Boosting Website Rankings with SEO Tools
1. Introduction
For many website users, search engines are the focus of their internet experience, as most people who use the internet regularly will testify. Consequently, the site owners have to consider the way that search engines view their sites. This is where search engine optimization comes into play. Search engine optimization refers to the collection of methods which work to manipulate how search engines function, with the ultimate goal of manipulating how the search engine ranks the site. Now, more than ever, site owners understand the importance of SEO, as their sites will not achieve success without it. In fact, they understand it too much. SEO, in boom times, has become extremely fashionable. Countless businesses and their CEOs/owners have expressed a deep desire to colonize the top spot in Google. However, in most cases, they are ill-equipped to achieve this. This is where this paper comes in. The search engine space is dominated by change, and the search engines themselves are evolving. Would-be SEOs are often left baffled. Consequently, this paper will explore the current landscape of search engine optimization.
Search engines play a major role in today's World Wide Web. If you use the internet, then it is a fair bet that you have used a search engine. Everyone does. In fact, few people in the modern developing world could get by without using a search engine every now and then.
This paper outlines the application of search engine optimization (SEO) tools to improve website rankings.
1.1. Importance of Website Rankings
Website ranking is the position at which a particular site appears in the results of a search engine query. The importance of website ranking is that the higher a site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that site will be visited by a user. If a website has particularly a high ranking, this means that it will appear earlier or higher up in the search engine results. So each time a page is indexed by a search engine, the better the ranking the site has, the more an opportunity there is to have the search engine user visit the site. Studies have shown that the vast majority of search engine users are only interested in looking at the first few pages of search engine results. This means that the further back a page is in the search engine results, the less likely it is that it will be visited by the user. Web users that use search engines to find information, products, or services will rarely look past the first two pages of search engine results.
It is also a well-known fact that most users are most likely to click the top result that a search engine provides and are highly unlikely to go beyond the first page of results. So it is clear that a high ranking of search engine results is critical to the success of traffic a website can receive. This brings about a significant implication when one is trying to establish a new site or generate traffic to an existing site. High-ranking search engine results essentially act as free advertisement for a business or service. Since the primary purpose of a search engine is to provide information to users, having a high-ranking search engine result is like having a recommendation from a large number of other sources. This is advantageous since there are many that often pay money to generate traffic to their site through advertisement.
1.2. Role of SEO Tools
The right keywords are crucial to the success of your SEO provided that the keywords are what leads the audience to your website. The right tool can be invaluable in feeling your way around what are the most popular keywords used by search engine users. At first glance, this can be a fairly tricky task, being that it is not necessarily easy to put oneself in the shoes of the internet user. Data from an incorrectly chosen keyword can be quite uninformative, and thus it could be difficult to gauge whether or not it is working. With one of the comparison to global search statistics, it is easy to see if you are on the right track. If you are disappointed with the results, there is always the option of trying a different related keyword for better results. High value of the keyword comes with great competition and so it is a high-risk, high-gain type of deal. High competition keywords are the most likely to generate a sale for a good price for a click on your ad. With these keywords, you must be willing to continuously check their progress with your website and confirm it with the revenue made from them. This could be a tedious process for a beginner and it would be wise to invest time into a keyword checking tool. A keyword checking tool gets information from the search engines to see how much your site is being ranked for a particular keyword. It generates a report based on your website URL and the keyword list and it compares the current rank of the page with the keyword to the initial rank that you were able to capture during its previous use. This information is then saved and can be compared to similar data at a later time. It is reassuring to see visible results of SEO and revenue from the high-value keywords.
SEO tools are an effective way to get higher rankings from search engines. An increasing number of tools are available now with the main purpose being to save time and maximize the output that one gets from their website. There are several tools out there which will go over your website and compare it to the websites of your competitors. From this, they will be able to recommend ways in which you can increase your website rankings compared to your competitors. Some software has the ability to go right through your HTML code and generate a report on any errors that could be holding your website back from a high ranking. These errors are often quite subtle and it is a valuable piece of advice to get from an expert. A similar report generating function is available in some tools, with the difference being it compares your website to a particular one of the top-ranked competitors.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is primarily concerned with improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines. There are many businesses that have begun to understand the relevance of SEO and its impact on their websites. They have realized that certain SEO strategies have improved the chances of being found and indexed by the search engines, thus resulting in higher visitors to the site. Higher number of visitors to the site leads to higher sales and revenue. At the core of understanding SEO is appreciating the best methods to go about achieving it. Many people seek to improve their website using their own knowledge; however, there are several advantages to hiring an SEO expert. This is usually because the SEO expert will have all the resources available to begin your SEO project. Essentially, to do it right, you will require many resources and many different tools. This is something that would not be financially viable for the regular website owner.
2. On-Page Optimization
Meta Tags and Descriptions
This is the most common form of on-site optimization as it's the easiest to do and understand. Yet it is also the most overvalued and does not have a particularly large impact on search engine rankings. Step one is to write a title using your main keywords. This is the same as the title of your page content and is what appears as a link in search engines. Step two is writing a description. This is the sales pitch for your content and what will make searchers want to click your link. It is a good idea to give each page a different description. Step three is to assign keywords to your page. This is not visible on the page itself but is visible in the code. It simply provides the search engine with a list of keywords. Make sure not to use too many keywords here, usually 5-10 will be sufficient.
Content Optimization
Definitely the biggest factor in your search engine rankings is the content on your page. Search engines are designed to rank sites with the best, most relevant content at the top. It is much easier to improve off-site factors such as links than to manipulate on-site factors. Making sure that you have the best, most relevant content is integral to the success of any SEO campaign. Step one is to find the best direction for your content. This must be the most relevant content to your site and what it is about. Step two is writing a relevant and informative title. This is the most important thing on your page, it is what appears as a link in search engines. Step three is to improve your body text and update it often. This is where you will get most of your rankings and is what search engines look at most. Make sure that your content is the best and most informative content for your chosen keywords. Step four is creating additional content if necessary. This will give you extra rankings and also something to link to with your link building campaigns. Step five is ensuring that your content is spiderable. This means having links to all of your pages from somewhere on your site.
Keyword Research
This step is often the most undervalued and difficult part of an SEO campaign. Knowing which keywords are most important and how they may change over time is key to success in SEO. Keyword choice needs to guide your on-page optimization, URL selections, and method for link building. There are many types of keywords, not all of them will be viable for your site. It is important to focus your efforts on keywords that will bring in targeted traffic. Step one is to compile a list of relevant keywords, with the help of a thesaurus and brainstorming you can compile a rather large list. Step two is to choose the best keyword suggestions using a keyword research tool.
On-page optimization is definitely not a manual process of simply crafting and altering meta tags. There is certainly so much more to it than that. There is actually a never-ending selection of strategies and tactics one can utilize on the pages to enhance the opportunity that they will bring in traffic from search engines. Below is a compilation of ideal practices in applying on-page optimization. Steps to accomplish will probably fluctuate in complexity and necessary work, however, implementing these tips will have a greater impact on results. Note that these are issues to be done on existing pages. Steps for new page creation can often be more complex and there are main sections of SEOmoz dedicated to SEO best practices in the areas as well.
2.1. Keyword Research
2. Wordtracker:
Wordtracker is an essential tool for keyword research and provides accurate and reliable search volume data, giving an approximate count of how many times a keyword is searched for within major search engines. This tool provides a list of frequently searched terms, which is limited to Wordtracker's data. It also provides misspellings and variations of your keywords.
1. Google AdWords Keyword Tool:
This is a new and free tool from Google, which is a replacement for Google's popular keyword research tool. It can be used to search for keywords and ad group ideas, determine how specific keywords may perform, and create a new keyword list by multiplying multiple lists of keywords together. This tool also allows you to view the estimated cost of advertising for specific keywords and determine the ad bid competition.
Keyword research is the practice of finding and researching the actual search terms that people enter into search engines. Keywords are the most important part of SEO to drive relevant traffic to your website. It is highly important for a website to target the right keywords to bring relevant traffic. There are many keyword research techniques. Here is a list of recommended keyword research tools.
2.2. Content Optimization
The first step to making a page search engine optimized is to make the theme of the page as narrow as possible. If you are optimizing a page for a term, make sure the page is not too generic. For example, if the keyword is "blue widgets", don't make a page about "widgets". The next step is to make sure the content on the page is written with the search term in mind. The term should be all over the page, but not to the point that the content is unreadable. The best content is both search engine friendly and user friendly, a skill that takes time to master. Writing themed content is important to SEO. Writing about a topic that your page is about essentially "confirms" to a search engine what you are implying the theme of the page is. This can be done through writing articles related to your page and internal linking to related content on your page. A page with good internal linking is like a map to a search engine.
A common mistake to webmasters is trying to make large changes to the content their page every time results are not seen. This will make it hard to gauge what changes resulted in what affect. Always change on-page content in small increments and monitor the results of the changes.
Search engines try to deliver results that are relevant to what the user is searching for. Websites that are well "themed" in a particular topic will be considered relevant by search engines when matching to user queries. Do note that it is quite possible that a page optimized for a particular search term might be considered relevant to a different search term.
2.3. Meta Tags and Descriptions
Keywords Meta tag is special among Meta tags. This tag is where one should list the keywords. Keyword tag has been largely exposed to "spam" because of the sheer volume of people that have used it to deceive the search engines. Although there is a contradiction whether the keyword tag is viewed by the engines as spamming, there are various ways the keyword tag can be used effectively. First one should never use more than 15 keywords, because there will be too many keywords to try and target. Stick to 10-12, if possible make a research and come up with the best keywords that are relevant to your page topic. Next step is to add in common misspellings. This is not only wise because we are targeting crowd with poor spelling, it will not interfere with the content, and for instance if one misspells a word in the content this will not enter the keyword list. This tag may seem simple but often using keyword variants or misspellings of words shattered throughout the text can serve the similar purpose.
Meta tags are little descriptors that tell the search engines what a specific web page is all about. Meta tags are written only in the head section of an HTML document, and so only search engine spiders can see them. Meta tags are the words that are hidden behind the page. Meta tags are for the search engines to better index the page. The concept about Meta tags is that the website is made more visible in the search engine and increases traffic on the site. There are various types of Meta tags. Title tag is the most important Meta tag. This tells the search engine what the page is all about. This is the first thing shown in the search result. A user reads this and then decides whether to visit the page or not. According to a famous internet marketer, Armand Morin "use the 'title' tag and make it relevant to the content" this is the best advice that can be given when creating a title tag for the search engines.
3. Off-Page Optimization
This method is not without its pitfalls. Buying links is an absolute no-no, as it not only a waste of money in the long term as the links will be removed, but it could actually negatively affect your ranking. This includes any "fast trick" be it an automated program to spam links or an offer of link placement on a site with no traffic. Another method to avoid is link exchange programs with no relevancy to your site, a link from a pharmaceutical website to your programming site is often more harmful than helpful.
Assuming your site is already of high quality, there's only one real way to affect the SERP - increase the quantity and quality of what is linking to your site. This can be approached in a variety of ways. A very common method is to seek out directories or listings of sites that cater to a certain audience or are of a certain theme. Usually, these directories are human-edited, and a link from a directory is seen as a testimonial to the legitimacy of your site. It's important to look for directories that are of reasonable quality, and more importantly, relevant to your site. DMOZ and Yahoo are great examples, but the wait to get listed can be very long. Another common method is to participate in a blog or forum; this can be done in many ways but simply posting relevant comments with a link in your signature is often enough.
Off-page SEO (search engine optimization) is a method of using the popularity of your website to affect its ranking in a search engine results page (SERP). In general, the more prominent you are online, the more prominently you'll be represented in search results. This can be in the form of a page indicating to your site (forum, blog, social media site, etc.), or simply using your site to directly promote a product or service. There are numerous ways to attempt off-page SEO; we'll discuss the most popular in this article.
3.1. Link Building Strategies
3.1.2 Manual Outreach Arguably the most effective form of link building, yet also placing the greatest demands on your time and monetary resources. Over the years, SEOs have developed a variety of tactics to make manual outreach more scalable, but it's a hard fact that the best links usually come from a face-to-face meeting or a telephone conversation. Email is the most common form of communication and involves little cost. Effective link builders will, however, look to write personalized letters to webmasters, improving their chances of a positive response. It's important to be amicable and professional at all times. Offering inducements isn't advised and can be mistaken for bribery; many webmasters will respond favorably if it is clear that linking to your valuable content will benefit their users. Manual outreach effectively combines with most of the link building tactics already mentioned, and some even consider all link building to be a form of public relations. Ultimately, it's about building a rapport with others in your niche, be it other site owners, bloggers, or social media participants, and leveraging these relationships for links. Step 3 correlates to the networking effort; in some cases, links will find you.
Linkbait - The idea of throwing a pebble into a pond to create many ripples. Many SEOs are of the opinion that link bait has great potential to secure many links in a short space of time. This is true, however, it is worth noting that this tactic can be very resource heavy and often, above all, the acquisition of the links this naturally attracts. Linkbait essentially needs to be something that stands out within its niche; whether it's shock value, humor, or a useful tool, it must be the best of breed. This may involve much brainstorming and discussion regarding who the target audience is and implementing differing social psychology tactics. Lastly, linkbait is most successful when there is the ability to 'prime the pump'. Having identified key communities and individuals within a niche, it's possible to accelerate the process via targeted promotion. Bear in mind, many linkbait efforts fail, and even those that are successful will still often not acquire links from the most valuable authoritative sources.
Over time, the above practices have resulted in link acquisition tactics that can greatly harm but aren't 3.1.1 quality content links alone. Providing help and information regarding professional advice, in-depth reports, and a concise blog post, the odds are compounding is greater. Given enough networking, this could result in the acquisition of supplementary links. Step 1 takes a great deal of effort, is often what sets apart the men from the boys, and is a long-term goal.
3.2. Social Media Engagement
Social media is a quick, easy, and cost-effective tool to help your website gain more attention. Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ to share your informative posts and videos. It's important to build up a large group of social followers and then make every post you share a means to drive them to your website for more information, such as a blog post or video. Clicking through from social media content to the website results in what's commonly referred to as "social media engagement." This engagement is highly valued by search engines because it's real interaction between the consumer and the content. It's as simple as it looks, and the more social media engagement you promote, the better the chance that you can actually increase traffic to your website. This kind of approach to social media for content promotion often takes a bit of manual work. Although automated tools can be useful for saving time and pushing out content, avoiding an "all automated" posting schedule can really maximize the value of your social media marketing. People are a lot more likely to click on a post that has a recent date and time stamp, as it gives the impression that there is more behind the scenes.
Another strategy to use social media for off-page SEO is to engage with the wider community in your specific niche. If you're in the tech industry, for example, you're likely to be an expert in a certain area of IT and will be looking to boost your website as a means to selling your services. Twitter is a great place to start promoting your content and engaging with IT communities using hashtags. If you get involved in discussions where you can share a link to an in-depth article related to the discussion, you can really drive traffic via that subtle advertising. This form of social media engagement can often take away from the actual content creation and website management process, but it's an invaluable form of marketing that has the potential to go viral within the right community.
3.3. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is an effective and easy way to get high quality backlinks. A blogger needs to find other blogs that are both relevant to their own blog and that accept guest posts. In this type of approach, the blogger writes quality content to be posted on the other blog with a link back to their own blog. Writing exceptional and thought-provoking content will make other bloggers and their readers take notice of the contributor and, in turn, click on the link to the contributor's blog. This can also lead to the readers being more inclined to subscribe to the blog through the various subscription options available on the blog. This will result in more traffic coming in from the blog, being a direct result of the guest post. A stable and more long-term outcome is the increased traffic and subscribers due to the rise in readers making a mental note of the contributor and visiting the blog.
This is a great strategy for both taking forceful action in the rise of backlinks through the link being placed in the content or the contributor bio, and providing positive results in the amount of direct and organic search traffic. This is an all-organic and natural link building method with the chances of it being tagged as nofollow being the only unnatural cause. As well, it is also an excellent way of branding, establishing the brand and the blogger as a name to remember in a particular industry or niche.
4. Monitoring and Analysis
There are numerous other rank tracking tools and software that serve different functions, but the aforementioned examples are usually enough to put marketers in good stead when tracking their search engine rankings. Of course, when checking the rankings of a website or a particular page, it is always worth making a record of the position of the rankings in a spreadsheet so as to present the data in a clear manner. This also makes it easier to compare ranking differences at a later time.
Another tool that is worth a mention is known as Website Rank. This is a simple program used to periodically check search engine rankings on a number of different keywords. This type of software will usually notify the user of ranking changes through the use of notifications, which are usually in the form of emails. Email notifications can also be used to send ranking reports on a weekly or monthly basis. StepRep is an example of this as it is an online reputation manager that offers updates on a website's online presence.
By tracking your website rankings, you will really be able to find out which methods are efficient and worth your time. There are a number of different tools available for this. Some are standalone programs while others are web-based. Google's Webmaster tools offer various functions that will allow you to check your site's rankings as well as the keywords that Google directs towards your site. This is very useful as higher rankings usually result in the increased allocation of different keywords. Consequently, Google will direct a higher number of relevant keywords towards your website, which will increase a website's traffic.
Having optimized the website and achieved effective search engine rankings, the life of an internet marketer is really just beginning. There are many different things you can do to continue to build and increase the rankings that you have worked so hard to achieve. One of the best ways to do this is through monitoring and analyzing the effectiveness of your efforts.
4.1. Tracking Website Rankings
The aim of the process of tracking website rankings is to improve the rankings, correct what you are doing wrong, and know what to do next time. Rank checking the positions of your web pages in search engines for particular keywords is an essential and continuing online activity in order to improve the performance of your site and drive targeted traffic from search engines. To achieve this, you need a system in place to check the rankings, but also identify what keywords you are targeting on what pages, know what the current rankings are, and also store historical data so you can see improvements and decreases in the rankings. Traditional rank checking by hand is often a non-cost-effective pastime and the more web pages your site has and the more keywords you are targeting, the more difficult it can be to track and store this information. Data will be stored in log files on your website's server and this is useful data to monitor the search engine crawl of your site. Log file analysis can provide insight into what pages are being indexed and how frequently the search engine crawlers are visiting your site. This example from Google shows its Google bot visiting the page via the URL, the status (whether the page was found or not), and the size of the page.
When it is time to review the data, if all has gone well in implementing SEO to web pages, Google Analytics can show an increase in traffic from search engines which can indirectly show an increase in rankings. Clicking on Traffic sources -> Sources -> Search -> Overview will show a chart of the data. Clicking on Keyword will show what keywords are bringing traffic and on what landing pages.
4.2. Analyzing Traffic and Conversion Rates
To thoroughly understand traffic analysis and its effect on the success of a website or online business, it is helpful to comprehend the meaning of traffic and its function in a certain system. The daily visitors to your site are what is referred to as traffic. For example, a banner advertisement that you placed on somebody else's website produces incoming traffic to your website when visitors click on it and are directed to your site. To analyze the effectiveness of a specific component such as a promotion like the banner ad, traffic analysis is performed to see how much traffic was produced due to the advertisement. To gauge the effectiveness of the banner ad, you would compare the traffic before and after the advertisement was posted, and search engine position ranking if done correctly, an increase in traffic could be noted. This would indicate that the advertisement was effective in producing more traffic to your site.
Conversion rates are key in a traffic analysis session. A conversion rate can be defined as being "a ratio comparing the number of sales to the number of visitors" of a website. Usually, an increase in the number of visitors, if following the same ratio of sales to visitors, results in an increase in sales. This, compared to the example of the advertisement with traffic produced where the ratio could change indicating an increase or decrease in sales volume, helps to identify how well the business is being conducted in terms of sales. In short, an increase in conversion rates will result in higher profit for a business while a decrease indicates a loss in potential revenue (due to unsatisfactory changes in how the business was conducted).