idealmike
Level X3
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SEO ain't what it used to be! Back 5+ years ago you could build a few links here, a few there and get listed on the first page quite easily. Those days are over now and that doesn't happen quite as easy in 2016 as it did before back in the naughties! While backlinks are still pretty much the ultimate deciding factor, there's a lot more that's taken into consideration now before your site is ranked high. So if you're starting out in SEO for the first time, here's 10 effective evergreen SEO tips to get better search engine ranking with in 2016 and beyond.
1. Keyword Research Helps
Keyword research is vital if you want to know what the competition is like for the things you want to rank for. Because you don't want to try and rank for things that have no search volume and are not in high demand. And you might not want to try ranking for something that has too much competition. So you may want to know what keywords have low competition but have a high search volume that you can target with your website. Google's Keyword Planner Tool (adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner) will help you to find these. Just start searching your keywords you're trying to target and it will tell how much in demand they are and how much competition there is. However, this is only an estimate of those values and cannot be taken as gospel. Many times it may say some keyword phrase gets 500k per month but really it could be half that depending on demand at any one time. What you can do is use Google's Trends Tool (google.com/trends) and see what the trends rise or decline is for that keyword phrase. This tool is a bit more accurate as it collates data over a longer period of time but doesn't show you all the same things that Google's Keyword Planner Tool would so use it alongside to get more information about what you're trying to target.
2. Your Content Counts
It really goes without saying, despite all the times that it's said now. Google prefers unique content and it is much smarter at knowing the difference between what is well written content and what is plagiarized. So to get that preference you need to make sure that all your content is always completely unique and has high quality as possible. Also it has been proven over and over again that Google prefers content that has more content to it than other sites that don't. In fact its shown that pages that have over 1000-1500 words of content rank higher than those sites that have less. It seems if you have more to say on a subject Google rewards you for that and that equates to more traffic, more sales, business and earnings for you as a webmaster. So put that extra work in and make it count!
3. Bounce Rate Counts
Google knows how long people spend on your site and how fast they click the back button to return to the search results. If that is happening fast and people are bouncing off your site fast without spending much time on it then that is an indicator to Google that your site isn't interesting to them and didn't provide them anything they were looking for and they don't want to provide those sites to the searcher. So if that is happening on your site you need to look into why. It could be that your site just doesn't look very nice and isn't easy to use/navigate. But with most sites using a modern theme of some sort these days that's probably not the main reason. The main reason would be because your content is just not good enough for the searcher and they leave looking for it elsewhere. Having a high bounce rate can show Google that your site isn't very good for the user and will mean that it will rank it less highly because of that. So if you have to, make changes to your sites look, beef up your content so its much better and has more meat to it. Talking of meat, good quality content is like a good cooked meal, first you have your meat, then your potatoes and then the three veg's. With extra trimmings like Yorkshire puddings and pigs in blankets representing the other parts of your content.
4. Related Backlinks Count
Any good SEO will tell you that at the end of the day, it's backlinks that get a site ranking high in the SERP's and as such is the number #1 way to getting higher ranking positions. However it's all about the quality of those backlinks and how related they are to your niche or industry too. Having links from sites in the same niche/industry as yours is one way that Google can see what your site is about and that it's considered popular by that group of people because they are linking to it from their site. After all, a backlink is essentially a vote and the more votes your site has from sites in your industry, the more importance Google is going to place on it and thus provide better rankings from it. But getting backlinks from sites in the same niche as yours is no easy feat. Especially considering that the best ones might actually be your competitors sites and they're not going to want to help you. However you can still find lots of forums and blogs and good web directories in your niche that are worth using to build related backlinks to your site. An example would be if you run a site on traveling, you would want to join travel forums and use them in a way to create links to your site from threads/posts, signature links etc. Just like you would want to find related blogs that you can comment on. While blogs mostly no follow your link, you can still get an anchor and provided they are related to your niche/industry can be worth their weight in gold.
5. Internal Links Count Too
Good internal link structure is often very overlooked by webmasters and is one of the first things an SEO would look at before making on-page SEO suggestions. Just like you would want to link to your site using some keyword phrase elsewhere for the benefit it can bring, you should adopt the same practice when it comes to your internal linking as well. Putting emphasis on some of your main contents keywords and linking to them as well as to other posts/pages that are related which can direct traffic and readers to your old posts bringing new traffic and life blood to them. Having an SEO friendly site structure will improve your sites CTR (Click Through Rate) and help to make your site more engaging for the readers who can visit other pages of relative interest.
6. Making Good Use of Header Tags
Making good use of header tags is important if you want search engines to know what part of your content is for what and which parts of it have more importance over the rest. For example, the most important part about the main part of it all is the title or header title <h1> tag and wrapping them in the h1 tag can tell search engines it's the title of the page. Then there are other header tags you may want to use further down in your content such as h2, h3 or h4 etc for sub-headings or for conclusions at the end can help to separate the content into different parts which can improve readership and help you to rank for your main keywords and synonyms of those by using them in the header tags.
7. Provide a Sitemap
Sitemaps are very useful both for people and search engines. By having a sitemap which is basically an XML file that lists all your sites pages or posts etc in a structured way that enables search engines to better crawl and index your site. They're also very helpful for people who may be looking for a shortcut to something on your site or for seeing the general overall layout of all your sites pages or posts etc. A sitemap can also be submitted to Google's Webmaster Tools which will also aid in and speed up the crawling and indexing of your website by Google. They aren't the be all and end all to your on-page SEO but in this case it's far better to have one and not need it than it is to need it and not have one.
8. Leveraging Social Media
These days with social media so prevalent and and so widely available to everybody, people don't just use a search engine like Google to look stuff up, they actually search for it on social media sites as well to see what's trending today using things like #hashtags. So you will want to leverage social media to your advantage. This would involve having and maintaining a Facebook Page to a Twitter account, Pinterest account, LinkedIn account, Tumblr blog and so on. Of course you will want to post all your sites articles and things to your social media accounts and use #hashtags in them that are related to whatever it is your site is about. And then you will want to promote these social media posts as well so that they get shared/reshared on other peoples social media accounts. The more the merrier! It will help you to attract and gain more visitors, clients, customers, sales & revenue for your site.
9. Video Marketing
In case you didn't know, video marketing has surpassed any other form of marketing today. It's increased in popularity exponentially over the past few years and is the number one method that IM's use to promote, market and advertise their sites, services, products and offers. It's because more people are using videos now to get tips and recommendations on which product or service to use. There is something much more "real" about videos than there are just plain text articles no matter how pretty the font is or what it says. However video marketing is also very underused by webmasters as a way to advertise and gain more traffic with mainly because they don't know how to make the videos or have the time to learn to. But it doesn't require a steep learning curve and one can get a very high quality video made on virtually anything you can think of today thanks to place like SEOClerks. Just visit the Video marketing category and sort by top rated to see that you can have high quality professional videos made for you for from as low as $5. At that price you can create a lot of nice videos which when optimized can go on to receive many views and send you much traffic as well as build brand awareness and credibility. Don't overlook video marketing in 2016 if you want to see more success for your website or business.
10. Newsletter Marketing
The power is in the list! Do you remember when you used to get excited about receiving an email? When the classic "you've got email" notification would go off? I do! However emails aren't met with the same trepidation as they used to be and these days are quickly marked as spam or bogged down amongst hundreds of other emails you've received that day. But that's not to say that email marketing via a newsletter subscription is not worth doing. On the contrary, provided they have subscribed to your email newsletter list their self then they are much likelier to receive it and read it. In fact email marketing by newsletter is another largely underused and overlooked marketing method by even many big websites. But newsletter marketing is said to be responsible for over 60% of purchases by the receiver because of the email itself. Newsletters can help you to establish yourself as an authority on your subject and and keep your readers engaged at the same time as driving traffic to your site, products or services. So start collecting those subscribers today! Put a subscription form on your site, on your important pages and in thank you pages etc. Collect and start building your list because it can prove to be a very valuable alternative resource of traffic and sales.
Conclusion
Because SEO is an ever-changing thing, constantly evolving and shifting, you need to roll with those changes so that you're only doing SEO that is applicable for today. You don't want to be doing things that don't work anymore. So these are some effective evergreen SEO tips for you that should still apply in 10+ years time just like they do today.
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TommyCarey
I've bought plenty of services here on SeoClerks and I definitely have a list that I always buy from when I launch a new website. I'll do all the on page optimization and then outsource the work I don't have time to do. And I'll always have a month long campaign of tier 2 links going just so the juice is continuously flowing.
I agree that content is king. I always update my main websites with fresh content each month, sometimes I fall behind, but I try to do at least one post a week lol
Fresh content + Good backlinks + Active social profiles = A Good SEO Presence
Just be active in your website and it will treat you well down the road
Thanks,
Razzy Oh man, I remember back in the day when I could do a few campaigns a month and be ranked for a while. Now you have to be super involved in every campaign and I don't think a lot of people understand that. Sure you can outsource a lot of the work, but if the service provider isn't treating your website like his/her own, you won't see much difference in the search results. I've bought plenty of services here on SeoClerks and I definitely have a list that I always buy from when I launch a new website. I'll do all the on page optimization and then outsource the work I don't have time to do. And I'll always have a month long campaign of tier 2 links going just so the juice is continuously flowing. I agree that content is king. I always update my main websites with fresh content each month, sometimes I fall behind, but I try to do at least one post a week lol :D Fresh content + Good backlinks + Active social profiles = A Good SEO Presence Just be active in your website and it will treat you well down the road :) Thanks, Razzy
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