SEO tips that are credible and actionable can mean the difference between success and failure in the online universe.
Search Engine Marketing in today’s world is very important and this skill set will become even more essential going forward. The number of websites that exist is staggering. With millions upon millions of websites available on the World Wide Web, the online landscape has become an incredibly competitive space for businesses, organizations, and individuals alike. Each website strives to attract visitors, capture their attention, and ultimately achieve their desired goals, whether it's generating sales, sharing information, or building an online community.
However, standing out in this vast sea of websites is no easy task. It requires careful planning, strategic marketing efforts, and a deep understanding of audience needs and preferences. As the internet continues to evolve, the competition for visitor attention remains fierce, making it essential for website owners to continuously innovate and provide unique and engaging experiences to captivate their target audience.
This case study of SEO tips will cover the basics and shine a light on the competitive field of website rankings on Google search pages. You will begin to understand how important keywords are when working with SEO along with other important metrics. Tools will be shown on how to obtain these metrics. These tools are also very important for other SEO information that will help websites on Google rankings.
Google has already received 943 billion searches this year (and counting) Getting on the top of Google ranking is extremely difficult but still obtainable. On the first page alone, the first five organic results account for 67.6% of all the clicks. Google has very specific preferences on what it will reward with high rankings, yet much of this information is not widely available. This case study lays out what I've learned Google likes and doesn't like.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website and its content to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves various techniques and strategies aimed at enhancing the website's relevance and authority in the eyes of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. SEO is crucial for businesses and website owners because it helps drive organic, unpaid traffic to their sites, resulting in increased online visibility, brand exposure, and potential customers.
By implementing effective SEO practices such as keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and technical optimization, websites can attract more targeted traffic, generate higher-quality leads, and ultimately achieve better conversion rates. In today's competitive digital landscape, having a solid SEO strategy is essential for businesses to stay ahead of their competitors and establish a strong online presence.
Why SEO is Important
- 49% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel;
- SEO can reduce the cost of customer acquisition by 87.41% on average compared to digital advertising;
- 70% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC;
- 75% of marketers feel their SEO tactics are ‘extremely effective’ or ‘very effective at helping them achieve their marketing goals;
- Google search gets nearly 32% of clicks and moving up just one spot in search results can increase CTR by an amazing 30.8%.
What is EEAT?
EEAT is a framework used by Google to evaluate the quality and credibility of content on websites. The acronym stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. EEAT considers factors such as user experience, the expertise of content creators, the authority of the website, and the overall trustworthiness of the content. Websites that demonstrate high levels of EEAT are more likely to rank higher in search results and provide a better user experience.
Why Keyword Research is Important & How To Do It
Keyword research is a fundamental aspect of SEO that involves identifying and analyzing the specific words and phrases people use when searching for information, products, or services online. By conducting thorough keyword research, you can gain valuable insights into the search behavior of your target audience and discover the most relevant and high-demand keywords to target in your website content.
When conducting my keyword research, it was important to consider factors such as search volume, competition level, and keyword relevance to People Are Culture. By selecting the right keywords to optimize the website content, you could improve the chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages and attracting organic traffic.
Using Tools to Improve SEO
When I first began my work on SEO, I only had little to no prior knowledge on the topic. It was vital for me to familiarize myself with essential tools and understand different types of metrics.
When working on things today online there are always tools to help you get the job done. The same goes for SEO. SEO has several tools online that can help users with certain metrics and information that they wouldn’t be able to obtain on their own. Some tools that have helped me in the process of my SEO work consist of The Hoth, Ubersuggest, Semrush, and Ahrefs.
Using tools like The Hoth and Ubersuggest I was able to start understanding important metrics like backlinks, bounce rate, organic traffic, and keyword rankings. Understanding these tools was crucial because the valuable insights they provided would help my optimization efforts.
The first tool I got similar with was The Hoth. The Hoth is an SEO service provider that offers a range of tools and services to help businesses improve their search engine rankings. They provide services like content creation, link building, and local SEO. The Hoth's tools and services are designed to boost website visibility and drive organic traffic.
The Hoth is an SEO service provider that offers a range of tools and services to assist with search engine optimization efforts. They specialize in link building, content creation, and local SEO, providing solutions to help businesses improve their online visibility and rankings in search engine results.
Next is Ubersuggest, an all-in-one SEO tool developed by Neil Patel. It offers keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink analysis, content ideas, and website audit features. Ubersuggest provides valuable insights into keywords, search volume, and competition, helping businesses optimize their SEO strategies.
Ubersuggest provides valuable insights into keyword ideas, search volume, and keyword difficulty. You can enter a keyword or phrase, and the tool will generate a list of related keywords along with their search volume, cost-per-click (CPC), and competition level. This information helps you identify relevant and high-demand keywords to target in your SEO efforts.
SEMrush is a comprehensive SEO and digital marketing toolset that offers a wide range of features. It provides keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink auditing, site auditing, position tracking, and more. SEMrush enables users to analyze and optimize their websites for improved search engine rankings.
Ahrefs is a popular SEO tool that focuses on backlink analysis, competitive research, and keyword research. It provides valuable insights into competitor backlink profiles, helps identify link-building opportunities, and offers keyword tracking and content analysis features. Ahrefs is widely used by SEO professionals and marketers to enhance their organic search strategies.
These tools play a crucial role in helping businesses optimize their websites for search engines, improve organic rankings, and drive targeted traffic to their websites. However, it's worth noting that each tool has its unique features and strengths, and choosing the right one depends on specific business requirements and goals. I would recommend users to use all four of these platforms to see which one fits best. All can contribute value information that can make SEO work a lot easier.
An SEO Case Study
My first assignment for People Are Culture was to improve the SEO of a post that had languished and not seen desired traffic. The blog post I was working on was an interview with a third-generation artisanal cheese maker in Parma, Italy. The idea of the assignment was to make improvements to improve the Google ranking of the post and increase organic traffic to the article. At the time of the assignment, the post did not rank in Google’s top 100 search results for the keywords “Parmigiano Reggiano”, which has # of monthly search queries.
I learned through the process that Google rewards interlinking articles. In order to link to other posts, of course the subject matter needs to be relevant. The more interlinked articles you have, the more you send a message to Google that you have expertise and authority on that topic. This also is the case with creating backlinks to other sites linking your content. In the end, having more links creates better success. I found that this was a search engine optimization technique.
I did competitive research and found that the website Full Suitcase does a very good job of interlinking its content.
On this page alone Lake Como Things To Do had 31 internal links. Google would reward something like this.
On PAC we needed to increase the ranking of this blog specifically
Parmigiano Reggiano.
To create internal links, a website or blog needs to have related content. This helps to establish EEAT for Google and shows the site’s authority on given topics.
With these interlinks, you can see that link to other articles across the PACs page. Google recognizes this and hopefully helps the page jump on its rankings.
An Example of Helpful & Useful Content
Another tactic I used to increase the SEO ranking of the page was to create a Google Maps and embed it into the Parmigiano post.
The purpose of the map was to help website visitors see exactly where all locations are mentioned through PACs articles about Italy. Any location or area that is seen within the article listed above can be found within Map. Inside the map, I was also able to label the locations with different icons that would be more specific to what it is.
Google Maps is beneficial for SEO because it improves local search visibility, enhances search rankings for location-specific queries, provides a positive user experience with easy navigation and directions, adds credibility and trust to your business, and offers a mobile-friendly experience for users on smartphones and tablets.
Within four weeks of being created, the Google Map had 450 views.
Here is the map I created Best of Emilia Romagna, Italy - People Are Culture
The Lowdown on Affiliate Marketing
An important process of this SEO work was finding affiliate links that could be added to the articles. Since the article that I was working on was about food the main goal was to find tours around Emilia Romagna that were related to food.
People Are Culture is an affiliate of Get Your Guide, an online booking platform that offers a wide range of tours, activities, and experiences for travelers around the world.
I identified ten different food-related Get your Guide tours. This is how the final product looked when presented.
Obscure Technical Glitches Can Have a Big Negative Impact
An assignment I recently worked on for PAC was figuring out why some articles weren't doing well when the posts were fully optimized for their keywords. After much trouble-shooting, we realized that all of the links to other PAC content were opening in a new tab
With research, we learned that only links to external sites should open in a new tab. Having internal links that open in a new tab is a poor practice, and negatively affects how these articles perform.
There's plenty of evidence on why internal links shouldn't be opening new tabs.
Accessibility Checker warns about the presence of links that open new windows or tabs because it is considered best practice to not open new tabs or windows with links. If links do open new tabs or windows, there must be a warning announcing that the link will open a new window or tab so that users will expect that behavior and know how to go back after clicking the link.
An SEO tip that may seem basic but can be overlooked. When doing any task, however mundane and straightforward it may seem, do your homework to find out what the best practice is--because Google has a standard, however obscure, for everything! You need to take care to make sure that your site is set up correctly to succeed. If a website has internal links, it is important for those links to work correctly. If you are linking to your own content, the one thing those links shouldn’t do is open a new tab.
Internal Links are such important parts of websites that you travel on. Most of the time you might not even know they are there. But for website owners, it's important that they work properly for users that want to use them. The most important aspect of internal links is that you should never open a new tab for users. Internal links staying on the same tab helps users understand the flow of the website and how to navigate easily over time. By opening new tabs it can become overwhelming for users causing them to leave your site.
What is Domain Authority and Why Does it Matter?
An important analytic term that should be known in the SEO realm is Domain Authority (DA). Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz, a well-known SEO software provider, to estimate the overall strength and credibility of a website in search engine rankings. While not an official factor used by search engines like Google, Domain Authority has become a widely recognized benchmark in the SEO community.
Domain Authority is scored on a scale from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating stronger authority and greater potential for ranking well in search results. The score is calculated by analyzing various factors such as the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to a domain, the domain's age, and its overall trustworthiness.
Backlinks play a significant role in determining Domain Authority. When reputable websites link to a domain, it signals to search engines that the linked domain is trustworthy and provides valuable content. Therefore, the more high-quality backlinks a website has, the higher its Domain Authority is likely to be.
It's important to note that Domain Authority is a relative metric and should be used to compare websites within the same industry or niche. A score of 30, for instance, might be considered strong for a small local business but weak for a large e-commerce site. Additionally, Domain Authority can fluctuate over time as search algorithms and ranking factors evolve, so it's crucial to regularly monitor and improve it.
Improving Domain Authority requires a holistic SEO approach. Focusing on creating high-quality content that attracts natural backlinks from reputable sources is key. Implementing effective on-page optimization, improving website loading speed, enhancing user experience, and engaging in social media promotion can all contribute to higher Domain Authority.
SECRET GOOGLE RULES ON FORMATTING ARTICLES
While there are no Google guidelines that will tell you this, there are specific formatting rules you need to use to be successful.
Your keywords need to be in about 50% of the headlines and in the text at least 12 times.
Headlines should not be more than 7- ten words.
Each section of text should be no more than 300 words and have an eye-catching image.
Every article should have an SEO title, as well as a meta description. The SEO Title is what you see when you hover your cursor over the post's tab at the top. The SEO Title must be different from the main headline. The SEO title can only be 55-60 characters long. The meta description can be 155-160 characters. Both need to have the keywords at the beginning.
How to Deal with Other Sits Plagiarizing Your Content
We found that some of People Are Culture's articles had been stolen and the content is being used on other sites. Specifically, the Parmigiano post content was stolen by this site, which also happens to contain malware.
To counter this we need to file a DMCA take-down notice for the plagiarism by this Kazakh/Russian blog. Copyscape is a tool that can scan your website to see if content was stolen.
Making a Difference as an Intern
As an intern over the summer working for PAC I learned and gained numerous skills, ideas, and knowledge that can’t be achieved in a classroom. Working in the field and seeing the benefit of using tools that can really improve the discoverability of websites has been eye opening. Coming up with meaningful contributions that enhanced People Are Culture's SEO has been an awesome experience and made me feel like a real contributor to something important.
