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Connection between Long-Tail Keywords and SEO

You may already have heard about the long tail keywords. They are the combination of a few words, typically heading towards the formation of queries that are entered in search engines to find content, products, and services.And there is a good reason to say that long tail keywords are generally less popular keywords.

Some myths about long tail keywords

A vast majority of people believe that long tail keywords are based on 3 – 4 keywords. It is entirely untrue. The most basic factor that brings a keyword into the category of long tail keywords is its rarity. The relative rarity of a keyword that tends to occur as a phrase in Google search is the factor that makes it a long tail keyword.

History of long tail

The concept of long tail keywords started with an article ‘The Long Tail’, which was published in the Wired magazine. The concept stated there says:

“…the tyranny of lowest-common-denominator… Many of our assumptions about popular taste are actually artifacts of poor supply-and-demand matching—a market response to inefficient distribution.

…Hit-driven economics is a creation of an age without enough room to carry everything for everybody.”

The notion here is that internet is a vaster realm as compared to the physical world. It is not restricted by the limited radio frequencies and limited spaces in the bookstores. Even if you search for something that has never been searched before, you are likely to get a result that might fulfill your needs. And if you are marketer or business, you can find an audience no matter how rare that audience is.

What’s good about long tail?

It is very difficult to optimize for the long tail keywords. According to the survey, about 15% search queries entered in Google are new; and so they care the long tail keywords. The question here is whether you can optimize for a keyword that has never been used before. Well, the chances are meager. But still this 15% of the search queries cannot be written off. The reason is that most of the search queries in those 15% are the ones that are meant to bring money to the businesses.

Now the thing is that you cannot do accurate optimization of those 15% search queries unless you get lucky. But you can stay close by avoiding ambiguity, being precise, avoiding going off topic, and answering the questions to meet the needs of the queries.

Long tail keywords and SEO

In general, you will want to get ranked against more common keywords because that’s how you can show up in the top of SERPs when people search for the types of service you offer. But the matter of fact is that working on long tail keywords is purely profitable because only the serious users, who get online for the purpose of getting converted, use those keywords. But since Google has gotten better in dealing with the phrases and it continues to get even better, you can presume that long tail keywords are going to get crucial.

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Attracting Valuable Links through Interactive Content

Links constitute a major ranking signal, meaning that you must work on links if you want to emerge well in the search engine’s arena. But since there is a saturation of contenders and this saturation continues to get bigger with the passage of time, we can presume that traditional methods to build links might soon completely seize offering the websites unique ways to rank.

What does that mean? It means that you need to do something different if you want to rank well.

Confused? The thing is that guest posting and other similar tactics of building links are still great and necessary ways to build links but they are not going to offer competitive advantage.

So, you are going to have to shift your focus towards incorporating something that has the potential to become popular immediately but your competitors are not working on it. For instance, you can work on interactive content.

A few of the interactive content ideas are worth talking about here.

Tools and calculators

The induction of tools and calculators that can help your audience to do something to make estimates in concern with the service you are offering can be great wayto build a reasonable audience which may even tend to convert. For instance, you can embed a dimensional weight calculator if your business deals with the packaging and shipping of products. This calculator will have to be able to tell the exact size, weight, and shipping costs of the packages.

Games and quizzes

If your website is not a portal from where the product and services could be purchased, you can embed the interactive content to keep your audience busy. Games and quizzes are the best tools to not only keep your audience engaged in your pages but they may also become an attraction for the users to come again and again to your pages. However, since these tools are resource-intensive in most of the situations, your pages might take a long time to load.

Interactive maps

A static map is not a bigger attraction for the users simply due to the act that they do not offer anything other than an option to zoom in, zoom out, and move around in the map. Interactive maps, on the other hand, are completely different in this scenario. In addition to allowing users to zoom in, zoom out and move the map, the interactive maps allow addition of data at different locations. The major reasons these maps are popular is that they allow users to compare places. This tool is particularly helpful for travel brands.

Interactive infographics and reports

Infographics are quite popular. But many people say that they are not as effective as they were in the past. The major reason is that people have lost interest in static pictures. What you may find more interesting here are the interactive infographics that allow the input of data to show the stats or results that you want. Incorporating such tools in your pages can help you enhance traffic to your website in a drastic manner.

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Tips for Effective Digital Marketing

Number one characteristic of an effective digital marketing strategy is that it is mindful, meaning that every aspect of this marketing is properly aligned with the strategy to perform its function in an ideal manner. Take example of Yoga. Yoga practice focuses on the enhancement of strength beyond physical. A typical Yoga practice involves a specific posture with closed eyes, deep breaths, and clearing of thoughts. The main purpose is to align physical and mental self and then working on a holistic way to extend the capabilities of both.

An ideal way to do the digital marketing is quite similar to that of yoga. It means that this approach needs to be flexible.

Finding purpose

An important purpose of yoga is to clear the thoughts and focus on the core values without paying attention to the external pressure. Using this very same approach in business and marketing process can help you get the best results. Example of Steve Jobs is quite prominent here. We all know about Apple Company being a trendsetter in the tech industry. And what’s more interesting is that they bring innovation that doesn’t seem risky. It is because of the fact that experts working in the company know the company’s value and they do not get obsessed with a wilder thought of introducing innovation.

Same thing can be done with the digital marketing.Focusing on your company’s core value and clearing the thoughts can help you think about the best digital marketing approach that is going to be extremely beneficial for your company.

Staying positive

The main purpose of clearing thoughts during yoga practice is to get rid of the negative thoughts and emotions. And then, what are going to fill in this ‘empty’ brain? Surely it is not going to be a negative thought.

As a marketer, you may be at the center of customer-driven activities in certain occasions. That’s where multiple conversations can delude your mind and make you do something which is not good for your business.In such scenarios, the best approach is to take a deep breath and focus on the desired outcome you are working for.

Developing empathy

The kind of marketing that involves crafting a pitch and then saying it in front of the masses without paying attention to the general and specific needs of audience is an easy and cruel approach. Even if you somehow manage to convince someone about buying a product based on some powerful words, it is not a long terms strategy because you are not paying attention to what your audience want.

The best thing to do here is to work on unique goals and motivations of the target market and provide them proper guidance through the marketing funnel. That is possible only if you do research to know about the specific requirements of your audience and focus those requirements during production and marketing procedures.

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What Is the Role of Technical Audit in Website’s Improvement?

For many people in the past decade, SEO has been all about throwing a few links and working social signal to get the rankings improved. Not many people used to pay attention to the role of technical audits in the website’s SEO. But lately, many people seem to be getting it.Still, the general mindset that is used in approaching the technical audits is not something that can guarantee great results.

For starters, people seem to be paying more attention to the use of tools and data in order to do the audit. They don’t seem to be focusing on getting a sense about the needs and goals of the website. As a matter of fact, understanding the requirements and objectives is needed long before you ask about the use of tools and data.

And then, there is “cookie-cutter SEO” which also includes audits. Depending on the budget, goals and limitations, SEO audit can be vary. For instance, a stand-alone technical audit is going to be more comprehensive as compared to the one which is conducted as part of an ongoing program. You also have to take needs and limitations into considerations.

Understanding the business

There can be different requirements of the people coming and asking for the technical audits of their websites. These requirements are first based on the type of business they are running or the situation that has led them coming to you and asking for the technical audit. The purpose here can include anything from improving the site’s performance to fixing any issue to risk assessment.

After determining the purpose comes the onboarding phase. This phase includes the following procedures:

  • Asking right questions
  • Getting past data from SEO and developers’ teams
  • Getting to know about the business model

The initial onboarding process can never be ignored here. You need to get the answers of following questions in this regard.

  • Did they read a blog post?
  • Are they coming to you with specific concerns?
  • Are they coming to you after having an advice from someone?
  • What is the end result they want from the audit?

In other words, you need to know about the factor that motivated them to have a website audit. This way, you will not only be able to manage their expectations but you will also be able ensure the provision of actionable reports to them.

At this point, you need to know about your main point of contact. There are certain possibilities such as:

  • A team leader
  • Marketing director
  • Business owner (in case it is a small business)
  • SEO agency
  • Web design firm

Depth of the audit

You need to determine the type of audit that you need to perform. There are two types of audits that you can do here.

The first type of audit is the limited site audit. This approach works well for the people with limited budgets. This process is based on a top-down analysis which tends to identify the elements which need to be analyzed in depth. Surely you are not going to do this further analysis because you job is to identify the elements.

The second type of audit is the comprehensive site audit. This audit involves a deep dive into the entire list of elements which need to be analyzed during an audit. Obviously this audit is going to be costlier because of the level of efforts and expertise required in the task.

Reporting and deliverables

After you have worked on the audit, you need to determine what should be in the report. A few things that you will need to consider in this regard are as under.

  • Make sure that the report is functional
  • You need to know who is doing implementation based on the report you have submitted
  • You have to see if it is a first time or a quarterly review
  • You need to know if there is more than one team working on the report

Make sure that you are delivering manageable reports which include proper information about the elements with problems. You need to suggest practical solutions to the problems. And for best results, you need to meet with the contact and the teams which are going to be assigned the task of working on your recommendations.

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Use of Keywords in the Content Written For Search Audiences

SEO professional, who have been working in this area throughout the past decade, will know how much has changed during this time.

There was no Panda, Humingbird, RankBrain or BERT in 2010. But it is surprising that many of us still think about SEO content as something which involves:

  • Addition of target keyword and its variants in the content for a specific number of times
  • Addition of keyword in the major places such as title tag, Meta description, and H1
  • Paying strict attention to the word count

However, this isn’t how things work now because Google has matured well over all these years. The practice of stuffing keywords in different areas of content is not how you can get it ranked now. You ultimately have to pay attention to what searchers are looking for.

What is SEO content?

SEO content can be defined as the content which is written for the purpose of improving search engine’s ranking of the webpage or website. This term was invented at the time when SEOs literally used to write content only for search engines, not for humans. And so, this term has fallen out of the favor with many professionals working in the SEO industry today.

Advancements in search engines have made the flaw within this term quite obvious. Search engines have worked well to become programmatic representation of the searchers. Search engines algorithms now focus more on what searchers would pick as the best result after entering their query. In this scenario, the answer to “how to rank” is to pay attention to what is more valuable for the searchers.

Making content SEO friendly

If you want to write SEO friendly content, you are going to have to focus on the intention behind searcher’s question. Furthermore, you will also have to pay attention to the high degree of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness of the content in order to make it rank well within SERPs.

When it comes to answering the question based on user intent, you will first have to pay attention to the title. Make sure that title is exactly the query that searchers enter into the search bar. And then, you will have to make sure that the content under that title fully answers the query.

E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) has become one of the major points of discussion in the SEO industry. High E-A-T content tends to attract more attention.

In other words, SEO friendly content is not the type of content that involves seemingly mindless insertion of keywords in different areas of the content body. SEO is well past that point.

Importance of Keywords for SEO

You may wonder about the use of keywords while learning about the role of E-A-T and searcher-focused content and titles. Do they really matter in modern day SEO?

The matter of fact is that the keywords have transformed into queries in the modern day SEO. Instead of looking for the ways to use keywords in the content, you need to focus on answering the queries. It means that you essentially need to do research about the top queries that searchers are using in order to get suggestions for the type of content they are looking for.

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Tips To Identify and Eliminate Keyword Cannibalization

A common myth is that if more pages on your site target a specific keyword, you are going to rank well for that keyword. According to this concept, you can actually insist Google more on picking your pages for ranking.

Well, it is not true actually.

As a matter of fact, targeting one phrase or keyword across multiple pages can have the opposite effect. And it will be more harmful for the SEO of your website. The reason is that when you target one keyword across different pages on your site, you actually make those pages compete with each other. They are not going to work in a collaboration which you were assuming.

As a result of this scenario, each of those pages will have lower CTR, poor authority and dissatisfactory conversion rate.

This misstep is called Keyword Cannibalization.

Identifying keyword cannibalization

Identifying and fixing the keyword cannibalization is quite easy. We will talk about the identification of the problem first. This process is much similar to that of creating the keyword matrix.

You will first have to create a spreadsheet in which all of the site’s important pages and their associated keywords will be listed. You can also use the keyword mapping tool.

This data will be based on a list of important URLs and the keywords associated with the pages of those URLs. Then you are going to have to look for any duplication. If there is duplication, it means that your site is suffering from keyword cannibalization.

Fixing the keyword cannibalization

Your approach in solving the keyword cannibalization problem mainly depends upon the root of the problem. Having that said, there are a few solutions which you can go for in order to fix the issue of keyword cannibalization.

  • The simplest solution that can help you eliminate the keyword cannibalization is the restructuring of your website. This method mainly involves turning your most authoritative page into a landing page.
  • There may be a case in which you lack a landing page that consolidates all of the product pages in one place. In this scenario, you can create a new landing page and link it to all of the unique variations. This page is going to server as your authoritative source page.
  • If multiple pages on your site target the same keyword and those pages do not offer uniqueness of content, you can consider consolidating the content. In other words, you take multiple underperforming pages and combine them to make one authoritative source of information.
  • If you already have unique content in the pages across your website but you are using poor keyword strategy, you can consider finding new keywords for the pages. In this scenario, you are going to have to make sure that the keywords are aligned with the content in the pages from the perspective of context.

These are a few but highly effective ways to fix keyword cannibalization. Since this problem has become more prevalent these days; and so, it is very important to keep your pages and keywords under a tight check to make sure that your site is performing well.

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Tips To Create Great Meta Descriptions

Meta description is the first thing about a website that we see on the SERPs. And so, it is highly important to make sure that you have optimized your Meta descriptions in an ideal manner. It may be worth mentioning here that Meta descriptions are not directly helpful with the rankings. However, this signal, even being an indirect one, plays a huge role in your SEO.

Things that are dependent on Meta description include click-through rate, perception about the quality results, and a perception about what is being offered in the web page.

Importance of Meta description for SEO

In the olden days of SEO, Meta description was perceived to be the factor helping in the SEO. You may wonder if it helped the websites to rank. Google states it categorically that neither Meta description was a part of ranking process in the past nor it is the case in the present. However, it is actually the primary description that helps your users understand what’s in the web page. If they like the description, they enter the website. And if the description is not convincing, they simply refer to other search results in the SERPs.

Given the function the Meta description has to perform, it becomes evident that it is the very first step that can help you in improving CTR, boosting traffic, increasing the chances of more conversions.

Difference between Meta Description and SERP Snippets

Many of the people mistake Meta description and search snippets to be the two names of one thing. It is not the case actually. Meta description is mainly an HTML tag which you can control. Its creation and optimization is entirely up to you.

On the other hand, search snippets are controlled by Google. Google creates them and show them on the SERPs. A search snippet may contain Meta description or the Google may choose to use any other part of description from the content body of the web page.

Now, we are going to discuss some tips to improve your Meta Descriptions.

The ideal or recommended length of Meta description

Over the years, the best SEO practice had been to keep Meta description no lengthier than 160-165 characters. However, Google changed it in the last year. Now, you can insert a Meta description of up to 300 characters. It means that you have got more space in which you can add an extra bit of details to the summary of what you want your users to see in the Meta description.

Research the SERPs

It is actually more of a manual approach to see what is going to be ideal for you. You can do a little SERP research to find out what is going on in the industry.

  • First, you need to research the SERPs using your targeted keyword. The process can be a bit of time consuming but it is actually quite straightforward. And it is the way you can see where your competitors stand when people use the targeted query you are using at the moment.
  • Then you are going to do a little research on what your competitors are doing. SERP research is helpful in this regard obviously.
  • The data being displayed from the above two steps can be exported in the spreadsheet. This way, you can do an effective tracking.

Researching your clients

Another factor on which the success of your Meta description depends heavily is the description’s alignment with what your customers like at every phase of the buying journey.That’s where you are going to have to do an extensive research because the marketing funnel can be different for different audiences.

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Impact of Mobile-First Index on SEO

One thing consistent about World Wide Web is that it goes through a lot of changes. And it is mainly due to the major search engines which are being used by internet users. In this scenario, we will talk about Google because it is a universally accepted platform to serve people from almost all of the countries.

In this article, we will talk about the mobile first index and its impact on SEO and rankings.

Mobile first informational needs are changing

There is not a specific type of content which is appropriate for the mobile-first index. The ranking of a particular type of content against certain queries can vary when we move from one query to another.

In this scenario, it is also worth talking about the queries that people use while searching on the web through their mobile devices. The latest evolution in this regard is the use of personal and conversational search queries.

Web search has come through a long way to offer personalization to the web users.But it doesn’t mean that other general searches are not applicable. They are very much functional. In fact, those general queries tell us about the ranking a specific page in a better way.

Satisfy the users

If you want answers to your questions, you are going to have to identify the problems your users are facing.

While looking at SERPs, you are going to see different types of sites. Some would be review sites, some might be informational sites, and come would be educational sites.

This difference between the sites is enough of a reason for you to understand that people approach internet to solve their different problems. And so, they want different informational resources to get their answers. In this scenario, SERPs are enough to guide you.

Defining relevance in Mobile-First Index

We all know what user intent means in the world of Google and all other major search engines. Based on this definition, the relevance of content has become more important than ever.

In this scenario, the ability of Google and other search engines to understand the intent has become the point of emphasis. And this ability can change with the change in the core algorithm. It means that the response to a query based on search intent may be different at certain occasions.

These are the same criteria which are considered in the ranking of desktop SERPs. It means that it all comes down whether or not the website is mobile friendly when it comes to the assignment of rank to this website in mobile SERPs.However, it has to be made sure that the mobile friendly website fulfills the search intent requirements. If it doesn’t, it will certainly not be ranked above a desktop friendly website which fulfills the requirements of search intent.

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Tips for Ethical Link Building In 2020

Unless you are running a quite popular website, chances are you are going to need to acquire links. And its importance is evident from the fact that Google has declared content and links as biggest SEO factors.

So, if you are sticking with the development of content only and not paying attention to the links, you are not going to get the important referral traffic which can help your website to rank higher. But one thing worth mentioning in this regard is that Google has put some strict guidelines regarding how to build links.

Thus, you are going to have to make sure that you are doing link building in a positive way. In this article, we are going to talk about the ethical ways to build links.

Be a journalistic source of information

The only way you can get high quality links is to offer high quality content to the important stakeholders in this trade.And for this purpose, you are going to have to be a journalistic source of information.

For instance, you can offer a quote, tip, or piece of information in exchange of a mention of your name, brand, or one of your blog posts.

If you want to make your content impactful, you are going to have to include expert interviews, quotes, or roundups in it.This way of content development is amazing.You can get different views around a specific topic. Your readers are going to find it very interesting going through those pieces of information.And this is how you are going to get links.

Link reclamation

The concept of broken link building is not new. This technique involves searching for the content which contains anchor texts you can target. And you find the content hoping for the links to be broken. The next thing you are going to have to do is to get your link inserted in place of the broken link.

While this way of link building is great, it is nothing less than a headache. You are going to have to scan hundreds of articles to find one link spot.

If you find this way of link building difficult, you can work on link reclamation. Link reclamation is the process that focuses mainly on brand mentions. If someone writes about you but doesn’t post a link back to your website, you can ask them to place a link there in the mention. The nicest way of doing so starts with thanking them about the mention. Then you will have to ask them for the link to your website to be placed. The best part is that this process allows you to build a connection with those people for further collaboration.

Guest posting

Guest posting is a pretty old method for link building; and it has been a topic of debate regarding if this way of link building really works. Well, the matter of fact is that guest posting really allows you to build high quality links which are going to benefit your website in a very nice way. All you have to do is to focus on quality. Make sure that you are writing high quality content for the high authority websites.

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Some Bad SEO Tactics You Need To Forget

Some Bad SEO Tactics You Need To Forget

We are about to enter into a new decade. And it’s now the perfect time to forget about the bad SEO habits which simply do not work. Search engines have become more user-centric in the recent times. So, if you are focusing search engines and not the users, you are actually on a mistake. And every SEO mistake generally originates from the habits of focusing search engines while forgetting about the users. Well, it’s the time to forget about the bad habits now. In this article, we are going to talk about the bad habits which you really need to say goodbye to.

Creating pages with similar content

The tactic of creating pages with similar content is not quite prevalent in these days but some people still do it. The general purpose of this tactic is to target keywords. Well, the bad news is that this tactic doesn’t work at all now.

Link building using generic and template emails

You are not going to like receiving spam emails. So it is going to be unfair sending such emails to the others. Remember, link building has become a way of marketing rather than just an SEO trick. This is the reason that researching for the right audience is really important before you send your emails.

So, it is not going to be much fruitful sending generic emails to a larger domain of people asking for the link. Instead, you can send fewer emails to the people you have done your research on and you know that they are going to give you the link.

Trying to resolve every ranking issue with more links

While links matter more than majority of other ranking factors, it is not a wisest approach to solve this every ranking problem with the help of more links.

Links are basically seen as an appreciation for your website. And so, they need to be gathered in a very natural manner. If the links are gathered in an unnatural manner, they are going to do more harm than good.

Not paying attention to the content

If you have figured out that your website is lacking necessary amount of links, you first have to pay attention to the factors that can help you gain links. And the most important factor to talk about is the content. Even if you have certain other SEO requirement, you are going to have to make sure that you have high quality content on your website.

In this scenario, you have to make sure that you are not going for the creation of marginal content for the purpose of ‘improving’ SEO.It is not going to serve the purpose. The content needs to be of good quality.

Skipping fundamental on-page SEO elements

For better traffic, you are going to need to optimize on-page elements on your website for the best of your site.For instance, you have to pay attention to the creation of a good title for the page. This title should be properly optimized in accordance with the keywords you are using.

Not fixing technical problems

Every website performs on some technical grounds. These technical elements mainly include website structure, error-free navigation, page speed, design responsiveness, and much more. Make sure that you have fixed every problem which is affecting any of these technical elements.