Everyone has been beaten over the head with the basics of SEO optimization: keywords, AdWords, meta data, creating backlinks from authority sites, and so forth. However, some of the best SEO juice is left in the tank, overlooked and virtually unused.
Keeping a good thing going with guest blogs
Of all of these tips, this one would seem to be the most obvious. You’ve earned the invitation to guest blog on another site. (Congratulations!) However, for some reason, many guest blogs end up being one and done. Don’t be that blogger. Your appearance on another website gives you valuable backlinks to your own website, which is prime SEO juice. Become a regular guest blogger, and you continue to boost SEO.
The guest blog is also ripe with opportunities to build SEO with strong and relevant content containing keywords that appeal to the webmaster for whom you are writing, and also drives readers to your blog, and your backlinks. Adding to your repertoire only multiplies the impact, according to search quality ratings, when Google trolls for your content. Win – win.
Blogs on your own site – make ‘em “sticky”
Another easy pick up that many may already be doing, but also missing out on opportunities to increase the SEO impact. “Sticky” can be used in a couple of different ways, but both can help your SEO.
Let’s say your website is focused on college funding. A broad topic area, with blog posts talking about everything from ACT scores to Z Test prep and everything in between. As you build your posts, add internal links to related topics, being so bold as to even suggest in between paragraphs: “For more on finding a tutor, read this!”
The time spent on your site multiplies because as the reader clicks along, they’re never leaving your site. In other words, after reading, they tend to stick around, and the more time spent on a site by visitors the better your analytics are.
Secondly, “sticky posts” can be created through plugins on blog systems like WordPress or Blogger. In this case “sticky” means that the post always appears at the top of a category page (not necessarily your home page) using keyword rich copy in the introduction. The effect of having such copy at or near the top of the page increases your ranking.
Create your own search engine
Why not corner the market a bit and install a customized search engine bar on your own website? Granted the scope of a search in this manner using Google Custom Search may be more limited, but it also allows visitors to stay on your website during a search, giving you greater control and shrinking the internet to the topic area (or even the webpage) to help them find the answer more easily. You can also preview the results on your own just to be sure what you’re finding is what you want others to find as well.
Best of all, a custom search also allows you to see how your competitors stack up and how you can improve your own links. Creation is simple, editable, and gives you the code to put the search bar on your website.
Google’s video volumizer: YouTube
Next to Google (and literally it is), YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. Yet most use YouTube to store videos and at best, build a subscriber base to stay engaged. Don’t leave SEO on the table – instead utilize all of the tools available on YouTube to easily boost SEO.
It starts even before you upload your video, making sure to name your files using the keywords that people searching for you would use. From there, be sure to add a description and really use the space. Now is not the time for a short sentence – include keyword-rich content, because Google indexes this in a search.
Also, if the video is done well and its script is chock-full of the keywords you desire, the diminutive but powerful CC (closed-caption) button can recognize the words spoken, match it to the video’s audio track to sync to it.
If your content is engaging, people will also watch it longer and more often, which also boosts SEO. One caveat, however. If you have all of the above checked off and are placing this on a brand new channel, it may take a while for it to become the SEO magnet you desire. When possible try to have established channels for your videos to land on. Post comments and add playlists regularly to establish your channel first.
Keeping what you’ve earned during a move, and beyond
Don’t lose your hard-earned SEO because of a domain change. Whether or not you are undergoing design changes and CMS migration, and even if your new domain name is one you’ve already been using as a vanity domain, things can go wrong. Create a task list, then contact your hosting provider first to ensure a smooth transition. Bad links equal death for SEO, in some cases resulting in a 60-70 percent drop, and it’s completely and easily avoidable.
Not surprising, but Google has a tool to help you trouble shoot with their Search Console. It allows you to check each version of the new domain even before the change. When you’ve launched under the new name, use Google Search Console as well as Bing Webmaster to notify them of the change of address.
If you’re in a WordPress powered site, use the General Settings to make sure the domains are updated accordingly, and most importantly, that the site is backed up. Additional rewrites may need to be done as well, and this is where a solid web developer can save you time in reviewing your site’s files to keep redirects at a minimum.
Finally, the internet is a river, and SEO ranks rise and fall because it’s always changing course, even when your website doesn’t. Keep what you’ve worked for and ask an SEO marketing professional to give your site a check-up to build on it. What may take you weeks or months of frustration may only take days for them.
The post Don’t Overlook These SEO Boosters appeared first on The Texas SEO Company.
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