Generate Keywords Using Autocomplete

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Did you know you don’t have to invest in expensive paid SEO tools to find high-quality keywords? Google offers a lot of free tools that leverage its swathes of data. One of these is Google Autocomplete.

Aside from predicting your queries and saving your time from typing long queries, the autocomplete tool is also useful in generating long-tail keywords. Here, we will teach you how to use it through simple steps.

Google Autocomplete

Google Autocomplete is also known as Google Suggest and it was launched in 2008. The tool works by using an algorithm that predicts what the searcher is looking for and presents them with a list of results. Crucially, it tailors these suggestions based on the region of the searcher and their search history.

How to generate keywords using this tool

Step 1. Think of your base keyword

You need to have a base keyword to start. This should be relevant to your industry. So it could be “wedding photographer”, “pizza restaurant” or “yoga mat”.

Step 2. Add your location if it’s relevant

If you are a local business, you may also wish to add your location to the base query. This will tailor results to your area. So you might search for “wedding photographers in Chicago”.

Step 3. Shuffle word orders

You can shuffle up the order of words, too, so that you have several unique phrases to use. For example, you could also use “Chicago wedding photographers” or “wedding Chicago photographers”.

Step 4. Choose from the suggestions at the bottom of the results

Next, enter your phrases into Google, hit search and then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you’ll find a list of suggestions from Google that play on your base keyword. If you want even more suggestions, click on each suggestion and you’ll get even more at the bottom of those pages.

Step 5: Type through

If you aren’t generating keywords around a particular location, you can use the coolest feature of Google’s search engine. Start typing a base keyword into the search bar and Google will start to generate a list of suggestions automatically. This is a brilliant and tried and tested way of finding high-quality long-tail keywords. And because Google suggests them, you can bet that other people are searching for them. Keep typing to get even more or click on them to get the list of suggested searches at the bottom of the page.

Additional tip: Want to generate a list of keywords for other search engines like Bing, Amazon or YouTube? Use Soovle.com, it’s free and easy to use.

Create a keyword list

Stay organized by creating a spreadsheet and adding in all of the suggestions while you search. That way you can track what you have and haven’t searched for and quickly filter out keywords that aren’t useful.

Can I use all keywords from Google Autocomplete?

Of course you can, what’s stopping you? A word of warning, however. We recommend going through each of the keywords one by one and analyzing them for traffic levels and competitiveness. Some are going to be very competitive and others are going to get no traffic. You don’t want to waste your time on these keywords.

Final words

Google Autocomplete is awesome and it’s not just for normal Google users. SEO experts and business owners should absolutely use it to find even more keywords.

Things You Should Know About Sitemaps

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Sitemaps are an essential part of SEO. Having one on your website ensures that every page of it will be indexed properly by search engines. Despite that, many site owners neglect to have a sitemap at all, thinking they can do without one. If you don’t think it’s worth creating a sitemap or if you haven’t created one yet, understand the following points.

XML isn’t the only sitemap format

Many people incorrectly think that XML is the only sitemap form. It isn’t. There are many others like the Google News Sitemap, which is used exclusively by the news media.

On top of these two, there is also RSS feeds, which are used by huge content sites that create new content regularly. There is also a thing called an mRSS feed, which is used for video content. Finally, you can even have XML sitemaps in other languages, which are essential if your site is in more than one language.

You’re not supposed to add all URLs

When creating a sitemap, be aware that you don’t need to add every single page of your website to it. You may have duplicate pages, for example, or pages that are hidden behind paywalls or for members only. None of these need to be included in your site map. Neither do your privacy policies your error messages or any other content that is not essential for readers.

Sitemaps don’t always apply for all websites

We may have said that sitemaps are key for SEO, but that doesn’t mean that every website needs one. Yes, if you have a large website or you regularly publish content, you definitely need a sitemap.

That being said, if your site is very small or even on-page, you probably don’t need a sitemap for Google to index it correctly. You may also not need a sitemap if you use a company like Wix to create your site. That’s because they may create a sitemap for you.

While you’ll want to create sitemap to help Google index your site, you don’t need to make it searchable on Google. That means you can use the robot.txt file to keep it hidden and make sure only Google will find it.

You should keep your sitemap private

While you’ll want to create sitemap to help Google index your site, you don’t need to make it searchable on Google. That means you can use the robot.txt file to keep it hidden and make sure only Google will find it.

If your website is large and very content heavy, it can be a real advantage keeping your sitemap private. A cool trick to achieve this is to change the URL of your sitemap from the default setting of /sitemap.xml. Of course, remember to resubmit your new sitemap location to Google so that it knows where to look.

Know the limits

Sitemaps can’t be as big as you like. They shouldn’t have more than 50,000 URLS, for instance, and they can’t be bigger than 50MB. Most sites will never have to worry about this. But if your site is that large, then you are allowed to split your sitemap into two sitemaps. There is also a limit of 500 sitemaps to Google, but again this isn’t something you have to worry about.

What Site Owners Need to Know About Site Analysis

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Site analysis is a necessary process when it comes to SEO. It’s the only way to know if your site is worthy to rank for the keywords that you target. Site analysis should be completed both before and after keyword research to ensure your chances of outranking a competitor and gaining organic traffic.

In this post, we will discuss what site analysis is and what website owners have to know about it.

An introduction to site analysis

Site analysis is about knowing where your website stands when it comes to SEO. It can also involve taking a peek at your competitor’s websites to know what they are up to and whether you can beat them.

Good site analysis will be almost as in-depth as a complete SEO audit. As a result, you’ll have a clear idea of what needs to improve with your site, which pages are best and how you can move it forward. Armed with this knowledge, you can regain rankings or outrank your competitors.

Aside from that, site analysis should also include performance testing, page speed testing, competition check, and traffic analysis. Take note that when it comes to traffic, big numbers don’t always signify excellent conversions. Some website owners will be surprised that they have low-quality traffic after a site analysis.

Tips for site analysis

Check website speed

The first thing you have to do is to check your website’s speed for the first byte. If it’s taking longer than three seconds, you have work to do. It could be reducing the file size of your multimedia content, fixing broken links, using lazy load, and other things. Take note that website speed is a major ranking factor in Google. You have to ensure that your visitor will not get bored waiting for your pages to pop.

Conduct competitive analysis

Competitive analysis involves taking a look at your competitor’s website. This way, you can identify the potential threat to your business and the opportunities you have for your website.

Consider this as part of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for your website. Through that, you can craft a better SEO plan to soar past your competitors.

Audit your SEO

If you don’t have an idea about how your SEO efforts fare, an audit is long due. Check your backlinks, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, keywords, content, and so on. If you haven’t published or updated with new content for months, it’s time to craft a new post.

Know your traffic

Like we mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t be tricked by the size of your website traffic. Some sites may have moderate traffic but still convert better than those with higher traffic. Always aim for high-quality traffic with warm leads as these people are more likely to get converted. To do this, you have to revamp your SEO and PPC campaigns with better keywords.

Know more about behavior analytics

Behavior analytics refers to analyzing what your visitors are doing on your website. This includes calculating the average dwell time on your pages. That way, you can shift your content and SEO efforts to leverage the result of the analysis.

Final words

Knowing what’s happening on your website is important, much more so for e-commerce businesses. Consider site analysis like your routine doctor’s checkup. That way, you can diagnose errors even before it becomes a big problem on your site.

Some of the Best Link Building Techniques to Use in 2020

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Link building is one of the basic tenets of good SERP ranking. So if you’re focusing on this SEO aspect for this year, the following techniques are the best to use. Each one offers a unique way to earn backlinks and other linking benefits for your website.

Linking through guest posts

Although it’s quite time-consuming and difficult to perform, linking through guest posts is probably the most efficient method you can use. This can attract readers without being too salesy and forceful of your efforts.

Make sure that you write for your readers, not just the search engine. Also, proofread your work and make sure that it’s grammatically sound. If you’re running out of ideas, AnswerThePublic.com and UberSuggest are some of the tools you can use to generate keywords and topics.

Educational content

Educational content like “how-tos” are the widely searched queries over the web. It provides immediate and free information to your readers. Also, website owners who find your content relevant to their pages will likely link back.

One word of warning: this tactic is as time-consuming as the first. But it can be really effective.

Internal linking

Aside from getting external backlinks, you should also link within your pages. This way, you can spread out the traffic of your top-performing pages. Also, it helps your site visitors navigate through your website.

Don’t go crazy with internal links, however. A few links per page can be enough to have a big impact on your rankings. Too many links could actually be detrimental to your efforts.

Offer an affiliate program

If you want to gather as many backlinks any website can muster, an affiliate program would be an unbeatable option. This isn’t as time-consuming as other techniques, but it yields the highest possible returns.

It takes a little bit of upfront work, however. You’ll need to create a commission structure, a marketing strategy and a management system. You’ll also need to recruit affiliates, too.

Private Blog Networks (PBN)

PBNs have been around for a long time and there’s quite a long-standing argument about their legality in the eyes of Google. Basically, Google bans PBNs so you have to be cautious when using this tactic. You have to keep your PBN links as natural as possible so the search engine won’t flag it as suspicious. Also, PBNs are quite time-consuming. You have to purchase a domain and hosting service, not to mention writing the blog entries.

Offer a free tool

Have you ever wondered why some websites will offer a free tool instead of asking for a fee? Well, a free tool is actually a tried and tested goldmine of backlinks.

This will give you high-quality traffic as well as solid backlinks.

Be a guest on a podcast

Lastly, consider becoming a guest on a relevant podcast. Audio content is much easier to digest than written content. So from time to time, try to get into a podcast or start a podcast of your own. Just make sure that the content is engaging and worthy of your followers’ time. Above all, make sure that your host links back to your website in their show notes.

The Basics of On-Page SEO

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On-page search engine optimization (SEO) is an integral process of optimizing the content within the page.

Unlike off-page SEO, on-page SEO happens within your website. It covers all the content on your website as well as its technical components, including sitemaps, robot.txt. file, meta data and so on.

In this post, we will take you through the basics of on-page SEO. Take note that even a working knowledge of your website builder is enough to start optimizing your site.

Why is on-page SEO important?

On-page SEO is an indispensable component of SEO. This way, your audience will find your pages navigable, engaging, and easy to find.

The best thing about on-page SEO is that you have complete control over it. What you get out of it is directly impacted by what you put in.

On-page SEO factors

On-page SEO is composed of various steps as well as 12 factors that will affect your page’s ranking, both directly and indirectly.

These factors include your site’s architecture, how easy it is to crawl, how many links point to your site, whether it is mobile friendly and whether it as an SSL certificate. It also includes your site’s CTR, how easy it is to read and how optimized your images and content are.

Also, if there’s one thing we can consider the lifeblood of on-page SEO, it would be keyword optimization. You have to optimize your keywords as naturally as possible. You have to satisfy these factors on your pages to increase your website’s success in ranking higher.

How often should you do on-page SEO

The answer to this depends on what SEO factor you have in mind. Factors like using an SSL certificate and page structure can be done at once and then automated for the rest of your website’s life.

On the other hand, some factors have to be done regularly, especially in terms of updating your content. Also, you should include on-page SEO as part of your yearly site audit to maintain its health.

Should I perform on-page SEO?

Even if you have a top ranking website, you should still perform on-page SEO. This way, you can maintain your footing on the SERPs. Even if you’re not an SEO expert, you can perform most of the on-page steps needed to satisfy the factors mentioned above.

Any website owner should dedicate their time to on-page SEO and not just off-page SEO. If you really want to rank and have the utmost exposure, you should exhaust all possible means of impressing search engines.

Take note that some on-page SEO factors are also major ranking factors in Google. Some of these include website security (the use of SSL certificate etc.) and website speed.

However, even if the other factors aren’t major ranking determinants, you should still pay close attention to it. Such factors can still affect your ranking one way or the other.

Final words

On-page SEO is always as important as its off-page counterpart. It ensures that your website is well -optimized for your visitors. Through that, your efforts to drive traffic to your pages (off-page SEO) will become more fruitful in terms of conversion.

What You Need to Know about Content Optimization

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SEO experts love to say that content is king. But it’s not enough to create great quality content for your website, you to make sure that it is optimized for search, too. If not, your target customers won’t see your pages regardless of how well composed your content is.

Keyword research is key

The main thing you need to do before creating your content is to search for keywords. Besides optimizing your content with keywords, keyword search additionally gives you new insights into your content. It likewise gives you a look at what potential customers are searching for, what they are keen on, and how frequently they search for a particular query.

Well-researched keywords are helpful for both on-page and off-page SEO. The better your keyword optimization, the better chance your content has of showing up in the SERPs when a web client searches for a particular or relative query, and the more likely it will be linked to, too.

Utilize a focus keyword

A focus keyword is a particular keyword that you optimize your content around. It’s the primary keyword you’ll use for your page title, headings, body, alt tags, meta description, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

In any case, utilizing a focus keyword doesn’t imply that you’re not permitted to use other different keywords. This is where Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords come into play. These are keywords that are similar to your focus keyword, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are synonyms.

Search intent is the best approach

When you write content, it is key to write for the reader and not for Google. This is the reason search intent is the name of the game when composing your content.

Over the years, Google has stepped up its indexing capacities to the extent that it is now able to comprehend what users are searching for. Sites that fulfill this user intent will naturally rank higher as Google wants to give clients what they are looking for.

Fundamentally, there are four sorts of client intent content: navigational, informational, transactional, and commercial.

Optimize your meta data

Besides the body of your content, you should also optimize the meta data of your pages. Ensure that you use your focus keyword in the title tag, meta description, and alt text of your pictures. Likewise, attempt to utilize your keyword in your URL, while keeping it short and simple to recall. Through this, you’re keeping your content pertinent to the potential search query of the web client.

Use headings

No searcher wants to hunt through a sea of text to find what they are looking for. This is the reason you ought to consistently use subheadings in your content. Along these lines, your content will become much easier to read, more engaging and less overpowering for users. Subheadings are also an incredible method to optimize your keywords.

Optimize pictures

Most business owners neglect the significance of optimizing the pictures on their pages. Although this isn’t technically content, you can optimize images for SEO by using alt texts and document titles.

Everything You Need to Know About Keyword Research in 2020

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Keyword research has always been a key part of SEO. For years, experts have spent a huge amount of time finding the most searched for keywords that convert. The year 2020 will be no different.

Keyword research is still king in 2020

Keywords help website owners to generate organic traffic. But they also help website owners to better understand their audience and write about things their audience cares about.

Keyword research will remain essential in 2020. But the topic will change slightly. Voice search, in particular, will become more important and that will change how keyword research is executed. If you’re serious about your website, keyword research is essential in the year ahead.

Keyword research will become more topical

Keyword research in 2020 isn’t just about finding the highest traffic and highest converting phrases. If you want to generate serious traffic, you need to focus on the topics your users are searching for, not the specific words.T hat’s because long-tail searches have become even more common and your content can appear for searches you never even thought about.

This doesn’t mean that you no longer have to look for keywords, however. It actually means you have to do even more research.

Keyword research for voice search

SEO experts have forecast that voice search will account for as much as half of all search queries by 2020. This is going to have a huge impact on your keyword research. Voice searches are often longer and more natural than traditional searches on Google.

Search engines and devices now have AI systems that can interpret the meaning behind phrases and the searcher’s intent. The results they are given reflect this. As a result, your content needs to become more comprehensive in order to catch all of the many possible ways that people may search for your content.

What you need to know about long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are now the secret to great search traffic. They give websites even more chances to rank for a wider range of searches. The specific phrases themselves may not have as much traffic as traditional keywords, but there are a heck of a lot more than them. They are also much less competitive, too.

Long-tail keywords are also a great way to better understand your target audience, the sort of things they search for and what they want. As a website owner, you should also see higher conversion rates from long-tail keywords because they are much more specific in their intent.

Perhaps what is best about long-tail keywords is the ease at which you can find them For instance, you can create a long tail keyword by combining two or more short-tail keywords. Let’s take an example. Say you have three keywords: best phone case, phone case for iPhone 11 and clear phone case. You can use a keyword like the best clear phone case for the iphone 11 and have a very specific keyword that could rank for all three major keywords.

Conclusion

Don’t stop doing keyword research, just make more of an effort to find long-tail keywords.

The First Metrics to Look at When Starting SEO

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SEO can often be overwhelming for beginners. There is a huge amount of work that goes into making a site competitive in Google. There are also a lot of metrics that you need to track to go along with that work.

It can be hard to know where to get started. So before you lose your head, here are the first metrics you should be focusing on when starting SEO.

Organic traffic

Organic traffic is one of the most important SEO metrics there is. It refers to the traffic that you get directly from search engines as opposed to traffic that you might receive from social media, ads or from people who come to your website directly.

It’s some of the most valuable traffic there is, too. It’s free, not counting the cost of hiring an SEO firm, and these users often have high intent to take action. As a result, organic traffic is a great gauge of how effective your SEO strategies are. Use a tool like Google Analytics to track your organic traffic levels for free.

Keyword rankings

It goes without saying that your keyword rankings are some of the most important SEO metrics there are. If you are targeting specific keywords with your content it is crucial that you know how well you are currently ranking for them. A good keyword rankings tool will also help you track your rankings over time so that you can focus on improving them. It will also point out instances where your rankings have dropped.

Organic click-through rates

Your organic click-through rate is the number of people who click on your link in Google over the total number of people who see the search results. It shows you how attractive your site looks in the search results and can help you to decide if you are ranking for the right keywords or not.

Part of your website’s organic CTR will depend on how high you rank in Google. The higher you are, the more clicks you are likely to get. But improving your website’s page titles, meta descriptions and content can all help, too.

Bounce rates

The bounce rate of your pages is the percentage of people who leave the site without taking any action. You want to have as low a bounce rate as possible, but often it will be double digits.

For blog posts, for instance, it’s normal to have a high bounce rate as the content is informational. People find what they are looking for and then leave. It doesn’t mean your website is bad or that users found it unhelpful.

Pages per session

The pages per session metric is the number of pages a visitor looked at within a single session. Naturally, the more pages, the better. This metric is an excellent measure of how engaging your website is and how easy it is to use. This data can be accessed in Google Analytics. Not that these will be averages and not everyone will look at as many pages as the previous user.

How To Optimize SERP Click-Through Rates

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SERP click-through rates are one of the lesser- discussed areas of SEO. But optimizing them can have a serious impact on your website traffic. It’s not enough to get one of the top spots on Google’s search engine pages, anymore. You also need to optimize your placement so that as many users click your results as possible.

What are SERP click-through rates

SERP click-through rates of SERP CTRs, refer to the number of clicks your link in Google gets over the total number of people who search for that result. The more people who click your link as opposed to those of your competitors, the higher your SERP CTR. A high SERP CTR is good, a low one is bad.

How to Optimize your SERP CTR

There are several things that you can do to improve your SERP CTR.

Use a compelling title

The title of your web page is one of the first things that people will see Google’s results. The more compelling, engaging and attractive it is, the more people will want to click on it. As an aside, it also helps to add keywords into your title tag so that they show up in the title and increase the chances of you ranking in the first place.

Don’t make your title too long, however. You don’t want Google to cut off your title or to rewrite it on your behalf.

Create an engaging meta description

Below your title is your page’s meta description. This is the second thing a user will probably see in Google so it needs to be just as engaging and enticing as your title. The good news here is that you get more space to tease your content. Make sure you give the reader a reason to click on your link over those of your competitors. You should also include keywords in your meta description as they will come up in bold font on search results pages.

Use short and concise URLs

Your page’s URL is also shown underneath your page title and so this should be optimized, too. Keep it short and clear and try to only use real words in it.

Use emojis

Recently, Google has started letting website owners include emojis into their meta descriptions. This is a great way to connect with your audience and make your listing much more eye-catching. Use emojis if you can but don’t overdo it. A meta description full of emojis will look unprofessional.

Use structured data

Structured data is a fairly technical aspect of website optimization, but it can be really effective at improving the way your result looks in the SERPs. By using structured data in your page’s code, you tell search engines and other sites what parts of your content are referring to. This allows search engines to index it better and display the content better on their websites.

Don’t forget to make sure that the content on your page is high quality, too. There’s no point optimizing CTRs if users aren’t going to like what they find on your website.

How to Check Your On-Page SEO

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It’s important that you perform on-page SEO for your website. But it’s also important to track your results. It’s the only way that you’re going to be able to know if what you are doing is paying off. With that in mind, here’s what you can do to stay on top of your on-page SEO.

Track keywords

Keywords are an important part of on-page SEO and so is having the ability to track them. One place to start is Google’s Search Console, which offers a free way to check how your pages are ranking for specific keywords.

There are several other digital tools that you can use for more in-depth analysis. Paid tools will often include advanced features such as rank drop alerts, rankings per location, graphs and charts and loads more. They may also provide advice on how to rank your pages better.

Finally, track how each page is performing keyword-wise. Identify low ranking pages and high ranking pages. You can then link the high ranking pages to the low ranking pages to give them a bit of a boost.

Look at your organic traffic

Getting traffic is one of the primary goals when it comes to SEO. That’s why it’s important to track your organic traffic levels to see how many visitors you’re getting and where they come from.

You should also track the bounce rate of your pages. This is the number of people who leave your site without taking any further action. If you have a high bounce rate, it doesn’t matter how much traffic you’re getting.

Bounce rates vary drastically from website to website and also change depending on the type of web page. Blog pages tend to have the highest bounce rate, while you’ll want product pages to have very low bounce rates.

The following are typical benchmarks for bounce rates:

  • Blogs– 65% to 90%
  • Landing pages – 60% to 90%
  • Content websites – 35% to 60%
  • Lead generation websites – 30% to 55%
  • Business to business (B2B) websites – 25% to 55%
  • E-commerce and retail websites – 20% to 45%

Track pages per session

Pages per session is the number of pages a user looks at while browsing your website. It is a great way to understand how easy your website is to use and how engaging it is for visitors.

If your pages per session are low, there are a number of tactics that you can use to increase them. These include internal linking, improving your website’s UX and creating better content. Making your website mobile-friendly can also increase pages per session and reduce your bounce rate.

Final words

On-page SEO is one of the most important things that you can do for your website. It’s one of the best ways for making sure that potential users can find your website on Google and then use your website when they click on the search result. Tracking your on-page SEO stats is the only way to know if what you are doing is successful. Don’t expect to see results straight away, however. It can take months for your hard work to pay off, so just have patience.