Your SEO, is like any relationship in life it needs attention and care. Your relationship to the search engines starts from the moment you launch your new website continuing as long as your website is active. Like a finely tuned engine, you want the kind of maintenance that makes your website a top competitor. Having a Web Development company who is always tweaking your site, staying on top of algorithm platform updates is what successful companies do to improve and protect their Google Page Rankings. RANK BRAIN Google’s newest software launch is called RankBrain, a machine-learning artificial intelligence system; that is far different from the days of engineers who teach the platform by entering in information.
RankBrain doesn’t replace Google’s other search algorithms but is a modification of Google’s hummingbird platform. Whats new is RankBrains ability to anticipate and interpret searches that might not have exact words. RankBrain is about query refinement and more meaningful results. How does it affect your search engine results? No one is sure yet, however it does lend to more surveillance of how you are ranking. In other words, pay attention! My thinking is, be mindful to what your feeding the search engines in your keyword queries and links. Remember, your search and keywords are educating RankBrain not engineers.
Whether or not this new modification will have an effect on your ranking is left to be seen but as always, protect your ranking like you do your bank account.
Page rank is money in the bank. Your SEO strategies that have always worked in Google will continue to do so, but with the RankBrain modification it is really all about content. The more readable content you post, the more you educate RankBrain on your authority for any given subject.
GOOGLE MOBILE INDEX
There are plans for Google splitting search results into 2 separate versions. The mobile search index over Google will contain newer, fresher content while Google version of the desktop index will be updated less frequently. In some cases search results displayed over mobile will be completely different than those search results found on desktop.
MOBILE FRIENDLY SEARCHES
Mobile responsive websites have also presented an entirely new way for managing mobile friendly searches. Before mobile, persons looking for home remodeling in their neighborhood would have typed a mobile friendly search over Google such as, ‘Home repair service Virginia Beach’. On mobile phones people are more likely to use their mobile assistant for searching. For example; ‘OK Google Now’ or ‘Hey Siri, show me ‘Home repair service close to me’. People will do voice searching in ways that differ from keyboard based search on mobile or desktop.
We all know that Search engine optimization (SEO) can be the real deal breaker for any website and it is even more critical for the success of E-Commerce websites, as SEO plays a major role in attracting, converting as well as retaining potential customers. However, performing SEO for E-Commerce sites is highly complicated due to the presence of hundreds and thousands of product listings, which require regular updating. This is the reason why following a set of SEO best practices becomes essential in order to make sure that your site always performs at optimum levels. While reviewing, research and optimization must continue on a regular basis to be successful.
You must focus on few core areas before you can begin performing SEO to get your listings ranked higher on Google search results:
SEO assessment: Begin by performing a comprehensive assessment of your website, so as to identify SEO shortcomings. While it is advisable to perform assessment for your entire website, you must pay special attention to your product pages. This is where majority of the flaws are detected and are also imperative to your website’s performance. Tools such as Screaming Frog can be used to crawl through your images, CSS, links, etc., so that you can identify errors, missing tags, duplicate entries and other issues that can have a negative impact on your site’s rankings.
Keyword research: Keyword research plays a major role in getting your website ranked higher. Targeting wrong keywords can lead to driving low quality traffic and lower sales. Using the right keywords strategically can attract qualified customers and also boost your sales and conversion rates. Perform your research based on keyword relevancy, ranking difficulty and search volume. You may use long-tail keywords relevant to your products, as they have a higher exact-match search volume as well as a significantly lower difficulty ranking when compared to the competition.
Competitor research: Analyze competitors’ website to prepare a list of keywords that are being used by them. Perform research to determine the keywords you wish to compete against. Also, figure out the architecture used by these competing websites. Primarily focus on their product pages to attain better insights about ways to organize your websites navigation.
Create compelling product descriptions: Don’t make the same mistake that most E-Commerce store owners make, i.e. using manufacturer’s product descriptions. Search engines consider this to be a case of duplicated content, which might attract penalties. Product descriptions provide you with an opportunity to create unique, informative and compelling sales copy that boosts sales and conversion rates.
Using long tail keywords: Long tail keywords are highly targeted keywords having three or more words. People using long term keywords usually know what they are searching for, therefore a product page that has been optimized for long term keywords has a greater probability of attracting customers and converting them into sales.
Include customer reviews: It has been estimated that product pages having customer reviews are successful in converting over 58% more visitors, while boosting revenue by over 62%. This is because customer reviews help in establishing credibility and act as a social proof for potential buyers. Product pages featuring customer reviews rank higher since Google rewards pages that are frequently updated with unique content.
Integrate social media on your product pages: Google rankings play a major role in influencing the quality and amount of social media signals since they reflect a page’s relevance. It is advised that you add social sharing buttons for popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., to your product pages in order to allow your customers and prospects to share product information with other potential customers.
Optimize page load speed: As many as 40% of visitors will leave, if your product pages don’t load within 3 seconds, and approximately 80% of your customers won’t return to your site if they are disappointed by your site’s load time. Page load time can be optimized by employing lazy loading, compressing product images and fixing coding issues.
Write appealing metadata: Your product pages need unique, compelling Meta titles and descriptions incorporating popular keywords to increase its visibility. It is considered one of the most crucial aspects of on-page optimization. It is important to note that metadata is usually the first thing your potential customers come across, while making a Google search, so it is best to provide your potential customers with a compelling copy of product description that prompts them to make a purchase.
Include rich snippets: Snippets in the form of coded data can be included in product descriptions to provide more information about the product such as price, availability, etc. Incorporating snippets result in better Click-through-rates (CTR) as well as higher rankings on search results.
Include product images: Quality of your product images have a direct relationship with what your potential customers feel about your products. Always include visually appealing images to help your customers make informed purchase decisions. Also, tag these images with appropriate metadata so that they are easily searchable.
Use search-friendly URLs: Your product page URL’s needs to be unique and should be optimized for main keywords. Appropriate URLs tell search engines what the page is all about while providing visitors with helpful product information.
Optimize your E-Commerce site for mobile: Mobile shopping has reached its peak and it has made it important for you to make your E-Commerce store mobile friendly. It is wise to use a responsive design for your website in order to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers across all platforms. Improving your E-Commerce site’s performance is an ongoing process requiring you to stay updated with SEO best practices at all times. It is advised that you regularly test your website for errors, perform keyword and competitor research, observe Google’s algorithm updates, and make the required changes to optimize your E-Commerce website and provide your customers with a great shopping experience.
When people click on a link to your website you want them to stick around. You want them to read your content, see your offers, and then finally take the next step to answer your calls to action. But, many people do bounce off the site.
Bouncing means they visited but left quickly. You can view your bounce rate in Google Analytics. So, how can you reduce your bounce rates?
Increase Speed
When you can increase the loading speed of your website, you’re going to automatically have fewer bouncing visitors. People are impatient and do not like to wait around for something to load.
Don’t Burn Out People’s Retinas
Certain colors, like blue and gold, do not translate well to online reading. In addition, you need to space out your paragraphs differently than you would for print. It’s okay to separate your text into more paragraphs for online reading.
Improve Your SEO
Search engine optimization is important for your website. If you have a lot of bounces you may be using the wrong type of content to attract your ideal audience. Or, worse, your content is boring. Improve the content and the SEO, and you’ll have fewer bounces.
Study Your Target Audience Better
Another factor in bounce rates is poor understanding of your target audience. If your advertisements, blog posts and content marketing (and any marketing for that matter) is not well-targeted to your audience, then you need to improve your targeting.
Create Natural Navigation
The best navigation is not very noticeable but naturally leads your visitors to where they want to go. Don’t be clever with link and button names. Instead, be direct about where the link is going to send your visitor, and use less navigation on the front page. Having fewer choices will avoid confusion.
Know the Reason for Your Website
If you don’t know the purpose of your website then no one else will know either. Ensure that you have mapped out the website before building it so that you know and your visitors know that the website is clear about its message.
Bounced traffic has a variety of causes that you need to research. You can use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to help you discover ways to reduce your bounce rate. But, one of the most important things is to ensure that your website speaks to your target audience so that you attract the right people in the first place.
If you are struggling to improve the ranking of your website or blog, you are on the right page. In this article, we are going to give you a few important tips that will help you avoid the most common SEO mistakes. Making these mistakes will have a negative impact on the ranking of your website or blog in major search engines. If you keep making this mistake, your website will be at a greater risk of getting banned. Read on to find out more.
1. Not Hiring an Expert
Search Engine Optimization requires a lot of time. Apart from this, you must be aware of the current trends, algorithm changes, and strategies. Today, many marketers are aware of the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization. Therefore, they can perform the optimization of their website themselves. However, most of them go on this adventure without being aware of the basics.
This is where they end up making grave mistakes. If you don’t have the right skills and tools, we suggest that you hire the services of a professional instead.
2. Believing in Unrealistic Promises
If you are going to hire a professional, make sure you go with one that uses safe methods. There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting your website ranked. Keep in mind that you cannot trick major search engines, such as Google to gain better rankings for your desired keywords. Today, search engines are extremely smart. In other words, you should never try to cheat the system or you may get penalized. So, you may want to hire a provider that makes realistic promises.
3. Following “illegal” tricks
Before you go with a service provider, make sure you know the method they are going to use. What you need to do is follow only white hat practices. On the other hand, illegal SEO involves tips and tricks that violate search engine guidelines, such as keyword stuffing, buying backlinks, exchanging links, and including hidden text. Although you can get quick gains through illegal SEO, you will be taking a lot of risks.
So, we suggest that you follow only white hat methods in order to improve your search engine rankings. This includes updating your website with quality content and optimizing the content for search engines without breaking any rules
4. Ignoring algorithm Changes
Today, search engines are changing their algorithms in order to improve the way websites are ranked. The idea is to identify cheaters that manipulate the system. Over the past five years, Google algorithms have gone through a lot of major changes. So, Google follows a different method of ranking websites these days. So, you may want to follow the recent updates if you want to achieve great results. If you don’t have the time to read about this change, we suggest that you hire the services of an SEO expert.
5. Opting for wrong Keywords
Lastly, one of the most common mistakes is to follow non-strategic keywords when it comes to SEO. So, you may not want to waste time optimizing your content for the wrong keywords. For example, you may not want to use keywords that are overly competitive. Instead, you should use low competition keywords that can still get a lot of traffic.
In short, if you avoid these 5 mistakes, you can rank your website and still enjoy great results. Hopefully, these tips will help you get the most out of your effort.