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Introduction to PBN - Does it Work for SEO?

Hey Fellas! We are here to help you with the latest information related to your field of interest so you keep coming back for what we have to offer. Today, I'm going to unlock the details on the Introduction to PBN and Why it Important for SEO. This is the fourteenth article of complete SEO series. You can check my previous article on Web 2.0. Before we move forward and check the importance of PBN in SEO, we must know what is PBN? PBN stands for private blogging network and is defined as a number of blogs you build for linking back to your main blog. A huge round of applause is due for the SEO Gurus who still guide you through traditional techniques for SEO that have been abandoned long while ago. It is true, PBN is used for better SEO that ultimately puts your blog on the top of search engines. But wait? Doesn't it work the way as it did before? Of course not. We know that online technology grows and evolves every day and using the same strategies over and over again for your blog to rank higher on SERP, doesn't make sense. Earlier, it was very easy to develop PBN, create a lot of blogs, and link back to your main blog, all the while ignoring if those blogs were relevant to the demands of the visitors. Google works smartly and precisely more than ever before. Most of the people pick internet to keep updated with most relevant and useful information. Google takes visitors' demands very seriously and doesn't rank the blogs that come with minor or no value to the end users. You can check our complete guide of SEO tutorials which contains all posts related to On Page and Off Page SEO. In this tutorial, I'll discuss each and everything related to PBN why it is important, its limitations and everything you need to know.

Introduction to PBN (Private Blogging Network)

PBN is a network that comes with a number of blogs that link back to your main blog. This is not a new trend and has been used quite a while now by most of the marketers. Creation of PBN helps your main blog appear on the top of search results; however, it is not as easy as it looks. Now, search engines come with smart algorithms, that don't prefer using this trend of creating a lot of blogs and link back to your main blog. If you do this, you will come with a higher chance of getting banned or penalized by Google and it will take no time to de-index your pages from the search engine.

• Google not only counts the number of backlinks you get but it also analyzes and detects the quality of backlinks.
• Low-quality backlinks pose a severe threat to the overall growth of your blog.
• Google takes a number of things into account while checking the backlinks like relevance, page authority, domain authority, trust flow rate and citation flow.

1. Content

You have heard "Content is the King". There is no doubt about it. When it comes to checking the quality of your blog, content tops the list. What that being said, you are not going to spend as much time writing the content on PBN blogs as you do writing a content for your main blog. You can do things faster if you adopt a smart approach.

• Spinning the article is a good option as long as the spun article makes sense and adds value to your blog. However, there are tools like Dragon Speak which you can use to write the article faster. This software will write the words as you speak.

Length of the article does matter. Normally, articles that manage to secure a place on the first page of google search come with word length around 1800 to 2000 words.

• However, the articles you post on the blogs fall under your PBN can comprise of length between 300 to 500 word, because the main aim of these blogs is to link back to your main blog and make it appear on the top of search results.

Also, this is not the only approach to write a post for PBN. Everyone develops their own strategies to run PBN. You can try different methods and stick with ones that work for you and deliver valuable results.

2. Domains

Buying and analyzing domains is the first step to make your journey successful with PBN. This is the process that requires special heed and brainstorming from your side. Don't get intimidated by the word "Brain Storming" what I mean here is buying and organizing the domains smartly.

• Developing PBN around low quality and irrelevant sites can put your main blog at a huge risk.

And when you develop your blogging network, with a lot of backlinks from the similar blog at once, Google will weed out your blog from indexing and you may end up getting penalized or complete removal of your blog at the end. Following are the main things you may consider before buying domains.

A. Buying Expired Domains

Of course, you need to work your butt off if you intend to start a blog from scratch for developing your private blogging network. This is where buying expired domains come handy. Because these domains have some history and have some of their page indexed.

• It is true, expired domains lose some authority after they get expired, but when you put some effort on them, you can turn them back on track.

Note: It is advised to explore the expired domains from vendors spread across the web than buying domains from auction websites.

B. Relevance

The domain you pick for PBN must be relevant to your main blog. Suppose if your blog is technology related, then getting a backlink from health blog will be highly deplorable and not recommended at any cost.

• The domain you pick, if not is totally relevant, should come with a remote connection with your main blog. This will make Google think, that you are getting signals and recommendation from the legit websites that fall into your niche.

C. Page Authority and Domain Authority

PA and DA are two terms introduced by Moz.com, that play a vital role in highlighting the authority and quality of any blog. Based on the nature of your main blog, you can pick other blogs with a little higher domain authority.

• However, if you want to remain in a safe side, you can pick the sites that come with 15+ DA.

D. Citation Flow and Trust Flow

Citation flow is the number of total links you get for your blog. And trust flow defines the quality of those backlinks. You can check the TF and CF of any blog by using the sites like Majestic. This tool doesn't predict the overall authority of the blog as Moz does.

• Sites with TF with 10+ are good to get started with your blogging network.

E. Use Waybackmachine

You wouldn't want to buy the blogs that have already been used for PBN. There is a site called Waybackmachine that detects and explores the history of any blog. This tool will help you analyze the quality of backlinks of the domain you intend to buy. In this way, you can easily filter out the blogs that come with spammy links and have already been used for link building.

• However, when you are checking backlinks on the sites like Ahrefs, you need to pay equal attention to the Anchor text ratio.

F. Pick Different Service Provider

Google will catch you up if you all of your blogs belong to the same service provider. Try to develop a strategy for PBN that determines your link building is based on diverse signals.

• GoDaddy is good option to start with, but, don't buy all of your domains from this provider, as it will convey a clear idea you are doing something wrong and sneaky to get higher on the search results.
• You need to maintain a clean and diverse link profile in order to get away from the eyes of Google.

3. Hosting

Picking right hosting plan is very important for maintaining PBN. Don't be surprised if Google bans you for getting a number of backlinks from the sites linked to the same hosting plan. Try to keep every site on its very own hosting. Keep following things in your mind before you intend to host your blog on any server.

• ONE. There are a lot of platforms out there that help you in developing and maintaining a blogging network. You need to be very selective while getting benefit from these platforms. Some platforms do black hat SEO that is not admissible by the search engine. However, Easyblognetworks is a service that helps you grow your blogging network, where it provides link building from multiple platforms.
• TWO. It is advised to host your websites on different IP addresses to make your profile diverse in nature. There are many sources through which you can hide your identity i.e Cloudflare proves to be very handy to hide your IP address.
• THREE. Also, using public SEO hosting services can put your blogging network in danger. You can use infamous SEO hosting services to make your online presence hidden from the eyes of Google.
• FOUR. You can choose any hosting plan based on your requirements, however, it is preferred to use a cheap hosting plan for the blogs under your PBN. You don't like to pay more than 10$ per year for one blog. However, exploring cheap hosting plan is not a walk in the park, you need to wrestle your mind and scrape through the internet to pick a relevant hosting plan. Buying shared hosting is another option that leaves you with satisfaction where you need to pay less than buying a separate hosting plan for your blogs.

4. Create Social Identity

You can't belittle the importance of social media in developing the blogging network strategy to boost your revenue and overall blog authority. Your backlink profile looks clean and natural if you develop social profiles using Web 2.0 for every blog you develop for your blogging network.

• When you create a page with any blog, try to keep that page filled with relevant information i.e what your company does and what kind of content you can provide.
• Avoid creating a lot of profile on a single platform that links back to your blog. If you do so, you will be left out with no choice but getting penalized by Google.

Google gives value to the blog that comes with a lot of signals from multiple platforms that highlight relevancy and provide value to the visitors.

5. Hide your Blogging Network

A blogging network is created with the intention of making it private and hidden from others on the web. You don't want to unlock the strategy and hard work openly you develop for blogging network so other can anticipate and develop a plan like yours. Experts have created platforms like Ahrefs, Moz that make very easy for the competitors to spy on you and speculate the strategy, backlinks and SEO you did for your blogs. But remember, with every problem, there is a solution. Following things, you can do to hide your blogging network.

• You can use .htaccess to block the stalkers. In this way, no one on the net could see your working and files available on the server except you and your hosting provider.
• Based on the budget, you can try differing hosting plan and service provider to make your blogging network diversify in nature.
• No one stalks you like Google does (relatives don't include). It comes with advanced algorithms that detect the recent activity you do across the web very nicely. In order to minimize the stalking from Google, you need to reduce the manual activity on your websites.
• Spyder Spanker is a useful plugin tool that doesn't require FTP to access your hosting. Remember, don't let these things switch your focus away from your main blog. You're working and planning to rank your main blog. It is advised to allocate specific time to every activity you do for your main blog and for maintaining the blogging network. Your online success depends on how you analyze, organize, and develop every plan for ranking your blog higher on the search engines.

Summary

• Buy cheap old domains that come with some online history. It is preferred to look for vendors of the expired domain than to buy a domain from auctions sites. Keep relevancy in mind while weeding through the domains across the web.
• While developing your network, try using different platforms like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla to make your network sneaky and diverse in nature.
• Compose the content on the blogging network that is relevant to your main blog. You can use article spinner or the platforms that convert your words into writing. Google leaves you in danger if you try to trick it with plagiarized content.
• You can get benefit from the social sites like SocialAdr that develops your social identity across the web. Also, the fan page you create for your blogs must be relevant to the main blog. Don't just create a fan page and get away without updating it regularly.
• Interlinking is good for your main blog and decreases bounce rate as long as you are doing it within the blog. Don't do a mistake of interlinking to all of the blogs involved in the blogging network. You don't want to make Google anticipate you are doing PBN for ranking higher on the search engines.
• Create link building slowly and gradually as your blog grows. Don't create a lot of backlinks from a single blog in a day. Get backlinks from multiple blogs spread over a span of six months.
• Don't link too much to your main site. This looks sleazy and fake. When you write a blog post, try creating outbound links to other sites. If you create outbound links to your client's sites only, it can put your main site in danger.

Note: There are many risks involved doing PBN unless you are an expert in it. If you are new to blogging, don't jump in right away into this trend. First, make your reputation and authority with your main blog. Also, when you are a beginner, you can't make a lot of blogs at once. This strategy works when you get your hands on blogging enough that you are well aware of the benefits and limitations of developing PBN. That's all for today. I hope you have found this article useful. In the next post, we will cover Web Directory Submission. If you are unsure or have any question you can ask me in the comment section below. I'd love to guide you according to the best of my expertise. Keep us updated with your suggestions, they help us provide you quality content. Thanks for reading the article.

Introduction to Web 2.0 and its Role in SEO

Hi Friends! I am back to help you with a daily dose of useful information so you can excel and grow in your field. Today, I am going to discuss the details on the Introduction to Web 2.0. This is the thirteenth article of complete SEO series. You can also have a look at my previous article on SMO and why it is important for SEO and overall blog growth. Web 2.0 is a term defined as how the content and data is shared, edited and collaborated among end users using online tools to enhance the user experience and provide them equal opportunity to take an active part in the discussions initiated by the business owners and bloggers. In this way, visitors remain updated with most relevant and useful information where they can share their experience in case the information they find is limited and their words can add more value to the written content. This gives most diverse and useful information to the end users, so they don't have to rely on information and data given by the small community of business owners where they can manipulate the information for their personal gains. I'll try to cover each and everything related to this topic, so you don't have to scroll across the web and find all information in one place. Let's dive in and explore what is this about and everything you need to know.

Introduction to Web 2.0

The Web 2.0 is a widely used term which includes how information is shared across the web where end users can take an active part and collaborate with each other, add their experience and edit the already given information.

• This idea was proposed by Darcy DiNucci with the intention of increasing user experience and enhance their personal interaction so they can collaborate and interact with each other.

In her article 'Fragmented Future' Darcy DiNucci wrote; "The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens." Information shared across the web is highly volatile in nature. With daily advancement and innovation in technology & education, you can't rely on a single source of information. You have to explore and get knowledge from multiple platforms that help you make a final decision.

• Web 2.0 is a concept that came to limelight and gain popularity in Media Web 2.0 Conference conducted in 2004 by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty.
• Web 1.0 was mostly used term before the inception of Web 2.0
• The Web 1.0 involved no user interaction and highly dependent on the site and business owner who used to manage data according to their own will. This term had limited the source of user interaction where they couldn't share their experience for the services and products certain business was offering.

At that time, only static page was used to share the information across the web.

Main Difference Between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0

Web 1.0 only provides the 'read' feature to the end users where they can't share their information. This limits the circle of interaction between the business owner and end user. The limitation of Web 1.0 proved to be the stepping stone for the introduction to Web 2.0 which involved both features i.e 'read and write'.

• Web 2.0 gives end users the flexibility of not only reading the content but also share their words and personal experience to add value to already written content. Web 1.0 makes the information static while Web 2.0 makes information dynamic and volatile that enhance the user experience where they can get the information that truly aligns with their field of interest.
• Web 1.0 only involves one encyclopedia called Britannica while Web 2.0 comes with a wider version of encyclopedia called Wikipedia where information can be edited by both i.e. experts and non-experts.
• Online earning through Web 1.0 mainly depends on the pageviews while Web 2.0 provides a greater opportunity for online earning as it allows the blogs to make money through pay per click ( when someone clicks on the ad displayed on the web page, you will get paid).
• Web 1.0 provides a content delivery network which brings a load to the server as information is not equally shared among the servers involved in the flow of information. While Web 2.0 provides more flexible platforms like BitTorrent and eMule that not only provide information but also involves the servers of the end users.

How Web 2.0 Works

The main aim of Web 2.0 is to increase user experience and social interaction. You can't only read the blog or services provided by the owners but you can also share your word and experience through comments or feedback. We can't brush off the importance of websites truly made for revenue generation; Web 2.0 introduced a new term called blogging where everyone can share their knowledge in their own words.

• It is observed, information shared across education and technology websites, appears to be very technical that makes difficult for the end users to grab the main concept.
• Bloggers not only optimize that information but also add value by transforming the main concept into simple words.

Online technology always strives to keep visitors updated by providing advanced tools in order to increase user experience so they can take an active part and get benefit from the web sources.

• Gone are days, when people with a lot of technical skills were able to build websites and blogs for online earning. Web 2.0 introduced platforms like Blogger.com and Wordpress that make too easy for users to build the blog without any prior technical knowledge. No problem, if you are a student or housewife, you can build your blog and secure your seat for online earning.

Earlier, it was very easy to share information and gain traffic all the while ignoring actual visitors' problems and needs. This led to the addition of SEO (search engine optimization), where you need to produce the content based on the nature and requirements of end users. If you create content without proper SEO strategy, you would be left out with a minor or no chance of appearing on the top of search engines. You need to keep happy both i.e. search engines as well as visitors. Following are the main elements of the Web 2.0

• ONE. Mobile computing is a remarkable addition that falls under Web 2.0, that connects all people across the world with the comfort of being at home or wherever they go. People remain connected through multiple smart devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and Mac. WiFi or 3G technology is used to join all these devices on a single platform where you can scroll and browse through a bunch of information spread across the web. Using this trend, people can share their experience and build a relationship with the people of same interest.
• TWO. Social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ that allow business owners to make a solid connection with online visitors. Feedback and recommendation given by visitors on these social sites help businesses grow so they develop the product keeping in the view of visitors' demands.
• THREE. Mashup is the process where two or more applications are joined together for better user experience i.e. when blog and social media sites work together they incorporate and deliver a better user experience. The web was actually created to be mashed up in order to engage visitors for better interaction.
• FOUR. Forums are created on the web where different people of same interest can start discussions and help each other out. These forums work in two ways i.e. either you can highlight the problem that is not already discussed on the forum or you can reply to the questions already created by visitors.
• FIVE. User participation involves the participation of the end users. They share information for other users to see. The main purpose of the web is to create information that flows two ways i.e. from the site owners to the visitors and from visitors to the site owners and other visitors.
• SIX. User Generated Content includes written stuff, videos, audio or images that are readily available on the web so an average person can get benefit from them.

Technologies used in Web 2.0

Web 2.0 framework involves Ajax and JavaScript that allows users to communicate with the page. The Ajax programming separates the information coming to the server from the information coming back to the page. This boosts the overall site performance where sending information is completely independent of the receiving information.

• Most of the Web 2.0 applications use decentralized platform where information is equally shared between the servers as compared to the centralized platform that brings too much load on the individual servers.

Rich Internet Application is another concept given by the Web 2.0 where information is brought from the desktop to the browser. This technique allows web designers to develop the pages that behave like desktop applications.

Web 2.0 for SEO

Web 2.0 can work wonder for SEO if done a right way. The main aim of SEO is bringing a potential audience to your web page that helps to appear your blog on the top of search engines.

• There are a lot of techniques and strategies available to boost your ranking, however, when SEO is overdone or overwhelmed by keyword stuffing, can severely affect the overall health of your blog.
• Making your presence on Web 2.0 sites involves social media sites, social bookmarking sites, self-publisher sites like WordPress or blogger.com, wikis, video and audio content sharing sites.

If you have newly stepped in online world, you have to be very careful while using social platforms that fall under Web 2.0, because if you create a lot of profiles and link back to your main web page without giving relevant information to end users, it will result in spamming and Google will take no time to penalize your blog. The golden rule of thumb to be successful in an online world is start creating social media profiles slowly and gradually as your blog grows. Following are the social sites that fall under the Web 2.0 platform

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Linkedin

When you start a new blog or intend to build a new business from the scratch, it is advised to build fan pages and profiles on these platforms and write a relevant 200-word bio that truly describes what your company does and what are the skills, services, and content you can provide to the relevant audience. Similarly, following are the self-publishing sites that include Web 2.0

• Blogger
• Wordpress
• Tumblr
• Stumbleupon
• Livejournal
• Squidoo

After creating the main blog for online earning, you can also create multiple blogs on different sites that link back to your main blog. It will help you rank higher on search engines.

• Again, creating a lot of blogs for backlinking is not preferred unless all the blogs created for backlinking come with some value and bring relevant information to the end users. Getting backlink from a blog with high domain authority and page rank brings more value to your main blog than getting backlinks from multiple low-quality sites.

You can voice your brand and uncover your main skills through video, audio or images. Following are sites that can help you highlight your brand value:

• YouTube
• Instagram
• Podcast

Web 2.0 plays a vital role in the development and improvement of any business. If a certain business is using Web 2.0 that involves the active participation of the end user where they can give their personal review about a certain product, this helps the business to improve their product and work on the areas where they are lacking. You can check the complete guide of SEO Tutorials that houses each and everything relating to On Page and Off Page SEO on a single page. Following are the main benefits for the business using Web 2.0 platform.

Online Exposure

When your content or services are shared across the web on many social media platforms, you'll get an instant online exposure to the wider audience. It also gives many businesses an opportunity to curate and optimize their content keeping in view of the demands and requirements of the visitors.

• There is no need of providing content and services that don't resonate with the field of users' interest. This is how you can build rapport and relationship with the customers.

Brand Awareness

Technology has been evolved and took a step ahead to meet with the nature of visitors. The Web 2.0 involves online social sharing websites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram.

• When business or blog owners share the information related to the problems their audience is facing, they come with a higher chance of broadcasting themselves and share their service with a relevant audience. This gives the business an online advantage and helps it turning out as a brand.

More Traffic

When you create a profile on multiple sites under Web 2.0, it helps bring more traffic to your site.

• The more visitors come to your site, the more is the chance of conversion. Again, no need to create a number of fake profiles on a single platform with the empty page that brings no value to the end users.

Participate actively, update your fan page regularly and interact with the visitors on daily basis in order to keep your page running on all platforms.

Social Interaction

Social interactions and collaboration with the end users is another benefit of using Web 2.0 features. If you are taking an active part in the discussions initiated by the customers, you will come up with a higher chance of accelerating and growing in your field.

• If your blog or business comes with more positive feedbacks and solid recommendation from the potential audience, you will flourish in no time.

Compete with Competitors

When you are active online, you can anticipate and get an idea of how your competitors are doing in the market. What are the strategies that work for them and what are the innovations and development you must add to your product to get maximum revenue. Earlier, you would need to establish business first, then you reached every other customer physically to guide them about the product you were selling.

• Marketing strategies have been evolved and governed over last decade, now what matters is how you interact with the customers and spread your data across the web so visitors face no difficulty in finding the right product that helps them solve their problems.

Conclusion

Web 2.0 is a one-step ahead from Web 1.0, where the main aim is to target end users and provoke them to actively participate with the web pages and provide valuable information. Web 2.0 introduced self-publishing platforms like Wordpress and Blogger.com that makes very easy for visitors to make a blog in any niche without any prior knowledge. All platforms fall under Web 2.0, when used in a right way, can help boost both i.e. SEO and Business. That's all for today. I hope you have found this article useful. In the next post, we will discuss PBN and how it works for getting backlinks and growing your blog authority. If you are unsure or have any question, you can ask me in the comment section below. I'd love to help you in any way I can. Feel free to keep us updated with your feedback and suggestions, they help us provide you most relevant and quality content. Thanks for reading the article.

What is SMO? Relation between SMO and SEO

Hi Friends! I am back to give you a daily dose of valuable information, so you can excel and grow in your relevant field. Today, I am going to uncover the details on What is SMO and What is the Relation between SMO and SEO? This is the twelveth article of complete SEO series. You can check my previous article on Influencer Outreach where I have highlighted the ways to do it effectively. We cannot overlook the importance of SEO throughout the blogging journey. If you really want to grow and escalate your online presence in the early stages of your business, you must pay special heed to the SEO strategies that play an important role to put your blog on the top of search results. Before we move forward and define the role of SMO in SEO, we must we aware what is SMO? SMO stands for Social Media Optimization. It is a list of techniques and strategies used for increasing your blog or product awareness through social media platforms like facebook, twitter, LinkedIn. This also includes the bookmarking sites like Reddit and stumble upon and blogs that fall into your niche. While looking for SEO and SMO, some people are concerned which is more important? Or SMO does really matter to help boost your ranking in search engines?

• It's true that SMO doesn't directly affect the SEO and help your content appear on the top of search results, but it really helps your business gets more exposure and visibility to the targeted audience. However, apart from that, if you closely look to the businesses who do good in search engines, you will get to know they have strong social signals pointing to their website.

Now, search engines give more value to the business who manage both SEO and SMO instead of the ones who only take care of SEO.

• SMO falls under the Off-Page SEO which is essential to appear your blog or business on the top of search results. There are many factors affecting your social media profile.

How you curate and organize your social media profile plays an important role in the visibility of your business to the targeted audience. You can check the complete guide of SEO tutorials where I have combined all articles related to On Page and Off Page SEO.

What is SMO?

SMO is defined as a process used for increasing online awareness of your content or product through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram. It includes how your content and business is curated, organized and managed through social media platforms. You'd be doing injustice to the overall health of your business if you are paying attention to SEO only, all the while ignoring the importance of social media. There are three ways your content appears online

• Your content appears on the top of search results
• You are recommended by other websites your audience visits
• You get a presence on the social media platforms

All three ways fall under inbound marketing where you use techniques to approach the relevant audience.

• Optimizing your content for SMO plays an important role to make Google think your content is worthy and brings value to the customers.

The invention of social media has changed, if not entirely, the concept of search engines. No doubt, search engines have their own importance in bringing traffic to your site, but we cannot undermine the importance of SMO. Some people who don't bother to look for their desired product through search engines' search, find it useful to look for the product on social media because it gives more flexibility and helps them make a final decision. More social shares on social media is a hint that the product is worthy which is recommended by the relevant visitor that exhibits the same interest as yours. SMO helps in

• More Leads
• High traffic
• Business explore
• Better SEO

Now, search engines' algorithms and criteria to look for relevant and best content have been changed. Apart from better SEO, you must give equal importance to SMO. Search engines give more importance to the content that is well-distributed and shared on social platforms.

• Most of the businesses overlook the importance of SMO, and they work and give importance to SEO only which is not beneficial in the long run.

How SMO Works and Relates with SEO

Optimization is defined as steps and actions that are taken to streamline a strategy for using the situation and resource effectively. Social media optimization is not just creating and building a social media profile on every platform that comes into play. Although, it is imperative to create the social media profile in order to boost online presence, however, things start working when someone else shares or recommends your content or product on their social platforms.

• Getting a backlink from your own profiles exhibits less value as compared to links from diverse social media platforms.

If you want your product is spread across the social media and your voice is heard, make sure to engage with the audience and help them provide a definite solution to their problems.

• Take an active part in the discussions initiated by your visitors, so they can anticipate you value interactions and relationships more than getting financial goals.

SMO and SEO work on the same principle i.e. to create awareness about the blog or product and generate more traffic, but there is a little difference between them.

• SEO is a search engine optimization where you optimize your website keeping in the view of search engine protocols and SMO is a social media optimization where you optimize your website or product with the help of social media platforms.

How Google Considers Social Signals

Google looks each social signal like a regular HTML page, but does it help your content appear on the top of search results?

• It doesn't directly help, if it did, it would be very easy for the marketer to manipulate the search engines and get top position in the search results. The quantity of social shares holds less value than the quality of social signals.

Google appreciates if your business is getting a number of social signals, but google gives more importance to the quality of social signals you get. If you Google catches you up, you are manipulating search engines by fake social signal recommendation, Google will instantly block your site or leave you with a warning.

• Social media optimization and search engine optimization are closely related to each other. We wouldn't be exaggerating if we say, social media platforms act as a search engine for some people.

Your content is easily found on search engines when you take care of SEO that takes visitors close to the purchase of your services. This is where SMO comes into play.

• When visitors come to your site with the intention of your product is widely spread and shared across the social media and recommended by the visitors of the same interest, they take no time making a final decision.

You can use our Social Share Counter SMO tool, especially designed by our experts, that helps you count the number of social shares of a certain webpage. This way you can analyze the content and develop a strategy that helps you increase the social shares. Following things, you must be considering while you prepare your content for social media.

Quality Content

If you want your content is widely shared across the social media platform, make sure you have produced quality content that resonates with the requirements of your visitors. Organize your content in such a way that you properly deal and touch the problems your targeted audience is facing. This will force them to share your content so other people of same interest can get the advantage of your content.

Keyword Research

What is the importance of creating quality content if your content doesn't organize and develop around the keywords your audience is looking for? Do your homework and explore the keywords audience types when they look for the specific product. This will help you get a clear idea of what your visitors are looking for. There are many tools available to make your content prepare around certain keywords. You can start with free tools like Google Keyword Planner.

Add Social Media Buttons

Make sure to add social media buttons to the content or blog post your share, so your visitors find no difficulty sharing your content across the web in case they find something useful. Also, the social media profiles you create must include the link back to your website. This will help the visitors come to your website in case they are in need of more information regarding the specific product.

Final Thought

• SMO and SEO are closely related to each other. SEO helps your content appear on the top of search results, while SMO boosts your online presence by appearing your content in front of the targeted audience.
• Google does give value to the content and business that come with lots of social shares.
• It is like a grey area, we cannot completely admit that SMO helps your content appear on the top of search results, but it does help to increase your online presence that ultimately brings more visitors on your site.
• Your business success depends on both SEO and SMO, you cannot ignore any of them to make your content appear before the relevant audience.
• The practical way to boost your online presence through social media is to engage your customers, help them solve their problems and let them highlight the features and advantages of your product in their own words.
• It takes a lot of hard work and planning before you are pretty nifty about organizing social media platforms, but, if it is done properly, no one can stop your brand accelerate and get a renowned position in the market.

That's all for today. I hope you have found this article useful. In the next post, we will cover Web 2.0 and how it is related to SEO. In case you are feeling skeptical or have any question, you can ask me in the comment section below. I'd love to help you according to the best of my expertise. Feel free to keep us updated with your feedback and suggestions, they allow us to provide you quality work that resonates with your needs and demands. Thanks for reading the article.

Web Directory Submission: Does it Work Now?

Hello Friends! I always strive to keep our visitors' needs and demands on the top and try to provide the relevant content that completely aligns with their field of interest. Today, I am going to unlock the details on What is Web Directory Submission? Is it Still Effective for SEO? This is the fifteenth article on the complete SEO series. You can check my previous article on PBN that helps you create a network of blogs pointing to your main blog. Before we move to web directory submission we must be sure What is web directory? It is defined as a directory that is composed of a number of websites with relevant information about websites like site links, what they do and address. Directory submission is a process where you submit your website in a relevant directory that falls under your niche. This process was introduced a long time ago. But does it still work for appearing your blog on the top of search engines? We'll discuss this in this post. Let's dive in and explore the main features of directory submission, how it is used and affect your blog?

What is Directory Submission

Web directory submission is one of the oldest ways to create a backlink. Using this process, you submit your blog or website in a relevant directory with your blog information like a link, address, and what your blog is capable of doing.

• This is considered as an Off-Page SEO which directly or indirectly affects your blog, but you have no direct control over this process. Directory submission doesn't work as it did before.
• Previously, it was effective and useful for link building. Back then, search engines were not smart enough where they gave value to all those sites coming with a high number of backlinks, all the while ignoring if these sites were giving value and providing relevant information to visitors.

Getting a backlink from spammy sites that bring little or no value to your blog is strictly prohibited by the Google, falls under a manipulative process to get a backlink, and holds no value for SEO. Search bots work smartly and quickly catch the sites who try to build backlink by directory submission all the time. But does directory submission still work? That's the main question bothers most of the bloggers, especially who are new to blogging.

• The answer to this question is YES directory submission still works as long as you're doing it correctly. If your blog is new and you want to highlight your content in front of relevant visitors, directory submission still works.
• However, if you only focus on directory submission for building backlinks, it could severely affect your blog overall health and bring more damage than good. Google prefers those sites that come with a diverse backlinking profile.
• Also, it doesn't matter how many backlinks you get but the quality of link does. If these sites from where you get backlinks have the high authority or page ranking, Google will consider your backlink as a vote from the authority site and directs a number of visitors to your blog.

You can check our complete guide of SEO Tutorials where I have listed all posts related to On Page and Off SEO.

How it Works

Directory submission is simple. You just pick a relevant directory that falls under your blog niche and submits your blog information in it. These directories are managed by the editors who follow some rules and regulations before you get accepted by them. Some will accept your blog immediately and some take some time before you get indexed in their directories. It is a matter of time; if you want to get accepted immediately you need to pay. But not all directories work in the same way.

• There are some valuable directories where they only prefer authority sites and demand no money in exchange for a backlink. It takes time to get accepted by these directories. Rest assured, if your blog is well reputed and come with high DA, you'll make a place in these directories, not immediately but eventually.

Normally it takes one month to get a place in those directories but some take 6 months before they accept your blog. They strictly review your site and cross-check based on the terms and conditions they have created for a blog to be indexed. If you meet those terms and conditions, you'll get accepted immediately. As I mentioned earlier, directory submission is not as effective as it was before, but it still influences your blog health, provided you get the backlink from authority sites.

Directory Submission for Business

Directory submission proves to be more effective for businesses than simple blogs or websites. If your blog comes with different online products, then directory submission is a thing you must practice frequently.

• When you are running a business and you get enrolled in a directory, your business comes with a higher chance of appearing in front of relevant visitors.

When users are looking to buy something they prefer to look into directories with the relevant website where they can read the reviews and suggestions about a specific product.

• There are a lot of benefits to getting indexed in directory submission, especially for businesses, but it comes with one drawback unless you're providing a flawless service. If someone reviews bad on the directory site about your product, it can affect your overall reputation.

If you want to run your business like a pro, you need to keep the product quality high that aligns with the demands of the visitors. If someone finds your product low quality that fails to meet their demands, it will force them to review bad about the product that is enough to make a dent in your business reputation.

Top Directories for Website Submission

There are a lot of directories out there you can choose, based on your niche and requirements. The directory you pick must be relevant to your topic and comes with high domain authority. Following are three most popular directories that must be your first priority to get indexed in.

Yelp

If you are running a business, you can't ignore the importance of Yelp directory. This is a platform where visitors interact and share their experiences they get working with specific business. This sets a tone for your business. Positives reviews and feedbacks allow you to appear as a brand, results in attracting a number of customers. Yelp comes with certain rules and regulations that you must pass in order to get indexed in their directory. They don't accept every other business under the sun. Don't rush to get indexed in this directory before the inception of your business. Make sure, you have established a business that can attract a number of visitors where they get what they want. Also, Yelp doesn't work in every country. You can check on their website if your country falls under their eligibility criteria. Once you get enrolled in this directory, make sure to keep the quality of products and services up to the mark. It will help you get a reputation in the early stages of your business. Take an active part in this directory. In case you get a negative review about your product, interact with the customers in a timely manner and help them fix the issue as soon as possible.

• You must provide compensation if your customers undergo bad experience. This can be in the form of a discount for their next visit or any other way based on the nature and capacity of your business.

Your customers are your brand ambassadors. The more you strive to keep the customers' satisfaction on the top, the more you come with a chance of flourishing and growing in your business.

Yahoo

It is another addition to highlight your business in front of a number of people. This is considered as a featured listing directory where only high domain authority websites with quality backlinks can make a place.

• You need to pay to get enrolled in this directory. As mentioned earlier, you don't have to pay for every directory submission, if you do and get caught by the search crawlers, you may get penalized by Google.

But there are some exceptions where Google takes a flexible approach. Google accepts and gives value to the sites enrolled in this directory.

• Don't fall a prey to every other directory submission site which comes with very low eligibility criteria and provides cheap rates for your site to get indexed in it in exchange for a backlink.

DMOZ.org

When it comes to regular web listing, sites like DMOZ.org carry some weight. However, this directory is not as useful as it was before. Also, it gives no guarantee to bring your blog to the top of search results. This directory was created with the intention of uncovering your work in front of a number of people that were deeply interested in your services or products. Facebook turns the things around as it does the same job what this directory used to be doing a long while ago. Now, you can simply create a Facebook page if you want to highlight your work or product in front of targeted people.

Parameters to Consider for Directory Submission

Taking precautions in the early stages of your business can save you a bunch of time. If you really want your business gets off the ground, there are some steps you need to follow. Directory submission, if done in a wrong way, poses a severe threat to your business. Following are some steps you must consider before preparing your blog for directory submission.

Reciprocal Link

Not all web directory sites work in same way. Some work in a reciprocal manner. Before they index your blog on their site, they ask for a reciprocal backlink for their site. This is the least you could do to rank your blog.

• This practice is strictly prohibited by Google where you build backlink profile in a reciprocal manner. Now google becomes more intelligent and strives to bring the most relevant and useful information in front of its visitors.

Directory that Accepts your Blog Right Away

Some directory websites work in a suspicious way and accept your blog right away without reviewing it. If this is the case, you must refrain yourself from submitting your blog on these sites.

• If they are accepting your blog without testing or reviewing it, it means there is something wrong. Every quality website directory follows some strict rules and takes proper measure before they accept your blog.

Manually Audit the Directory

If you are skeptical about the web directory sites and unsure to submit your blog, you can manually audit those sites.

• If you find these directories sites are populated with high authority sites and give backlink based on some following some protocols, then you can submit your blog to these directories.

Alexa Ranking

Alexa ranking is one of the best ways to check site reputation. Go to alexa.com and put the directory link where you want to submit your blog. If it comes with a higher ranking, it gives a green signal that this directory is worth using.

• However, this is not the only way to check the blog authority and reputation. But this is enough to get a clue if directory site gives respect to high authority sites.

Domain Authority

Domain authority is another way to check if the directory website is well reputed and follow some protocols to keep itself higher in the search engine.

• Domain authority is a concept given by Moz. You can go to Moz and check the domain authority of the site you want to submit your blog on. If a website has domain authority around 50, then you hope for submitting your blog on that domain.

Directory Submission in the Eyes of Google

Google was lenient before and valued those sites with a number of backlinks. But soon it discovered giving value to those sites that were unable to fulfill the requirements and demands of visitors was of no use.

• Why would someone come to visit google if they knew the information they got wouldn't be resonating with their field of interest? This made Google force to filter out the sites using spammy way to appear on the top of the search engines and started giving importance to those sites that come with quality content and bring more value to the visitor.

Goole gives value to the sites that are indexed in quality web directories. Getting a backlink from directory submission only is not effective and put your blog in extreme danger.

• Google prefers those sites that come with diverse backlinking where a number of quality sites are linking to your profile.

Conclusion

Getting backlinks solely from directory submission may not be your first priority but you can't ignore the importance of getting backlinks from authority directory sites especially when you run a business. Google gives value to the sites pointed to quality backlinks, and it doesn't matter if they are coming from other blogs or directory submission sites, as long as they are maintaining quality, they are a good fit for your website. And if you are bringing value to the customers, your content will be worth sharing across the web. Make sure, you are not completely relying on directory submission for generating a backlinking profile. Make your backlink profile diverse in nature if you want value and respect from Google. What is your experience with directory submission? Feel free to keep us updated with your valuable opinion and suggestion for creating backlinks. Thanks for reading the article.

Influencer Outreach: How to do it Effectively and its Importance in SEO

Hey Guys! Hope you are doing great. I always aim to keep you updated with useful information that aligns with your field of interest. Today, I am going to uncover the details on Influencer outreach and its importance in SEO and Digital Marketing.  This is the eleventh article covering a complete SEO series. You can also have a look at my previous article on Guest Posting. With the inception of internet technology, marketing strategies are not same as they were before. Without an online presence, you can't even think about growing and flourishing your business in the real world. Internet technology allows you to get rid of the hectic marketing strategies where you used to meet customers personally and convince them to buy your products. Things are changed now. You can approach targeted visitors online and convince them to buy from you if you come up with a lot of positive reviews and referrals pointing towards your products. Influencer Outreach is considered as a marketing strategy where you approach the influencers, build a relationship and inform them how your product or blog can bring value to their audience. Influencers are the people who have enough knowledge and skills in their field of interest and come up with a large number of audience. They have already built a reputation and got enough trust in their audience by providing flawless service.

• If you succeed in convincing the influencers by your content or services, they feel no hesitation sharing your work on their platforms.

You must have a look at a complete guide of SEO Tutorials where I have listed all articles pertaining to On Page and Off Page SEO.

What is Influencer Outreach

Influencer Outreach is termed as a process where you approach the influencer or bloggers that come up with high traffic and ask them to refer your products or content on their platforms. There are many factors making influencer outreach effective and useful, that not only allow you to bring your product in front of a number of people but also help in bringing more traffic to your blog.

Things to do Before you Approach Influencer

There are many things you'd be doing before you approach the influencer. If you really want influencers recommend you on their platform, then you must highlight the value of the product and how your content is going to benefit their visitors. Let's dive in and start exploring the things required before you outreach influencer.

1. Start with Keyword Research

Start keyword research if you intend to target a relevant audience as your field of interest and services. There is no need for creating a content that doesn't align with the needs and demands of the visitors. Before you create a content, you must do your homework in order to find the nature of audience you intend to target to.

• You can't choose any keyword and make a post around it. Doing this is the first rule to ruin your hard work and affect your reputation at large.
• The base of the business or blog built on the random keywords will be on shaky grounds. There is a lot to do before you are confident to put your words online.

The keyword research has been evolved over time. Earlier you would do keyword research and mention keywords multiple times in the article. This approach doesn't work anymore; as Google considers it as a keyword stuffing and you may face a penalty unless you are too lucky to get caught by the search engines and manipulate their algorithms.

• This is where keyword variation comes into play. Now, you have to use keyword variations to make Google aware your content is quite in line with the demands and needs of the visitors. You'll be producing a content not only keeping in view of the keyword research but you need to pay special heed what visitors actually mean when they type certain keyword.
• Using longtail keywords that come with low competition and more traffic give ultimate results than targeting keywords with high competition. Suppose, you are writing a post on Guest Posting, you can use an alternate keyword instead of guest posting in the article like guest blogging, write for us or blog contributors. This is the smart way to make your content aligned with the demands of the customers. And doing this practice multiple times will help search bots aware you are expert in your niche so they direct the visitors towards your content.

There are lots of free online tools available you can do your keyword research on. Following are the free tools you can do free keyword research.

a. Google Keyword Planner

This is a free tool used by most of the bloggers, especially who are in the early stages of their blogging journey. It comes up with limited features but it proves to be handy for most of the new bloggers.

b. Google Auto Suggest

Google works smartly and intelligently when it comes to finding the solution to the specific problem.

• As you type two-three words of your problem, Google immediately comes up with the relevant terms visitors are searching for.
• In this way, you can anticipate, what are the problems visitors are facing that are quite in line with your search. You can build your content around any of these similar problems with the chance of approaching on the top of search engines.

c. Google Searches Related To

Google has made our life easy by providing easy and flawless service where it tries its best to provide quick and most relevant content you look for.

• When you type certain keywords on the google and scroll the page all the way down, you'll see the other keywords that are relevant to the words you just typed.
• These keywords show that the query you are looking to get a solution for, already been searched for other similar keywords too. I have typed "how to start a blog" and come up with these keywords at the bottom of the page.

d. KeywordTool.io

This is another smart tool which is equally handy for keyword research, especially for new bloggers who can't afford to pay for the paid keyword research tools.

• An amazing thing about this tool is that you can look for the keyword relevance in any country. Better is ranking for the google.com. However, if your business is country oriented you can target the specific country of your choice like googl.com.in (India), google.com.pk(Pakistan).
• One drawback of using these tools is that they don't show the search volume of the specific keyword. Things are not going to work if you don't know how many times the specific keyword has been searched on the google.

e. Serp Keyword Research Tool

If free tools don't meet your requirements and you want to get the exact results, then you must use this tool called Serp where it also shows how many times specific keyword gets searched on google.

f. SEMrush Tool

If you can't do keyword research properly, the chance of your blog getting appeared on the top of a search engine is rare. Among all the above-mentioned tools, SEMrush stands the best. Good news is that it comes with both edition i.e. free and paid. You can use free edition for limited research and paid edition allows you to do more searches per day.

• Whenever you type a certain keyword, it will show the search volume of that word immediately. If you are running a business, this tool is really worth the cost. If you'd be using this tool perfectly, you don't have to rely on other tools. This tool will meet your demands quite well.

Tip: If you are going to start your blog from scratch, then start with longtail keywords that come with low competition and high traffic. In the start, it doesn't matter how many keywords you target and how many times certain keywords would appear in the article.

• It is okay to keep the keyword density around 1% and keyword variation appears once in the article. Avoid keyword stuffing and put keywords in the context where they sound natural and truly resonate with the tone of the article.

2. Quality Content

Congrats! You've done your research so far. Now you are ready to build a post around certain keywords. Poorly written content can scare the hell out of your visitors. Doing keyword research would be of no use if you can't produce quality content that fulfills the needs of the visitors.

• Producing quality content means, crafting the content around the focus keyword with the intention of touching one main problem with the number of solutions.
• Use short and sweet sentences in your article in order to avoid grammatical errors. Edit and proofread your work before putting it online.

3. Who is your Target Audience

Make sure, who your audience is. You can't make a general post for a larger audience and hope to jump up in the top searches. You must be sure, who your audience is, what they do, what they truly need and their field of interest.

• Mention in the article, how your work can benefit the customers and why they should prefer your content and products over others;  where big fish are already there to soak you up in the first place.

4. Who to Approach

You can't pick any influencer and ask for a referral. How would someone refer you if their field of interest doesn't resonate with your products or content?

• Do your homework and filter the influencers that are relevant to your field and come with the same audience of relevant interest. Approaching everyone that comes in your way is not the right way to make influence outreach successful. Instead of approaching a number of influencers, it is better to reach a few influencers that fall under your niche and field of interest.

How to Approach Influencer

When you have done your homework, this is the time to approach the influencer. This can be done in multiple ways. Not every method is equally beneficially for everyone. What seems beneficial to you, stick to it.

1. Break the Ice

Marketing is not about selling your product only, but how you maintain the relationship with other speaks a lot about you. Before you reach the influencer right away, start with building a relationship. Easy and quick way to do it is by following and taking an active part in the discussions on their blogs.

• After reading a couple of blog posts, comment on them and show how their work helped you in solving your problems. This way you will get noticed before their eyes, showing your interest is quite in line with their field of interest. And you give more value to building a relationship instead of achieving financial goals.

2. Shoot an Email

Once you are done appearing in front of the influencer's eyes, next thing is to approach them personally. Now is the right time to shoot an email. The words you pick in the email and how you address the influencer set a tone for getting recommended by the influencer.

• Don't get too rude or friendly in the email. Start with greetings them with their names. Don't get too friendly to write emoji or exclamation mark after the completion of the sentence. You can use emoji or other expressions once you get familiar with each other.
• Before you mention the reference they used in the article, make sure, you haven't just scanned the article or jumped through the words and headings, but you read it entirely.
• Some influencers are difficult to reach and don't appear too often. They have a virtual assistant who handles the things on their behalf. In this case, you can approach the writers who write for them. If you are approaching the writers, avoid addressing the influencer for greetings, instead, you can greet the writers by their names and ask for referrals for your products or content.

3. Follow Up Email

Influencers are busy people and don't respond to every email that comes their way. It doesn't mean they ignore you or they are not going to refer you. Follow up email from your side can work wonders. This will show your passion and interest, how you are deeply interested to get recommended by the influencer.

• Still, if you don't get response or recommendation, it doesn't mean you stop building a relationship with the influencer. Try to engage yourself with the influence and take an active part in the discussions initiated by the influencers on their platforms.

4. Guest Posting

Guest post is the post you write for someone else's blog and you get the backlink in return. This is a great way to outreach the influencers where you offer free content to them and ask for the backlink. This is a win-win situation and benefits both the writer and publisher.

• When you guest post, make sure to pick the topic that is missed on influencer's platform. Writing a post that is already posted online makes no sense.

5. Social Media

This is another platform to approach the influencer. Some influencers are more active on their social media platforms than answering the emails. Follow same things as you do in shooting an email before you send the direct message.

• Approaching through social media is little different than reaching through email. The words you use for the direct message must be precise and sound to the point. Again, don't forget to greet them with their names. Highlight the main features of your product and they can solve the particular problem of their audience.

6. Giveaway

Giveaway is the gift you give to the influencer in exchange for getting a referral from them. This is one of the best ways to get the attention of the influencer.

• When you start your business from scratch, you can give a gift to the audience your influencer shares your content with.
• Everyone loves gifts especially when they resonate with their field of interest. Or you can give a major discount to the early birds. This will help you appear in front of the number of people.

Role of Influencer Outreach in SEO and Digital Marketing

Influencers are the people who have a lot of followers. When you approach the influencer, you knock the door with the hope of appearing on a large number of audience with relevant interest as yours. If you solely depend on your blog, especially that you start from scratch, your chances of growing and flourishing in your business would be rare and it takes more time to make a reputation and gain the trust of the visitors.

• Approaching the influencers right way and getting endorsed by them would require less hard work and cost than required for all the other marketing strategies combined.

Influencer outreach has a wide impact on your overall SEO. When your blog is recommended by the influencer, Google counts it as a vote where the number of votes does matter but who votes you indicates the ultimate value of your blog. When the number of influencers recommends you, your blog with come up with the higher chance of appearing on the top of search results.

Final Thought

Influencer marketing and businesses go side by side. Before you reach the influencer, make sure your content is worth sharing that comes up with relevant keywords, gives value and helps solve the problems of the visitors. Target influencers who are relevant to your industry, so they feel no hesitation sharing your content on their platforms. Focus on building a long-term relationship instead of just meeting financial goals. This will help to build your reputation at the start. Don't panic if you don't get recommended by the influencer you approached. Still, you can maintain healthy relationships and contact back again in case you feel influencer has given a green signal. That's all for today. I hope you have found this article useful. In the next post, we discuss SMO and how it, if done a right way, can be a good fit for your blog growth. If you are unsure or have any question you can ask me in the comment section below. I'd love to help you in any way I can. What are your thoughts and experience about influencer outreach?

Guest Blogging: How It is Used and Effect Your SEO?

Hey Guys! I always strive to keep you updated with useful information that helps you solve your relevant problems. Today, I'm going to unlock the details on the Guest Blogging: How it is used and effect your SEO? This is the tenth article on complete SEO series. You can also have a look at my previous article on Forum Posting. Guest blogging, also known as guest posting, is not a new concept. It is defined as writing a blog post for someone else's blog to get a backlink and organic traffic in return. This approach is very helpful, specially for new bloggers who want to show their online presence in limited time. Guest blogging helps in building a relationship with fellow bloggers in your niche where you can show your skills and knowledge by helping them write a blog post that specifically deals with the problems their audience is facing. It is a win-win situation where you write a free blog post for other bloggers and get a high-quality backlink in return. Just bear with me for a few minutes as I'll try to cover each and everything related to guest blogging, and why you should add it in your SEO working strategies. Let's dive in.

What is Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is known as writing a blog post for someone else's blog for free and you get a backlink and organic traffic in return. This brings equal value to both i.e. publisher and blogger. The bloggers who guest your post get a free content that is missing on their sites and you get a free backlink in return. This is not as easy as it seems. There are many factors taken into account before you guest post for anyone. You cannot pick any random blog and guest post on it. Not all bloggers allow you to guest post on them and those who allow come with some strict rules and regulation that you must follow before you guest post for them. Before we move further, you must be clear about guest blogging in case you are feeling skeptical if guest posting is still effective as it was before? After seeing the spike in guest posting, Google's former head of web spam came with a bold announcement in 2014 declaring: Matt's statement targeted the bloggers who do guest blogging just for the sake of backlink instead of giving value or the relevant information to visitors that resonates with their questions and queries. Also, his statement doesn't underestimate the value of guest blogging as long as you are doing it by following proper protocols that don't violate the Google's algorithms for generating backlinks.

• While you do guest posting, providing value with your knowledge and expertise must be your first priority. If you do guest posting just for getting a backlink, it won't help in the long run and Google will take no time in marking your content as spammy and irrelevant that fails to fulfill the needs and demands of the visitors.

You can check the complete guide of SEO Tutorial where I have listed all articles related to On Page and Off Page SEO, so you don't need to wrestle your mind for relevant data and find all information in one place.

Right Way for Guest Blogging

Gone are days, when you could manipulate the search bots by techniques that were truly used for bringing your content to the top of search engines while ignoring visitors' needs and demands entirely. Google's algorithms have been evolved since then and come with a more effective approach where they value the data that resonates with the demands of the visitors and help them keep coming back every now and then. Following are the tips and techniques, which if done in a right way, can help you gain more traffic and page ranking by guest blogging.

1. Pick Relevant and High Authority Sites

Getting on the top of search engines is same as building a business in real time. What you do and prefer in business? In order to make your business successful, you need to deliver quality while keeping the visitors' needs and demands intact. And more referrals and positive feedback you get from the visitors and business owners in your relevant field, the more you come up with the chance of growing and flourishing in your business. Same is true for blogging. You can't anticipate growth without the involvement of a high-quality domain.

• If you want to do guest posting and make aware the audience with your online presence, you must pick the relevant and high authority sites. When you choose quality websites with high traffic, you come with a higher chance of appearing in front of more visitors that are truly interested in your services.

• Suppose, if your blog is about technology, you must choose technology blog for guest posting. If you pick psychology or news blog for guest posting, it will bring little or no value to your blog. In case visitors click on your blog following the blog that doesn't fall in your niche, they won't convert, as their interests don't match with the services and content you are offering.

2. Keep an Eye if your Content is Reviewed

Not every site has the same value when it comes to guest posting. Some sites, who are open to guest posting, follow strict rules and take proper measures for you to allow a guest post on them. If you think the site you select to write for, accepts your content right away without reviewing or analyzing it, indicates danger.

• It is observed most of the sites open for guest posting, receive a number of guest posts and they don't give a green single to every post fall in their way. And if they start accepting every other post it shows there is something wrong that may affect your blog reputation later. Avoid these sites that accept your post without analyzing or testing your post before publishing on their sites.

3. Use of Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text you use for posting your link in the article. This text appears on the post and houses hyperlink in it. It is important that the anchor text of every guest post comes with the same text and points towards your site. Still, it is not a hard and fast rule, you can use different text in the anchor text when you guest post for different websites.

• Putting same anchor text in every guest post gives less value as compared to if it is put in the post that resonates with context and sounds fit for the sentence structure. It is better to create natural and diverse anchor texts for generating backlinks.

4. Don't Do Article Spinning Frequently

You can do article spinning to make your data ready for publishing on multiple forums. It is a good and easy approach but doesn't prove to be effective every time. Creating original content articulated with new ideas comes with more value and brings more traffic to your blog.

• Still, if you are interested to produce the same content anyway, you can do it without spinning the article, while keeping the main concept same and changing the words of the article. Change headings, subheadings in order to make your new content stand out from other blog posts you wrote before.

5. Link Placement

Many bloggers feel confused when it comes to placing the link in the guest post right way.

• There is no ultimate rule to place a link in the guest post. You can pick any link placement in the article that gives you a result. Some bloggers place the link within the article, where it sounds natural and flows with the context of the body - the best approach indeed.
• Some bloggers add author box at the end of the article that highlights the background of the author and the company he works for. Both ways are equally good and come with the ultimate results. It is better if you ask a publisher to add both i.e. link within the article and author box at the end of the article.

How to Search for Sites, Open to Guest Posting

There are many ways to search for quality sites when it comes to guest posting. Some are very effective and help in bringing more traffic and boosting page authority of your site. Following are some ideal ways to search blogs for guest posting.

1. Top [Niche] Blog List

Everyone needs a quick and easy solution for guest posting. In order to do so, you can write "Top [Niche] blog lists" in the google search. Suppose, you can write Top Business Blog Lists. This will open up a list of top ranking blog on business. Some will be open for guest posting. You can connect the blog owners and shoot them an email that you want to guest post for their blogs. In order to make your guest post effective and easily acceptable, you must pick a topic that is missing on their blog and you can write a post around it with a relevant solution to the problem.

• Guest posts that start with questions, how to, or a number of ways to do something, or deal with a specific problem come with a higher chance of getting accepted.

2. Search with Words that Convey Same Meaning

You can search for blogs open for guest posting by using different words that convey same meaning like guest posting and guest blogging highlights the same meaning. Similarly, submit a guest post or write for us, gives almost same impression. You can do following searches for filtering relevant blogs that resonate with your field of interest. Keyword + "Write for us" Keyword + "Submit guest post" Keyword + "Guest blogging" "Publish guest article" + keyword + blog Post written + "Name of the Writer"

3. Keep an Eye on Bloggers or Companies who Guest Blog Frequently

Another way to enhance your guest blogging opportunities is to approach people or companies who actively take part in guest blogging. Some people or companies, who are newly introduced to business, use social media as their prior approach for marketing. You can follow their social media platform and build a relationship by connecting them.

• You can try this search "person name" or "company name" "guest post" and look for the opportunity for guest posting. Blogging is all about how you deal with other fellow bloggers in your niche and maintain healthy relationships with them.

Prior Considerations Before you Guest Post for Other Sites

There are some prior considerations before you guest post for the specific site. You will get a result if you move with consistency, making sure you don't miss anything important required to make your guest blogging successful.

Traffic

Some online tools are very effective for checking domain authority and organic traffic. SEMrush is very useful when it comes to checking blog traffic.

• It is recommended to guest post for the blogs that come with a lot of traffic. Writing for blogs that have low traffic will give you no value and your hard work may get wasted.
• Checking the comments under specific blog post is another way to anticipate the nature and authority of the blog; if the comments are more than 40, it means the blog will help you get a lot of organic traffic.

Domain Authority

Domain authority is very important for a site you intend to write for. Sites with high domain authority help you rank faster on the search engine and builds a reputation in the eyes of search bots i.e. if your data is recommended by quality sites, conveys the meaning you must be worthy in your relevant niche.

• Moz's Open Site Explorer is very useful for finding the domain authority of any website. In fact, domain authority is the keyword introduced by Moz itself.

Number of Backlinks

Ahref is another tool used for checking how many backlinks website is associated with. This tool allows you to do limited searches unless you buy premium package.

• If you guest post for the blog that comes with a high number of quality backlinks, you will have a higher chance of creating reputation and authority of your blog.

Domain Name and Domain History

Not all websites come with same reputation and domain authority. It is advised to check the domain name and its history before you ask for guest posting. Some domains are truly made for the purpose of guest posting, where they can sell links, avoid guest posting for them.

• Before you pick the site for guest posting, it is important to check the domain history at first place. The older the domain, the more the possibility of high ranking and domain authority. Also, analyze the domain name sharply. Good domains come with a suitable domain name that matches with the blog niche or at least contains a focus keyword in it.

Guest Posting for Brand

It feels so exciting when it comes to writing for a brand. But, what is the point of writing for a brand that is entirely different from your blog niche? No doubt, brands come with a lot of traffic, this doesn't mean you write for every brand that comes in your way.

• First of all, it is very difficult to get accepted by a brand, in case you do, the audience won't convert, because their field of interest would be entirely different than your services. Avoid writing for brands and wasting your precious time unless they truly fall under your blog niche and field of interest.

Guest Posting vs Sponsored Post

Guest posting and sponsored post convey almost same meaning with one exception i.e you need to pay for a sponsored post in order to get a backlink. This is a regular practice most of the bloggers do, especially who start blogging as a business and can spend a lot of money on marketing. This is acceptable for bloggers who can afford but doesn't prove to be effective for those who start blogging as a passion and unable to spend money in the start.

• If you are interested in sponsored post anyway, make sure the backlink profile you build must come from multiple sites instead of focusing on one site only. This will help your profile grow and get quick repute in the eye of search engines.

Conclusion

• If you ask, does guest posting effect SEO and help in blog ranking for the search engines? The simple answer is YES.
• It is an old technique but equally effective especially when you are in the early stages of your blogging journey. Make sure, you pay special heed on your link building when you guest post for someone. Avoid picking one site for guest posting multiple times. Google prefer those sites that come with backlinks from multiple sites that help in making the profile diverse in nature.
• Pick high domain authority sites that resonate with your blog niche for guest posting. Traffic is an important factor when it comes to guest posting. Choose sites that have reasonable traffic so your content comes in front of more audience that gives more exposure to your online presence.
• It is important to choose anchor text for your link that matches with the context of the body and sounds natural in the article. It is okay to put different anchor text for the same post when you guest post for different sites.
• Before you write a guest post, make sure, what your targeted audience wants and then build a post around it. And take an active part in discussions, answer the queries of the visitors and engage them so they keep coming back for what you have to offer. This will help you grow as a brand and come out as an authority in your niche.

That's all for today. I hope you have found this post helpful. In the next article, we cover Influencer Outreach and how it helps boost your blog authority and page ranking. If you are unsure or have any question related to guest posting, drop me a comment below. I'd love to help you according to the best of my expertise. Feel free to keep us updated with your feedback and suggestions. And what is your experience you have got doing guest posting? Thanks for reading the article. Stay Tuned!

What is Forum Submission and Its Importance in SEO?

Hey Friends! I hope you are enjoying your life. Today, I am going to uncover the details on What is Forum Submission and its importance in SEO? This is the ninth article in the SEO series. Before we move on, you must have a look at What is Backlink and how it affects and works for SEO. Forum submission is one of the most conventional, yet effective, ways to generate backlinks that are necessary for boosting blog traffic and page ranking. It falls under an Off-Page SEO where you build a relationship with other forum members and take an active part in the discussions and help them with useful information. Most of the bloggers who start from scratch, get intimidated by the SEO tips and techniques required for the blog growth, but the reality is not as scary as it seems. With little hard work and consistency, you can make your blog grow in no time. This is a gradual and steady process which needs constant learning and modification throughout your blogging journey. You can also have a look at the ultimate guide of SEO Tutorials where I have organized and listed all articles relating to On Page and Off Page SEO.

What is Forum Posting?

Forum posting is defined as making a connection and building a rapport with a number of visitors with your knowledge and expertise that helps them solve their question and queries. You just choose a relevant forum that falls under your blog niche and starts taking an active part in the discussions with useful information. And once you are done giving a solution to the specific problem, you put your site link in the end. This will help visitors know, in case they require more information on the problem they are facing, they can visit the blog that specifically deals with that problem.

• Forum posting is very important for bringing more traffic on your blog. When you involve in the forum discussions and provide ultimate solutions, visitors get to know you are expert in your niche and can help them solve their problems.

Forum Posting History

Forum submission is one of the oldest ways to generate backlinks for your site. But it doesn't work in the same way as it did before. Now forum submission has evolved, become more effective and useful, where spammers got no luck.

• When forum submission was newly introduced, site owners generated backlink by just sharing their site links on the forum without helping the visitors. Sometimes, it happened, the forum was entirely different from the topic site owners sharing their information with.
• This made forum administrators think they should come up with an ultimate solution that helps visitors solve their problems with relevant information so they don't feel they are left out in the forum where information doesn't resonate with their field of interest.

Now there are different forums for every category ranging from technology, health, psychology, IT, blogging, business and many more. And you can't post irrelevant information on them. Doing so will be considered as spamming and resulted in the termination of your account.

How Forum Submission Works?

Forum submission is very easy, you just pick the relevant forum in your niche, build a profile, follow the thread and take an active part in discussions. A thread is a topic posted on the forum where a number of forum members share their knowledge and provide a solution to the specific problem.

• Thread works in two ways i.e. either you can follow some thread and provide a solution based on your knowledge and expertise or you can start your own thread of the problem that most of the visitors are facing. Make sure, the thread you start, haven't already discussed in the forum.

Sound Knowledge in Your Niche

Before you get your hands on forum submission, you must have sound knowledge and relevant information in your niche. This will help you gain reputation and you will come out as an authority in your relevant field.

Pick Relevant Forum

You must do your homework before you start posting on the forum. Pick the forum that falls under your niche. If your blog is about technology, you can't select forum on health and fitness niche and paste your blog link. This will affect your blog credibility and reputation.

• Every forum administrator comes with certain rules and regulations that you must follow if you want to remain in the forum for building a long-lasting relationship. Posting irrelevant information and spamming can ultimately result in the termination of your account.

Keyword Selection

The words you choose for the forum posting have a large impact on overall blog SEO that ultimately effects page ranking. You need to pay special heed while you pick words for forum posting.

• If you choose relevant keywords, it will help search engines pointing towards your post when some visitors search for the specific solution and if your keywords resonate with the problems visitors are facing, it will help them find your post quickly.

Don't Copy Content

You can't copy someone else's content and post it on the forum. Almost all of the forums follow some rules and take strict measures when it comes to posting copied data.

• If you post copied data, it will severely affect the reputation of your blog or business you are running and you will get blocked by the forum administrator immediately.

Avoid Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is not allowed in forum submission. You must give some value to the visitors with some relevant information and provide a quick solution to the problem visitors are discussing before you submit your link on the forum.

• Direct marketing is not the feature forums are made for. The basic purpose of a forum is to engage different members of the same field together so they discuss different topics and provide useful information that helps visitors solve their problems.

Forum Posting vs Content Rich Articles

If we compare between forum posting and content-rich articles, definitely articles come with more value and bring more traffic to blog, but, this doesn't underestimate the value of forum posting.

• Articles are lengthy and have an ability to cover more keywords, but forum posting is equally important when it comes to generating blog traffic. When forum post deals with the specific problem and makes around certain keywords, it helps your blog appearing on the top of search engines.

Importance of Forum Posting in SEO

ONE. You can build a connection and make a rapport with other members inside the forum. It will help boost your reputation and indicate you are expert in a specific niche. You can take actively in the discussions and give relevant solutions to the visitors. And you can follow the thread or introduce new thread that has not been published yet. TWO. Some bloggers use forum once in a while and get away with it. This is not a right approach. Your reputation and authority depend on how actively you take part in the discussions and the number of visits per day. You need to keep updating your forum profile with regular interval of time if you to grow and flourish like a brand. THREE. In the forum posting, no one gives attention unless your information and knowledge resonate with their needs and demands. Before you post your link on the forum, make sure you address the specific problem and provide a relevant solution. This is called indirect marketing where you solve visitors' problems before you put your blog link. This will indicate you are more concerned with solving their problems rather than achieving financial goals. FOUR. If you want your blog traffic takes a boost in the start, you must take part in the forums. This will help visitors aware of what your blog is about and they keep coming back for what you have to offer. If topics and issues you discuss on your blog, touch the problems visitors are facing, they will keep coming every now and then. FIVE. Some forums allow you to post your signature on them. A signature is a number of blog links you put on a forum under the post that comes with useful information. This process activates once you are done posting a certain number of posts required for the forum. Signature helps you get more than one backlink at a time for a single post. That's all for today. I hope you have got enough information related to forum posting. In the next article, we discuss Guest Posting which is essential for backlinking. You are welcome to ask any question in case you are feeling skeptical or have any confusion related to this topic. I'd love to help you according to the best of my expertise. Feel free to keep us updated with your suggestions, they help us provide you quality work. Thanks for reading the article. Stay Tuned!

What is Backlink And Its Importance For Effective SEO

Hi Friends! Hope you are doing great. Today, I am going to unlock the details on the Introduction to Backlink and why it is important for effective SEO? This is the eighth article of complete SEO series. You can check my previous article on Internal Linking where I have highlighted the ways to do it effectively. When you are new to blogging, especially when you start from scratch, you must be aware of some terms that help you grow your blogging journey skyrocket without spending much time and money. Proper SEO is an integral part of your blog for achieving good results with the intention of making your blog appear on the top of search engines. This is not a one night process, you must work hard with consistency in order to make your online journey gets off the ground. Also, hard work is important as long as you are doing it smartly. If you browse the internet and look deeply, you'll come to know there are already thousands of blogs out there but only a few of them are running successfully, Why? Blogs who fail to make reputation definitely are missing some important points that successful blogs are following. You can also check complete guide of SEO Tutorials where you can find all posts relating to On Page and Off Page SEO in one page.

What is Backlink?

Backlink is the link you get from other sites that are linking back to your site. In other words, you put your site link of any of your posts to other sites. It comes with a lot of importance to show authority and online presence of your site.

• Creating quality content tops the list when it comes to requirements for sites accepting your post.

Backlinks from other sites work like a voting system, but it is not identical to a democratic system where a number of vote counts. In the field of blogging vote does count, but who is voting you indicates more value. Backlinking falls under the Off Page SEO category which is equally important as an on-page SEO. You can't ignore any of them to get higher position in the search engines. An On Page SEO is totally in your control, but there are factors that are related to Off Page SEO and somehow in your control, provided you have fulfilled all the basic requirements needed for appearing your blog on the top of search results.

• In terms of Off Page SEO, you have to depend on other sites for getting a backlink. But point is, why someone refers you if you don't give value or necessary solution to their visitors. There are some protocols and measures you must follow in order to make your blog prominent and valuable that other sites don't feel hesitation sharing your data on their platforms.

Anchor Text

Words you choose to put your backlink in it is called anchor text. And it will be highlighted as blue so it gives a clear idea to the visitor this text is not identical to the regular text of the post and holds some value as it comes with a hidden link back to the other sites.

• Search engines anticipate and rank your post based on the words you use in anchor text. If same anchor text with backlink embedded in it is recommended by a number of sites, this makes a search engine think, you're expert in this niche and can give value to the visitors with your expertise and knowledge and search engines try to bring that post on the top of search results. This holds true for everyone who gets a number of backlinks with same anchor text on it.
• Also, it is unlikely that all sites who accept guest post allow you to add same text for anchor text every time. You can also pick different anchor text for the same link in order to give your link a diverse nature.
• Make sure, the words you choose for anchor text resonate with the context of the post and sounds natural within the article.

Link Juice

Link juice is a widely used term in SEO which is referred as a quality or authority that passes to your blog based on the backlink you get from other sites.

• Suppose, there is a site X that link back to your site Y, then link juice will flow from X to Y which helps search engines identify and anticipate, your data comes with a lot of importance and value, so they help you rank higher on the search results.
• The more amount of link juice you soak up from top quality sites, the more your blog will capable of appearing on the top of search engines.

Quantity vs Quality

The more trustworthy and authoritative sites link to your sites, the more value your blog gets in the eyes of search engines. Also, not all backlinks come with equal importance. It is not about the quantity of the backlinks but the quality of links that you get from the well-known sites. Getting only one quality backlink from the trustworthy site is better than getting a number of backlinks from low-quality sites.

Getting Backlink From Random Site vs Backlink From Brands

It is better to get a backlink from the sites that fall under your blog niche. Getting backlinks from any random sites would bring less value to your blog as compared to getting backlinks from sites that fall under your niche.

• Still, if you are interested to get a backlink from sites that don't fall under your blog niche, you can get them from brand names like HuffingtonPost or Forbes. Google will still value your blog if you get a backlink from brands even if your blog doesn't fall under their category. But this is good for brand names only. You can't get backlinks from any random sites and still hope to get top position on the search results.

How Search Engines Rank Based On Backlink

If we go back to history a while ago, when appearing on the top of a search engine was quite easy and everyone could do it without getting help from experts. And search engines bots were not too intelligent at that time, and they would prefer the data that came with a large number of backlinks without taking into account if backlinks were from low-quality websites or high-quality websites.

• At that times, it was very easy to fool the bots, by just commenting on the other blogs and getting backlinks in return. This made Google think, they should introduce an algorithm that gives importance to the data that is most relevant to the visitors and helps them solve their questions and queries instead of helping low-quality blogs to appear on the top of search engines.

Now, search engines are smart enough to differentiate between the low quality and high-quality backlinks. Ranking your site by directory submission or using other old conventional methods are becoming obsolete. Search engines are more intelligent than before, now they can easily censor the sites that are spamming the search results by getting backlinks from fake strategies that are abandoned.

• Search engines automatically give value and prefer your blog as long as they come to know, most of the top quality sites are pointing towards your blog. This will help Google identify, your data must be relevant and most valuable for the visitors as compared to the ones that are not recommended by any quality site.

Importance of Social Media in Backlinking

There are many factors affecting your overall SEO strategies where backlinking still comes first. Social media plays an important role in creating backlink for your blog. You can share your data on the social media platforms that come with a large number of audience.

• Avoid spamming if you want bots don't mark and identify your site as low quality who tries to rank higher from backdoors using fake techniques.

Blog Commenting

Commenting on blogs and getting quality backlink is becoming obsolete. As they will give you no-follow link that brings no or little value to blog.

• However, there are some blogs from which getting even no-follow link would come with more value, but these blogs follow strict protocols and getting a no-follow link is not easy unless you are done commenting number of times on their blog with useful information that helps solve the relevant issues of the visitors.

Types of Backlinks

If you are new to backlinking, you may come across terms like no-follow and do-follow links, making you confuse at first place. Let's describe the main difference between them.

DoFollow Link

DoFollow link is considered as a vote or authority by other sites that help in passing the link juice to your site, boost the page rank and help search engines identify your blog as an authority by appearing it on the top of search results.

• All hyperlinks are DoFollow by default, you don't need to do any modification to make them do follow.

NoFollow Link

NoFollow link is referred as a vote that comes with no value, gives no authority to your blog, and doesn't help your blog rank higher on the search engines. It is like a point that just exists and indicates nothing. It just makes other visitors aware of your online presence without helping your ranking on the search engines. NoFollow link can be generated with the help of no-follow link HTML tag like this: <a href= "https://www.theengineeringprojects.com/" rel=”nofollow”>Link Text</a>

• NoFollow link doesn't pass link juice and is effective for humans only and holds no value for search engine ranking.

However, it doesn't indicate you pay no attention in getting a no-follow link. Something is better than nothing. Some sites only allow a no-follow link that takes no part for page ranking but it still can be effective in bringing more visitors to your blog.

• And if you are running a business, it is likely someone comes to your site following a no-follow link and buy something. The no-follow link doesn't help in page ranking but it still can help boost both revenue and blog traffic.

Tips and Techniques to Get Quality Backlinks

There are a number of ways to get quality backlinks, but some prove to be more beneficial than others and bring more value to your blog without much effort.

• Produce quality content that resonates with the demands and needs of the visitors
• Keep working to improve the quality and popularity of your brand. The more you invest in to advertise your blog, the more you come with the possibility of getting a backlink. However, in the start, don't invest too much on paid advertising, instead work and keep learning on improving SEO skills, that bring more organic traffic on your blog without paying a single penny.
• You can approach the influencer and ask for a backlink. Be sure, your content comes with top quality that helps visitors solve their questions and queries. If your content brings some quality, influencers won't mind sharing your content on their platform.
• Submit your blog to relevant directories. This is an old method but still effective in some cases.
• Follow different forums related to your niche and help their visitors with your knowledge and expertise. Don't put your link straight away on the forum. First, build a rapport with the visitors, help them solve their queries, so they feel you are more concerned about solving their problems rather than getting a backlink for your blog.
• Guest posting is another effective way to get a backlink. You can approach the bloggers and ask them for guest posting. The best way is to evaluate, examine and look for the data that is missing on their sites. You can help them provide the missing data. In this way, they will get free content, providing you top quality backlink in return.

That's all for today. I hope you have got a clear idea about backlink and its importance in good SEO for higher page ranking. In the next article, we will be covering Forum Submissions which plays a vital role to built backlinks. You can approach me in the comment section below if you have any question related to backlinking. I'd love to help you based on my best of my expertise and knowledge. Feel free to shoot us your valuable suggestions, they help us provide you a quality work. Thanks for reading the article. Stay Tuned!

Introduction to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Hi Guys! We welcome you on board. Today, I am going to elaborate the details on the Introduction SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and why it is important for your blog, especially for the engineers and students who intend to start their own blog and website to showcase their skills with an online presence. This is my first article covering SEO series where I aim to continue and complete all the tips and techniques required to make SEO work and stand out. It is observed, most of the engineers who are fond of making their own blogs start their journey quite well, but with the passage of time, they find it quite difficult to maintain the online presence too long, because they lack SEO skills to make their blog available on the top of search engine results. As a result, most of the students give up in the early stage of their online journey. That's the reason today I choose this topic, so you get enough knowledge about how you can rank higher on the search engines. Let's get started.

Introduction to SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a set of tips and tricks used to rank your blog higher on the search engines. This process will help you retain and gain a number of visitors on your blog. All search engines work efficiently and strive to offer more relevant data to their users. If your data resonates with the needs and requirements of the users, followed by certain rules and regulations recommended by search engines, you'll come with a higher chance of appearing on the top of search results. There are three search engines that are mostly used for bringing visitors to your site called Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Most of the traffic you get from these search engine called organic (unpaid) traffic which you get by following the general rules of SEO without paying a single penny. Now internet technology has been evolved over the time and main search engines like Google and Bing have made major changes in their algorithms so websites and blogs with most relevant and useful information come forward on the search engines when someone looks for specific information. I have come across a number of emails and comments from visitors around the world asking how do we maintain our site and rank higher in search engines? And what are the main SEO techniques and tips we follow for providing the most relevant information to our visitors? Before I elaborate the main SEO tips, you should have a clear idea why do you need good SEO for your site?

Why Do You Need SEO?

In the early stage of the internet, blogs and websites didn't require much SEO techniques because there was a fewer number of websites available at that time. Now, almost millions of websites are available on the internet and only those survive that come with better SEO. Most of the students and engineers come with very good software skills that help them make good responsive blog design but still unable to get organic traffic on their blog. The reason is quite clear. They waste enough time making good website design that makes them forget giving required attention for SEO that plays a vital part in bringing organic traffic on the blog. Good website design will be of no use if no one comes to see your website. Making good website design and posting quality content is beneficial as long as you are paying equal attention to the SEO of your website. Search Engines come with intelligent bots which crawl and identify the pages that are most suitable and relevant for the users. No matter how much quality content you have written, if the content doesn't resonate with the requirement of the visitors and the keywords they are using for specific information, your content won't appear on the top of search results. A golden rule of thumb is, create a content that is beneficial for both search engines and visitors; ignoring any of those can severely affect your blog traffic.

SEO is easy? Can I do it by Myself?

For some people, an idea of doing SEO for the blog looks quite intimidating that scares the hell out of them. They think only professionals, with lots of hard work and experience, can do SEO; however, this is not true. Without prior experience, you can start learning and get the experience right away. But keep one thing in mind, this is not a process that you can do one time and get away with it; it requires tweaks and modifications with regular intervals as your blog grows with the passage of time. There are only a few rules and regulations, which if you follow, can put you ahead from others and help you rank higher in the search engines. Also, it is possible, some SEO tips that deem beneficial for others may not work for you. However, it is a matter of hard work and customization of your blog with different SEO methods, so stick with the ones that turn out to be good for your blog.

Types of SEO

There are three types of SEO techniques frequently used by most of the bloggers. Some are beneficial and highly recommended by the search engines and some give quick results but prove to be ineffective in the long run and come with limitations and drawbacks. Let's discuss one by one.

1. White Hat SEO

White Hat SEO is referred as tips and techniques used to rank your blog higher in the search results, without breaking any rule of the search engines. These tips are beneficial when you focus on achieving a long-lasting position on the search results, without ignoring visitors and search engine requirements. These techniques include proper keyword research, link building, backlinking, title and meta description that include focus keyword, SMO marketing, branding, producing quality content, keep uploading fresh content, tweaking already produced content that resonates with recent visitors and many more. White hat SEO is highly recommended by most of the bloggers because it will set you free from getting blocked by the search engines.

2. Grey Hat SEO

As the name suggests, Grey Hat SEO is referred as the SEO strategies that lie somewhere between white hat SEO and black hat SEO and are equally effective in making your blog go higher in the search results. Applying grey hat SEO can be considered as techniques in which you are not 100% sure if you get the desired result but still you keep applying these techniques until some work for you. Grey hat SEO includes link buying, duplicate content, purchasing old domains and many more.

3. Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO is considered as the tips and techniques used to increase organic traffic on your blog and are illegal and break rules recommended by search engines. These tips will rank you higher for short period of time, provided you don't get noticed by the search engine. In order words, these are the shortcuts that help you go higher in the search engines from backdoors. Applying black hat SEO can put your site at huge risk because the moment search engines get to know you are breaking their rules, you'll get banned immediately. These techniques include keyword stuffing, doorway pages, hidden text, spam blog, unrelated keywords, fake link building.

Types of White Hat SEO

SEO is divided into further two types on the basis of functionality. A. On Page SEO B. Off Page SEO Let's discuss one by one.

A. On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO stands for tips and strategies that are completely in your control while you are producing content and preparing it for a search engine. There are many factors that widely impact your page in order to make it appear higher in the search engines.

1. Domain

Domain name plays a vital role in SEO strategies. If your domain name resonates with the specific keyword and the service you are providing, you come with a higher chance of appearing on the top of search results. Suppose, your service is related to cricket or football, then domain containing cricket or football in their names will have a higher chance of appearing on the search engines as compared to those lacking these words.

2. Title

The title you pick for your post must contain your focus keyword. Search engines come with automatic bots. Making your title stuffed with focus keyword will make it easy for bots crawling and picking your page without much effort. And the title length must not exceed from 60 characters for better SEO. It is shown as a blue link when you search for any information.

3. Meta Description

Meta description is the little summary about your blog post. It should highlight the main points of the post and range from 160 to 320 characters. Writing more than 320 characters will automatically get cut off from the description. Focus keyword must appear in the meta description. Meta description helps in increasing your CTR (click through rate) and you will get a higher chance of appearing in SERP (search engine results page).

4. Headings

Picking the right headings with the focus keyword can affect your SEO strategies. Page comes with many headings including H1, H2, H3 and so on with H1 is the main heading. H1 heading comes with a bigger font size that decreases gradually as we move from h2 to h3 to h4 and so on. For example: <h1>Introduction to SEO</h1> <h2>Why we need SEO</h2> <h3>Types of SEO</h3> You can choose one heading H1 as your main heading and as many h2, h3 and h4 as required. The headings you used for your page must contain a focus keyword that resonates with the overall content of the page.

5. Keywords

Picking the most suitable keywords is very important to bring more visitors to your blog. Google Keyword Planner is a great tool to manage your keywords in your blog post. Keyword density is equally important for your SEO. It is recommended, you maintain keyword density up to 1%. Suppose, your blog post is 1000 words in length, then focus keyword must appear 10 times in your blog post.

6. Alt Text

Alt text is very necessary when you add an image in your post. This alt tag tells the search engine bots what your image is about. This is the only way bots come to know information about your images otherwise simple image without alt text gives no meaning to the image and bot cannot interpret what image is all about. And when you upload the image, try to embed as many keywords as possible related to the post in the alt text. Suppose, this article is about "Introduction to SEO", so related alt text would be like this i.e. Introduction to SEO, Intro to SEO, Introduction to Search Engine Optimization, Types of SEO, Types of Search Engine Optimization, Why do we need SEO. Add many alt tags as possible with focus keyword in it. Also, the name you give while saving the image must be relevant to the topic. Suppose, the image you save for this article should be "Introduction to SEO.jpg" instead "image1.jpg"

7. URL Structure

Blog Post URL is another important factor that can affect your SEO strategies. Big and messy URLs have less chance of being identified and indexed by the search engines. Your URL structure must be relevant to the topic and not too long. Shorter URLs have more chance of going higher in the search engine results. Avoid characters like $,%*& or underscore in the URL, instead search engine prefer dash - sign in case you are agreed to add sign anyway. Number and characters are preferred by search engines to add in the URL structure. Whatever URL you prefer to set for your post, it must be relevant to the topic and gives a clear hint of what your topic is all about.

8. Internal Linking

Internal Linking is very important to decrease the bounce rate of the website. Bounce rate is defined as the number of visitors who visit your site and leave immediately after spending some time on your site. By doing internal linking, visitors who are reading your recent post may find something beneficial in the posts you link to, in your article. Keep one thing in mind while linking other posts, they must sound fit and resonate with the topic of the article. Avoid linking to those posts that are entirely on the different topic from the one you are writing.

B. Off-Page SEO

Doing better On Page SEO means half work done for making your blog go higher in the search engines. Your blog authority has a lot to do with Off Page SEO. What On Page SEO does for preparing your blog for search engines, Off Page SEO will do it for SERP.

1. Creating a Sitemap

Creating a sitemap for your blog is very important. Search engines bots won't be aware of your online presence unless you create sitemaps. Every search engine comes with their own webmaster tool for creating sitemaps. Like Bing and Google have their own webmaster tools. While Yahoo uses Bing webmaster tool. However, you can also use a third-party tool to create a sitemap for your blog. These sites maps are like road maps that give directions to the google bots where your web pages are located. Each sitemap contains a total number of links to your blog.

2. Back Links

Backlinks play a vital role in your Off Page SEO strategies. The more high authority and trustworthy sites are linking back to you, the higher the chance of your web page appearing on the search result. It is like a voting system but a little bit different from the democratic system. Getting only one backlink from a trustworthy, high authority site is way better than getting a number of backlinks from low authority sites. Best way to get a backlink from trustworthy sites is creating a high quality and relevant content so other sites feel no hesitation sharing your content on their platform.

3. Guest Posting

Guest posting is another effective way to increase your online presence and make your content available to as many visitors as possible. There are a number of sites that are open to guest posting. You can approach them and ask them for a guesting posting about the topic that is missing on their blog. In this way, they'll get free written content and you'll get a high-quality backlink in return. Make sure, the blog you choose for guest posting is highly relevant and fall under your blog niche.

4. SMO

SMO (Social media optimization) is very important and widely impact your SEO strategies. Social media engagement will help you create a brand name for your business. If you are highly active on social media, follow up regularly and discuss the problems your visitors are facing, you will come up with a higher chance of being identified by the search engines that give value and keep an eye on the content that is widely discussed on the social media platforms.

5. Forum Submission

Forum submission is another important factor that falls under Off Page SEO and helps getting more backlinks. Take an active participation in the forums that are related to your blog. Build a connection, make a rapport with the visitors, answer their questions and queries. In this way, they will get a hint that you are pretty nifty about your skills and have enough information about the topic they are discussing on the forum.

6. Directory Submission

Directory submission is one of the oldest ways, still effective, to bring traffic on your blog. Pick a relevant directory and submit your blog with useful information and blog link. This process takes time and gives result slowly but surely.

7. Question and Answer

Answering questions related to your blog is the best way to hijack a number of visitors. You can join the question and answer sites related to your blog and help the visitors solve their problems and queries. Don't just go and put your link on those websites. First, give value to the visitors by answering their questions then put your link on the site. This way visitors think you are more concerned about their problems than bringing traffic to your site.

8. Article Submission

Pick high-quality article submission directory related to your niche and submit your article. Make sure, the article you submit contains high-quality content that gives value to the visitors. Low-quality content may get rejected that ultimately effects the overall reputation of your blog. You can also check complete guide of SEO Tutorials on a single page where I have combined all the articles combining both On Page and Off SEO.

Conclusion

These are just the important points to put your blog higher in the search engines. Don't just rush to things and expect quick results. Apply these tips I have mentioned above one by one as you start your journey with SEO. You will definitely see a spike in your traffic as your blog grows and becomes older with the passage of time. Don't compare your progress with your competitors. What works for them may not work for you. Just keep trying a number of different SEO tips & and techniques and stick with the ones that prove suitable for you. Applying SEO tips is not one time process, you need to keep modifying and tweaking your SEO techniques because it may happen the techniques that are suitable recently may turn out to be ineffective in future. The more you are concerned with the problems visitors are facing and giving ultimate solutions to them, the more your blog will go higher in search engines. Don't just pick any random topic and make a blog post on it. Do proper keyword research before writing a post. Produce a content that fulfills the requirements of both search engine and visitors. You can't ignore any of them to really get off the ground your blogging journey. Getting top position in the search results is not one night stand, you need to work hard consistently and efficiently if you really want search engines give value to your blog. And don't lose hope if things don't work out in the start, they will work, if not now, but eventually. We are targeting On Page SEO first, that is necessary and plays a vital role when you are creating a blog post. Our next article mainly focuses on how to create stunning Blog Post Titles. That's all for today. I hope you have enjoyed the article. However, if still you feel skeptical or have any question you can approach me in the comment section below. I'd love to help you based on best of my knowledge and expertise. Feel free to keep us updated with your feedback and suggestions, they help us provide you quality work. Thanks for reading the article. Stay Tuned!