7 Common SEO Myths Debunked | Koozai. The SEO industry has always been largely open to opinion, with effective techniques regularly debated and disputed. Google and other search engines hide behind a complex ranking algorithm using over 200 factors, with no-one knowing all of the elements that Google takes into account when ranking a site or how much weight it gives to different factors.
The result of this dynamic is that swarms of strange myths come and go; what’s more, in the wrong hands, a little bit of inaccurate information can be dangerous. In this post, I’ve highlighted some myths I commonly encounter and explained why they are just that. 1. No, they are not. Of course, this doesn’t relate to the customer service motto that stipulates that the customer is always right; in fact, it has nothing to do with customer service at all.
Clients often have some idea of what SEO is all about and what works, but a little bit of information can be dangerous. 2. No, it does not. 3. Yes, they really do. 4. Source: Mashable 5. 6. 7. How Long Should A Blog Post Be? One question a lot of SEOs are often asked by clients looking to effectively leverage a business blog is: “how long should a blog post be?” Of course, there is no short answer (and thus, no short blog post in this instance), but there are some good pointers that could act as a guide for writing blog posts for business. In this post, I’ve looked at the different factors that you need to consider before you can understand how long a blog post should be. It’s Quality, Not Quantity Before you think of anything else, it’s important to remember that blog posts are all about quality and not filler.
For this reason, before you even start planning a blog post, the questions you should ask yourself include: Who am I writing for? Blog Post Length Should Be Driven By Your Goals When you really break down your blog post, you should be considering the actual goal or goals of the post. So, What Is The Minimum Length Of A Blog Post? The Google In-Depth Articles Update Great Posts Make A Great Blog.
What Have You Been Hit By? A Guide to Google Penalties. With so many Google updates leading to so many reasons why websites can suddenly or gradually lose traffic and rankings, it can be hard to know where to start. In this post I’ve looked at the different types of Google penalties (and those that are not, strictly speaking, penalties at all) to help you diagnosis your site’s issues and get on the road to recovery. The Big Boys: Panda and Penguin While there are now many other algorithm updates, some with equally quirky names, the Penguin and Panda algorithm updates still remain the two biggest updates overall and have claimed the rankings of many more sites than most other updates put together.
That said, the two are still very different and it’s important to understand what each one targets and how you can hope to combat them. Google Panda – Low Quality, Duplicate and Thin Content One of the original and most impactful Google algorithm updates is Panda, which targets content quality. Google Penguin – Unnatural Links and Spammy Anchor Text. PPC Keyword Research: When & Why Do You Need It? Setting up and maintaining strong, high performing AdWords campaigns takes time, budget and expertise. But without keyword research both at the beginning of the project and continually throughout, you will never get the best possible return on your investment.
Here’s what you need to know about keyword research at the different stages in your AdWords project and why it’s so critical to success. Budgeting and Forecasting Average Cost per Click First and foremost, without keyword research you cannot know how many clicks you can expect to get for your budget. As the average cost per click in AdWords varies dramatically from keyword-to-keyword and industry-to-industry, keyword research is the only way to estimate what your clicks might cost.
Keyword research is therefore essential even at this very early stage of a campaign. This will ensure that your expectations on cost are as reasonable as possible and give your campaigns the best chance to succeed. Get Researching! Image Credits. The Real Metric For Measuring SEO Success Is Not Organic Traffic. …and it’s not organic traffic!
It’s easy to watch organic traffic climb consistently after a hefty investment in Search Engine Optimisation and automatically assume success. It’s even easier to deem a decline in organic traffic as failure. But is this really the best metric to consider when measuring SEO success? In actuality, what does it matter how many visitors came to your website, or how that number compares to previous months or years? Would the owner of a brick-and-mortar store be celebrating success he saw steady increases in footfall but was selling less and less product? The same principle can and should be applied to websites. Identify and understand your website goals Before you can effectively measure the success of your SEO campaign, or any website campaign for that matter, it is essential that you understand exactly what your site is setting out to achieve.
Sales and revenue – online purchases, bookings, etc.Enquiries and leads – contact form completions, phone calls, etc. 20 Years Of Web Design: From Space Jam To Kit Kat. The last 20 years has seen the internet evolve from a little understood technological breakthrough to a vital part of society and our everyday lives. In that time, the quality and design of the websites we visit has also transformed as user expectations increased. In this post I’ve looked at the evolution of web design over the last 20 years, including a look at some at the clever features and sleek designs of some of my favourite websites.
A Digital Relic Preserved There was a time when raw HTML code was the only language understood on the internet. The Space Jam website is a fantastic example of a website from the past that has been beautifully preserved on the net. With some gorgeous backgrounds and fascinating choices of colour combinations (please see the Cast Bios page below for a real work of art), this site represents a previous era of web design fashion. Warner Bros have given a real gift to the digital community in preserving this website for us to reflect on today. JavaScript. Emma North SEO: More Creative Link Building Techniques!
Six months have passed since I wrote about Creative Link Building Techniques including broken link building, interviewing and link bait. I decided it was time to revisit the topic following a number of search engine updates and given the fast-paced industry we're in! My latest post, "More Creative Link Building Techniques for a Natural Backlink Profile", includes a range of new techniques and advice including the importance of creating a link building strategy and techniques such as "top 10" posts, competitor backlink analysis for opportunities and good-old "How To" guides. I hope you enjoy this latest post and find it useful. Hopefully between the two posts you can takeaway a couple of ideas to implement on your site. Please feel free to leave a comment at the end of the Koozai post and let me know how you get on!
More Creative Link Building Techniques for a Natural Backlink Profile. Six months ago I wrote a post featuring eight Creative Link Building Techniques for a Sustainable Link Building Strategy, with the promise to write a follow-up later in 2013. With new announcements from Google in the last six months intensifying the spotlight on unnatural links, now seemed like a good time to tackle Part 2. In this post I’m going to suggest a few more tips and techniques you should consider to build quality inbound links to your site, designed to stand the tests of both time and Google crack-downs.
Create a 6-12 Month Link Building Plan The key to a strong link profile is that it should look natural and progressive. If your site gets 10 new links one month and 1,000 the next, alarm bells may start to ring at Google and you may be under scrutiny for bad practice or link schemes. Although the arrival of new natural links to your site is outside your control, any link building you partake in should be structured and regular to avoid unnatural spikes in new links. Create Hype. Clicks But No Conversions – Where You’re Going Wrong. Google AdWords is a tried and tested method of getting qualified leads to a website.
So when you invest heavily into the advertising platform and fail to achieve conversions, it can be incredibly disappointing and frustrating. It’s easy to blame the set-up or structure of your ad campaigns, and sometimes rightly so. However in actuality the issues could be a lot closer to home, with your website and landing pages. If you’re getting clicks but no conversions, or not enough sales to break even, it’s time for campaign and site analysis. Rubbish Campaign or Rubbish Website? If you’re getting clicks into your site but no conversions, there are two main possible issues; a poorly managed ad campaign or a poor website. Now when I say “a poor website”, I don’t necessarily mean that your website looks or works badly; only that it doesn’t do everything possible to encourage conversions and install trust in your brand. 1 – Checking The Relevancy Of The Traffic Navigation Design Targeted Landing Pages.
Causes Of A Low Click Through Rate In Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a great way to get traffic into your website quickly without the longer process of search engine optimisation. By using a strong, targeted AdWords PPC campaign, you can have qualified leads visiting your site in a matter of hours. However, the success of a PPC campaign hinges largely on one key metric; Click Through Rate (CTR). A high CTR means more visitors and better account performance. However a low CTR reduces the effectiveness and quality of the campaign and means you are likely to pay a higher Cost-per-Click. The Effects of a Low Click Through Rate On the surface, having a low Click Through Rate might not seem like too big a deal as you’re only paying for actual clicks, not impressions that aren’t clicked. Cost-per-Click is calculated by AdWords using your maximum Cost-per-Click bid and your Quality Score. What Is A Good CTR? The CTR you can expect depends on how generic or targeted your keyword is.
Causes of a Low CTR & Ways To Improve It Poor Average Position. Essential 2013 SEO Health Check Guide. 2012 was a year of change for the SEO industry and it already feels as though 2013 will be every bit as turbulent. It has never been more important to ensure your site’s SEO is healthy. This guide is intended as a comprehensive resource for carrying out a review of your site’s health and SEO performance.
It is also designed to ensure that your site is not just healthy now, but will hold up against the promise of more Google algorithm updates and be protected against manual penalties. You can also download my free PDF checklist to use alongside your own SEO health review. Proactive SEO So many sites are suffering the wrath of Google updates and manual penalties and Search Engine Roundtable even went as far as claiming that you may never recover from Google’s Penguin.
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Protecting Against Google Penguin Despite all this, Google is far from finished in its fight against web-spam. However, the risk of ranking drops and de-indexing is far from over. Link Removals. Why Landing Page Analysis Is The New Rank Tracking. For as long as the industry has existed, SEOs have been hung up on search engine rankings, with keyword tracking and position monitoring being regular website health checks.
Most SEOs use automated software to check the rankings of websites for key search terms and use fluctuations in positions as a key indicator of performance. However, is this really the best indication of performance in organic search? What does it really mean if you’re ranking first for “fast food restaurant” and second for “really tasty burgers” if your audience is just searching for “McDonalds”? In addition, a number of changes in the industry, including the introduction of (not provided) in Google Analytics and the increased awareness of Google’s policy on rank tracking, will make it increasingly difficult to measure the value of positions in the SERPs. Landing page analysis allows us to study the behaviour of visitors who actually visited your site from organic search.
Landing Page Analysis Bounce Rate For example: What Will The Next Google Algorithm Update Target? With a Panda update planned for this weekend and a big Penguin update predicted in Q2 2013 there are plenty of algorithm changes on the horizon. But what will these updates target? And could there be a whole new type of update on the horizon? We asked sixteen of the Koozai team to speculate on what’s next to come: Chris Simmance (@Koozai_Chris) I think the next update will focus further on a site’s backlink profile. With the rollout of the Disavow tool recently I think that Google will be doing what they do best with the data they are getting from other sites and may penalise those with poor link profiles more effectively.
They must have something in the pipeline for all the data people are willingly sending them regarding what they feel are negative links. Emma North (@Koozai_Emma) I’m a firm believer that the next Google algorithm update will target social. Tara West (@Koozai_Tara) I think the next Google algorithm update will be another measure to detect unnatural link profiles. N) Creative Link Building Techniques For A Sustainable Link Strategy. Search Engine Optimisation is not the same game it was two years ago and evolves at rapid pace. Without the knowledge, skills and drive to keep informed and up-to-date, SEO’s can quickly become behind with the times. Arguably one of the biggest changes we’ve seen in SEO is the way we build links. In fact, the very idea of “building links” is becoming out of date as Google crashes down on unnatural link profiles. Think about it; if you’ve built a link, it is unlikely to be a “natural” backlink. In this post I will discuss creative ways to build high quality, natural backlinks as part of a sustainable link building strategy.
Monitor Brand Mentions With Google Trends and other similar tools, you can easily monitor each time you brand name is mentioned across the web. If the site is discussing your brand and has a good PageRank, check whether they link to you somewhere on the page. Internal Broken Link Building External Broken Link Building Get Interviewed Run Competitions Refresh Old Content. How To Recover From A Google Ranking Penalty. This guide is intended as a first point of reference for site owners who have suffered a Google ranking penalty or suspect they may be victims of algorithm updates. By working through the three steps below, you will be taking the first tentative steps in restoring your site’s lost value and getting your site back to its previous ranking glory. Step 1 – Diagnose 2012 was a tough year for website owners and SEOs, with new algorithm updates and ranking penalties dished out by Google like hot meals.
Many websites who suffered a ranking penalty invested a great deal of time and money into fixing the issues to regain organic traffic and many more sites simply haven’t been able to get near the rankings they once enjoyed. At this stage, consider the evidence that has led you to believe you have suffered a ranking penalty. Hopefully, you’ll be using Google Analytics for your site traffic analysis (if not, you should fix this first!)
Firstly, check in Google Webmaster Tools. Step 2 – Resolve. Black Hat SEO Tactics To Avoid » Will Google Zebra Hit Social? A Possible New Google Algorithm Update. Who Is Online On Christmas Day? Christmas Day Marketing Tips. Surviving “Not Provided” Keywords on Google Analytics. The Friendly Faces of Koozai® Blog | Koozai® - Your Intelligent Digital Marketing Agency.