Google Cutts: Links From Press Releases Won't Help

An old fashion and sometimes often used method today, to get links to your web site, is to use press releases with embedded links in those releases.

So you'd contract a press release distribution company and make sure that the content of the release have links to your web site. That release would hopefully be syndicated by other news outlets and those outlets will keep the links intact.

Matt Cutts of Google said in a Google Webmaster Help forums that links from press releases shouldn't have a positive impact on your rankings.

Matt wrote:

Note: I wouldn't expect links from press release web sites to benefit your rankings, however.

Now, when you do press releases, it might get your web site in front of the eyes of bloggers, reporters and others, where what they write or link to may have an impact on your rankings. But the links within the releases themselves, Google says - they won't benefit your rankings.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Blocking Your Robots.txt In Google's Search Results

Have you ever seen your robots.txt file return a match in the Google search results before? Does that upset you? Did you know you can block Google from displaying that file in the search results without blocking Google's access to that file?

This is not a new topic, in 2008 we polled our readers asking if Google should display the robots.txt file in search results and the overwhelming majority said no, Google should not show the content in the search results.

But here is a picture of the robots.txt file showing up in the search results for this site:

But there are ways to block the robots.txt file from showing up in the search results. John Mueller of Google explained it about five years ago:

Hi guys, there are two ways to block your robots.txt from showing up in search results:- disallow it in your robots.txt (don't worry, we'll still check it); you can then use the Webmaster Tools URL removal tool to have it taken out of the index if it's indexed.
- use the x-robots-tag HTTP header tag with "noindex"
On the other hand, robots.txt URLs generally would not show up in any search results where you have more relevant pages within your site, so this is probably not something you'd want to spend all too much effort on :-).

5 Benefits Of Internal Linking Of Blog Content

Internal linking of your website or blog content brings certain benefits to you, which not only your readers love, but also the search engines.

 

Moreover, as a webmaster you have the complete control over the internal links of your site’s content.

If something is so simple and within your control, with so many great advantages; then why not exploit it? Why not take all the benefits out of it?

1. Better User Experience

 

Internal linking of relevant content on your blog posts or pages; as ready-reference is the best possible thing you can do for your readers.

readers love to refer related copies or content for better and indepth knowledge. Due to better user experience they will visit your site again and again.

Happy readers means loyal followers.

2. Passing on the Link-juice

 

Internal links within your site is as important as inbound links (links from other websites pointing to your site).

Links on content is a form of “vote of confidence” to the linking page. And link-juice in the form of Page Rank passes from one page to other page via links.

Page Rank or Credibility of all the pages of your blog including the Home page are different. Google gives each of your page a different Page Rank considering different ranking parameters.

By interlinking different pages on your site, you are evenly distributing the link-juice between the high and low Page Rank content. This helps your low Page Rank content to promote higher in search engines.

Higher search engine ranking is one of the top benefits of internal linking of website content.

3. Anchor text Advantage

 

Anchor text means – the keywords or phrases used in your hyperlink.

Just like the anchor text advantage of your inbound links from other sites, internal links inside your website also give anchor text advantage to various pages and content.

Anchor texts emit a search engine signal to inform search engine bots about the content or subject matter to which the link is pointing. Thereby helps search engines to rank your content higher.

By judicious use of anchor texts in your internal links, you can send a better ranking signal to the search engines about the subject matter of your site and pages.

4. Decrease Bounce Rate

 

When your blog readers stay more time on your site by referring other relevant pages or content; bounce rate decreases.

Bounce rate is a known search engine ranking signal, and with low bounce rate your blog content ranks higher in SERPs.

5. Exposure to Old Content

 

You can spread the “love of your readers” from highly ranked pages to lower ranked or least loved pages with simple interlinking  your older content on higher ranking and freshly published content.

Internal linking is the best way to promote your old content via high ranked as well as new content. People love to read your older content as a reference to your newer pages. It’s just like re-cycling your older creations via inter linking.

Do you know any other benefits of internal linking of blog content? Add your tips in the comments below.

Official: It’s Google Panda Update 23, Impacting ~1.3% Of Queries

Google has confirmed rumors of a Google update announcing on Twitter that they pushed out a Panda data refresh today impacting about 1.3% of English queries.

 

This would make for the 23rd Panda update since the first Panda algorithm was introduced on February 24, 2011. Since then we had 22 updates both to the algorithm and also to the index or data refreshes.

The latest impacted 1.3% of the queries, whereas version 22 impacted only 0.8% of English queries.

We did see signs of a major update a week ago but Google told us there was no such update. Then again, I reported early signs of another update at the Search Engine Roundtable and Google confirmed it on Twitter.

Honestly, I am surprised they released a data refresh right before Christmas. Last year Google promised they would not update the Panda algorithm or do data refreshes until after the holidays – this year, I guess they decided not to wait.

Here are all the releases so far for Panda:

1. Panda Update 1, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)
2. Panda Update 2, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)
3. Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
4. Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
5. Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
6. Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)
7. Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
8. Panda Update 8, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)
9. Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)
10. Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
11. Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)
12. Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)
13. Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)
14. Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)
15. Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)
16. Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)
17. Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)
18. Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)
19. Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)
20. Panda Update 20 , Sep. 27, 2012 (2.4% English queries, impacted, belatedly announced
21. Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)
22. Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of English queries were affected; confirmed, not announced)
23. Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)

After All The Hype That Wasnt An Update You Felt

Around last Thursday we told you about a potential update that we and many others thought had occurred,however this is not to be the case, perhaps we are all dreaming. The update was thought to be on of a big scale, such as a Google Panda update with many people suddenly dropping and gaining rankings with no recent SEO work being carried out, or any website changes at all.

A Google spokesperson, however, came out and strongly denied this saying that this was neither a Google Panda Update or any other update as far as they were aware. If you were to look at all the signals, however, you would think completely different with many sites out there actually tracking this “update”. There was immense talk about this “non-update” with more than 40 comments on search engine roundtable all stating that their rankings had been changed in some way.

There are three main websites out there which tend to track the Google Updates, MozCast,SERPS.com and serpmetrics. All of these were showing signs of not just any update but a large update.

But, as Google have strongly stated there was no update that day or any other day.

It Works! The Google Disavow Tool Removed A Penalty

In mid-October, Google launched the disavow link tool and some have complained it doesn't work but it seems like it does indeed work. As an FYI, it seems 50/50 have used the tool (poll over here).

Dixon Jones from Majestic SEO, a person I respect, trust and know is incredibly honest, posted in a Google+ thread that he used it for a site and it helped it get out of a manual link penalty. Dixon wrote:

I have got a manual penalty lifted... which had a positive impact from a really bad place. There is no doubt that the site in question has not returned to previous levels from before the penalty... but then again it had a manual penalty for a reason!

When asked for more details, Dixon explained:

I worked hard to remove the bad links - but was unable to move them all. So I documented the efforts in the disavow file and then gave time for the disavow file to take effect in the index. +Uri Lederman I was directly told in the re-inclusion email that I had a manual penalty which was now lifted. +Cody Cahill Now - many of the bad links still exist - but are now presumably disavowed - so causation v correlation seems strong. Plus - still nothing concrete - but look at who did a +1 on my initial comment ;)

Now, this should work for a manual penalty fairly quickly. Those who want it to work for a Penguin link penalty need to wait for a new Penguin refresh. There is a WebmasterWorld thread just on the Penguin/Disavow topic itself.

But from this we can have a pretty good and honest opinion that the tool does indeed work and should work with Penguin if used correctly and when there is a data refresh or update.

Google+ Listed Twice On One Google Local Listing

Typically if you search Google for local results, you may see a link to the business Google+ page. But do you ever see two different links to Google+ pages under one listing? Typically not.

But in one case, you do. Search for [suit alterations london parker street] and the result for londonfashionworkrooms.co.uk has two Google+ links under the local results. 

What is interesting is that the Google+ page is the same, the only difference is that one links to the posts and the other links to the about section, but the Google+ company page is the same.

No, That Wasn’t A Google Panda Update You Felt

Last Thursday, there were many webmasters and SEOs who felt Google had a major algorithm or index update. The update was thought to be the size of a major algorithm update such as when Google pushed out Panda, Penguin or any of those other major updates.

 

A Google spokesperson told us there was no update that they were aware of. In fact, they told us there was definitely no Panda update and as far as they know, no other update that took place on or around Thursday, December 13th.

But all the signals that we track point to some sort of Google update. I posted the immense forum chatter about this update at the Search Engine Roundtable – just scan the 40+ comments to see their reaction.

The three Google search ranking/fluctuation tracking tools I am aware of all showed signs of not just a small Google update but a large one. The tools include MozCast, SERPmetrics and SERPS.com.

But no, all the signals were wrong, at least according to Google.

SEO Trends for 2013

The world of SEO is an ever changing one, keeping on trend is often pretty hard - but vitally important. Below are some facts and figures that show why it is so important to keep up to date:

• 450 million internet users worldwide perform around 11 billion searches each month
• Search engines account for 90% of new visitors to a website
• Around 75% of those actively searching the internet use natural listings rather than paid or sponsored ones
• 42% of people who bought from an online retail site arrived via search engines
• 46% of internet users find new websites through search engines.

This blog aims to give some predictions of the SEO trends for 2013, so it would be appropriate to tell you a few of the highlights from 2012 SEO trends:

• Mobile search has increased significantly: due undoubtedly to the ease and convenience of searching on your mobile, but also the improvement and popularity of smartphones and tablets. Everyone I know has a smartphone (except, surprisingly my wife) and everywhere you look people are using them.
• Voice search emerged as a new search method: Suri and Google Voice have both gained popularity during 2012. I've used Suri, but I must admit I still have trouble getting it to understand my accent (I'm frightfully northern don't you know).

So, what are my predictions for 2013?

• Press releases will become as important as blogging: press releases are already becoming very important as they can easily convert targeted traffic and appeal to a wide-variety of media channels. Both of these factors help to bring the company using them more credibility.
• Social Media will still influence search engine performance, however two of the social media giants; Facebook and Twitter are both reducing the amount of data given to third parties. Rumors are that Facebook will be releasing their own search engine soon - watch this space.
• Google+ will play a bigger and bigger role in SEO. There have been a few teething problems, but these have been sorted and it is fast becoming big competition for the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Initiatives such as Author Rank means that this channel will become even more important to search engine ranking, especially Google (unsurprisingly).
• Organic search marketing will become more prominent, due to the majority of sales coming from organic search results, which leads on to the next prediction...
• Humanised ranking will be relied on more. Google has said that they are going to start using social media for human relavancy and give people more “real time” search results. Therefore blogs, press releases, regularly updated social media and fresh, relevant content is going to become even more important.
• Title tags and headings will stay as important as ever, playing an even bigger role in the way that your post and website will be ranked in search engines. Google wants to see more focused content or keyword based content within the title tags and headings.
• Blogs and articles will have to get longer - expect to read (or indeed, write) blog posts that are at least 700 words long.
• Content will need to be detailed, focused and relevant. 
• Tag management will become more important. As economic pressures increase, marketers will need to invest more time and effort in multichannel tagging.

I, for one, am excited about search in 2013. It will be great to get back to generating and disseminating good quality content - trends that will be music to the ears of marketers, PR professionals and journalists out there.

6 Ways to Optimize Your Retail Website for Search Engines

One of the main marketing strategies that can help online retailers build a successful Internet business is search engine optimization (SEO), the process of tailoring your website to the algorithms that search engines use to rank websites based on “signals” that the site emits.

However, search engine algorithms continue to change with time as the Web evolves (Panda Updates, anyone?), so online retailers need to evolve with the engines. We must make sure we keep up to date with best practices to claim the best possible rankings for relevant keywords.

If you want your website to rank well in 2012, here are 6 components of SEO that online retailers should know about when optimizing their e-commerce website to rank well in top search engines:

1. Keywords. Keyword research is the first step to a successful SEO strategy. Those successful with SEO understand what people are searching for when discovering their business in a search engine. These are the keywords they use to drive targeted traffic to their products. Start brainstorming potential keywords, and see how the competition looks by using Google AdWords Keyword Tool. If you notice that some keywords are too competitive in your niche, go with long-tail keywords (between two and five words) which will be easier for you to rank. The longer the keyword, the less competition you will have for that phrase in the engines.
2. Meta tags. Meta tags still play a vital role in SEO. If you type any keyword into a search engine, you’ll see how that keyword is reflected in the title for that page. Google looks at your page title as a signal of relevance for that keyword. The same holds true for the description of that page. (Don’t worry about the keyword title tag — Google has publicly said that it doesn’t pay attention to that tag, since it has been abused by webmasters and all those trying to rank for certain keywords.)
3. Content. It’s true, content is king. Search engines have stated that creating quality content is the best way to not only rank for keywords, but also create positive user experiences. It will also go a long way with making sure you’re educating your consumer, and being an authority in your niche will leads to boosts in sales.
4. Backlinks. If content is king, then backlinks are queen. Remember, it’s not about which site has the most links, but who has the most quality links pointing back to their website. Build backlinks by submitting monthly or bi-monthly press releases on any exciting company, and contacting popular blogs in your niche to see how you can work together to get a backlink from their website. Create the best possible product site you can, so people talking about the products you sell will link back. Try creating graphics or newsworthy content that will influence bloggers and news websites to link that content.
5. Social media. The algorithms have truly changed since social media first emerged. Many content websites are community-oriented — Digg began allowing users to vote which stories make the front page, and YouTube factors views and user ratings into their front page rankings. Therefore, e-commerce stores must establish a strong social media presence on sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. These social media sites send search engines signals of influence and authority.
6. Product images. If you think images don’t play a role, think again. When many consumers search for products in the search engines, not only are they looking at the “Web” results, but they’re also looking at the “images” results. If you have quality images of that product on your site — and the files’ names contain relevant keywords — these images will rank well in search engines. This avenue will drive a lot of traffic to your site, as potential customers will click on that image to find your store.

In addition to optimizing these six areas of your site, analyze your competitors and see what they are doing in terms of on-page optimization, off-page optimization (competitive link analysis) and social media. While you may be doing a lot of the same things they are, it’s incredibly important to think outside the box to get a leg up over the competition.

How to Improve the SEO Quality of Blog Posts

Content is an extremely important component of an online marketing strategy today. People are spending time doing research before purchasing a product or signing up for a service and are looking for information online. The content that you produce is what has the potential to capture their attention and keep them interested in your company or brand. Incorporating a blog into your business website is a great way to share content on a regular basis. It can also provide numerous SEO benefits if you know how to properly optimize each post since each new post adds an additional page to your website that can rank in the search engines.

Here are 5 important SEO tips for bloggers:

Add keywords

 
The first step in the SEO process is to conduct keyword research to find out how people are searching for the products or services that you offer. Just as these keywords should have been implemented naturally into the existing content on your site, they should also be incorporated when adding a new blog post. A blog is a great place to target the keywords that you weren’t able to target on the site but are still relevant or to target long tail variations of keywords. Remember, you never want to “stuff” keywords into the content. If it doesn’t flow naturally, don’t add it in.

Incorporate links

 
The search engine spiders not only pay attention to the inbound links that point to your site, but also to your inner linking structure and the pages that you point to within your own site. A blog post may generate traffic, but ultimately you want a visitor to look at more pages of your site. Adding a deep link within a blog post is a good way to encourage a visitor to click. For example, if the blog post addresses something that you offer on a service or product page, link over to that page using anchor text. You don’t want to include too many links because it looks spammy, but adding one into a post every once in awhile is a good strategy.

Utilize H tags

 
Since people tend to browse or skim blog posts as opposed to reading them word for word, it’s recommended to break them up. Instead of just adding spaces, bullet points, or numbered lists, consider using subheadings with H tags (like h3 or h4). This text will stand out to the search engine spiders.

Install an SEO plug in

 
An SEO plug in makes it easy for anyone that is adding a blog post to also easily add corresponding meta information like the title, description, and targeted keywords. The title should be no more than 70 characters and the description should be no more than 150. Make sure to write a title and description that are optimized with keywords.

Edit the URL

 
The default for the end of the URL is often the full title of the post, which could be quite long. Edit the URL by cutting it down to a few keywords from the title. For example if the URL default is “www.mycompany.com/blog/how-to-go-on-vacation-on-a-budget” shorten it to “www.mycompany.com/blog/vacation-budget”.

Top 5 Resolutions For 2013 As A Blogger

Have you dreamt of adding wings to your blog in 2013? Or, giving a major thrust to your blogging career in 2013?

 

Whatever may be the case, checkout my “Top 5 resolutions for the year 2013” as a blogger – Which can take your blog and blogging career to a new high.

 

1. Be Positive

 

You know, dreams and hopes are the things which propel a person to continue his work.

Dreaming and hoping for a bright future inspires you to do something big, or create something new. And “being positive” acts as a catalyst for your dreams and hopes.

On the contrary, negative thinking creates an aura of negativity around you, which takes you, almost, in an opposite direction.

So, be positive, be productive, and be a great blogger in year 2013.

 

2. Be Creative

 

Creativity means new ideas, different views or coming-up with an altogether different concept on the same subject matter.

Nobody cares the same damn things, which, every average blogger teaches on their blogs.

Simply, ask a question to yourself – Would you like to be the 1st and most eager-reader of the “piece of article” which you are going to publish? Would you like to give atleast a sitting-applause at the end of reading the article?

If your answer is Yes – then you are creative, you are going great!

To make your blogging career defining in 2013, you have to be creative. Get out from your cubicle, think differently and make your readers glue to your creations.

 

3. Be Passionate

 

Do you know – Why great bloggers never get tired of doing the same thing (blogging) day-and-night, months-and-years?

It’s their passion. It’s their love with their subject matter, or niche.

Passion is a great motivator, and helps you to explore, research and create newer things in your niche. More than 50% of blogs die everyday, only due to lack of passion.

Be passionate should be your mantra, and top 3rd blogging resolution for 2013.

 

4. Be a Marketer

 

This resolution is exclusively reserved for the bloggers who are actively monetizing their blogs. Or, atleast planning to tap different monetizing options.

To pay the monthly bills, and to arrange the meals everyday for you – adequate monetization of your blog is important. For that you have to be a better marketer. A better brand ambassador of your own blog.

Mind it – 2013 will be the “Year of Marketing.”

Explore all the marketing avenues like Content marketing, Social media marketing, SEO etc.

Writing guest posts on other blogs, Email marketing – all yours.

Your main aim is to make your blog reach as much readers as possible. This will help you for – more leads, more clients, higher revenue, and finally establishing a brand image for your blog.

 

5. Word… Work… Work

 

Hard work is the secret sauce of every successful blogs and bloggers.

A blog decays and finally dies when the blogger doesn’t feed it everyday.

Think like – you are a farmer, and your blog is your working land. Work hard everyday, show the seeds, and reap the benefits in the future.

Do you have any blogging resolution in mind for 2013? Add in the comments below.

Top 5 SEO Resolutions for 2013

SEO is ever changing. SEO is ever evolving.

 

Donning a White-hat as an SEO is a wise thing. But you never know, when the color changes from White to Black, due to frequent change of search engine algorithms by Google.

The World of SEO is full of wild animals like Panda and Penguin. To keep you safe from them, and also from the upcoming (unforeseen) algo changes, I have compiled 5 SEO resolutions for 2013. Only for you.

1. Avoid Over-optimization: Out of many SEO changes, Over-optimization is one of the most anticipated and most talked about search engine algorithm changes by Google, due in 2013.

Newbie SEO practitioners and bloggers have a very bad habit of walking on the thin line between White-hat and Black-hat SEO practices. There are N number of SEO tactics available. And it’s very tempting to practice each of them.

Most common are – Overuse of keywords in URLs, post headings (H1, H2 etc.) and content. Excessive on-page internal linking. Even, excessive use of no-follow tags.

The best way to avoid over-optimization is – Write articles for your readers, not the brainless search engines (which are always algorithm driven).

2. Avoid Shallow Content: Google Panda is still the biggest threat to all the webmasters and SEO practitioners in 2013.

Millions of websites are being hit by Panda, every time Google refreshes the data. In an effort to make the search experience better Google is simply kicking away shallow and low quality content from the web.

Just few years back, Google was not so smarter. I still remember – while searching for some content on Google, lots of useless websites and pages were appearing on the first page. Now Panda is taking care of all the thin content.

Write well researched and indepth content in a unique way. And you will be appreciated by both – Your readers and Google.

3. Avoid Spammy Links: Penguin, Penguin on the way! Penguin is still giving sleepless nights to webmasters, and will continue to haul in 2013.

Be it – exact match anchor text from guest blogging, or link exchange, or link selling. Avoid all spammy activities in 2013 to avoid Penguin hit. Buying of links is out of question.

Earning links will be the trend in 2013, instead of building links.

4. Avoid Over-dependance on Google: Don’t put all your traffic in Google’s basket. It’s very dangerous to keep all the eggs at one place.

Diversify your source of traffic. I mean, if tomorrow Google will cut off its traffic supply to your blog, you will still survive with the ration from Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Email marketing etc. Try to make a loyal readership base around your blog, and don’t over-depend on Google.

5. Build a Better Social Signal and Google Author Rank: Social signal and Google Author Rank will rule the entire 2013 for search engine ranking of content.

How many social media influencers are in your Facebook or Twitter friends? Not many – is the commonest answer. Participate and contribute to your social media community in a better way to earn influential friends.

Don’t bombard your Facebook or Google+ timeline with frequent spammy blog postings. This irritates followers, resulting in un-follow.

Strong Signs Of A Google Update Yesterday: 12/13/12

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has a lot of ongoing chatter about updates since December 10th but yesterday that chatter picked up a bit, which may imply there was an update yesterday.

I never heard back from Google on my December 10th report but I will ping Google again about this specific report.

Here are some one liners from the thread from yesterday:

• Down 40% compared to yesterday. No changes on my side.
• Traffic down by about 10% compared to last week
• I am seeing a nice increase in rankings and traffic. Started yesterday.
• Today's number 1 for my main two-word key term doesn't have the exact term on the site.

Like always, some winners and losers.

Checking the statistics out there, only one has updated so far and it was MozCast showing a huge change yesterday:

Update: SERP Metrics also shows signs of an update. And now SERPS.com also shows sign of an update.

Update 2: At about 2pm EDT Google told me this is not Panda related but they are going to dig deeper and let me know if it was something else.

Did you notice a change?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

top 6 Ways of Optimizing your Blog for SEO and visters

Winning both visitors and search engines is a tall order. Some writers often walk a thin line between quality content writing or coming up with keyword-crammed articles that search engines will surely gobble up. So you are faced with the dilemma of writing an article which no search engine will every pickup or an article that

However, coming up with great content should not be a choice between the two. It is possible to write quality content without sacrificing SEO. The simple way of doing this is writing quality content with the right keyword techniques. I know the advice is quite vague so let’s break it down into six simple ways you can rocket-fuel your blog tips to success.

1. Write great titles

The title of each blog post should be engaging while providing an overview of what the post is all about. An example of this would be the blog’s title which includes the terms “optimizing your blog.” The phrase is self-explanatory but also includes important keywords such as Blog and SEO.

If I said, “How to Improve Your Blog’s Ranking,” it promises a benefit but uses an overused combination of phrases that does not interest most readers anymore. With a good title sprinkled with a few popular target keywords, you are giving yourself a good SEO boost while spiking the interest of your readers.

2. Organize your Content

Your readers don’t have the time to arrange the jigsaw puzzle of information you have managed to post on your blog through the years. They want information and they want it quick. Having information with a few mouse clinks or a taps on the keyword are the main selling points of visiting the information superhighway.

So when you’re writing your next blog post, try to find its place on the overall picture of your blog. Make it easier for readers to navigate your blog. Organizing your content also makes it easier for search engine crawlers to index and rank your website.

3. Focus on Reader Experience

A number of things that can easily turn a reader off (unless he’s desperate for information) are small fonts, text that belong on a neon sign rather on a blog and poor text contrast. Content is the main reason why people visit blogs and forgetting this can spell doom for your blog.

Part of giving visitors a great reading experience is by keeping advertisements to a minimum. One important number that you should constantly look out for is bounce rates. The longer you keep readers engaged and surfing over your content, the better your chance of being regarded as an authority site by search engines.

Any visitor would not want to stay in a blog where clicking on a link sends them to another advertisement. Make reading your content both fun and entertaining. Focusing on visitor experience makes it easier for you to market your services and products.

4. Put some alternative description on your images

Images are archived by their file name. Placing your target keyword as a title for your images can go a long way in boosting your SEO ranking. Go through your image codes and fill out the “alt” information. Describe your images using keywords that are appropriate to what the photos portray.

5. Create a faster loading blog

There might be too many unnecessary plug-ins on your blog. These may be intended to attract readers to your blog’s aesthetics but they do exactly the opposite. Or probably, your blog uses HD photos. Why upload 5MB images if their job can be done by a 100-byte photo? Find ways to make your blog load as fast as possible. People don’t have time to wait for a blog to load, especially if there are others that can serve them through the fast lane.

6. Write a descriptive URL

Do not settle for random letter-number combinations in your URLs. Write a descriptive URL that adequately explains your content. Limit it to a few words that readers can easily remember. This way they can easily remember where to go when they need the same info again. It also helps in your search engine optimization efforts, as URLs are a big factor in determining your blog’s ranking.