SEO is very important because every industry needs it and helps build their brand. Once you’ve understood the basics of SEO, you may want to utilize few SEO tools to make the learning curve even easier.
But there are hundreds, if not thousands, SEO tools available on the Internet (some paid and others free). Using each one of them can overwhelm a newbie SEO optimizer, not mentioning you will also have a difficult time find the ‘right’ ones.
So if you have been asking yourself: “What are the best SEO tools out there for beginners? How can I start to SEO like a pro?” we have written this article that address this issue and help you SEO like a pro.
If you find SEO tad bit difficult at first, remember that you are not ‘alone!’ There are plenty of great tools you can learn to use starting today and get familiar with the SEO practice.
You may either take a SEO class (practicing 30-60 minutes a day or week) or learn on your own if you’re like DIY like myself.
No matter which course your take, for you to SEO like a pro, you need to handle all the basics first. That means you need be familiar with SEO terms like “domain authority,” or “PageRank,” “Backlinks” to a page, among many others that will speed up your learning curve.
* PageRank ranks every single page on your website while * Domain Authority” ranks your entire domain.
If you are ready, let’s learn how to SEO like a pro:

a) Publish Good Content.

If there was only one SEO method to use in your on-page SEO campaign, then that would be to fill your website with good content. As long as you have a good content (useful, valuable, and interesting content) on your site, your website will still perform better without any well-thought-out SEO tactics and gimmicks.
It’s the only one thing that is constant no matter how many times a search engine algorithm changes. Good and relevant content is what drives more people to your site in the first place. All other elements such as website layout, graphics, fonts, colors comes secondary.
Good content makes your visitors happy and satisfied once they land one the web pages on your site. So, try to at least come up with original content or content that is not re-written or copies from somewhere else on the Internet.
Also include variety of content types such as infographics, videos, podcast, and articles.
Try to provide useful content to your visitors. Useful content adds value to your people. They are highly relevant to your niche/industry, well-written, and tries to answer almost all types of questions your visitors may have.

2. Optimize Page Titles, Descriptions, Headings, etc.

Do you know what search engine crawlers read when they scan through your web pages? They read your page titles, descriptions, and headlines as well as image text first.
These elements on a web page are very critical as they tell the search engines what the page is all about and how it can be relevant to a particular keyword search phrase.
With this knowledge, search engines will be able to figure out how to properly index your pages in the search engine result pages.
Here’s how you can optimize these page elements:
a) Page titles – Think of unique and descriptive keyword-rich titles for your page so that it is easier for search engines to figure out what your page is about. A good page title would be like, “SEO Like a Pro – Top 3 Things to Do.” Bad page titled is “SEO,” or page having no titles like “Untitled.”
b) Page descriptions – Create unique and descriptive keyword-rich page description. Summarize your page in brief as this section acts as an initial sales copy that plays a huge role in convincing people to click-through to your website and know more about what you do and offer.
For page descriptions, limit its lenght to 150 characters.
c) Page Formatting – Use proper formatting to make it easier for your readers to read content on your web pages. Use headings (H1) and sub-headings (H2, H3, and so on) to emphasize important sections within the page.
Moreover, highlight important points with italics, underlines, and bold faces.

Use easy-to-read fonts (use 12px font size).

Use small paragraph. Do not use more than 2-3 sentence in each paragraph for easier reading experience.

3. Optimize Images on Your Website

While it true that good content can stand on its own, but other web pages elements such as graphics can also make your page stand out and make them more interesting.
For example, original images may help convey the ‘right’ context of the page to the readers so that they know quickly what the topic is about.
* If you’re using someone else’s images, make sure to give a credit to your source.
Next, optimize the image size. Keep your image size smaller without compromising its quality. Use tools such as Photoshop (any version) to quickly optimize your images.
Use a descriptive filenames – Use keyword-rich filenames, as it will help search engines index your images better.
Well there you have it. We just discussed 3 ways you could start to SEO like a pro.
Tell us if they were helpful? Have you used any of these strategies to make your web pages more useful, interesting, and engaging to your audience before? Please share your thoughts and idea in the comment box below.

What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are more than just links.
In general, “Links” refers to outbound links from the page, while “Backlinks” refers to links coming back to your web page (inbound links).
Backlinks also creates a relationship among different pages on the web as it allows Internet users to navigate from one location on the web to the desired page on your site.
So, when you are asking, “What are backlinks,” you should also understand:

Why Backlinks Are Important?

Backlinks increases exposure to your ‘original’ landing page. If you have a good blog post on a topic that may be of value to the other person, and if they write something similar and link back to you, your original document gets more exposure.
Knowing page’s Backlinks allows you to assess where and how your website and its pages fits within cyberspace.
On the other hand, if nobody links back to your content, the only way you can get Backlinks to your original content is from sources within your control. For example, you could create additional pages that will link to the main landing page, internally. Or you could create new website and link pages back to your original page.
This is totally acceptable, but the really ‘engaging’ stuff on the web usually gets linked from outside sources, or sources outside your control.
Internet Marketing is all about getting quality backlinks from outside sources.
Unless you want your users to remember and type the full URL of a web page on the browser, the only way they can travel to your landing page is by clicking through the links.
Remember that backlinks to a page are more important to that page than the outbound links present on that page.

How do you find a page’s backlinks then?

Well, to be honest, it very difficult and sometimes even impossible to find backlinks on any given page!
Using search engines you may be able to find some pages that link to other page on the Internet, but not all of them.
And other methods are complex and time-consuming too as you would need to search every page on the Internet to see which page link back to the URL you are interested in. Clearly, that would cost you plenty of time and money (among thousands of dollars).
Fortunately, there are few SEO companies that have already done the legwork and GetYourSiteRanked.com is one of them. We have one of the largest link map. Most small businesses utilizes GetYourSiteRanked.com SEO services to understand their link map on the Internet.
Click here to request for a free backlink report.

The term online marketing now encompasses a variety of practices including search engine optimization, online blogging, social media marketing, general link building, and much more.

This can be overwhelming for businesses that have just stepped into the world of internet marketing and previously only focused on conventional marketing and advertising strategies.

So in this blog, we’ve attempted to point out a few mistakes that businesses make in internet marketing:

Complacency

This may sound very general, but it is quite important. Many businesses grow complacent and expect high rewards after they have launched a website or a blog. Nowadays, it’s no longer about being on the internet to get noticed, it’s about establishing your presence by attracting users to your website.

How do you do that? By getting a higher ranking for your website or blog on Google, as most people use Google to search for potentially helpful services or a business they need to locate. So it’s important to monitor your keywords, and the quality of your content. Google has introduced a much more advanced algorithm for site ranking, and now websites with better, more readable content are preferred over others. The grammar and spellings should be correct, and the content should have proper text formatting along with headings and sub-headings.

Ignoring Accessibility

Many firms only focus on the quality of their websites, and create complex and attractive pages which take time to load. If your website takes time to load, the user is likely to just close the tab and open another link. Therefore, it’s important to keep your web pages attractive and accessible.

Ignoring Feedback

Many firms don’t follow the feedback of their clients or potential clients on their blogs or websites. Not only does that send a negative image of the company, it also stops your marketing strategy from evolving and becoming more efficient. Feedback and comments can be a valuable source to gather information about the strengths and flaws of your content or services. You can use it to effectively create a better strategy.

Off-site Link Building

This is something that many businesses ignore. They spend a lot of money on creating a good quality website, and then start expecting a lot of traffic. That’s not how it works, in fact; inbound links are perhaps the most effective way for a small business to break their bubble. In-bound links from other high quality websites not only increase your rating on Google, they also ensure referral traffic and exposure to different opportunities.

If all of this seems too overwhelming to you, you can hire other companies that offer SEO link building services to increase the traffic and rating of your website or blog. GetYourSiteRank.com is one such company which offers remarkable services which include; a website maintenance service, link building, social media marketing, lead generation and much more. You can visit their website or call them at +65 6100 4977.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art of getting in the top 10 positions of search engine result pages (SERPs) and bringing more organic (free) traffic to your website.
But does it contain a LOT of work?
If you’re just starting a small online business, SEO may seem like another language you’ll have to learn to skyrocket the success of your online business.
But do you have time and resource for that?
Do you really want to learn the tricks and trade of the SEO business?
Will it cost you more to learn SEO, or is it more beneficial to hire a full-time dedicated SEO expert?
Oh, yes, I hear you ask, “SEO is for corporate giants, like Nike, who have plenty of money to invest. How can SEO help me and my small business?”
Yes, over the past few years, I have been hearing these types of questions from my clients, all the time. And I want to let you know that I can feel your pain.
Whenever the word “SEO” pops up, people get all excited when they hear how “technical” and “time consuming” it can be, and how it evolves with time. They think that people who are ranking on the #1 page of Google are “corporate giants” who have plenty of cash in their pocket to hire professional SEO consultant for their SEO campaigns and small business have no place in search engine pages.
Totally wrong! – SEO can work for small businesses like yours, too, and let me explain this to you with few examples in this article. But let me repeat this once again, “YES, SEO can work for both medium as well as small business!”

 

How can I be so certain that SEO works for small businesses?

Because we’ve seen it manifest for tens of thousands of small businesses, if not millions. I am talking about “one-man-run” small businesses here.
Our clients are mostly in small business niche.
For example, Amanda is a part-time university teacher and a blogger. Recently, she hired us for her SEO strategy, and this is what she had to say.
“Just want to thank you guys. I hired GetYourSiteRank to look after my SEO strategies – optimize my website, content, and generate monthly report to keep track of my progress – and wow, after consistent 48 days of simple SEO tasks, my web pages are ranking in the 1st page of Google for most niche-related keywords. I know I still have to do a lot of SEO to double my figure, but with only little effort a week, I am more than happy to see my online business making profits for me. Most customers are calling me to learn about our college program. Thanks to their helpful SEO tips and strategies, I am starting to see results.”
Remember, she has not even touched anything deeper than the usual SEO tips.
But if you want “real” numbers/proof that this whole SEO thing will work for your business, then here it is.

 

SEO highlights your business

We’re in a fairly competitive market – Internet Marketing! The only other competitive market is the X-rated industry, or the weight loss industry, but still way too competitive.
But, let me share a secret with you – no matter which industry you’re in – there is a ROOM for you in the search engine result pages (SERPs) and you can generate huge ROI for you small business.

 

Are you ready to see the figure?

Over the past 12 months, one of our website organic traffic has increased by almost 845%! Last year, in the same timeframe, the site saw around 1,500 visits, but today, we’ve got over 17,000 web visits just from organic search.
img

One year of SEO work

The above screenshot is the organic traffic information grabbed from our Google Analytics account. The “targeted” and “hungry” traffic we saw on our website was mind-boggling. Look at our conversion rate for January for the year 2012 and 2013. It increased with more than 300% from the conversion ratio for the same period last year.

 

How Much Should You Spend on SEO?

We do not spend a lot of time doing SEO for our website. Really, we do not. Maybe 1 hour a week at the most. And no, we really do not ask for anyone’s help from the outside.
It’s just that you have to spend few hours finding the proper market, doing some keyword research, and optimizing your website and content around it initially, and post content on a regular basis. That’s all there is to SEO to highlight your small business and get “targeted” customers calling you.
Yes, SEO can work for any kind of small business, and even for tiny small businesses. All they have to “stop” doing what others are doing, do things that really “work,” and use sound SEO tips and methodologies into your existing marketing efforts.
If you want to see whether you can rank in the 1st page of Google for certain keyword phrases, click here to get a FREE SEO analysis.
But let me ask you guys – Do you really think SEO can work for your small business? Let’s discuss it in the comment below.
Oh, by the way, if you liked this post, please help share the message with your friend, colleagues, and even your boss, by using a “share button” at the side. Please visit again to read more helpful tips on SEO and Internet Marketing.
You can get those “targeted” and “hungry” buyers land on your website for certain key terms related to your industry. But are you prepared for it?
Click here to get a FREE SEO consultation for your small business!

 

 

What are the 5 ways you can advance in your site rankings so that you’ll gain a competitive advantage over your competitors, drive away their customers, and rake in all the profits for yourself?
The most popular search engine on the planet is Google, Yahoo, and Bing. So, if you’re running an online business, it has to be found on the 1st page of these websites.

Ways you can Advance in your Site Ranking

 

Here are 5 Ways you can Advance in your Site Ranking:

 

1. Keyword Research

In order to lay a strong foundation for your site, you’ll have to choose the right keywords by performing keyword research.
Using free tools such as Google Keyword Planner, you’ll be able to find profitable keywords, usually long tail keywords, that most small business fail to target and gain those easy and quick rankings on search engines, without burning their pockets.

 

2. Original, Useful and Interesting Content

Why do you think people use search engines for? Well, if you’re not living under the rocks, they type keyword phrase to find the most relevant sites that will offer them give what they’re looking for.
So, if you have a relevant, useful, and interesting content that matches with the search terms people type, Google will automatically share them over others. Relevant content are written around the most popular topics, and they are displayed higher than other content that are poorly written, or stuffed with keywords to influence quick rankings.
Research well to write high quality article and keep on posting fresh article targeting “long tail keywords.”

 

3. Build High Quality Backlinks

After content, building quality links back to your site is the most crucial thing you must do in order to rank higher in search engines page results (SERPs). Google loves links coming back from various sources, and they see a “vote” of approval for your site. That means, the more link points back to your site, the more value search engines find in it, and as a result, display them over others with few quality backlinks.
Make sure to focus on building quality links. Post on forums, blogs, and article directories that are relevant to your niche, but avoid posting on link farm. Build your links slowly to avoid Google penalty.

 

4. Web Design

Is your website optimized for search engines using keywords that you want to rank for? Optimizing your site around major keywords is the way to rank higher in search engines. But most site owners, especially the beginners go way too far and include flashy animation and loads of images that will only hurt their sites ranking.
Check your site of broken links, remove them, and create a sitemap and submit to search engines.

 

5. Social Media

Social media is a hub where most of your potential clients are lurking around, searching for information that you publish on your site. Although posting Facebook updates, or tweeting on Twitter will not get the link juice you crave so much, but it definitely pays a huge role into driving people back to your site and keep them coming back by offering information they’re looking for.

 

 

How will building a strong social profile help you and your business be found on Google?
These types of questions are asked by plenty, so we thought why not help you find the answer.
Did you know that a social profile gives your site a “nofollow” link?
Nofollow links do not give you the link juice, or help with SEO, when you post new status on Facebook wall, or when you tweet a new message on Twitter, pin a post on Pinterest, upload a video on YouTube, and so on.

how Social Media Help in Your SEO?

So how will social media help in your SEO?

Well, social media can help in your SEO when you optimize social profile pages like “about us” with keywords you want to target. Crafting “SEO-ed” post and pages on social profiles will help it seem more relevant to people searching for it, and hence, rank you better in search engines. However, if you simply want to rank higher with backlinks from social media sites, you will not get much help there.
This is why you need to understand what Matt Cutts, the head of anti-spam department on Google, has to say.
“SEO isn’t everything for ranking higher in the search engines. For a while, forget about SEO, and instead focus on users,” advises Matt. “Focus on users who use their social profiles to search for information that you publish. Those people, who will recommend your content to others, and who in turn, will recommend to others,” shares Matt.
Instead of focusing only the SEO, you’ll have to put some efforts to generate helpful and useful tips, tricks, and honest reviews about product and services for people who will spread the message, and if they like it, they’ll share it with their social circles, connections, and friends.
So you see, if you can tap into this market, they’ll help your business grow as well as rank better in search engines. By driving them to your site, by making them “Like,” your content, or even “Share” them with their connections, they’re actually sending social signals to Google saying that this person/site is trustworthy, provides informative and useful content, and we trust what he/she has to say.
No wonder why major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing have started to give more priority to authority figures and brands.

What actions should you take in order to allow social media to help in your SEO?

What actions should you take in order to allow social media to help in your SEO?

  1. Make your profiles relevant, informative, and interesting. (Use keywords naturally and avoid “keyword stuffing.”)
  2. Do insert links back to your site/blog so that people can actually visit your site if they’re interested to learn more.
  3. Use social blog to build deep and lasting relationships and drive them to your blog/site.
  4. Make sure to add social share icons on your website page/post(s) so that people have an option to share, or like, them if they really appreciate you effort.
  5. Focus your energy to become an industry-expert by creating informative as well as interesting content so that your readers have a reason to leave their social profile and visit your blog/site.
  6. Enjoy what you’re doing and you’ll never have to work for the rest of your life. If you love what you do, you won’t mind working long hours on your business, do you?
Over to you! What are the ways social media help in your SEO? Please comment below.

 

If your site/blog isn’t ranking higher in search engines and driving the amount of traffic to it, you are probably doing SEO wrong. Most entrepreneurs, especially those who do not understand the importance of SEO for their business, simply build their website in a rush and hope that offline marketing like worth of mouth will give them a competitive advantage over others.
With search engine listings, any business has a potentially bring thousands, if not millions, of free traffic (potential customers) to your website. With search engines like Google, any startup can outperform giant companies who spend millions of dollars to rank in the first page.
With that said, we thought you might be interested to learn some of the SEO facts and figures so that you understand how important it is today to be in the online sphere for a long time.

seo

SEO facts and figures you do not want to miss:

  • Websites that aren’t optimized for search engines will not be found on the Internet.
  • If you need your website to be on the 1st page, you’ll have to perform keyword research to find profitable keywords that are worth targeting after.
  • Almost 85% of search engine users look at the top 10 results on the 1st page.
  • By placing keywords in the meta description, keyword, or title tags will list your site on search engines for that keyword
  • To optimize your website, you’ll have to remember two things – on-page SEO (optimizing content on your site) and off-page SEO (optimizing your content outside your own site).
  • Blackhat SEO methods such as keyword stuffing (inserting keywords all over the page to influence rankings) and link farming (posting content on low quality sites) will get your website penalized, and at worst, banned.
  • Hiding text or links into your pages will boost page rank, however, if caught; it will get you banned from search engine result.
  • Flash based sites aren’t indexed properly on search engines database.
  • You need to post fresh content if you want to keep your website ranking where it is now, or even higher.
  • More than 73% people use search engines to purchase products.
  • More than 70% users click on organic links instead of paid advertisement seen at the sidebar of most search engines.
  • More than 81% of businesses think that setting up a blog is an important asset.
Over to you! Have you optimized your website for search engines? What steps do you take to optimize your website and its content? Please comment below!

 

A consistent action towards a specific goal will yield result. Constant deviation from it will only waste your time and effort. So, if you’re running in a circle and getting nowhere with your SEO efforts, here are my 10 top consistencies principles that anyone can follow to see sudden rise in rankings in search result pages (SERPs).

blog

1. Write “killer” titles for blog posts, once a day

In order to see your website getting high ROI from your SEO efforts, make sure to write “catchy” titles that hooks people right from the beginning. Writing interesting titles such as “Can’t keep up? 7 Ways to Get Rid of Fat” helps you pull more readers than titles like “7 Ways to lose fat.”
Previous title works better because they’re not only unique, but they also address their audience pressing issue with the simple question “Can’t keep up?” – i.e. people who have tried all sorts of weight loss programs/diets but never achieve their desired goals.
Make sure to include the main keyword in the title once as most people will likely click on the title that are relevant to their searches.
Related article: Blog Your Way to the Top

 

2. Post helpful and interesting content, 3 days a week

Google love websites that offer fresh and helpful content on a regular basis. So, if you’re not writing blogs daily, chances are that your competitors may do and take away customers away from you.
In order to keep the traffic flowing to your site, make sure to post blog posts that are helpful and interesting to read for your visitors.
Make each content not less than 500 word because with fewer words you cannot properly optimize your content for search engines.

 

3. Edit and proofread content before publishing

Visitors will have a great time reading your content that are well-written, and free from spelling and grammatical errors. On the other hand, no one can read a post that isn’t organized around a specific topic.
Remember that Internet users do have short span of attention. They require small chunks of information related with the search keyword they’ve typed on the keypad.
Proofreading your content before publishing will help you get rid of unnecessary topics, fuzzy logic, and bad grammars/spellings.
When you focus on enhancing user’s experience, Google will automatically reward you with higher ranking.

 

4. Share your content on social media regularly

Once you’ve written and published your content, share your content on your social accounts where your friends, family members, and potential customers.
You may have a great looking web design and an engaging content, but if you’re not willing to promote it, no one is going to find you on the Internet. Besides, Google loves a website that has a strong social signal.
For every article or blog you publish, make sure to share a brief post on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

 

5. Comment on at least 3 blogs

In addition to sharing your posts on social media, make sure to comment on top three, or high PR, blogs in your niche to generate free backlinks. If your comments are approved, you’ll have an opportunity to attract a portion of their traffic to your site.
It may sound a small thing, but if you comment on blogs on a regular basis, soon you’ll see rise in your website rankings in ways you never have imagined.

 

6. Comments on at least 3 forums

Just like commenting on a blog, posting/commenting on forum threads can increase your website rankings drastically. Forums are one of the “trustworthy” sites out there where tens of thousands of people browse through daily to find reviews, tips, tricks, and topics of their interests.
Posting on a regular basis on forum can not only help your website in terms of rankings and traffic, but you’ll also have an opportunity to stay current with the latest trends, techniques and what people are asking for.
So, find top 3 relevant forums in your niche and start commenting on threads for each post you publish on your website.

 

7. Do a “keyword research” for fresh set of keywords, once a month

Most businesses think that targeting a certain list of keywords is enough to reach at the top position of the search engines. But they overlook that fact that their customers use different keyword phrase to search for the same products and services.
So, do you have a set of new keywords to rank quickly on search engine results?
If the answer is no, then you’ll probably want to contact your SEO professional and ask them to find new set of keywords in your niche and advise you how to make the most out of those keywords.

 

8. Update website design (plugins, widgets, and themes), once a month

In order to get the most out of your SEO efforts, you’ll have to be at the top of your game. Not only this will set you as an industry expert, but you’ll also prevent your website from unwanted attacks and virus infections.
Yes, updating your website with the latest themes, plugins, and widgets will not only make your website more accessible, but also keep “unwanted” virus and malicious content at bay.
Plus, when your website is updated, it will work better with the latest technologies that arise constantly on the Internet.

 

9. Participate in a Guest Blogging Campaign

Guest blogging is all about trying to establish a “trust” with Google. Google loves websites that are active online and participate in wide variety of link building techniques, including Guest blogging.
So, if you want to see your website rise up the ladder of search engine pages, then you better connect with like-minded people (other bloggers) in your field and start sharing few posts with each others to leverage each other’s traffic and also to create a strong online presence.

 

10. Do an Interview with an Industry-expert, once a month

People are often in search of expert advice in their industry because they think these experts have the experience, the know-how, and something else that they lack.
So, if you can find an expert in your industry who you think can offer insightful information that people are constantly searching for, set an appointment for an interview.
Make sure to do your homework before the interview – reading their profiles, doing a background check, learning about their success and failures and how did they handled certain situations, and having all the important questions ready and organized just make the most out of the your interview.

 

Well that’s it! These are my top 10 consistencies I wanted to share.
Would you like to share yours? If yes, please comment below. Thanks.

 

If you give your business card to a new friend, or your date, or anyone you meet during the day, they’ll eventually go over to search engine and search for it.
If anything negative comes in the search result pages, it can have a disastrous effect on your online reputation and hurt your business bottom-line.
Although you may not be in a position to prevent all those negative content from displaying in search result page, nonetheless, you can still minimize its impact by utilizing few simple SEO tactics, or better, by hiring a professional SEO consultant.

 

Use These Simple SEO Techniques to Manage Your Online Reputation

 

Analyze

Step #1: Analyze where you are currently

The first important step to manage your online reputation is to take charge of it. For example, search your name in Google. Do you see anything “unflattering” about your business?
If there are pictures, posts, or videos that you’d rather not show it to anyone, not even your spouse or girlfriend, simply delete them or change your private settings to stop them from displaying in search results. Use Google’s URL removal tool to completely wipe them off from the face of the Internet.

positive

 

Step #2: Start Posting MORE Post Positive Content

In case you cannot get those damaging content removed from your site, then become proactive on your website and post more positive content to bury those negative comments, reviews, and mentions further down in the search result page.
In addition to posting content on your website, spread content around other HIGH authority sites such as Ezinearticles.com, HubPages.com, Squidoo, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ as they carry more SEO weight than normal website.

 

make-business-hub-logo

Step #3. Establish a Business Hub

Another way to bury those offensive mentions further down is to post more positive content around the web, probably on high authority websites and link all of them back to a single page on your website.
Google sees each link to your website as a “vote.” More votes your page has, more valuable Google thinks your page is, and as a result, ranks your website over all pages on search result pages.
This is probably the simplest yet efficient way to bury all negative mentions from the Internet.

 

Step #4. Automate the Process

You may be able to handle online management yourself for a short while, but as your business grows, things can become unmanageable quite easily.
If you cannot handle your online reputation management tasks yourself, we highly suggest you to outsource them for a small fee.
Proper SEO strategies can help improve your online reputation by creating more positive content about your business as well as create a single brand with consistent content and design elements.

 

With SEO now playing such an important role in making a site standout online, it’s important to know what a designer is doing to boost your online ranking. Rather than spend hours researching every term you don’t understand, here’s a breakdown of all the information and terms that you need to know:

0-9

301:
A process which re-directs users to another web page. It’s a useful way to send users from an old site to a new page.

 

A

Adwords:
Adwords is a service developed by Google to help maximise advertising opportunities
Affiliate:
An affiliate site pays a host to place adverts and promotions for products on their site.
Algorithm:
A piece of coding which is used to determine the results of a search online
Alt text:
A way to describe images to search engines. Search engines can’t process images meaning that they use the alt text to determine the content within the picture.
Analytics:
A piece of software which compiles details how a website is accessed and used. The most popular software used by SEO firms to monitor how webpages are used is Google Analytics.
Anchor text:
The anchor text is the actual text in a web link. It shows the exact page that is being visited by users and gives an indication to search engines about what will be found on that particular part of a website.
Authority Site:
A site that has lots of links connecting to that page. Authority sites are often well ranked by search engines due to their high levels of traffic and connections to related content.

 

B

Backlink: A link from external sites that direct back to the main page where content and information is stored
Black hat: This group is used to describe SEO tactics that could stop a site being listed on search engines. Involves tactics such as spam emails, fraudulent content and links to malware/viruses
Blog:  A section or website which often posts content about a subject or topic. It can contain all forms of content such as articles, pictures and videos.

 

C

Canonical URL: The best webpage that relates to a topic that someone is looking for. There can sometimes be issues surrounding similar canons on sites that are spelt the same or have sub-pages
Clickthrough Rate (CTR): The CTR measures the number of people who click on an advertisement linked to a particular phrase or keyword. Clickthrough ads are often thought to gain more traffic than banner ads.
Cloaking: Cloaking occurs when websites present different data and information to various search engines. It is a technique that falls on the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour depending on the search engine. Also known as link cloaking.
CMS (Content Management System): A way to manage and post content on a blog or website. Some of the more popular CMS software includes WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.
Content: The actual body of a page. It is made up of text, pictures and images to give a website substance and appeal.
Conversion Form: An area on the site that lets someone gain information about who is visiting the site and why they are there.
Crawl:  A crawler travels to different websites through the links placed on each page and gathers data on a particular subject or topic.

 

D

Directory: A place online where sites can be listed by their industry or topic for interested browsers to find
Domain: The physical address of the website. Often needs to be purchased from a web host
Duplicate Content: A piece of content that is similar to something posted by another web site. Having duplicates can hurt a site’s ranking.

 

F

Feed: A service which provides contents to a user or company when it’s posted
FTP (File Transfer Protocol):  This is the way file transfer between computers are monitored.

 

G

Gateway: A part of a site that opens up users to the rest of a website. It can be either directly found on the web page or indirect through search engines or third party hosts.
Google Authorship: Google Authorship is a way for authors to directly link their published content on the web to their Google+ profile. It allows authors and publishers to network all their work into one place.

 

H

Headings: A larger piece of text that is used to sum up the main content on a page.
Hit: When an external piece of information visits a particular site. Lots of hit often means a popular website
HTML: The main language used to create a website. It puts everything into place to determine the shape, look and size of a page. It is the main way for search engines to identify and find a page in its listings.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol): HTTP is the way information is transferred from the website’s home location to an internet browser. It is the most common way for a web server to connect with a web browser.

 

I

IM (Internet Marketing): An industry where companies use the Internet to promote or advertise a product or business.
Impression: An impression is where someone will visit a webpage for the first time.
Inbound Link: An inbound link is a link made by an external site and is a good indicator of a strong website
Indexed pages: The pages which are stored by a search engine

 

K

Keyword: The phrase or search term entered into a search engine by a user
Keyword Density: The ration in which a key word or term is included in a text
Keyword Stuffing: A time where the key word appears too often in a text. Frowned upon by search engines.

 

L

Landing Page: The first page which users see when they are directed to a website
Lead Generation: Is the process in which interest is created in a product or business. When someone is considered to be a potential customer, they are tagged as a lead
Link: A way to travel from one related site to another. Having lots of links can strengthen the ranking and appeal of a site
Link building: The way to gather and create links for a site.
Link Juice: A tool to help search engines rank search engines. Often focuses on the amount of links found on a particular page
Long tail: Long tail keywords are key phrases which often contain more than 2 words. Long tail phrases often contain a lot of details e.g catering firms in Melbourne

 

M

Meta Description: A small summary placed on search engines which describe what is on that particular page.
Meta tags: Meta tags are short phrases which tell search engines what the main subject are on a web page. Often 2 or 3 are needed to ensure a good ranking.

 

N

Nofollow: When a link from one site to another is blocked. It can be a way to stop competition from getting an advantage from your site.
Noindex: A command which stops a site or page from being included on a search engine.

 

O

Offpage: This refers to SEO methods that aren’t directly related to the webpage itself. It includes techniques such as link building.
Onpage: This looks at SEO techniques that directly affect the status of the webpage. This includes inserting keywords and meta tags.
Open Source: Open source platforms are programmes which lets designers tweak coding and functions thoroughly to sit their particular need and purpose.
Organic Search: A way of producing results on a search engine through similar phrases or words that might be entered by a user.

 

P

Page Rank: The SEO ranking given to a webpage by search engines on a particular key word. The ranking ranges from 0 to 10 with 10 being the highest and 0 being the lowest.
Page Title: The name of the website that appears on the top of a browser. It needs to contain the main keyword of that site.
Page Views: The total number of times a page has been viewed by browsers
Panda: Panda is an algorithm used by Google to check the SEO qualities of a website and determine how they fit in with the policies used to determine rankings on Google
Penguin: Penguin is a programme used by Google looking to search for any black hat SEO techniques used by websites. It demotes their ranking on the search ranking if they violate any terms or conditions.
Plugins: Plug-ins are components and features of software which can be implemented into other programmes to monitor or enhance performance. Plug-ins are often used to help monitor the SEO features in web contents and articles.
PPC (Pay Per Click): A basic advertising method which allows for sites to generate income for whenever someone clicks on an advertisement created by an external source such as Google.

 

R

Redirect: A way of transferring someone from one page to another automatically
Robots: Robots are tools used by websites to measure and collect data from other websites on the Internet. May also be known as crawlers, bots or spiders
RSS Feed: A way for users to subscribe to content on a website and receive updates whenever something new is posted

 

S

Search engine: A site which lets users search for a particular term or subject on the Internet
SEM(Search Engine Marketing): SEM is the techniques and methods used by websites to promote pages to search engines and gain maximum online exposure for their brand or company
SEO (Search Engine Optimization): SEO is the process needed to make websites appeal to search engines and ensure they are ranked well to a specific term or phrase.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page): A results page showing all the relevant websites related to the user’s search term. Most pages display 10 results at a time
Sitemap: A place which lists all of the different pages belonging to one website
Slug: A slug is an abbreviated version of a URL web address designed to make it appeal to search engines. Slugs often incorporate just the main keywords and subject of a page
Social Media: A type of website where users talk with each other discussing their favourite topics. One of the best type of website to post links and appeal to a wide audience
Spam: Unwanted content that aggravates users or deemed unnecessary to that particular subject
Spider: A system which gathers information about different websites and computer programmes

 

T

Traffic: The actual visitors to a website:
Traffic Rank: A system which compares the busiest websites on the Internet.

 

U

URL (Uniform Resource Locator):  The entire web address that is found in the toolbar of the browser
Unique Visitors: These are the number of different browsers who visit a webpage at any one time. They are usually indicated by a different IP address.

 

W

Web 2.0: This is the new form of web pages which are designed to encourage more interaction with browsers visiting a webpage.
White Hat: The techniques used by SEO firms which are accepted by search engine to generate a ranking for a website
Widget: A program created by a website that can be downloaded onto a computer and give information about a subject or topic.