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A quality site tends to:
Have quality, unique content that targets services, service areas, and has accurate meta data
Adhere to mobile friendly guidelines
Have good site speed
Keep in mind that Google Penguin will penalize you if you have spammy links, so link building must be legitimate, too (and this is what helps DA and PA).
Hi Becky!
Internal anchor text is important because it gives web site visitors (and search engines) a hint about the web page or web site they are about to visit (if they click the link). This is why you DON’T want to use common calls to action like, “click here” or “our website.” Instead, you want to use keyword rich anchor text. But you don't want it to become very spammy sounding—so keep this in mind when creating content.
Anchor text helps search engines understand what the page is about and it also helps establish site architecture. And depending on the anchor text of the link, it might even increase your rankings for certain keywords!
As an example, if you’re having a contest to give away a free website makeover for the HVAC industry, make free HVAC website the anchor text! If thousands of web sites link to your site using the anchor text ‘leading residential furnace installers‘ there’s a good chance that you’re in the residential HVAC business and you install furnaces!
I hope this helped! But if you're looking for more information check out our blog that discusses if you need links to rank on Google.
Our company has learned a lot of lessons through A/B testing various components of our email newsletter. We started by testing subject lines, then pre-headers, then calls-to-action throughout the content of the email itself. Each of these tests has given us new insights into what our email subscribers are looking for from our emails.
Of course, this is all dependent on the industry of the clients you're managing email marketing for. Some of our clients are in industries where their subscribers are constantly searching for deals and promotions, so we lead with those. Others are in industries where their subscribers are more interested in tips and tricks, so we lead with those.
We were only able to determine which of these tactics worked through which industry using our signature method of TTTR: Track, Test, Tweak, Repeat. We track the data associated with each email, test out new methods, tweak the tests to try new things, and repeat!
Hope this helps!
Hi Joe,
The ranking factors are not appreciably different for Bing/Yahoo than for Google, but you will always see some disparity between them. One suggestion I would offer is make sure you are as diligent with your Bing Business Listing as you are with Google. Otherwise, look at those ranking ahead of you and see what they are doing you are not, then see if you can manipulate a page to rise in the rankings.
Another thing to do would be to use Bing Webmaster Tools like you are probably using Google Analytics. This will surely provide some insights into which pages are rankings and which ones might need to be tweaked for Bing.
I agree with Pixus and ronitoberoi. Content is key.
The only constant (besides change) is the drive to bring well-ranking and high-quality content closer together. Short-term ranking advantages can be derived from what might uncharitably be called “tricks,” but because these are tricks, you can bet that Google will target them eventually. At best, this strategy means wasted time and money. At worst, it means a manual penalty that can have dramatic effects on both rankings and revenue.
By creating GREAT content, and getting high authority backlinks to this content you should hopefully see your rankings improve.
Hi Amy,
Great question! In our experience, if you're migrating, the best choice is to put 301 temporary redirects in place until Google has the chance to index your new pages.
Be sure to submit all of your new pages to Google Search Console for indexing once migration is complete: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url
Hope this helps!
Apart from content, how old is your URL? The domain age could be impacting your rankings as well.
I would also take a look at how your pages are performing. Do you have a high bounce rate? If users are coming to your website but clicking back to the SERPs, this could be telling Google that your website is not helping the user—thus hurting your rankings.
If you're trying to rank for longtail keywords, your best bet is to create these landing pages individually and link to them naturally throughout the site. Adding them all to the footer menu (depending how many you have) may look spammy to Google since it could be confusing to the user, and Google is all about the user!
I'd recommend adding the most relevant links to the top navigation menu and to the footer menu, then linking naturally from page to page from there. Hope this helps!
I have to agree with EGOL when they stated, "You are asking if Method A is better than Method B. I am willing to bet that the implementation is more important than the method."
I think either of these methods (button v. form) can work better, but this is dependent on a few things. You will need to consider what the industry is, who the viewers are, and what they are more likely to do. Aesthetics and verbiage will also make a major impact—so it really comes down to multiple factors. For instance, someone who is younger might be more inclined to simply hit a button for ease of use. Making it less clicks will always improve your conversion. But an older person might prefer to fill out a form—but they might also not want to give out their information. My biggest suggestion would be to sit down and ensure you are thinking about your audience, not necessarily what you think would convert the best.
Hope this helps!
To echo what Dimitri has said, though domain authority is important, the traffic to your site and the rank of each page of your site is more important (given those have gone up since switching domains). Moz is a great way to check in on domain authority and see how you backlinking efforts have gone.
Hi Engine Brasil,
I have to agree with Thomas! While I have never tried this tactic, I would not do so in fear that it would devalue the other H1s on the site.
As we know, it's important to have only one H1 per page. The search crawlers use the H1 to understand what your page is about so they can show it for relevant search queries. By creating multiple heading tags, you run the risk of confusing the crawlers and ultimately hurting your changes to rank on the SERPs.
Hope this helps! I'd be interested to know what you find out if you test this.
Hi Taylor,
What has been your plan of action over the past three months? It would be helpful to know what things you've already tried!
Do you have a strategy in place to get high quality backlinks to the site? One of the most important things to remember when trying to build your backlink profile is that you need to focus on quality, _not _quantity. For example, it’s not about how many links you can get to point back to your site—it’s about how good those links are. One link from a reputable, authoritative website is better than 20 links from a spammy website or site with a domain authority of 2.
When reaching out for backlinks, look for websites that provide value to their visitors. If visitors stay and interact with said website until they find your link, search engines will take a cue that the linking site is engaging and provides relevant value to the user’s online experience. When that site chooses to link to your site, it’s another clue to Google or Bing that your site will enhance the user’s experience even more. For some more tips on backlinks, check out this blog that we wrote.
Hope this helps!
Hi Vic,
Are you experiencing this problem in the way Google shows your website's URL or in the mention of the company name in the title tag shown on the SERP?
Unfortunately, I don't have a definite answer for you as to why Google seems to be re-writing it. Like you mentioned, I would go through your backlinks and see how other websites are linking to you. Likewise, I would make sure your title tags and meta descriptions have your company name capitalized exactly as you want them to be shown. To quickly see a list of all the title tags and meta descriptions on your entire website I recommend running a crawl through Screaming Frog. You can access the software here.
I hope this helps!
Both Andy and Patrick have provided great responses, and took the recommendations right out of my mouth!
I agree, LinkedIn is a better platform for you to reach your relevant audience so posting your content there is ideal. Don't worry about posting content that already exists on your website, you shouldn't get dinged for it.
Hi Joycee_psp!
I'd love to help answer your question if you could provide more information on what you are seeing on the SERP. Could you provide more details or a screen shot?
Thanks!
Hi Michael!
I recommend checking out this blog for more insight: http://searchengineland.com/how-many-301s-are-too-many-16960
The video on the blog linked above answers: Is there a limit to how many 301 (Permanent) redirects I can do on a site? How about how many redirects I can chain together?
Other things to watch out for with chained redirects:
Hope this helps!
Hi Mark!
When writing blogs for our clients I make the photo link to "none" UNLESS it is a brand logo or something of the like that can link to the brand/manufacturer's website. I find that this could negatively impact the user experience if they click the photo only to realize it brings them to a webpage that only shows the image.
The most important information when adding a photo is the ALT tag. This lets the crawlers know what the image is of.
If I were you, I would ensure all the photos being added have an image ALT tag but do not link to just the image file to ensure positive user experience.
Hope this helps!
Hi Lee!
We wrote a blog post about the most recent algorithm update on our website. Be sure to check it out for any questions you might have: https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/fred-algorithm-update-march-2017
Hopefully it will provide some insights into why you're seeing a ~4% drop in visbility.
For SEO for ecommerce, you need to make sure each of your product pages is optimized well. Each page should have a unique meta description, title tag, and well written content. While this might be obvious, it's extremely important for ecommerce.
You need to think about each webpage on your website as an opportunity to rank, so ensuring each page is unique with well crafted content is a great starting point.
Be sure to do competitor research to see who is currently ranking for the important keywords you are targeting so you can come up with a strategic plan to outrank them.
Hi Becky,
Although ALT tags might not seem like a high priority item, I do think they hold a bit of value when it comes to SEO. Without the ALT tag, the search engine doesn't know what the image is of. By adding ALT tags to all 22,000 old images on the website, we could hope that this could help to boost your rankings slightly. It will also improve the user experience (if the images don't load for them), which is important in Google's eyes.
If you can't find a way to go through them quickly, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Maybe find a way to tackle a thousand at a time, and so on.
Hope this helps!