SEO Tips Archives - Upward Media

On-Page SEO Tips – How to Perfectly Optimize Your Content for Google’s First Page

April 19, 2017 By The Upward Media Team 3 Comments

That’s the dream, isn’t it?

Making it to the top spot in Google’s search results and watching thousands of visitors gatecrash your website.

Sadly, though, it remains a dream for most businesses because they never really understand what they need to do to rank for their target keywords.

If you’re one of them, things are about to change for you.

Because in this post we’re going to show you exactly how to optimize your website pages and blog articles, and claim your share from Google’s unlimited traffic supply using proven on-page SEO techniques.

What is On-Page SEO?

A comprehensive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy has three main components – On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical

Source: QuickSprout

Technical and Off-Page SEO have a huge role in determining your search engine rankings. But your work starts from getting the on-page elements of your SEO strategy in place.

So it’s important that you understand exactly how to go about optimizing your content.

If that sounds intimidating, don’t worry. We’re here to simplify everything for you:

1. Optimize Your Articles for Topics, Not Keywords

Google has become much better at understanding your content and how well it serves the needs of its searchers. To get the top ranking, you don’t need to stuff your content with high-traffic keywords anymore.

Instead, you need to create well-rounded content that is optimized around topics, not keywords. This means if your content is relevant to a particular search query, Google will rank it even if you’ve not used the exact keyword used by the searcher

Don’t get us wrong, keyword research is still very important, but in a different way.

Now, instead of focusing on a single keyword, you need to use one primary keyword and a group of closely related keywords in your content to rank for your target keyword.

These are also known as LSI keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing) or, in simpler words, synonyms of your main keyword.

You can find LSI keywords in Google’s related searches:

… or by using a free tool like LSI Graph which gives you dozens of related keywords for your primary keyword.

Since keyword research is a detailed topic, we strongly recommend that you read Brian Dean’s keyword research guide to know exactly how to choose the right group of keywords to optimize your content.

Learning this is important because everything you’re going to do after this depends on the accuracy of your keyword research.

2. Use Search Engine Friendly URLs

Now that you’ve chosen a primary keyword (along with a few LSI keywords), you need to start using it on your page, starting with your page URL.

Using your main keyword in the URL is not as important as it used to be, but it still has some role in determining your ranking.

If you’re using WordPress, go to the permalinks section from your site’s admin dashboard:

In the permalinks settings, change your default URL structure to keyword based URLs (also called SEO friendly URLs):

Now, when you’ll publish a new post, the title of your post will be used as its URL.

But to avoid long URLs, change it before publishing a new post and try to limit it to 3 keywords.

Using SEO friendly URLs is one of the fundamentals of on-page SEO that many business websites surprisingly ignore.

3. Start the Post Title with Your Keyword

Starting the title of your page with your target keyword is important for two reasons:

It tells Google what your page is about
It catches the reader’s eye immediately and increases your chances of getting more clicks.

For example, when we searched the keyword “weight loss tips,” we found these top results that immediately caught our attention:

According to the Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer, most readers are likely to read the first and the last words of your title. Which makes it important to use your main keyword early.

4. Use Your Target Keyword in the First 100 Words

Several studies have shown that using your target keyword in the first few paragraphs of your content can help you rank higher.

For example, Ahrefs analyzed more than 2 million search results and found that 80% of the top ranking results had their target keyword in the first 100 words of the page.

Source: Ahrefs Keyword Study

But as we mentioned earlier, Google understands what you content is about and wants you to think about your readers first so try to feature your keyword in a natural way.

Don’t compromise user experience just to feature your keyword.

5. Use Your Keyword in H1 and H2 Tags

The title of your page should include your target keyword, we’ve already talked about that.

But it should also be wrapped in an H1 tag to make it more prominent.

WordPress uses the h1 tag for post titles by default, so you don’t have to worry about it if you’re a WordPress user.

Also ensure that all your sub-headings use the H2 tags and at least one sub-heading has your primary keyword in it.

You could also use one or two LSI keywords in other sub-headings on the page.

6. Use Images and Videos in Your Content

Using images, snapshots, memes, GIFs and videos in your content makes it much more engaging and interesting for your readers.

It keeps them hooked to your content, makes them stay longer on your site and, as a result, increases your average time on site (a key ranking factor).

But that’s not all:

Including images in your content gives you an additional traffic source from Google Image search. But to take advantage, make sure the title, the description and the alt-text of your image contains your main keywords.

For example, in the snapshot above, look how the target keyword “guest blogging tips” is used in the image file name, title, description and alt-text.

As for videos, a study by Convince & Convert shows that adding a video to your content can increase the chances of making it to Google’s first page by 53x

It’s great if you have your own video content to embed in your posts. But if you don’t, just find a relevant video from YouTube and include it in your blog post to give additional value to your readers.

7. Nail the Introduction to Increase Content Consumption

Did you know that most internet users never read more than 50% of an article? And even the other 50% don’t really read content, they skim through it.

This is exactly why the introductory paragraph of your post is SO important.

If you can capture your reader’s attention in the first few seconds after he lands on your page, you can keep him ’til the end.

In SEO terms, this is important because if readers don’t stay on your site for long and bounce back right away, it’s a strong signal to Google that your page isn’t relevant enough for that search query.

As a result, your ranking will fall.

So ditch the long, boring and formal introductions you may have learned in school.

Get straight to the point and let the reader know exactly how you’re going to answer his questions.

This post from SmartBlogger is a great example:

Look how the title and the first few lines of the post are closely connected and give the reader a clear idea of what the post is about.

8. Create Long, In-depth and Well-Researched Content

The days of cheap, thin and poorly research 500 word articles ranking on Google’s first page are long gone.

As a business you have to take a clear stand:

Either stay away from content marketing completely.

Or, if you think it’s worth investing in (which it certainly is), then create long, in-depth and well-researched content that goes well beyond the 1500 word mark (ideally somewhere between 2000-3000 words)

There are several studies to prove that longer content tends to rank higher.

Source: SerpIQ

This chart from a study by SerpIQ shows that the average word count of the top 10 search results is well over 2000 words.

It also makes sense because longer content tends to rank for more long-tail and LSI keywords as compared to shorter posts.

9. Use Relevant Internal and External Links

Linking to relevant existing content on your site is one of the best ways to keep your older content alive and improve the ranking of your internal pages.

A strong interlinking structure allows Google bots to crawl deep into your site and index your content more frequently.

Try using 4-5 relevant internal links in every new blog post you publish (without compromising on user experience, of course)

External links are also important for your rankings, but you need to be more careful with them:

Linking to reliable, authoritative and high-quality articles and resources makes your content more credible. On the other hand, linking to spam websites or low-quality content, you’re in danger of a Google penalty yourself.

So whenever you’re unsure about the credibility of an external resource, use a nofollow tag with the link.

10. Optimize for Social Media and Encourage Sharing

Social signals play an important role in determining your search ranking. Google considers them votes of confidence for a piece of content

So encourage your readers to share your content by adding social media sharing buttons to your site (we recommend Sumo), and optimize your articles for social media by using social media meta tags.

The Take Away

On-Page SEO is all about creating relevant and useful content, which helps your readers take action, while using the keywords and terminologies people are searching for. If you can get this balance right, making it to Google’s first page for your target keywords will become much easier.

7 Outdated SEO Practices You Need To Quit Right Now

March 24, 2017 By The Upward Media Team 3 Comments

It’s a no-brainer that we live in an increasingly fast-paced world—especially the online version.

Everything from our buying preferences and purchasing habits to the way we consume knowledge and interact with friends has changed dramatically over the last few years.

Why should SEO be any different?

Some of Google’s algorithm updates in the last few years have completely changed the way SEO works. Many SEO techniques that were best practices five years ago are now considered spam and may even result in Google penalties.

Like everything else in life, your SEO strategy needs to evolve with time.

If it hasn’t, you’re probably doing more damage to your business than you think.

Here’s a quick look at some of the most common but outdated SEO practices that many businesses still use.

1. Using Keyword-Rich Anchor Text

Using the exact keyword you want your site to rank for as the clickable text (called “anchor text”) for your internal links and backlinks is one of the oldest SEO techniques.

The majority of (outdated) SEO strategies still use it.

And to be fair, it worked well until Google came down hard on over-optimized anchor text in its Penguin update in 2012.

Now, if an overwhelming majority of your links has your target keyword as the anchor text, you’re in dangerous territory.

So why doesn’t Google like keyword-rich anchor text? What’s so bad about it?

Google wants webmasters to focus on the user experience as much as on content. The search engine wants to see natural anchor text that doesn’t disrupt the user experience.

Source: Matt Cutts Blog – Former Head of Webspam at Google

So what’s the right way forward?

Keyword-rich anchor text isn’t completely dead.

If you keep it in the right proportion, it can still be used. You should aim to keep anchor text that exactly matches your keyword (e.g., Digital marketing company, SEO services, weight-loss tips) at 2%–3% of your total link profile. That means you need to mix it up with other types of anchor text.

Here are a few examples:

Branded Anchors – The majority of your anchor text should include your brand name (e.g., Upward Media, UpwardMedia, UpwardMedia.com)
Naked URLs – Frequently use plain old URLs (e.g., http://www.upwardmedia.com) instead of dressing them up with words or phrases
Anchor Phrases – Use your target keyword as a part of a longer anchor phrase

Generic Anchors – Use keyword-free phrases like “Read this,” “Click here,” “This article,” etc.

When choosing the anchor text for your links, make sure it fits naturally within the context of your content and doesn’t look out of place.

2. Using Exact Match Domain Names for Your Sites

This is another common practice you should avoid for several reasons.

But first, you need to understand what exact match domains (EMD) are.

An EMD is a target keyword turned into a domain name. For example, if your target keyword is “Comfortable Night Suits for Men” an EMD would be “ComfortableNightSuitsForMen.com.”

Are EMDs effective in helping you rank for your target keyword? To an extent, yes (although it’s risky).

Will we use them for our business or our clients? Never.

Here’s why: An exact match domain might help you rank for your target keyword, but it’s not a long-term strategy.

First, an EMD is always under the threat of a Google penalty for over-targeting a keyword.

Second, EMDs rarely get backlinks from high-authority sites and reliable publications because they don’t look credible.

Think about it: How often have you seen sites like CNN or Entrepreneur link to a domain like ”BuyCheapKidsClothing.com”?

Imagine that we used “HireDigitalMarketingServices.com” instead of UpwardMedia.com as my domain name. Would you even be reading this blog?

Google is big on brands because brands are credible, consistent and trustworthy.

Source: Business.com

So instead of trying to secure that perfect keyword domain you’ve been after for so long, focus on building your brand image and use a brand name for your domain that’s easy to remember and doesn’t look suspicious.

3. Targeting Keywords Rather Than Topics in Your Content

Remember when you first asked your marketing agency what SEO was? They probably told you something like this:

“Making it to the top 10 search results on a high-traffic keyword by creating content that repeatedly mentions that keyword.”

Well, let’s just say things have changed.

Stuffing your content with high-traffic keywords won’t rank you anymore. Instead, it’s likely to get you penalized.

Google has become much smarter. It doesn’t need to see your target keyword a billion times in the title, the description and the body of your content.

Thanks to RankBrain, an artificial intelligence search algorithm, Google can now evaluate and rank search results based on search context and topical relevance, meaning it can understand the context of different search queries and return more accurate results.

So instead of worrying about useless metrics like keyword density, start writing useful content with natural variations of your primary target keyword (and other related keywords) throughout your content.

4. Building Backlinks From Irrelevant Guest Blogging and Low-Quality Sites

Google considers backlinks from other websites as votes of confidence.

But contrary to what your SEO agency tells you, not every backlink is good for your site.

Google not only counts the number of backlinks pointing to your site but also evaluates the quality of those links.

In more precise terms, quality refers to the relevance of that site to yours, the reputation and trust profile of the linking site, and the context in which the link has been used.

Backlinks from irrelevant, dubious and poor-quality websites often result in Google penalties—this includes the common link-building methods like cheap directory submissions, press releases, forum posts and comment spamming.

Guest blogging is one of my favorite branding techniques. It helps you reach new audiences and builds your image as a market expert.

But it’s not a safe link-building strategy, especially when you target irrelevant sites (which most SEO agencies do).

Just think about it. Does it make sense for a local car wash company to get backlinks from health and nutrition blogs?

But that’s how guest blogging is still being used by many SEO agencies. They get you backlinks from irrelevant and poor-quality sites and charge you thousands of dollars.

Stay away from them.

The only safe and secure way to get high-authority backlinks is by creating detailed and useful content that is worthy of a link. When you create such content, you can reach out to relevant blogs and websites, tell them about your content and request a backlink.

5. Linking to Low-Quality Content and Dubious Sites

Linking to relevant content on other websites is a recommended SEO practice—for example, linking to a detailed study in order to back up your argument, or linking to the source of some data you share.

That’s all fine.

But associating yourself with irrelevant or low-quality sites that have been involved in SEO malpractice or even penalized by Google is flirting with danger.

A safer approach is to take a good look at a website before linking to it. If you’re not sure about it, either find a different source or add a no-follow tag to the link.

6. Publishing New Content Frequently To Rank Higher

In an ideal world, there’s nothing wrong with publishing new content every day or even multiple times a day.

Big media publications like BuzzFeed, Mashable, etc., publish dozens of new article every day. They can publish frequently without compromising the quality of their content since they have huge budgets and hundreds of writers working for them.

If you can manage to do that too, skip this point.

Most small businesses, however, don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in content every month. So they turn to cheap writers who can give them thin, 500-word articles every day.

Big mistake!

Publishing frequently by compromising the quality and usefulness of your content is foolish.

Instead of hiring cheap writers to give you 30 posts a month, hire one professional subject expert to give you one absolutely epic piece of content every month.

Thirty shoddy articles won’t help you get any high-authority backlinks—even if you do manage to pick up a few links, your posts won’t remain in the top 10 search results for long when people don’t find the content useful and press the back button as soon as they land on your site.

An epic piece of content, on the other hand, will help you secure hundreds of backlinks, engage readers for a longer period and build your brand image as an expert.

CoSchedule experimented with this by increasing their weekly blog posts from two to three. The change resulted in almost 2,000 more page views, but significantly reduced audience engagement and social shares.

Source: CoSchedule Blog

Brian Dean, one of the biggest influencers in the SEO niche, has less than two dozen articles on his blog and goes without publishing new content for months. But when he does publish, he gets thousands of visitors, backlinks and social shares.

Try to strike the right balance with your available resources.

7. Using Fake Social Signals To Boost Ranking

Social signals definitely have an impact on your search results.

If your social profiles are followed by thousands of people, your content is shared frequently and your brand is often mentioned on social media, Google considers that a good indication that your content is useful.

Using fake social media followers or cheap social blasting services does exactly the opposite. It hurts your brand image and does nothing positive for your search rankings.

Source: Quick Sprout

Google is smarter than you think. It can easily distinguish genuine social media engagement from fake social signals.

In fact, if you frequently use fake social blasting services to generate initial momentum for your content, don’t be surprised if you get a manual penalty.

The Takeaway

Google is evolving its search algorithms all the time, which is why SEO never remains the same for too long. Staying up-to-date on SEO trends is crucial to ensure that your site is not involved in any outdated practices that are now considered violations of Google’s search guidelines. Failing to keep up will not only result in wasted time and money, but also damage your search rankings and online brand image permanently.