Well-researched and insightful websites amount to nothing if you can’t reach the audience you intend them for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) indicates the key aspects that can increase your website ranking and traffic. While you might inculcate all the best SEO practices in your website content, you need a way to measure the same.
Having set benchmarks and understanding how to measure your success in terms of SEO is extremely important. Whether you measure the success of your website or clients, this is the most important aspect. Everyone likes seeing tangible results, but due to the nuances and technical nature of SEO, it can get difficult to see the result transparently.
For this reason, you must have a thorough knowledge of key performance indicators and calculators that give insight into your approach. This can even help you tweak your method to suit your website and personalize your approach with SEO. Without further ado, let us discuss some of the most effective ways to measure results.
KPIs, Benchmarking and Reports
When you use search engine optimization techniques, you, your team, and the client are putting in a lot of time, money, and effort into tactics that help the website increase its ranking. Key Performance Indicators or KPIs measure the success or failure of these tactics so that you know if you are getting your money’s worth.
Now to measure success, you need to set up a certain benchmark. You can measure the KPI before you begin your optimization.
Set this as a benchmark from which you can measure success after a certain period of optimization (for example, three months). This gives you a tangible measure of your practices and allows you to show your client that they’re getting their money’s worth.
Setting up benchmarks, having consistent reports with updates to your approach and set KPI’s can take your practice to the next level. However, this also means that you must know which KPI is useful and points to the true measure of growth. Read on to get an insight into the same.
Which KPI’s can you track?
Today, there are multiple approaches that you can use to measure the success of your optimization techniques. With more than 100 measures of success, it is difficult to figure out exactly what shows true growth and which KPI you must focus on reporting.
Page-level reporting with a focus on certain KPI’s can give you a more in-depth and holistic approach than pinpointing on one measure. Discussing your clients’ needs and including those points in your report is also equally important. Aside from those, here are some of the most important KPIs that help you measure your SEO success.
Conversion
Most websites focus on lead generation or sales made as to the end goal for success. Conversion is the first step towards succeeding in that goal. You can measure individual page conversion by setting up goals on your dashboard and looking for the conversion rate through certain actions.
For example, signing up for a newsletter or opting in for email updates is an action that is considered a conversion.
Traffic
Measuring the organic traffic directly points to your ranking and site visibility. If you have a relatively larger audience streaming onto your website, it means that your page probably has one of the top rankings. While many individuals prefer to track keywords to measure the site visibility, the traffic received gives a broader perspective for the same.
Impressions
Impressions simply point out the visibility of your brand. If an ad for your website is seen, it counts as an impression regardless of if the viewer interacts with it. Impressions point towards brand awareness and help you keep a check on the ROI for campaigns. However, your conversion rate must grow along with impressions for a successful campaign.
CTR
The click-through rate or CTR measures the success of your impressions. If you see an amazon advertisement and decide to add it to your saved videos, amazon records this as a click-through and adds it to the total percentage. The CTR is a great calculator for audience engagement and interest.
Setting up a dashboard
Many tools help you analyze, compare, and consolidate your data into a report for the client or to measure your optimization techniques.
The most used of these is the Google Data Studio. This is one of the primary tools used to measure all SEO data. It is also extremely compatible with Google AdWords, Console, and Analytics. The console gives you all information regarding keyword performance, whereas analytics measures the website’s engagement, conversions, and visitors over time.
If you want to use something that works well with advanced connections that are not google, you can also make use of Supermetrics. This tool is similar to the data studio and even syncs with it. It allows you to gain access to the google studio and other third parties, non-google tools all in one place.
Here are some of the key points to remember when setting up a dashboard that will help consolidate a report:
• Make sure that you include your benchmark, a short term period such as a month, and a long term period such as 3-6 months. This gives a more accurate understanding of growth through comparison.
• Visual representation through graphs and displays of trends is important when setting up the dashboard. You can even include these in your report for a clear representation.
• You will want to include a breakdown of the KPI’s for the entire website as well as the target pages. The KPI’s and the target pages should be discussed with the client before the optimization.
How long does it take to win keywords?
One of the most common questions that clients and SEO professionals have is to know how long it’ll take to win keywords. This means the duration that the keyword takes to rank number 1 or reach the goal you set for it.
With the changing landscape of the way we search and usage of simplified language through Siri and Google Now, it’s a lot more difficult to track down keywords in the first place.
There is no definite answer that you can give when it takes to winning keywords as the entire process is complex. Many factors come into play when you talk about keyword ranking. Due to this, when asked how long it takes, your usual answer will be vague. Here are two methods that you can use to get a more definitive answer to this question.
Understanding the variables will help you when it’s time to build a team and think about your budgets, too.
Calculation by Amount of Competition
You can calculate the amount of competition and the strength of competition for a particular keyword to see how fast you can climb up to a prime spot. This gives you a fair estimate of the difficulty of winning that particular keyword ranking.
To guess the strength of the competition of the target keywords, you can make use of tools such as Moz Difficulty. These tools give you an estimate in the percentage of how strong the competition of the keyword is. If the strength is somewhere near 30%, you can estimate around 2-3 months to win the keyword. Similarly, adding a month for every bump in percentage increases the number of months you take to win a keyword.
To check the amount of competition you have and hence the duration, you can make use of Majestic T&A. This tool allows you to measure the number of pages that the keyword turns upon in both the title and the backlinks. This shows the real measure of the competition you have. Each time the competition increases, you can add a month to the time it’ll take to win the keyword.
For example, under 30 would include no months added, but from 30-100, you will add a month, and from 100-200, you will add two months. When you add the months for both Moz and Majestic, you can get an estimate on the duration.
Keep in mind that keywords taking longer than 12 months are often more effort than they are worth. Furthermore, if you use the silos approach of long-tail phrases, you should achieve success for them faster than your primary keywords.
Calculation by Backlinking Domains
Google and other search engines consider backlinks, especially from established websites, as a vote of confidence. Due to this, backlinks have a huge effect on the ranking of your keywords and the website itself. You can review the backlinks created through URLs and referral domains for a competitor website using similar keywords.
This gives you a goal that you must achieve and an estimate on how many backlinks you may need to do so. If you build three backlinks a month, this divides your work according to content and the links themselves.
You leave a month to come with SEO friendly content with keywords that contribute to the ranking factor, and three months for building the links. This puts your total to at least 5-6 months if you have a month to work with unseemly circumstances that push the deadline forward. This is the average amount of time you take for top rank and to win keywords as well.
How do I estimate the Return On Interest (ROI)?
When you look towards SEO and invest in tactics that rank your website higher on search, it is to achieve a certain goal. For some organizations, this may be to simply get the word out about their brand and to increase brand awareness. However, for most websites, spending money on optimization means that you must get some kind of Return on Investment.
Now this ROI can include an increase in conversions or an increase in sales, but the result needs to be tangible. It also needs to justify the money that the clients or you are putting into getting these results.
Measuring the ROI can help you as it shows that a substantial effort was made that acquired satisfactory results. This justifies your contract and even attracts quality customers with higher pay. Here are some of the metrics that you must pay attention to when looking to estimate the ROI.
Real Search Volume
The real search volume is essentially the impressions divided by the impression share. The best way to calculate the same is to check the keywords in Google AdWords and get an exact number for your query.
If you do not have access to AdWords for any reason, you can use an alternate solution. This includes doing a broad search for your term that gives you keyword suggestions. These suggestions are your secondary keyword cluster and can give you general sensing of your search volume.
CTR by Rank Position
The CTR or Click Through Rate for a particular position is determined from data gathered from Google Search Console and Industry Averages. This helps you get an idea of the CTR you receive if you are at a certain ranking or position on the search.
If you take both the CTR and the search volume, it helps you get an idea of what course of action will give you the estimated returns you require.
Conversion Rate and Lifetime Value
The conversion rate and lifetime value are estimates that you can get from the client. The conversion rate is generally set against a certain benchmark goal that every website has access to from the Console. The lifetime value of a customer is the amount that the customer has contributed to the website. This contribution occurs through their interaction with the brand.
If you or your client doesn’t have access to either or haven’t set it up, it’s important to do so before moving forward. Lifetime value is lower for goods that are precious or other luxury services. So, you must measure this metric in your ROI only if it matches the website goal for its customers.
Calculating all these metrics together by multiplying them gives you a very realistic estimate of the value your optimization practices bring to the website. This is a great way to gain trust and make client acquisition easier.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
On-page search engine optimization especially focuses on getting traffic to your website. At the same time, it also increases the ranking in various search engines. While this has little to do with the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), it is important to understand the term for a more successful approach.
CRO deals with getting the traffic generated through SEO to interact with the website. This could mean something as simple as clicking a backlink to route to the website or adding items to the cart or writing a comment. There are several types of CRO, all of which are set up as goals and are easily measured using the Google Suite.
CRO for CTR
As discussed above, CTR or Click Through Rate is a way to measure the return on investment of SEO. However, using CTR by rank position is also a type of conversion rate optimization. You can guess the click-through rate by rank, and the pages or keywords that are underperforming can then be optimized.
The title and descriptions of the underperforming pages and keywords found from the CTR are updated or replaced to improve the conversion. This is an easy approach to CRO but still very effective in getting the required outcome.
Tell Visitors How to Covert
While this may seem like an obvious statement, many websites fail to practice this, which automatically leads to a loss of traffic generated through SEO. Telling visitors how to convert can include something as simple as having interactive buttons that are a call to action.
Furthermore, you mustn’t include only one feature. You must remember the sales cycle that explains how every visitor that comes to your website has different motives. This means that they may need different levels of persuasion.
Some may require new information, whereas others may require assistance through chat boxes or contact information. Others may even directly buy the product or service. Ensure that all of these actions are available on the page. Visitors shouldn’t need to scroll a lot or look for the same. This is a great solution to produce a higher CRO.
CRO Tests
As an SEO professional, it is important to constantly test and upgrade your website. Testing allows you to understand what you can do that can make the page better. Even if it’s not an SEO tactic, making slight changes in the website can greatly increase your CRO.
Tracking through AdWords or Analytics and then analysing and planning a simple approach to the factor is a must. Factors such as the call to action, forms, layout, taglines and headlines, navigation, or even the readability can be tested and optimized.
Once you complete these steps, you can test the factors on your page. Begin with an A/B testing approach to understand if the up-gradation works for your website. To confirm your hypothesis, you can also make use of the A/A test. If your results are satisfactory, you would’ve increased your CRO with a simple tweak in your website.
Using The Right SEO Tools, Finding CTR, And More On Keyword Research
Contents
Most brands are still finding the solution to how they can bring traffic on their websites. You might be unable to do so even after designing the most informative and appealing websites. Here is where SEO or Search Engine Optimization comes handy.
SEO can be chiefly broken down into several components. These include helping your website improve its ranking, bringing organic traffic to your website, and much more. Thus, understanding different factors of what your SEO Page should look like is vital.
Knowing exactly what to incorporate into your SEO webpage can give you an edge over your potential clients. Furthermore, If you plan to utilize a content strategy for your team, these factors can help you distinguish them. In this module, you will get illustrative insights into how you can design your SEO page.
Advanced Outlines And New Factors
In brief, over four standard factors account for the Search Engine. These are the very deciding factors of how your site can gain extensive traffic. Understanding these factors can help you determine how you can improve your SEO page.
This module is entirely based on a bit more complex elements apart from the very foundation of SEO. You will learn how to get a hold on much more efficient ways of building your SEO webpage.
Moreover, these elements can extensively benefit you and your time to expand your site as a whole. With these insights, you can train you and your team to build a remarkable SEO page.
Some of these factors are quite popularly known, while some of these have been discovered after meticulous research. On the bright note, these factors are enough for you to create your SEO page.
Page Structure and Tag Tools
If you aren’t already familiar with tag tools, these are the very elements of the page. These Tag tools are thus, found on the page structure. These tag tools can be anything between H1-H6 tag tools, anchor text, and much more.
Thus, these tag tools make up for the SEO pages are henceforth considered the very core component of a page itself. A very crucial factor of these tag tools is that it can help you create a page that Google wants.
Moreover, you can ever analyze how your competitive teams are standing out. For example, you can get a hold of how they are using the anchor texts. You can then determine if they are doing anything with their footers or with other such tag tools.
In a nutshell, they are an effective way of understanding what your team should utilize to increase your ranking. You can then outline your page exactly how Google wants to see it.
Every prospective client searches something specific. If you can need these needs, then you can turn them to potential clients. So, how can you do this? Well, altering your page based on Google and the user necessities can come handy.
Tag Totals And Hidden Factors
• Avoid being a tag outlier
• If you have a competitor average of 5 with over 20H2s, you might need to look into this element.
The Non-Existence Of A Factor
The Non Existence of a factor is primarily analyzed by Quora. We also found that this a top factor that correlates to gaining website traffic. Thus, in simple terms, determining the factors that your competitors make use of may benefit you.
One of the best ways of doing so is being mindful when it comes to finding the factors. Trust your instincts. If in case you see your competitors utilizing these factors, utilize them.
It’s better to have at least something that nothing at all, right? Thus, the best way by which you can create an efficient SEO page is to make use of different factors your competitors use. Elements like these can give you an upper hand over your competitors, you never know.
What Should An SEO Page Look Like?
Coming to the answer that most of you are looking for- What your SEO page should look like? The most fundamental basis of designing your SEO page is creating an outline.
This can start from creating your Title, adding the content below it, and so on. In brief, you should implement your SEO page with several relevant elements.
Furthermore, you need to ensure that your writers are well-aware of the H1, H2, H3, and further headings. Note that adding subheading can effectively help you make your content appealing.
You may further use different external links in your content. This can be done in a semantic manner. Such elements can help you boost your SEO page’s ranking as a whole.
Using (Mostly) Free Tools
Using the right tools for your SEO page can benefit you more than you know. However, most people are mind-boggled when it comes to utilizing the right tools. It might pique your interest that several SEO-oriented tools come free of cost.
Given below are a few of the most commonly used SEO Tools.
• Moz
• Majestic
• Copyscape
• Google Data Studio
• Keyword Planner
• Whitespark
• NTopic
• Bright Local
• Ahrefs
• Pro Rank Tracker
• Gmass
• Private Internet Access
• Cora
• Capsulink
• Smartsheets
• Gindexer
• Social Adr
• Page Optimization Pro
• Squid Proxies
• Visual Ping
• Drip Feed Links
About 75% of SEO tasks are done with a myriad of SEO tools. Premium and widely used SEO tools can help you in several ways. These include- to advance function ability, get on-call support, higher significantly limits, and even stored data.
While you can find a plethora of free tools, choosing the right ones for your SEO page is indispensable. While choosing the tools, you should frequently consider three components. These include- cost-free availability, vast usage of the tool, and offers noteworthy value, along with actionable data.
The above mentioned-tools are some of the best tools for SEO. However, understanding which of them might benefit your page is essential. Thus, if you’re under a budget, free tools can benefit you.
Tools for Word Count
Every time you write content for your SEO page, noting down the word count is essential. Calculating the word count of every SEO content on your SEO is quite beneficial.
That being said, different word counting tools count the content in different ways. Some of these include- raw count, clean count, and abridged count. Counting the overall numbers of an article is quite easy.
To chiefly calculate your word count, you should follow simple steps. All you need to do is select your entire text and paste it on the respective word count toolbox.
Tools for LSI
LSI tools are chiefly used for LSI keywords. LSI or Latent semantic indexing tools are the means to LSI keywords. LSI keywords, in a gist, are related keywords.
These keywords are factually those words that frequently reoccur in your content. For instance, if your content is based on the topic Apple, LSI keywords help you detect if or whether you’re writing on the fruit or the brand.
So, why exactly do we use LSI keywords? LSI keywords prominently improve your content’s accuracy. They help users understand your content faster and better.
Top free LSI tools
• Niche Laboratory
• Keys4up
• Semantic Link
• Keyword Tool
• KWFinder
• Answer The Public
Tools for Primary Keywords
Primary Keywords are chiefly used to create readable and well-organized content for your site. Furthermore, these keywords can further detect if your page can lure your target audience.
Before choosing the keyword for your content, analyzing the chief theme of your page is necessary. The search engines such as Google and Bing are fond of accurate and relevant content. Thus, take this to your benefit.
Coming to the keyword tools, these can fairly help you identify the right keywords for your content.
Top free keyword tools
• Google AdWords- Keyword Planner
• Google Correlate
• Keyword In
• Unersuggest
• Soovle
Using Adwords To Find Actual Search Terms
Google Ads, previously known as Google AdWords is a widely used tool for jotting down relevant keywords. These are the ultimate game-changer for the pay-per-click system. However, most people are unaware of how this tool works.
Most influential bloggers that earn through Adsense make use of Google AdWords. Google AdWords helps you find accurate keywords that you can incorporate into your content.
Nonetheless, choosing the right keywords can be quite a daunting struggle for many. Read ahead to know how you can use Google AdWords to your advantage.
Using Google Ads For SEO
One of the common mistakes most people make is they don’t take enough time to learn about the tool. Google AdWords offers a wide range of elements, starting from filters, segments, CTRs, CPCs, and much more.
Coming to filters, most people tend to overlook this component. You can filter out your requirements while searching for the right keywords. For instance, you can change the high-big value to whatever you please.
Elements like these can help you improve your chances of creating a robust social presence. Furthermore, the better your SEO rank, the better chances of you extending your client base.
Setting Up AdWords Campaigns For SEO Purposes: Fishing Campaigns
If you’ve already set up your AdWords, there’s a high likelihood that you may not have chosen the right words. Due to this, you may have a lot of broad match campaigns.
Lucky for you, you can undeniably bypass the work on identifying the most beneficial terms. You can then directly access the CTAs and attractors to simultaneously design your SEO page.
Thus, analyze this component and see to it that you avoid choosing the path of broad match campaigns.
Finding What People Are Actually Searching For: Search Terms Report
Search Term Reports, as the name suggests, are some frequent reports on keywords. These reports can thus help you analyze which terms different users are searching on the internet.
You must understand that regulating your SEO page means considering a very user-oriented approach. The function produces an entire list of the words and queries entered by users.
You can easily take this to your advantage to detect which keywords are broadly being discussed. Incorporating these keywords into your content can then help you improve your SEO score.
Simultaneously, this can then result in your website, gaining traffic as the users will click on your site’s ads.
You can look for search terms through a wide range of methods. One such instance is by selecting keywords while designing and regulating different campaigns.
Either way, ensure that you give your undivided attention to this element. It can be the basis for your site’s success.
Gleaning Data From Existing Campaigns
Another excellent tip that you should take note of is to glean data from existing campaigns. Gathering relevant information to effectively impact your site can help you lure your target audience significantly.
The existing campaigns can help you extract relevant information. Further, Google Ads play an imperative role in helping you understand your audience. To add on, you can even utilize keywords that convert into potential leads.
Gleaning data from existing campaigns is thus a good step of getting the upper hand on the real search volume. Users must do extensive research to create a strong SEO presence.
Bottom Line, these elements sum up how Google Ads can benefit your SEO page.
Using AdWords To Inform SEO Campaigns
Now that we know how effective AdWords is when it comes to improving your SEO score let’s learn more about it. AdWords is a remarkable tool for SEOs to leverage effectively luring organic traffic to their websites.
Another impressive benefit of AdWords is that you can use it to inform distinguishing SEO campaigns. So, how can you do this? Well, here is where CTA AdWords comes handy.
While Google AdWords may not offer you relevant information every possible time, it can be the start of your site’s efficiency.
AdWords For CTAs and SEO Copy
One of the most saddening and infuriating elements that content creators face is that they don’t revive enough clicks. Even if you create the most informative and engaging content, you might be missing out on something.
Thus, you can make use of AdWords for the call to action to boost your posts. Furthermore, you can do so by making your posts and content twice more engrossing. So, how can you do that? With AdWords, of course.
Getting people to click on your ads is undeniably the first step to achieving your call to action. AdWords can help you detect exactly the words people are searching for.
Creating user-oriented content is the key to excelling at SEO marketing. Thus, if you ensure meeting the necessities of your potential clients, you can boost your performance as a whole.
Note that generic words may not be doing you as many favors as you think. Most SEOs commonly make the mistake of utilizing generic words for the call to action. Avoid doing this.
Furthermore, plan a strategy. For instance, stick with fewer choices for more leads. There is no better way of progressing your SEO ranking than by sticking to minimal yet effective keywords.
Testing Calls to Action (CTAs)
It comes as no surprise that meticulously testing your call to action is essential before implementing it. Just like every other brand marketing strategy, you must plan out your calls to action thoroughly.
Get experimental with your website. You can start by trying out a different call to action techniques. Note that the CTA is an indispensable factor of every website.
It can set your objective straight to your users. Furthermore, it plays a crucial role in increasing your customer base and your company’s revenue as a whole.
Thus, CTAs pretty much are independent sources that can purely help you drive profit.
To convert your organic traffic into potential leads, CTA can be tremendously beneficial. Thus, finding the right keywords through Google AdWords can help you promote conversions.
Testing Copy And Design
Conceptualizing, coping, and then implementing your call to action is another crucially daunting factor. Once you are sure of the call of action you’d like to choose, implementing, it can be difficult.
For instance, you can choose any keywords and still fail to drive profit for your company.
Thus, designing meticulously tested calls to action can deliberately be the first step towards creating a core foundation for your SEO page.
Finding Actual CTR
If you aren’t already aware, CTR is nothing but click-through rate. In simple terms, CTR plays an effective role in improving PPC success. Nonetheless, finding actual CTR is something most SEOs are having a tough time dealing with.
To know how you can find actual CTR, understanding the very basis of CTRs is essential. Read ahead to know how you can utilize Click Through Rate for chiefly designing your SEO site.
Click-Through Rate
In the field of Internet Marketing or in this instance, SEO marketing, CTR has a very prominent role. Click-through rates are metrics that evaluate the overall clicks different advertisers receive. These clicks are based on the total amount of impressions.
That being said, accomplishing a top click-through rate can help you gain optimal PPC success. This is because CTRs entirely impact your SEO score. They further also impact the number of money users pay when they click on the ads.
If you’re wondering as to what you can do to get rid of the click-through rates that are holding you back, read ahead.
PPC click-through rate is the percentage of every individual who viewed your impressions. In brief, Click Through Rate= (Total Clicks on the Ad)/ (Total Impressions)
Finding True CTR Numbers/ CTR In Search Console
Google AdWords is one exquisite platform that offers pricing discounts for ads. This is only subject to those ads that offer significantly relevant content. The most focal reason for finding true CTR Numbers is to provide top-quality sources to different ads.
AdWords thus aims to help you achieve high-quality quotes with high click-through rates. Furthermore, you can even expand your ad position fo comparatively lower costs. Finding true CTR Numbers depends on several elements.
Some of them include- Targeted Keyword to bid on, cost-effective bids, and much more. Further, you can also find them through relevant tools and methodologies.
You can further also make use of the filter option within the Search Analytics tool of AdWords. Then, customize the filters accordingly, and you will be able to find true CTR Numbers.
(Source: Filter Option within Search Analytics)
Industry/ Niche Average CTR
The average CTR depends on different industrial sectors. There has been an increased and augmented technological growth as a whole. Due to this, every industry has taken a notch ahead to ensure sustaining in the marketplace.
Here are some of the most popular industries and their average CTRs-
Healthcare- 0.83%
• Education- 0.73%
• Apparel- 1.24%
• B2B- 0.78%
• Auto- 0.80%
• Fitness- 1.01%
• Employment and Job training- 0.47%
• Consumer services- 0.62%
• Beauty- 1.16%
• Technology- 1.04%
• Retail- 1.59%
Finding Underperforming Keywords
Improving and incorporating underperforming keywords in your content is necessary to transform potential leads. However, analyzing and choosing the right underperforming keywords can be difficult.
If you aren’t among a few of the top Google’s result pages, you may need to revise your strategy. Furthermore, if your users aren’t sharing, commenting, or even linking your content, you may need to re-evaluate your strategy.
That being said, underperforming keywords are the very basis of doing so.
According to a study, about 76% of traffic to the respective blogs comes via pls posts from a month or more before.
(Source- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/historical-blog-seo-conversion-optimization)
The best way to find underperforming keywords is to use AdWords. An AdWords script can come effectively handy for identifying underperforming keywords.
Using Correlation Data In SEO
Another extremely essential factor that can benefit SEOs is the rankings. It comes as no surprise that the higher your SEO rank, the more chances of increased performance.
Most people tend to undermine how prioritizing SEO alterations in regards to a site or link profile is vital. Getting a high rank might seem impossible to most people. However, with the right strategies, achieving a top rank is very well possible.
That being said, reading every possible correlation that you come across can be hazardous. While many correlations may be seemingly true, some may mislead you.
Correlation Data
Correlations come handy while determining your site’s SEO rank. SEO studies are entirely based on scattered plots. Search visits suggest that over 0.47% of factors of them are correlated with significantly higher rankings.
Correlation studies are now a sort of ritual when it comes to Google Search Results. The debate on if or whether they are reliable still continues. Most experts suggest that correlation studies may backfire your SEO strategy in the long run.
Finding The Factors That Are Moving The Needle
Here are some of the most popular factor, rather myths of correlation that may interest you.
• Correlation Doesn’t Help In Identifying which direction the connection runs.
• Correlation may not imply caution.
• Correlation doesn’t help in determining how successful our page is.
On the bright side, Cora is one such element that can help detect external factors. It further calculates correlation also data based on 500 potential ranking factors.
Summing up this factor, correlational data can help you build your SEO rank.
Google Algorithm Update Proof Your Site
Google Algorithms are a sort of complex system that is utilized to retrieve data. This data is retrieved from the search index and is then delivered to several noteworthy results for queries. Search Engine makes use of a myriad of algorithms and ranking signals for collectively delivering webpages ranked by relevance on the SERPs.
A few of the automatic updates rolled out by the search engine are known to affect SERPs. These include-
• Payday
• Hummingbird
• Fred
• RankBrain
• Panda
• Page Layout Lagoruthm
• Pigeon
• Intrusive Interstitals Update
Google Algorithm update proofing your site is essential as it can help your website stay updated and on point. Furthermore, different upgrades can substantially help you mitigate different complexities.
You will come across consistent google algorithm updates. Google thus helps you recognize if your site needs any fixing. Further, if it does, the updates can come handy.
Keyword Research
Coming to the very last subtopic of our module two, keyword research is the deliberate process of identifying words. These words are incorporated in different blogs and articles by companies.
These keywords are entirely based on search engine ranking. The more people search a certain keyword, the more its bid value. Keyword Research is an extremely necessary process that affects every other SEO task you deal with.
From Email outreach, on-page SEO, content topics, every SEO task is based on these keywords.
Benefits of keywords for SEO
• Helps build your SEO rank
The first and foremost benefit of Keywords is that it can help you build your SEO rank. Adhering to the popular keywords is directly incorporating user’s needs into your content. This can thus help benefit you.
• Helps you reach optimal efficiency
Further, you can consistently deliver an effective and efficient performance by utilizing keywords. This is because keywords can help bring recognition to your site.
• Build customer-user relationship
Furthermore, your content is discovered via your keywords. Thus, incorporating essential keywords into your SEO tasks can instantly lure your target audience.
Advanced Keyword Research Concepts
Advanced Keyword Research is based on a wide range of concepts. The very first element of finding advanced keywords is analyzing your topic.
Every topic may require relatively different keywords. For example, some of the topics might fall under blogging, content marketing, email marketing, social media, PPC, and much more.
Thus, you should start your advanced keyword research by understanding your topic. Then, you can make use of other essentials. For instance, AdWords offers search engine filter options. These filter options can help you distinguish the type of keywords you want based on your conditions.
You can distinguish different elements based on the bid range, type of keyword, targeted audience, and so on. You can also research your competitor sites to analyze their keyword usage strategy.
Lost Keywords
Lost or missing keywords are often quite hard to find. In this circumstance, you usually try discovering which keywords may drive traffic and what the overall result is. It can be from anything between conversions, any KPI, or even new traffic from keywords.
You can also potentially lose traffic due to this. To recover the lost keywords, you can make use of Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Steps to recover Lost Keywords
• Open Google Analytics. Go to the acquisition, overview, and then organic search. Simultaneously, choose the landing page located at the center of your screen. Choose the conversion item from the drop-down menu. You can then find the conversions you are looking for.
• Then choose the respective secondary dimension to the acquisition, then source.
• You will now see Google next to the respective pages. You can now filter accordingly.
• Choose the date ranges and set them accordingly.
• Now, go to Google Search Console and open pages through the performance tab.
• Choose the comparison of dates or date range accordingly.
Now, identify the page that shows increased conversions on Google Analytics and then find Google Search Console.
Next, click on the queries tab through the respective page.
You will now see a list of keywords and their dates of ranking.
Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword Cannibalization is defined as the ranking of your articles and blogs on Google’s search query column. Utilizing google may only showcase about 1 or 2 results from that individual domain. However, I’d you’re a top authority domain, you may get 3.
Bottom Line, Keyword Cannibalization can help you tremendously improve your SEO rank, along with simultaneously increasing your organic traffic.
On-page Search engine optimization is undeniably bound to encountering peak popularity in the near future. With the rapid expansion of technology, on-page SEO is an ideal way of boosting your website’s performance.
Whether you make use of keywords, CTAs, or other elements, utilizing different factors can benefit your website entirely.
That being said, you must ensure utilizing only the most relevant factors for your website. You can, this way, drive traffic and convert them to potential long-term leads.
Poking
The Search Engine Results Page or SERP is extremely important when understanding the website and its background. Taking the SERP into consideration helps you build a strategy that gets your website to rank up in lesser time than usual.
Poking is the act of testing factors quickly to check the difficulty of the SERP. If it is easier for the website to rank faster for a certain keyword, the SERP is soft. This means it is easily penetrable and hence, improves rank faster. Here are the two ways in which you can determine the nature of the SERP.
Video Poking
The video poking method uses a YouTube video to test the softness or squishiness of the keyword. For this method, you have to simply schedule a live event on YouTube. Ensure that you are scheduling the event and not going live.
Once you do this, test keyword in the title, description, and the tag and wait for 20-30 minutes. After this, you can search for the keyword on the search engine. If the scheduled video shows up anywhere till page 5, it means that you have found yourself a soft SERP. You can use this keyword to rank up your website faster.
Long Tail Poking
Long-tail poking includes the use of silo posts or long-tail phrases to check if certain keywords are working for you. These SERPs are also easier to penetrate. Since silo posts are not as optimized as target pages, they are relatively cheaper to launch for testing. You can use the keywords and launch a silo with results as early as one week.
To check for results, feed the post URL to the Google Search Console. If you see a gradual increase in the post’s ranking, then you have found a working keyword for you. The post should rank somewhere on page 5 or above for the SERP to be termed as soft. If the post is at nine or below in pages, you will have to change the keyword. Long-tail poking is also great for when you want to show tried and tested results to clients for keywords you wish to run on your target pages.
An important thing to note for both these methods is that poking is generally considered as spam. Since you are only using poking to test out pages and keywords, you are essentially spamming the search engine. Spam responsibly and don’t overdo the poking, and you can easily fly under Google’s radar without serious action.
Owning Page One
As a rule, search engines mostly feature only one result of a website on the first page. This rule is not broken unless the search is extremely specific, and even then, it is pretty rare. However, there are other ways through which you can dominate the first page in your industry and under certain search queries. Here are a few of these ways to get you started.
Your Brand
The easiest approach to owning the first page of a search query is for your brand. To check this, you can put in your brand name in the search query and see if you dominate the first page. Since the search is directly related to you, it should be easy for you to own this.
(Source: Google Search)
Some obvious checks are to see if you have a knowledge panel for your brand and website. Also, make sure that you check the first domain link that comes up for the query and ensures that it is yours. If either of these is amiss, then you may need to work on optimization and get them in their place. Check for backlinks or reviews from third party sites that turn up on this page. You may want to ensure that your brand has a good and clean presence on all of them.
AdWords For SERP Real Estate
Booking the first ad spot is one of how you can protect your brand. This practice helps you reduce the chances of a competitor brand showing up in the first spot of the query when someone is looking for your brand. AdWords are a cost-effective way to take up as much real estate on a SERP first page as possible.
This practice is even efficient for keywords that you are already dominating or have first-page ranking in. Making use of AdWords on such pages allows you to take up a competitor spot. If not, it can simply increase the chances of conversion.
Third-Party Sites
Third-party sites, especially the old SERPs, can help you increase traffic. Ranking web 2.0s in your niche or for a specific keyword can help you get to the first page. You can even displace the spot for another website on these places easily. Did you know that our niche edits can be pointed at third party sites like these, too?
(Source: Google Search)
While this practice is not as useful as the others, it has shown steady growth for some websites ranking. Making use of parasites, which are third-party websites that are ranking for keywords in your niche, is also helpful. You can ensure your place into these websites, it can help in owning page one. This is especially beneficial if you cannot beat these websites.
Google Features
Using the google features route is a tough way to fight for your spot on page one but is the most beneficial. Google features certain snippets for various keywords. These snippets are generally chosen from the top 5 listings for that SERP, and each of them has their requirement.
(Source: Google Search)
You can always look at the tags for the current snippet if you are hoping for that place and see the way their information is listed. This gives you insight into their backend and helps you optimize accordingly. For certain search terms, you will also see available carousels, though they are even more difficult to get than the snippet.
Multiple Domains
Getting multiple domains for a single website can mean that you might end up owning a large percentage of the first page. However, this approach takes a lot of effort. Even then, Google’s not more than two listings from one website feature may block your efforts.
However, multiple domains can rank for the same keyword. This increases the likeability of not only first-page dominance but also a spike in the CTR.
Additional Information
Here is some additional information on important aspects of on-page SEO. This information is more industry-specific but very useful to gain optimal knowledge of SEO practices.
Basic Silo For Ecommerce
Silo for e-commerce is not the same as for other websites, which are less tricky. Since e-commerce products tend to have pages filled with products more than anything, you need to find a way to optimize these.
One such way is to ensure that you include similar items tab on your pages. Each time someone opens an item, this gives them a range in something they are interested in and improves the conversion rate.
At the same time, it includes a sort of internal backlinking linking and navigational process for the entire website. Also, ensure that the related products are static, and the carousel doesn’t change products every time you hit refresh.
Setting Up SEO Tests
By now, you must’ve realized the importance of testing and working through trial and error when it comes to on-page SEO. You must keep updating websites through different methods that may work better than your previous approach. Sometimes, you might have to test out the Google algorithm to see if it takes to an SEO tactic better than another.
Testing not once, but repeatedly can solidify methods that you can then present to clients or use on your website. Ensure that when you test, you try limiting it to one thing to get better results on its working.
Furthermore, the testing should be repeatable so that it’s useful for future purposes. You can also entirely dominate a certain page through testing keywords that Google doesn’t have any results like the example below.
(Source: Google Search)
Sometimes, testing methods can get the page or website in trouble. So, you need to ensure that you’re using something that you don’t mind tinkering with and possibly burning down. Lastly, you don’t need a fresh domain each time you test something but ensure that you aren’t using too many variables that can interfere with testing.
Endnotes
On-page search engine optimization has a unique purpose in today’s’ rapidly growing digital background. It’s important that your website not only stands out but also appears to have all the right data that reaches the target audience. However, when you are working as an SEO professional, putting in time and money for a project needs outcome.
The outcome is something tangible and measurable, whether that’s through KPIs and Reports or CRO. Having a good return on investment and learning how to check for it is as much a part of SEO as actually practicing the optimization.
Hence, you must understand the use of the best SEO practices. At the same time, you should also identify the changes and growth that it reaps for your website.
