How many times have you heard an SEO consultant go on and on about getting H1, H2 and H3 tags straight? Many times obviously. The usage of H1 tags in particular is one of the most popular SEO tricks utilized by SEO professionals. Apart from the written content, H1 tags are considered to be the second most important on-page factors that have a direct effect on a website’s rankings.
Although the H1 tags haven’t changed much since their inception, their value has increased due to the massive level of competitive among websites. Heading tags are often used as a base for a search engine’s crawler. The presence of a clearly visible H1 tag acts as an arrow that points toward the most important part of your site.
The value of a good H1 tag is determined by the power of the keyword it is associated with. We all know that search engine crawlers have a long standing grudge against keyword stuffing. The same rule of maintaining the quality of the content applies to heading tags just as well as the rest of the on page content. Therefore, making sure that you use a valuable keyword on the H1 tag along with some supporting content is a good way to make sure that the crawlers crawl your way.
Many people have expressed concern about how the H1 tags are not as effective these days. In reality, they are still just as effective as ever, only if you know how to strike the perfect balance between keywords and content. Aside from H1 tags, H2 and H3 tags are also important when it comes to increasing the SEO value of your on-page content. Once again, people tend to take this the wrong way and scatter heading tags all over the page. The right way to do this would be to have the main title as an H1 while the H2 and H3 tags can break down the main topic into separate segments.
The recurring rule of SEO is to make sure that you market your website with keywords without being a flashing arrow. The same guideline applies for just about every single one of your SEO tricks, including the heading tag usage.
Just about everything that happens on the internet, has some kind of effect on Search Engine Optimisation. On 21st November 2011, Yahoo closed down their backlink checking tool. This is definitely something that has an effect on SEO as Yahoo Site Explorer was one of the best tools to keep track of backlinks. Needless to say, Yahoo Site Explorer will be missed by most of the SEO community whether they are website owners or providers of SEO services.
Yahoo Site Explorer is among the very few genuine backlink checkers that offered their services completely free of charge without even requiring registration. While most backlink checkers will simply offer rounded figures of the actual number of backlinks or simply settle on a random round number, Site Explorer offered accurate results. However, when it comes to the backlink source sites, Yahoo only displayed a maximum limit of 1000 links. Then again, unless you are planning to examine each and every backlink, it’s not a major disadvantage. In addition, Site Explorer also offered plenty of assistance when it comes to categorizing the backlinks according to the landing page. All this was offered in an easy to use format to allow anyone to make use of the service.
In general, a backlink checker is essential to keep an eye on the links that they invested time and resources on to build. For instance, if you are an SEO services provider, it is important to keep track on the amount of backlinks obtained by a particular client when work started and how the amount changes as the link building continues. The main use of these tools is the ability to keep an eye on active links as well as any lost links without resorting to time consuming, manual means. In other words, a backlink checker takes a great deal of work off your shoulders.
Now that Yahoo Site Explorer has closed, it is necessary for SEO professionals to find something that is just as good to maintain operations as before. It is highly recommended that you should try your hand at a paid backlink checker for results that are similar to Site Explorer’s.
Search Engine Optimisation is all about the keywords. Keywords can be defined as the lifeblood of SEO that connects the client along with websites. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that one selects the ideal keywords that will generate enough visits to get you to the top of the search engine result lists. However, simply being on top of the ranking is not enough when you are a business. You need to generate revenue. To generate revenue, you need to make sales and for that, you need to attract genuine customers in to your site. How can you achieve this feat? Three words: Long tail SEO.
Long tail SEO is the art of utilising key-phrases that tend to be more specific and longer to attract people with genuine intentions to purchase whatever it is that you are selling on your website. Take the word ‘shoes’ for example. This is definitely the first word on the list of potential keywords when you layout your SEO strategy. However, it also happens to be the most competitive and least effective at generating specific sales. It is highly unlikely that someone who is looking for a specific type of shoe will type the term ‘shoes’ in to the search engine. So, why not give them what they are looking for? Say, ‘Faux leather peep toe platform pumps’. Although this may seem unnaturally long and a bit tricky to work in to the content, phrases like this are definitely capable of attracting genuine customers (who are looking for the exact item) who will make purchases.
In addition, long tail SEO has the ability to make your website more visible to customers who ate geographically closer. If you are a business that works online as well as offline (such as a clothing store or an antique store), it is best to settle on some keywords that specify the store’s location as well. This could encourage your offline clients to physically visit the store and well, bring you some revenue.
However, taking on more competitive and general keywords is the way to go if you are intent on getting more visits. The ideal SEO strategy would be to pay attention to a few short keywords as well as to select some specific, long ones to focus on your popular products or services. Although SEO is defined as a practice that generates web visits, the idea behind attracting visits is ultimately, making sales: and long tail SEO does just that without beating about the bush.
With the stellar launch of Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich comes devastating news in the form of an announcement that stated that Google Buzz will be closed down shortly. Google Buzz, originally launched in 2010 as a microblogging/ messaging/ social networking tool that enabled users to connect with multiple platforms such as Picassa, Flickr and Blogger. Although it was received as Google’s answer to the likes of Twitter and Facebook, with the introduction of Google +, it seems like Google has taken the anticipated next step by announcing the closing down of Buzz.
As per the announcement issued by Bradley Horowitz, VP of Google +, the shutting down of Google Buzz is one step of a series of modifications made to the search engine and associated services. For instance, Google Labs, a platform that directly connects Google’s engineers with users, will also be shut down. In addition, Google Desktop, Aardvark and Google Maps API for Flash will also be shutting down as a result of this ‘spring clean’.
According to speculation, Buzz is being shut down as a result of users not giving enough attention. In other words, Google Buzz didn’t generate enough ‘buzz’ to survive the guillotine. According to Horowitz, Google is trying to devote more time and attention to the improvement of features such as Google +.
However, Google Buzz is a feature that battled all sorts of complicated feedback from users as well as legal action from The Federal Trade Commission the due to its privacy issues. According to experts, Google is quite serious about giving the 800 million user strong Facebook. Therefore, the ‘weeding’ of anything (even something that Google has spent years agonizing over) that might get in the way of its success is positively logical. Horowitz further declared that Google Buzz will not be missed by many as most of its users have switched to Google +. In his own words, Google will be focusing their efforts on projects that ‘will have the most impact to the most users’.
For the users who will be impacted with Google Buzz’s retirement, there is a way to download all Buzz data with the aid of Google Takeout. In addition, all the data from your Google Buzz will be archived under the ‘Buzz’ menu item on your Google + profile.
In the third week of August, Google made an update to sitelinks. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, sitelinks are the links to the different pages of the website that are displayed below the title. Although this is not something immediately visible to the user, it is definitely something that makes a difference to a user who is searching for a specific page.
The links have been given a size boost to match the main title. This is definitely a good thing if you are at the top of the search list as it will inevitably draw attention and keep it there. Plus, it takes away the need to go in to the website to find a particular page. Most users are not all too happy to actually visit a site and navigate through to find a page they want. The theory that is put to use with the all new and improved sitelinks is to draw, no demand, attention to the pages of the site that a user might want to visit.
However, the appearance of the sitelinks depends mainly on the URL structure of your site. Although the appearance has been changed, the generation and ranking is done with the aid of the traditional algorithm.
Have you noticed different pages of the same website, ranking on different spots on the Google result page? Sometimes, a user could end up at the same site, by clicking on several different results. With the update, a user can easily identify that the top result is located on a separate domain in comparison to those that are ranked below it.
According to Google, this is done mainly as a move to provide the best services to web users. But that doesn’t mean that SEO professionals and website owners can sit back and relax. They have to work their best to make sure that the correct sitelinks are presented while the incorrect ones are demoted. However, if your website is easy to navigate and is easily visible, it will inevitably draw in more traffic.
