SEO for Blogs: How You Can Rank Better on Google?

Search Engine Optimization has come a long way. The days of keyword stuffing & black hat tactics have been overtaken by the numerous updates Google gives to its algorithm. It is said, Google makes around 500 adjustments to its search engine algorithm every year. If you would want to take a look at some of the major changes which Google has done for their different updates, you can refer to this Moz Timeline of history. Google has made it a point to elevate quality content over scrappy content to ensure the readers get best of what they want to know about. But how do you ensure that your blog is in the good books of the search results and ranks higher consistently? Some of these pointers below will help you to meet the ask of what’s needed to rank your content & rank it better than your competitors

• Decide on your Blog post Title Intelligently:

Blog post titles are one of the primary factors for Google to determine the relevancy of the post amongst thousands of others. Getting a well-researched blog post title can get your post get higher relevancy on searched keywords. One of the research conducted by Moz suggested that the ideal character size for blog post title is from 56-60 characters. If you would want to make all the words visible of your title in the search results, it is better to use normal case than use upper case. Upper case characters take up more space & the extra letters are cut off by the search engine preview.

• Choose your Keywords wisely:

At one point of time, Keywords was the holy grail of how Google ranked web pages. However, with search engines getting a lot more smarter dirty practices like keyword stuffing were taken care of with regular updates & learning. However, Google still considers Keywords as an integral part to rank your content. Whenever choosing the topic, do ensure that your most important keywords related to the topic takes precedence while deciding the post title (which is in the 60 character cut off limit prescribed earlier).Ensuring your important keywords appear in your post title and url structure is a great tactic to tell the search engine about the relevance of the topic. However, you have to ensure you do not repeat your keywords one too many in the context of the post and keep it as natural as possible.

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While deciding on the variations of keywords & topics, you can use the Keyword planner tool by Google to check the demand of your keywords & topics. The tool gives you some detailed insights on the various possibilities along with a device wise split and search trends on the keyword list. The more popular the keywords, the tougher your competition will get to get higher in the search results.

• Trust a good SEO Plugin:

When you own a blog, chances are that you might need a plugin to do the lengthy SEO work for you. If your blog is hosted on WordPress, we recommend Yoast plugin for WordPress which makes it easier for a non-technical person to get an indicator as to how good have you optimized your post for the search engines. The three signals (Green, Yellow , Red) give you a fair indicator of how your post is doing in terms of overall content optimization & also gives suggestions as to what else you must be doing to make the post SEO friendly. That’s great for a start right?

• Make it Relevant, Make it Long!

Are long blog posts the future of content marketing? This post by Kissmetrics does support this theory, where they have seen an exponential rise on the long blog posts in terms of traffic. The length of a blog post is subjective to individual. However, Google considers longer posts as informative particular to a topic when written in depth and providing useful information.

How about us? We experience a 32% rise in traffic to blog posts which are more than 1,500 words are above when analysed for the last one year.

• The Age of Social Search:

In a study conducted by Moz some time ago, they co-related Google+ as one of the most important factors with SEO. Although, Google has denied time and again that social media is not one of the primary factors on which they rank content, different studies have suggested otherwise. With Google showing personalized results to users who are connected with their Google accounts while searching, a content your friend might have +1’d has also an equal chance of being visible to you on the first page. Google thinks the result might be of more relevance to you since your friend (on Google+) has already seen the page on the same topic you are searching and also liked it. That is one of the primary reasons, we pay special attention to our Google+ page to increase interactions.

4 crazy SEO myths that need to be put to bed immediately

There are quite a few myths that are flying around in the SEO world and it is rather interesting as to how these myths actually gain traction when Matt Cutts and other major SEO people keep telling us that it isn’t the case yet we still rely on these myths when we approach clients. So I have decided that it is time to put a little end to them.

1. Social signals like shares and Tweets improve rankings

Google doesn’t really have access to Facebook or Twitter. The only thing that social media signals are used for is validating links to a site. For example, if a post has five shares but 100 links, obviously it’s unnatural and Google will be hesitant in ranking that particular page.

If the same piece of content has 100 shares and 100 or so links, it means that the piece of content actually has something great to say and Google will then rank it accordingly.

Ultimately, Google uses it as a link validator if you will. It is a clever way to ensure that we are keeping within Google’s Quality Guidelines instead of trying to game the system.

2. Meta descriptions affect my rankings

This is a simple one to debunk. Descriptions have no real value to where your site is placed in the organic rankings. It can help with the click through rate because you have 150 characters of prime real estate to place riveting content and an enticing call to action which can trigger click through rates.

Yes it is important, but only for click through rates. Google has announced that it doesn’t look at it for indexing purposes. Additionally it can change it as it sees fit. This is much like the Meta Keywords section.

3. The more pages of content I have the better I rank

Some believe that this is a cut-and-dry topic because people love to believe that the more they produce the better they rank. Clearly they are wrong. If you have loads of rubbish content versus your competitor who has fewer pages of more quality, you are not going to outrank him (or her).

Google looks at your site and places value on quality and relevance to the particular search query not on the amount of content you. If you look at Webmaster tools, you will also find that not all your content is indexed and if it does get indexed it may not be for very long. Stop focusing on quantity, it’s a wasted exercise.

4. H1 tags are the most important aspect

Well no, Google doesn’t access your site from the H1 tag. It crawls the code from the top down, so essentially the title of the page is more important, as is the URL. Never mind the fact that Google can devalue the importance of the H tags as it goes down the page because over optimised tags are a distraction which cause content to be unnatural and for crummy robots.

Rather focus your content structure on users. They read it after all. Place the important parts and the top and then work your way down but keep it flowing and please don’t look at SEO when writing. Look at the topic.

A little secret for you, H tags are styling elements created by CSS folks not SEO.

Those are the myths that boggle my mind when I see people going all crazy about. Clients may not understand it and still think they are rad tactics but this is where you need to consult or guide as to what is right or wrong.

What crazy SEO myths have you come across lately?

Google Panda Update and Changed Face of SEO

Every update made by Google had major or minor affects on SEO campaigns. How much the Google Panda update has affected the SEO world?

Every update made by Google had major or minor affects on SEO campaigns. How much the Google Panda update has affected the SEO world?

About two years back Google introduced its Panda update and the impact on the SEO world was momentous. But that is old story now and what is more important is finding out the best way of countering the adverse effects of Google Panda updates on your SEO campaign.

Research is Still On

From the day it was released, experts have been at work assessing the possible impacts and finding out the way to carry on the SEO projects without being adversely affected by such impacts. While full proof strategy for countering them is still not in place; a number of innovative discoveries have taken place changing the very face of the SEO world.

Ingredients of First Google Panda Updates

Major changes and effects of first Google Panda updates were as follows.

• Shift of emphasis from quantity to quality.

• Consequential shift of emphasis from keywords to relevance of the contents.

• From now onwards; content was the king on the web.

Panda Update 2.0 and its Impact

Google has not stopped with introduction of Panda update two years ago and has recently further updated the algorithm and introduced Panda 2.0 update. Its impacts are as follows.

• Webmasters and entrepreneurs have to adapt to the new update.

• Google has made it much trickier because they are not publicizing the changes introduced. 

• Greatest difference between initial Panda update and 2.0 is that the ingredients of the latter updates have not been made public by Google.

Presumptions About Google Panda 2.0

While the details are not coming by, experts have been making some presumptions about the Google Panda update 2.0. From the results that are coming on the way of webmasters following their advices seem to justify such presumptions. The focuses that experts suggest are on quality of contents and improvement of user experience while discarding spamming, keyword stuffing, and unwarranted link building.

Suggestions for Small Businesses

More than the larger enterprises, it is the smaller enterprises and websites that are hit hard by such algorithm changes and policy updates by Google. However, the following steps can still help smaller enterprises effectively address the impacts of Google Panda 2.0 updates.

• Adopting a holistic approach towards marketing. 

• Not relying on search optimization alone.

• Understanding that when link building or such other SEO strategies are widely adopted being popular, Google will at some point of time discard them.

Logic of Google Panda 2.0

Google does not introduce algorithm changes for your benefit or for some high ethics. It is basically aimed at protecting their $300 billion business across the globe. They cannot risk providing names of sites on their result pages that offer irrelevant or inferior quality contents as they always fear losing their top position to some other upcoming search engine on the web.

Many experts and that include Dan Reno, SEO director at online marketing agency thinks differently. If one update of Google is going to affect any website so much then there must be several things wrong with that site and you cannot put all the blame on Google, he says.

Bottom line of all these is that despite the secrecy maintained by Google about Panda 2.0, it is possible to address its effects using relevant contents and dispensing with spamming methods, if any used by the site.

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6 Major Google Changes Reveal the Future of SEO

The last few weeks have been amazing. Google has made some big changes and they are all part of a longer term strategy that has many components.

In short, Google is doing a brilliant job of pushing people away from tactical SEO behavior and toward a more strategic approach.

You could argue that "tactical SEO is dead", but that's not quite right. And don't run around saying "SEO is dead" because that is far from the truth, and I might just scream at you.

Instead, let's take a few steps back and understand the big picture. Here's a look at the major developments, some of Google's initiatives driving this change, and the overall impact these changes will have on SEO.

1. '(Not Provided)'

Google made the move to make all organic searches secure starting September 23. This means we've lost the ability to get keyword data for users arriving to our websites from Google search.

Losing Google keyword data is sad for a number of reasons. This impacts publishers in many ways, including losing a valuable tool for understanding what the intent of customers that come to their site, for conversion optimization, and much more.

For tactical SEO efforts, it just means that keywords data is harder to come by. There are ways to work around this, for now, but it just won't be quite as simple as it used to be.

2. No PageRank Update Since February

Historically, Google has updated the PageRank numbers shown in the Google Toolbar every 3 months ago or so, but those numbers haven't been updated since February. This means 8 months have gone by, or two updates have been skipped.

In addition, Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts has said Toolbar PageRank won't be updated again this year, leading many to speculate that PageRank is going away. I won't miss it because I don't look at PageRank often and I normally don't have a Google toolbar in my browser.

However, a lot of people still use it as a crude measurement of a site's prominence.

For sites with a home page that has PageRank 7 or higher, it may in fact be reasonable to assume that the site has some chops. Correspondingly, sites with a home page that has a PageRank of 3 or lower, it is either new, or probably a low quality experience. Stuff in the middle, you just don't know.

If Google shuts off this data flow entirely, which wouldn't be surprising, then they will have to rely on other real world (and better) measurements instead. This would actually be better than using PageRank anyway, because Google says they don't use it that way themselves, so why should we?

3. Hummingbird

There are a few elements to Google's Hummingbird algorithm, announced in time for Google's official birthday, but like Caffeine before it, this is really a major platform change. Google has built a capability to understand conversational search queries much better than before.

For example, submit a query to Google such as "show me pictures of Fenway Park", and it does:

Knowledge Graph show me pictures of Fenway Park

Then you can follow that query with this one: "who plays there", and you get this result:

Knowledge Graph who plays there

Both of these show conversational search at work (but note that the Boston Beacons folded in 1968 after just one season, so that is an error in that result – shows that they have much work to do!).

Hummingbird really changes the keyword game quite a bit. Over time, exact keyword matches will no longer be such a big deal.

The impact of this algorithm is likely to be quite substantial over the next 2 or so years. Net-net, they have drastically reduced access to the raw data, and are rolling out technology that changes the way it all works at the same time!

4. Google+

OK, this one isn't new. Google launched Google+ June 28, 2011.

While it seemed to get off to a slow start initially, many argue that it has developed a lot of momentum, and is growing rapidly. The data on Google+'s market share is pretty hard to parse, but there are some clear impacts on search, such as the display of personalized results:

google plus usage personalization

In addition, you can also see posts from people on Google+ show up in the results too. This is true even if you perform your search in "incognito" mode:

google plus impact on SEO

And, while I firmly believe that a link in a Google+ share isn't treated like a regular web link, it seems likely to me that it does have some SEO value when combined with other factors.

How Google+ fits into this picture is that it was built from the ground up to be a content sharing network that helps with establishing "identities" and "semantic relevance". It does this quite well, and in spite of what you might read in some places, there is a ton of activity in all kinds of different verticals on Google+.

5. Authorship

OK, authorship also isn't new (launched on June 7, 2011), but it is a part of a bigger picture. Google can use this to associate new pieces of content with the person who wrote it.

Over time, this data can be potentially used to measure which authors write stuff that draw a very strong response (links, social shares, +1s, comments) and give them a higher "Author Rank" (note that Google doesn't use this term, but those of us in the industry do).

We won't delve into the specifics of how Author Rank might work now, but you can read "Want to Rank in Google? Build Your Author Rank Now" for my thoughts on ways they could look at that.

That said, in the future you can imagine that Google could use this as a ranking signal for queries where more comprehensive articles are likely to be a good response. Bottom line: your personal authority matters.

I also should mention Publisher Rank, the concept of building a site's authority, which is arguably more important. Getting this payoff depends on a holistic approach to building your authority.

6. In-Depth Articles

Google announced a new feature, in-depth articles August 6. You can see an example of this here:

In-depth Articles Obamacare

The Google announcement included a statement that "up to 10% of users' daily information needs involve learning about a broad topic." That is a pretty big number, and I think over time that this feature will become a pretty big deal. Effectively, this is an entirely new type of way to rank in the SERPs.

This increases the payoff from Author Rank and Publisher Rank – there is a lot to be gained by developing both of these, assuming that Google actually does make it a ranking factor at some point. Note that I wrote some thoughts on how the role of in-depth articles could evolve.

Is There a Pattern Here?

Yes, there is. The data they have taken away has been historically used by publishers to optimize their SEO efforts in a very tactical manner.

How do I get higher PageRank? What are the keywords I should optimize for? Taking these things out of the picture will reduce the focus on these types of goals.

On the other side of the coin, the six major Google changes listed above are all moves that encourage more strategic behavior. Note that I didn't bring up Google Now, which is also a really big deal too, and it's another big piece of the Google plan, just not a major driver of the point I'm trying to make today.

All of these new pieces play a role in getting people to focus on their authority, semantic relevance, and the user experience. Again, this is what Google wants.

For clarity, I'm not saying that Google designed these initiatives specifically to stop people from being tactical and make them strategic. I don't really know that. It may simply be the case that Google operates from a frame of reference that they want to find and reward outstanding sites, pages, and authors that offer outstanding answers to user's search queries. But the practical impact is the same.

The focus now is on understanding your target users, producing great content, establishing your authority and visibility, and providing a great experience for the users of your site. Properly architecting your site so that the search engines can understand it, including using schema and related markup, addressing local search (if that is relevant to you), and work of this type still matters, too.

But, the obsession with tactical items like PageRank and keywords is going to fade away. As Google tweaks the way their service operates, and look for ways to capture new signals, they do things that naturally push you in that direction. It isn't going to stop. Expect more of the same going forward!

Top 10 Off Page SEO Tips and Strategies

Off page SEO is another key factor of search engine ranking. Find here top 10 off page SEO tips and latest off page strategies in 2013. Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing your website pages and posts outside your website. Foregt what you have learnt in 2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2013 Google has changed its alorithm a lot based on latest panda update, penguin update and EMD update. Here are greatest off page search engine optimization techniques which will boost your website’s ranking in all major search engines. Off page SEO strategies are the techniques by which we promote website’s name, URL at different websites without changing any thing in website or pages.

1. Social Networking

Social networking or social media marketing is the best way of off page optimization. Google also recommend for social media optimization. It has already said that discuss about site, products and services at social networking sites. If your site is good enough other webmasters shall start giving link to your website pages and posts.

2. Blog Posting

Do as much as guest blogging on different good quality websites. It will enhance your authorship visibility all over the web and other websites might link to your website’s content.

3. Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites are good for off page search engine optimization. Sites like stumbleupon, digg, delicious are very good sites that give traffic as well as backlinks. Do not bookmark on sites that has low quality on web.

4. Press Releases

Though google has announced that it will not give backlinks to your site from press release websites. But do not bother press release is very good way for off page SEO which can generate good traffic and brand value for your site.

5. Article Writing

Write bunch of articles on Ezine and other qualitative article websites. It will boost your website’s off page presence and provide you extra backlinks. Always remember do not be so smart be unique and original. It will give you natural links.

6. Forum Discussions

Use some good quality forum sites to discuss about your website’s content and pages. Forum websites are also very good way to increase traffic. Off page SEO’s value increased a lot by forum discussions.

7. Classifieds Submissions

If your website category is related to classified categories you should also post classified ads on various classified websites for extra dose of off page SEO.

8. Questions and Answers

Try to find out some questions and answer website that has some topics related to your website. Post questions and answers related to your website’s content and posts.

9. Comments Posting

Comments posting is good way to generate traffic on your website. Some sites also allow do follow comments that can provide your site some good quality backlinks. It will promote your site through off page medium.

10. Business and Local Listing

Add your business websites to business and local listing websites for off page benefits. Post good quality unique information about your website on local listing pages it will optimze your website and provide you good backlinks.