. You can optimize images by compressing them using TinyPNG or JPEGmini.

Reduce the number of scripts you’re calling

If you have too many scripts loading on a page, it can cause delays in page loading. You can use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to identify which scripts are causing problems.

Use caching

Caching stores static versions of your pages, so they don’t need to be regenerated each time someone visits your site. This will speed up page load times for repeat visitors.

Minimize redirects

Redirects occur when a user clicks on a link but is taken to a different destination than expected. Too many redirects can slow down your page load times. You can use the Redirect Mapper tool to see how many redirects are happening on your site and where they’re going.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

A CDN stores copies of your website’s static files on servers worldwide so that they can be delivered faster to users who are geographically far from your primary server.

There are several things that you can do to start improving the core web vitals of your website. Improving these factors will inevitably help you achieve better organic rankings. If you’re looking for more information on how to improve your website’s performance, we highly recommend using Google PageSpeed Insights and the Lighthouse tool. These tools will help you identify which aspects of your website need improvement and give you specific instructions on fixing them. Improving core web vitals will help with organic rankings. And if you don’t have a clear idea of how best to work with core web vitals, consider talking to a professional.

 

Search Engines: What Google, Bing and Yahoo Look for in a Website

Posted on by Summit Ghimire

Search engines are constantly changing, and new algorithms for ranking websites keep popping up. A website’s rank is significant because it affects how many people visit the site. If you want to know what search engines are looking for when evaluating a website, read on!

1. Relevancy

A search engine’s primary goal is to provide relevant results for a searcher. This means that if you type in “car,” the site should be related to cars and not about cats (unless this was your specific intent).

2. The quality of your content

Content plays a huge role in the success of your website. A site made up of low-quality content will not be successful, no matter how many times it was shared on social media or returned visitors there are.

3. The originality and usefulness of your content

It’s essential to add fresh, new information about your topic because search engines reward sites with unique material by ranking them higher than similar websites. You can also ensure you have valuable resources for readers when they click through from Google results pages (SERPs) by providing value-added elements like videos, infographics, tables, and other interactive features.

4. User experience

A website’s UX or user experience is another crucial factor that search engines consider. This includes how easy it is to navigate the site and understand what content appears on different pages.

5. Site speed

The speed of a website is also critical because it affects the user experience. A site with slow load times can impact your bounce rate, which in turn affects how Google ranks you for specific queries.

6. Cross-device compatibility

Not all users use the same device to access websites. Make sure your website can be viewed on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices by making it responsive.

7. Technical SEO

Your site’s technical structure should also meet search engine guidelines for a good user experience. If you have a WordPress or other CMS-based blog, look into how to optimize your content so that Google has an easier time crawling pages and indexing them in their database.

8. Internal linking

The internal linking structure of your site is crucial for SEO because it affects how much authority you have over specific topics. For example, if a page on your blog about “cars” links to other posts like “motorcycles,” this gives Google the signal that these are both relevant keyword searches and helps improve rankings.

9. The right keywords

There are specific words or phrases that companies should target when optimizing their website for search engines. These generally include one or more items from the following list: long-tail keywords (specific terms related to what products/services they offer), branded keywords (company name), and generic keywords (keywords with high monthly search volumes).

10. Authority

A website’s authority is determined by several factors, including the quality and quantity of inbound links, how frequently the site is updated, social media signals, and more.

11. Meta descriptions and title tags

Meta descriptions are the snippets of text that appear on search engine results pages, while title tags appear in your browser tab or at the top of a web page. These should be customized for every webpage, so you attract more clicks from searchers.

12. Schema markup

Schema is an HTML attribute intended to provide rich data about your website’s content. Search engines, including Google, have begun using this information to display infoboxes with star ratings and prices when they think it could help users better understand search results.

13. Properly tagged images

Optimizing images for search is essential because it can affect your click-through rate. Make sure you have correctly optimized image filenames and alt text so that Google knows what each picture contains.

14. Evergreen content

Evergreen content is material that continues to provide value over time and will still be relevant in the future. Search engines reward websites with evergreen content because it keeps visitors on-page, which helps improve rankings.

15. Domain names

Your domain name can also affect your rankings. It should include keywords related to the page and be easy for people to type into their browser or link to from other sites.

16. Headlines and permalinks

The headlines on your website and the permalinks used for posts, pages, or blog categories can affect how much authority you have over specific topics.

17. Google Analytics

Google has its own suite of analytics tools, but there are other options available. This is a crucial way to measure site performance because it provides insight into where visitors are coming from and what they’re doing once they get to your page.

18. Meta keywords tag

The meta keyword tag was previously considered necessary by search engines until around 2014 when most stopped using them altogether. It will not harm websites if companies still use this metadata so long as it contains relevant content with high-quality links back to their sites.

19. Local SEO

Businesses that want to improve their local SEO should have complete and accurate business information listed on directories like Google+, Yelp, and Bing Local.

20. Keyword research

Keywords are the heart of organic search engine optimization. The more relevant keywords a website targets, the higher it will rank when users search for those terms. Tools like SEMrush can help identify what people in your industry are searching for and how difficult (or easy) it may be to rank organically in top positions.

21. Negative SEO

Negative SEO refers to someone attempting to damage another site’s rankings by pointing bad links at them, which is why most modern link-building strategies focus on obtaining only high-quality, natural backlinks from related websites/blogs.

Search engines are constantly evolving, so staying up-to-date on the latest changes and best practices is essential. You can help your website rank higher on search engine results pages and attract more visitors by following these tips.

 

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