7 Hot SEO Tips and Tricks for Blogs

The more SEO skills you have, the more likely you are to get into trouble with Google.

Of course that is not always the case, but there are many SEO professionals who still recommend shady practices that Google frown upon.  There are also some great SEO professionals and many of them now call themselves content marketers as they realize that great content is the cornerstone of SEO.

If you are employing someone to help you with your SEO, you need to be very careful.  Even if they have lots of success with their clients, you need to know if they are deploying tactics that Google will cop onto very soon.  You’ve heard about Panda,  Penguin and others (Google’s code names for their algorithm changes)? Well, we’ll see Zebra, Koala and Irish Wolfhound soon.  Of course I made up those names but there will be more code named algorithm changes coming!

You’ve heard about Panda,  Penguin and others (Google’s code names for their algorithm changes)? Well, we’ll see Zebra, Koala and Irish Wolfhound soon.  Of course I made up those names but there will be more code named algorithm changes coming!

However, SEO is still important and there are some non-shady tips that can help improve the optimization of your content to drive more traffic to your site.

Here are 7 SEO tips and tricks.  I’d love to hear from you if you have any more you’d like to add.

1. Internal Link Building

Do you do enough linking of old content to new content?

Linking old and new content is like creating a paper trail for Google

CLICK TO TWEET

Linking new content to old content

When you write content on your website, find relevant articles that you have already published on your site to link to.  As the value of the new post goes up, the value of the link goes up too.

Also, if anyone does copy/republish your content then at least you’ll have at least one link back to your site.

To find relevant articles to link to, go to Google and search your site for relevant articles.  For example, if I wanted to find relevant articles about SEO on this site I would type in the following:

SEO site:www.razorsocial.com

Linking old content to new content

It’s great to link to older articles, but what about linking older articles to your new content?  This is just as important to consider.  You have some older articles that Google has probably already indexed and, if it’s a good article, you will have got links to it.  This means their value has gone up.

You can now link from these older articles to your newer posts.

This gives your new article a little boost and it also helps Google to find it.  As Google is re-indexing your content, it will follow links within your posts.

Action:  Revisit your older posts and find posts you should be cross linking.  Consider adding this as an additional item to your checklist for new posts.

2. Resolve Errors in Google Webmaster Tools

Imagine if Google crawled your site and, when it found any issues or problems, it told you about them.

“Hey Guys, I’ve just found some problems on your site and if you don’t fix them it will mean that I’m not going to send you as much traffic as I was going to!”

Of course, you don’t get that personal email from Google, but Google does put any errors/problems into Google Webmaster Tools.

Here is an example.  You have duplicate descriptions for some of your posts, which is not helping Google index your content.  So you need to resolve issues like this asap.

Resolve issues related to Title and Description tags

Action: This is not something to ignore.  Check whether there are any errors in Webmaster Tools and resolve them asap.

3.  Review content that is not ranking

What about content you’ve written recently that is not ranking?

Perhaps you thought that you would get a ton of links and you could rank in Google for a competitive term, but then this didn’t happen.

Well, maybe you could go back and tweak the post to try to rank for different keywords?  Or you could write a guest post on a high-profile site and link to this content?  Or add links from existing content on your website?

Action:  On a monthly basis, review your recent posts to see what traffic they are getting.  If they are getting very little traffic, take some action to correct this.  Don’t always just think about new posts, let’s not neglect our old ones!

4.  Consider Related Keywords

When you write a blog post and try to optimize it for keywords, it’s great when you start to get regular ongoing traffic for those keywords.  But what also normally happens is that you end up getting even more traffic for keywords that are similar to the ones you tried to rank for.

So, it’s important to consider these related keywords in your posts.  I’m not talking about adding keywords for the sake of it, but if Google thinks they are related to your main keyword targets, then consider adding them if they add value to your content.

The best way of finding these keywords is by searching for something in Google, scrolling to the bottom of the page, and looking at the related keywords.

This is available at the bottom of a search results page

Action:  Consider related keywords as part of your post.

5.  Leverage tools to help with SEO

There are many tools that can help you with different aspects of the optimization of your content, so you really need to have a small collection of them.  Here are some examples of tools I use on a regular basis.

SEMRush – This shows the terms your competitor is ranking for, what you are ranking for, helps you with keyword research and much more.

Google Keyword Planner – When you want to do keyword research, this is essential to review.  Google will give you an estimate of traffic for the keywords you search for and for associated keywords.

Yoast SEO Plugin –  If you’re on WordPress, you need this plugin.  It’s the best plugin for optimizing your content for Google.  It’s simple to use and very effective.

Opensite Explorer –  It’s important to understand about the proprietary website and web page ranking system implemented by Moz.  Your website is ranked out of 100 using adomain authority ranking and your pages are ranked out of 100 also. This tool shows you this data so that you can consider it when trying to compete against other websites.

Moz Toolbar – When you do a Google search, this toolbar adds the domain and page authority onto each search result.  Consider using two browsers: one for normal searching and one that has Moz toolbar installed. You can use this one when you are doing your SEO work.

Ahrefs – I use this mainly for analyzing the link profiles of our site and our competitors’ sites.

6. Strategic guest posting

If you have a post that is ranking well and getting some traffic, this may be a post that you want to keep topping up with new links.

The new links to the post will help it maintain its standing in Google search results, but you may also push it up the search results if it’s not currently in the number one position.

One way of doing this is through guest posting.  Write an article that is relevant to the content you have, and include a link to the article you want to promote.  This helps drive traffic to the post but it will also help with the ranking of the post.  Because the link is relevant and adds value to the content that you are guest posting about, you’ll generally get away with adding the link!

Action:  Read this post on Guest posting (notice the way I’m linking to internal articles!).

7. Write long content

Is this really about optimizing content for SEO?  Yes, absolutely.  So, why write long content?

If you can write super high-quality short articles, then write them.  But typically it’s very difficult to provide a lot of value in a short article, so they don’t tend to get many links or shares.  Without these, you won’t have much of a chance of ranking for this content.

I read a recent post from the wonderful Andy Crestodina on the importance of the length of blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates etc.  In his article he presented research on the average content length for search results in the top 10.

You can see that most of them are more than 2,000 words!

55 Quick SEO Tips Even Your Mother Would Love

Everyone loves a good tip, right? Here are 55 quick tips for search engine optimization even your mother could use to get cooking. Well, not my mother, but you get my point. Most folks with some web design and beginner SEO knowledge should be able to take these to the bank without any problem.

1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.

2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written, and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.

3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for a site to link to you, you don’t want the link.

4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.

5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.

6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.

8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.

9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.

10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.

11. Check for canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.

12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.

Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.

13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem – you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.

14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.

15. Got a new website you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.

16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.

17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.

18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.

19. Text around your links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.

20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.

21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.

22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.

23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity, and Reputation.

24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.

25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.

26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.

27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.

28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.

29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.

30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.

31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.

32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.

33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.

34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.

35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.

36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!

37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.

38. Use keyword rich captions with your images.

39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.

40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.

41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:

(1) Log out of Google

(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar

42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.

43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.

44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.

45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.

46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.

47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.

48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.

49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.

50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.

51. Add viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.

52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.

53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.

54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.

55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.

Richard V. Burckhardt, also known as The Web Optimist, is an SEO trainer based in Palm Springs, CA with over 10 years experience in search engine optimization, web development and marketing.

Seo tips and tricks 2016 to outperform top 10 competitors

1 – Domain and page authority are key ranking factor –

It is officially stated by by top search engine sites that the domain authority shows the exact quality of website and same like page authority for ranking of individual pages also.

Not only me but world famous internet marketing expert Neil patel also stated the value of a page and domain authority for achieving our desired position.

More Domain Authority = Top position in search

I am also going to guide readers of the post on how to increase domain authority easily by applying my tips in upcoming post.

2 – Steal your competitors back links by auditing them –

If you are targeting any keyword for higher rank achievement for your website pages then first search that particular keyword in Google then you will find the name of top 10 websites which are on 1st page.

Just check them in back link checker tools one by one and see which kind of anchor text variation they are using. You can create back links for your sites from those websites in which your competitor has posted their website URL’s. It really excellent tips to have better back links value then your competitor.

In this way same quality link juice you can also have to your web pages. There are few link auditing tools can be useful for your work.

A – SEOProfiler.com

B – AHrefs.com

C – Ranksignals.com

I use all 3 because every one has different opportunity to assist link builders in different way.

                                                            Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

3 – Faster is always better –

Here the meaning of faster word is related to loading time of web pages, most of the search engines specially Google is giving so much importance to those websites who has loading time less than 3 seconds and if they have less than 1.5 seconds then no would could be better than this.

Google is giving good preference to the sites which are really perfect for good users experience on their site and speed of web pages also one of the important factor for making user experience better. It is experts tips or tricks that you can go for the some specialized web hosting services like cloud hosting and VPS servers to improve your website’s efficiency.

4 – Well performance on every device –In my this post seo tips and tricks i am giving so much importance of this point because today is time changing of the internet use. Because of busy life and everywhere availability of the internet peoples are like to visits websites from anywhere in the world and using more smaller devices like mobiles, smartphones and tablets etc.

So you must check that is your site’s design is responsive to run on these kind of devices ?

If not, then tell your designer to do it or if you are using WordPress kind of platforms then you can buy any good premium responsive themes.

Advanced seo tips and tricks for 2016

5 – Become authority in social media sites –

Social popularity metrics are also became major factor for search engine optimization, If you want to see the magic of it then just ask any popular blogger to Tweet about your new blog post and you will see that by only 1 tweet you will index faster and rank better than other.

Now the question is how to become authority person social media sites like Twitter ?

Answer – Try to increase more niche related followers who can re-tweet your posts.

Apply most advance tips / tricks to get more twitter followers after reading my post and share useful tricks or tips to guide them regularly.

6 – Apply all on page seo tips –

You know friends.. all your work and smart seo tricks can be effect less if you haven’t done your basic on page seo activities till now.

Like Keywords in Meta tags, Keywords in H tags and also in image alt tag etc. You can apply basic seo tips and tricks also like maintaining keyword density and proper use of it time to time in content but remember to avoid stuffing.

7 – Focus on local search –

Try to focus writing on keywords which has local search term in it, in this way you will face less competition. Posting ads in area specific classified websites will surely help you in improving local ranking also.

If you want to get traffic from USA then you can use high traffic USA classified sites for ad posting purpose. Submit your web pages in Google maps and optimize your website by filling all necessary fields by completing them at the submission time.

8 – Use seo plugins –

In the content management systems like WordPress you have to be too technical if you want to do any thing manually but fortunately we can see number of useful and best seo plugins to help us from basic to high level search engine optimization to achieve highest score.

9 – Content marketing is the advance method –

After so many changes in algorithms now its time gone for old link building techniques and this is the time to use smarter ways.

Content marketing is the key work of smarter ways. Now what to do for content marketing ? Apply these 3 methods.

A – Create video tutorials and submit it in top video portals like – Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and some more.

B – Create Images for free use by the needy peoples and ask for link credit for your work.

c – Same method apply for creation of large tutorials in the form of info graphics and submit it to top submission sites likeVisual.ly and many more.

10 – Subscribe to this blog –

I hope after reading all the practical information in this post seo tips and tricks 2016, you have understood the quality of information we are sharing here in this blog. So i think for getting more useful advice and recommendation on time for search tricks or tips you must subscribe to the blog and share this blog post also.

If you want to share own seo tricks or tips then can share in comments below.

7 SEO Tips And Tricks That Will Get You Ranked In 2016

There is no better spot than number one. Second place, in life or within Google, doesn’t cut it. You need to ensure that you are aiming for the spot of top dog in 2016. SEO has been the way to do this for years. There is no sign of that changing anytime soon. But, now it’s time to get your eyes on the prize. Number one and higher rankings are the way forward for the coming year. Of course, every business, marketer and digital expert all have their eyes on the lucrative prize. But, there are some savvy ways that you can ensure SEO success. Whether you are new to the game or a world hardened marketer, there are some excellent tips and tricks that you can use. This is imperative when honing your new SEO strategy for 2016.

Entrepreneurs, bloggers and marketing gurus all want to know two fundamental things:

• How can I achieve more traffic?
• How can I make sure that I don’t get attacked by Google’s animals? Namely, Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird?

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SEO Tips And Tricks

Avoiding penalisation and securing the top spot within Google doesn’t have to be a difficult task. On the contrary, there are some savvy ways to reign supreme within Google. You can ensure maximum success. But, do be prepared to put in the legwork. This will take time and success cannot be attained overnight.

Let’s take a look at seven SEO tips and tricks that will guarantee rankings in 2016.

1. It’s Time to Hit More Traffic and Focus on the Local

In life, no one wants more traffic, aside from the SEO whizz. So, now it’s time to make sure that you are focussing on attaining more traffic to your site. Your website needs to be optimised for success. This means that you need to include your location on your site. Hit directories. Use citations. These are all fundamental ways of growing your business and making sure that you are getting on board with local SEO. Local SEO is one of the best ways of making your rank higher. What is more, it’s going to be a key way to ensure higher rankings going into 2016.

2. Optimise Your Site With Mobile in Mind

Mobile optimisation is not just user-friendly, it is Google friendly too. So, if you want to make sure that you are ranking higher than before, you need to devise a strategy with mobile in mind. Apps and responsive design are vital to your success. Google has stated that it loves responsive design as it feels that it has the customer in mind.

DO YOU KNOW THERE IS A GOOGLE TOOL TO CHECK THIS FOR YOU?

Use This Google Tool To Check Whether Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

Google has some mobile-friendly tests that you can take to ensure that your site is hitting all of the right notes. If your site is not as responsive as it should, or it does not pass the Google mobile-friendly test with top marks, it’s time to devise a new site. Yes, this can be expensive. But, it’s a keen way of ensuring success in 2016. Do bear in mind that mobile traffic is paving the way to a brighter future.

3. Don’t Forget About Bing and Yahoo (Yes, Really)

Okay, so covering the top spot on Google is the ultimate dream. But, you need to think outside of the Google box. With this in mind, consider the other search engines. Yes, there are others. Bing and Yahoo are used widely by a lot of people. While Google is a great place to start thinking about rankings, you need to make sure that you are thinking about the other search engines too. These options are becoming more commonplace with internet users, so don’t alienate a potential customer or viewer base by solely focussing on Google. Not just this, you can also turn your focus to Baidu, China’s largest search engine. Even little things matter the most in this field.

4. Take a Look at ROI Metrics

Keywords are vital. But don’t forget to take a look at your ROI metrics. In the coming year, this is essential that you do this. You need to ensure that you are looking at metrics, so that you can see what is working for you and what is not. This means that you can look more closely at conversions and viewership. Then, you can ascertain whether this has seen a definite return on investment. You can then hone and adopt new keywords to ensure that you are targeting the right people.

5. An Integrated Social Media Approach: Make Social Media Your Focus

Social Media is so much more than merely sharing content. Of course, we should never forget the importance of content. But, you need to make social media your focus in 2016 if you want to get ranked. According to Jacob Maslow, social media is a positive marketing channel. But it can also be used as a customer service focal point. You need to engage with your brand and talk to your clients and viewers. Without this, you are just another faceless business. It’s time to get personal. Focus on the main social media sites. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Don’t sign up to every social media site under the sun and spam relentlessly. A loyal customer base is vital. But, you can also generate more revenue from doing this.

6. Earn Your Links

Earning links is now going to be the best way of ensuring that much-coveted number one spot. Inbound links are essential. You need to ensure that you are earning your links. This should be done on high authority sites. Do ensure that you are not spamming or using too many links all over the place. This is not the way to achieve success. What’s more, you may incur a Google penalty in the process.

7. Keywords, Keywords, Keywords!

Keywords are still a mainstay for SEO experts. But, you need to ensure that you are researching your keywords in a more robust way. You need to understand traffic patterns, buying habits and purchase patterns. This helps you target people in a more robust way. What is more, you can guarantee more success from using this kind of in-depth keyword research.