SEO marketing

Pillar pages- An epic content marketing tool

  • Ayesha Rafeeq
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  • 20 January , 2021
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    • 6 min read

The COVID-19 pandemic created a massive impact on digital marketing companies. Many businesses had to shift online and rethink their strategies, so the demand for digital marketing services rose.  2020 also saw an increase in competition for holding a strong online presence. To establish the same, SEO and content marketing is of vital importance. Out of many epic content marketing tools that are used, digital marketing experts agree that content pillars stand apart. One of the most effective ways to secure your position on the world’s favourite search engine is by creating powerful pillar pages that catapult your website traffic. Pillar content is a comprehensive piece of content based around specific topic clusters.

What is a ”topic cluster”?

A topic cluster is essentially a technique used while creating pillar pages. This technique involves going after topics rather than focusing on just a set of keywords. With this technique, you can choose broad content themes that you want to own and create multiple blog content around it.  

With Google’s Latent Semantic Indexing, creating topic clusters for pillar pages ensures you cover numerous semantic keywords that cannot be done otherwise. Until recently, content marketers were creating individual blog posts that rank for a particular search term. However, most broad themes have multiple topics, which means your URLs are competing against each other.

For example, if you are a real estate developer with an active blog page that covers a wide variety of blog content, then creating content pillars that tie a certain broad theme can boost your search rankings.

Scroll down to see how!

What is a pillar page?

A pillar page (also known as cornerstone content) is the base for the topic cluster model. It is a consolidated page on your website that acts as a pillar but has enough room for more details in the cluster blogs which are hyperlinked to the content pillars.

The topic is broken down into chapters and covers all the aspects of a particular topic to increase the chances of ranking on the first page of Google. As mentioned before, all these sub-topics are interlinked to the main blogs on the website, where the concept is explained in much more detail.

For example, on our website, we have blogs on real estate marketing, YouTube marketing, Facebook ads, etc. So, writing content pillars on these topics is the ideal way to go because we have enough clusters to interlink too as well.   Featured below is our pillar page titled A complete guide to digital marketing for real estate”. The objective of the page is to rank for anything connected to digital marketing for real estate. It taps all the aspects of digital marketing from the lead generation strategies involved to an in-depth case study on how a real estate company grew via digital, providing readers with a one-stop solution to all their queries related to the main topic.  

Another example is a pillar we have on YouTube SEO tips. This pillar covers everything relating to YouTube SEO and tips to grow your organic subscriber base. It is broken down into chapters and links to other clusters connecting to the main topic.

How does a pillar page boost SEO?

The in-depth nature of content pillars helps it rank for a variety of keywords making it an epic content marketing tool. However, it’s not just about keywords and ranking! Since a pillar page has versatile types of content, including videos and other forms of interactive pieces, readers spend more time on the page which is again a great ranking signal. To add to that, the page is interlinked to many other content pieces on your website keeping the SEO juice within your domain. Last but not least, pillars also help in lead generation, making it not just an epic content marketing tool for brand awareness and consideration but also conversions. 

For example, we created a laptop buying guide as a one-stop destination for users looking for the perfect laptop. It covers all aspects of the buying process from the laptop specifications you need to look for to where you can buy your laptop from. The pillar also includes an interactive laptop finder tool that readers could use to find the ideal laptop. Through this pillar, we were able to generate more than 170 organic leads, out of which 50 consumers visited the nearest laptop store and bought a laptop. The revenue generated via the pillar leads resulted in 18X ROI for the brand. 

When to create content pillars?

While it is a good idea to write pillar pages for all topics that you want to rank for, you also need to start by looking at how much content you have on your site. Since pillar pages act as a central traffic signal that drives visitors to other web pages, it makes sense to first check if you have enough pit stops to divert your audience towards. Start by checking your blog database and see if you have enough diverse topics that cover all aspects of the main topic.

As explained in the flowchart above, the first step of creating content pillars is to find a high-volume keyword that you intend to rank for, do not have content on and want to explain in depth. With all these three criteria in place, your content pillars are guaranteed to get you a high rank on Google.

                                                                           Source: Hubspot

Structure of a pillar page

A pillar page consists of the following elements:

-          Topic clusters designed in the form of chapters: Since a pillar page is a middle ground between a blog and an e-book, it is usually designed with chapters for easy navigation. Each chapter is explained with different types of content from infographics to interactive tools. The chapters are diverse and cover all the other semantics of the pillar topic, to increase its chances of ranking. Needless to say, each chapter is optimised with a unique set of keywords of their own.

-          An enquiry form: Leads are the fruit of digital marketing that produces freshly-squeezed ROI juice. Keep track of your visitors and nurture them into customers by placing an enquiry form with an appropriate call to action on your pillar page. Featured below is the pillar page created for Casagrand, one of India’s leading real estate giants. The page opens up to a form, along with a sticky tab for easy access from anywhere in the page.

The page titled “An ultimate NRI guide to buying a property in India” covered all topics from documents needed to invest in India to the types of properties NRI’s are entitled to buy.

-          Share buttons: Keep the tunnel of communication open between your pillar page and your target audience with sticky share buttons. From social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to networking sites like LinkedIn, choose the forums that make sense for your brand. You can also pick sharing platforms used by a majority of your target group. After all, you do not want all that content to go unread!

-          A well-designed UX: There is no doubt that UX can make or break your business sales or revenue. A well-designed page with easy navigation helps in increasing the time spent on the page and reducing the bounce rate. Additionally, with all the interlinked in-depth content, it is only a matter of time your page ranks on the first page of Google, attracting organic traffic like a moth to a flame.

- Include Visuals: Pillar pages must try and cater to different types of learners. Most internet users are visual learners. So making use of infographics, videos will increase your sessions, decrease your bounce rate while helping you engage with your audience. Visual learning also helps with brand awareness and recalling as it helps users retain information better. 

To know more about such epic content marketing tools and SEO strategies for your brand, check out our Video on Pillar content for organic traffic and leads.

Now that you know how pillar pages work and the effect they have on your website traffic, it is time you level-up your SEO game with this promising trend. Whether you are an FMCG brand, B2B organisation, Financial giant or a leading real estate developer, boost your brand visibility with pillar pages and make your organisation stand out in the digital hemisphere. 

Now that you know how pillar pages work and the effect they have on your website traffic, it is time you level-up your SEO game with this promising trend. Whether you are an FMCG brand, B2B organisation, Financial giant or a leading real estate developer, boost your brand visibility with pillar pages and make your organisation stand out in the digital hemisphere. 


Google’s Broad Core Update – May 2020

  • Deepsikha Agarwal
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  • 28 May , 2020
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    • 3 min read

After a core update at the start of the year in January, Google has announced the next update to its algorithms early this month, on May 4th. Each update affects Google’s search algorithms and is released with the intention to present information that is relevant and authoritative for any search result. 

What does the latest update entail?

With COVID-19, many industries have seen a decline because of the nature of their business, while others have seen an increase. This has resulted in a significant shift in the way users search for queries online as well. This is why Google has chosen to rank certain categories higher in its latest update. This will allow relevant content to appear to match searches during these uncertain times. 

For example, the search for content related to news, health, and online communities has shot up, while categories like travel, sports, and live events have seen a drop. Google’s latest update accounts for these shifts and the change in algorithms strongly affects Search Engine Results Page (SERP) volatility. 

The core update that was announced in January also affected SERP volatility, but May’s core update displays a peak in these rates, which is illustrated in the graph below.

It is important to note that the update also affects thin content, as well as old content which has not been refreshed in a while. Such items will be ranked lower by Google’s algorithm update. But if there has been a change in rankings for the entire industry, there is no guarantee that implementing changes will help increase the position of the content in SERPs. Featured snippets have also been impacted with the update.

Users may recall that in September 2019, Google announced a core update that resulted in a similar outcome which changed rankings completely. A key difference was that YouTube videos began to outrank Wikipedia pages. So this is not the first time something of this sort has happened.

Which industries are affected most?

Since the core update reflects the direct impact industries have witnessed throughout these last few months, the same industries have experienced a win or loss with this unprecedented change. 

For example, news has become paramount during these times. People across the world are trying to stay informed on COVID-19, as well as the impact it has had on various spheres of our normal lives. Information on health and medical research is also being widely consumed. And with people restricted to their homes, the number of hours online have shot up as well. Users are spending more time on different social media platforms, streaming services, and other categories of entertainment. Thus, these are the industries that have benefited most from the update this month, with news coming out on top.

Other industries have not fared as well. Travel and real estate have seen a dramatic drop, and this is reflected in the results of the update as well. Similarly, live events and entertainment, autos and vehicles, tech, and fitness, among many others, have taken a big hit. Many websites are reporting a significant drop in traffic, which is likely due to the change in the SERP algorithm.

Because marketing during COVID-19 is already in a state of flux, it is important to stay up to date with these changes and implement corrections accordingly. This can make keeping up with competitive SERPs easier. However,  it might make more sense to wait until the market picks up for industries currently experiencing a decline in demand and engagement. 


Featured Snippet: How to ace the coveted Answer Box on Google

  • Administrator
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  • 3 April , 2019
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    • 7 min read

If you’re trying to successfully drive traffic to your website’s blog page, getting to the top of Google’s search results is your biggest task. However, if you thought ranking at the number one position was the ultimate goal, you now have a new contender – the Google Answer Box or Featured Snippet.

What is the Google Answer Box?

Google introduced its new Answer Box feature in 2015. Referred to as the Google Answer Box or Rank 0 or Featured Snippet, this feature is a box you see above all search queries on Google. The Answer Box provides users with quick and easy answers or “snippets” of information. These answers are selected from content that ranks on page one,  but not necessarily Position One.

Google Answer Boxes are not only convenient for users who are looking for answers, but it is also an excellent opportunity for brands to gain more page visitors, as Google Answer Boxes get a 2x higher click-through rate and steal most of the organic traffic on the internet.

Before we dive into a few more details, here’s a quick video on the benefits of Google Answer Boxes and how you can rank for them.

Types of Google Answer Boxes

Before we get into how you can optimise your content to get a Google Answer Box, let’s take a look at the four different kinds of Featured Snippets.

  • Paragraphs – These are the most common type of Featured Snippets. Here, answers to a particular search query will appear in the form of a paragraph. The answer to the query might be longer in the source page, but the Google Answer Box will display a small, quick response that works.

Optimising content for Paragraph Featured Snippet

Paragraph Featured Snippets will only include a short section of your content – around 40 to 50 words, so be sure to provide your answer within that limit. To maximise your chances of getting a Paragraph Featured Snippet, use the query as the title and then answer the query directly below, as seen in the example.

  • Lists – These Featured Snippets will be either in the form of a numbered list or a bulleted one.

Numbered Featured Snippets appear for content that explains a step-by-step process. For example, a recipe or DIY project.

Bulleted Featured Snippets, on the other hand, will display content in a bulleted list where the order of the information doesn’t matter.

Optimising content for List Featured Snippets

To optimise your content for a Numbered or Bulleted List Featured Snippet, you need to ensure that your content is formatted in the form of bullet points. Like in the case of a Paragraph Featured Snippet, you can maximise your chances of getting picked up by having the query as your main title and answering it directly below, this time as a list. Another way to optimise your content is by outlining steps in your blog post, and using each step as a heading.

  • Tables – Table Featured Snippets are great for showing a collection of data. You don’t necessarily have to format your information in the form of a table as Google will do it for you.

Optimising content for Table Featured Snippets

Start by doing the work for Google – put your information in a table. Not only will this make your website’s visitors happy to get all the information they need at a glance, but it also makes it easier for Google to find your content. Finally, start with an appropriate heading followed by your table of data.

  • Video – Of late, a lot of videos have been showing up in the coveted “Position Zero” spot. Googles chooses videos to help answer a number of “how to” queries, highlighting a few seconds of a clip in a particular video that will best answer the searcher’s query. You can see the highlighted clip (the blue bar) in the image below:

For further information on how to get your videos to rank, head over to our in-depth article on YouTube SEO Tips: The Secret Sauce to Ranking Videos in 2019.

How to further optimise your content?

Now that you know the basics of optimising your content for the different types of Featured Snippets, let’s delve a little deeper into a few more best practices you can adopt for your content to get its own Google Answer Box.

Be clear and concise

The first rule of getting a Featured Snippet is ensuring your content answers specific queries. More often than not, when a user types in a query, it is in the form of implicit or explicit questions and long phrases.  Structuring your content to answer these questions and phrases effectively is how to rank in Position 0.

For example, if the query you wish to get a Google Answer Box for is “Best residential localities in Coimbatore” try and match it as closely as possible to that keyword so that you have the chance to appear as a Featured Snippet. Additionally, make sure your answer is precise and that you stay within the prescribed word limit of 40 to 50 words (a maximum of 100 words) or 3 to 4 sentences. If you’re looking for more information to rank higher in the search results, take a look at our blog on must know Google Search tips and tricks.

Target queries that already have a Google Answer Box

Efficient and effective keyword research is the cornerstone to any great piece of content. Creating content without adequate keyword research is like shooting an arrow in the dark – you stand very little chance of ranking in Google’s SERPs.

Before you begin writing content for a Google Answer Box, start your keyword research by looking for question-type queries – those that begin with what, why or how, as well as long-tail queries with no question words. The aim here is to include a seed keyword with as many long-tail keywords as you can in your article. This way, you can create well-written long-form content that answers multiple related questions in a clear and cohesive manner.

To intensify your keyword research, there are a number of tools at your disposal, namely Moz’ Keyword Explorer, Answer The Public or Ahrefs. These tools will be able to throw up more results related to your search query helping your broaden your search for keywords that trigger a Google Answer Box.

You can also browse through Google's own "People also ask" section to further research your topic or selected keyword. These related questions can offer massive insights into what Google considers related topics to your own. You can also check out our blog on On-page and Off-page SEO Tips for 2019 for more information.

Very often, many of Google’s Answer Boxes are filled with content that doesn’t fully answer user queries. Target such examples and ensure your content is better aligned to what users are looking for. If your competition has a Google Answer Box for a particular keyword, read through the content and analyse if you can create similar content or can modify your own existing content to better respond to the search query. This increases your chances of getting your own Answer Box and staying in Position 0 for much longer.

Optimise your UX for better crawlability

Getting a Featured Snippet isn’t just about the quality of your content. You can also improve the design and experience you provide your visitors. Not only do phenomenal UI and UX play critical roles signal Google to rank your website higher, but also heighten your chances of holding on to your Featured Snippet.

Constantly monitor and track progress

Once you’ve achieved your Featured Snippet, work does not end. Answer Box results can change in mere seconds, so the onus is on you to constantly track your progress – for how long you have managed to sustain your Position 0 or if you have slipped down the rankings. Try different things like opting for a table or a list instead of giving information in the form of a paragraph, or answering queries that appear in Google’s related search queries. Including high-resolution images with the right captions and tags and structuring your content with appropriate headings and sub-headings in H2 and H3 tags are also a few ways to help you improve your content and the user experience you provide.

Optimise for Voice

The final point to keep in mind is optimising your content for voice search. India is seeing a 270% year-on-year growth in voice searches, as revealed in the 2017 Google India ‘Year in Search’ Report. As marketers, it becomes imperative for you to action change and leverage the power of Voice Search marketing to tap into India’s next billion users. A vast majority of them will be accessing the internet from Tier II and Tier III cities and Voice Search is a more convenient option than typed queries, particularly because they will be engaging in vernacular languages.

Additionally, Voice Search queries are very often picked up from Featured Snippets, particularly by smart speakers like Alexa and Google Home. Brands will need to constantly update and optimise their content to stay in Position Zero to feature prominently for Voice Search queries. You can also check out our detailed video on Voice Search Marketing for more information.

With these tips in hand, you’re now ready to win your own Google Answer Box! Remember to implement all of these strategies as Google’s Answer Box feature is in a constant state of flux, with rankings and results changing overnight. Keeping yourself up-to-date with the latest trends in digital marketing, will enable you to rank higher, achieve a Featured snippet and sustain it for an extended period of time. Before you go, take a look at our informative video that further explains how to optimise your content for a Google Answer Box.


Less is more – a content marketing strategy that always works

  • Ayesha Rafeeq
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  • 31 October , 2017
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    • 4 min read

As the old saying goes, “Content is King” and the dynamic industry of digital marketing is not an exception to this universal notion. In today’s digital world, content marketing is the go-to marketing strategy to make your brand trend by targeting your audience and engaging them with your brand. However, it is a common theory to only associate blogs to content. Our minds have been tuned to the fact that good content can only be written in the form of chunks of text. But, in reality, there are many types of content, from catchy videos and hilarious gifs to stunning pictures and gripping podcasts. The plan is to engage your target audience through a means of information which they find interesting and which also promotes your brand in a subtle way.

Nevertheless, with the plethora of information available online at the mere click of a button, making your content rank in the first page of search engines with a strong SEO strategy is quite a herculean task. The key lies in creating content that your target group relates to and religiously promoting it in social media to reach out to your potential consumers. Good targeting will lead to higher engagement on the post, which will lead to a domino effect of it ultimately being flagged off as viral content.

That being said, brands have begun adding heaps and loads of content to their marketing plans. From expansive blogs to informative videos, they are leaving no stone unturned in making sure their brand is out there. But is that enough? Sure this will make the brand get out there but is it really “out there”?

How to make your content stand out?

The secret, to making content truly stand out of the oodles of information flooding the Internet, is to post limited information which is 10X better than what is already out there and is packed with the potential to go viral. However, the only way you can truly reach your audience is by vigorously promoting it. Splashing your content on various digital platforms through paid promotions and ads will boost your reach and also give it the push it needs to go viral. A viral post creates a lot of buzz in the target group and ultimately helps in generating leads for the business.

The “Less is More” content marketing strategy

At Social Beat, we religiously follow the “Less is more” content marketing strategy in which we focus on producing high-quality content to amplify on digital media rather than expansive quantities of average content. The idea is to create original and relatable content that also uplifts your brand name and gives it the recognition it deserves. The strategy involves the following approaches:

  • Creating content which can be used for research and reference
  • Gathering authentic information which is relatable and sharable
  • Long-form 10x content with focus on SEO
  • Vigorously promoting the content on social platforms

As per Buzzsumo, Brian Dean of Backlinko has executed this content strategy to great effect. Brian has published just 53 posts over the last five years, less than one a month. These posts have driven nearly 4m visitors to his site. The average shares and links per post are what most of us can only dream of: an average of 2,490 shares, and 275 links from unique domains, for each post.

The winning formula

One such post that went viral with a paid reach of 3,51,565 and an organic reach of 64,79,859 is an informative video for one of our clients from the finance sector. Since our client provides financial services, we engaged their target audience with an explanatory video on the money-saving lessons we can learn from an ant. With total ad spends of Rs. 5000, we reached a total of 68,31,424 people, with 21,65,549 video views and 93,241 shares on Facebook. Additionally, we also customized the ad by using a regional language to make it more relatable and simple for the target audience. This way, we struck gold by amplifying content through both content marketing and native advertising.

To sum it up, it is all about quality instead of quantity in the powerful world of content marketing. Creating engaging content and pushing it to go viral with vigorous promotions and effective ads can not only help in branding your company but also boosts your reputation and authority.

The old-school way of content marketing

Brands usually are under the misconception that the more content you create, the more visibility you’ll achieve. However, this is not true. Keeping the “Less is More” content strategy in mind, let’s take at a look at the current ad spends model of a company and the ways we can improvise on spending the same amount for a wider reach.

Current working model: 90% effort on Content Creation and 10% on Content Promotion

As per the current model, if Rs. 50,000 is allotted for content marketing, Rs. 40,000 of it is used for generating content, and Rs, 10,000 is used to promote posts on social media. Following is a rough estimate of the reach and total number of clicks tracked on a monthly basis:

 

Ad spends (FB Promotions) Rs 10,000
Content creation by Influencers Rs 40,000

Total

Rs 50000
Total no. of people reached 1,50,000
Total clicks 10,000

Suggested working model: 20% effort on Content creation and 80% effort on Content promotion

By applying the “Less is More” content marketing strategy, the brand will focus on reaching a wider set of audience and generating more leads with the same amount spent on promotions. The plan is to generate content of premium quality and authenticity and promote it on social media for a higher number of link clicks and prolonged engagement in the same budget.

Ad spends (FB Promotions) Rs 30,000
Content creation by Influencers Rs 20,000
Total Rs 50000
Total no. of people reached 4,50,000
Total clicks 30,000

With all the statistics mentioned above, it is safe to say that though creating gripping content will help you achieve your content marketing goals, the key lies in promoting it effectively. Creating a handful of relatable posts every month and promoting it vigorously on networking channels is the foolproof way of grabbing the attention of a visitor and converting them into a loyal customer.


10 Must Have SEO Plugins for WordPress

  • Sankar
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  • 13 September , 2017
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    • 3 min read

Having a blog has become mandatory for all organisations. However, with so many blogs out there, how do you ensure your blog is search engine friendly? The best way to do that is through SEO and content. If you are using a WordPress blog, here are 10 plugins that you should use.

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins for WordPress. It can handle almost all on page elements except markup data and schema tags.

Notable features included in this plug-ins are:

  • Title and Description
  • XML Sitemaps
  • Breadcrumbs
  • File Editor
  • SEO and Readability Score

If you are looking to install this plugin, read this step by step tutorial to set up this free SEO plugin.   

2. Accelerated mobile pages (AMP)

AMP is a project designed by Google and Twitter to make mobile pages to load quickly. AMP is a kind of Facebook Instant Articles. There are many plugins available to implement AMP in Wordpress sites. The best plugin for AMP in WordPress is "AMP for WP - Accelerated Mobile Pages." Once it is implemented, the page loads quickly, especially on mobile devices.

3. W3 Total Cache

Increasing the website speed is one of the key factors in ensuring your website ranks on Google. It increases the speed by serving static pages rather than dynamic content. The plugin optimises HTML, CSS, and JavaScript resources by compressing them and thereby ensuring the page loads fast.

4. All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets

All in one rich snippet is a free plugin, which currently has 79 5-star reviews from the WordPress community. This plugin is used basically to provide a summary of the page in the search results on Google, Yahoo, Bing and even in Facebook news feeds. It does so by using an interactive format with star ratings, author photo, image, etc. Many webmasters use this plugin to get higher rankings in search results.

5. ShortPixel Image Optimizer

ShortPixel Image Optimizer has over 50,000 Installs and the main motive of this plugin is to compress JPG, PNG, GIF and even PDF document. By doing so, it reduces the load time of the website and increases rankings of your website in search results. It also has the option to bulk optimize through media library. This plugin supports both HTTP and Https version of the website.

6. BJ Lazy Load

This plugin allows us to load your website quickly which is good for SEO. It replaces web site's post images, thumbnails, gravatar images and iframes with a placeholder & loads content as it gets close to enter the browser window when the visitor scrolls the page.

7. Rel Nofollow Checkbox

Using outbound and inbound links are extremely important for a blog post. However, when you use outbound links, it is important to make sure it is a nofollow link. The Rel Nofollow check box does exactly that. When you install this plugin, it gives you a checkbox in the insert/edit link popup for adding nofollow attributes.

8. Redirection

Redirection is a plugin for WordPress to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, full log report of 301 redirections. All URLs can be redirected with this plugin except the URL, which doesn't exist.

9. All In One WP Security & Firewall

Although Wordpress is secure on its own, it is a good idea to have a security plugin on your blog page. The plugin has numerous account security features such as password strengthening tool and has the ability to check if any of the accounts have an identical username of passwords. It also provides a security score, which will tell you how secure your website it is.

10. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)

Keeping people for as long as you can on your website is a great sign for better SEO. A low bounce rate is a hint that your users are finding value in your site and spending more time. One of the best ways to improve this area is to install Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. This plugin displays relevant post related to the current content. This will ensure the users are given interesting content to read and makes sure they spend more time on your site.

We hope this article helped you to get some ideas about must have SEO WordPress plugins every website should have.

This article was originally published in Business Line on Campus.

On Page SEO & Off Page SEO – Ultimate Checklist for 2019

  • Boobalakrishnan
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  • 10 June , 2017
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    • 11 min read

Creating a blog has become very important for every business. The actual challenge, though, comes when you are faced with the Herculean task of making your post pop up on the top page of all leading Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plays a pivotal role in spiking up your web page's ranking and making sure it receives the exposure it truly deserves. Read on for some foolproof techniques to optimise your page and drive all your targeted traffic right to it. You may also find it useful to view the Digital Bytes knowledge series on the Social Beat YouTube Channel.

On-Page SEO Checklist

Here is a list of on-page factors that matters the most:

Title Tag:

As per Google’s algorithm, the length of the title tag should be 55 to 60 characters. If it crosses this limit, only the first 60 characters will show up in the SERPs. So ensure that the title is crisp and conveys everything it needs to in the first 60 characters itself.

Meta Description:

Meta descriptions are often used to give us a brief explanation of the blog post. Make sure you include all the necessary keywords in the description. The length of the Meta description is limited to 155 to 160 characters. Similar to the title tag, even if the length of the Meta description crosses 160, only the first 160 characters will show up in the SERPs.

Craft a compelling title, meta description:

How Google displays your result determines whether people want to click on your listing or someone else's. The snippet is your opportunity to say, "Come click me instead of those other guys." If you can optimize this, both from a keyword perspective using the words and phrases that people want, as well as from relevancy.

URL Length:

Google identifies web pages mainly by the URL and the title. So, to rank higher on Google, you need use your focus keywords on your URL. Additionally, try making your URL as short and sweet as possible. Unless your post is an event-based blog, avoid mentioning the year in your URL as Google tends to categorise it as outdated content. This, in turn, decreases your ranking.

Heading (H1):

The heading of your blog post needs to be in the H1 tag and should contain the exact keyword match. This helps Googlebot in ranking your post as high as possible in SERPs.

Sub Headings (H2):

The subheadings of your blog post need to be in the H2 tag. If you are focusing on more than one set of keywords in your post, use the other keywords in your subheadings for better SERP ranking.

Use LSI keywords in the body and headings:

Once you have completed your keyword research, perform a Google search for those keywords. This will give you a set of keywords, under the top results, titled “Searches related to”. These keywords are called Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords and are the most frequently used keywords by visitors. Using these keywords in your content and heading will rank your post better.

Keyword Research:

In addition to the primary and secondary keywords that we mostly target in our optimization efforts, the of LSI keywords in the content will help users understand better by getting answers to their problems for the respective search queries and aid in ranking.

Find what Google believes to be relevant to the keyword searches:

The first thing is to figure out what Google considers to be related to the keywords searches. What does Google think is the content that will answer this searcher's query? You're trying to figure out intent, the type of content that's required, and whatever missing pieces might be there. If you can find the gap and fill that gap with answering the ‘what’ they expected in that search query, this will help to improve the ranking position

Keyword Density:

Keyword Density is the number of times your focus keyword has been used in your content. A high-ranking post should primarily have a keyword density of 1.5% based on its length.

Use Multimedia (Image, Video and Infographics):

All Digital Marketers know that content is king. It keeps the visitors engaged in the post and has the potential to make a post go viral. To keep your visitors glued to your blog, make sure you give out more information in a lesser span of time. Images, videos and infographics are your best bet, as they help in better understanding of the content.

Content Google can easily crawl and parse:

Google’s bot should be capable of understanding the content that is on the page in a readable text format.  To recognize images and visuals, videos or embeds or anything else that you've got on the page, use them in a way that they are going to help the bot index them.

Alt tag:

The images in your blog post play a vital role in ranking your page as well. Insert the keywords in the alt-text used to describe the images to make them show up on Google searches and, in turn, rank your page higher on Google.

Use Keywords in first two lines (within 100 words):

Apart from the fact that your keywords need to be frequently used in your post, the placement of the keywords is also important for better SEO. Use your keywords in first 100 words of your content for higher SERP ranking.

Use Outbound Links

Outbound links give Google a better understanding of your content based on the links provided to other web pages.

Use Internal Links:

Internal links help in keeping your users engaged in the blog by providing old links related to the current article within the same website.

Content is King:

Quality and quantity are both important for good content. A blog post without any one of these will not help in keeping users engaged, which will lead to a decrease in SERP ranking over the course of time. To understand this concept better, let's take the example of Alice and Bob. Alice's blog is ranked in the first position, but her content lacks quality whereas Bob's blog is currently ranked in the 4th position, but his content keeps his users engaged for a long time. Google will analyse this behaviour and automatically rank Bob's blog higher than Alice's due to better content.

HTTPS for domain

Using HTTPS for your blog will make it secured. It also helps in increasing your visitors’ confidence and trust in your content.

Responsive Design:

As per the latest Google algorithm, a web page needs to have a good responsive design, to adapt to all platforms such as mobiles and tablets.

Site Speed:

The speed at which a web page loads fully is of paramount importance. Site speed should not be compromised by data speed.  You could have the latest website design, but if your site does not load quickly, you will lose you customer then and there. So improving your sites page speed should be of utmost importance.

Page load time is essential for better ranking:

Content, visuals, and UX are great aspects of a page. But in the case of  poor loading time of your web page, the purpose to retain a user is lost. Hence, constantly keeping a close watch on the speed of your website is important. The faster it is, the easier it is for the user the navigate through the site.

Robots.txt:

Robots.txt helps to block unwanted information in the web page.

XML sitemap:

When Google indexes the page, it can be seen in the XML sitemap through the following links:

  •     domain.com/sitemap.xm
  •     domain.com/sitemap_index.xml

On-page Grader:

The on-page grader is a Moz tool to ensure your web page is optimised. It gives you a closer insight into the things which need to be done to get a grade A web page. The tool focuses on the following factors to get a higher SERP ranking.

  •   Checks the accessibility to search engines
  •   Avoids keyword stuffing in document
  •   Avoids keyword stuffing in page title
  •   Avoids multiple page title elements
  •   Checks broad keyword usage in page title
  •   Checks if the exact keyword is used in the document text at least once
  •   Checks only one canonical URL
  •   Checks for sufficient characters in content
  •   Checks for sufficient words in content
  •   Checks if the exact keyword is used in page title
  •   Checks if the keyword is at the beginning of page title
  •   Checks for keywords in image alt attribute
  •   Checks keywords in the Meta description
  •   Checks optimal page title length
  •   Checks optimal use of keywords in H1 tags
  •   Checks if URL uses only standard characters
  •   Checks if external links are used
  •   Checks if keywords are used in your URL
  •   Checks the Meta Descriptions
  •   Use Static URLs
  •   Avoids keyword stuffing in the URL
  •   Avoids too many external links
  •   Avoids too many internal links
  •   Includes a rel canonical tag
  •   Minimises URL length
  •   Only one Meta description
  •   Optimal Meta description length

For example, on-page SEO is optimised for this URL http://backlinko.com/on-page-seo is B grade

Structured Data Error:

Structured data error is a webmaster error. Fixing this error is also one of the effective ways of optimising your website. Though this is not a ranking factor, it helps in eradicating all errors on the website.

Mobile Usability Error:

Fixing the mobile usability error is of utmost importance as the Google Penguin update gives more priority to mobile devices and most of the traffic driven to a website is through mobile. Fixing this error addresses the following concerns:

  •     Clickable elements too close
  •     Content wider than screen
  •     Viewport not set
  •     Text too small to read

Html Improvements:

These errors can be found under the "HTML improvements" tag in "Search Console". These errors pop up when the title and meta description are missing and a duplicate title and meta description is placed on the web page.

Advanced On-Page SEO Checklist:

Once the above-mentioned checklist is completed, you can work on the advanced on-page checklist for advanced content optimisation for more traffic and higher rankings.

Answer Related Questions:

First, find the related questions appearing in SERPs by using your focus keyword. Then, write the relevant answers for those questions. To understand this better, let's take Alice and Bob’s example again. Alice is ranking in the first position but she didn’t answer any related questions. Bob, on the other hand, is ranking in the 10th position but he has answered the related questions. So, his website pops up in the top position without ranking and gets more traffic as well.

Knowledge Panel:

This panel is mainly obtained from human edited data, like Wikipedia. It appears on the right side of the Google results page.

Local Pack:

While showing results for the focus keyword, Google lists the location on Google maps. So, if your business location is already marked on Google Maps, it is more beneficial for you.

Reviews:

Sometimes reviews with stars and ratings are displayed in SERPs when your business is related to products of a particular kind.

Image Pack:

Images are displayed as results when Google sees the need for visual content. To display your image in those results follow these useful pointers:

  •     Descriptive file name
  •     Descriptive alt text
  •     Human-readable URL
  •     Optimised image size
  •     Title attribute included

Twitter Card:

In 2015, Google began displaying tweets directly in Google results, mixed in with organic results.

Open Graph:

In open graph, Google displays your results with concerned social media links, like Facebook. Open graph meta tags allow you to control what content shows up when a page is shared on Facebook.

Breadcrumb:

Breadcrumbs provide better navigation within the web page. Using this in your blog will also help in better Google ranking.

Search Box:

At times, Google will present you with the ability to do a search within the pages of a website, directly from the results page. When doing so, Google will offer a search box under the results description with the word "Search" followed by the name of the website displayed in light grey.

Site Links:

To help refine your search, Google may display the featured pages of a site as independent and clickable links within the result. Displayed under the result's description, these links take you directly to a page within the site.

AMP (Mobile):

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are an open source initiative from Google that focuses on enhancing the speed of a mobile page. It uses stripped-down variations of a web page to improve its performance and can be identified with a lightning symbol in the top right corner. If your blog page has AMP, it will load extremely quickly. Since page speed is of utmost importance, AMP is crucial for all blog pages.

 Custom 404 Page:

A 404 page is what your target audience lands on when they click a broken link. This is a non-existent page. Your server will throw a standard 404 error, however, that is not the most attractive one for users. A custom 404 page can be branded with your site to provide helpful information.

Off-Page SEO Checklist

Local Listing:

Listing your business with Google is a great way to ensure that people can see you on the internet. This helps with local SEO and when we build backlinks in specific regional listings, Google will understand which region is targeted.

Social Bookmarking:

Social bookmarking sites are the best way to promote any website, event or brand in a shorter span of time. Marking a link to social bookmarking sites plays a very effective role in creating traffic and getting higher ranking in SERPs.

Some of the most popular social bookmarking sites are StumbleUpon, Scoop it, Reddit, Youmob, Pearltrees and Savenkeep to name a few.

Image Submission:

Image sharing sites help in improving your website traffic. If you are optimising your content, then it's only for the web search. But nowadays image search is also improving, so people have begun to submit their images to image sharing sites. Mentioned below are a few good high PR image sharing sites, which will help you improve backlinking through images:

  •     Instagram
  •     Flickr
  •     Pinterest
  •     Tumblr

Audio Submission:

Uploading audio files is another prime SEO activity which is useful in promoting your website. You can backlink these files to high PR audio sharing websites for effective SEO. Few of the audio sharing websites are mentioned below:

  •     SoundCloud
  •     Podbean
  •     Podmatic
  •     Mobypicture

Video Submission:

Video submission is one of the most prominent and powerful methods of promoting a website. While uploading a relevant video, make sure the title and description contain the focus keyword for better ranking. Few examples of video submission sites are:

  •     Myspace
  •     Flickr
  •     Dailymotion
  •     Vimeo

Web 2.0:

You can create a blog and directly post it on high PR Web 2.0 sites. Getting natural backlinks is one of the key SEO strategies to increase traffic and, eventually, the ranking of a website or blog. There are many sources of natural backlinks, which are favoured by Google. They include High Pagerank Dofollow web 2.0 websites, such as:

  •     Blogger
  •     Weebly
  •     Wordpress
  •     Hubpages

Profile Creation Sites:

Profile linking websites have improved the level of engagement of users. They offer much better distinctiveness and enable the visitors to interact with the website in an easier manner. Profile creation is a method which offers a brand new strategy to SEO professionals for the best SEO services and link building services. They also significantly provide a more substantial perspective to present creativeness as well as improved the interaction standard of audiences. It is extremely simple to make a "Dofollow" profile backlink.

Classified Submission:

High PR classified submission sites are an easier way to generate leads and promote your products online. Classified submission sites are very effective for link building, boosting the ranking in search engines and generating more leads for your business.

PPT Submission:

There are lots of benefits in using PPT sharing sites. You can easily share your PDF files online on these high PR PPT submission websites. These highly authoritative PPT Sharing and submission sites are frequently updated on a regular and daily basis. That's why search engines like to crawl these sites more often. Getting do-follow backlinks from PPT submission sites will get your targeted keywords optimised, and it will help in increasing your site visibility in search engines.

Participate in Quora:

Quora is a great way to drive traffic and get backlinks to your blog. The Quora community consists of an incredibly large number of users discussing a wide variety of subjects and topics. If you haven't yet, then you should join Quora right away and start participating in discussions. You can start replying to questions and mention a post of your blog or the homepage of your blog, as long as it is relevant to the question.

Next Level in Off-Page SEO

1. Question and Answer sites:

Question and answer sites are great to get some relatable insight into issues which are too specific to perform a Google search. For example, if you want to know the reviews of a product, you can Google it and get a pool of information and a wide range of websites to refer to. This information might tend to get too generic and may not be able to address your concern to the point. Question and Answer sites, on the other hand, give you a more personalised response based on other user experiences. However, it does have a drawback of not providing certified information, like in the case of medical scenarios. Nevertheless, it is a useful platform to get relatable responses from users based on prior encounters.

2. Guest Blogging:

Google provides an abundance of opportunities for guest posts. You can use any other of the following combinations on Google to find blogs which are open to guest posts. Just type in your focus keywords followed by any of the below-mentioned words to get a list of blogs you can post into as a guest:

  •     Guest post
  •     Guest post guidelines
  •     Submit a guest post     

3. Comment linking:

Building backlinks by commenting on other relevant websites and get the benefits of both traffic and rankings.

4. Competitor Backlinks:

Steal your competitor's backlinks by using tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic and SEO Spyglass. Spying on your competitor's backlinks can give you an idea of what domains are linking to their posts and thus you can target those sources too.

5. (.edu and .gov) Backlinks:

.Edu and .Gov Backlinks are high-quality backlinks. These backlinks are helpful in building more backlinks

  •     Backlinks can bring in highly targeted, valuable traffic from referring websites.
  •     Backlinks are great for branding in the sense that they get your target audience familiar with seeing your brand associated with the products or services that they are looking for.
  •     Backlinks give the impression that you're an authority in your given industry.

6. Broken Link Building:

Dropmylink will help you find broken links. Here are some search strings you can use organically:

keyword + “resources”

keyword + intitle:resources

keyword + intitle:blogroll

keyword + “blogroll”

site:.gov keyword + “links”

site:.edu keyword + “recommended sites”

keyword + “related links”

SEO is an ever changing, however, these On-page and Off-page SEO techniques will help you stay ahead in the game and help your blog rank.  


One Page Website SEO Tips

  • Nikhar Aggarwal
  • |
  • 22 April , 2017
  • |
    • 4 min read

One page websites are becoming the talk of the town as many companies are switching to these. But what do they mean? Are they search friendly? What should you do to rank them high on Google? You will have all such questions. So let’s take them one by one.

What is a Single Page Website?

A single page website aims to provide minimalist but just enough information for a user to make a decision and act upon it. It has no additional pages and tries to remove all the complexity and varied user journey that a multi-page website would have. A single page website drives the user’s attention to the most relevant content. Various real estate companies like Mahindra Lifespaces, Baashyaam Constructions and Ramcons are taking its resort. However, you can have additional pages such as Terms & Conditions page, Privacy Policy, Refunds, Returns  & Shipping pages, options for alternative languages. These links can be embedded in the footer of the web page.

 

 

Pros & Cons of a Single Page Website

Pros:

  1. Mobile responsiveness is better as scrolling works for the mobile phone and the user experience is simple and efficient.
  2. You can show the entire journey you want the user to experience through a single page.
  3. Controlling the flow of information is easier, and you can focus on a particular product or service
  4. You can incorporate a lot of images to make it visually attractive.

Cons:

  1. Excessive scrolling can be a challenge if there is too much content on a single page.
  2. Website speed is an extremely critical factor. Depending on how the site is built, the load time can be longer.
  3. Difficult to measure, which content section drives visitors to your web page.
  4. One page web pages are not user-friendly for blog-centric companies.
  5. Not great for SEO as you only have the opportunity of one URL showing up in search results.

How to rank Single Page Website?

  • Content Section

Since it is a one-page website, your content needs to be extraordinary, with a lot of images for the audience to be hooked on to it.  However, make sure there is enough content, and the readability is not compromised. Also, keep the content updated and fresh, as that is what Google loves. You can keep a navigation bar for various sections on the top so that the visitor can directly jump to that position rather than scrolling through the entire page.

  • Exercise DIVs for different content sections

One of the best practices when it comes to coding for a one-page website is to have separate div for different content sections.  It makes the code look organised and neat. These div id names do not directly improve the search engine rank but help indirectly through the anchor tags.

<div id="overview">...content...</div>

<div id="amenities">...content...</div>

<div id="gallery">...content...</div>

<div id="floor plan">...content...</div>

  • Use Anchor Links

Anchor links will help the visitor navigate to a particular portion of the web page. These will create search engine friendly URL on your web page. You can also create anchor text backlinks on the site, on your blogs as below.

<div id="overview">...content...</div>

//Creating its anchor link

<a href=”overview”>Overview</a>

//backlink example
<a href=“http://ramcons.in/#amenities”>Amenities</a>

  • Employ multiple H1 Tags and other on page factors

Paginate your content using various H1 headers and forms. This technique will control the flow of information, and they will also act as keywords for our page. Hence they will help in SEO. You can also look at our detailed blog on the On Page SEO factors that matter to see how you can employ some of these techniques for your web page.

  • Encourage linking to social media

Social media does matter for SEO, and hence it is a good idea to link to various social media platforms so that you can reach out to a larger audience for online marketing. You can also implement various other link building methods, which are listed on our blog.

Some additional interesting facts

Bounce rates could be high for a single page website because Google Analytics will not account for numerous page views unless you refresh the page.

Single page websites may not be useful for every business, but they are quite appealing and create unique user experience altogether. You can use such tricks to rank your page higher.

Do share your views and suggestions in the comments section and if you have more hacks to rank the single page website higher, feel free to share with us.


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