Blogging Archives - SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines

Optimizing Your Content for Google’s Helpful Content Update

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 08:30:56 +0000

Zero Traffic from Google—that is what more than 50% of online content gets everyday. Ahrefs found this out last 2020.

And yet, countless websites continue to put them out regularly—a problem made even worse with all the AI-powered content tools out there. The result is an endless flood of low-quality blogs and posts that are, ultimately, not useful for anyone who reads them.

So, what did Google do in response? They put out another addition to their algorithm, called the “Helpful Content Update.” Their goal with this one was to help make sure that valuable content that actually helps their users (a.k.a., people-first content) would be able to rank.

Much like with every update, SEO professionals like you and I need to revisit our strategies to stay ahead of the game. In this article, I will show you some tactics I use to write content for people first, while maintaining good SEO practices.

What We Know About Google’s Helpful Content Update

The Helpful Content Update algorithm update by Google was designed to improve user experience by putting high-quality content written for people higher up in the SERPs.

Here’s how Google put it in their own words:

“The system generates a site-wide signal that we consider among many other signals for ranking web pages. Our systems automatically identify content that seems to have little value, low-added value or is otherwise not particularly helpful to those doing searches.

Any content—not just unhelpful content—on sites determined to have relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall is less likely to perform well in Search, assuming there is other content elsewhere from the web that’s better to display. For this reason, removing unhelpful content could help the rankings of your other content.”

While this update was first announced back in September 2022, it has now progressed into a global update, impacting all languages. Google also announced that the system will continue to publish new signals over the coming months, helping their site identify more content created primarily for search engines versus people.

What does this mean for your website? Well, there are a lot of changes that others have documented in the last few months, which I summarize for you here:

Purely AI-generated content is considered spam, and Google will be using its machine learning algorithm to detect it.
Content made for clicks (i.e., ad monetization) won’t work anymore.
There may be no manual penalties, but sites have experienced losing organic visibility.
It seems to affect the overall site performance, rather than hitting specific pages—and Google won’t be telling you which pieces of your content it has deemed as not useful.

Google’s Danny Sullivan also talked about this update possibly working in connection with future updates:

So, like Hummingbird, this update may become fundamental to ranking algorithms—which means that its exact effects could be only observed over the next few years.

Even so, it already puts a stronger emphasis on your content. Writing with a “search engine first” approach should no longer be your angle.

After all, Google is, primarily, a space for users to learn. So, it makes sense that they’re making no room for unhelpful content.

While this update will undoubtedly be more damaging for poor-quality sites, it also presents an opportunity for well-maintained sites to take a second look at their content strategy.

How Does Google Evaluate my Content in this New Update?

Google’s complete guidelines on creating helpful, reliable, and people-first content can easily be found on Google Search Central. But, I’ve gone through the list and summarized it into the five most important criteria:

Content and quality: Does your content have original, substantial information? Does it avoid copying and rewriting existing content? And, does it provide value, compared to others in the search results?
Expertise: Does your content demonstrate your expertise, as well as clear sourcing of supporting evidence? Is it factual? Is it written by someone who knows the topic well?
Presentation and production: Is the content written well, free of any spelling or stylistic issues? Does it avoid excessive ads or marketing? Does it display well on mobile devices?
People-first approach: Does the content have a clear purpose or focus? Does it meet that purpose or focus? Does it provide useful information that helps create a a satisfying experience for the reader?
Avoidance of search engine-first content: Was the content written with the reader in mind first, rather than search engine rankings? Does it avoid manipulation of search algorithms (such as through extensive automation, summarizing others’ content without adding value, etc.)?

How to Optimize Your Content—and Make it More “Helpful”

With this update, we have to start thinking about our content holistically, rather than just trying to gain as many clicks as possible (or maybe even a featured snippet).

To achieve this, you have two main action points to consider: improving your intent and processes, and providing high-quality content.

Let’s go over some tips I’ve come up with in the last two months to better tackle these points (and enhance your writing):

Review Your Intent and Your Audience

Before you even start on your next blog post, you need to know who your audience is.

Ask yourself, who are you writing for? What are their needs, and why are they asking these questions? What do they need help with?

These questions will help you tailor your content to help your target audience. Otherwise, it’s likely that whatever you write won’t be considered helpful by Google—and you won’t be able to reap the benefits from your work.

If you’re having trouble understanding who your audience is, then take a look at your Google Analytics data, under your demographic details report. This is the best place to gain some insight into who is currently looking at your content, as well as other things they might be interested in.

So, beyond inserting your keyword into your blog post, consider factoring both your intended audience and relevant adjacent content.

Provide Real Expertise, Insights, and Experiences

When it comes to making helpful, valuable content, it’s a big plus if you have some first-hand expertise to add to your writing.

Avoid writing on topics that are trending, but you know nothing about. I also highly recommend against simply regurgitating information you’ve seen in other posts. Instead, your insights and experiences with the topic should be the main focus of your writing.

Not an expert on the particular topic you’re currently drafting? That’s okay—not everyone can be one. You can still produce helpful content by doing your due diligence, diving deep into research, and sharing what you’ve learned.

Remember, readers can see right through you if you’re faking being an expert, so avoid making false claims at all costs.

Use AI Content Strategically

Though this update may be primarily aimed at reducing the amount of AI-generated content out there, that doesn’t mean your tools no longer have a place in your work.

AI tools, such as the increasingly popular ChatGPT or our recently-reviewed Content Marketing Platform from SE Ranking, can still be used to improve your work and productivity. The key is to use them strategically.

Use them to lighten your workload, and avoid depending solely on them. For example, you can use your tools to help you generate better titles or introductions—but always remember to add a human touch to whatever they make. And, make sure that the bulk of the ideas come from you!

Try to Hit Related Queries (Such as the People Also Ask (PAAs))

I mentioned that we have to start approaching our writing holistically, and that means providing as much valuable information to our readers as possible.

Now that being helpful is the name of the game, it’s a great time to take a look at all the related queries users have for your intended topic. Here’s what comes up when I google ‘wedding catering:’

Check the PAAs and related searches that pop up when you type in your keyword. These aren’t just generated questions Google thinks people might ask—they’re actually being searched up by real people! These will provide good subheadings to include in your next blog article.

Ask Yourself: Will Readers Be Satisfied After Reading Your Content?

Things like word count and keyword density are now a thing of the past with this update. The most important thing now is that your audience enjoys what they’re reading, or they learn something of value from your article.

In short, they leave your site feeling satisfied.

So, always gauge your writing by asking this question: will people be satisfied after reading this?

For example, if you’re writing an article on how to properly brew specialty coffee, will the reader come away from your article with more knowledge than before? Will they have all their questions answered? Will they know how to properly brew their new coffee beans?

If the answer is yes, then you’re doing great. But, if you’re unsure—or the answer is a resounding no—you must make some changes.

That said, not every reader that comes across your work will be happy with what you’ve written. It is, after all, impossible to please everyone each time you publish something. However, as long as a majority of your audience is satisfied, then you’re doing something right!

Revisit Your Old Posts

Lastly, because this update affects you sitewide, it’s a good idea to look at your previous work.

If you’re like me, then you’ve been blogging for upwards of a decade—and that might mean some of your posts aren’t as valuable to readers today. The content might be outdated, or not up to snuff with newer guidelines, but either way, this bank of legacy content can bring your traffic down.

So, revisit your work and review its ability to provide your readers with the answers and experience they’re looking for. Take the time to check if you need to make some additions to make it useful once again, or redirect them to newer content. I highly recommend prioritizing evergreen content, which is something I covered in my Blog Writing 101 guide.

This is especially important if you’re in any industry that moves fast (think fashion or tech). Content here usually goes from helpful to obsolete in a matter of months!

Key Takeaway

Google has always favored people-first content, and this recent update is just the latest in many of their attempts to make sure the right content gets to their users.

The Helpful Content Update will continue to release tweaks to their signals over the coming months, so it’s prime time for us SEO specialists to take a second look at our content and writing strategies.

Luckily, this update could be a win for you—just keep these tips in mind, and you’re on the right track to getting the most value from your content efforts.

The post Optimizing Your Content for Google’s Helpful Content Update appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

A Comprehensive Guide to Blog Writing: Everything You Need to Know

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 11:12:54 +0000

What should I learn about blog writing for SEO?

Quick Answer: There are several points to blog writing that every writer needs to know. Understanding the basics of great blogging—evergreen content, when to publish, how to generate topics, how to set up for writing, and how to optimize your blogs—will help you enhance your content and boost your rankings. And, we go over each of these points here. We even cover how to refresh your old blog posts to keep gaining traffic!

Overview

Blog writing is a content marketing format that started as an online diary, and has since gained traction and found its way into business websites. It is one of the more accessible formats of content marketing, the strategic approach which aims to provide relevant and valuable information to one’s audiences and build a relationship with them.

According to OptinMonster, 77% of internet users read blogs. If you don’t know where to start and how, this comprehensive guide is for you.

How does blog writing help with SEO?

Think of it this way—when your target audience asks a question related to your niche, you would want to be the one answering the question, right? You can’t answer their questions when you don’t include a means in your website to answer them.

That’s what blog writing does for you. It gives relevant and useful answers to your target audience. And if you’re answering those questions well, the search engines have more reason to index your site and put you at the forefront of the SERPs.

Hence, according to Tech Jury, sites that produce blogs have 434% more indexed pages than sites that don’t. That means these sites generate more traffic, potentially generating more leads and revenue as well.

Companies that have blogs also get 97% more backlinks than other company websites, meaning they also get promoted through other people’s content because they took the time and energy to provide value and answer their target user’s questions

Why you should prioritize evergreen content

SEO-Hacker.com went live for the first time in April 2010—which means it’s been almost 12 years and I’m proud to say that we’re still going strong. Every year, our website traffic grows because most of our old articles are consistently generating us traffic as we produce more fresh content.

The secret behind this is age-old SEO advice: evergreen content. And even though publishing evergreen content is such a classic SEO and marketing strategy, I assure you that it works up to this day.

Don’t believe me? Check out the top 10 pages from January 10, 2021 to January 10, 2022 according to Google Analytics:

Most of the articles listed there were published a few years back and yet they are the ones that garner the most traffic even up to this date.

That is the power of evergreen content. It’s a strategy I’ve used for my own websites and I’ve used it to make our clients’ website successful as well.

What is evergreen content

Evergreen content is a piece of content about a topic that is still relevant even after a long time regardless of year, season, or trends. Compared to news articles and writing about trending topics, evergreen content will consistently bring your website traffic over time because there are people always searching about it.

Evergreen content is such a crucial SEO strategy because it keeps your audience engaged and gives your website continuity. It should definitely be the backbone of your SEO strategy as the gains are far greater than the costs.

What evergreen content brings to the table

Long-term gains

Think of evergreen content like an investment. When you initially publish an article that is evergreen, you may not get traction immediately in your article. But as you rank higher, you would notice that traffic will increase slowly

If we compare evergreen content to news and other trending topics, you would see that as time goes by, evergreen content can still generate traffic while news and hot topics will fall off a lot faster.

Here’s an example. I wrote an article a few years ago about the easiest way to apply aggregate rating schema. Years later after its publishing, it is consistently getting traffic and is even my top article for the past year.

Let’s compare it to a news article I published two years ago. I wrote about Google’s announcement of the June 2019 algorithm update. After publishing the article, its traffic spiked up and immediately died down after a month.

That is why it’s important to focus on evergreen content in blog writing. And as you add more evergreen content on your website, you will be able to see that your traffic increases and is on an upward trajectory.

Take note that while it does seem that publishing evergreen content is a far better use of your time than publishing news doesn’t mean you should put 100% of your focus on it. Writing about recent events and trending topics is a different strategy on its own and it does have benefits as well so make sure you have a good mix of both.

Attracts backlinks

As your content rank and get traffic, there is a high chance of it getting backlinks without you having to work too hard for it. Of course, when you publish an article, you would have to do a little link building to make it rank. But once it does and your content gains consistent traffic, you would notice that your article is getting backlinks without you proactively doing anything.

Check out the backlinks of my YouTube SEO article.

I published this article about seven years ago, did a little link building, was able to get on the first page, and there you go. Years later, it’s still getting backlinks on its own.

This is because people find my blog writing as a good resource and if they write an article about YouTube SEO as well, people usually link back to it. This can be applied in any niche. Since evergreen topics usually target high-volume keywords, ranking for them on the first page may let people see you as an authority which brings me to my next point…

Evergreen content is good for E-A-T

It goes without saying that as you get more backlinks, your website’s authority increases. But this isn’t just about PageRank, evergreen content is also great for E-A-T.

Google quality raters measure the E-A-T of a website using various criteria but the content of a website is definitely one of the main things that they check. If you publish evergreen content that is well-written and well-researched, it is a great sign of expertise, authority, and trust. It gives you more credibility and it is also great for your brand.

Sample evergreen content you may consider

How-to guides and tutorials

How to fix blue screen of death
How to properly clean your car
How to cook fried chicken

Informative articles

Best ways to lose weight
Money-saving tips
Resume writing tips

In-depth guides

Everything you need to know about blog writing
In-depth guide on dog training
Complete guide to link building

Important tip: Update your evergreen content

Although the content you published is evergreen, it doesn’t mean that new information is not going to be available in the future. That is why it is also important to go back to the evergreen content that you publish and update the information in them if applicable. It is also a good practice that when you update a piece of old content, your website should properly label it with the date it was last updated.

Reminder: Take note of the difficulty

One of the biggest hurdles in being successful with evergreen content is that topics and keywords tend to have high difficulty.

If you are just starting out, the best advice that I could give you is to stick to your niche and try to find low-hanging fruits. Regardless of the volume of traffic that it brings, as long as it is consistent, it’s already a win.

Do publish dates affect rankings?

Every day, millions of people are looking for fresh content on Google. For us SEOs, this means that when we publish content can be as important as what content we publish.

We’ve already tackled what kind of content we should be focusing on; now, let’s focus on the when.

Do dates on your blog posts affect rankings?

To simply answer the question, yes, publishing dates may affect rankings. When a user performs a search, Google will try to provide the most relevant and recent search results. These are especially true for news, recent events, and other trending topics.

Let’s say you Googled “best smartphone 2022.” It wouldn’t be right for Google to serve you a search result written in 2019 or 2018. Let’s look at the search results. The top stories for the keyword “best smartphone 2022” was published two days ago as of writing:

The next couple of results were published five days ago and more. Some of these articles were published last December, but because they still answer my question, Google saw them to be relevant enough to put in the first page of the SERPs.

To further explain how dates affect rankings, Google released an algorithm update way back in 2011 called “Google Freshness Update.” The update aimed to improve Google’s algorithm called Query Deserves Freshness or “QDF” which identifies if a user is looking for up-to-date articles or not.

Now that Google improved its system of identifying if a user is searching for the most recent content, articles that talked about recent news and events were highly impacted by the time and dates they were published.

But what does this mean for months and year old content?

At that time, the algorithm update affected about 35% of search results according to Google. This means old content is still useful and relevant. Remember that Google will only serve a user content that was recently published if it is applicable to their query.

So let’s say you have a website that talks about cars. If you have articles about how to take care of cars that are well-written even though they were written several years ago, Google may still serve your content to users. That is why evergreen content, as mentioned earlier, is extremely important to your website.

Google’s guidelines on dates

Have you noticed that there are times Google shows the date an article was published in the search results and sometimes it doesn’t?

According to Google’s guidelines, Google will choose to show the publishing date of an article if it is useful for the user, especially for news. So how does Google find out when an article was published?

Google uses multiple ways. Here’s what they say on their guidelines:

“Google doesn’t depend on a single dating factor because all factors can be prone to issues. That’s why our systems look at several factors to determine our best estimate of when a page was published or significantly updated.”

How does Google identify publishing dates

The visible date on time on the page

There are two types of dates you can show on your articles: the exact publishing date or the date the article was last updated.

According to the guidelines, the dates should be clearly visible to the users and should be properly labeled such as:

Published: January 11, 2022
Last Updated: January 11, 2022

Check out this example. I wrote this article back in 2010 and I recently updated it.

Structured data

Google can use structured data on your articles if you have any subtype of CreativeWork schema implemented such as Article and BlogPosting schema. It will use the datePublished or dateModified in the markup.

XML Sitemap

Your XML sitemap should also include the publishing or last updated dates for your articles. It should look like this:

Note: According to the Guidelines, the publishing date is required and the time is not.

When should you change the publishing dates on your blog posts?

In my opinion, the only time you should be changing the dates on your blog posts is when you make noticeable changes in existing articles. Maybe there is new data on surveys you cited or you have updates on your case studies.

And when you do make changes make sure that you label it properly as “updated” not published again. This is a big thing for users as it is a sign that they can trust that you provide up-to-date information.

How about completely removing the dates from blog posts?

Some websites remove the dates from their articles to show that their content is evergreen. Although it may look suspicious, some studies have shown that it can have a positive impact.

Check out these case studies by ShoutMeLoud and UFO.

Remember: Blog post dates is for user experience

When implementing publishing dates on your blog posts or changing the dates to when an article was last updated, keep in mind that you are doing this for the user. I would also say that if you have evergreen content, it might not be necessary to update them at all. Some topics may have a higher click-through rate if dates are visible, while in some topics, age may give you more credibility. I would recommend testing it out and finding what works for your niche.

How to generate blog topics

Content is king. There’s no doubt about that, but there are challenges when you have to continuously publish content regularly—you’ll run out of topics to write about. This is a challenge most bloggers, content marketers, and even SEOs will face at some point in their careers.

Since the web is filled with competitors, there’s a high chance that a good number of them can produce content faster and more frequently than you. Knowing that, how do you reach a level where producing a topic that your readers will surely love can be achieved in the fastest time possible? Let’s find out.

Tools aren’t your best friend

If you’ve been in the industry for a considerable amount of time, you might have come across some tools or products that market themselves as the only tool you’ll ever need when generating and researching topics. You’ve probably tried out some of them as I have and you’ll quickly realize that they’re only effective at the start. As time goes by, you’ll not only realize that it’s not helping you generate topics anymore but they’re not even giving you the inspiration you need to come up with a topic on your own. All of these are especially true when you’re writing about a niche topic or industry.

So what exactly should you do?

Write about topics that people actually read

All of the experts in content marketing, blogging, and SEO will always tell you to research your audience. This is true. Understanding what your audience likes is the first step to generating a topic that will gain traction.

Are they just curious?
Do they specifically need something in your topic or industry?
What problems would lead them to find your blog/business?

All of these questions lead to just one goal: Deepening your understanding of the audience that you’ll be writing for.

What I’ve mentioned will still hold true for experienced, veteran writers but their advantage is that they have the data to further refine their understanding of their audience. I was blog writing even before I started SEO and haven’t stopped since. So, I’ve had my fair share of writer’s block and inability to generate topics that I can write about. But one helpful strategy I’ve learned is to use Google Analytics and check to see which of my past blog posts do my audience frequently visit.

In the screenshot above, it shows me the top 10 pages that the SEO Hacker blog visitors showed the most interest in. We can safely eliminate the homepage, then by checking the topics that gained the most views, I can conclude that these are the kinds of topics that my visitors are looking into. So, I can branch out and generate topics that are related to the top 10 posts.

This is one great way to quickly come up with topics that you can write about. Not only does this help save you time and energy, but it also improves the chances of your audience actually reading the content you’ve written since they already showed interest in another related piece.

Keywords

Quickly generating your blog topics isn’t enough since you need to make it more accessible and searchable for users that might be interested in the topic you’re writing about. It’s important for you to engage in blog writing for your current audience, but tapping possible audiences to increase your reader count is just as important. So, it’s your job to make the topics you write about to be more accessible and searchable for potential audiences. How do you do that?

Research the keywords you will be targeting.

There are a variety of tools available in the market for you to use to research keywords like Semrush.

You can use this tool to find the best possible keywords that perfectly fit into your content, but there is a limit to how accurate and reliable the numbers shown in keyword research tools are. At the end of the day, you also have to have empathy for your audience and experience in the search industry.

I’ve had countless experiences where I’ve targeted keywords that didn’t have enough numbers shown in keyword research tools—but I know, based on my understanding of the audience and user search behavior—that it’s a “search-worthy” keyword.

It’s important to have a balance between the topic you’ve generated with the keyword you want to target. A good balance enables you to write for humans and for search engines.

How to set up for blog writing

Now that you know what kind of content you want to write about, it’s time to set up your blog.

You will need three things:

A domain name
Web hosting
Blogging software

Domain name

The first thing you should do is think about what you want your website to be called. My first blog was called God and You, where I wrote about my reflections as a Christian and how God impacted my life. At some point, that blog was subsumed under my personal website, sean.si.

The domain name of this website is called seo-hacker.com because that is my company’s name. I have another website called leadershipstack.com for my podcast titled—you guessed it—Leadership Stack.

When you pick your own domain name, you can choose your own name, your business name, or something that describes concisely what your audience can expect to see on your website.

Web hosting

As I’ve written in my web hosting provider post, “Web hosting is a service that lets people and businesses have their website be accessible on the world wide web.”

Basically, imagine that you want to give your address to a friend so they can visit you sometime. Before you can do that, you need the land first on which your house is built. Web hosting is the land that enables you to have your house.

It’s important that you choose your web hosting provider carefully, as web hosting plays an integral part in the success of your blog. If it’s faulty, then it would really cause a lot of headaches as it could lead to unwanted crashes and other issues.

Arguably the best web hosting provider I ever tested was Liquid Web. It’s a fully managed hosting service, meaning after you pay for their service, they pretty much take care of everything and you don’t need to worry about having to DIY anything else.

Blogging software

Lastly, you’ll need a blogging software. It’s no secret that we at SEO Hacker are huge fans of WordPress; in fact, it’s what we use!

The good thing about picking a CMS like WordPress is that you can build your website without having to interact with code. It’s great if you’re the type of person who wants to build your website and just blog, but you either don’t know the technical aspects of building a website, or you don’t really want to go in depth on those parts even if you know how.

In fact, if you check the comments in the WordPress blog that I linked above, you’ll see that there are people saying that it’s beginner friendly and that they didn’t look back once they picked WordPress.

You can start using WordPress here.

How to write a blog post

Now that you have set up your blog, it’s time to start writing.

When you finally engage in actual blog writing, you want to ensure that your final product is well-researched and well-written. After you’ve done your keyword research and generated your topic, make sure you include the following in your writing:

Sources and statistics

Remember, when you’re engaging in blog writing, you’re building yourself and your website as the authority figure in your niche. The best way to do that is to ensure that you consistently produce high-quality content.

Thing is, 32% of audiences agree that accuracy is an important factor in creating quality content. Another important statistic—69% of audiences will only consume content that’s relevant to them. It would be difficult to do that when all your content is conjecture or mere opinions, that’s why it’s important that you add statistics and even cite your sources through outbound links.

For example, here’s the article I wrote on in-house vs outsourcing marketing. To illustrate to the readers the situation, I gave a statistic.

However, just because we want your blog writing to be well-researched, it doesn’t mean you have to forgo adding…

Your personal experience

Your personal experience is one of the most important things that you can add to your blog. As someone immersed in SEO for example, I can give tips, tricks, and techniques that I have learned and picked up over the years.

I can share what has worked for me and what hasn’t, what I’ve experimented with, the best tools I’ve found, and what I think of SEO trends that pop up or Google algorithm updates. In the same way, you have your own experiences of your niche, and you have your own valuable insights that you can share with your audiences.

Images

Blogs with images get up to 94% more views than articles that don’t. That’s a pretty high number. And it’s also understandable.

Imagine that plenty of long form content out there are around 2,000 words or so. Now, imagine that they are all just plain text. They would make reading pretty troublesome, and could make understanding for your audience a challenge especially if the topic you’re writing about involves instructions.

And remember, when you engage in blog writing, you have to keep your audience in mind. Not putting images in your articles (especially the longer ones), can make reading your content a bad experience because it’s boring, and you don’t want that.

Internal links

Internal links are the links you create between the pages of your website. When you create your first blog post then you won’t really have a page you can link to (unless if you’re promoting a service or whatnot), so this one is more for when you’ve written a couple of posts.

When you add an internal link, you’re referring your readers to another relevant page on your website. For example, I linked to my outbound links article and my dynamic website article, among others. That’s because they are relevant to this topic and I believe that you can get something valuable from those posts as well.

Sections

Sections make reading your post a lot easier for your audience. When you add sections, you break down your article into more digestible content. Plus you make navigation a lot easier as your readers can skim the section titles and go directly to what they believe is the most relevant part of the article for them.

Your keyword

Lastly, we can’t forget your keyword. Whether you believe that keyword density still matters to SEO or not, it’s a good idea to give the search engine a chance to know what you’re talking about.

Of course, keyword density is just one way to do that. I’ll discuss more about keywords in the next section.

How to optimize your blog

Next, we go to optimization. You just have to keep in mind a few things here:

Keyword placement
Alt texts
Headers
URL slug
Meta description
Rel=”nofollow”

Keyword placement

First, make sure your keyword is in the following:

Title tag
Some of the headers
Some of the image alt texts
URL slug
Meta description

It’s important that you make sure the placements aren’t awkward or forced. You’re optimizing for search engines, yes, but you’re also optimizing for your readers.

Alt texts

Make sure you add alt texts to your images. Alt texts are the descriptive texts embedded in images that are read by the search engines so the images can show up when people perform an image search. They also appear when images are broken, and they are read by screen readers for those who are visually challenged.

Headers

Since your article consists of sections, it’s important that you format the section headers properly. For example, H3 would be under H2, H4 would be under H3, and so on and so forth. Proper header formatting allows search engines to understand your content better, and they also ensure that screen readers can help disabled users navigate your blog easily.

URL slug

Next, we have the URL slug. The optimal URL length is around 50-60 characters, with longer URLs negatively impacting SEO.

For example, the URL for this post doesn’t need to be /blog-writing-101-everything-you-need-to-know. It can just be /blog-writing-101.

Meta description

Lastly, we have the meta description. The meta description is the short text that appears on the SERPs that help describe the content of your page. Considering that there are plenty of other websites out there that probably talk about the same things as you do, your meta description can help your blog stand out and get clicked by your target audience.

Here are some examples of meta descriptions:

A good length for your meta description is around 120 to 150 characters. What you want to avoid is for SERPs to truncate them because they’re too long, as seen in the third and fourth blog posts above.

Rel=”nofollow”

I mentioned earlier that it’s important for you to cite your sources through outbound links to make your article more credible to your users. But you don’t want to just give away your website’s link juice. You can prevent that from happening by adding rel=”nofollow” to your links.

This is what it looks like here on WordPress:

How to apply a how-to schema on your blog posts

Now that you have written and optimized your blog post, it’s time to learn how to apply a how-to schema.

This is, of course, applicable to your articles that are instructive in nature, hence the “how-to.”

How-to articles are one of the best forms of evergreen content (remember what we talked about earlier?). And the thing about how-to articles is that you can basically write about anything and you can be sure that there are at least a handful of people searching for it.

But the work doesn’t end there. Once you are able to get on the first page of Google, you could further improve your article by making it eligible for Google’s Rich Results using the how-to schema.

Google’s guidelines on how-to schema

Rich Results are special types of search results that look far different and more interactive from the traditional blue links. If your content appears in Rich Results, you can expect a higher click-through rate.

To be eligible for Google’s Rich Results, you need to have the right structured data on your page and in this case, we need the how-to schema. Adding how-to schema to your articles simply tells Google that your article is a how-to article. However, before you start deploying how-to schema on all of your articles, make sure that you are following Google’s guidelines first.

Advertising: Don’t use HowTo structured data for advertising purposes.
Ineligible Content: How-to rich results may not be displayed if the content is obscene, profane, sexually explicit, or graphically violent; or if it promotes dangerous or illegal activities or has hateful or harassing language.
Source: All HowTo content must be visible to the user on the source page. The how-to should be the main focus of the source page. Don’t include more than one HowTo for a certain page.
Materials and tools: Add structured data to all materials and tools necessary to complete the task.
Steps: Each HowToStep must include the entire contents of the source step. Don’t mark up non-step data such as a summary or introduction section as a step.
Step images: If the steps are best represented visually, ensure the images in these steps are marked up for each HowToStep. Only mark up the instructional step images that are specific for each step and don’t use the same image in multiple steps for the same how-to. Use the same images that correspond to the content on your page. Don’t use images that don’t reflect the how-to content, or use different images to optimize the rich-result.
Final image: If the end result can be accurately described by an image, ensure this image is present on the page, and your HowTo markup includes it using the image property. This image may be the same as the one marked up for the last step.
Content: Don’t use HowTo markup for recipes. Recipes should use the Recipe structured data instead. Articles and general advice content that is not a specific set of instructions are not appropriate for HowTo markup.

Applying how-to schema on your blog writing

Understanding the how-to schema objects/elements

Required:

Name – title of your article
HowToStep or HowToSection – full instructions of each step in the How-To article

Recommended:

description – further description of the How-To step
estimatedCost – the estimated cost of completing the guide
image – a photo of the step for better details
supply – an item needed that is consumed to complete a step
tool – an item needed but is not consumed to complete a step
totalTime – the total time needed to finish the guide
video – the full video of the guide
video.hasPart – a clip of the full video that indicates a single step
video.hasPart.endOffset – the end time of the clip from the beginning of the video
video.hasPart.name – the full name of the clip
hasPart.startOffset – the start time of the clip from the beginning of the video
video.hasPart.url – a link to the specific time of the clip in the full video

Prepare the code and fill in the details

To save you time, you could simply copy and paste this code that I did for the Comprehensive SEO Audit Guide I wrote. There are also a bunch of schema generator websites available or you could also copy the code in the how-to schema guidelines.

Take note that this sample code only has 2 steps in it which is the minimum required. You’ll need to copy and paste the “step” lines of code for each step in your how-to article.

Test your code and deploy

Once you are done filling in all the details, you now need to check your code for errors. I recommend the Google’s Rich Results Test.

The Rich Results test can verify structured data either via a URL or code snippet. It can give you a preview of how your website will look like in the search results.

Once everything is perfect, you can now deploy your code! Since the how-to schema is placed in a specific page, I would recommend putting it at the start of the of the HTML code.

Resubmit in Google Search Console

This step is not really required because Google will eventually crawl updates on your page within a few days but just to make sure it gets indexed, you can use the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console and request for reindexing of the page/s you updated.

How it would look in the SERPS

In the Rich Results Tests, you could click Preview and it will show you how your content will appear in the search results for a How-To Rich Result.

Monitor how-to schemas in Google Search Console

Once Google is able to crawl the how-to structured data on your blog posts, you will notice a new section under “Enhancements” in your Google Search Console account labeled “How-To”. This is where you can see all the valid how-to pages in your website and should they have any errors or warnings.

Always remember that Rich Results are not guaranteed. Do not get frustrated if you are not seeing How-To rich results for your website since it depends on Google’s algorithm if it is going to show Rich Results for a specific search result.

How to update and enhance old blog posts

Let us say that you finally have a lot of blog posts as you’ve been consistently writing over the years. It’s important that you don’t leave those blog posts alone, but to go back and update them when necessary and applicable.

Knowing which blog posts to update

The first step to updating and enhancing old blog posts is knowing which blog posts to update or enhance. This is applicable for all webmasters but is especially true for publishers where the main source of attracting traffic is through their content, like this website.

The problem happens when you have blog posts dated to 5+ years back. This means that you’ve published hundreds of blog posts or maybe even thousands. So, there has to be a large number of old, underperforming blog posts in your arsenal. How do you choose the blog posts that you will update and enhance?

Through their rankings and traffic. Easy enough, the primary way to determine which of your blog posts needs updating is to check Google Analytics and Google Search Console (or rank tracking SaaS). Here’s how you can do it:

On Google Analytics account, go to Behavior → Site Content → All Pages. There you’ll see your top 10 viewed pages for the timeframe you set.

You can further refine it by searching for particular blog posts you have in mind through the search bar. Though you have to remember to search using your blog post’s URL slug only. If you accidentally include the domain name, it won’t show the results for the specific blog post.
If you want to check the pages they visited to enter your site, go to Behavior → Site Content → Landing Pages. Here you’ll see which pages they see first when they enter your site. This is also a great way to check which pages are attracting the most visitors from various sources.

To view which blog posts are performing well organically, you can use Google Search Console’s Performance page. Just go to your Google Search Console property, then go to Performance → Search Results → then scroll down until you see the QUERIES table → click on PAGES.

Here you’ll see the blog posts that are garnering the top clicks/impressions on Google search results. You can even search for a particular blog post by clicking on the inverted triangle on the upper right side corner of the table to filter the results.

From these two essential tools alone, you’ll be able to determine which blog posts are underperforming and have them updated AND enhanced immediately. So, how do we do it?

Updating posts as blog writing

Now that you’ve determined which blog posts you’ll be updating, you will need to know where to start. I’ve actually written in the past about content augmentation and how to improve an old blog post’s reach. So, I’ll only be including recent and timely strategies that I haven’t written about yet in my other posts.

Serving intent

Intent should now be the primary focus in blog writing when you’re trying to make your posts rank. Historically, keyword optimization was more technical and straightforward where you just needed to put in the keywords in the title tag, meta description, H1, and the body of your content. But as times have changed and Google has continuously improved their machine learning algorithms and content understanding capabilities, serving the right intent for your target keyword is more important than ever.

The buzzword for the industry in recent years is “LSI keywords” while this may hold some importance to some extent, it doesn’t necessarily help you with serving intent. Why? Because in a nutshell, latent semantic indexing keywords are terms that are conceptually related to your target keyword—so if you’re already writing about your keyword topically—which you should, not focusing on the particular keyword, but the overall topic it covers, you’re automatically targeting LSI keywords without having to research, think, focus, and write about them.

Knowing semantic search and serving intent—through manually checking what kind of pages is Google ranking for your target topic or keyword—will not only help you save time and effort but will also help you in determining if you will rank well. There have been many instances in the past where my team and I wrote about a specific keyword or topic while not checking the search results for them. What happened was we were not able to rank well for a considerable amount of time because the search results were serving category and product pages instead of content-heavy pages. If we had just understood the right intent to serve, we wouldn’t have had to rewrite and repeat efforts which took more time and energy.

Republishing

Republishing (and updating) sounds simple but is still an underrated tactic for updating old blog posts. Blog writing doesn’t always have to be about completely new topics, it can be about republishing articles. There are some blog posts that are so outdated that their contents are not even applicable to today’s day and age.

Republishing and updating the information contained in that blog post does not only improve its freshness signals but it’s also an opportunity for you to gain more valuable traffic by having otherwise useless blog posts turn into a traffic-attracting one.

For example, here’s a blog post I updated a while back:

This was published in 2015 and I noticed that some of the things I wrote about were already outdated. So I added two more factors and updated the content to be more relevant and accurate.

Technical factors

This is the easiest and most used tactic for updating old, underperforming blog posts. If you believe that the information of your old blog post is still sufficiently applicable to today’s time, then maybe it just needs a refresher. Maybe your title tag isn’t attracting clicks? Or your meta description doesn’t necessarily imply what the page is about which is why users don’t click on your search results. Changing them to become more appealing and adding timely and informative content will sometimes do the trick.

Through tactics like the ones I’ve mentioned and the ones I’ve written about before, we’ve achieved more traffic count. One of the best examples I can show is an old and underperforming client blog post that jumped right into their top 10 most visited pages over the course of a year:

We did a mix of the tactics I’ve mentioned and optimized the page to be eligible for the featured snippet position. In a matter of a few months, it already gained traffic that’s immensely better than the numbers it used to have. Once it reached the featured snippet spot, it only enjoyed a larger number.

Key takeaway

Blog writing can be quite the challenge, but it is absolutely one of the most important and most rewarding things you can do for your website (and yourself). It involves a lot of research and preparation, but it works well for SEO and it helps you provide valuable information to the people you want to reach.

Let me know how this blog writing 101 guide has helped you!

The post A Comprehensive Guide to Blog Writing: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

8 Effective Ways to Increase Blog Engagement and Drive More Interaction

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 01:50:13 +0000

There are a lot of factors you have to consider when you want your blog to be successful. It’s not just about writing good quality articles. One of which would be user engagement for your posts. So if you have a blog, but feel that your visitor’s engagement with your blog is minimal at best, then this post is for you. In this post, we’re going to look at the 8 ways you can increase blog engagement for more comments, social shares, and links.

Avoid Intrusive and Distracting Ads

Do you have ads on your blog? Do you have email opt-in popups? If you have something that is getting in the way of your visitors finding and consuming your content, then you have to ask yourself if blog engagement is truly your goal. If it is, you need to remove them or restructure them to not interfere with your content.

This site, for example, has about eight ad blocks in this small section of the screen, all of which have to reload when you move to the next slide.

If your blog looks a lot like this, not only are you obscuring your content, you are also killing your page load time due to the number of ad servers that the site needs to connect with. This means more visitors are abandoning your page than engaging with your content.

The SEO Hacker Blog also has ads in place for our partners but we don’t make them intrusive or distracting. We make sure that the ads can still be seen in the page but will not, in any way, interfere with how our content is viewed – our content stays as the focus of the page.

Write about your Target Audience’s Main Interests

You have to remember that your blog isn’t just about you. It’s about your audience. Whether they are your readers or your customers, you want to create content that is catered to your target audience’s interests. If you don’t know what those interests are, find out using simple survey tools like Qeryz.

You can ask them about specific categories, as shown on the blog above, or ask what topics readers would like you to cover next. This tactic will help you increase engagement because readers will be excited that you are in tune with their interests.

Include Unique Content

Let’s say that you want to write about a topic that has been written about many times before, like creating Facebook pages. Your goal is to look at the top posts on creating a Facebook page to see what is missing. There has to be something that you know or you can share that others have not.

Maybe you notice, for example, that no one has included a screenshot (as shown above) of the helpful charts Facebook provides to help you choose which page category to choose or what administrator role to give to your employees. Or maybe you notice that no one tells people that they can have local business pages without turning on reviews.

Once you’ve figured out some unique tidbits, include it in your post. This tactic will ensure that you get comments, social shares, and links because people will be impressed that you were able to shed new light onto a topic.

Include Visuals – Images, Graphs, etc.

If you are writing about something that you can include specific visuals for, such as screenshots or images, include them. Anyone can write a post on Google Analytics and say that there is a great feature that allows you to compare your traffic to the previous period, but the person that shows a beginner where that option is (as shown below) will provide the most useful content.

This tactic will ensure that you get comments, social shares, and links because people will be exited about content that is extremely helpful.

Use Data from Reputable Sources

People are not going to want to share content that they don’t trust. So you don’t want to sound like you are just making things up. Put some data behind your claims. For example, don’t just say that WordPress is the most used CMS. Back it up with a little data from BuiltWith.

This tactic will give your readers confidence that your advice is sound, making them more likely to share it on social media and link to it. For additional links, find some new data to share through your own research and become the site that everyone links to when quoting sources in their own posts which would help with your site’s link profile.

Choose a Great Content System

Take a look at the top blogs in your niche, especially the ones that get a lot of comments. What you want to look for is the comment system they use. If you notice that most blogs in your niche are using Disqus, Facebook, or a similar system, you may want to consider that comment system for your blog.

Why? Because it is what your audience is used to. If you have a strong community like Moz does, you can get away with a proprietary, login-only comment system. If not, you need to go with what readers are most likely to use.

Alternatively, if you see a popular blog in your niche that doesn’t get a lot of comments using a particular system, avoid that one at all costs. The fewer barriers to entry you give your readers to comment, the more likely they are to do so.

As for the SEO Hacker blog, we’ve used Disqus for a long time now and it has served us excellently. So, if you’re unsure on which comment system you should use, Disqus is a good option.

Encourage Engagement

Don’t just hope that people will know what to do after they read a great blog post. Ask for the engagement you want, preferably at the end of each blog post you write.

One great way to encourage engagement is to ask what your readers’ thoughts are or what their experiences are with the topic at hand. Ask them what their burning questions are – which we do on all blog posts we publish.

Ask them to engage. And once they do, be sure to return that engagement. This is the key.

When you start engaging with your audience on a frequent basis, they will be more likely to return to engage on future blog posts. If you have guest authors or freelance writers creating content for you, be sure that they engage with the comments on their post to keep your blog community alive and active. As can be seen in the earlier screenshot, I reply with posts to improve engagement, so you should too.

Promote Your Content

Once you have content that will engage your readers, you need to get your content out there to make sure you get the engagement you seek.

While you may end up with engagement offsite, like in the comments on your Facebook page or replies on your twitter thread, you will most likely get it on your blog since people will need to read the post first before they can engage.

With that said, what you should do is brainstorm some questions you can ask your audience in relation to your post. Each of these questions can be used when you promote your posts on social media networks. For those that promote their content multiple times to social media, each question can be used to create unique status updates.

Using hashtags, as I used in the screenshot, can also help you reach a wider audience as well. So, don’t forget to use hashtags in your social media promotions.

You can also promote your blog posts through email lists as well. We use a tool for this to automatically send an email to all our subscribers to, at the very least, lessen the load of manually sending the blog post as an email. This helps on increasing engagements to your posts since people that subscribe to your email list are already interested in your content. So, one of your priorities would be to grow your email list to have a loyal following.

So not only does promoting your blog posts through your email list help improve engagements with your blog content, but they also help you promote your content in ways that are sure to get you more traffic. It’s a win-win scenario!

Key Takeaway

Improving engagements to your blog content is a definite challenge that all bloggers have to go through. Of course, there are more well-known ones but these are a few additional tips that I hope will also help you increase blog engagement, regardless of whether you are out networking with other bloggers or not.

So now, it’s your turn. How do you increase engagement for your blog posts? Let’s us know in the comments below!

The post 8 Effective Ways to Increase Blog Engagement and Drive More Interaction appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

What is Evergreen Content and How Important it is for SEO

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 13:01:05 +0000

SEO-Hacker.com went live for the first time in April 2010 – which means it’s been a decade and I’m proud to say that we’re still going strong. Every year, our website traffic grows because most of our old articles are consistently generating us traffic as we produce more fresh content.

The secret behind is age-old SEO advice: evergreen content. And even though publishing evergreen content is such a classic SEO and marketing strategy, I assure you that it works up to this day.

Don’t believe me? Check out the top 20 pages from Jan 2020 to August 2020 according to Google Analytics:

Most of the articles listed there were published a few years back and yet they are the ones that garner the most traffic even up to this date.

That is the power of evergreen content. It’s a strategy I’ve used for my own websites and I’ve used it to make our clients’ website successful as well.

In this article, I’m going to talk about what exactly is evergreen content and how you can use it and get traffic even after a long time.

What is Evergreen Content

What Evergreen Content Brings to the Table

Long-term gains

Here’s an example. I wrote an article a few years ago about the easiest way to apply aggregate rating schema. 2 years later after it’s publishing, it is consistently getting traffic and it’s one of the top articles every month.

Let’s compare it to a news article I published a year ago. I wrote about Google’s announcement of the June 2019 algorithm update. After publishing the article, its traffic spiked up and immediately died down after a month.

That is the value that evergreen content brings. And as you add more evergreen content on your website, you will be able to see that your traffic increases and is on an upward trajectory.

Attracts Backlinks

Check out the backlinks of my YouTube SEO article.

I published this article about 5 years back, did a little link building, was able to get on the first page, and there you go. 5 years later, it’s still getting backlinks on its own.

This is because people find my article as a good resource and if they write an article about YouTube SEO as well, people usually link back to it. This can be applied in any niche. Since evergreen topics usually target high-volume keywords, ranking for them on the first page may let people see you as an authority which brings me to my next point;

Evergreen Content is Good for E-A-T

It goes without saying that as you get more backlinks, your website’s authority increases. But this isn’t just about PageRank, evergreen content is also great for E-A-T.

Sample Evergreen Content you may Consider

How-to Guides and Tutorials

How to fix blue screen of death
How to properly clean your car
How to cook fried chicken

Informative Articles

Best Ways to Lose Weight
Money-Saving Tips
Resume Writing Tips

In-depth Guides

Everything you Need to Know About Diabetes
In-depth Guide on Dog Training
Complete Guide to Link Building

Important Tip: Update your Evergreen Content

Reminder: Take Note of the Difficulty

One of the biggest hurdles in being successful with evergreen content is that topics and keywords tend to have high difficulty.

Key Takeaway

If you don’t see yet the value of publishing evergreen content on your website, don’t worry and give it some time. As I mentioned earlier, evergreen content is an investment. And hey, nothing in SEO is easy. SEO in itself is a long term game.

Producing evergreen content has brought SEO Hacker to great heights and it’s a major part of our success. I hope this guide encourages you to continue to publish evergreen content and I hope it could also help in your success in many years to come.

The post What is Evergreen Content and How Important it is for SEO appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

How to Quickly and Effectively Generate Blog Topics

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 14:04:43 +0000

Content is king. There’s no doubt about that, but there are challenges when you’ve had to continuously publish content regularly – you’ll run out of topics to write about. This is a challenge most bloggers, content marketers, and even SEOs have to face at some point in their careers. Since the web is filled with competitors, there’s a high chance that a good number of them can produce content faster and more frequently than you. So, with all the competitors that are writing about, probably, the same topics as you are, how do you reach a level where producing a topic that your readers will surely love can be achieved in the fastest time possible? Let’s find out.

Tools Aren’t Your Best Friend

So what exactly should you do?

Write About Topics That People Actually Read

All of the experts in content marketing, blogging, and SEO will always tell you to research your AUDIENCE. This is true. Understanding what your audience likes is the first step to generating a topic that will gain traction.

If you’re only beginning to write about a certain topic or niche, chances are, you won’t have data to use. The best way to mitigate this is to empathize with your audience and try to find out why they’re looking for your specific topic or industry. Are they just curious? Do they specifically need something in your topic or industry? What problems would lead them to find your blog/business? All of these questions lead to just one goal: Deepening your understanding of the audience that you’ll be writing for.

What I’ve mentioned will still hold true for experienced, veteran writers but their advantage is that they have the data to further refine their understanding of the audience. I was writing even before I started SEO and I haven’t stopped since. So, I’ve had my fair share of writer’s block and inability to generate topics that I can write about. But one helpful strategy I’ve learned is to use Google Analytics and check to see which of my past blog posts do my audience frequently visit.

In the screenshot above, it shows me the top 10 pages that the SEO Hacker blog visitors showed the most interest in. So, we can safely eliminate the homepage, then by checking the topics that gained the most views, I can conclude that these are the kinds of topics that my visitors are especially interested in. So, I can branch out and generate topics that are related to the top 10 posts. As seen in the screenshot above, the article for Youtube SEO garners a lot of views, which is why I wrote something related to it – How Hashtags on YouTube Can Improve Searchability – which is included in the top-visited pages as well.

So, this is one great way to quickly come up with topics that you can write about. Not only does this help save you time and energy, but it also improves the chances of your audience actually reading the content you’ve written since they already showed interest in another related piece.

Keywords

Quickly generating your blog topics isn’t enough since you need to make it more accessible and searchable for users that might be interested in the topic you’re writing about. It’s important for you to write for your current audience, but tapping possible audiences to increase your reader count is just as important. So, it’s your job to make the topics you write about to be more accessible and searchable for potential audiences. How do you do that?

Research the keywords you’re going to be targeting.

There are a variety of tools available in the market for you to use to research keywords like Mangools’ KWFinder. Try to find the best possible keywords that perfectly fit into your content, but there is a limit to how accurate and reliable the numbers shown in keyword research tools are. At the end of the day, you also have to have empathy and your experience in the search industry. I’ve had countless experiences where I’ve targeted keywords that didn’t have enough numbers shown in keyword research tools, but I know, based on my understanding of the audience and user search behavior, that it’s a “search-worthy” keyword.

It’s important to have a balance between the topic you’ve generated with the keyword you want to target. A good balance enables you to write for humans AND write for search engines.

Key Takeaway

Quickly and effectively generating blog topics shouldn’t be complicated. It’s simple enough to understand but it’s difficult to do – especially if you’ve been doing it for a considerable amount of time. Once you’ve generated topics that you’ll be writing about, you can use SEO Hacker’s Content Strategy to effectively publish, organize, and market content.

Do you find it difficult to generate blog topics? How do you do it? Comment it down below!

The post How to Quickly and Effectively Generate Blog Topics appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

The Worst Misconception About Blog Posts You Probably Believe In

Tue, 05 Sep 2017 10:02:48 +0000

The one thing that remains constant in an SEO professional’s strategy is that content is still king, and to make the best SEO blog post they could possibly produce on a regular basis. However, I am here to tell you that you’re probably believing in something that is actually a common – and the worst – misconception about blog posts.

The misconception is that the “perfect length and publishing frequency for your content does not exist. One reason you might think of is that content is composed of factors that are subjective and they do not cater to each and every one of your audience. So, today’s article is all about finding the right factors in content creation to have a successful blog strategy.

Blog Post Length

There are actually numerous statistical data that supports the “ideal blog post length” or “ideal publishing frequency”. The best place to look for that specific data is through Google Search Results. Notice that when you input the keywords I quoted above into Google, the first page shows you sites that expound on the best content length. You will see that in a span of 5,000 keywords, the ideal length the results show is between 2,300 to 2,425 words, and that’s what they say you should push for.

Personally, I will never believe this. It’s false and misleading. If you believe in these types of information, you’re just giving yourself a hard time.

What You Should Ask

When you see this type of data, statistics, charts, or anything that tells you to write your blog posts with a prescribed length, you should ask yourself if:

Keywords: Think about if the ideal blog post length that the data tells you to follow applies to which specific keywords. If you don’t ask these questions, you’ll be confused if the proposed ideal length is for navigational, informational, transactional, or maybe e-commerce keywords. Even if you target multiple keywords, not knowing the specifics would be a waste of your time. Basically, if you don’t get the answer if you ask a question that’s along the line of reasoning I mentioned above, then that’s a bit meaningless. Its meaning would only diminish if you notice that the standard deviation is high. Being incomplete means that the data that you find is not useful in any sense, or it would not even be considered as prescriptive information. It would be misleading if people deem it prescriptive.
Similar Results: Ask yourself if the charts look the same if it used the keywords that you targeted and if the proposed blog post length would be the same if they used YOUR keywords. Always remember that some keywords need deep, comprehensive content in order to fully answer the query, but some keywords only require short, descriptive content.
Correlation: Always remember that correlation will never imply causation. It never has, and probably never will. If you see charts implying that the average number of words are related to a certain rank, then don’t believe it. Basically, the length of your blog posts will never be directly related to your site’s ranking. Google will never work that way.

What You Should Do

Know and Understand What Works and What Does Not
Be Critical: If you look at the top three rankings for a certain keyword, and you notice that their content is unnecessarily longer than needed, do not be afraid to target that certain keyword with what you think is the right amount of content needed to answer it. Not only would you be giving yourself an easier time, but your readers will greatly appreciate it. Overdoing your content is something that happens to the best of us, so be mindful of your content. Be concise, comprehensive, and critical.
Complement Your Content to the Searcher: This is the best way to determine the length of your blog post. If you want to target a query that can be answerable through a short blog post, and you want to have a featured snippet, then you don’t need a blog post with thousands of words. Conversely, if you’re trying to target a query that is complex, specific, and needs a lot of explanation, then go ahead and produce a blog post that has thousands of words; not because you’re following a prescribed content length, but the query actually needs a comprehensive explanation to be answered.

Publishing Frequency

Now we’ll be talking about publishing frequency. You have probably experienced seeing content that details on finding out about websites that publish more than 10 times a month receive more traffic than those who publish less than 5 times per month.

What you should think about is WHY the website that has 10 or more blog posts receive more traffic. There are so many factors to consider, so don’t automatically believe everything you read. Maybe the website that has 10 or more blog posts only receive more traffic because of one blog post while the others are just there to fill in their blog.

What You Should Ask

The Websites: Ask yourself if the websites that were included in that certain content that contains data about publishing frequency is similar to yours. Find out if you have a similar audience if they are in your niche, and if their content is of certain passable quality. Make sure that the 10 or more posts are just as good as having one high-performing blog post. Because if they aren’t comparable, then you are just wasting your time.
The Traffic Quality: Always remember that you have to think about the quality of traffic the websites have. In data/charts that you commonly see, you will not have the chance to see if the websites included in them have quality traffic.
Factors that Matter:

Your Content Schedule – This is for the SEOs that want to build up subscribers. The best thing you can do is to make a content schedule that matches your goals. For SEO-Hacker, we regularly publish content on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and our subscribers know that. If you do publish content on a schedule, then more often than not, your audience will deduce that you publish on a certain day/schedule. Basically, your publishing should imply a frequency that your audience could understand. Your goals might lead to you publishing only once a month, weekly, or daily. That’s just fine. Just make sure that your content schedule is in-line with your goals.
Consistency subscribers and even users that are new to your blog would know when to expect your blog posts.
Content That Converts Conversely, if you only publish once or twice a month, but convert more than 5 visitors into paying customers, then that’s actually pretty good. Always think about your ROI when balancing your workload and the expenses you have to make.

Key Takeaway

Remember all the things I have highlighted in this article to improve your content creation. However, I do advise that for those who are just starting out in blogging or publishing, it would be beneficial if you publish more content than others.

I started out writing a lot, and I only improved from that point on. That is also true for the web publishers. Over time, if you give the right amount of effort, and learn from all your mistakes, then you’ll eventually get better at it. Publishing more content than you need, or your audience need will be good practice for you and will enable you to be better at your craft.

Do you know any other misconceptions about blog posts or content creation? Let’s talk in the comments section below.

The post The Worst Misconception About Blog Posts You Probably Believe In appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

How We Increased Our Return Visits Through Push Notifications

Fri, 04 Mar 2016 15:46:47 +0000

We love return visits. That means that people actually care about what we have to say. That means people are getting familiar about who we are. That means that you’re doing your job as a digital marketer. That means more user activity which leads to better rankings. That means more leads. Better leads. And we all know where the rainbow leads, right?

To the pot of gold.

Emails are Cluttered

We all know it. Just take a look at your inbox. How many emails are unread? How many emails are in your Social tab? Promotions tab? Spam? There’s just too many emails coming in.

Some of it is our fault. After all, we allow ourselves to subscribe to so many things without thinking of the consequences of clutter.

Some of it though, is not our fault. There are people out there who prey on the weak. Who exploit loopholes in the email universe. Who care nothing our email inbox’s well-being. They’re called spammers.

I know, I know. You’re not a spammer. But the fact of the matter is, you’re trying to buy some attention alongside them. Alongside all the social emails, promotion emails, spam emails, important emails, request for interview emails, and so on.

You get drowned out in all the noise. Your subject line is skimmed and your email goes down the abyss.

There’s just no way you can always retain a reader effectively via email anymore.

Unless there is another way.

A Little Push

When I was asked to check out Pushcrew, I was in an extremely busy time of my life. Ironically, I left the email as unread and continued on with my day.

It wasn’t until days after that I finally went back to the email and gave Pushcrew a try.

Signing up was easy and straightforward. There’s not much fluff on the onboarding process. I signed up just last January 26, 2016 and I already got 1,520 opt-ins.

My last sent push was about our last article “How we Optimized our Internal SEO Team Meetings for Extreme Efficiency” at that time I only had about 1,100+ in my optin list. I sent out a push and it was delivered to 803 people, 141 of whom clicked on through to my article.

18% is a good number when talking about click-throughs. My email newsletter gets approximately 5% click-throughs and that’s on a good day.

Creating a Push

Notice that big green button that says “Send New Notification” ? That’s Step 1.

It will then take you to a page where you can set your next Push notification. Take note of the limit in characters that you can put in.

A push has four main attributes where you can put content in:

TItle
Image
Message
URL

Title is very important. It’s arguably the first thing that your subscribers will see. If it does what it is supposed to do, it gets you the click. Otherwise, it leads them to read the message. Any less than that, they would most probably unsubscribe – which is a sad, sad thing.

The Image is the next most important thing because it’s the only thing that fights for the attention of your subscriber aside from the title. My advice is for you to use a customized image each time you send a push. That increases your chances of being clicked.

Your Message is obviously important because it strengthens your title’s claim. There’s only 100 characters. Use it wisely.

URL is the last because all your users will see is the TLD. They won’t see the URL slug. So as a click-through factor, this doesn’t matter much.

If you’re good to go, send out your notification and your subscribers should be able to see it immediately.

Mobile Effect

What I love about Pushcrew is its ability to capture attention from mobile opt-ins. While Pushcrew works only with a handful of browsers as of now, those browsers also exist in mobile. So whenever you send out a push, a notification gets to sit in a mobile user’s notifications area.

And it sits there until it is actually clicked – or touched for that matter.

Here’s how a Pushcrew notification looks like on mobile:

Beautiful isn’t it?

Notice that I sent it on 11:07 PM? That’s HKT. When you convert that to GMT that’s 3:07pm. I sent the notification on 3:06pm GMT

Just one minute after sending a push notification, 46 people already clicked to check out my article.

How does an Opt-in Look Like?

It depends. If you’re on the free plan, here’s how the opt-in would look like:

Nice right? However, when you click on ‘Subscribe’ it takes you to a redundant step and a pop-up window (which is irritating).

You have to click on ‘Always Receive Notifications’ and ‘Allow’ the website to send you push notifications. That right there? That decreases your chances of getting an opt-in by an approximate 80%. But here’s what’s worse:

If you accidentally click out of the window, the ‘Always Receive Notifications’ button will disappear. For good. You’ll need to reload the page and go through the 3-step process again.

Thankfully, there’s the better way of asking your users to opt-in. The Native way.

Seamless. Beautiful.

However, this requires some more steps on installation rather than just copy-pasting a tracking code. You have to put in exactly 4 files in your website’s root folder and paste an additional tracking code.

Is the trade-off worth it? You bet!

I can almost guarantee that my conversion rate in terms of opt-ins for my push notifications is at least 100% better than websites who are not using the native optin feature.

Give Pushcrew a try. It’s the best complement to your email newsletter for return visitors.

The post How We Increased Our Return Visits Through Push Notifications appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

New Blog Management Strategy: Cross-Linking

Wed, 30 Jul 2014 08:32:40 +0000

Hi Blog Management team,

Today we’re rolling out a new strategy that I believe we can test. We now own an estimate of 19 client blogs – including Isshogenki. From these blogs, we can draw links without the big G of search engines ever noticing it. We are not going to create a linkwheel or a blog network.

It’s going to be a simple cross-linking.

So here’s what you should do:

Think of topics that will vertically hit some of our other clients
From those topics, create blog entries and publish them in the proper client blog
Link out to the other client’s already ranking landing pages from the blog entries
Make sure to use either phrase match, or exact match keywords
Include the keyword in the tag of the article you are linking out from</li> <li>Make sure the link keyword (whether phrase match or exact match) is in the first paragraph as much as possible</li> </ol> This will make more efficient use of our blog articles for all our clients. It is not a strategy to be abused to use it wisely. My advise is to use this just once a week. Timeline: Start creating the vertically related topics for next month. Publish the first articles the first week of August. I expect this strategy implemented as soon as possible. Thanks! The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://seo-hacker.com/blog-management-strategy-cross-linking/">New Blog Management Strategy: Cross-Linking</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://seo-hacker.com">SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines</a>. </article> <article> <h1>4 Things You Should Blog About to Gain Client’s Trust</h1> Tue, 10 Jun 2014 01:40:11 +0000 <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/What-Bloggers-Should-Write-About.jpg"></a> Whenever I browse random websites, I always find myself staying a bit longer on those that have astonishing design. It didn’t surprise me at all to find out that most of them are web design firms. It’s their way of saying they’re the best in designing, subtly urging you to hire them to renovate your site. In businesses, where blogs are the first line of defense, it is very necessary to be mindful enough of everything you’re going to publish. In this post, I’d like to share with you the things that you, as a blogger and business owner, should do and consider writing to gain more clients and, more than that, their trust. Webmaser’s Note: This is an entry by Pam Sallegue. The new marketing specialist of SEO Hacker. You’ll see more of her posts in SEO Hacker from here on out. 1. Showcase your Team <blockquote>A businessman once said, ‘A business succeeds not because it is long established or because it is big, but because there are men and women in it who live it, sleep it, dream it, and build great future plans for it’. –John Willard Marriott</blockquote> Who says nobody cares about your <a title="Building an A Team" href="http://seo-hacker.net/building-team/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEO team</a>? Most companies are so obsessed with writing about what they can do for a client, or their company’s mission and vision that they neglect the actual people who make it happen – the team. Hey! There’s nothing wrong with wanting a stellar mission-vision, but once in a while, try to show your team to the public. Blog about your team’s recent outing, team building, or even the simple dinners! Doing this will not only give your prospected clients knowledge on what kind of people will work for their products, but it will also prove that your team is made up of real passionate, hardworking people, and not robots. When you’re confident about your company’s characteristics and capabilities, surely there’s nothing you should hide. 2. Write about your Services For the past years, <a title="SEO Hacker Blog" href="https://seo-hacker.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEO Hacker blog</a> has been an avenue of updates, tutorials, tips and guides about Internet marketing, blogging, social media marketing and everything else that is related to SEO. Why? Simply because it’s the love of our lives – it’s where we’re good at. For example, we can write about linkbuilding because we’ve been doing it for three years now, and as years pass, we become more and more confident that what we’re sharing are right – based on experiences! We mean every word. Clients will look at what you’ve proven to be good at, not the things that you’re planning to experiment on. Let your <a title="The Best Ways to Accelerate Your Expertise" href="https://seo-hacker.com/ways-accelerate-expertise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blog entries show your expertise.</a> 3. Allow Guest Posts I know many will disagree with me about this, but wait! Before you throw stones at me, let me be clear here. I am not encouraging link spamming that most guest bloggers per se do. Filter out guest blog requests. If you have to do a background check on those bloggers, do so. There will always be someone who’s main purpose is to share knowledge more than just the possibility of getting some link juice from you. Read what they’re offering, and if you think it will benefit your readers rather than bend your company’s values, beliefs and specialty, I suggest you accept and post it. It shows selflessness. It’s telling everyone that your blog is not just about yourself, and that you care about other people’s thoughts. It shows open mindedness. It shows clients the fact that you’re open to new ideas, and learning, and that aside from your blog, you’re probably reading other’s blogs, too. 4. Post Personal Topics It’s okay to post personal topics in your blog once in a while. When my boss and the man behind SEO-Hacker, Sean Si, posted <a title="An SEO Wedding Break" href="https://seo-hacker.com/seo-wedding-break/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“An SEO Wedding Break”</a>, it doesn’t make me worry about what might happen to the company while he’s out. First is because I know that there’s an <a title="How to Build a Strong SEO Team" href="https://seo-hacker.com/build-strong-seo-team/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">amazing team who will back him up</a> (and that’s one of the many good reasons why you have to post something about your team). Second, he plotted everything he’s going to do once he’s back. For me, that’s an assurance of a wonderful future. And lastly, well come on, it’s his wedding! Can’t you feel the joy in his tone? That tone only convinced me that his marriage would make him more passionate and responsible not just with his work, but with his life in general. This kind of entry gives people an idea of your plans for the future, but more than that, it shows what kind of person you are, how real you are, and why they should trust you. Blogs play a big role in a business’ success. Clients have probably read your blogs even before you speak a word about what you can offer. First impressions usually come from what you blog, so keep it focused, professional, and informative. After all, we’re writing for people, not for search engines. The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://seo-hacker.com/blog-gain-clients-trust/">4 Things You Should Blog About to Gain Client’s Trust</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://seo-hacker.com">SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines</a>. </article> <article> <h1>15 Proven Ways to Maximize Your Blog’s Potential</h1> Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:00:03 +0000 <center></center><center><a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Breakthrough.jpg"></a></center>Blogs make for great reading because bloggers tend to be individuals or companies blogging unbiased content. That makes for a refreshing read compared to advertising-backed publishers, sponsored writing, unjustifiable opinions, and scores of other nuances that make even long-term, respectable publishers dwarf in comparison to trust. For a blog to reach this stage of “dumbing down what the big publishers claim,” there’s a long way to go. Here are some tips to make your blog stay on the high-performance circuit. Webmaster’s Note: This is a guest post by Jeff Davis. Define “Performance” <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Performance.jpg"></a> A blog – like a business – has many parameters to gauge its success on. You could drill down into multiple sub-niches or stick to a popular topic. High performance – for you – could mean traffic that could bring servers down or maybe it’s about attractive suave readers who prefer sophistication and “alternative thought.” You might say that your blog is high-performing if it pays the bills or you might not even be happy with your blog making it to the leagues. The first step hence, is to determine what high-performance means to “you” as a blogger: is it about a select group of readers (low, but targeted traffic), conversions for sale (for something you sell), or making your blog every advertiser’s dream? Keep it Personal, One-on-One <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Keep-it-Real.jpg"></a> Blogs are presentations you are making to government bodies, banks, or even venture capitalists. Blogs are a tool for self-publishing but most bloggers forget the “self” part in a crazy pursuit for popularity, traffic, and monetization. Not that any of those goals are bad, but it’s just that blogs aren’t blogs if you produced content that should rather be fit for “The Economist.” Keep your blogs personal. Use “I” and “We” and “You” in your content. The day you start a sentence with something like “One should…” you are off limits. Maybe you should work on the next edition of The Bible. There’s a writing voice and identity you’ll want to achieve. Sean’s post on <a title="Establishing your Content Identity" href="https://seo-hacker.com/establishing-content-identity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Establishing your Content Identity</a> points it out perfectly. Present Opinions with Fact <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Opinions.jpg"></a> Try presenting an opinion without justification on your blog posts you’d be met with an unending comment stream of criticism from your readers. While it’s sometimes good to rant, rave, or go into a mega-slashing mode murdering popular opinion, “talking down” or “going against the grain” – admittedly it gets you a lot of traffic, views, and social media shares – it’s always a good practice to back up your opinion with facts. At least, ride on the back of what someone else said about the topic at hand. Someone who is more established, proven, or credible in your field or niche. Market it like a Business <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Marketing.jpg"></a> No matter what your goals are (point 1), you’d need to push your blog out, reach out to your readers, and attract traffic. All of that takes a never-ending, relentless, and possibly a lifetime of work to get traffic for your blog. Marketing, just as it is for business, is a bloggers’ daily job. You could write all you want but none of that popularity and influence comes just by writing; you’d have to market your blog too. <a href="http://allbloggingtips.com/2013/08/04/blogging-is-a-business-how-to-start-run-and-operate-your-blog-it-matters/" rel="nofollow">Blogging is a business</a>, and your blog needs to be run like one. You just have to do what it takes. Blog for a Reason <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Blogging.jpg"></a> Don’t blog because it makes you money or because it makes you popular for the wrong reasons. Don’t blog because that’s what every digital marketer worth his or her salt suggests. Don’t blog because you thought that it was a great way to start your online business. Blog only if you are passionate about whatever it is that you blog about. If you have to blog, do it for a reason. The reason is for you to find out and for the rest of the world to read. Strive for Influence <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Impact.jpg"></a> After you pick the niche you want to blog on, it’s time to work on your “personal brand” and influence. <a href="https://plus.google.com/+GaryVaynerchuk" rel="nofollow">Gary Vaynerchuck</a>, for instance, is known for his effect on his readers and not so much for AdSense revenue or for any of his affiliate income. If you blogged enough – and passionately enough – for a reason, this influence would come in time. Anything else you’d do looks like so much else on the web that no one would notice. Social Media is your Blog # 2 <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Pinterest.jpg"></a> So, you have a blog and you keep pumping enough content to make it a potential winner. Sadly, there are only so many readers that your blog can attract initially. Your readership grows over time and your blog is little less viral or has much less potential (by itself) than when compared to social media, for instance. Hence, social media is your platform to stretch your efforts. It’s your blogging channel #2. Social media helps you to amplify your message, spread your content virally, bring in an additional set of readers (sometimes, overwhelmingly enough), and give you a lot more influence than what you can ask for. If you think you need help in this field, SEO Hacker provides a serious set of <a title="Social Media Marketing Services" href="http://seo-hacker.net/social-network-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social Media Marketing Services</a>. Build Relationships Everyday <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Building-Relationships-Online.jpg"></a> You could look at all possible reasons to start building relationships with others (within and outside of your niche) but they would all pale in comparison with this one reason to create relationships: you learn, respect, and love others. You are in awe of others. You relate to others because you just relate to them. There are no reasons for building relationships with other bloggers and business owners. Build your network for the sake of “building your network” and you’ll see some of these relationships blossoming into opportunities of a lifetime. Still, that’s not the reason why you connect. Do More than just Blog <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Be-awesome.jpg"></a> Bloggers blog, don’t they? Yes and no. That’s where most bloggers limit their potential. Instead, work towards a lot more than just a blog. A book is a good start (even the self-publishing option is a good one). Launch events, conferences, and online webinars. Start tutorials or launch online courses on the niche you blog on. All of these endeavors help you to develop credibility (not to mention the possibility to make money), and drive even more readers to your blog. Of course, it takes a ton of effort to do all this. You need to keep slogging away <a href="http://www.brandignity.com/2013/10/getting-into-action-what-bloggers-should-do-everyday/" rel="nofollow">at your blog every single day</a>. Who said blogging was easy? Keep Track of your Numbers <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Google-Analytics.jpg"></a> You’d never know where you ought to go if you didn’t know where you are. Google Analytics is free for now and that’s more than to ascertain who your visitors are, where they come from, the mobile devices they use, and how long they spend on your blog. You can even drill down information about the content they read, social interactions, and much more. Set up “goals” within your dashboard to get you all the information you need. Work from there. Feature Prominent People on your Blog <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Seth-Godin.jpg"></a> Social leverage is a secret that not many bloggers tend to put to good use. Whether you are creating a humongous list of “18 people you should seek advice on [Niche idea]” or even if you wanted to mention someone in the passing, do so with a flourish. Then, outreach each of these influencers to let them know that they’ve been featured on your blog post. News spreads quickly. You’ll get on the radar. Attract and Accept Guest Posts <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Write-for-Us.jpg"></a> Don’t close opportunities for other bloggers who might want to guest post on your blog. Whether they are doing to gain backlinks or to gain exposure or credibility, it’s a win-win situation for both parties. Blog owners don’t have to give up control on quality of the content (which you can supervise) and dictate editorial terms for every approaching guest blogger. However, closing the doors for guest posts works to your disadvantage. Build a Team of Writers (with Credits) Why build a team of writers or attract tons of guest bloggers, you ask? Every contributing author has vested interest in promoting these published blog posts elsewhere. Apart from the direct links inbound to your own blog (from each of these other blogger’s websites and blogs), you’ll also gain some social spread. Ghost writing has its place but so does credited publishing of blog posts. Tap into the power of other’s hard work. Spread your Content Variety <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Content-Creation.jpg"></a> Yes, it’s a blog. It’s not limited to text, though. Add all sorts of content on your blog. That includes videos, links to your podcasts that features on iTunes or elsewhere. Slide decks on Slideshare.net and embedded magazines. Infographics, animated content, and interviews. Webinars, recorded seminars, and even book excerpts. The blog is your playground. Notice <a title="My SEO Deck and Presentation on Morcon 2013" href="https://seo-hacker.com/seo-slide-deck-presentation-morcon-2013/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how Sean uses Slideshare</a> for his blog? Go play. Bleed to Win <a href="https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Success.jpg"></a> If you’ve come down to the end of the list, it shows that you are committed to the effort it takes to run a high-performance blog. You might have read stories of bloggers making it big and how small blogs are media behemoths today. None of that came by easy and it certainly didn’t happen in a day. But that kind of performance only comes for super-achievers. That means sacrifices. It also means endless days sitting alone, staring into your monitor, and typing like a lunatic typist. You’ll forego television, online videos, casual browsing, Facebook (unless you are promoting content, which you can automate), and weekend parties. This kind of work demands that you bleed to death. If you aren’t dead yet, you win. Which of these tips are you going to put to use? Let us know. The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://seo-hacker.com/15-tips-highperformance-blog/">15 Proven Ways to Maximize Your Blog’s Potential</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://seo-hacker.com">SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines</a>. </article> </main></body></html>