Follow these suggestions to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and watch your website rise the ranks to the top of search-engine results.
1. Publish Relevant Content
Quality content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance. Fine-tune your web writing skills.
Keywords
Identify and target a specific keyword phrase for each page on your website. Think about how your reader might search for that specific page with search terms like:
masters in engineering management
what is biomedical engineering?
title IX resources
northern lights
how to apply for scholarships?
application deadline
Multiple Keyword Phrases
It is very difficult for a webpage to achieve search engine rankings for multiple keyword phrases—unless those phrases are very similar. A single page may be able to rank for both “biomedical engineering jobs” and “biomedical engineering careers”. Ranking for “student affairs” and “dean of students” or “gender discrimination” and “violence reporting procedures” with a single page is unlikely.
If you want to rank for multiple keywords phrases with your website, you will need to make a separate webpage for each keyword phrase you are targeting.
Placing Keywords
Once your keyword phrase is chosen for a given page, consider these questions:
Can I use part or all of the keyword phrase in the page URL (by using keywords in folders)?
Can I use part or all of the keyword phrase in the page title?
Can I use part or all of the keyword phrase in page headings and subheadings?
Answering yes to these questions can improve your search engine ranking. Be natural and user-friendly, though. For instance, you do not want the word “engineering” to show up three or more times in the URL or have the phrase Northern Lights repeated in the page title and every heading. Readability and usability still trump search engine optimization.
Content
Beyond page URL, title, and headings, content is most influential on search engine rankings. Repeat your keyword phrase several times throughout the page—once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs, and two to four more times throughout the remaining content.
Don’t forget to use bold, italics, heading tags (especially an H1), and other emphasis tags to highlight these keyword phrases—but don’t overdo it. You still want your language and writing style to read naturally. Never sacrifice good writing for SEO. The best pages are written for the user, not for the search engine.
2. Update Your Content Regularly
You’ve probably noticed that we feel pretty strongly about content. Search engines do, too. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’srelevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh. Audit your content on a set schedule (semesterly for example) and make updates as needed.
3. Metadata
When designing your website, each page contains a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata, or information about the contents of your page. If you have a CMS site originally produced by the UMC web team will have pre-populated this data for you. However, it is important for you to review and update Metadata as your site changes over time.
Title Metadata
Title metadata is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of a browser window and as the headline within search engine results. It is the most important metadata on your page.
For those with a CMS website, the web team has developed an automated system for creating the meta title for each webpage based on your page title. This adds to the importance of using well-thought-out page titles rich with keyword phrases.
Description Metadata
Description metadata is the textual description that a browser may use in your page search return. Think of it as your site’s window display—a concise and appealing description of what is contained within, with the goal of encouraging people to enter. A good meta description will typically contain two full sentences. Search engines may not always use your meta description, but it is important to give them the option.
Keyword Metadata
Keyword metadata is rarely if ever used to tabulate search engine rankings. However, you should already know your keyword phrases, so it doesn’t hurt to add them into your keyword metadata. You’ll want to include a variety of phrases. As a general rule, try to keep it to about 3-7 phrases with each phrase consisting of 1-4 words. A great example would be “computer science degree.”
4. Have a link-worthy site
Focus on creating relevant links within the text. Instead of having “click here” links, try writing out the name of the destination. “Click here” has no search engine valuebeyond the attached URL, whereas “Michigan Tech Enterprise Program” is rich with keywords and will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to. Always use descriptive links by linking keywords—it not only improves search engine optimization, but also adds value to your readers, including those with disabilities or who are using screen readers.
5. Use alt tags
Always describe your visual and video media using alt tags, or alternative text descriptions. They allow search engines to locate your page, which is crucial—especially for those who use text-only browsers or screen readers
8 Reasons Why Your Website Needs Search Engine Optimization
Today’s consumers rely on search engines to help them find everything from restaurant recommendations to B2B software providers.
This means that regardless of what your business offers, your target audience is likely searching for products or services like yours on search engines like Google.
And if you want to attract them to your site, you need search engine optimization.
But if you’ve spent much time researching your options with digital marketing, you’ve probably heard that before.
Once you’ve accepted this, though, the next logical question is how to do search engine optimization.
That’s why on this page, we’ll explain exactly what makes SEO so important, as well as a few search engine optimization techniques and search engine optimization tools you can use to increase your online visibility.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a strategy for improving your site’s rankings in search engine results.
It involves identifying which keywords and phrases your target audience uses when looking for products or services like yours, then working towards ranking well for those searches.
Of course, this is a simplified explanation — and you can check out our resource on “what is SEO” for a more in-depth look at search engine optimization.
8 Reasons Why Your Website Needs SEO Optimization
Today, SEO is an essential part of any effective marketing strategy.
But to fully illustrate its importance, let’s go over a few of the reasons you should be optimizing your site.
It can help you build your brand
Although branding is often considered a more traditional marketing strategy, while SEO falls firmly into the digital category, the two involve similar steps.
Building a brand requires considering both what you provide, and what others say about it.
And when you look at the steps involved in optimizing a site, the factors are similar. You need to create content that’s in line with your audience’s needs and interests, then find ways to earn links to that content from other sites.
If you keep this relationship in mind as you develop your SEO strategy, you can select keywords and create content that’s in line with the image you want your brand to have.
Then, your online presence will reflect your ideal branding — and help you establish it with your target audience.
An optimized website earns more traffic
On the surface, the goal of SEO optimization is to improve your site’s rankings in search results.
But beyond that, the purpose of achieving high rankings is to attract more traffic — and ideally, to convert that traffic into customers and leads.
And in case you were wondering, it works.
For example, just take a look at the following organic traffic report from a Siege Media case study.
Over the course of one year, this brand new site’s traffic increased from zero to 100,000 visitors — entirely from SEO.
If you want to bring more users to your site, SEO is the best way to accomplish this goal.
SEO doesn’t require you to pay for ad space
One of the biggest advantages of SEO is that it doesn’t involve paying for ad space.
Consider how traditional ad campaigns operate.
You determine a location you want your brand to appear, whether that’s on a particular TV channel or radio station, or in the pages of a magazine or newspaper.
Then, you pay the company that owns that media for placement. You might pay for your ad to run for a certain length of time, or within a certain number of issues. As soon as that period is up, your ad stops appearing — and stops generating results for your business.
Now, consider the various pages that appear in search engine results.
The top two listings in this screenshot are pay-per-click, or PPC, ads, as denoted by the small “Ad” tag.
Much like traditional ad campaigns, earning one of these spots involving ongoing costs.
Of course, if you’re familiar with PPC, you know that advertisers only pay when a user clicks an ad and visits their site. This certainly gives it an edge over traditional methods.
Still, every visitor involves a cost — and the minute an advertiser pauses their campaign, they stop showing up.
But the sites appearing in the organic results, directly below those ads, aren’t paying a cent for those rankings.
While they likely invested a significant amount of time and money into creating the pages that are ranking in those spots, they appear on page one because Google’s algorithm thinks they provide value to users.
As a result, they’re earning traffic without spending a cent.
It helps your target audience find your site
SEO can help your business get in front of your target audience as they’re actively searching for information.
And considering how common it is for consumers to use search engines to find information about products and services, this is a huge opportunity.
In fact, 62% of consumers turn to search engines first when they want to learn more about a new business, product, or service — and 41% use them when they’re ready to buy.
This means that if you want your business to be part of a user’s online research process, it needs to show up in search results for keywords related to the products or services you offer.
Plus, according to that same survey, 48% of consumers prefer to visit a business’s official website to learn more about them.
So having a strong online presence will not only help you reach your marketing goals but will also enable your target audience to research and buy in a way that works for them.
It boosts your credibility and authority
The Internet has drastically changed what the sales process looks like for many businesses.
That’s because today, consumers have access to a wealth of helpful resources that can help them learn about their options before they speak with a sales representative.
And with SEO optimization, you can become part of that learning process.
That’s especially true if you combine your SEO efforts with content marketing. When you create informative, valuable content, you have the opportunity to build trust and credibility with potential customers early in the research phase.
First, a user finds your site by searching for information related to your industry and seeing one of your resources in the search results.
Then, they read that resource. If they like it, they might share it with their friends and subscribe to your email list.
This is where the process slows down a bit.
That user might return to your site several times and read your email content regularly over the next few months without taking action.
And if you’re used to the traditional sales process, this can be frustrating.
But with each piece of content they read, you’re establishing your brand as a credible, authoritative source of information.
Then, when they’re finally ready to make a purchase or speak with a sales representative, they’ll know exactly which company to turn to — and be extremely comfortable doing so after all of the helpful information you’ve already provided for free.
It can help you stay ahead of your competitors
As you optimize your site, you’re not just working to improve where your site ranks on results pages.
You’re also moving above your competitors.
Just consider that the first result on any given results page gets an average of20.5% of the clicks. From there, the second result gets 13.32%, and the third gets 13.14%.
This means that as you move up in search results, you’ll earn a larger percentage of the clicks for your target keywords — and your competitors will earn less.
It improves user experience
Google’s ultimate goal is to provide the best possible results for their users.
As a result, many of their algorithm updates focus on making sure that they’re directing users to sites that not only provide relevant content, but also a great user experience.
That’s why today, technical factors like mobile-friendliness, usability, and site speed play a much bigger role in rankings than ever before.
While this means that optimizing your site might require a bit more professional help, it also means that you’ll be continuously improving the user experience your site provides.
And when you consider the impact that user experience has on conversions, this can have a significant impact on your sales and revenue in the long run.
It’s easy to measure
Finally, one of the biggest advantages of SEO is that you can measure virtually every aspect of your results.
Unlike traditional methods, which often rely on looking for correlations between ad campaigns and sales, it’s easy to see the return you’re getting from your SEO investment.
You can use tools like Google Analytics to monitor your traffic, referral sources, conversions, and any other metric that matters to your business.
This way, you can accurately evaluate what’s working — and what isn’t — and be confident that you’re allocating your marketing budget to the strategies that have the biggest impact on your most important goals.
How to Do Search Engine Optimization In 2018
The basic premise of SEO has always been the same: Improve rankings in search results.
But as Google continues to update its algorithm, the exact steps required to achieve this goal have also changed over time.
So although the general idea remains the same, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind as you optimize your site in 2018.
Focus on the user
Google’s algorithm updates are almost impossible to predict.
The company is highly secretive about the changes it makes to its algorithm, sometimes even after they happen — so it can be difficult to keep up with those changes.
Still, every update has one thing in common. They’re all designed to help the search engine provide the best possible results for searchers.
So as you work on improving your site, always remember to keep your focus on the user.
Choose topics that are relevant to their needs, write content in a way that’s helpful and straightforward, and make sure that your site is easy to navigate and engage with.
This way, even though there’s no way to tell what Google’s next move will be, you’ll be working with the same core goal in mind — and that can only work in your favor.
Use keyword optimization
Search engines have used keywords as a consideration in how they rank pages from the beginning, and they’re still an important factor today.
You can learn more about the role they play in our resource on on-page SEO.
Optimize your site for the mobile-first index
One of the biggest changes in how people browse the Internet over the past few years is the devices with which we access online content.
In the early days of SEO, the only way to access a search engine was on a desktop computer.
Today, an increasing number of users browse on smartphones, tablets, and other devices. In fact, mobile Internet usage surpassed desktop for the first time in 2016.
It makes sense, then, that Google would take steps to make sure that their results prioritized pages that were accessible on mobile devices.
Their first step, in April 2015, was to boost mobile-friendly pages in search results. This change was so significant that many SEOs referred to it as “Mobilegeddon.”
But in 2016, Google took things a step farther by announcing that it would be switching to amobile-first index.
This represented a reverse in how they’ve historically categorized and ranked pages, a shift illustrated nicely by thisgraphic from Moz.
Essentially, Google has always indexed and ranked pages based on how they appeared on desktop computers. This meant that their results typically reflected the best pages for desktop users — which made sense when these users made up the majority of their audience.
But if any of those pages performed poorly on smartphones, they’d be delivering a poor user experience for mobile users.
So to keep up with the increasing number of users accessing online content on smartphones, tablets, and other devices, Google reversed the process.
With this shift, they’ve started to rank pages based on the best results for mobile users.
This means that if a site doesn’t perform well on smartphones, its rankings will suffer — even in desktop results.
SEO Optimization Tools
As you work towards improving your site’s online visibility, there are plenty of tools you can use to simplify and improve the process.
Tools to improve your keyword research
Keyword research is the first step in any successful SEO strategy, and there are several tools designed specifically to help you identify the best possible keywords for your business:
For more information on each of these tools, take a look at our guide to on-page SEO.
Tools to improve off-page optimization
Another essential part of SEO is off-page optimization, which primarily involves earning backlinks.
Competitor research is one of the best ways to identify new opportunities for link building, and these two tools are both excellent choices for that process:
You can learn more about these tools and how to use them in our resource on off-page SEO.
Tools to monitor your results
As you make changes to your site, it’s important to measure the impact those changes make. These are two of the best tools for monitoring your results:
You can learn how to utilize these tools in our guide to seo metrics.
Tools to improve your conversion rate
Your goal with SEO isn’t just to attract traffic — it’s to convert that traffic into customers and clients for your business. As a result, you’ll need to make sure that your site is in line with your visitors’ needs and designed to encourage conversions.
The following tools can help you measure your performance and identify opportunities for improvement:
For more information, check out our resource on CRO and SEO.
Conclusion
Optimizing a site is a complex, and often challenging, process.
It takes time, planning, and a lot of patience to achieve the results you want with search engine optimization.
But if you’re willing to invest the resources it takes to create and carry out a well-planned strategy, the results you’ll see in terms of sales and revenue are entirely worth it.
It can help you boost your credibility, earn more traffic, and improve your online visibility.
Plus, you’ll achieve all of those results with spending a cent on ad space.
Beyond that, SEO is a great way improve the overall experience your target audience has with your brand. When you create content that’s in line with their needs, then make it easily accessible on a user-friendly site, you position your company as a helpful resource.
Finally, as you work on your site’s optimization, it’s easy to monitor and measure your results — meaning you’ll never have to worry on whether you’re allocating your digital marketing budget effectively.
So if you’ve been wondering why your site needs search engine optimization, the answer is clear: it’s one of the best ways to reach your marketing goals.
Websites work. No matter what your business or profession, a website can generate business, promote goodwill among customers and prospects, and deliver strong marketing messages – whether your business is small, large or in-between, well-established or brand-new.
People use the Web in greater and greater numbers, more and more every day. Even if you are a completely local small business, service, contractor or consultant, odds are people have used search engines to look for your web site – and if you don’t have a web site… well, you get the picture.
Your business Web page delivers that picture to your customers and prospects, and does it 24/7/365.
Perhaps the most common misconception about business websites is that they must offer products for purchase, accept credit cards and process financial transactions, and so on. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
While ecommerce websites are increasingly popular, the vast majority of business websites are still information and communication rather than purchase-oriented. If your business offers products and services appropriate for retail sale over the Internet, then by all means you should consider an ecommerce website.
But if, like most businesses, your products and services aren’t intended for Internet sales, you still need a Web page of your own. And you can get one quickly and economically.
The first thing you will need is a Web hosting service – that’s the address of your business Web page, and the company that actually stores your business’s website on its computers and makes it available to Web users. Many Web hosting companies offer both domain and hosting services. Here are some things to consider as you build a website for your business:
Ideally the address of your website will match the name of your business, such as ABC.com; in reality, many addresses are already taken. If that’s the case for you, give some thought to an original Web page address/name that reflects your business: ABCmytownname.com, perhaps, or something similar. Remember: your Web page address should deliver your business’s name as closely as possible, as well as being memorable and distinctive. Your website’s address is a marketing tool too.
Look for a Web hosting service that’s well-established and has a reputable history. Compare fees and determine what services and features are provided for that fee. Also, don’t forget the future – you will find that your business Web site can easily be expanded, updated, grown. Make sure your Web hosting service can accommodate changes and additions, quickly and economically.
Finally, choosing a full-featured service is smart. Does the Web hosting company also offer website creation and website software? What other features, services and products are available or included
Creating a website is simpler than you might think. Website creation and website software make building a website for your business almost as easy as creating and sending an email. Using website templates, website software lets you accomplish building a website quickly, efficiently, and for a very small price.
Custom website design costs more than making your own Web page, so you’ll want to be sure that both your goals for your business website and the capabilities of your Web designer justify the cost of having a custom website.
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WHAT SEPARATES DESIGN FROM ART IS THAT DESIGN IS MEANT TO BE… FUNCTIONAL”
A website is a medium that connects a person with the world of digital data. With its help users can access information, make purchases, communicate with each other, and do loads of other things. A website has become an indispensable tool of a professional business presentation. A website design is a broad term that incorporates lots of aspects.
Philzy Webhosting Technology (Pty) Ltd
Who we are?
We are a digital website design company in Cape Town and we are all about discovering new designs and approaches. We have a strong belief that a powerful web design can make any business (either a startup or a corporation with years on the market) a success. An appropriate web design can help you communicate your vision to the world, and it also may become a key to the success of your business.
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Many brands and businesses know (or think they know) that they need SEO for their digital properties, and the benefits they will get from that SEO work being implemented on their behalf.
SEO will certainly improve a website’s overall searchability and visibility, but what other real value does it offer? Why is SEO so important?
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These 12 reasons should offer some clarity, regardless of the industry or business size, as to why businesses need SEO to take their brand to the next level.
1. Organic Search Is Most Often the Primary Source of Website Traffic
Organic search is a huge part of most business’s website performance, as well as a critical component of the buyer funnel and ultimately getting users to complete a conversion or engagement.
As marketers know, Google owns a significantly larger portion of the search market than competitors like Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and the many, many others.
That’s not to say that all search engines don’t contribute to a brand’s visibility — they do — it’s just that Google owns about 75 percent of the overall search market. It’s the clear-cut leader and thus its guidelines are important to follow.
But the remaining 25 percent of the market owned by other engines is obviously valuable to brands, too.
Google, being the most visited website in the world (as well as specifically in the United States), also happens to be the most popular email provider in the world (with more than 1 billion users). Not to mention YouTube is the second biggest search engine.
We know that a clear majority of the world that has access to the internet is visiting Google at least once a day to get information.
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Being highly visible as a trusted resource by Google and other search engines is always going to work in a brand’s favor. Quality SEO and a high-quality websitetakes brands there.
2. SEO Builds Trust & Credibility
The goal of any experienced SEO is to establish a strong foundation for a beautiful website with a clean, effective user experience that is easily discoverable in search with thanks to the trust and credibility of the brand and its digital properties.
Many elements go into establishing authority regarding search engines like Google. In addition to the factors mentioned above, authority is accrued over time as a result of elements like:
But establishing that authority will do more for a brand than most, if not all, other digital optimizations. Problem is, it’s impossible to build trust and credibility overnight — just like real life. Authority is earned and built over time.
Establishing a brand as an authority takes patience, effort, and commitment, but also relies on offering a valuable, quality product or service that allows customers to trust a brand.
3. Good SEO Also Means a Better User Experience
Everyone wants better organic rankings and maximum visibility. Few realize that optimal user experience is a big part of getting there.
Google has learned how to interpret a favorable or unfavorable user experience, and a positive user experience has become a pivotal element to a website’s success.
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Customers know what they want. If they can’t find it, there’s going to be a problem. And performance will suffer.
A clear example of building a strong user experience is how Google has become more and more of an answer engine offering the sought-after data directly on the SERPs (search engine results pages) for users.
The intention of that is offering users the information they are looking for in fewer clicks, quickly and easily.
Quality SEO incorporates a positive user experience, leveraging it to work in a brand’s favor.
4. Local SEO Means Increased Engagement, Traffic & Conversions
With the rise and growing domination of mobile traffic, local search has become a fundamental part of small- and medium-sized businesses’ success.
Local SEO aims at optimizing your digital properties for a specific vicinity, so people can find you quickly and easily, putting them one step closer to a transaction.
Local optimizations focus on specific towns, cities, regions, and even states, to establish a viable medium for a brand’s messaging on a local level.
SEO pros do this by optimizing the brand’s website and its content, including local citations and backlinks, as well as local listings relevant to the location and business sector a brand belongs to.
To promote engagement on the local level, SEO pros should optimize a brand’s Knowledge Graph panel, its Google My Business listing, and its social media profiles as a start.
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There should also be a strong emphasis on user reviews on Google, as well as other reviews sites like Yelp, Home Advisor, and Angie’s List (among others), depending on the industry.
5. SEO Impacts the Buying Cycle
Customers do their research. That’s one of the biggest advantages of the internet from a buyer perspective.
Using SEO tactics to relay your messaging for good deals, groundbreaking products and/or services, and the importance and dependability of what you offer customers will be a game changer.
It will also undoubtedly impact the buying cycle in a positive way when done right.
Brands must be visible in the places people need them for a worthy connection to be made. Local SEO enhances that visibility and lets potential customers find the answers, and the businesses providing those answer.
6. SEO Best Practices Are Always Being Updated
It’s great to have SEO tactics implemented on a brand’s website and across its digital properties, but if it’s a short-term engagement (budget constraints, etc.) and the site isn’t re-evaluated consistently over time, it will reach a threshold where it can no longer improve because of other hinderances.
The way the search world evolves, basically at the discretion of Google, requires constant monitoring for changes to stay ahead of the competition and, hopefully, on Page 1.
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Being proactive and monitoring for major algorithm changes is always going to benefit the brands doing so.
We know Google makes thousands of algorithm changes a year. Fall too far behind, and it will be extremely difficult to come back. SEO pros help to ensure that is avoided.
7. Understanding SEO Helps You Understand the Environment of the Web
With the always-changing environment that is the World Wide Web, it can be a challenge to stay on top of the changes as they take place.
But staying on top of SEOincludes being in the loop for the major changes taking place for search.
Knowing the environment of the Web, including tactics being used by other local, comparable businesses and competitors, will always be beneficial for those brands.
8. SEO Is Relatively Cheap
Sure, it costs money. All the best things do, right?
But SEO is relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things, and the payoff will most likely be considerable in terms of a brand’s benefit and bottom line.
This isn’t a marketing cost; this is a true business investment. Good SEO implementation will hold water for years to come. And, like most things in life, will only be better with the more attention (and investment) it gets.
9. It’s A Long-Term Strategy
SEO can (and hopefully does) have a noticeable impact within the first year of action being taken, and many of those actions will have an impact that lasts more than several years.
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As the market evolves, yes, it’s best to follow the trends and changes closely. But even a site that hasn’t had a boatload of intense SEO recommendations implemented will improve from basic SEO best practices being employed on an honest website with a decent user experience.
And the more SEO time, effort, and budget that is committed to it, the better and longer a website stands to being a worthy contender in its market.
10. It’s Quantifiable
While SEO doesn’t offer the easier-to-calculate ROI like that of paid search, you can measure almost anything with proper tracking and analytics.
The big problem is trying to connect the dots on the back end since there is no definitive way to understand the correlation between all actions taken.
Still, it is worth understanding how certain actions are supposed to affect performance and growth, and hopefully they do.
Any good SEO is going to be aiming at those improvements, so connecting the dots should not be a challenge.
Brands also want to know and understand where they were, where they are, and where they’re going in terms of digital performance, especially for SEO when they have a person/company that is being paid to execute on its behalf.
There’s no better way to show the success of SEO, either. We all know the data never lies.
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11. SEO Brings New Opportunities to Light
High-quality SEO will always find a means of discovering and leveraging new opportunities for brands to, not just be discovered, but to shine.
Offering quality SEO to brands means submersing an SEO team in everything that is that brand. It’s the only way to truly market a brand with the passion and understanding that brand’s stakeholders have for it: becoming a stakeholder.
The better a brand is understood, the more opportunities will arise to help it thrive. The same can be said about SEO.
12. If You’re Not on Page 1, You’re Not Winning the Click
It’s no secret in the world of SEO that if you’re not on Page 1, you’re likely not killing the organic search game.
A recent study shows that the first three organic search ranking positions result in nearly 40 percent of all click-throughs, while up to 30 percent of all results on Page 1 and 2 don’t get clicked at all.
What’s this mean? Two things:
If you’re not on Page 1, you need to be.
There are still too many instances when a user types a search query and can’t find exactly what it’s looking for.
Conclusion
Implementing strong, quality SEO on a brand’s website and digital properties is always going to be beneficial to that brand and its marketing efforts.
Smart recommendations to make Google Ads profitable
Opteo continuously monitors Google Ads accounts for statistically significant patterns. When something comes up, Opteo suggests an improvement backed up by real data. Opteo also helps monitor performance trends, track spending & get alerts when you need them.
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Keywords are the foundation for everything in PPC. Keywords are what you use to define where your ads should appear.
Without a solid understanding of what keywords are and how to use them effectively, you’ll never be successful with PPC.
Before getting started, it’s important to understand some of the terminologies in this guide.
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Search Term: The word or words a user types into Google when performing a search.
Keyword: A word, or a set of words, that you add to your Google Ads campaigns.
Keyword Match Type: A setting for your keywords that will determine the keyword’s reach.
Types of Keywords
When you think of keywords, it’s useful to understand what buckets the different keywords are in and how this sets them apart.
The types of keywords include:
Branded keywords include company names (e.g., Amazon, Target).
Generic keywords typically cover ambiguous keywords, and can also be referred to as short tail keywords (e.g., “running shoes,” “plumbing,” “towing”). The gist of a generic keyword is that we don’t understand their intent yet. There is nothing in the search that shows us whether this person is looking to buy a pair of shoes, or if they are just searching for different kinds of shoes.
Transactional keywords are keywords that have both a strong and weak purchase intent. As long as there is some purchase intent, then you can label a keyword a commercial keyword. This is everything from “Nike running shoes” to “plumbing services.”
Locational keywords cover everything that’s related to a location and are very powerful for location-based companies. Often these are your typical home services. It can be a city name (e.g., “towing company San Francisco”) or an actual request to show ads that have companies “near me” (e.g., “towing company near me”).
Long-tailkeywords cover keywords that consist of more than 3-4 words (e.g., “Nike running shoes for marathon”). They are typically highly transactional meaning they have higher conversion rates than the other keyword types.
Informational keywords cover keywords where people are simply looking for information. This can be anything from “Sears store directions” to “how to get rid of a wart.” You would rarely use info-keywords for Google Ads.
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Quick note: The buckets above are not either or. Just because a keyword is “long” doesn’t mean it can’t also be a branded or an info-keyword.
Keywords Across the Buyer’s Journey
The type of key term a person uses in their search often reflects where they are in their buyer’s journey.
It’s important to note, however, that it’s impossible to know exactly where in the buyer’s journey someone is solely based on what keyword they use, but it can be a strong indicator.
Consider the following chart as a gliding transition rather than hard limits:
Core Keywords vs. Qualifiers & Modifiers
When you work with keywords in PPC, it’s very helpful to know the difference between a core keyword and a keyword qualifier/modifier.
I should note that this is not official terminology.
Core keyword: This is like the main keyword (e.g., “plumbing” or “running shoes”).
Keyword qualifier/modifier: Searchers will often add qualifiers or modifiers (e.g. “cheap,” “near me,” or “marathon”).
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The reason why it’s important to understand the difference between core keywords and qualifiers/modifiers is that if you only have one core keyword in your account you’ll end up paying a lot per click and have a very narrow reach.
If you’re a plumbing company, and you have following keywords, you’re essentially just bidding for one core keyword:
Plumbing services
Plumbing contractor
Plumbing company
Nearest plumbing company
For the beginner in PPC, these all appear to be four different keywords. However, if you look closely then they’re all the same keyword (plumbing).
Instead, you need to remember to continue to find new core keywords across the entire spectrum:
Leaky pipes
Gutter repair
Broken water pipes
Water heater repair
Waste disposal installation
You should still have all of the keywords that I listed to being with, it’s just important you don’t get stuck with the same keyword.
Keywords Aren’t Exact
One of the biggest “aha” moments you’ll have as a beginner in PPC is when you find out that when it comes to keywords, what you see is never what you get.
As I’ll highlight in the match type section below, just because you use the keyword “Nike trail running shoes,” it doesn’t mean your ads will only appear when someone search for “Nike trail running shoes.”
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The reason is rather ingenious, and insane, on Google’s behalf. Because not even experts would be able to cover all searches with keywords if every single keyword should exactly matching a search.
Keyword Match Types
One of the first things you need to understand about keywords is that there are different match types.
Depending on what match type your keyword is in, it will behave differently.
This is one of the unknown “hacks” that people who’ve worked in PPC for any time take for granted.
There are four different match types. The difference between the match types come down to how much you want each match type to be expanded.
Broad Match
To add a keyword in broad match, just add it as is: running shoes
Broad match keywords are like shooting a shotgun. You choose the overall area you want to target (the keyword), but Google can expand your keyword, sometimes to completely different searches than you anticipated.
As an example, the broad match keyword “protein powder” can also show ads for searches like:
Protein supplement
Protein
Dietary supplements
Larger muscles
With broad match keywords, Google tries to show your ad when searchers look for relevant terms.
Broad Match Pros:
You can cover a lot of misspellings and keyword variations with a single keyword.
You’ll discover high-converting long tail keywords that you’d never thought of.
Broad Match keywords receive many more impressions/clicks than any other match type.
It can be extremely effective!
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Broad Match Cons:
Many searches/clicks = High costs.
High risk of losing money to irrelevant searches.
Hard to control, especially with single-worded keywords.
Broad Match Modified
To add a keyword in broad match modifier, add it with plus signs: +running +shoes
Broad Match Modifier Pros:
Much better control of which searches you want your ads to appear on.
Very good for finding new long tail keywords.
Your ads will still appear although the search phrase has an extra word or different word order.
Catches misspellings.
Broad Match Modifier Cons:
Lower search volume than with Broad Match.
Can still be expanded to seemingly irrelevant searches.
No easy way to create keywords in Broad Match Modifier.
Phrase Match
To add a keyword in phrase match, add it with quotation marks: “running shoes”
Phrase Match Pros:
Greater control on what queries you’ll be shown.
Very effective for sentences.
Effective for avoiding greater expansions.
Phrase Match Cons:
Reduced search volume.
Is a lot more restrictive than Broad Match Modifier with very few benefits.
Exact Match
To add a keyword in exact match, add it with brackets: [running shoes]
An exact match keyword is more or less that. Only search terms matching that almost exact keyword will trigger your ad to be shown.
Exact match keywords are like the snipers of the keyword match types. Precise, direct, and on point.
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Exact Match Pros:
You know exactly what search is used.
Perfect for controlling high-converting keywords.
What you see is what you get.
Exact Match Cons:
Much lower search volume for your keywords.
You can’t discover new keyword variations or long tail keywords.
You miss “one time searches”.
After you’ve fully mastered these, you can move on to an advanced match type that merges Phrase Match and Broad Match Modifier into a single keyword. To learn more, view the SEJ article: The Fifth Google Ads Match Type: Phrase Match Modifier
Which Match Type Should You Use?
When you first set up your campaign, I recommend you use Broad Match Modifier and Exact Match.
As you can see in my review of the four match types, each one catches different users; so in most cases, you will use them all in an effective Google Ads campaign.
The only but (and it’s a big but) is that you should wait with using broad match until you really know what you’re doing.
Your Google Ads performance can easily tank when you use broad match keywords without a specific strategy or workflow to optimize them.
Gradually, as your campaign gathers statistics, you might find that some of the match types for a particular keyword are not profitable, but others aren’t.
Negative keywords are used to exclude your ads from showing on searches.
Let’s say you’re a plumbing company, then excluding searches for “jobs” or from cities you don’t service will help increase the performance of your Google Ads campaigns.
In the ecommerce space, let’s say you sell marathon running shoes, but not trail running shoes, you can exclude “trail” from triggering your ads.
This is powerful because you’re more or less paying the same for every click the same keyword generates. This means you can end up paying for clicks that aren’t as relevant for your business as you might have thought.
This is one of the main reasons why beginners can’t get Google Ads to perform.
You may think you have chosen the right keywords, written good ads, and are sending good traffic to a website. However, behind the keyword you often find your ads are triggered by search terms that aren’t as relevant as the keyword you added.
You can, and should, work with negative keywords in two capacities:
Before launching your campaigns
After launching your campaigns
When you’re done finding keywords for your campaign, spend at least half an hour to an hour Googling the keywords to see what pops up. Add any irrelevant terms you can find as negative keywords.
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You can take advantage of a ton of standard negative keyword lists.
After launching your campaigns, you should consistently review your Search Term report. This is where you can see exactly what search terms your searches triggered your ads.
SEO Cape Town or Search Engine Optimization Services
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Before you can embark on a successful SEO Cape Town campaign, you need to know how people are finding your site, whether or not they are buying, which pages keep them there and which pages cause them to leave, along with other basic behavior patterns.
The keywords that “feel right” to you may not be the best ones for your campaign, and competing for qualified traffic on the Internet is a different proposition than marketing in the “real world”.
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Web hosting deals with putting the contents of your website on a Web server. Hosting your website on your own server could be an option. But this will become very much expensive unless you are hosting a site like yahoo.com or google.com. So this tutorials does not cover how to set up your own hosting server.
Buying a server space or renting a complete server from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the most widely used option. This section guides you to choose a hosting type and makes you aware of other related concepts.
Hosting Platforms
You can go for any of the following two most widely used hosting platforms −
Windows Hosting Servers − If you are a Windows lover then you will find many hosting servers running different flavors of Windows and you can buy space from these servers. Normally Windows hosting servers are more expensive because of lot of software licensing costs are involved with these servers.
Linux Hosting Servers − If you want to go for Linux then opportunities are unlimited and they will have to pay less then what you will pay for Windows Hosting Server. There are many ISP who provides Hosting Servers with different flavors of Unix.
Hosting Types
There are many options available and you can select any hosting type based on your requirement and budget. Following are most widely used hosting types −
Yes, this is true there are many service providers who will give you free space on their web server with a condition that you will allow them to run their advertisement at your web pages. So if you are OK with this option, then you have nothing to pay for a space. There are some websites like geocities.com, lycos.com, myspace.com, etc. that give you space to build your web pages.
With shared hosting, your website is hosted on a powerful server along with other websites. On a shared host, you will have your own user ID and password to login to the shared host and you will be allowed to work in your work area. You would not be able to touch any file or directory belonging to other host partner. Even you would not know how many sites are hosted on your shared host. This type of hosting is very cost effective and good for small websites where your space and speed are not very important. Here traffic on one site will affect the speed of all other hosted sites.
Virtual Dedicated Hosting
This type of hosting is better for medium size business. With virtual dedicated hosting, you will have a dedicated bandwidth and dedicated RAM for your site. You will be given a root ID and password to maintain your Web server. You will be the complete owner of your virtual dedicated server and will be able to install or de-install any software. This type of hosting is created on a single server, but it is managed in such a way that every user will have dedicated speed and bandwidth. This is bit more expensive but really good one for medium size business.
Dedicated Hosting
This type of hosting is very similar to virtual dedicated hosting, but here, a complete machine will be allotted for you. They are more expensive than virtual dedicated hosting and should be considered when you have a very high traffic requirement.
Collocated Hosting
It is very difficult to set dedicated resources such as high-security against fire and vandalism, regulated backup power, dedicated Internet connections and more. Collocation is the option which allows you to put your machine in a service provider’s premises to avail all the available facilities. This is also a very expensive option and should be opted when you have very high traffic requirement.
When you buy a Web server space, then you should be clear about the follows. You should do a price comparison between different service providers based on the following components −
Disc Space
A small or medium website will require between 10 and 100MB of disk space. If you plan to keep a lot of audio and video on your website, then you need plan to buy more space. Before buying server space, you should check the options available to expand your disc space if you need it in future.
Monthly Traffic
A small or medium website will need between 1GB and 10GB of data transfer on a monthly basis. If you plan to keep a lot of audio and video on your website, then you need a plan with more data transfer capacity. Check different options based on your requirements. What are the other options available in case you cross the given data transfer limit. Your site should not be stopped in case you exceed given limit.
Processing Speed
If you are buying space on a shared machine, then you cannot guess how much speed will be given to you. In that case, only way is to see other hosted sites with the same service provider to know about their hosting quality. But if you are buying virtual dedicated server or dedicated server, then you should consider how much RAM is being allocated to you. Your pricing will depend on the given processing power to you.
Connection Speed
Nowadays, most service providers allow very fast connection speed. So choose a service provider who is giving better connection speed in terms of bits per second. You can have a connection speed ranging from 64Kb per second to 2.488Gb per second.
Email Accounts
Make sure you are going to get sufficient number of e-mail accounts. There are many other options available which come along with your e-mail account. Like, will you get IMAP, POP and E-mail Forwarding options available along with your e-mail facilities.
Emailing Support
Apart form having email accounts, it is also very important that your web server should have a facility to send emails from back-end. In case your site visitors want to contact to you using a form, then you will be able to use that emailing facility to send emails to your designated account. In simple terms, you should make sure that the SMTP Server is setup and working on your Web server.
Latest Technologies
You should make sure that your web server is equipped with all the latest technologies. It should have the latest version support for PHP, PERL, ASP and JAVA, etc.
Databases
There are many databases available MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, etc. You should choose your server based on your database requirement. If you are buying space on a shared server, then you need to verify how much space will be allocated for your database. Many ISPs do not give more than a limited space for databases. If your site needs a lot of database size, then you should go for a virtual dedicated server.
Server Uptime
It is important that you buy a web server from a reliable and reputed ISP. You should make sure your ISP is giving you 99.99% server uptime. If the is server down, then there are many service providers who gives you compensation in case your sites goes down more than a limited number of time.
Backup & FTP
Make sure your Service Provider is giving you more ways of taking regular backup of your website. If your site is changing everyday, then it becomes very important that you should take regular backup of your website. Many service providers do it on your behalf by charging a small cost for this service.
Just make sure what type of facilities you will get to maintain your hosting account. Check if your service provider is providing you an easy-to-use Control Panel or some other similar tool. Using a Control Panel, you should be able to maintain basic operations related to your website such as logging your service request, your reboot request, or any other problem.
Before finalizing a deal with your service provider, you should make sure they provide you the required support. You can get this information using Internet forums or from your friends. There are many service providers who give you 24×7 support for any technical or non-technical problem.
SSL Certificate are fundamental to internet security. They are used to establish an encrypted connection and allow data to be transmitted securely between a browser or user’s computer and a server or website.
Establishes a secure connection between a browser and a server
Encrypts communication to protect sensitive information your customers provide to you
Places a padlock next to your web address in the browser
Authenticates an organization’s identity
Standard SSL (Domain Validated) Certificates are the easiest and most common type of SSL certificate. OV and EV Certificates also authenticate the identity of the company or organization that holds the certificate providing more trust to end users.
Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
Establish trust and online security for your website visitors and business.
Google wants to make the web safer and a big part of that involves making sure that the sites people access via Google are secure. That’s why websites using SSL have been shown to benefit from higher ranking in search results.
There’s also a lot more reasons why you should consider adding SSL to your website:
Encrypt sensitive data
Protect user privacy
Secure online transactions
Activate HTTPS and the lock icon
Prove legitimacy
Increase SEO rank
Browsers have changed, don’t get left behind
Web pages not served via HTTPS are now being displayed as ‘not secure’ in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Don’t let your website be one of them. Add SSL today.
Upgrade with us and get up to an additional 12 months free. Learn more »
Upgrade to Extended Validation SSL
While all SSL certificates use similar methods to protect and validate your data, the level of trust and assertion they provide varies.
Extended Validation Certificates offer the highest level of validation and trust. They validate and display the name of the company or organisation along with the green address bar which is one of the most highly recognizable trust indicators on the web.
WebMail 
LiveChat 
Support 
Quality content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance. Fine-tune your web writing skills.
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