When they are indexing websites, the search engines’ bots scan every one of a site’s URLs and look for the starting points of the topics that are covered. They also browse the HTML code for metadata such as particular tags or markups, so that they can determine the relevance …

The truth is that links are still the most important component of the search algorithm. No matter how useful its content may be, a site without links is far less likely to rank highly in organic search results. If you’re not blessed with excellent writing skills, outsource this job …

Alt attributes are the text alternatives to your image which will appear if your image fails to load, or if the user is accessing your site with an assistive device such as a screenreader. Because web crawlers don’t have eyes, they’re also what search engines “see” instead of …

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. Whether you’re switching domain names, restructuring your URLs (more on that in the next section), or consolidating content as part of your website redesign, setting up 301 redirects is crucial to ensuring any “SEO juice” from your …

Google Panda and Penguin stopped keyword stuffing in its tracks making it not just not ideal but counter productive. The quality and quantity of links you have pointing to your site has a direct bearing on how highly it ranks in organic search results. You need to understand what keyword …

How do you educate people so they do value it? Links may very well become “democratized” as they become less representative of the overall sentiment of the online world. A very small percentage of internet users has ever published a link on a website or blog. It isn't just about …

How you’ve worked in the past won’t be how you work in the future. That’s because the SEO practices that have long been the norm are now being seen in a very different light. From the threat of Google de-indexing sites to legislation breaches leading to criminal …

If you don’t know where to submit a guest blog post or what forums would be good to participate on, research where your competitors are going to get links and follow suit. Search is very, very popular. Growing strong at nearly 20% a year, it reaches nearly every online …

Search Engine Optimization requires the inclusion of popular (highly searched) or profitable (highly searched just before buying) words into headlines, copy, and other page elements. Links may very well become “democratized” as they become less representative of the overall sentiment of the online world. A very small percentage of internet …

When choosing anchor text, select phrases that make sense to the reader within the context of the content. These phrases may even contain exact match words. Google has access to all this incredible data about where people go on the Internet through Chrome and through Android. External links are links …

Many moons have passed since search engines interpreted information solely on simple information like keyword density, but keyword stuffing is still prevalent on many sites. Because there has been quite some news about Google’s Penguin update and before that its Panda update, people are blaming those. Community hijacking involves …

Google now indexes content from Facebook, Twitter and presumably more social media platforms to come. If your timing and relevance is right, your post could directly show up in search results. Google has given significant backing to its Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative too, and the evidence so far suggests it …

Since search engines focus more on the initial words of the titles, make sure you add your keywords at the start of your title tag – this will help you rank better. The higher your site ranks in the search engines the more visitors you will get from them. Search engines …

As content marketing evolves, it is more beneficial to go beyond the written posts to new formats that allow you to broaden your value. If you think about it, having a Google Search Console, a Google My Business panel and a G+ account gives your site good representation across a …

Make sure you spend time optimizing the content on your website. Good website content is easy to read by visitors and consistent when compared against both the title and tags listed with the story. Otherwise, search engines may rank your content poorly, making it more difficult for you to find …

Google normally takes into account bounce rate and the time spent on a site as ranking factors. If visitors are bouncing away due to navigation confusion and poor content structure, you can be sure that the search bots are too. Get specific by taking a structured approach. It’s not …

Generally speaking, backlinks are considered to be a “vote” of confidence for the content that’s being linked to on your domain from outside sources. A great way to incorporate all those valuable local keywords into your website is to create valuable content. Fresh, unique content has great SEO benefits …