SEO in 2014: Five (5) Tips And Tricks To Smarter Guest Blogging

Guest blogging has long been an effective strategy in search engine optimization. It has been proven to create positive impact in the rankings, increase inbound links and traffic as well as enhance the brand’s credibility and reputation. It is for these reasons that majority of the business owners had implemented this approach over the past years and is continuing to do so today.

How To Do Smarter Guest Blogging in 2014

Learn the secrets to smarter guest blogging this 2014. Here are five (5) tricks to show you how.

1.       Focus on relevance. Any SEO company or digital marketing professional for that matter knows how important relevance is in the eyes of Google. It is a key in segregating the good from the bad and ugly ones. Hence, regardless whether you are in the process of picking a website to blog to or starting to compose your guest post already, always determine its level of relevancy to your brand. To site an example, if you are providing local SEOconsultancy services, find a site that is within the same niche, i.e. local SEO and perhaps submit an article about the latest impact of the Hummingbird in the industry. Concentrate on the areas that have not been blogged about yet or opt to write a comprehensive analysis that will tell the readers everything they needed to know. By doing so, you are establishing your expertise on the subject.

2.       Think about authority. This pertains to the website you have picked to share your content to. Is it high-ranking? How engaged are the readers to each of its write-ups? Assess the published guest posts and see how well they perform. Does the website implement Google authorship? Are the guest bloggers utilizing the approach to build their names or just to acquire links? Do remember that authorship can also be lethal to guest blogging so choose your host site carefully.

3.       Consider quality. Prioritize content that are interesting and offer real value concurrently. Provide write-ups that your targeted audience wants. Make them Hummingbird-friendly. Stick to topics that answer common questions and ensure that you add helpful tips and industry-oriented insights.  Do not limit yourself to submitting texts alone. Diversify them – videos, charts and infographics.

4.       Avoid too much optimization. Keyword stuffing automatically translates to low-quality so forget about inserting a lot of keywords for the purpose of linking them back to your website. Do it naturally and Google will take that as a signal that you are a source of credible information. Be varied with your anchor texts and make them very minimal. Cite several related sites so your article is rich with details. Do not forget to read the host blog’s guidelines before you make your post.

5.       Promote. Social media plays an ever critical role in 2014 therefore once your write-up is published, see to it that you share them on different social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter most especially Google+.

Google Hummingbird: Top Ways To Create Content in 2014

Late last year, Google announced a major algorithm change known as the Hummingbird. While it was not primarily focused on the quality of the search but instead on the retrieval of the data and how it was accessed and presented to the users, the upgrade has impacted 90% of the searches worldwide.

Every digital marketer knows that keywords had long been an integral component in a digital marketing strategy. It is one of the basic foundations in determining the type of optimization and link building practices to implement on. With the birth of Hummingbird, the emphasis has now been shifted to semantic meanings rather than the individual terms alone. The aim of the search giant has turned into understanding the complex relationships between different concepts based on every word in the query. 

How To Create Hummingbird-Proof Content in 2014

Learn how you can adjust to the new changes brought about by GoogleHummingbird. Here are the top ways to approach content creation this 2014.

Build educational content pages.

·        Publish posts with concept and context in mind.

·        Be varied in your formats – text, images and slideshow, infographic, videographic, videos.

·        Think about educating users on the how-tos and what-nots related to your business. For instance, if you are an ecommerce firm that sells gadgets such as laptops and smartphones, include top ten tips on how to extend laptop or smartphone battery life.

·        Make it easy for them to find answers to their burning questions. Consider using words such as “how”, “why”, “what”, “where” and “when”.

·        Convert your existing copies into a format that sends semantic Q/A signals within the HTML. 

·        Focus on giving rich and relevant information similar to those provided in SEOtrainings and alike. To site an example, if you are an agency specializing on SEO in Manila, Philippines, blog about how Hummingbird’s update impacts the local SEO community and offer case studies relatable to the topic and the area.

·        Be up-to-date with the latest trends in your niche and ensure that you echo them to your readers in a question-and-answer form.

·        Conduct interviews with popular personalities in the industry to trigger the interest of the public. Make sure that you publish them on your website.

·        Present in-depth analysis and well-researched content that generally discuss solutions to existing problems. You can compile them in a whitepaper format for user download if you like.

Add a comprehensive FAQ section.

·        Show this section prominently on your site. Integrate it on the navigational menu so it is easy to spot and click on.

·        Place the Q-and-As on several pages depending on the topic being discussed, i.e. one page per inquiry. Avoid putting them collectively.

·        Be strategic with phrasing your words. Base it according to the way the user makes an inquiry.

·        Promote strong internal links by composing blog posts that are related to the most-asked questions by the customers and linking them to their specific FAQ pages using the question as anchor text.

Best Sites For Guest Posting

Despite the many changes that the Google Panda and Penguin has brought about to how websites are optimized, no one can deny the fact that SEO is continues to be a popularity game. How that popularity is measured is what changes. Hence, links to your website and mentions of your website remains to be important.

 

While bad SEO practices are being discouraged and are actually targeted by numerous Google updates, guest posting remains to be a good way for your website to earn some SEO brownie points. While some website owners partner with an SEO company to do this for them for some supposedly guaranteed SEO results, there are some who are more hands-on when it comes to promoting their websites.

If you belong to the more hands-on website owners, it pays to know the best places online where you can try to guest post. Below are some of these sites. Be warned though, that it can be quite difficult to get featured in many of the sites listed below.

• Mashable. A site where you can find articles or posts about almost anything, Mashable is a great site to get noticed while providing an excellent PageRank of 8. Sharing of posts through various social media networks is very easy with Mashable so that you can easily promote your guest post too.
  
  
  
  
  
• SmashingMagazine. For websites that are in the design, graphics, and coding niches, SmashingMagazine is where you should try to guest post. Not only will you be able to reach a large audience, this site will also provide an excellent SEO juice with its PageRank of 7.
  
  
  
  
  
• Technorati. With a very wide variety of topics such as lifestyle, sports, business, entertainment, technology, social media, and politics, Technorati is the “It” site to be featured in no matter what topic or niche your site may be in. Its PageRank of 8 is not the single reason why you would want to guest post here because its very high traffic is another one.
  
  
  
• CopyBlogger. With a PageRank of 6, CopyBlogger is definitely a good place to guest post on. Its focus is on content marketing, email marketing, copywriting, and internet marketing, so if your site is related to any of these topics, CopyBlogger is a good site to aspire for.
   
  
  
• ReadWriteWeb. If your website’s focus is in technology, then ReadWrite’s PageRank of 7 is an excellent reason to guest post on this website. It is also quite easy to share your post with the many social network buttons available on each post, allowing you to promote your post to your own social media network.
  

A Guide To Post-Penguin Linking

The way people do search engine optimization has changed so much over the years. This is mainly because of the many updates that Google has likewise done to its search algorithm to address bad SEO practices. The most recent Google update that has made huge impacts on how websites are ranked is the Penguin 2.0. Because of the frequent updates, a website owner will need to have frequent SEO consulting services to keep up with the changes.

If you are one of those who are undergoing SEO training in the Philippines, you should be aware of how the Penguin 2.0 has changed how SEO is done. Among the changes brought about by the Penguin is how linking is done to increase a website’s rankings. Below is a guide on what not to do when trying to get links for your website.

• Paying another website to link to your website. Google does not allow buying links, so paying another website to link to your website is not the way to get links. Do not be tempted even if another website has a high page rank because Google will penalize your website if you do.

• Using hidden links. Some websites put links that are hidden or cannot be seen by the typical site visitor. This is not allowable with Google and can also get you penalized.

• Having broken links. It is important to fix all broken links because it can be detected by Google and might cause you to lose page ranking.

• Excessive use of anchor text. Years back, many websites are optimized for targeted keywords which are often repeatedly used as anchor text when linking to the website. Unfortunately, this could get you penalized by Google because it is indicative of links that are not natural and organic. So make sure that the anchor texts used to link to your website are varied.

• Getting links from bad websites. Not all links are good for your website. Websites which may be considered bad or spammy by Google are not the best websites to get links from. If Google penalizes a website linking to your site, your website’s rankings may also get adversely affected.

• Linking to bad websites. Aside from getting penalized by getting links from bad websites, Google also looks at the websites that you are linking to. If a particular website is spammy and uses black hat SEO, then your site will get the same treatment from Google.

Tips For Content Writing After Google Penguin 2.0

The most recent Google update, referred to as the Penguin 2.0, is an update on the search algorithm and targets how content is presented and shared on websites. In other words, the Penguin 2.0 changes how content should be written to be able to rank high in search engine results pages. This Google update has a huge impact on the field of SEO and will directly affect how content is written.

Whether you are an SEO expert way before the Penguin 2.0 or you are still having SEO training in the Philippines, you will need to know how to write content that is good for Penguin 2.0. No matter how many years you have had in the field of SEO, ranking well means adhering to the guidelines set by the Penguin 2.0. Below are some tips to help you.

• Use a variety of anchor texts. Gone are the days when you set several anchor texts which you use for many weeks and months. Using the same anchor texts over and over again can trigger Google to think of your website as spam. If the use of anchor text for links are seriously used and followed for many years, this is not the case nowadays after Penguin 2.0. What you can do is to use a variety of anchor texts instead.

• Use branded anchor text. After Penguin 2.0, the use of branded anchor text will be popular among content creators. Branded anchor texts are simply anchor texts that have the company name or URL on it. This is also a way to directly promote your brand or URL. Branded anchor texts are also used as a way to diversify anchor texts.

• Cite your references. It will be good for any article that you are planning to write if you cite all your references. Not only will it help you create a better article, it will also provide you with a way to learn so much more regarding the topic. Your article will help readers to find other references related to your article.

• Make it well-written. Just like before, content should always be well-written. Not only about the topic itself but also when it comes to grammar and spelling. Make sure to check all the grammar and spelling of the words in your article. Finally, before you publish or submit anything, make sure to check and double check your article before hitting the publish button.

How To Manage Your Site Through The Google Penguin

After the significant effects that the Google Panda has made on how websites are ranked, the latest Google Penguin update has again made a lot of changes that can affect how many websites are ranked in search results. The latest Google Penguin update was released last May 22, 2013 and has been dubbed Penguin 2.0. It might be noticeable to many website owners because 2.3% of English-US queries are reportedly affected.

Unlike other updates that are just considered to be data refresh, this fourth Penguin update is an actual algorithm update. Hopefully, if you have an SEO company handling your website, they will be able to handle and manage any effects that the Penguin update might have on your website. If you do not hire any company, you can get some SEO consulting services or you can read below to help you manage your website through this Penguin update.

• Make use of various media for your content. Do not limit your website content to articles and posts. Content does not mean text alone. Expand the media of your website content by putting in videos, slideshows, PDF files, infographics, and podcasts. The same rule for text content applies to these other media content – the higher quality they are, the better.

• Market your content. Your content will not serve its purpose unless you market them so that they can be seen by others. Promote your website content through other websites especially through social media networks. Share links to your website’s videos, infographics, podcasts, articles, and images through Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus. Good content that can pique the interest of others can easily go viral amongst your target market. You can also put up your videos on YouTube or Vimeo, your slides and PDF files on SlideShare and Docstoc. 

• Link pages in your website internally. Internal linking is self-love and it works with Google. If you have created your content well and you have enough relevant yet diverse content on your website then you should be able to link them to each other. You can make use of good anchor text and this practice will also help your visitors explore other pages in your website as well.

• Optimize your site structure. The Google Penguin 2.0 update rewards websites that provide a good user experience and the goal is to reward high quality websites. Hence, the structure of your website is also very important. Apply sound web design practices that make your website easy to navigate and well organized.