However, consider that Google is judging the content of eCommerce websites similar to regular content sites. A 2016 WordStream survey found that 72 percent of people who searched online for something local visited a store within five miles. 70% of the links clicked on by web users are organic results …

Even if you already have an SEO strategy in place, you need to understand how it is performing. Is the strategy meeting your objectives? Are core tactics like on-site SEO and link-building having the desired impact? How is your strategy performing when compared to your competition? Nearly, 74% of consumers …

Evergreen topics have long lasting value, so when looking at the trend, it should be pretty consistent throughout the year. Traditionally, these tend to be slightly more competitive, but have a much longer lifespan for being relevant. Everyone likes to see a nicely designed website, but given a choice between …

In a Searchmetrics 2016 study into ranking factors, there was an “extremely high” correlation between social signals and Google rankings. However, this couldn’t be accredited to the algorithm, but rather to the “overlap between brand websites performing strongly in social networks and being allocated top positions by Google.” You …

Using social media for your business has numerous benefits, but it’s never been more important for SEO than today. Search engines are measuring social signals such as likes, favorites, shares, retweets and +1s to determine valuable, search-worthy results. According to experts, we should expect high-quality social media posts to …

RankBrain analyzes keywords against searches to let Google know what type of end results a web user is looking for. Google can then use that data to rank the relevancy of webpages concerning those keywords. Search engines are the primary method of navigation for most Internet users. For great search …

The robots exclusion standard or robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to communicate with web crawlers and robots. It specifies which areas of the website should not be processed. Not all robots cooperate with robots.txt; namely: email harvesters, spambots, malware, and robots which scan for security vulnerabilities …

Consider writing a piece of guest content, not for your own site but for a relevant, external site. As part of the deal, agree that you may include a link to your site A website’s quality, design, content, and usability are huge factors. The performance of a website from …

You can de-index any types of content that have less than 100 words. This might be the #1 suggestion for most businesses that have not done any SEO. For WordPress websites you can use the Yoast SEO plugin for this. Take a look at your top ranking and most shared …

The robots exclusion standard or robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to communicate with web crawlers and robots. It specifies which areas of the website should not be processed. Not all robots cooperate with robots.txt; namely: email harvesters, spambots, malware, and robots which scan for security vulnerabilities …

The truth is that links are still the most important component of the search algorithm. No matter how useful its content may be, a site without links is far less likely to rank highly in organic search results. Content marketing has become a major player concerning SEO in the past …

Google has worked to smash black-hat and spam-based link-building practices, penalizing link wheels, exchanges and paid links. In 2012 the Penguin update ushered in the link building reality we experience today. With it only natural link accumulation will gain your website & webpages authority. Search engine optimization has significantly changed in …

To ensure the best web browsing experience possible, the software engineers at Google created a search ranking algorithm that thinks like Internet users. Facebook and Twitter are two of the highest traffic referral sources for some sites, so be sure that you have profiles and are active regularly on both …

I spent years and years focusing on doing nothing but building backlinks. The social hit and I had to change my focus. Now links are back as number #1 again, but honestly, did they ever really stop being the top factor? If you do decide to use an image as …

With so many people using smartphones and tablet for their Internet search, it is imperative that you have a plan ready to compete for their business. The search engines will act rapidly to penalize sites that contain viruses or trojans. After the emergence of major updates, like Panda and Penguin …

Longer search phrases are the natural progression of the Internet population boom. As more and more information is placed online, it becomes increasingly difficult to find exactly what you're looking for. Link to page relevance is if the link is relevant on the page; that is to say if the …

A website’s quality, design, content, and usability are huge factors. The performance of a website from a technical and user-experience aspect is becoming a stronger component to achieving top results. Anchor text has been a huge talking point within SEO for many years now. Search engine optimization (SEO) is …

The online audience has evolved and expectations are high. They are mobile, they are time poor and they live in a world where sharing ideas and content on social networks is just a natural part of consuming online content. Search engines like Google can tell the difference between links set …

The key to a successful list post is no more complicated than including a large number of quality items. RankBrain and other machine learning systems examine user behavior to deliver the “best” search results possible. Unfortunately, what’s deemed best for one query might not be the best for another …

Cloaking is when you present different content or URLs to your visitors than you do to the search engines. Along those lines, a “sneaky” redirect is when site owners “embed a link in JavaScript that redirects the user to a different page with the intent to show the user a …

Principally, technical SEO is concerned with how a website works, and how search engines are able to crawl and index our pages. Think of technical SEO as the foundations of your site – without it, whatever beautiful building you create won’t be as sturdy as you’d like. The most …

Links aren't everything in SEO, but search professionals attribute a large portion of the engines' algorithms to link-related factors. Take a look at your top ranking and most shared content. Is there overlap? If you’ve found a type of content that is simultaneously strong in search and frequently shared …

When you delete a page (or post) from your site, you delete one or more URLs too. That old URL, when visited, will usually return a 404 not found error. But is that what you wanted? Maybe that page should be redirected somewhere. Meta tags are pieces of HTML code …

Ask your customers for reviews, mark them up with structured data and present them on a particular page on your site. This might do wonders. The pages have to create unique enough value that they can be distinguished from other similar pages by the search engines. Lacking that intrinsic value …

Since search engines focus more on the initial words of the titles, make sure you add your keywords at the start of your title tag – this will help you rank better. Think of yourself as an asset portfolio manager, because that’s what you are. In the same way fund …

Authority is measured by the quantity and quality of inbound links to your site, as well as its technical performance and structure. Using social media for your business has numerous benefits, but it’s never been more important for SEO than today. Search engines are measuring social signals such as …

Troubleshooting technical errors and ensuring that your website is always accessible is one of the biggest hurdles to manage when thinking about good SEO practices over time. Google continues to use natural, quality inbound links as a main ranking factor. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is one of the techniques …

Beware, excessive linking, either internal or external can lead to the exact opposite results. Make sure that every link serves its own purpose in your content. Search engines decide rankings on what is called the results page. You will sometimes see me use the term SERP, which is the acronym …

If a blog or web site doesn’t use the NoFollow tag, the search engines acknowledge the link; if a site does use the NoFollow tag, the search engines do not acknowledge the link. Having links from more popular websites carry more weight than less popular sites. Google’s number-one …

People like to be engaged and feel involved. Having a question as a title will start a conversation by piquing people’s interests. They will want to know what the answer is. Doing research on your targeted audience will help you come up with questions to ask. (Ideally, they should …

If you are getting links from a site that has high PageRank with many other links pointing to it then those links will boost your site's popularity. Many SEO experts agree that a website's inbound links will be crucial this year, with many contending that there importance will increase as …

Speed is a ranking factor for desktop and a very important usability factor for mobile. Google is very serious about page loading times on mobile and that’s why they have introduced and pushing for the implementation of accelerated mobile pages. Most businesses understand the importance of — and the general …

Technical SEO lays a solid foundation that gives your content the best chance to rank for relevant keywords and phrases. In an SEO scenario, Google likes to trust sites that have links from high quality, relevant sources. For example, large news websites don’t generally link to an untrusted source …

One of the main reasons a business professional might reject investing in SEO is because it seems to be highly dependent on the behavior of a search engine; they have no control over Duplicative or unnecessary website content can also hold you back from your true ranking potential. Check archive …