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.