+18647806008
ojenema@enemaoj.com
6 Common SEO Mistakes you’re Making in 2023
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. It involves optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results and ultimately drive more traffic to your site. However, with so many different strategies and tactics to consider, it can be easy to make mistakes that can harm your website’s ranking.
In this discussion, we will delve into some of the most common SEO mistakes that you should avoid in order to improve your website’s visibility and drive more qualified traffic.
From keyword stuffing which is the most common SEO mistake to ignoring mobile optimization, here are the five most common SEO mistakes that can hinder your website’s performance and how to avoid them. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced marketer, understanding these mistakes is essential in order to optimize your website and reach your target audience:
1. Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing is when you use too many keywords in your content, meta tags, and URLs in an attempt to trick search engines into ranking your website higher. It’s like trying to fit as many words as possible into a sentence, even if it doesn’t make sense or sound natural. Imagine you’re writing an article about dogs, and instead of writing naturally about different breeds, their characteristics and how to take care of them, you repeat the word “dogs” over and over again in every sentence, in the title, the meta tags and the URLs. This is called keyword stuffing and it’s a big no-no in the world of SEO. Keyword stuffing is one of the most common SEO mistakes to avoid if you desire strategic organic traffic growth for your business.
Search engines are getting smarter and can easily identify when a website is stuffed with keywords. Instead of ranking higher, a website that engages in keyword stuffing may actually be penalized and lose ranking. The key is to use keywords naturally and strategically throughout your content, meta tags and URLs. It’s important to remember that the ultimate goal is to provide value to the user, and keyword stuffing does not add value to the user experience, but it can make the content unreadable and unengaging.
2. Duplicate content
Duplicate content refers to the practice of publishing identical or near-identical content across multiple pages or websites. This can occur due to a variety of reasons, including the use of URL parameters, session IDs, and the republishing of content from other sources without proper attribution.
Duplicate content can negatively impact a website’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts as search engines may struggle to determine the original source of the content, which can lead to dilution of link equity and a decrease in rankings. Additionally, it can lead to a poor user experience as users may be presented with multiple versions of the same content when searching for information.
To avoid duplicate content, it is recommended to utilize 301 redirects to direct users and search engines to the preferred version of a page. Additionally, the use of rel=canonical tags can be implemented to clearly indicate the original source of the content.
As a publisher, it is essential to ensure that all content published on a website is original and properly attributed if sourced from another website. Regularly monitoring and identifying duplicate content through tools such as Google Search Console can also aid in identifying and resolving duplicate content issues.
3. Broken links
Broken links are links on your website that no longer lead to a valid web page or resource. Imagine you have a website and you have a link on your page that’s supposed to lead to another page on your website or to an external website, but when you click on it, it leads to a page with a 404 error message. This is a typical example of a broken link.
They can be frustrating for users who may be trying to find information on your website and they can also harm your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines use links to navigate and index websites, if they come across a broken link, it can make it difficult for them to understand the structure of your website and it can lead to your website being penalized. This is one common technical SEO mistakes you must keep your eyes on in your everyday SEO tasks.
To avoid broken links, it’s important to regularly check for broken links on your website and fix them as soon as they are identified. You can use tools such as Google Search Console or broken link checker to find broken links on your website.
It’s also important to keep an eye on external links, if a website you’re linking to changes or removes the page, your link will become broken. If you find a broken link, you should either remove it or update it to point to a valid page.
Having broken links on your website is like having a signpost pointing to a dead end, it’s not only frustrating for the person trying to find their way but also it can harm your website’s credibility and visibility.
4. Ignoring mobile optimization
In fact, it’s estimated that over 60% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices according to Statistica data. Search engines, such as Google, recognize this trend and have made mobile-friendliness a ranking factor in their search algorithms. Imagine losing this percentage of your website visitors to your competitors simply because your website is not mobile friendly and possesses some terribly low loading speed.
A website that is not optimized for mobile devices can have a number of issues, such as slow loading times, small text and buttons that are difficult to tap, and a layout that is not optimized for small screens. These issues can lead to a poor user experience, and as a result, users may quickly leave your website, which can increase your bounce rate and lower your website’s rankings. This is one of the most common terrible SEO mistakes you must avoid.
Additionally, a website that is not optimized for mobile devices may not be properly indexed by search engines, which can also negatively impact your website’s rankings. Search engines may not be able to properly crawl and understand the content and structure of your website, leading to a decrease in visibility and traffic. Remember that indexing and ranking are gaining a mobile-first approach.
To ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, it’s important to use responsive design, which allows your website to adapt to different screen sizes. You can also use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see if your website is optimized for mobile devices and check for any issues that need to be addressed.
5. Not using alt tags and descriptive names for images
Not using alt tags for images can be a huge mistake and you should avoid it. Alt tags, also known as alternative text, provide a text description of an image for search engines and users who may be unable to view the image. When search engines crawl a website, they use the alt text to understand the context and relevance of the images on the page, which can help improve the website’s visibility in image search results.
Additionally, alt tags provide accessibility for users who may be visually impaired and use screen readers to navigate the web. Without alt tags, these users may not be able to understand the content of the images on a page.
To ensure that your images are properly optimized for SEO and accessibility, it’s important to use descriptive, keyword-rich alt tags that accurately describe the content of the image. The alt text should be concise, usually no more than a few words, and should include relevant keywords when possible in a natural way.
Other image optimization strategies include:
- Using image file names that are descriptive and include relevant keywords whenever possible
- Compressing images to reduce their file size, which can improve page load times
- Using the appropriate image file type, such as JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics with transparent backgrounds
- Adding image captions if appropriate
- Making sure that images are properly sized before uploading them to your website.
6. Not having a sitemap
A sitemap is a file that lists all of the pages on a website, along with information about each page, such as when it was last updated. It is designed to help search engines understand the structure of a website, and to find new and updated pages more easily.
Having a sitemap can help improve your SEO efforts by making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website. Without a sitemap, search engines may struggle to find and understand all of the pages on your website, which can lead to a decrease in visibility and traffic. With a sitemap, search engines can quickly find and understand all of the pages on your website, which can help your website rank better and drive more traffic.
Additionally, a sitemap can provide important information about your pages, such as when they were last updated and how frequently they change. This information can help search engines understand the freshness of your content, which can also impact your website’s rankings.
To create a sitemap, you can use a sitemap generator tool or manually create one using XML. Once you have created a sitemap, you should submit it to search engines, such as Google and Bing, through their webmaster tools. It’s also important to regularly update your sitemap to reflect any changes or updates to your website. Sitemaps are great for crawling and indexing and can impact your ranking.
Conclusion
In summary, SEO is a crucial aspect of digital marketing that involves optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results and drive more traffic to your site. However, there are common mistakes that can harm your website’s ranking if not avoided, such as keyword stuffing, duplicate content, broken links, lack of meta descriptions and not optimizing for mobile.
To improve your website’s visibility and drive more qualified traffic, it’s important to understand these mistakes and take a strategic approach by focusing on providing value to the user, using keywords naturally, avoiding duplicate content, regularly monitoring and fixing broken links, including meta descriptions, and optimizing your website for mobile devices.
How Technical SEO Impacts Search Engine Ranking
Technical SEO refers to the practice of optimizing a website’s backend and infrastructure to improve its visibility and accessibility for search engines. This includes things like website structure, mobile optimization, page speed, URLs, and more. It is a very significant aspect of search engine optimisation due to the fact that it helps to ensure that search engines can easily crawl, index, and understand a website’s content, making it more likely to appear in search results. It has great impacts on search engine ranking.
The importance of technical SEO in search engine rankings cannot be overstated. Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine the relevance and authority of a website, and technical SEO plays a crucial role in this process. A website with poor technical SEO will likely struggle to rank well in search results, even if its content is high-quality. On the other hand, a website with strong technical SEO will have a better chance of ranking well, even if its content is not as strong.
Think about it like building a house, you can have the most beautiful interior decor and furniture, but if the foundation is weak, the house will still collapse. Similarly, even if the content on the website is great but the website’s structure and infrastructure are not optimized for search engines, the website will struggle to rank well in search results, especially in cases where the site is blocked by a robot.txt file. Technical SEO lays the foundation for a website’s search engine visibility, making it an essential part of any SEO strategy.
Factors that Impact Technical SEO
Website structure and architecture
This is one of the most important factors that impact technical SEO. Search engines use web crawlers to explore and index the content on a website, and a well-structured and organized website makes it easier for these crawlers to navigate. A website with poor structure, on the other hand, can make it difficult for search engines to understand the content and can lead to poor search engine rankings. Best practices for website structure and architecture include using a clear and logical hierarchy, using descriptive and accurate URLs, and using internal linking to help search engines understand the relationships between different pages on the website.
Mobile optimization is another key factor that impacts technical SEO.
More than 51% of website visitors use mobile devices according to a recent article by Statistica. With more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it is essential for websites to be optimized for these devices. This includes things like using responsive design, which ensures that a website looks and functions correctly on different screen sizes, and implementing mobile-friendly features like larger text and buttons. Not optimizing a website for mobile devices can lead to poor search engine rankings, as well as a poor user experience.
Page speed and load time
Page speed and load time are also important factors that impact technical SEO. Search engines have stated that page speed is a ranking factor, and a slow-loading website can lead to poor search engine rankings. Additionally, a slow-loading website can also lead to a poor user experience, which can ultimately hurt the website’s search engine rankings. Best practices for improving page speed and load time include optimizing images, minimizing code, and using a content delivery network (CDN).
URLs and redirects
Search engines use URLs to understand the content of a website and to determine the relationships between different pages. Using descriptive and accurate URLs can help search engines understand the content on a website while using redirects can help to ensure that search engines are directed to the correct page.
Schema markup and structured data
Schema markup is a type of code that is added to a website to help search engines understand the content on the website. This can include things like the type of content, the author of the content, and the date the content was published. Using schema markup and structured data can help to improve search engine rankings by making it easier for search engines to understand the content on a website.
Sitemaps and robots.txt
Sitemaps and robots.txt are also important factors that impact technical SEO. Sitemaps are files that contain a list of all the pages on a website and can help search engines to find and understand the content on a website. Robots.txt is a file that tells search engines which pages on a website should be indexed and which should not. Using sitemaps and robots.txt can help to improve search engine rankings by ensuring that search engines are able to find and understand the content on a website.
How to Optimise The Technical SEO of a Website
Conduct an Audit of the Website
There are several ways to handle the technical SEO optimisation of a website. The first step in optimizing a website’s technical aspects is by conducting an audit of the website. Technical SEO involves analyzing the website’s backend and infrastructure to identify any technical SEO issues that may be impacting its search engine rankings. The approach can include identifying things like poor website structure, slow page speed, broken links, and more. Once these issues have been identified, website owners can then take steps to address them and improve their technical SEO.
Identify and Implement Best Practices on Website Structure and Architecture
Implementing best practices for website structure and architecture is another important step in optimizing the technical SEO of any website. Whether it is ecommerce, SaaS products or just a blog, site structure and architecture play crucial roles. Website structure and architecture include things like using a clear and logical hierarchy, using descriptive and accurate URLs and using internal linking to help search engines understand the relationships between different pages on the website.
Evaluate the Website Speed and Optimise for Better Performance
Pagespeed and load time are other key factors. The process can include things like optimizing images, minimizing code, and using a content delivery network (CDN). Website owners can also use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify specific issues that are impacting their website’s page speed and to get suggestions on how to improve it.
Identify and Implement the Right Schema Types
Another important step in the technical optimisation process is schema optimisation. Schema markup is a type of code that is added to a website to help search engines understand the content on the website. It includes important information like the type of content, the author of the content, and the date the content was published. Using schema markup and structured data can help to improve search engine rankings by making it easier for search engines to understand the content on a website. When you conduct an audit, identify the proper schema types that should exist on the page and write them using guidelines on Schema.org.
Review Robot.txt File and Sitemap
As a website owner, it is also important to optimise your sitemap and robot.txt files to ensure that search engine bots are not blocked by the robot.txt file on your website. Sitemaps are files that contain a list of all the pages on a website and can help search engines to find and understand the content on a website. Robots.txt is a file that tells search engines which pages on a website should be indexed and which should not. Submitting sitemaps and robots.txt can help to improve search engine rankings by ensuring that search engines are able to find and understand the content on a website.
Track Progress on Search Console
Another important step you must understand how to handle is site monitoring. Keep a constant eye on the website traffic through Search Console and look out for errors that may be picked up by search engine bots when crawling your website. Monitoring the website’s search engine rankings, and monitoring the website’s page speed and load time. When you keep an eye on these metrics, you can quickly identify and address any issues that may be impacting their technical SEO and search engine rankings.
Impact of Technical SEO on Search Engine Ranking
Improves Website Visibility and Accessibility for Search Engines
One of the most significant impacts of technical SEO on search engine rankings is its ability to improve visibility and accessibility for search engines. When you optimize a website’s backend and infrastructure, you make it easier for search engines to crawl, index, and understand the content on the website. This approach involves the following: Clear and logical hierarchy, responsive design, and optimizing page speed and load time. It is also important to point out that if search engine bots cannot crawl your website, it becomes impossible to index that website no matter the quality of the content it has.
Improvement in Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
When you optimise your website’s backend and infrastructure, you directly improve the user experience. For example; optimizing page speed and load time makes your website load quickly and smoothly and gives your site visitors better experience, which can lead to higher click-through rates and increased traffic. Another strategy is to improve your website responsiveness through mobile experience.
Improvement in Crawlability and Indexability
Improving the website’s crawlability and indexability is another way that technical SEO impact search engine ranking. Search engines use web crawlers to explore and index the content on a website, and a well-structured and optimized website makes it easier for these crawlers to navigate. This includes factors like the website’s XML sitemaps, robots.txt file, and the use of proper header tags and meta tags. By making it easy for the crawlers to access and understand the website’s content, technical SEO helps search engines to better understand the website’s content and its relevance to specific search queries.
Using Structured Data
Structured data are codes that are added to a website’s HTML that help search engines understand the content on the website. They contain important information such as product information, reviews, ratings, event information, and more. Sometimes, more detailed information like phone numbers and addresses form important components of local business schema. Providing search engines with this additional information allows them to understand the website’s content better and can potentially lead to rich snippets and other enhancements in the search results.
Better Mobile Friendliness
Technical SEO also helps in improving the website’s mobile-friendliness and responsiveness. With more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it is essential for websites to be optimized for these devices. Things to pay attention to here include the following: Responsive design, which ensures that a website looks and functions correctly on different screen sizes, and implementing mobile-friendly features like larger text and buttons. Google has stated that mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor, and a website that is not optimized for mobile devices will likely struggle to rank well in search results.
Website Security
You already know that a good number of people will not attempt to visit your website if it doesn’t load on a secured connection. Websites that are secured with HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) have a slight edge over HTTP websites in terms of SEO. As Google is pushing for a more secure internet and actively encourages website owners to switch to HTTPS, it is likely that this will become an increasingly important ranking factor in the future.
Examples of the Impact of Technical SEO on Search Engine Ranking
There are many examples of successful technical SEO campaigns and their impact on search engine rankings. One example is this travel website that specializes in providing important information about travel and camping, the website had a poor structure and was not mobile-friendly, as a result, it had poor search engine rankings. We conducted an audit and optimised the website structure, making it mobile-friendly, and optimizing page speed and load time, the website’s search engine rankings improved significantly and it saw a significant increase in website traffic.
Jumia is another example is an e-commerce website which was facing issues with its checkout process, leading to high bounce rates and poor search engine rankings. We identified the issue through Google Analytics audit and worked on improving the checkout process and user experience, resulting in lower bounce rates and improved search engine rankings.
Conclusion
In conclusion, technical SEO is a critical aspect of any SEO strategy that should not be overlooked. It is the foundation upon which a website’s search engine visibility is built and plays a crucial role in determining a website’s search engine rankings. It is the process of optimizing a website’s backend and infrastructure to improve its visibility and accessibility for search engines. Through proper technical SEO techniques, you can ensure that your website is easily crawlable, indexable, and understandable for search engines. This can lead to higher search engine rankings, increased traffic, and better user experience.
Technical SEO is not a one-time task but a continuous process that requires constant monitoring and updates. It is important for you to stay up-to-date with the latest technical SEO best practices and to regularly audit their websites to identify and address any technical issues that may arise. Doing so, you can ensure that their website is always optimized for search engines and is able to compete in the ever-changing digital landscape.
It’s not only about following the guidelines and best practices but also about understanding the user’s journey and providing them with the best possible experience. Optimizing important aspects like website’s structure, mobile experience, page speed, URLs, schema markup and structured data, sitemaps and robots.txt, and website security, website owners can ensure that their website is easily accessible, user-friendly, and provides a great experience. This can lead to higher engagement, increased conversions, and ultimately better search engine rankings.
SEO Best Practices for Implementing Schema on a Website (2023)
Schema is a way of marking up data on a website to make it easier for search engines to understand the content. It is important to use schema because it can help improve how your website appears in search results. When using schema on a website, ensure that you utilise the best practice for implementing schema makeup for search engine optimisation. There are certain important errors to avoid like making sure that the schema is in line with schema.org approaches to creating schema.
When you use schema, search engines can display more detailed and accurate information about your website, which can lead to more people clicking on your website’s listing and visiting the displayed page. This can be especially helpful for businesses, as it can increase the chances of people finding and using their products or services. When done properly, it can help to give your page the featured snippet advantage. They help search engines to properly understand your website content better and can lead to more traffic and customers.
Benefits of using schema in SEO
Using schema makeup can have several benefits, especially if it is done the right way. Some of the most significant benefits of using them on your web pages include the following:
- Improved search engine result listings: Schema helps search engines understand your website content better and provide more detailed and accurate information about your website in search results. This can help your website stand out and attract more clicks from people searching for certain keywords that are properly addressed on your web pages.
- Increased visibility and click-through rate: Since schema improves how your website appears in search engine result pages, they have the ability to attract more clicks since they help to give more details about the page to searchers. This means that more people may see your website listed when they search for certain keywords. If your website is more visible, it is more likely that people will click on it and visit it directly from search results.
- Better user experience: When people see more detailed and accurate information about your website in search results, they may be more likely to trust your website and visit such displayed pages. This can lead to a better overall experience for the user and potentially even increase the chances of them returning to your website in the future.
- Potential for higher rankings: When you consider ranking factors and how schema helps search engines understand the content of each page and how to better display it to searchers for better experience, it is important to note that as a factor, it can potentially increase your website ranking so why not go for it?
- Increased chances of being featured in rich results: Schema can also help your website be eligible to be featured in special search results called “rich results.” These are results that include more detailed information and can be more visually appealing, which can make your website more likely to be noticed and clicked on.
Types of Schema in SEO
There are several types of schema that can be used in search engine optimization. Some popular examples include the following:
1. Product schema
This type of schema is used to mark up a website’s products with additional important information which search engines can use to better understand the content of the page. It contains important information about the product listed such as the name, price, availability, ratings, etc.
Here are some important elements of product schema:
- name: This should be the name of the product
- description: A brief overview of the product, including its features and benefits
- image: Links to some images of the product that’s listed on the page
- brand: The brand or manufacturer of the product
- sku: The stock keeping unit (SKU) of the product, which is a unique identifier used to track the product in inventory.
- aggregateRating: Give an aggregate rating of the product, based on customer reviews or other ratings on your website
- review: Has any customer reviewed the product on your website after use? Add such reviews here
- offers: Information about the availability and pricing of the product, including the price and any discounts or promotions that may be available.
Here is a sample product schema template utilising the best practices for schema implementation:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Product Name",
"image": [
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo2.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo3.jpg"
],
"description": "Product Description",
"sku": "1234567890",
"mpn": "ABCD1234",
"brand": {
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Brand Name"
},
"review": {
"@type": "Review",
"reviewRating": {
"@type": "Rating",
"ratingValue": "4",
"bestRating": "5"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Jane Smith"
}
},
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.4",
"reviewCount": "89"
},
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"url": "https://example.com/product/1234567890",
"priceCurrency": "USD",
"price": "119.99",
"priceValidUntil": "2022-11-05",
"itemCondition": "https://schema.org/UsedCondition",
"availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
"seller": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Company Name"
}
}
}
</script>
2. Local Business schema
This is an important schema type for local businesses as it helps to provide more detailed information about a local business to search engines. This information can then be used by search engines to display rich, detailed results about the business on the search result pages especially when someone searches for your brand name. It should contain the following important information:
- Name: Add the name of the business
- Address: The physical address of the business, including the street address, city, state, and zip code.
- Phone number: The main phone number of the business. This has to be consistent on the website
- Hours of operation: The days of the week and hours that the business is open
- Price range: Give the range of prices for goods or services offered by the business
- Rating: The average rating of the business based on customer reviews
- Review count: The number of reviews that the business has received
- Image: A representative image of the business, such as a logo or a photo of the storefront
- Description: A brief description of the business and what it offers.
- Geographical coordinates: The latitude and longitude coordinates of the business location.
Below is a sample local business schema detail you can edit and use on your website. Do not forget to add your website personal details:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"name": "Business Name",
"image": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
"telephone": "555-555-5555",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 Main Street",
"addressLocality": "City",
"addressRegion": "State",
"postalCode": "12345",
"addressCountry": "USA"
},
"geo": {
"@type": "GeoCoordinates",
"latitude": "40.123456",
"longitude": "-74.123456"
},
"url": "https://example.com",
"openingHoursSpecification": [
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": [
"Monday",
"Tuesday"
],
"opens": "08:00",
"closes": "17:00"
},
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": [
"Wednesday",
"Thursday",
"Friday"
],
"opens": "09:00",
"closes": "18:00"
},
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": "Saturday",
"opens": "09:00",
"closes": "17:00"
},
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": "Sunday",
"opens": "10:00",
"closes": "16:00"
}
],
"priceRange": "$100 - $500",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/example",
"https://twitter.com/example",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/example"
]
}
</script>
3. Recipe schema for food-related websites
The Recipe schema is a type of structured data that can be added to a website to provide information about a recipe to search engines. Some of the most important elements of a recipe schema for food-related businesses include the following:
- Name: Give the accurate name of the recipe
- Image: A representative image of the recipe, such as a photo of the finished dish
- Description: A brief description of the recipe and what it includes
- Author: The person or organization that created the recipe.
- Date published: The date that the recipe was first published on the website.
- Preparation time: The amount of time it takes to prepare the recipe.
- Cook time: The amount of time it takes to cook the recipe.
- Total time: The total time it takes to prepare and cook the recipe.
- Yield: The number of servings that the recipe makes.
- Ingredients: A list of all the ingredients needed to make the recipe, including quantities.
- Instructions: Step-by-step instructions for how to prepare and cook the recipe.
- Nutrition information: Nutritional information about the recipe, including calorie count, fat content, and other relevant details.
Here is a sample recipe schema template that uses schema best practices:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Recipe",
"name": "Recipe Name",
"image": [
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/recipe.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/recipe2.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/recipe3.jpg"
],
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Chef John"
},
"datePublished": "2013-09-17",
"description": "Recipe Description",
"prepTime": "PT30M",
"cookTime": "PT1H",
"totalTime": "PT1H30M",
"recipeYield": "4 servings",
"nutrition": {
"@type": "NutritionInformation",
"calories": "240 calories"
},
"recipeIngredient": [
"1 cup flour",
"1 tsp baking powder",
"1/2 tsp salt",
"1/2 cup milk",
"1/4 cup butter, melted"
],
"recipeInstructions": [
"Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk and melted butter until a smooth batter forms.",
"Pour batter into a greased 9x9 inch baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean."
]
}
</script>
4. FAQ schema for frequently asked questions
The FAQ schema is generally simple and added to web pages with a questions and answers section. They should contain the important questions listed on the page as well as their answers. Some important elements of FAQ schema include the following:
- Question: The question that is being asked in the FAQ
- Answer: The answer to the question in the FAQ
- Date published: When the FAQ was first published on the website
- Date modified: The date that the FAQ was last modified on the website
- Author: The person or organization that created the FAQ
When in doubt, use schema.org to create a FAQ schema for your website.
5. Review schema for product and service reviews
Reviews are important for how a business is perceived online. This schema type can be used to add reviews about a product or service to a web page to help search engines understand how customers perceive such products or services online. There are several important elements that can be included in review schema, some of them include the following:
- Item reviewed: Name of the product or service that is being reviewed
- Review body: The main content of the review, including the reviewer’s thoughts and opinions about the product or service
- Rating: The accurate rating given to the product or service, on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10.
- Reviewer: Name of the person who wrote the review
- Date published: When the review was published on the website
- Date modified: The date that the review was last modified on the website
Here is a typical product review template to help you write better product review schema:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Review",
"itemReviewed": {
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Product Name"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Jane Smith"
},
"reviewRating": {
"@type": "Rating",
"ratingValue": "4",
"bestRating": "5"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Company Name"
}
}
</script>
6. Person schema
This type of schema is usually added to a website to provide information about a person to search engines which can be displayed to searchers who search for such information online. The information it contains can then be used to display rich, detailed results for a person on the search results page, including their name, job title, and other relevant details about them. There are some important information that the person schema should contain. Some of these elements include the following:
- Name: The full name of the person
- Image: A representative image of the person, such as a headshot or profile picture.
- Job title: The person’s current job title or occupation.
- Affiliation: Name of the organization or company that the person is affiliated with.
- Description: A brief description of the person and their background or qualifications.
- URL: A link to the person’s website or online presence.
- Email: The person’s email address.
Here is a sample person schema template you can edit and use on your website:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Person",
"name": "John Smith",
"image": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/john.jpg",
"jobTitle": "Software Engineer",
"description": "John Smith is a software engineer with over 10 years of experience in the industry. He has a strong background in developing web applications and is proficient in a variety of programming languages.",
"worksFor": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Company Name"
},
"sameAs": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-123456",
"https://github.com/johnsmith"
]
}
</script>
7. Article schema
This is the most common schema type that forms a part of most pages on the internet. They’re generally informational in nature and seek to provide information about the article like the date it is published, topic, images, author and other important metrics that may be used when grading the content of an article. Some of the important information it should contain include the following:
- Headline: The main title of the article
- Image: A link to the representative image of the article, such as a featured image or the article’s main subject, you can have more than one image link inside the schema
- Description: A brief summary of the article’s content like the meta description in less than 180 characters
- Author: Name of the person or organization that wrote the article
- Date published: When the article was published on the website
- Date modified: The date that the article was last modified on the website
- Publisher: Name of the organization or website that published the article
- Main entity: The main subject or topic of the article
Article schema can easily be made using on-page SEO plugins directly on WordPress.
8. Video schema
Video schema is a type of structured data that can be added to a website to provide information about a video which is listed on the page. This type of schema should only be used on pages with video content. Some of the important information a video schema should contain include the following:
- Name: The main title of the video
- Description: A brief summary of the video’s content in less than 180 characters
- Thumbnail image: A representative image of the video, such as a frame from the video or a custom thumbnail image
- Upload date: The date that the video was uploaded to the website.
- Duration: The length of the video in seconds.
- Interaction count: The number of times that the video has been interacted with, such as the number of views or likes.
- Author: Name of the person or organization that uploaded the video.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "VideoObject",
"name": "Video Name",
"description": "Video Description",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://example.com/thumbnails/video.jpg",
"uploadDate": "2022-09-14",
"duration": "PT1H3M51S",
"contentUrl": "https://example.com/videos/video.mp4",
"embedUrl": "https://example.com/embed/video",
"interactionCount": "123456",
"expires": "2022-09-20T00:00:00+00:00",
"publication": {
"@type": "PublicationIssue",
"issn": "1234-5678"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "John Doe"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Company Name",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://example.com/logo.jpg"
}
}
}
</script>
9. Music schema
This type of schema is only used on music websites to provide more detailed information about a track, artist or album to search engines so that more accurate results can be displayed on search engine result pages. A good music schema should contain the following information:
:
- Name: The name of the music album or track.
- Description: A brief summary of the music album or track’s content in less than 180 characters
- Image: Link to the representative image of the music album or track, such as the album cover or a photo of the artist
- Genre: The genre or style of the music
- Artist: The performer or group responsible for the music
- Composer: The person who composed the music
- Duration: The length of the music track in seconds
- Date published: The date that the music was published or released
- URL: A link to the page where the music can be played or purchased
Here is a sample detailed music schema template you can edit and use on your website:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "MusicGroup",
"name": "Band Name",
"genre": "Rock",
"image": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/band.jpg",
"url": "https://example.com/bands/band-name",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/bandname",
"https://twitter.com/bandname",
"https://www.instagram.com/bandname"
],
"member": [
{
"@type": "Person",
"name": "John Smith",
"roleName": "Lead Vocals"
},
{
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Jane Smith",
"roleName": "Guitar"
}
],
"track": [
{
"@type": "MusicRecording",
"name": "Song Name",
"url": "https://example.com/bands/band-name/song-name",
"duration": "PT3M45S",
"inAlbum": {
"@type": "MusicAlbum",
"name": "Album Name",
"image": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/album.jpg",
"url": "https://example.com/bands/band-name/album-name",
"datePublished": "2017-01-01"
}
}
],
"event": {
"@type": "MusicEvent",
"name": "Concert Name",
"startDate": "2022-09-20T19:00:00-08:00",
"location": {
"@type": "Place",
"name": "Venue Name",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 Main Street",
"addressLocality": "City",
10. Book schema
Do you have a website that publishes books? You need a book schema. This type of structured data can be added to a website to provide more detailed information about a book to search engines. It should contain the title, author, publisher, price and other details. Here are some important elements of a book schema:
- Name: The main title of the book.
- Description: A brief summary of the book’s content in less than 180 characters
- Image: Link to a representative image of the book, such as the cover or a photo of the author
- Author: Name of the person or group responsible for writing the book
- Publisher: Name of the organization or company that published the book.
- Date published: The date that the book was published.
- Number of pages: The total number of pages in the book.
- ISBN: The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) of the book.
- URL: A link to the page where the book can be purchased or downloaded.
Here is a sample book schema to help you implement better schema best practices on your website. Just edit it and copy to your website page where it should be used:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org/",
"@type": "Book",
"name": "Book Name",
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "John Smith"
},
"datePublished": "2012-08-02",
"description": "Book Description",
"isbn": "1234567890",
"image": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/book.jpg",
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Publisher Name"
},
"numberOfPages": "345",
"genre": "Fiction",
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.5",
"reviewCount": "67"
},
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"price": "19.99",
"priceCurrency": "USD",
"availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
"itemCondition": "https://schema.org/NewCondition",
"url": "https://example.com/book/1234567890"
}
}
</script>
Here are the Best Practices for Implementing Schema on a Website
When implementing schema types on your website, there are certain mistakes that have to be avoided in order not to cause more harm than good. Here are some best practices for implementing schema on web pages:
1. Use valid and appropriate schema types
When using schema on web pages, it is important to determine the appropriate schema type for such pages. The schema to be used on web pages should be based on the nature of the content on such pages. Do not use a schema like video schema when you know that the page does not have any video content. This page for example has both article and video content and will be appropriate to use both schema types on this page as you may see using a schema detector. This will help search engines understand your website better and provide the most accurate and relevant information in search results.
2. Test your schema using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
Google’s structured data testing tool is an awesome tool to detect errors in any schema type. Before you add schema to your website, it is a good idea to test it using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. This will help you ensure that your schema is correctly implemented and there are no errors. If you have ever managed the search console of any website, you must have seen error reports about the schemas implemented on your pages. This is one way to avoid such errors.
3. Use clear and concise language in your schema markup
When writing schema, ensure that you’re very clear in your instructions as possible. Avoid using jargon or overly technical terms that may not be easily understood by search engines.
Stay up-to-date with changes to schema standards: Schema standards can change over time, so it is important to stay up-to-date with any changes and make sure that your schema is in compliance. Before you implement any schema, try to use schema.org to change for any updates on such schema types, this will help to reduce the number of schema errors reported on your search console.
4. Use schema on relevant pages
Only use schema on pages that are relevant to the schema type you are using. As I posited earlier, it has to be purely based on the content of the website. This will help ensure that search engines can understand the content of your pages and provide the most accurate and relevant information in search results when such pages are indexed.
5. Don’t overuse schema
Sometimes you see pages that are heavily loaded with different schema types even though the content of such pages does not include such schema inclusion. A typical example is pages using the software schema simply because they talked about software or described certain features of a particular software when the website itself is not software. This is a common error that must be avoided. While schema can be helpful, it is important not to overuse it.
6. Keep schema up-to-date
It is important to keep your schema up-to-date and accurate. If you make changes on a webpage that affects the number or type of schema it contains, the schema on such pages should be updated appropriately. A typical example is when you edit an old blog post, add new sections like FAQ, change the meta title and meta description, change the images, etc. but fail to update the schema to include such details.
7. Use schema in conjunction with other SEO techniques
Schema should only be seen as a way to better structure the content of a web page so that search engines can better understand them and utilise it in a better way when listing results on search engine result pages. While schema can be helpful for SEO, it should be used in conjunction with other SEO techniques, such as keyword optimization and high-quality content, and do not overly depend on schema to rank a webpage.
8. Use a schema markup tool
There are several tools available that can help you implement schema on your website. Some tools can help you autogenerate schema for each page on your website while others are important for testing. Using tools like schema.org can help you create a better and more efficient schema for your website. Some SEO plugins like Yoast and Rankmath can help you generate schema automatically for your pages based on your settings.
Best Practices for Implementing Schema: Final Thought
In conclusion, using schema is an important aspect of SEO that should not be overlooked. When you implement schema on web pages following best practices as described in this article, you can help search engines understand your website’s content and improve its ranking in search results. It’s important to use relevant schema and include as much information as possible, while also avoiding common mistakes such as using irrelevant schema or failing to properly nest elements before publishing them on your website.
Will AI Writing Tools Replace Human Writers?
With the recent growth of AI writing assistants, questions have arisen as to whether or not AI writing tools will replace human writers. You see, writing is an expression of thoughts, experiences, ideas, and research about a topic. There is so much more to writing than non-content writers are aware of. There is a significant part of writing called audience persona and how a copy connects emotionally with its readers.
Apart from providing useful information, expressions about a topic in writing are often filled with complete emotions, creativities, ideas, and biases that are unique to each individual. It is the reason people express their thoughts about every topic differently.
As humans, we have a natural bias about everything we do that is of great interest to us and of course because bias exists, the expression is filled with emotions in a way that connects with the readers. It is the reason you’re so connected to this short piece right now.
You see, there are writers and writers who understand what writing actually is. There are some of the most significant elements of writing that are often ignored by perceived writers but it’s no fault of theirs, experiences differ.
So when people say that AI tools will replace (or have replaced) human writers because recently a new chatbot called CHATGPT is making the news, it is because they have been largely unaware of the existence of AI writing assistants. These tools are made to make the job easier and not replace human writers.
When Did AI Writing Tools Become Public? History of AI Writing Tools
For the record, AI writing tools have come a long way. The history of AI writing tools stretches back to the 1950s when researchers first began exploring the use of computers for natural language processing.
One of the earliest examples of an AI writing tool was ELIZA, a program developed at MIT in the 1960s that used pattern matching and substitution to simulate conversation with a user. In the decades that followed, many more AI writing tools were developed, ranging from simple programs like ELIZA to more complex systems that use machine learning algorithms to generate human-like text.
Here is the history of AI writing tools in summary:
1950: ALA Turning publishes the Turning Test
1967: First AI-written poem was published
1984: First AI-written book was published
2007: Statssheet was launched. Many other inventions happened between 2009 and 2011
2014: Associated Press adopted automated insight in their publishing to be the first newsroom to have an AI editor.
2016: Frase launched
2018: Alibaba launched an AI writing tool to help produce copy for product listings
2018 – 2020: Significant inventions happened like Open AI’s GPT-1 – GPT-3 and Google’s BERT were launched. In 2020 Jasper also launched when they bought Headlime.
2021: Conversion AI and Frase launched their AI writing tools.
These tools have come a long way and have greatly helped writers to produce works faster than usual. Frase and Jasper are very popular with writers all over the world.
As you may have seen from the history of AI writing tools, they have been around for a very long time.
How Do AI Writing Tools Like CHATGPT Work?
AI writing tools like ChatGPT use a type of artificial intelligence called natural language processing (NLP) to generate text that resembles human language. These tools are trained on large datasets of human-generated text, which they use to learn the patterns and structures of human language.
When a user inputs a prompt or sentence, the AI writing tool uses its NLP capabilities to analyze the input and generate a response based on the patterns and structures it has learned from the training data. The tool then outputs the generated text for the user to review and potentially use in their own writing.
One of the key advantages of AI writing tools like ChatGPT is their ability to generate large amounts of text quickly and accurately. This can be useful for tasks such as summarizing long documents or generating responses to customer inquiries. Additionally, these tools can help users expand their vocabulary and improve their writing skills by providing suggestions and corrections based on the training data they have been trained on.
Will AI Writing Technologies Impact Writers Negatively?
No! Writing technologies, such as word processing software and voice-to-text dictation tools, can make the writing process more efficient and streamlined. These technologies can help writers produce written content more quickly and with less effort, allowing them to focus on the creative aspects of their work.
Additionally, writing technologies can enable writers to easily collaborate with others, share their work with a wider audience, and access a vast array of online resources and reference materials. When you think of writing technologies, think of them as tools that are made to have a positive impact on writers by making the writing process more convenient and efficient.
For instance, using CHATGPT, a writer can complete up to five 2000 words articles in a day. Like conversion AI, Frase and others, it reduces topic research time by more than 80%. Helps you generate a proper article outline and content brief and even write an entire article if you know the write commands to use. The writer will only need to edit the article to add the creative, fact (data and stats), and emotional elements to the copy to make it human-like.
So instead of replacing writers, these tools have come to make life easier for writers. This way, writers can make more money than they have ever made in their life.
What are the Advantages of AI Writing Tools to Content Writers?
- Improved speed and efficiency: Writers can use these tools to generate written content quickly and accurately and only add missing elements like audience persona, emotions, and creativity, allowing content writers to focus on other tasks.
- Increased accuracy and precision: AI writing tools can help to reduce errors and improve the overall quality of written content.
- Enhanced creativity and flexibility: AI writing tools can provide a range of options and ideas for content writers to choose from, enabling them to create unique and engaging content.
- Improved organization and structure: AI writing tools can help content writers to organize their thoughts and ideas in a clear and logical manner, making it easier to create well-structured written content.
Limitations of AI Writing Tools like ChatGPT
As humans, we are natural storytellers – it’s in our souls. On the other hand, AI can simulate intelligence and language, but it can’t simulate expression. That’s why professional content writers have the upper hand when it comes to tailoring their writing to address buyer personas through empathy, experience, and instincts that AI just doesn’t possess yet. Here are some limitations of AI writing tools to help you understand better:
- One thing that sets human writers apart is their ability to understand the nuances of tone. For example, a sports blog would have a completely different tone than a women’s wellness blog.
- Human writers also have an advantage when it comes to choosing the right words. They know whether to use excited, animated, or exuberant to accurately describe an enthusiastic feeling.
- Another key strength of human writers is their ability to understand their audience and personas. This allows them to communicate in a conversational way that lets customers know they understand them.
- Finally, human writers can bring authenticity to their writing. Creating content that sets your brand apart takes subtlety and personality – something that AI writers just can’t replicate.
- While AI writers can organize facts and find the right words to communicate them, they can’t take research and facts and develop them into original ideas. That’s something only human writers can do.
Will AI writing Tools Replace Human Writers?
The answer is no. At least for now, the level of technology has not developed to be competent in the creative, emotional, and data aspects of human writers. They are only limited to the data set they have been trained with and that is the reason why they feed you with wrong information or answers to queries they know nothing about. This is where CHATGPT stands out because instead of feeding you with wrong information all the time, it respectively informs you that it knows nothing about your topic since it has not been trained on it.
In conclusion, it is unlikely that they will be able to fully replicate the creativity and ingenuity that human writers possess. Furthermore, the ability to effectively communicate ideas and emotions is a key aspect of writing, and this is something that AI writing tools may not be able to do as well as human writers.
How to Develop an Effective SEO Strategy
Developing an effective SEO strategy is an essential component of online marketing today. It is helpful as a roadmap for understanding your website performance and measuring output, and as a roadmap for all future marketing needs that are significant in achieving your business goals.
There’s no doubt that search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help your visibility on search engines, increase traffic to your website, and generate leads that convert into customers. However, developing an effective SEO strategy can be challenging, – that is why we have put together this guide on how to develop an SEO strategy that is effective and result-driven.
What is an SEO Strategy?
An SEO strategy is a document that outlines the roadmap for achieving online marketing goals. It includes a breakdown of a website’s content and backlinks plan. An effective SEO strategy includes a plan that you put in place to help your website rank better in search engines and track the overall performance over time.
It outlines every step that must be followed for better ranking and to achieve other business goals. Through the development of an SEO strategy, businesses can better understand their online performance and create a roadmap to achieve future goals.
Benefits of an Effective SEO Strategy
SEO strategies are aimed at making a business perform better on search engines. The following are the benefits of creating an effective SEO strategy:
- It helps in getting more visitors to your website from search engines, which leads to higher conversion rates.
- An effective SEO strategy will also help in building trust and authority for your brand
- It can also help you in getting better visibility for your website and attracting more customers
- A well-executed SEO campaign can even increase brand visibility and lift sales
- It can help you attract more web traffic and convert more leads into customers
- Effective SEO strategies can help improve user experience and double your website conversion rate
There are several other reasons why you need to learn how to develop an SEO strategy that is better suited for your business goals.
How to Develop an SEO Strategy
Learning how to create an SEO strategy is one of the most important factors that will determine your online marketing success. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to develop an effective SEO strategy that is result-driven:
Measure your Current Website Performance
To create an effective search engine optimisation strategy, you have to understand your current website performance. Taking a look into Google Search Console and Google Analytics will help you understand the performance of your website pages.
Search console data will provide relevant information about ranking keywords, their positions and whether they’re branded or non-branded keywords.
Individuals can also measure the average click-through rates and conversion rates on Google Analytics. These metrics provide relevant data that will help you understand the direction your business is headed towards profit-making.
Conduct Competition Research
Carrying out competition research is a crucial aspect of developing an effective SEO strategy. It is useful for understanding your competitors’ keywords and backlink strategy. Competition research reveals all the keywords that your competitors are ranking for and the keyword gap that exists between your website and theirs.
It also reveals the number of backlinks that your competitors have and their sources thereby helping you to understand your most competent competitors.
Set Achievable Goals and KPIs
Setting achievable business goals is an essential component of creating an effective SEO strategy. Your SEO strategy will be focused on achieving the business goals that you have set for your business.
Smart business goals should include both long-term and short-term company goals and their combinations. Business goals include all the outcomes that you set out to achieve while the KPIs include the metrics that demonstrate progress towards your goals. To achieve a perfect SEO strategy, set achievable goals.
Conduct Audits of Existing Website pages
Understanding the current performance of every page is essential. It is important for taking note of what changes need to be made on a page to ensure that it is fulfilling the intent of the search queries it was created for.
Here, you will understand the keywords for which the page already generates an impression and their ranking positions. When this is completed, the issues around the pages are identified and resolved by repurposing such pages appropriately.
Carry out Keyword Research
Keyword research is the most critical aspect of an SEO strategy. Here, attention is paid to identifying goal-relevant longtail keywords that have less competition.
Ranking keywords on search engines will depend on a lot of factors including website authority, the level of competition and backlinks. In developing an effective SEO strategy:
- Create a list of relevant topics
- Identify relevant longtail keywords based on these topics
- Identify keyword intents for all your list of keyword
- Create content briefs for your writers
- Identify primary keywords and top pages based on your business goals
- Identify Pillar pages/keywords and clusters
Image source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/seo-strategy/
Set Up a Blog and Create Pages Based on the Keyword List
Here, set up a blog for your website for content marketing purposes:
- Create a weekly or monthly blogging schedule or as the case may be based on your budget
- Link all relevant pages on your website across new and old content based on how relevant they are to the searcher
- Use link anchor texts that are the target keywords and their variations
Optimise Images Before Uploading Them to your Site
- Conver all images to next-gen formats such as .webp using plugins
- Resize all PNG and JPG files to be below 100kb and also retain the best quality whenever possible
- Use infographics as articles where they apply
Develop Backlinks Strategy and Track Progress
One of the final steps you must follow when creating an SEO strategy is to develop an actionable backlinks strategy. This can be a result of your competition research and content strategy. Your backlinks strategy may also include natural and paid methods.
When an SEO strategy is implemented, the next most important thing to do is to keep track of the progress. This can be done effectively using tools such as Google Analytics, Search Console and other data tracking tools like Semrush and Ahref. Here, you can monitor the progress and loss throughout your campaigns.
How to Create an SEO Strategy: Conclusion
It is important to understand how to create an SEO strategy that will drive results and make your website perform better than your competitors. This plan outlines the content and backlinks roadmap that your organisation must follow to stay consistent in content marketing. Being able to create this document should be among the first things to do whenever you take over any business website.
To effectively develop an SEO strategy, understand your website’s current performance, measure what your competitors are doing, set achievable goals and conduct keyword research to identify content opportunities for your business. Save this page as your go-to guideline when creating an SEO roadmap for any business.
Rank Math SEO Plugin: The Most Complete SEO Plugin in 2022
WordPress on-page SEO has never been so easy until the invention of the most powerful, yet cheapest and evolutionary on-page SEO plugin called Rank math in Nov 2018.
Rank Math is the most complete SEO plugin offering numerous features ranging from on-page SEO and content analysis (a feature that helps you to write better-optimized contents on your website), site analysis and technical audit, advanced Google analytics reports, the most powerful schema generator, keyword rank tracking, ability to import schema from any website, Google trends integration, Woocommerce SEO, local SEO, Google News SEO, and several other schema types.
The invention of this free SEO tool is a total revolution in the WordPress SEO world, with this plugin, SEO can be achieved within a few clicks empowering your site to perform better if other ranking conditions are met.
Before the release of the Rank Math plugin in 2018, on-page SEO was particularly a big task due to the huge amount of money required to buy and maintain an SEO plugin for your website, this is one reason why Rank Math is not comparable to any other SEO plugin, it beats them all by far.
Unlike Yoast SEO and other SEO plugins where users have to pay huge separate prices for Image SEO, News SEO, Local SEO, Video SEO, & Woocommerce SEO, the Rank math plugin is a combination of these features and many more powerful features like the ability to track keyword rankings, tracking top 5 winning and losing pages and keywords, track SEO performance of individual posts, advanced Google analytics integration and many more awesome features, all in one product.
One other major plus of Rank math is that it is the fastest SEO plugin, the plugin was developed with speed in mind, giving your website an edge on technical SEO as it does not interfere with your website speed or cause any form of delay.
This tool helps you to scale your website traffic easily without breaking the bank.
WordPress SEO Plugins Checklist: How to Choose the Best SEO Plugin for your Website
When choosing WordPress SEO plugins, there are many factors to consider in other to make make the most of your new plugin. On-page SEO is a very significant aspect of ranking and thus the need for SEO plugins can only get higher.
Here is a list of the top factors to consider when choosing WordPress SEO plugins;
- Nature of business
- Cost and sustainability
- Compatibility with CMS
- Speed related issues
- Security and vulnerability
- Usability and Effectiveness
- Customer support
#1 Nature of Business
There are different business types and thus different optimization needs, for example, an eCommerce business owner would have a stronger need for a Woocommerce SEO plugin than any others such as news and video SEO plugin. Sometimes they may not even need the others entirely except a content analysis plugin to help them write better blog posts.
Other businesses like blogging may have zero need for a Woocommerce SEO plugin and may only require a content analysis plugin to help them write and publish better optimized content on their blogs.
Before you make the decision to choose a WordPress SEO plugin, it is essential to first determine your business needs, this is because different plugins like local SEO, Video SEO, News SEO and Woocommerce SEO may serve different purposes, it wouldn’t make any sense to purchase a Woocommerce SEO plugin if you’re a blogger.
#2 Cost and Sustainability
Cost is another major factor to consider before you choose a WordPress SEO plugin for your business, for startups and new bloggers who have no funds to sustain the cost of paying for WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast and other expensive ones, a free tool like Rank Math free maybe the solution to all you need.
It is important to weigh carefully, the cost and sustainability of any different WordPress SEO plugins before choosing any due to the fact that some cost thousands of dollars to maintain and keep every year.
If your business is still growing, go for the most powerful yet free and cheapest option – RANK MATH.
#3 Compatibility with your Theme and WordPress Version
As a developer, one of the things I’ve had to deal with helping businesses grow is fixing broken websites. Ever installed a plugin and your website got broken? This is quite common if you’re a new WordPress user and to avoid dealing with a broken website, it is crucial to determine plugin compatibility with your theme and WordPress version before making a choice.
#4 Speed and Loading issues
One negative effect of some plugins is that they slow down your website, this was common with most Elementor users.
The major reason why plugins slow down your site is due to their interaction with servers, media, third party scripts, other plugins and many other factors including caching when loading your website.
When choosing a plugin, ensure that it does not slow down your website in any form.
The fastest and top-rated WordPress SEO plugin is Rank Math.
Download it here!
#5 Security and Vulnerability
Would you like to wake up one day and your precious website is gone forever?
The most vulnerable source of hacking your website is through your plugins and theme. That is the easiest way hackers get into WordPress websites.
A Major advantage of Rank Math SEO plugin over others is that it is secure, fast, trusted, and does not cause any security issues.
When choosing your WordPress SEO plugin, go for the most secure, simple and accurate – Rank math.
#6 Usability and Effectiveness
Ever paid for a tool only to find out that it is impossible to use?
This is a common experience among many online marketers, there are certain SEO plugins that are very difficult to use, to get the best out of them will require you to take loads of courses, adding extra expenses to the already high cost of purchase.
Here are a few Rank Math Reviews on Usability and Effectiveness available on Producthunt;
#7 Customer Support
According to Rank Math users, Rank Math possesses the best customer support system, their support includes both ticket support where all your direct website issues are tackled as well as a dedicated Facebook group that helps you with issues regarding your website and Rank Math and several other SEO related issues.
In the Facebook community, several other SEOs get the chance to share opinions about a particular topic or subject and offer suggestions for improvement.
Why is Rank Math the best WordPress SEO Plugin? Main Features of Rank Math SEO plugin
Rank Math stands as the most powerful all-in-one SEO plugin for WordPress, allowing users access to several other SEO features without needing any extra plugins.
If you are using other plugins like Yoast, you may need to separately acquire different SEO plugins for different purposes such as local SEO, Video SEO, Google News SEO, Image SEO, Woocommerce SEO, etc. with Rank Math, all these features come in one very powerful plugin.
Here is a list of 32 main reasons (features) that make this plugin the best WordPress SEO plugin in the market:
- Price ($59) for all features
- Advanced Google Analytics integration
- Keyword rank tracker
- Most advanced schema generator
- Import schema from any website
- Google trends integration
- Google News SEO sitemap
- Google Video SEO sitemap
- Image SEO
- Local SEO with multiple locations
- Woocommerce SEO
- Automatic video detection for video schema
- Track top 5 winning keywords
- Check ranking keywords for each post
- Position history for keywords and posts
- Validate schema with Google
- Custom schema builder
- 404 error tracking
- 301 links redirections
- 840+ schema types supported
- Watermarked social media images
- Advanced bulk edit option
- Import SEO data via CSV file
- Detect orphan pages
- Track SEO performance of individual posts
- Automate image captions
- Exclusive Facebook club
- Advanced technical SEO
- Fastest SEO plugin
- One click automatic updates
- SEO and schema automation
- Rank Tracker
- Content AI
- Dedicated support
Would you like to get the most complete and powerful SEO Plugin on the market?
Why Choose Rank Math? Top 10 Reasons Why You Must Use Rank Math Now
There are many SEO and cost implications why you should choose Rank Math SEO plugin over any other plugin;
#1 Google analytics integration
One of the best ways to track your website performance is by using analytics tools to track and measure visitors’ interactions on your website. Such information gives you options for improvement.
A lot of people try to avoid Google analytics due to the fact that it slows down your website thereby giving users your competitors’ speed advantage.
With the recent integration of Advanced Google Analytics, this tool tracks your website data and thus you do not need extra analytics plugins for your website success.
#2 Affordability
Even with the richest feature list as an SEO plugin, Rank Math tops the list as the most affordable WordPress SEO plugin in the market.
The tool is an all-in-one plugin that allows you access to its rich features including over 840 schema types, local SEO, News SEO sitemaps, Video SEO sitemaps, image SEO and many other features that come separately when you use other SEO plugins like Yoast and SEOPRESS.
This tool stands as the best option for small businesses due to its extremely low price. Currently, it is priced at $59 for all its rich feature list, the cheapest in the market. See the image comparison below:
#3 Site Performance Analysis and Tracking
With Rank Math, your site performance metrics are right at your fingertips, everything you need including keyword tracking, post tracking and performance analysis.
It has a keyword and post tracker that keeps you updated on your posts and keywords performance over time.
The tools give you information on your top winning posts and keywords as well as the losing keywords and posts giving you tips on how to improve your articles for better performance and also reducing extra expenses on all tracking tools like Semrush, rank tracker and many others that cost hundreds and thousands of dollars every year to keep.
Overall tracked metrics include;
- SEO performance of individual posts
- Top 5 winning keywords and posts
- Top 5 losing keywords and posts
- Click through rates
- Clicks
- Search impression
- Keyword position & many more
#4 404 Monitor and Redirections
The 404 monitor is a tool that helps you keep track of all broken links on your website. Broken links or dead links are among the major causes of bad user experience and degraded trust. If you’re a Rank Math SEO plugin user, it is easy to understand how to fix 404 error on your website as the tool helps you achieve this in a few clicks even if you have zero technical experience.
Keeping a good record of broken links helps you to create or redirect such urls to the proper or most recent page to reduce 404 error counts.
Mostly, redirections are achieved using a separate redirection plugin but with the invention of Rank Math, all url redirections can be carried out in the same plugin.
Rank Math allows you to effortlessly monitor 404 errors on your website and redirect all pages to the appropriate and existing pages to reduce 404 error count which may negatively impact your SEO strategy.
#5 Content Analysis
Ever heard that content is king? Quality and unique contents are among the major ranking factors but how can one produce or write high quality or converting content? There are several ways to achieve this; ensuring a good mix of your target keywords in your while avoiding all forms of keyword stuffing, using a good title that improves CTR, monitoring keyword density, ensuring good content readability, and other factors.
This WordPress SEO plugin allows you to effortlessly create and optimize better content than your competitors, giving you an advantage on SERP performance.
The plugin gives you an in-depth analysis of your content giving you several other suggestions for improvements.
#6 Technical SEO Analysis
Website speed is a major ranking factor, there is a high bounce rate report for websites that are extremely slow, searchers often abandon slow websites.
Imagine visiting a website that takes over 3 minutes to load, it is only normal to abandon such sites and go for their competitors.
Slow websites increase bad user experience that also directly increases your bounce rates and decrease in relevance.
This complete SEO tool gives you an in-depth analysis of your website properly identifying all major causes of bad speed and suggesting actions that can be taken to improve your web core vitals and overall site performance.
It provides this data in just a single-click audit process and provides reports that are straight to the point and easy to understand.
With this tool, there will be no need for further technical SEO audit tool
To access this feature, click on rank math on your admin dashboard > SEO analysis.
#7 Sitemaps generation
Sitemaps are custom codes that contain crawl instructions on your website. They tell search engine bots the pages on your website that can be crawled as well as the new changes on such pages as content updates, new pages and more.
With the Rank Math plugin, it is extremely easy to create a sitemap in just a few clicks. The tool gives you access to different sitemaps including; Google News site
Rank math allows you to generate sitemaps for your posts, local SEO, video SEO, Google news SEO, Woocommerce SEO and even pages with just a single click.
Using this plugin, no technical SEO or coding skills are required, just a click and all is effortlessly generated for you to copy and submit to Google search console for indexing.
To access this feature, log in to your WordPress dashboard > Rank Math > Sitemap setting >Post type or any sitemap type you want to generate > Copy the sitemap link and submit to Google search console or Bing webmaster
#8. Redirection
Dealing with 404 errors is a major concern for all website owners. These errors occur as a result of removed pages, broken links, misspellings and other factors. The best way to deal with 404 eros on a website is to redirect the 404 error page to the new page on the website especially when the page was deleted.
Rank Math makes redirection seamless in WordPress, users can easily redirect old and deleted pages to the most recent version. The plugin also helps to keep track of all 404 error hits on your website. To do this, simply navigate to Rank Math dashboard > redirections and then create a new redirection, Click on add redirection to save changes. Remember to enable the module if you have not already done so. Go to general settings to enable the redirection module.
If you desire to learn how to get more website traffic and get more traffic than your competitors, understanding how to utilize Rank Math on-page SEO plugin can be crucial to your growth.
#9. Content AI
Ever used Surfer SEO? Rank Math’s content AI feature is an alternative to Surfer SEO. The tool is useful for the proper optimisation of articles and pages. It searches Google to obtain the content structure of similar contents and other important information from already ranking web pages such as the number of images used, number of internal and external links, length of article and other important information. This feature is very useful for producing concise articles and implementing other on-page SEO elements.
#10. Instant Indexing
Rank Math instant indexing makes it one of the first WordPress plugins to integrate the instant indexing feature. This feature is very useful for quickly indexing your articles and new pages. With this tool, users can submit new urls to search engines. New changes to existing pages are also instantly sent to the search engines.
During the period when people were battling with crawled, currently not indexed messages in Search Console, users of the Rank Math Instant Indexing feature were all cruising with fast and easy indexing of their new pages. It is easy to set up. Navigate to the dashboard and turn on the instant indexing module, complete the settings and save changes. New urls can also be submitted for instant indexing on search engines.
Click here to download Rank Math Now!
Conclusion
Rank Math SEO plugin is a powerful tool that can help you to improve your website’s on-page SEO. Rank Math uses mathematical formulas to analyze your website’s content, structure, and on-page optimization and provides you with detailed reports that will help you to improve your website’s SEO. If you’re searching for one of the best free SEO tools to grow and manage your website traffic, consider Rank Math as one of the tops on your list.
The Rank Math SEO plugin is available as a free and premium version. The free version offers limited features, while the premium version offers more features and includes support for Google Analytics. The premium version also offers more support for content AI and rank tracker.
The Rank Math SEO plugin is easy to use and can be installed in minutes. Once installed, you can start using it to analyze your website’s content, structure, and on-page optimization. The Rank Math SEO plugin also offers a user forum for support and feedback on Facebook.
What is social media marketing? – The Ultimate Guide for 2022
If you’re just getting into the field of digital marketing, the question: “What is social media marketing?” may sound strange to you but do not worry, it is part of those online activities you do everyday, you’re just not aware. By definition, social media marketing (SMM) involves all activities that are geared towards growing a business and improving sales and profit through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The purpose of social media marketing (SMM) may be to grow a brand, drive traffic to a website, increase engagement on a post, sell products using social media catalog, increase conversion on a page, generate leads, build customer loyalty, and grow an audience for your products and services.
Different social media channels can be employed in social media marketing to achieve different business goals. Simple social media marketing examples include creating Facebook and Instagram campaigns and posts to reach an audience and achieve one or more business goals. This campaign may involve beautifully designed posters and flyers as well as texts for copywriting purposes.
Social media marketing can be achieved through paid advertising as well as organic social media. The objective of social media marketing varies from one business to another. Both small businesses and huge corporations enjoy the benefits of social media marketing to grow their brand and reach more audience of potential customers. These activities are conducted using various channels or platforms, it is also important to understand that each platform has its own advantage and downsides.
Top Social media marketing Platforms
Social media marketing can be carried out using different channels. Different social media channels offer a range of opportunities in social media marketing; social media channel like Facebook and Instagram offers businesses the opportunity to reach millions of potential clients through advertising.
When creating an SMM campaign, it is important to define a strategy that properly identifies the social media channels where your best audiences are constantly engaged.
The following is a list of social media marketing channels;
- Google+
- Quora
- Snapchat
Marketing on social media is a broad concept and may be affected by a range of factors such as landing page creation, ads creation, good knowledge of design, consistency, copywriting and good customer relationship or management. These factors work together to determine the result of your social media marketing efforts.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is of great use in growing a business and increasing return on investment (ROI), social media managers employ different social media marketing strategies to achieve one or more of the following business goals;
#1 Grow an audience
Social media marketing provides easy ways to grow an audience for your business or niche. Growing an audience on social media can be achieved through the creation of social media groups and pages like the Facebook groups for your products and services and creation of quality contents around your topics.
#2 Drive more traffic to your website
One of the best benefits of social media marketing is the ability to direct traffic to your website through social media. This can be achieved by creating ads with links to your website where your potential clients will be encouraged to take one or more actions on your landing page.
#3 Grow your business or brand’s presence online
Growing a brand can be achieved on social media through activities such as creating business promotions that tell people one or more relevant things about your brand that will help to retain your brand name in their memory.
If your goal is to grow your brand, when creating an ad, select create brand awareness as your business goal.
Growing your brand through social media marketing is a very good way to improve customer trust and loyalty, two basic factors that drive return customers or visitors.
#4 Provide 24/7 business access
Social media marketing gives businesses the opportunity to be easily accessible to potential clients through their business pages and groups. Such platforms provide easy ways for customers to reach businesses and find out more information about their products and services with ease.
#5 Create engagements and easy customer service
Social media marketing enables business owners to freely interact with their customers or clients through posts engagements like likes, comments and messages. Such engagements are usually free except during promotions. Engagement on social media helps to increase brand awareness and sales.
#6 SEO link building
Link building is a very important aspect of website visibility, social media platforms allow sharing of blog post links and product links to increase the number of backlinks on a website, this is a great way to improve ranking on search engines.
#7 Ads targeting and promotion
Using social media marketing makes it easier to target a particular audience using the targeting options in ads manager like Facebook ads manager.
This practice ensures that your ads are displayed to only people that are interested in your product or services thereby helping to reduce the cost of advertising and at the same time increasing the profit or rate of conversion on a website.
When creating social media campaign for a website with marketing tools such as Facebook pixels, such tools provide the opportunity to create a retargeting ad to great improve conversion on your website.
The retargeting ads will be shown to people who have taken one or more forms of action on your website or landing page.
Building Website Traffic: Ways to Get Better Traffic than Your Competitors in 2021
What is SEO?: The Complete SEO Guide for 2021
Social media marketing strategy
Social media managers start by creating a good social media marketing strategy that will include the following;
- Keyword and audience research
- Set achievable business goals
- Competition Research and analysis
- Content creation
- Content optimization
- Create ads or promotions
- Measure metrics and improve
One of the best ways to achieve a business goal is to research the audience and relevant keywords to get information on whether or not your products or services are relevant to your intended audience.
Carrying out a good keyword and audience research will deliver relevant campaign information such as the location where your products and services are relevant, the volume of people that are interested in your product or services, the level of competition and the competitor’s advantage over your business.
Access to this information will help you to improve your business goals and strategies to achieve a better result with social media marketing.
Before creating your social media marketing campaigns, it is important to set business goals that are in-line with your level of competition and also achievable at your desired duration. Sometimes, one of the key ingredients here is to create a campaign budget that aligns with your business goals.
When creating your SMM campaign, ensure that your copy is straight to the points and as simple as possible; the copy must find a way to connect with the audience and share in their personal experiences or story.
Social media marketing campaigns can be achieved using marketing tools like Facebook ads managers, Instagram ads, Twitter ads, LinkedIn and many more platforms that support business growth through ad creation.
Basic aspects of social media marketing
There are some key aspects of social media marketing that every social media marketer or manager needs to take into consideration
- Social media marketing strategy: Social media marketing strategy includes all the ingredients used in marketing that produces results. Different page managers employ a range of marketing strategies to achieve their business goals on social media; content strategy, images and videos, promotions and competition analysis.
- Creation and publishing of contents: ability to create engaging contents on social media is a very important aspect of social media marketing. Creating engaging content helps brands to grow and go viral on social media. This can help to achieve popularity and trust in doing business.
- Product listing and engagements: Social media platforms like Facebook gives sellers opportunities to list their products on marketing places, groups and pages for free with a clickable call to action button that can lead potential clients to a business website. Facebook allows one to create Facebook shop where several products can be listed and sold directly on messenger or website.
- Advertising: Advertising is a key aspect of social media marketing. Social media platforms like LinkedIn. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and messenger allow its users to create ads to reach thousands and millions of potential customers in a few clicks. With the right targeting, businesses can use this aspect of social media marketing to increase sales, grow brand presence and drive traffic to their website.
- Analytics and Measurement of results: A very important factor in all business decisions is the ability to measure the metrics or data within a selected interval. Business data helps to make improved business decisions for social media marketing campaigns. Social media tools such as Facebook analytics will help to give reasonable insights into the activities on a page or Facebook group.
Social media poster
Social media poster is a marketing automation tool that enables one to post across several channels at once. Although the majority of social media posting softwares available today have paid subscription options, there are a few social media posting softwares that are still free though with little limitations.
Social media poster is an automation tool that enhances the activities of SMM. These tools can be employed in creating engaging content, creating social media ads, creating social media calendar and posting across multiple social media channels. They provide a great hand in social media marketing.
They help to reduce the time spent in crafting a social media post and publishing the same post across multiple social media channels thereby greatly improving SMM activities.
Examples of social media posters include the following;
- Hootsuite
- Facebook business suite
- Mailchimp social poster
- Biteable
- Streamyard – for posting live videos across multiple social media channels.
- Buffer
- Missinglttr
- AdEspresson – for marketing automation
Hootsuite is one of the simplest social media marketing tools to use, it is primarily used to create content and publish across multiple social media channels at the same time. This tool gives one the impression of a social media king and it helps to keep one constantly active across multiple social media channels.
The Facebook business suite is a simple social media tool that is used to connect Facebook, Instagram, Instagram direct and Messenger, all in one place. With Facebook business suite, one can effortlessly create and publish posts on Facebook and Instagram, respond to comments on Facebook and Instagram and also respond to messages from Instagram,
Mailchimp is an email marketing software that also helps to achieve some simple social media marketing goals like posting, post scheduling, and ad creation.
Videos form another crucial aspect of social media marketing, live videos greatly increase reach on social media and thus more brand awareness. Video streaming softwares like streamyard and zoom can be used to stream live videos across several social media channels to promote a product or service.
The concept of social media marketing is broad and requires proper understanding, Social media marketing includes your ability to create a good social media marketing strategy, identify social media channels that will benefit your social media marketing promotions and business, identify relevant tools that will help to promote engagements on your social media platforms, create engaging contents on each social media platforms.
SMM is a very important aspect of business growth as it helps to show your products and services to millions of potential clients online and daily. Social marketing activities are usually coordinated by social media page managers who are actively involved in content creation and optimization as well as creating promotions that will convert or generate more leads.
SEO Services: Lists You Should Never Ignore in 2021
5 Top SEO Agency in United States
A good SMM campaign is achieved by a thorough analysis of all data obtained from social media activities such as page visits, page likes, comments, website clicks, add-to-cart clicks, open content rates and other metrics that are relevant for making informed business decisions.
The ability to properly measure such data will help in creating more effective campaigns and targeting which is relevant to ensure that success is achieved using a defined social media marketing strategy.
SMM is a very important aspect of digital marketing; the ability to achieve a great business result with social media marketing requires some good skills including copywriting and the ability to understand an audience needs and measure social media marketing metrics across multiple channels for easy decision making and implementation.
A good SMM strategist needs to understand all aspects of social media marketing in order to be able to manage a successful campaign on social media.
It is a very important skill for social media planners, social media managers, marketing managers, small business owners and freelancers. Social media marketing such as messenger marketing has proven great results and has been reported to possess as many potentials as email marketing.
Here is How to Get More Website Traffic Than Your Competitors
One of the main gains of SEO is its ability to drive more traffic and increase conversion on a website. As a business owner or startup founder, one of your most basic desires is to drive the right visitors to your website which will generate more leads and conversions especially if you sell products and services directly on your website. This is why it becomes more necessary to understand how to get more website traffic. Organic traffic is the lifeblood of every business, whether you agree or not, getting more organic traffic is what everyone desires but there are several strategies that make this possible.
Getting a huge number of website traffic is a factor of the quality of content, the audience, and how your contents resonate with them, identifying and focusing your SEO efforts on a specific niche, the mobile usability of your website, content marketing strategies, speed and a host of other factors and most importantly, making sure that all your pages satisfy the search intent it is targeting. If you’re able to apply all these strategies correctly on your website, you’re on the right path to getting more website traffic.
To fully understand how to get more website traffic to your new or existing blog, product pages, or shop, it is important to understand the basic concepts of search engine optimization (SEO). So what is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) includes every form of optimization that is done to make your website more loved by users and search engines. Website indexing, SERP analysis, competition research, keyword research, and optimization, through unique content and image optimization to better user experience, trust, and relevance all revolve around SEO. You cannot understand how to get more website traffic if these terms continue to remain strange to you. To fully understand how to get more website traffic and grow your search visibility, good knowledge and practice of these concepts are necessary.
How to Get More Website Traffic to your website
The steps explained here need to be followed and implemented on your website correctly to avoid breaking your website. Here is a step by step guide on how to get more website traffic to your website:
#1 Indexing
First, answer this question: Is your website fully accessible to search engine bots for indexing? The answer you give to this question is very important due to the fact that your posts and pages cannot be seen on search engine result pages if such posts and pages are not indexed on the search engines.
The permission to allow search engines to crawl your pages for indexing is usually provided in the robot.txt file on your website.
You don’t have to worry about this if you use SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math, using such tools, one can easily generate a sitemap that gives easy access to search engine bots without any difficulty. You can also specify pages that should be indexed and those that should not be indexed.
Now that you have figured this out and fixed it on your website, the factors below are very significant if you intend to learn how to get more website traffic. It is time to fully understand the steps you must follow to get more website traffic on your website.
#2 Check your website usability
How would you even imagine getting more website traffic when your website is not usable or presents a very horrible user experience.
For whatever purpose your website is built for, it has to be configured in such a way that it is seamlessly easy to use and navigate. Here are a few things you can do to improve your website usability.
- Ensure that your website is responsive; you can use the AMP plugin to fix issues with mobile usability
- Use a visible Navigation
- Understand that over 80% of your website traffic will come from mobile devices and follow a “mobile-first” principle in designing or redesigning your website
- Optimize your Images for mobile devices using WP Smush, WP rocket, or other image optimization plugins
- Optimize your JavaScript and CSS files as well as caching of pages and browsers to improve website speed. This is a very important factor for ranking.
- Improve your website security: First of all, if you want to get trusted website visitors, they also have to fully trust your website and be confident that the data exchanged on your website won’t be used for some ill purposes.
A good way to achieve this is by using an SSL certificate on your website. You can install an SSL certificate by using the Really Simple SSL plugin.
This is a way to ensure that your blog is built for success from the beginning. Websites without SSL certificates have high bounce rates that may affect their ranking and the volume of website traffic they get monthly.
When you resolve all the issues pointed out here, your website will be ready to receive a great organic boost to your ranking and drive more organic traffic due to improved user experience, trust, and relevance.
#3 Add social sharing buttons on all your blog posts
Social sharing buttons at the end of your posts will enable all your users to share their most valuable content on your website across various communities and groups especially when they find it very useful and impactful. This practice greatly improves the number of returning visitors to your website.
#4 Share posts on social media
Consistently share your old and new posts on social media to generate conversations around such topics on your blog, this will increase the number of comments received on a post and grow its relevance and interest thereby making such posts perform better on search engines. With a good number of page followers, social media marketing can help you generate buying traffic and build a stronger brand name.
#5 Focus on a niche
Ever heard of “EAT”? The term stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. When you focus on a niche, you create topical relevance so much so that people start bookmarking your website and make it their go-to website on those topics that you write about. This helps to grow trust and authority in such niches and subsequently, because of improved user experience, satisfaction, and more returning users that you gain, your website may be seen as one with an authority in such niches. It is always better to focus on a niche where you have great expertise to display. A niche that you are known for and that which people trust you for.
#6 Create better content than your competitors
Before your blog becomes an authority on any niche, you have to first define a content strategy that will work for your blog. This is usually a result of competitor research, personal key performance indicators, and keyword research.
- Carry out competitor research: Competitor research can be achieved through manual SERP analysis of keywords that are related to your business at a particular location as well as by using SEO tools such as MOZ, Semrush, and Ahrefs to analyze your competitors’ page authority, links, and entire profile for a keyword including their keywords that you are interested in.
- Do proper keyword research: Keyword research is one of the foundations of SEO that everyone must master. To be able to get more website traffic to your website, you have to be able to identify keywords that people are interested in and create content around those keywords. Keywords that have less competition especially if your website is still finding its feet on search engines. Consider answering the question: What are keywords?
Check out this article on “what is SEO content writing” to learn how to write for the web and how it connects with your users or website visitors.
Keyword research can be done manually on Google or by using SEO tools like Bing webmaster tools, Google search console, Ubersuggest, Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush, and our Free SEO and Analytics tool.
There is a common saying in SEO and marketing that “content is king.” This is true as one major factor that search engines consider when indexing your pages is how well such pages solve a problem for people.
The only way to create contents that solve problems is through a well-researched keyword and uniqueness of your content, ensure you achieve 100% unique content, tools such as Grammarly will help you to correct any errors within your content and measure its uniqueness.
Having too many errors in your content may turn off readers and increase bounce rates and this will have an effect on your website traffic negatively.
# 7 Use better headings
Headings that resonate with your audience are a beautiful way to increase click-through rates on your pages in SERPs. Pages with high CTR have better potential of ranking better and thus, increase website traffic for such pages.
Sometimes it is possible to even rank on the first page without being able to get traffic to your website, in this regard, your good and quality content can get you to the first page of search engine results, but that does not guarantee clicks and traffic to your website.
Poor headings and meta descriptions are why you can rank in the #1 position but still struggle to get clicks to your website.
You have to be able to create a heading with positive or negative intents that capture the intention of the searcher and which would persuade the searcher to click on your links.
#8 Use Meta description
Meta description is what the search engines see first when they crawl your website pages for indexing, it usually contains a brief description of everything on your web page that you want to rank for. When writing your meta description, include keywords that you are trying to rank for on search engines.
See the Meta description as an advertisement channel, and write a brief summary of your post that would encourage someone to click on your link from search engine results, you should consider the search intent when writing your meta description and ensure that it is captured. Learn more about meta description and how to add meta description to your website.
#9 Create a mailing list
If you desire to increase your website traffic, you should also consider growing your mailing list and influence. Sending out emails on your new content or publications with links to such publications is a proven method of growing more website visitors and keeping returning visitors.
If you are new to email marketing, there are several email marketing softwares and plugins you can use on your website to help you get started in growing a profitable email list of those that are interested in the products or services or topics that you publish on your website.
To start a good email marketing campaign, install plugins such as Newsletter or Mailchimp to collect emails, write and distribute your website contents to new readers with links that will redirect them to your website. Getting people to sign up for your email list is not that difficult, offer a free product like a course or ebook on social media ads and quickly grow your email list to thousands of people.
#10 Create a search engine marketing campaign
Search engine marketing (SEM) is among the most popular method to grow website traffic. Whether you are selling products, services, or just a happy blogger who earns income from AdSense and affiliate marketing, creating a marketing campaign can boost your website traffic in the shortest period.
This can be achieved by creating Google ads for more traffic on Google and Bing ads for more website traffic on Bing search engine, other strategies include creating beautiful and interactive landing pages for your website visitors.
Types of Website Traffic
There are various types of website traffic that you must understand if you intend to get more visitors to your website, different types of website traffic present different opportunities to businesses.
Business owners often desire different types of website traffic for purposes such as AdSense, increase sales, viewing more products or just getting more readers, reasons may differ depending on the business goals.
Direct web Traffic
When you are already familiar with a website and the things they offer, for example; Facebook, most people do not need to search for the Facebook website on Google and other search engines before visiting the platforms, it is already a popular brand and people would just type the web address directly into their browsers without being directed from any links.
This form of traffic is called direct web traffic, they include traffic that comes directly to your website by typing your website domain, and usually, such traffic sources have no referring domains or social links.
Direct website traffic is a major form of inbound marketing, it can be achieved when your domain has gained some popularity and authority on a subject that it keeps being remembered as a top authority on such topics or niche.
This is one major advantage why you should focus on a niche instead of just writing and publishing content on every subject on your website. Such traffics are free and provides information on those that are loyal to your brand.
Organic traffic
Organic traffic is some of the most difficult types of website traffic to acquire especially if you are in a highly competitive niche like SEO and digital marketing as well as relationship and make money online niches.
Organic website traffic is obtained from search results on search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, DuckDuck Go, and others. You do not have to pay any dime for this type of website traffic. The most difficult aspect of organic traffic is SEO.
To get organic traffic on your website, your website has to be fully optimized for both humans and search engines.
Developing a website with a bad design and the wrong mix of colors will detest users and increase bounce rates on your pages, this will greatly decrease your website traffic and hamper your overall results, other factors such as speed, usability, and quality of content are significant aspects of SEO.
Getting your website to consistently get the organic type of website traffic is not something that is achieved in a day, it is usually a result of huge patience and hard work.
One of the downsides totally depending on organic traffic if you are just starting your blog is that it takes time to be achieved and with a whole bunch of strategies that require reviews all the time.
To increase your organic traffic you have to use the right headings and meta description, it is important to also configure schema on your website. When writing your headings, and Meta descriptions, make use of your keyword in a human way that will encourage clicks.
Your images and entire website have to be well optimized for search engines and for better mobile usability and user experience. The best SEO efforts start yielding results in the first three months; others may take longer, and even up to eight months before the result is seen. This is usually a result of the nature of competition in that niche.
Bot Traffic
This is one type of website traffic you do not want on your website, bots especially those sent by your competitors have a way of denting your SEO efforts and overall website performance. Some competitors may send some bots to copy your content and carry out random clicks on your website to alter your search console data.
The bot traffic I mean here is not related to the search engine bots that crawl your website for indexing, it is those sent by your competitors to steal your content and dent your SEO efforts.
It is one of the worst forms of website traffic you can get, you should try as much as possible to avoid it on your website, except for relevant bots that crawl your website for indexing and metrics measurements.
You can specify the bots that are allowed in your robot.txt file on your website. This type of website traffic is not the one you want for your new website.
Social Media Traffic
If you create contents that go viral on your blog, the best way to achieve that is by sharing such contents on social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, and Pinterest, including Reddit and others like YouTube
Share and promote your content on these platforms with links to your blogs. Social media traffics includes website traffics that is generated from social media. They are usually free except when you are promoting a particular post or product.
Referral Traffic
Referral traffics are those that are obtained from other referring domains to your website, they include those that are obtained as a part of backlink building strategy through link outreach, link exchanges, guest posting, and blog commenting.
Gaining referral website traffic is a way to stamp authority on a particular subject or niche, it signifies trust and has positive impact on your SEO and ranking.
How to Get More Website Traffic: Final Thought
To fully understand how to get more website traffic, one has to understand the basic aspects of SEO, the different types of website traffic, and the key things that must be implemented on your website to gain a boost in traffic from various traffic sources like search engines, social media, email, and press release, and backlinks gained on your website.
Now that you have gotten all the information you need regarding this topic on my blog, what traffic strategy are helps you grow your influence and authority in your niche? Would you like to get more details on similar topics when I make more publications?
Getting all the information you need to succeed in getting more website traffic and visitors is one thing, the next most important thing is defining a strategy that is unique to your website needs for a better result, remember that what works for my website may not apply to you, it is better to create a strategy that is unique to you and your readers\’ interests.
SEO Services: Lists You Should Never Ignore in 2022
SEO services include all technical, on-page, and off-page activities that are offered by SEO agencies. Such services may be to increase sales, increase website traffic, grow an email list, increase conversion on a website, and many other business goals set by the company.
Components of the detail include full website technical audit and implementation, full on-page SEO audit and implementation, as well as off-page link building activities.
SEO services vary from one project or client to another and are determined by the needs of the business owner, content writing is also a part of in-depth SEO services offered by SEO agencies in different parts of the World.
The costs for each SEO service vary from one agency to another and may be a factor of load, experience, duration, nature of the project, and projected results.
To fully understand the type of SEO services to order as a business owner, it is important to understand your website needs and what SEO really means, this is the only way you will appreciate any SEO job that is done for you. Sometimes, agencies offer various services to their clients without getting the required appreciation from such clients because they simply do not understand the kind of job that was done on their websites and the meaning of the results that they are getting.
Sometimes, a lot of people that buy SEO services show various levels of dissatisfaction but this is because they do not understand SEO and the time it takes to get visible results.
This can lead to arguments and issues, especially with payment for such services.
Before you order SEO services, it is important to take a quick look at the explanation of SEO services in this article and the things you stand to gain when you order such services through an agency like ours.
What is SEO?
The concept called SEO simply means search engine optimization. It involves all activities that make your website visible online such as content writing, image optimization, title optimization, content optimization, internal and external linking, backlinks campaign, and other activities that improve user experience on your website. Search engine optimization is generally divided into three major aspects viz;
- On-page SEO
- Technical SEO and
- Off-page SEO
What is On-page SEO?
On-page SEO involves all optimisations on your website that are only restricted to the contents of a web, activities such as title optimization, URL optimisation, meta description, schema or structured data, image alternative texts, content length and readability, keyword density, generating a table of contents and measuring readers intents on a page are all on-page optimisations.
What is Technical SEO?
On the other hand, technical SEO deals with everything outside your website pages like user experience, mobile usability, coverage, and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript optimizations as well as website security and trust. The concept of SEO called Technical SEO is broad and needs a lot of research and carefulness because this aspect of SEO can break your entire website with just a single click.
Off-page SEO deals with all activities that are intended to generate more backlinks and grow a domain’s authority or page authority. Such activities may include sharing pages and blogs on social media, blog commenting, link outreach, and many other activities.
Now that you have an idea of what to expect from any SEO services you order, let’s discuss some of the major SEO services that are offered by some of the top SEO agencies in various parts of the world. Now that you have a quick understanding of search engine optimisation, it will be easier to appreciate the jobs that will be done as a part of the search engine optimisation services you pay for.
SEO Services Checklist that SEO Agencies Offer
One of the main reasons why anyone would order SEO services is simply because they intend to increase their website performance and ranking. If this is what you desire, the proper thing to do is to order some types of SEO services and save yourself the backlash that comes from trial and error on your business website.
Usually, all types of SEO services range from on-page, off-page, to technical SEO aspects of your website, The first thing to do before placing any orders with any agency is a simple audit of on-page and technical SEO of your website, this will help you understand your needs and the types of services to order.
However, this will require some SEO expertise to be achieved, if you have no such experience, go ahead and discuss your orders with us. If you’re searching for SEO services checklist, the following is a list of SEO services that will help you to rank your website on search engines;
On-page SEO services
On-page search engine optimization services include all optimizations that are done within the pages of your website, the list below describes the types of on-page SEO services;
#1 keyword research and optimization
The agency will be required to do an in-depth on-page audit and carry out thorough keyword research, this will involve using relevant pro keyword research tools to create a long tail and competitive keywords for your contents
#2 Content creation
Content creation is simply producing well-optimized content for your web pages, after your competition research, make all efforts to create better content than your competition. Understanding searcher intent is a very important part of content creation. There are many good content writing tips you can measure on your projects.
#3 Title optimization
The title of your web pages should always be well optimized, it is important to keep an eye on the length of the title and ensure that it is not above 75 characters, the keyword that is the focus or primary keyword in the article or page should also form a part of your title.
#4 Image optimization
Pages with images about their contents usually improve user experience and interest in the such, it creates some form of entertainment and wisdom for someone reading the content on your page, always include the keyword as a part of the alt text description for all images on your page.
#5 Content readability
If you are reading this piece up to this stage, it is because the content is structured in such a way that it is easy to read. To improve your content readability, ensure that all the contents delivered to you as a part of the SEO services you ordered have short paragraphs and are written for human readers and not some robots, use tools like Grammarly to check for errors in sentences and grammar.
#6 Table of content
For a page with a blog post, using a table of content on such pages help readers to quickly understand the entire content of the page, it is an important aspect of on-page SEO that SEO service agencies offer.
#7 On-page SEO audit
This is usually the first major thing to do before the agency starts any work on your web pages, it helps them to understand your on-page SEO needs and what can be done to improve your ranking on all pages. Now that you have taken the time to go through all on-page SEO services for your website, it is time to consider what your expectations should be on technical SEO services.
Technical SEO services
Technical SEO services involve all optimizations that are done outside your web pages, they include the following;
#1 Technical SEO audit
This is usually done to identify all speed-related issues, security, site structure, mobile usability, and coverage. If you are ordering technical SEO services, here are other things you should look at after delivery.
#2 Website speed optimisation
Achieving a fast website may optimization of CSS, JavaScript, page caching, and browser caching, and image optimization. SEO plugins such as Smush, WP cache, Hummingbird, WP rocket, and Cloudflare can be used to deliver your website at a very high speed.
#3 Mobile responsiveness
Over 80% of the people that will access your website will do that using a mobile device, this is why mobile-first is Google’s priority. Ensure that the service providers you hire for technical SEO services make your website fully responsive. They can use AMP and other SEO tools and plugins to achieve some good results that will help to rank your website at the top.
#4 Website coverage
Your SEO service providers should be able to identify pages on your website that couldn’t be indexed for one or two reasons as well as those that were indexed with some warnings and those that were intentionally excluded.
Off-page SEO services
Off-page SEO services are mainly all the activities that are carried out outside the pages on your website. They are done for the authority of pages and websites and may play one or more roles on page and domain authority. Off-page SEO is an essential aspect of SEO services checklist to save on your list.
Off-page activities help to grow website backlinks, different methods such as blog commenting, link outreach, link exchange, and sharing information that is relevant on Quora can help you to gain tons of readers in a very short period.
Factors to Consider When Buying SEO Services
As it has been well explained in this article, SEO services are all geared towards making your blog or website better to gain more organic traffic. In buying SEO services online, apart from understanding the needs of your website and the nature of the services that will be offered by the agency or freelancer, there are a few other factors to take into consideration before making the final decision on who provides the SEO services that you need on your website.
#1 Experience
Experience is a very important factor in SEO, this is very critical, especially in technical SEO where one mistake can break your entire website and destroy all the efforts you have made in the past.
#2 Cost
Ever wondered where the same services have different costs within the same location? Quality of service provided, relative experience of the SEO service provider, and your website needs. Before an agreement is signed, ensure that all the services to be provided are well outlined as a part of the cost determination.
#3 Duration
there are some SEO services that only take a short time while others take as long as six months or more depending on your website needs, the duration within which the services have to be delivered should be outlined in the contract.
#4 Expected result
By the way, what are you paying money for? If you are offering any SEO services as a provider or buyer, the expected results have to be stated and form a part of the proposal and contract. This is what will be used to measure the quality of the work done.
Final Thought
Looking for a reliable and professional SEO Agency to help your business reach new heights? Look no further than Enema OJ. Our team of experts has years of experience helping businesses grow online by improving their website’s search engine ranking. We understand the importance of creating an online presence that captures the attention of potential customers, so we use cutting-edge techniques and strategies to help you achieve this. With our help, you can be sure that your business will have the exposure it needs to thrive in today’s competitive market. Contact us today to learn more!
Need SEO services? Fill out the form below to reach out to us!
10 Best 100% Free SEO Tools to Use in 2022
SEO Tools are softwares that are relevant for measuring web metrics, competition research, SEO audit, keyword research, traffic and traffic sources, top pages, links, and coverage, as well as keyword research and other activities aimed at growing website traffic.
There are numerous free SEO tools that are out there, and while some cost a lot of money, others are totally available for free.
The ability to properly utilize the features of free SEO tools is relevant for a good SEO strategy. free SEO tools help individuals seamlessly carry out an SEO audit of a website, determine the technical and on-page SEO components, and plan an SEO strategy. Some free SEO tools have the same features as other paid SEO tools and even same level of accuracy.
There are several free SEO tools that are available today for many purposes such as tracking performances, tracking page positions, tracking keywords and keyword positions as well as in determining internal and external links to your website.
In this guide, I will explore the best free SEO tools that you should be using to organise and measure your SEO efforts and easily determine what is working and what is not.
List of 10 Best Free SEO Tools
The free SEO tools listed below are free and require no form of subscription. They are relevant for keyword research, position tracking, and measuring interest in a keyword at a particular time, as well as for technical SEO audits and on-page SEO. Below is the complete list of the 10 best free SEO tools you cannot do without in 2022.
- Bing webmaster
- Google search console
- Google analytics
- Google trend
- Pagespeed insight
- Google keyword planner
- Explore keywords
- Keyword surfer
- Rank math
- Grammarly
#1 Bing webmaster
The Bing webmaster is one of the most complete free SEO tools that measures and tracks your website performance on Bing. Bing is the second most popular search engine in the world according to Oberlo.
Bing webmaster tool has numerous features and uses and stands tall among the free SEO tools that are available today, it has the following features;
- Keyword research
- Sitemaps submission
- Site performance
- Backlinks
- SEO report
- Link submission
- txt file checking
The Bing webmaster is among the major complete free SEO tools that allow website owners to measure their website performance by checking the number of indexed pages, click-through rates (CTR) of pages, position on search, crawl requests, crawl errors, and much more useful information.
It also allows one to check the robot.txt file generated for the website and measure the amount of blocking inputted in the file, and how it allows crawling. It generates useful keyword research information like volume, difficulty, country, keyword suggestions, and trends.
If you have a business whose major source of lead is Bing, the Bing webmaster tool may be all you need for SEO.
#2 Google Search console
The Google search console is similar to the Bing webmaster tool but has a few notable differences such as the absence of a free keyword research tool. Like the Bing webmaster tool, this is one of the best free SEO tools whose data provide relevant information that is necessary for better website performance and ranking. This is one of the free SEO tools that help you keep track of your website performance on Google. It is useful for measuring daily traffic, earned links, and other SEO issues on your website. The tool also allows you access to control crawling and indexing and as well measure indexing and website coverage.
One of the things that make the Google search console special is how it measures your website responsiveness with the mobile usability feature and accelerated mobile pages.
It also gives information on the keywords that has the highest impressions and clicks on your pages and thus recommendations for content strategy.
Other useful SEO information provided by the Google search console includes; site performance information like clicks, impression, position, and average CTR.
Measuring this information is important for developing a better SEO-based content strategy for your blog.
#3 Google Analytics
Google Analytics is among the best free SEO tools, it measures all relevant information about your website including traffic sources, best-performing pages, the actions that are taken on your website by your web visitors, and customers’ journey on your website. It is also used to view real-time visitors and connected with data studio to generate performance reports.
This free SEO tool helps you to measure all returns on investment and the complete journey of your customers on your website, beautiful information for your advertising. It is one of the free SEO tools that help to measure engagements on your website, customer retention, tech, event tracking, demographics of users by country, and much other relevant information that plays a significant role in determining an SEO strategy.
#4 Google Trend
SEO tools provide different forms of information and that is why it is important to identify the relevant ones for your business. Google trend is one of the free SEO tools that provide information on the interest people have in a particular keyword over time in a particular location.
Measuring interest in a keyword is very important in determining the click-through rate for that keyword. Sometimes, interest in a particular keyword change over time, and Google trend is among your best SEO tools for measuring this metric.
#5 Pagespeed Insight
The pagespeed insight is one of the most important free SEO tools for a technical SEO audit of your website. Speed is one of the most important factors for ranking, this is because having a website that takes over a minute to load will surely send users away and grow a list of unsatisfied users thereby affecting your ranking.
This will increase the bounce rate of such sites and may have a negative effect on ranking. SEO audit is among all major SEO strategies. It is usually the first thing that is done on any website.
The pagespeed insight is used to carry out an in-depth technical SEO audit; it provides useful technical information or recommendations such as the level optimization of CSS and JavaScript files, content delivery network, and more. This free SEO tool generates real-life data of users and is essential for improving website performance in search.
It is always advisable to implement all recommendations from SEO tools like pagespeed insight for better website performance and mobile responsiveness. A good alternative to pagespeed insight is GTmetrix.
You can access this free SEO tool using this link
#6 Google Keyword Planner
Google keyword planner is a free SEO tool that is essential for keyword research. Keyword research is a very important aspect of every SEO strategy, there are very few SEO tools that can be used for keyword research for free forever. The Google keyword planner is one of the best free SEO tools in this regard.
Keyword Planner helps you carry out seamless keyword research for your search campaigns. It is relevant for discovering new keywords and related keywords for your business, it also provides information on the estimated volume of search, and the cost per click (CPC) for such keywords.
You can access this free SEO tool here
#7 Explore Keywords
Explore keywords is one of the new free keyword research tools that are 100% free. It is used for thorough keyword research from Google and YouTube.
Some of its major features include volume keyword planner, ultimate keyword generator, instant keyword generator, affiliate keyword generator, question keyword generator, and A-Z keyword generator.
You can access this free keyword research tool here
#8 Keyword surfer
Keyword surfer is one of the best free SEO tools for keyword research, it is available as a free chrome extension and automatically suggests free keywords on every search on chrome.
Keyword surfer provides relevant information on keywords such as volume and the relationship of the suggested keywords with the keyword you searched for, it also allows users to get information on suggested keywords by choosing different countries as may apply.
This free SEO tool is available for download here
#9 Rank Math
Rank math is a revolutionized free SEO tool for on-page SEO analysis. It helps to measure your page SEO and provides relevant information on metrics such as title optimization, image optimization, keyword optimization, content readability, table of content, keyword density, meta description, and other tools such as schema generator, SEO analysis, instant indexing, AMP integration, sitemap generator, breadcrumbs, 404 monitors and redirection.
Click on this link to access this tool.
#10 Grammarly
Grammarly is your number one free writing assistant, there is a common saying that “content is king.” This saying tells you how much significance, quality content provides for ranking.
Grammarly is available as a free writing assistant on chrome extension, it also has free software for measuring content uniqueness, plagiarism, grammar, and sentence errors. This is one of the most relevant tools for writing and producing error-free content for publications on your website.
The chrome extension helps to identify all writing and spelling errors on the go and provides suitable suggestions for correction. Grammarly has both paid and free plans.
Conclusion
Free SEO tools can help individuals minimise the cost of marketing and research. These tools are essential for keyword research, performance tracking, keyword tracking, website audits, and other metrics that are measured to determine important areas for improvement. Like other paid SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush, these free SEO tools are tools you cannot do without if you intend to take your SEO efforts to the next level. Save this comprehensive list of 10 best 100% free SEO tools and utilize them in developing an effective SEO and marketing strategy.
