Category: SEO

There is no denying that Link building plays a big part in your SEO strategy. But the fact is that not every website that links back to your site is not worth it. It can affect your overall rankings, domain authority and performance when there are too many low-quality links associated with your website. The best practise is to reach out to the website publisher manually and try removing the low-quality links if that is not working the next best option is to disavow backlinks. 

What is Link Disavowing?

As I mentioned earlier, disavowing links should always be your last option. Disavowing link is telling Google the particular link is harming your site in terms of overall performance. It doesn’t remove the links, but signals google not to consider any link from that site when it comes to ranking factors. Don’t prioritize disavowing across the board as it might hurt your own SEO. 

5 Types of Links you need to consider disavowing

Bad backlinks come in different types. Although this doesn’t include every type of link that you should disavow, the most common types that you have to consider as a starting point. 

1. Forum Spam Links 

Google doesn’t encourage users linking back to random materials in forums or comments. If you think that this will help your backlink profile, you got this wrong. Say for example; in a popular forum like Quora or Reddit, if you try to flood with links back to your website without any context, Google will consider it as spam and penalize your website. 

2. Expired Domain Links

If you have links that are coming from expired domains, this is a clear violation of webmaster guidelines and google can penalize you for the same. So if you have some backlinks that are coming from expired domains this is one category that you should seriously consider removing.  

3. Low Quality & Spammy Site Links

Like the expired domain links, another category which you should consider disavowing is a low quality and spammy site backlinks. If you don’t consider removing these links, there is a chance that your website is being targeted by a negative SEO attack. So it is always important to keep an eye on the search console on the actions required. 

4. Directory Submissions

Submitting your link to low-quality is not a good practice to follow when it comes to SEO. But that doesn’t say that directory submission doesn’t play any part in the same. Always try to acquire links from relevant and targeted directories. Especially when it comes to Local SEO, if you can get relevant backlinks it definitely improves your overall SEO performance. Here is a list of relevant directories as per Hubspot. 

5. Links From Cheap Link Building Services

This is another Link building tactic you should certainly avoid. Even though they are not part of google’s guidelines, we suggest that you avoid this link building method. Links from fiver and other cheap link building services more often can do harm rather than proving beneficial to your SEO efforts.

Should You Disavow Backlinks?

This is a question that definitely needs clarity. If you get a manual action notification from Google or suspect one in the future, you should consider disavowing backlinks. 

This manual action message could be a warning sign of bad links, spammy links and other unhealthy links to your website. To avoid this scenario always follow the healthy link building strategy, regularly check your backlink profile and check out for the suspicious links that may lead to negative SEO attack that will harm your website overall performance.  

As mentioned in the beginning always follow the option of reaching out to the website publisher via email to remove the link directly. If that doesn’t work out, consider disavowing the links if you come across the following: 

• You get a manual action message
• Suspect a lot of spammy, low-quality backlinks to your website
• A sudden drop in your performance due to these low-quality links. 

How To Disavow Using Google Search Console?

As you know Google search console is an important tool when it comes to SEO. GSC helps you manually select the links which Google should ignore to avoid potential negative effects. But if you don’t use it wisely for disavowing, it might affect you negatively. 

Here are the steps for disavowing backlinks in Google Search Console:

• Download the backlink profile
• Conduct a full backlink audit
• Create a disavow file and upload it to the google search console

1) Download the backlink profile

Before you start considering disavowing backlinks, find out the links that are harming your website. Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz to download your backlink profile. By using these tools you can keep track of the backlinks.

  2 ) Conduct a full backlink audit

Now that you have a backlink profile, conduct a detailed audit of the backlink profile to identify the spammy links that can harm your website performance. The Disavow tool helps to get rid of spammy and irrelevant links. 

3)  Upload the file in Google Search Console

After you have a detailed list of your link profile, you can consider removing the links. This isn’t a too technical and complicated process.  It can be easily done using the disavow tool in Google Search Console. 

• Go to Disavow tool in Google Search Console
• Select your property
• Upload your .txt file

To Conclude

As we say, when it comes to Link Building, Focus on quality rather than quantity of links. Be alert on the incoming links that can harm your site’s authority and reputation. You can use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs or Moz to do regular audits. Disavowing should be done based on your priorities, overdoing it might do more harm than good for your site.

 

Got questions? Reach out to us.

 

According to Search Engine Journal, in this year of uncertainty SEO became the top priority as a marketing channel for brands and business. Studies and research shows that almost 70- 80% of the users  are focused on organic search results and they tend to convert into quality leads when compared to the paid ads.  So, is it all about organic traffic these days? Yes, with reduced marketing budgets, organic traffic is key to getting new sales and leads. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a major role in your customer journey because it helps grow your organic traffic.  

For your website to gain visibility in the search results, you need to implement the on-page SEO elements making it easy for the search engines to understand, recognize and rank the content. To make this easy for you we are taking you through the important aspects of on-page SEO. Let’s dive in. If you are in a hurry, you can always bookmark this article for the future. 

What is ON-PAGE SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your website for better visibility in search engines to rank higher by driving quality traffic. To get the best results for your website the on-page implementation should be supported by some technical SEO strategies. 

The ON-PAGE SEO Checklist

1.Keyword Research

The on-page SEO starts with the keyword research and finding the right primary keyword that needs to be mapped along with the relevant – content. Once you choose your primary keyword;

• Assign that keyword to a specific page on your website  
• Make sure you don’t assign that keyword to any other page of the content. Keyword cannibalization is something that can hurt your ranking in the SERP.

2. Optimize for the Titles & H1

Once you have assigned the primary keyword to a specific page, the next step is to optimize your title and H1 with the primary keyword that you have chosen. The title should be catchy enough to grab the attention of the search engine and the audiences. Add the primary keyword in the beginning and -get your audience  with a hook telling why you should not miss the content. 

3. Optimize the URLs

Every page of your website should have a unique URL that differentiates it from the other pages. The URL should be clean.  Clean? Okay let me simplify this:

• The URL should include your primary keyword
• Avoid using special characters
• Keep your URL short this makes the users and search engines to remember your URL

4. Focus on your Meta Description 

Never ignore the Meta Description. What is a Meta Description? Defined by Moz, the meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a web page. Search engines such as Google often display the meta description in search results, which can influence the users to click through. – Include your primary keyword in the first few words of your meta description which helps create anticipation, and builds relevancy for the audience who is about to click through. 

5. Body Content 

Make sure that you have enough in your body content for Google and other search engines to understand what you are offering. The word count of the page depends on the purpose of the page and depth of the content. For example, if it is a blog, -you cannot have thin content. Based on the purpose of the content, if you are planning to write a long form,- it is recommended to have a word count more than 800 words. 

If it is the service page it is recommended to have a minimum of 300 words with the primary keyword positioned around the first 50 words and supported by strong semantic keywords. However, it is important to remember to not “stuff keywords.” You should avoid that at any cost. 

6. User Experience Matters

With all the updates Google has made, it is clear that only one thing matters –  the users. Are they finding the relevant information they need? It is important to provide a seamless experience to the users who visit your website. How can you make this possible? Here are a few things to consider:

• Make sure your content is easy to understand
• Ensure that there are no broken links
• No one likes a slow loading website, improve your website speed both  for mobile and desktop
• Make the website responsive

7. Provide High-Quality Content

Providing high-quality content means not to exhibit your flamboyant grammar skills. Make it as simple as possible.  A good yardstick is that even an eighth-grade level reader should be able to read and understand it. Avoid jargon. Create content that provides value for the users.  Evergreen content plays a major role in the SEO strategy.

8. Make the Content Scalable 

Content that is easy to scan and understand usually performs better in search engines. Once you are done creating the content; go through it and make sure the content is in a scannable format making it easy for the reader to understand. 

• Break the content down into subheadings
• Use short paragraphs 
• Use bullet points to list the features and information as much as you can

9. Internal Linking

What is internal linking?  Internal linking is the process of linking your content to other pages or articles within your website. It is the best way to hook your audience to the website and encourage them to stay longer and explore. -This increases the over-all dwell time on your website. 

Use relevant and descriptive ‘anchor texts’ to make the reader understand what  the content and internal link is all about and how relevant it is.

10. Add External Links to High-Quality websites

External links leading to other quality sites helps the search engine to understand the content and also enables search engines to give  context. So, do not feel bad to include highly relevant and quality external links leading to high-quality websites where you mention the name of the resource within the content. In the process of doing this, you do not want your users to exit your website. Set each outbound link to open in another window with the goal that your site stays open regardless of whether the user visits another site.

11. Do Image Optimizations

Always make the content more visually appealing by adding images. But the job is not done yet. Make sure that you do proper image optimization. 

• Add the primary keyword to the image file name
• Add the primary keyword to the image title
• Add the primary keyword to the image alt tag
• Make sure to compress the image properly

12. Is it a Blog Post?

If yes, make sure to add relevant categories and tags to it to organize the content better. This helps search engines to understand the topic -You also need to be confident that the title tags and categories are relevant to the content. 

13. Implement Schema Markup

Schema markups help in organizing the data structure that enables search engines to read and rank in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). 

Referred to in MOZ, Schema.org is the result of the collaboration between Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo! to help you provide the information their search engines need to understand your content and provide the best search results possible at this time. Adding a Schema markup to your HTML improves the way your page displays in SERPs by enhancing the rich snippets that are displayed beneath the page title.

14. Include Social Sharing 

Content distribution is as important as content creation. Your content must reach the right audience at the right time. There is no place better than social media channels for better visibility for your content. Add the social sharing buttons to make your content easily sharable.

15. Page Speed 

Research- shows that 50% of the users will exit the page if the page doesn’t load within 3 seconds. In this age of instant gratification,  users are searching for answers and they want it really quick. 

Page speed also contributes to one of the important ranking factors for Google.  Make sure that the website loads faster to get better visibility in the search engines. 

Find your page speed insights here.

To Conclude

These are some of the most important on-page SEO factors that you should start with your optimization. Always keep in mind that SEO has moved a long way from where it began. Always prioritize the target audience not Google and other search engines. The best way forward is to focus on trying to satisfy what you think your users need-By doing this you should definitely see quality traffic to your website. 

Do you think that any important elements were missed out? Let me know in the comments. 

 

Got questions? Reach out to us.

 

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO (Local Search Engine Optimization), also referred to as local search engine marketing, is an immensely successful way to advertise your company online, because it lets companies sell their goods and services to local consumers at the exact time they search for them online.

This is done by a number of approaches, some of which are significantly different from what is practised in traditional SEO.

What Exactly is Local Search?

There have been a lot of conversations going on the difference between standard informational search and local search. Which is more important than the other, which one should you give importance to. Well, it depends on the business but should go in hand to hand.

While anyone in the world with ample SEO and authority can rank for a search query such as ‘how to get fit by going to a gym’,  when the query has far more purchasing intent behind it, the search becomes more intended like “gyms near me” or “gyms in [location]. This is more towards user intent.

According to the latest stats by Google, 46% of the search has local intent behind it. 

For such types of intended queries, which usually require a location or ‘near me’ (which is not even appropriate if you search using Google Maps or if Google knows your position and assumes that the request is intended locally), search engines realize that what exactly the search needs is location-based business recommendations or lists, and so that’s exactly what they give in the local search engine results. This behavioural and result difference is precisely why local SEO is important and worth investing in alongside the standard SEO.

Optimize Local SEO For Multiple Locations

If you have several locations, optimizing local search results isn’t that different from the above, although there are a few distinct variations.

First, you’ll want to make sure that each of your locations has a unique landing page on your web. Most Popular SEO experts have a saying that “one website, one intention” works better than ever.  Optimization can be done on 2 phases 

• Content
• SEO

Factors To Consider While Optimizing for Content

1.Create Descriptive Content

It is important to fill your location pages with in-depth content that is exclusive, relevant to potential customers and easy to navigate. Make sure the content has to offer something unique.

2.Make Sure To Include Location Data

This is something that needs to be taken into consideration. It is important to include business-specific information like location address, Location phone number and other relevant business information. 

3.Add Specific Images and Videos

Adding location-specific pictures and videos can really boost up your local SEO efforts. Adding specific and location-based alt tags for the images helps the search engine to identify images that are relevant to. This also enhances user experience drawing them further down to the funnel.

4.Compel with An Unique Call To Action

Ideally, People who visit your website shouldn’t be confused about how to convert on your website. Include clear calls-to-action to motivate users to complete specific activities, such as calling your company, getting directions to your place, requesting a quote, etc. In addition to telling visitors how to convert, you should also make sure that the content is easy to search. All other elements being equivalent, pages that have logically and intuitively arranged key details are more likely to gain conversions.

Important Factors of  SEO Optimization

1.Header 1 or H1

Header tags are like secondary titles that help organize the content of a web page and allow the search engines and users to communicate the key topics of the website. H1 tags should be as near as possible to the top of the page and should include geo-modifiers and targeted keyword phrases. For example; If you want to target a location the Location should be included in the Header 1 or H1 of the page.

2.Optimize The Titles 

For your website, title tags serve as just that-a title. Using these tags to offer a succinct overview of your location pages to visitors and search engines including the company name, the store’s geolocation and the key service and/or product.

3.MetaDescriptions

Meta descriptions have for some time not had a significant effect on search rankings. Search engines, however, also display explanations for organic search results in the preview snippets, so it’s crucial that this copy entices users to click through to your site.

4.Optimize the URL

This is one of the most important factors that need to be considered on local SEO optimization. The structure of the website’s URL can have a significant impact on the local search engine rankings. For example consider you are using location pages, the best practice is to use the exact location along with the parent domain. 

5.Schema MarkUp

Schema Markup is a common semantic vocabulary of tags (or microdata) that can be applied to your location’s HTML pages to help search engines read and understand Web content. These tags allow search engine crawlers to classify text as important local business information, such as Local business style Address Areas served to review and aggregate reviews Product details for business hours 

6.Business Citations

A citation is any place where the name, address, telephone number, website URL, details of your company appears together online, usually in an online directory or database for company listings.

These are especially important to have in position for local SEO because if you don’t appear in the places people are searching for businesses like yours, the rivals that do will certainly overtake you.

Two types of quotation: unstructured and structured. Structured citations typically appear in business listings and come from fields of the form that are filled in when claiming the listing.

7.Reviews and Ratings

Genuine, truthful reviews are critical for both highlighting the efficiency of your service and sending signals to search engines that your website and service is trustworthy and helpful. All important criteria for local search rankings are the amount of feedback that you get, the overall consistency of the feedback and the credibility of the review sites themselves.

8.Get Quality Backlinks

Obtained naturally from well-regarded websites, backlinks help search engines identify your site as a reliable source of knowledge and improve the local search algorithm’s ‘prominence’ feature. Links from local newspapers, blogs and business groups, as well as quotes, can all help to boost awareness of your search. 

To Conclude 

By Implementing the above-mentioned optimization techniques the chances are high that you see an improvement in your Local SEO tactics. 

It is critical that your information about your company is consistent no matter where it appears.

Many of the tactics listed here are SEO tactics which you may already be doing. It all depends on your business priorities. Larger organizations may have a strong organic search presence but lack some of the simple local SEO strategies that could add to the broader picture.

Choose what’s best for you, set actions in order and go for it!

 

Got questions? Reach out to us.

 

With the global increase in the billions of mobile users and the world is moving into fingertips, business and organizations are expanding their market into the era of smartphones targeting their users. With the huge popularity and increasing affinity towards the smartphone era, mobile apps have become one of the prime factors that contribute towards the success of the business.

With over 6 million apps competing against each other on the different niche on the google play store and ios, it is extremely important that your business needs to have an unreasonable and creative plan when it comes to marketing and optimising your app for propelling engagement and driving downloads.

What is ASO?

AppStore Optimization (ASO in short) in simple is the process of optimising your mobile app picking up perceivability in the app and play stores and expanding your natural downloads.

Along these lines, more individuals can discover your application and download it.

More downloads mean more clients and more clients mean more income. Appears to be clear, isn’t that so? All things considered, it isn’t too basic.

You are most likely considering how does App Store Optimization work? Is it extremely worth the exertion? Where would it be a good idea for me to begin? Try not to stress, we have the vital tips for you.

The 7 Key App Store Optimization Steps

1.Optimize the title and Description

What’s your app about? The first and primary thing you need to talk to your consumers. Obviously, the title and description are the most important metadata that conveys what all your app is about. So optimising the title and Description in a very creative and discoverable manner is the primary step.

Make sure the title is short and easily memorable. Don’t let it sink with thousands of other competitors. Be creative enough to stand out

Once you are done with the title then comes the description part. The description should have as much as important keywords in the first 250 characters because that is where your app is made discoverable depending on the user search.

2. Use Relevant keywords

It is important for you to focus on what keywords your customers are searching and the keywords your competitors are using for driving engagement and installs.

Make a deep research on the related keywords where you can drive the user engagement. Matching with the usage of user intent keywords make your app more discoverable for the users coming in.

Make sure you don’t use any irrelevant keywords relating to your app. It can hit you in a very hard way.

Make sure you don’t run into your competitor’s world. Don’t use their brand name in any of your keyword selection.

3. Use Engaging Icons and Screenshots

Nothing than matching the user’s attraction other than the compelling Visuals and Screenshots.

Pick an app icon that is appealing and become a signature of your brand. Try something that is really different from your competitors that makes your brand stand out that makes it easily recognizable for your potential clients.

Screenshots play a major role in decision making for your potential customers. Make sure to include a maximum screenshot that conveys the value they are going to gain downloading or using the app.

While using the screenshot make sure those visuals talks to the potential customers about the value your app provides other than your competitors.

4. Add Video

Video always provides value by a more significant percentage in marketing strategy. So make sure to upload an appealing video which talks about the features and benefits of the app. The video should not be fatigued. Try being creative but talk directly.

5.Competitor Research

“Competitor Research” forms a vital part of a marketing strategy. Understanding your competitors as well as their business strategy plays a pivotal role in App store optimization.

Make sure you choose the best and relevant category that your app belongs to in the app store.

Once Your app is well and placed in the marketplace, try implementing more creative keywords and images on a regular basis and monitor the performance of the app.

6.Backlinks

Backlinks” what better gives perfect backbone support, authority and relevance to your app. To get the best and high authority backlinks make sure your app is on highly relevant websites related to your app.

7. Reviews and Ratings

Elegantly composed, glad, and keen surveys can be an incredible factor that helps increment app engagement and downloads. Make sure that it does not feel scripted.

Yea, you may have an incredible application, yet 15 individuals guaranteeing “It’s the best application I’ve ever used!!!!!” and all with five stars is madly self-evident.

Pop up with a rating and review tab to the users while using their app and encourage them to rate and review your app.

The statement is simple “How highly your app is rated the engagement and downloads are directly related to it”

 

Got questions? Reach out to us.

 

Featured snippets can be an integral part of promoting your website. Better visibility for your website apart from the organic web traffic in the search engine. Your website needs to be very orderly organised with certain steps and parameters to make it into the featured snippet. Google itself has its certain guidelines for optimising your site for the featured snippet.

What is a Featured Snippet

Featured Snippets come up as a major aspect of the Google search results. A Google snippet appears in a case between the AdWords square and the start of the query items list. It completely depends on google’s algorithmic process depending on the user intent search from the user. The google snippet contains the information format as text, video or table depending on the search intended by the user. The outcome of your website for featuring in the google snippet is

• Enhanced Visibility for your website
• A very High Click-Through Rate
• High Conversion Rate

Here are a Few tips to get easily featured in Google snippet

1.Research for the User Intended Queries from your Target Audience

User intended queries that get pointwise replies to have a higher chance of getting featured in the google snippet.

So on the off chance that you need to get Google highlighted snippets for your blog’s substance, make a point to discover a rundown of all the “fundamental inquiries” your audience may have in the niche.

Discover what they may type on Google to find solutions and optimization for the same will increase your chances of getting featured . The more you delve into the essentials of your field the better risks you need to get a piece box on list items.

2. Use a Marketing Power Word

Did you realize that you can build your odds of getting more engagement for your content is by utilizing the “marketing power words”? Yes, Undoubtedly Yes.

Marketing Power words (otherwise known as convincing words) help stands out as truly newsworthy all the more convincing and generates clicks). Here’s a rundown of probably the most marketing power words that you can use for your website to generate engagements and higher clicks. Words like “How”, “Best”,  always generate user interaction.

For Example: “How” to generate quality leads for your Real estate business

The “Best” Gyms in Dubai

3.Include Numbers in Your Headline

The Numbers are another strong component that gets your website featured in the google snippets. The use of numbers along with the marketing power words ensures that your website or the related content has a high chance of featuring in the google snippets.

For Example:  How to generate quality “2x” leads for your business

The best “5” gyms in Dubai

4.Optimize for the User intended Search

Regardless of what, header labels is a crucial part in improving your rankings. The primary factor here is to optimise your header with primary and secondary keywords in a way which is humanly appealing. Never do keyword stuffing. Use h1, h2, h3, and other heading labels in an intelligent manner (which is critical).

The primary keyword should be optimised in header 1 tag. The h2 tag is a subheading which ought to contain comparative keywords to your h1 tag. Your h3 is then a subheading for your h2, etc.

To conclude

Getting featured snippets for your website content is an achievable task. It doesn’t make a difference what your niche is, make sure you’re giving exceptionally useful and brief responses to the audience enquiries, the content is going to be featured in Google snippets.

 

Got questions? Reach out to us.