Thursday, November 21st, 2024
As the theory goes, all you need is to just write superior keyword enriched content on your blog, to market your affiliate products, and then you will make money from SEO traffic. All you need is to match the keywords of your content, to what your targeted readers are typing into the search engines, then you will succeed, and become a Wealthy Affiliate.
What you’re also told, is to gain some high ranking backlinks from authority sites back to your blog, along with getting “shares” on social media, then you should be able to rank well on the SERPS.
You should then get hoards of that much sought after organic traffic from the search engines, as you land on the first page for your selected keywords.
Ranking high on the search engines, is considered the purest, the most consistent source of targeted traffic that you can get for your blog.
Show Me The Traffic
So what’s the secret, the key to getting your posts to rank high on the search engines, to get traffic.
The search engines are a constantly moving target, as they are continuously tweaking their algorithm, this to stay one step ahead of those who are attempting to “game” the rankings.
You know that your blog articles are getting indexed by the search engines, but rarely do they reach the most coveted spot, which is landing on the first page.
How To SEO
The industry, the business, the mystery that is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a finicky beast.
The objective is to match specific keyword terms that are typed in by the users on the search engines, to the main keyword terms that are on your blog.
These are the keywords, that appears on the introduction of your article, that attempts to match the exact keywords that the visitors are searching for.
The majority of the words in the remaining body of your article, which could be several 1000 words long, are thought to be pretty much useless, because they’re too common and no one’s searching for them,
So what you need to strategize, is to decide the best keywords that your targeted visitors are searching for, which best describes your content, and then target a select group of them.
This collection of long tail keywords, are the ones that you want to optimize your blog for.
The keywords that you choose, are the ones that you want your post to land on the first page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for.
Optimizing Your Keywords
You want the keywords that you choose, to be given the most weight and relevance by the search engines, as well as by those who are searching for that information.
There’s no point ranking number 1 for keywords that no one is searching for, because you will not get any traffic.
Your sites popularity, the amount of traffic that you also get from social media, along with other sites that are linking back to your blog, weighs in as well, when the search engines analyzes your site.
So the quality of your content, which should be unique with specific information, are a series of relevant keywords that blends into informative sentences, which is also the biggest factor when it comes to SEO.
What Content To Write
Other than your site ranking well for SEO, the main reason to write content that’s useful, is because it provides the information that your readers are searching for.
These are the people who find your blog post somehow. They then either share your content, or will buy something from you.
These are the people who you need to cater to, by giving them a reason to read your article.
Realize that the reader who stumbles on your blog post somehow, doesn’t care where you rank in the search engines.
Even if you do happen to rank first overall, but you don’t have anything to offer them, they will click away and may never come back.
All what people ultimately just care about, is if you’re serving or solving their needs, their pain, their problem, or not.
Once they find your post, and if they like the value of your content, then they’ll stick around and take a look at the rest of your blog.
If they really like you, they will either share your posts on social media or they will comment on your site.
Make Your Content Serve
If your blog post is just a pile of words and flashing banners, then the visitor will just go to the next ranked site, hoping that it has something that could help them, and not waste their time.
So the focus of your entire SEO purpose, above anything else, is that you need high quality content that makes sense. One that’s not stuffed with useless words or irrelevant information.
If you have good content that communicates to the reader what they want, then you’ve done more than what 90% of others won’t or can’t do.
There are other factors that weighs into your SEO ranking, that you can optimize for to increase your popularity with the search engines.
On-Site SEO
There are 8 general rules that most SEO experts agreed on, that they think determines where or why your blog post will end up in the search engine rankings.
1.) Superior Content – What you need is better readable unique content than everyone else, which solves problems. It adequately addresses an issue or a hurt.
Know the content needs to serve two masters. It needs the delicate balance of keyword density, so that it satisfies both the reader and the search engine “bots.”
2.) The Use Of Tags – The purpose of using “tags,” is they act as finger food, they act as a funnel for the search engine spiders.
What they do, is allows them to feast on the keyword phrases that are fed to them, the ones that your readers may have interest in.
Tags should be used in a variety of context and content, so the bots can understand and consume them.
The most common tags that are used, includes the title tags, meta tags, keyword tags, etc.
Title tags are considered the most critical, as they are thought to have the most direct impact on your SEO rankings. What a well crafted title tag does, is precisely describes the content of the page.
The information that’s in the tag is what appears in the search results, which is a snapshot that the searcher will see and read on the SERPs, so they can decide to click on your site or not.
So it needs to be a major part of your SEO campaign.
Meta tags are used to describe the content of your blog and post.
This to compete among the other sites in the same niche, and for the search engines to consume and rank. More importantly, to describe what the site is about to the visitor.
3.) Link Structure – The third SEO factor is proper internal link structure, this looking from the search engines point of view.
What all top ranking “authority” sites have, are multiple pages of quality content that other authority sites references back to them, by linking.
They’re also interconnected navigable internal link structures, so that your visitors can easily get around your blog, and then find the exact information that they want.
So want’s needed, is providing an internal connected link structure for both your visitors, and the search engine bots.
The internal link structure should be functional, logical and easy to navigate. The visitors can then easily go to the exact information that’s of interest to them.
Doing so also allows the search engines, to follow all the links for indexing, or to see where it takes them. So use links that are functional when building your blog.
4.) Secured Sites (Using HTTPS instead of HTTP) – What the search engines are always adamant about, is protecting their users from from harm, hackers and people with bad intent and motives.
What they want, is to ensure that when someone is browsing through your blog, that your information is completely transparent and free from danger.
Having all the security protocols on your blog for the search engines in place, means that you’re looking out for the safety of your readers, and the search engines will reward you for it.
5.) Page Load Speed – We live in supersonic times. We crave everything fast and immediate. Every browser and consumer on the Internet, including ourselves, want instant everything, as in right now.
What the search engines want is for your blog page to load in milli-seconds. Anything slower than that, and you will lose the patience of the search engines, and the majority of your visitors.
We are all rushed, as everyone now zooms in and out of sites, as if we need to be somewhere else, rather than being on the Internet. We’re too busy, with so little time.
So regardless if someone’s on the Internet for work purposes, or for social or information research purposes, the search engines know that speed kills, that money loves speed.
So if your blog has slow page load times, then the search engines won’t rank you well.
6.) Article Content Length – To optimize your web pages on your blog, what’s known is that the search engines prefer longer content, that’s relevant, refreshing and unique.
The reason being, the assumption is that the more information that you provide, the higher the chances are that the reader on your site, gets the information that they’re looking for.
This isn’t however forcing you to write thousands and thousands of keyword stuffed words that are pointless, that stretches out your content, while completely losing your focus and the gist.
7.) Mobile Friendly Responsive Websites – There are still a significant number of websites, that only optimizes their content for desktop users, while ignoring mobile devices altogether.
Even if half of your readers are on their desktop, while the other half is on their smartphone, it’s only logical to serve both.
What’s known is that almost everyone now owns a smartphone, which means that they will most likely be doing their searches on their devices.
Anytime that a potential customer visits a site on their mobile, and it doesn’t conform to their screen, they’ll instantly get annoyed and go find a better experience.
8.) Age Of The Domain – Although this is debatable for some, the age of a domain, its keyword relevancy, when it was registered, the older it is, adds more credibility to the site.
Others claim, that along with the age of the domain, what’s more important to the search engines, is its viability and the quality of content.
Another argument for aged domains, is because there are far too many new bloggers who don’t last, and either abandon or just quit their usually newly registered domain.
So being persistent, patient and in it for the long run, focusing on why you began in the first place, becomes critical.
Being around for a while on the Internet, and offering consistent and quality content from the beginning, will set you up as a emerging authority figure.
Be In It For The Long Run
What search engines like, are sites that are kept up-to-date and are well-cared for.
From their point of view, the blogs that are well maintained, are the ones that evolves with the times, so constantly updating your content is important.
What search engines also like are sites that are popular.
What they allow, are the citizens of the Internet to show and tell them what they like, which sites are worth visiting over and over again.
Google?s 23-point Guide On Creating A High Quality Website
This is directly off Google’s Blog published a few years ago.
1. Is the information that’s on the webpage trustworthy?
2. Is the article that’s written, by a known expert, an enthusiast, or someone who’s a professional in the field?
3. Is there a similar copy of the article that’s around the Internet, and has been just slightly reworded or rearranged?
4. Is the website trustworthy enough, so that it can receive credit card information?
5. Does the content on the website have obvious spelling, grammatical, stylistic, or factual errors?
6. Are the topics on the site really needed by the website visitors, or is the website just attempting to “game” the search engine rankings?
7. Is the content on the site completely original?
8. Is the value of the content on the page substantial, when compared to the other competing pages that are in the search results?
9. Has there been any quality control that’s been done on the articles or the site itself?
10. For reviews, does the article discuss opposing sides instead of just a one sided argument (such as offering both the pros and the cons of a product review)?
11. Is the website considered to be an authority on the topic and in the field by its users?
12. Is the content that’s on the website part of a mass-produced network of other websites, in the attempts to thin out the competition?
13. Was the article proofread and edited, or was it hastily written and published?
14. Would the readers trust the content that’s on the website, especially for health-related concerns?
15. Is the name or author that’s on the website recognizable as an authority figure in the field?
16. Is the article complete, when it comes to information that’s provided, or does it have a lot of errors or information that’s lacking?
17. Does the article contain information that’s not too obvious to the reader?
18. Is it the type of content on the site that the readers would share to others, or they would bookmark it for future use?
19. Does the page or blog contain excessive amounts of ads?
20. Is the content that’s on the page good enough so it can be printed in a newspaper, magazine, or an encyclopedia?
21. Is the content that’s on the page too short, riddled or crammed with the same keywords, while lacking in valuable information?
22. Was the article written with concise detailed attention and is accurate?
23. Would the readers complain about the content that’s on the website?
SEO The Holy Grail
So it becomes a multi-pronged purpose.
? There’s no question that you will eventually be indexed by the search engine spiders, this usually before you have massive in-bound links established. The question is, will you ever land on the first several pages of the results.
? What’s known is that for you to be ranked higher, the search engines needs to see that there are authority sites and social media sites, that’s pointing back to your blog, which proves to them that you are popular, by you providing this social proof.
? All that the search engines want and care about, is to serve their searchers the best way they can. This by giving them the cleanest true results, that are based on their specific keyword search query.
So it’s your job as a content marketer, to meet and greet everything that the search engine guidelines set out. To comply and remain current.
Keep in mind that the search engines are not human, but are instead just extremely brilliant pieces of code, that behaves exactly to what it’s told to do, based on its ever changing algorithm.
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