Search Engine Optimization

Let the Competition Be Your Guide

If your competition is outranking you online, don’t chalk it up to the luck of the draw or to happenstance. There is a reason the other guy has taken the lead on this one, and data analysis can help you get to the bottom of the matter and hone your competitive edge. There’s more to get out of the data that’s available to you than simply identifying the brand of content for which your target audience clamors. When you analyze data in relation to what readers want and what your hottest competition is providing, it can give your online offerings the boost for which you’re looking.

Ringing in the New Year With Some Food for Thought

It’s 2022, and no matter how you slice it, it’s a lot. Search engine algorithms never sleep, but there are steps you can take to help you keep up and maximize your potential. One of the most important growth factors for business owners like you remains organic traffic. In fact, if we’ve learned anything in the 2020s, it’s that an amalgamation of both generic and local results is the ticket when it comes to digital traffic. And towards this end, there are five primary factors on which you should keep a sharp focus when it comes to your digital marketing.

Google Sheds Light on Ranking Factors

You recognize that Google holds the keys to just about everything, which means that when it decides to share, you need to listen. If your competitor is ranking near the top of the heap when it comes to Google’s organic SERPs and you are not, it’s a marketing problem. But it’s a problem that Google – in its beneficence – is now going to help you out with a bit. You heard that right – Google is going to help – so let’s get started.

SEO Insights, Opportunities & Threats

You know SEO is important, but how do you know how much you should be investing and what you should be getting out of it? No matter what your take on the issue is, there’s a lot going on, but having digital marketing expertise on your side is going to help. Having a feel for what others in your business sphere are doing – and how much they’re spending – provides you with a valuable opportunity to get a better handle on your own SEO game. A recent in-depth study published by Search Engine Journal (SEJ) entitled The State of SEO 2021: Insights, Opportunities & Threats has its finger on the pulse of all things SEO, and we’ve broken the most interesting bits down for you.

Ready to Upgrade Your SEO Status? Google Has Free Stuff

While you can spend a whole lot on your SEO tools – and some of these gems are worth every penny – you don’t always have to drop a lot of cash to update your SEO toolbox. In fact, Google has five tools that are worth checking out right now. Google tools are generally powerful tools, so give them a look and make sure that you aren’t missing out.

SEO Hygiene Can Keep Your Site Healthy

SEO Hygiene, you say? It’s nothing to be afraid of – just a helping hand from Google that can up your SEO game. SEO hygiene is all about taking purposeful strides to help keep your site running as smooth as silk (before problems arise). Think of SEO hygiene as a means of proactively supporting your site’s goals, including your marketing aspirations.

YMYL Websites: It’s Time to E-A-T

Website content is critical to search engine optimization (SEO), but according to Search Engine Journal (SEJ), when it comes to ranking content related to health, finance, and other YMYL (your money or your life) topics, John Mueller – a Search Advocate over there at Google – shares that the most important factors are expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). These so-called YMYL sites are held to higher standards, and if you count yourself among them, you should maintain a laser-like focus on ensuring that your content is steeped in expert authority that inspires your users’ confidence and trust.

6 Surefire Tips for Helping Your Site Bounce Back

Bounce rate is a buzzword that gets its share of attention, but you may not know what it means for your business. Your site’s bounce rate isn’t a black-and-white proposition. While it’s generally something that you want to reduce, that isn’t the end of the story. Fortunately, there are six hot-as-heck tips that can help you handle your bounce rate – rather than letting it handle you.

A Deep Dive into On-Page SEO

The best way to grow your website is with organic traffic from the big search engines out there. The only way to garner the necessary clicks, however, is to rank high enough in the first place. Unfortunately, finding a balance between the two is where too many websites spin out of control. The surest search engine optimization (SEO) strategies incorporate both on-site and off-site planning. While the building blocks of your off-site efforts are all about honing your backlink portfolio, which you likely have a fairly solid handle on, your on-site or on-page plans involve SEO elements that are more content-driven, including meta tags and keywords. This is the stuff that speaks both to your target audience and to the search engines, and it deserves closer attention.

The Best and the Brightest of SEO Weigh in on What to Expect in 2021

We made it all the way through 2020, and all the SEO bigwigs out there have had a minute to reflect and to offer their predictions for 2021. It’s true that 2020 was a doozy, but SEO experts are optimistic about trends for 2021. While spam reduction was on everyone’s wish list for 2020, the global pandemic had other ideas, and Google had bigger fish to fry.