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Top 5 Seo Secrets; they won't tell you. Implement and utilise these secrets to skyrocket your website traffic and sales. We estimate these secrets are worth north of €£$1000+ per month and will not only save you money but help drive your conversion rates through the roof.
I think everyone is aware of the old methods of Seo. Let’s just say the phrase “keyword stuffing” and I'm sure you all know what I mean. Back then websites could flood their website with keywords a gazillion times and they would rank in Google. That's not the game we play today. The old wives tale of “build it and they will come” is just a distant memory. If only it was that simple right? Seo keeps growing at a phenomenal rate and if you're not on the “money train”, your competitors will leave you behind. We have put in well over the 10,000 hours to be classified as experts in this field and can tell you 01
exactly what works and what doesn't. There's no need for you to waste any further monies on marketing that doesn't provide a great return on your investment. The key to a great Seo campaign is one that can put your business in front of paying customers, by climbing the Google Ranks and turning your website into a money-making machine. But when you don't know how, it feels overwhelming. We get it… so…....we have compiled this document to help your understanding of what needs to be done, the time and effort it takes, and how to implement these tips.
Ground Rules
How about we start with a few warm-up topics before we dive into the sweet stuff. Making sure you have solid foundations: - Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. - It’s all about speed - Google My Business…. Go on then Bing too. - Onpage content, what do I write about…?
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Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Research the market, research your customers, research your competitors, research your strengths and weaknesses. The biggest mistakes I see when analysing businesses is that they jump into campaigns but don’t assess the playing field enough. This is super important! Without this data, you blindly follow a weak strategy and wonder why you aren’t receiving results you thought you’d get.
It's all about speed... Website Speed The page speed of your website is essential, the digital world is impatient and according to the statistics, more than half of us will leave a site if it hasn’t loaded within the first 2 seconds. What does that mean for your brand? Poor reputation, fewer consumers and fewer sales. Online we relate speed with efficiency, confidence, and trust. Search Engines understand that consumers want information fast and they reward websites that load instantly. Don’t undersell yourself, follow these 4 tips and ensure that your page speed loading time is up to scratch and that nobody will be leaving your website in a hurry:
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Images
Plugin
Using full-size images can really slow down a website and harm it’s performance. Crop your images to be the perfect size and shape before you upload them, this keeps your website having that streamlined feel. Use small size formats like JPG files as opposed to PNGs, the smaller the file, the quicker the speed. Be careful when having to enlarge an image, quality is key and there is no place for blurry images online if you want to be taken seriously. Take a look at plugins like Smush that can really help with optimising your images but I would always recommend resizing all images before they go anywhere near your website. Check out the ‘web-safe’ option in photoshop too to reduce the file size.
The more plugins you have then the more code there is implemented on your website. Having active plugins that are constantly running when not needed will result in your page speed loading time being slower and the all-around customer navigation being poor. If there is anything that you can do manually, try and avoid installing a plugin for it. You don’t have to delete these plugins if you think you may need them again in the future, just simply deactivating them will instantly start to speed up your website. If you’re already eager to test how your page speed ranks, use websites like GTmetrix or Google Page Speed to see if your page speed is fast enough. We even have a dedicated blog all about: page speed.
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Is your website mobile friendly? When building or updating your website, you must focus on how your site will perform on a Mobile too. Invest time in ensuring that your pages work and load quickly across mobile devices. If you have a site that is only based around a desktop version then you will miss out on organic searches from mobiles which is now 50-60% of all searches online. The shift towards internet-enabled mobile devices means that if you’re not fast, you’re not going to be seen. Websites that are both mobile and desktop-friendly will be ranked favourably amongst search engines, leaving you first in line for the consumer.
Clear your cache When you visit a website, the elements on the page you visit are stored on your hard drive in a cache or temporary storage. This means that the next time you visit the site, your browser can load the page without having to send another HTTP request to the server. Caching ensures a much faster experience for your website users by storing a version of your website on their browser and serving them that version until your website is updated or until you instruct it to refresh the version of your website they are served. Enabling caching for your website can boost its speed significantly, and research shows that enabling a full cache for a website can reduce the website loading time from 2.4 seconds to 0.9 seconds; now, that’s massive!
Time to take over the competition. If your page speed loads in 1.7 seconds, it is faster than approximately 75% of the web. Getting your website page speed loading to this golden time is no easy task but by following these steps, you are certainly on the right path.
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Google My Business…. Go on then Bing too. There are many different search engines that people use when trying to locate something online but Google has over 80% of that market share. So, that means that Google is still the top of the list for the majority of people when it comes to search engines and in addition to that 46% of searches on Google are locally themed.
potential customer will need, your contact information, address, photos, opening hours, etc. Your listing will also encourage people to leave reviews and you should ask them too. Reviews help build trust in your brand and will mean that you are more likely to be rewarded by Google and be ranked higher when it comes to a local search.
‘Google My Business’ is a listing for your company that will appear in search results online. Google is more likely to vouch for you and will feel a lot more comfortable promoting you if it can verify that your business is authentic. Google My Business is their tool for doing so.
Bing Places for Business.
First things first, if you haven’t already, you will need to create and verify a Google Business page. This page will include all the useful information that a
Moving onto Bing is a little easier. Firstly check to see if you are already listed or not. This process requires you searching for your business on the Bing Maps section. As in our case, we are listed but a few of the details were incorrect such as the address and pin location. You can then click on the link to the bottom of the screen (is this your business?) where you can claim the existing listing and amend the details.
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On-page content making it pop
Making sure your websites On-Page content complies with Google, you’ll need powerful software. We use the Yoast Seo plugin so recommend that you have it installed too. The plugin will analyse your content and rate it from Red (improvement needed), Amber (not far off) and Green (perfect). The plugin is a good guide to follow and will help maximise your Seo potential. However, don’t get too bogged down by trying to achieve green results for every section as it is not the ‘be-all and end-all’ of the success of your page, it’s just another effective guide to follow. Yoast will continuously appraise your content and suggest where it can be improved. Not only will it help you with the basics like your ‘meta descriptions’, ‘title tags’ etc, but it also comments on the style of your writing helping you create more compelling and easy to read content.
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We call it the Dos & Doughnuts! Ok, so we've laid out the ground rules for a successful campaign and now we can move onto the juice, the squeeze and the tips that will ultimately skyrocket your results.
Dos. By researching your customers you will find out their buying habits, where they are located, what percentage are male or female and ask yourself the question what are they looking for?
Know your Customer & Business.
With this rich data, you can begin to compile a strategy specific to your perfect client. So how do you do it? If you have existing sales you can start there, and analyse the metrics. You can also use Facebook audiences insights to research your perfect client. Go to https://business.facebook.com/ and set yourself up a business account. Once you have it you can select the Audience Insights tab where you will find plenty of options to choose from.
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Firstly you can select your location, age, and gender of customers you want to know about. With this, you can add in interests that then show you the percentages of people that match your selections. In the beginning, I would choose your location and then an interest (selected around your product) and then you will get a general understanding of what ‘types’ people are interested in the products/services you sell.
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Know your niche
What's your goal?
You’ll also need to know your topic or niche inside and out. Get involved in your topic or niche’s online communities, like forums and social media networks and see if there are any different terms they are discussing that are still relevant to your brand. This information will be vital and may allow you to target multiple keyword pools with a lower search volume and easy to rank for instead of one highly competitive and popular term with a larger monthly search volume.
Every business now knows that they have to have some form of SEO strategy in order to compete online but is essential for you and your team to understand why. Study your brand first and be aware of exactly what you are offering to the customer, then specify clearly what your mission is. We all want more traffic to our websites but each business will have varied reasons for this. Do you want more sales? More subscribers? Do you have a time limit for these goals? The answers to these questions will help guide the direction and budget for your campaign. The search terms that you will eventually use should be aligned to your goals, ideally segmented into different content marketing funnels. Your goals will also inform the purpose of your Seo copywriting and content which we talk about later on.
Know your competitors
I was always taught that you don't need to reinvent the wheel. Seeing something that works and making it better is far more productive. So if you know of competitors in your niche that are killing it, why don’t you check up on them and see what's working and what's not. If one of them is crushing it in Google SERPs, figure out why? Knowing what they got, targeted keywords, traffic volume are they expecting, On-Page content word count etc…. then using this to create something better. This is a moment of which came first, the egg or the hen? With 'competitor research' you also need to have a base understanding of the 'keywords' you are wanting to use, thus working on them in conjunction is a good idea. You won't know who your direct ‘Seo’ competition is for each keyword until you have researched that said keyword. You can
even have different competitors for each “keyword” chosen, so planning of this section needs to be on point. Getting back to the competitors, there are plenty of paid and free tools out there that help with competitor research but we prefer ahrefs.com and ubersuggest as you can easily break down the top 10 that are ranking for your chosen keyword and critique each one. With this data, you can then easily do ‘over and above’ what all your competitors have. Creating amazing pieces of content that you then need to scream and shout about. A great tip is then to contact the companies who were linking out to your competitors content and telling them yours is now better. Why would they not want to link to better content?
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What to do about it: Creating compelling content. Today, creating amazing content for your potential clients is paramount. Metrics such as ‘dwell time’ is one of Google's top-ranking factors, which means the more time people spend on your page, the more Google likes your content and ranks it higher. As it stands, 51% of website traffic comes from organic search results. As we head into the future, that figure is on the rise. With that in mind, the importance of Seo for any business whether it be a local Seo strategy or global domination is huge if you don’t want to be left behind or playing catch up. At its core, foundations need to be strong. We consider these 4 picks at the top of our list: - Title tag - Meta Description - FAQ: for featured snippets / position 0. - Compelling Content
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Title Tag Having your keywords handy is useful. You will want to use them within your title tag, meta descriptions and alt tags tastefully. Using the exact keywords isn't 100% necessary, but we suggest writing something intriguing. When you rank top of the SERP’s your title should be an answer to someone's ‘search query’. I.e. Title Tag: ‘Plumber available 24/7 in Newcastle Area’. Is much more likely to get a click rather than: Title Tag: ‘Plumbers Newcastle’ because people usually need emergency plumbers to be available straight away.
Meta Description As with the title tag you are solving someone's problem straight away, and fast. Same needs to be done with the ‘meta description’, your content needs to be appealing. We call it the ‘Scroll Stopper’ but in essence it’s an offer they can’t refuse or a solution to their problem, meaning they need look no further.
Featured Snippets Then there's the FAQ’s which I think are a great place for quick answers, but can also lead to your page being shown as ‘position 0’ also known as ‘featured snippets’ right at the top! We have a dedicated blog guide on ‘Featured Snippets’ if you really want to know more.
Content Creation Use your content to offer the reader value. Detailed, interactive and informative content is always high on our Seo On-Page checklist. Any successful Seo campaign will always have the consumer and human element as a focal point when optimising its content. Once your keywords are selected, don’t just stuff them in as many ‘H tags’ as possible to the point where it doesn’t make sense. Pick the right keywords which allow you to create content that your readers will find relevant, engaging and valuable. You may have to be creative with this. For example, in one of our latest campaigns, our research showed that ‘seo valencia’ had a higher monthly search volume and easier search difficulty than the term ‘seo in valencia’. Obviously, ‘seo in valencia’ is grammatically correct and will read naturally for a consumer so we had to think outside of the box to implement ‘seo valencia’ in our on-page content. You can see how we did so on our page here: Seo Valencia: the ultimate guide for 2020, or just google it, we’re number 1. 12
Perform ‘white hat’ Keyword Research and Backlinks. How Important Is Keyword Research For You?
‘Keyword research’ is the ‘market research’ of the 21st century and it is the most important part of any Seo strategy. It allows you to be able to get into the minds of your consumer. Through keyword research, you can get a better understanding of your target market and most importantly, how they are searching for your services, products or content. This form of research provides you with specific search data from selected demographics and will help you determine what people are searching for? How many people are searching for it? And what format do they want this information? You will then use this information to create and tailor your content to ensure it is relevant and easily searchable by your target audience. 13
The importance of keyword research is huge and vital to your campaign. It is not just about finding terms with the highest search volume. The keywords selected for your content must be in-line with your brand and what you are offering to the consumer. This is where your in-depth research will come into fruition. Once you have performed adequate and thorough research, only then will you be able to craft a viable Seo strategy. With a good strategy, you can then create a detailed plan of action to achieve your goals. For example, if you are a Law Firm based in London looking for local clients, you may choose a term like ‘lawyers london’ to focus on.
But you haven’t really tried to focus on your services niche with that term. The Seo difficulty is 30 which is pretty high so it's harder to rank for. However, if your firm specialises in say Immigration Law, research will show that the search term ‘immigration lawyers in london’ has a higher search volume and is easier to rank for.
This keyword has 1400 more search traffic and has a lower Seo difficulty rating. It may not seem like a big difference but by conducting the research and determining the most effective keyword terms before optimising your page, will result in higher qualified traffic to your site (people that want the product and service you are selling) leading to greater conversion on sales. Choosing a higher volume keyword that is easier to rank for will always provide better results.
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Long-tail Keywords “Long-tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you are selling. Whenever a customer uses a highly specific search phrase, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy”. www.wordtracker.com An example of a longtail keyword for a Dentist In Newcastle maybe something along the lines of ‘veneer dentists in Newcastle?’ or ‘invisalign in Newcastle?’. Consumers using these searches are very specific in what they are needing and a lot more likely to buy the product over a general search like ‘best dentists in Newcastle?’. Comparing the above to short-tail keyword terms, long-tail terms are a lot less vague, yes they will have a lower search volume but due to the focus of the search term, it will more than likely have a higher conversion rate.
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Long-tail keywords are attracting more love as we head into the 2020’s which is predominantly down to mobile phone usage, but also because of voice search. Use of software like Siri and Alexa are on the rise thus allowing the user to search using sentences, lessening the use of short-tail keywords. To read more about the impact voice search will have on Seo in the future, read our: 2020 guide to the voice search revolution. We understand keyword research can be a tedious and time-consuming task. But more often than not it will pay off when executed correctly. Seo strategies will not line your pockets overnight but the fundamentals have to be done right from the beginning.
Backlinks One of the top searched Seo enquiries online for this year so far is ‘what are backlinks Seo?’ and it is also a question that we, as a digital marketing agency, are asked by almost every Seo client that we have.
‘How do I stay there?’ The truth is, there are many pieces to the intricate Seo puzzle, but an organic way to generate credible juice from search engines is to build backlinks to your website.
One of the best places for your site to be discovered is through search engines, but competition is rife and backlinking is one of the best methods of getting you there.
To keep it simple, backlinks are links that are directed to your website. The more backlinks you hold show the importance and/or popularity of your website. They are an essential part of Seo as some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.
A lot of customers want results instantly, they don’t want to spend all afternoon sifting through pages and pages online looking for the information they need. In fact, web pages ranked on the first page of Google receive 91.5% of Google traffic. So there lies the next question: ‘What do I need to do to get ranked on the first page of the search engines?’ or if you are already there,
The margins for a quality backlink are fine so I’m going to take you through some important rules to follow that ensure your backlinks are producing premium Seo results.
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Quality shareable content Having popular content provides you with the opportunity to have your content shared all over the world. By making sure your website address is linked to this content (through a ‘call to action’) you are putting yourself in the best position to be seen on many different web pages and platforms, maximising your reach and generating organic traffic. Ensure that your backlinks are in relevant places where readers are interested in your content. Google will credit the length of time viewers are on your website too!
Your niche Sharing and exchanging backlinks with other people in the same position can be beneficial for both parties but only when it is done correctly. Make sure you are aware of who you are networking with and how your content will fit onto their website. There would be no point in sharing an expertly written blog including links through to your site on a website that’s niche is completely different. Your niche matters when building backlinks so make sure the platforms that your links are being shared to align with your website. Once you can share your content you need to look into linking methods back to your website. ‘Anchor text’ is the visible and clickable text in a hyperlink. For example, say I am writing about ‘Social Media’, as you can see, I have linked the text with a link through to the relevant page on our website. This is a great way to keep an interested reader's journey smooth and effortless. Refrain from littering your article with anchor text that isn’t relevant as it can very quickly become spammy. Below, I have listed and explained some different ways to distribute your anchor text as variety is key to your backlinks being natural:
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Naked Anchors The majority of anchors should include your URL. These are seen as the safest links to use and most effective as the reader has instant trust in what they are clicking on.
READ
Generic Anchors These are a more common form of links that you may be used to seeing from day to day. The text may say ‘read more’, ‘contact now’ or ‘click here’ etc. I wouldn’t use this generic method all of the time though as you should aim to make your links more informative.
Branded Anchors Search engines love to see Brands in anchors so make sure you include yours. This is a very safe way to anchor link, in a similar way to the ‘Naked anchor text’ method that I mentioned before.
Keyword Anchors This used to be one of the most popular forms of anchor links as it was also a great way to involve your selected keywords in your content. Search engines became wise to this and algorithms change so try not to use this method too much as it could incur Google penalties as it may seem spammy. Try a variety of focus and secondary keywords as your anchor text as this will help your site rank for organic keywords terms as well. When you create more links to your website, do it with a carefully thought out plan and with caution. It is important to monitor every link that you earn or create and determine its Seo value. 18
Doughnut’s So, all the information above we know is great, but what if you don't have the time and can earn more letting the experts do it for you… well here are a few tips to look out for when choosing the right agency.
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Clarity
Whitehat
Be aware of some agencies hiding behind time, “oh it takes 12 months to start ranking”. You'll want results listed on google within 3-6 months but further results are dependent on the competitiveness of that niche. Good agencies will explain to you that it’s not always wise to compete for the hardest keywords to rank for! Also, you’ll want an open team that uses a client relationship manager so you can follow the progress and weekly workings on your project. We use Basecamp3 which has received great feedback from our clients as we can bundle projects into relevant sections, create todo lists and signoffs and have an open line of communication at any time of the day to a specific element of the project.
You'll want all your backlinks to be provided via white hat strategies, meaning you won't be penalised by Google in the future. Some grey hat techniques can work well but it is best to stick with the strategies that get you further in the long run. Yes, they take longer and need your team to be great at building relationships but that's their job. So my advice is to avoid agencies that use PBN’s (public blog networks) or black hat tactics, that initially will work great, but then crash when they get their hands burnt by Google.
Doughnut’s
Rank for Zero volume We’ve all heard it ‘I rank for such and such number one in google’. But little do they know that the keyword they rank for has little to no search volume. So a pointless rank. Be sure to only sign off a strategy based on a mix of keywords, volumes and difficulty rating you have a complete understanding of.
Can't rank themselves Agencies can have a lot on their plates with client work, but they have to practice what they preach. We’ve all been there where you focus solely on clients that you forget to market your own brand. But when you're investing your hard-earned cash 500-10,000+ per month in Seo you need to know the company has a track record of providing results and can actually do the same for you. Look for case studies on their website where they show you that they are ranking for search terms. You can then type that search term on Google to see if they practice what they preach. I would also request emails and websites from their clients that will give them a recommendation or comment on their work. A great place to also find these is on the Google Business page or Testimonials section on their website.
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