It is very likely that content will always be king; the web revolves around content. However, just producing any old content is not going to cut it in today’s competitive world. SEO and conten are connected since it takes SEO best practices to get content seen; and it takes quality content to enhance an SEO campaign. With all the changes that go on with search engine algorithms one requirement that does not change is the need for high quality content. Blogs are one of the most effective platforms for posting high quality content, and part of hosting a blog is obtaining guest posts from contributors who are relevant to the niche. As an established industry expert contributing guest posts to blogs that are industry related can be a great strategy to get you noticed. There are a lot of popular blogs which get inundated with requests offering guest posts every day. No matter which end of the equation you find yourself on, it is very important to know the attributes of a high quality guest post and what one should contain. Here are a few tips about guest posts to help explain the features of a great guest post.
There can be many advantages and benefits from guest posting. The positive effects of guest blogging include things like earning generic links which are valuable and helping to establish authority in a particular field or niche. Contributing guest posts has had a pretty long and favorable run on many counts, but expert predictions indicate that it is highly likely that they may be next on Google’s list of areas to crack down on. Most of the changes made to Google’s algorithm have to do with cleaning up the web by penalizing spammy practices or those that are along those lines. It is very practical to assume that Google will soon present some way to help clean up guest posts. Just like some of the other areas that have been addressed recently, Google will attempt to get rid of many of the poor quality guest posters.
Having a solid SEO strategy is very important to getting a website in the top rankings in search engine result pages. An adept SEO specialist has many tools to use in order to accomplish this task effectively. In his repertoire there are on-page strategies as well as off-page strategies that can all work together to help a site be more visible to the search engines. While these can be effective, the old saying “too much of a good thing” is a possibility. Over optimizing a site can have an adverse effect on its ranking. Actually, when a site is over optimized it is very likely that it will trigger penalties and these can cause the site to drop significantly in rank, or be totally eliminated. It’s important to find the right balance in using SEO strategies without overdoing it.
Directory submissions used to be a valid, white hat SEO strategy. The goal of a directory was to offer a site on which content could be placed and then linked back to another website. Essentially, it was at that time a good way to get lots of inbound links which made it perfect for SEO purposes. However, with the recent updates to the Google algorithm, specifically the Penguin update, a once popular and legitimate practice has become black hat.
Whether you are talking digital marketing or traditional marketing there is a basic concept that should shape marketing efforts. This concept is basically that you go where your audience can see you. For instance, if you are selling something like custom hunting bows you are not likely to advertise in Vogue magazine. Even the novice can recognize that the audience you want to reach with information about bows is not likely to purchase a Vogue magazine; or definitely would not be looking for information about a bow in Vogue or Good Housekeeping. A marketing platform is selected based on the primary audience it entertains in traditional marketing, and likewise the process for choosing social media platforms and online channels should be focused on where the target audience is likely to spend their time online. While Facebook is the largest social platform, sheer number of users is not necessarily an indication that any marketing efforts would be successful. A business is much more likely to convert on sites where the audience is more engaged with the brand. Instead of focusing solely on the size of the community, it is important to consider the demographics of the users of an online platform and target the communities where conversions are most likely to occur.
Geo-targeting is continuously gaining in importance, especially for the small business. Once a business website is set up and published online it is seen by people all around the world. But for those who run local businesses, local traffic is really what is of the utmost importance. It is certainly necessary to have a website for a small business today. It’s the first place someone goes when they are looking for any type of service, especially a local business that can offer the service or product that they need. When a search is entered by someone needing local services they want to know some specifics like where you are located, the hours of business and the types of services that the business has to offer. Some of the most recent stats indicate that the bulk of consumer spending happens within just a few miles of their residence. This is what makes geo-targeting so important for today’s businesses.
Keeping up with all the trends in SEO best practices can be difficult. It can seem like change is the only thing that remains constant in the online world. We know that the search engines are updating their algorithms for search rankings constantly. This just makes the SEO specialist need to stay up on the most current changes in order to maintain SEO best practices. It also offers protection from getting those dreaded penalties. Content is one of the areas that has been a top for several years. We know that there have been many changes in the way that the search engine looks at content and how it measures in the algorithms. There was a day when content, any content was good. But some of the most current trends in the ways the search engines look at content has some scratching their heads. It’s not okay to just put up content for the sake of having content on a site. It needs to meet certain criteria. Content has a distinct purpose and it’s not so the search spiders can “read” it. Content must be high quality and written for the human readers not computers.
There are many different types of strategies that are used in an effective SEO campaign. These might include things like content creation, on page and off page optimization, Metatag data, social chatter and also backlinks. It’s common knowledge that search engines like Google are always making changes to the algorithms that they use to rank sites. Of late, there has been a lot of talk about backlinks. Gathering backlinks used to be a great white hat SEO tool and the more a site could obtain, the better its ranking. But people farmed and purchased backlinks just for the sake of getting backlinks. In many (maybe most) cases, the backlinks had no relevancy with the content or the site they were linked to. Google updates have been made in an attempt to clean it up. Gathering backlinks for the sake of having a large number of other sites linked to a site is now considered a black hat practice. Humans frown on it, and Google will penalize a site that is guilty of it. But this does not mean that backlinks have no value whatsoever, especially when it comes to SEO. It’s just important to know which ones really count and why.
It can be very easy for the SEO company to become short sited in the use of social media. The online social world has been overshadowed by some of the giants like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These of course all have a place in a social media marketing campaign but just because they are leading social sites does not mean that they are the best to use for an SEO campaign. There are also numerous lesser known social media platforms that can be used by in an SEO campaign. Although they are not as well known as some of the giants they can be very useful tools for businesses. Here are a few not-as-well-known social platforms that are worth taking a look at for today’s cutting edge business.
Over the last few years consumers have become increasingly secure about shopping through online resources. As they have become safer, there are more online purchases occurring than ever before. This offers the ecommerce site an opportunity to be taken advantage of, as long as they know how to stay competitive. This is of course the catch since ecommerce has become more difficult. Google acts like they want to be the only affiliate on the internet and with Amazon being the giant it is, it can be difficult to get notice as a valid alternative. Search engines also tend to remove commercial sites from their results and replace them with their own sets of ads or shopping programs. Search engines also tend to lean toward ranking results for content but not so much for products. There are several strategies and SEO best practices that can help improve an ecommerce site’s ranking in SERPs.