SEO

2. Include Target Keyword in H1

A webpage will likely get a high ranking for a search query if that page has an H1 that is relevant to that query.

It is also important to incorporate your target keyword on the page in order to make the topic of the page clear to the users.

3. Only Use One H1 Per Page

Using only one H1 establishes hierarchy and provides a more logical layout for your page. The H1 serves as the main topic; the H2s are for the subheadings that are important; the H3s are for supporting subheadings, and so on.

Each page should only use a single main topic or headline, and that’s the only H1 you should have. In addition, every significant page must have one.

4. H1 Tags Must be Below 60 Characters

Your writing will be more effective if it is simple and concise. It is the same for H1 tags and other headings.

The recommended length is around 50 to 60 characters, just like meta title tags.

5. Satisfy User Search Intent

A user’s search intent is their primary goal when looking for information online.

Your H1 should inform the reader instantly that you will meet their search intent. In other words, your content will provide users with what they need.

So What is an H1 Tag Exactly?

To attract the reader’s attention and provide a clear indicator of the page’s content, you should use H1 tags on all of your site’s important pages. When you have excellent H1 tags, especially when they match the title tags, they can significantly impact your SEO performance.

3. Put Images and Videos

Search engines prioritize visuals based on keywords. Images and video snippets are among the most popular visual components on a search engine’s results page. However, when adding images, you must be mindful of their copyrights. Frequently, amateurs use photos from other websites without permission, which might send you into legal problems.

4. Think of a Good Title

A good title increases your article’s relevance to the web search query, as the title is important for SEO rankings. Moreover, it encourages readers to click on your blog article when it appears in search results.

5. Practice Internal Linking

After some blogging, you will have enough articles you would like users to read. Internal linking lets you direct new readers to your older, related blog articles; it is an excellent way to establish a contextual connection between recent and previous posts.

6. Engage Using Call to Action (CTA)

An excellent call to action is relevant to the blog article’s topic and connects smoothly with the rest of the material. Whether you’re selling a product, promoting a newsletter subscription, or encouraging the user to read more of your articles, every blog post you publish must contain an engaging CTA.

7. Incorporate a Meta Description

A meta description provides search engines and other crawlers with a summary of your article. Occasionally search engines will select a piece of information from the main body material of the page rather than the meta description to display under the headline.

Your Readers are Your Priority

Any talented writer or SEO will advise you that the reader’s experience is essential to a blog article. The reader experience consists of readability, layout, and page speed; this requires producing straightforward, comprehensive, and accurate content according to the most recent data and trends.

Learn the given strategies’ purpose and focus your efforts on satisfying the needs of your target audience, as each of them serves a particular role for your blog and should be used to achieve a specific SEO goal.

The Importance of Tiered Link Building

In SEO, there’s a concept known as “link juice“. It’s a jargon used to describe how much power a domain passes to a site it links to.

For instance, if Correct Digital links to your site, we pass on some of our “authority” to your site. This is what we refer to as “link juice”. When Google sees this, it will trust your site a little bit more.

So for every backlink you have, your site gets more link juice. The more link juice you have, the more Google will trust your site and rank your content in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

When you build a backlink pyramid, the link juices from all those backlinks are eventually passed on to your site. Even if they aren’t all linking directly to your site, you’ll still benefit from their link juices.

You see, the link juice from your tier 3 backlinks are passed on to your tier 2 backlinks. This makes your tier 2 backlinks more authoritative which, in turn, strengthens your tier 1 backlinks. When the domains linking to your site are authoritative, it will also strengthen the authority of your site. Needless to say, the more authoritative your site is, the better your ranking in the SERPs will be.

How to Create a Backlink Pyramid for Your Site

Technically, there’s no need to “create” a backlink pyramid for your site. If you’re using white hat methods to boost your SEO, that pyramid will eventually build itself.

That said, you can fast-track the process by putting a structure to your backlinking process. Here are some of the backlinking strategies you can implement for each tier:

Tier 1

These links point directly to your site. So you should be careful when creating these links. Make sure to use the right anchor texts and the domains are highly authoritative.

• guest posts
• social media profiles
• directory listings
• reviews
• press releases
• internal links

Tier 2

These links aren’t pointing directly to your site so it’s alright to prioritize quantity over quality. There’s no need to use specific anchor texts too.

• Web 2.0 sites (Medium, Hubpages, etc.)
• forum links

Tier 3

Tier 3 links aren’t likely to be indexed by Google. So, the sky is the limit. Create as many as you can. You can even use automation tools or a hoard of virtual assistants to farm out these links for you. Just make sure not to spam the web or your site will be affected too.

• blog comments
• index submission websites
• URL shorteners

Does Backlink Pyramid Work for SEO?

Like any SEO strategy, there are pros and cons to creating a backlink pyramid.

If done right, it can strengthen your site’s authority and boost your SEO. If not, Google may penalize your site for spammy links.

So make sure to only use white hat strategies and make it look as natural as possible. Remember that Google hates any type of search engine optimization (even though everyone’s doing it). Instead of helping your SEO, it may even cause your site to get permanently banned from the search results.

How to Submit Blogs as Guest Posts

Now that you understand the basics of guest posting, here’s a quick step-by-step guide on how to submit blogs to guest posting sites.

1. Identify Your Target Sites

Obviously, you can’t make any guest posting outreach if you don’t know who you’re reaching out to. So the first thing you need to do is make a list of the sites you want your blog or article to appear in.

Ideally, you should target sites that:

• are authoritative. The more authoritative a site is, the more likely its content will appear on search engine results pages. They also tend to have a wider audience. Besides, getting published on these sites will lend more credibility to you as a blogger and writer. It means your work is good enough to pass through their rigorous editorial process. If you’re not sure whether a site is authoritative or not, you can check its domain rating (DR) or domain authority (DA). The higher their DR and DA are, the more authoritative that site is.
• are topically related to your niche. If you write about SEO and digital marketing, then guest posting on a health and wellness site won’t probably do you any good. For one, these niches have two very different audiences. Even if your pitch is accepted, that site’s audience won’t probably have much incentive in visiting your site.
• allows guest posts. If a site only publishes in-house content, they rarely accept guest posts. So if you’re just starting out, focus on sites that allow guest posts to avoid wasting your time and effort. Sites that accept guest posts usually have a “write for us” page where they detail their guest posting guidelines. 

It doesn’t have to be an elaborate list. You can just put them in a spreadsheet along with the necessary links and contact details.

2. Generate Contact Details

After identifying your target guest posting sites, you need to find their contact details so you can start reaching out to them. Sites that have a “write for us” page will usually list down ways on how to contact them too. In most cases, they’ll list down an email address. Though some sites will provide you with a link to their contact forms where you can submit your pitch. 

3. Reach Out to Your Identified Sites

Once you have chosen a publisher you would like to work with; you can go ahead and contact them and express your interest in working together.

Be careful when reaching out to guest posting sites though. Always remember that you’re not the only one looking out for guest posting opportunities. Editors typically have to deal with hundreds of guest post pitches every single day. So make sure to keep your outreach email brief and polite but still cover the basic points you want to communicate.

Start by introducing yourself, what you do, and a link to your site. Then tell them about how you came to know about their site and why you are writing to them. Don’t forget to include links to your previous work. They can be links to blogs published on your site or guest posts published on other sites. Most guest posting sites require at least three previous work samples.

Due to the huge number of pitches they have to deal with, it’s sometimes inevitable that the editor will miss your message. So if you don’t receive a reply, you can send a follow-up message after a few weeks. Avoid messaging them every day or every few days as that will only annoy the editors and lessens your chance of getting a reply from them.

You also need to take into account the guest posting guidelines of each site. Some sites will require you to submit a draft at the initial outreach. While others will require you to submit at least three content ideas together with your outreach message.

4. Submit Your Pitch

After the initial outreach, the guest posting site will typically ask you to submit a pitch. This is where you’ll send them a content idea or a list of content ideas that match the kind of content the site puts out.

As such, you need to carefully scan through the site and take note of the kind of articles they’re posting. This will help you get a feel of the kind of content they want, thus increasing the chances of your pitch getting approved.

Once you have a content idea, make sure to check that its not covered by the site yet. Obviously, they can’t post about the same topic twice. So if they already covered the topic, your pitch will most likely be rejected. 

There’s an easy way to check if the site has written a post about the topic before. Just go to the site’s homepage. Then in the URL box, type the word “site:” before the site’s URL and the topic after it. For instance, if you want to check the Correct Digital site for an article about online marketing, the URL box should look like this: site:https://correctdigital.com/ online marketing.

5. Write the Draft

Once the guest posting site approves your pitch, you can now start writing the draft keeping in mind the site’s guest posting guidelines.

Some sites require a minimum number of words. While others may not care about how long the article is as long as it covers everything that needs to be covered. Some also have specific guidelines on what sites you can only link to and how many links to your site you can add to the article body. Most sites also don’t allow affiliate links so you need to avoid that too. Or if you do, make sure to disclose it to the editor.

6. Make Necessary Revisions and Resubmit the Final Draft

It’s quite rare for a draft to get approved for publication at the initial stage. Most of the time, it will require some revisions. The editor will tell you which parts to edit and which to delete (if necessary). These revisions will help bring your post up to the site’s editorial standards so make sure to follow the editor’s suggestions. 

Once the required revisions are done, you can resubmit your final draft and wait for the editor’s feedback. Sometimes, a draft will require multiple revisions before they’re approved for publication.

7. Thank the Guest Posting Site

After your post is published, don’t forget to thank the guest posting site for the opportunity. This not only builds goodwill but may also open up other partnership and collaboration opportunities.

What You Need to Remember

It will take some time and a lot of effort to have another website publish your work. You mustn’t lose hope and keep working hard to make your work known to many. Success in the freelancing and writing industry does not happen overnight. As long as you remain patient and follow our guide on how to submit blogs for guest posting, your hard work will eventually pay off sooner than you think.

(Related: Backlink Pyramid for SEO: What Is It and How Does It Work?)

To have your business verified by Google, follow these steps:

• Step 1 – Head to Google Business Manager

Setting up your enterprise on Google My Business is a sure way to improve your search engine optimization with little effort.

1. Log into Google My Business

• Head to https://www.google.com/business/
• Click on “manage now

2. Fill up the Google My Business form

• Make sure that every field is accurately filled out.
• Google thrives on information, so the more info you give to Google, the better.

3. Wait for Google’s go-ahead

• Like most tech companies, Google takes verification very seriously. It needs to know that you are who you’re saying you are. As such, expect to receive a verification email.

4. Complete your business profile as you wait

• Your profile should state that it’s 50% completed by this point.
• Complete your listings by adding logos, photos, posts, hours, and descriptions.
• As stated, Google loves info, so it’s best to give it as much data as possible.

Step 2 – Finish Google’s Verification Process

Following registration, Google will need to verify your identity. It does this for both safety as well as legal purposes. With that said, this step is essential to every web-based business.

1. Click the URL on Google’s postcard

• google.com/verifymybusiness

2. Enter your one-time verification code

• Once you’ve logged into google.com/verifymybusiness, type in your one-time verification code. After this, complete every suggested action by Google My Business.

Step 3 – Remain Up To Date

When it comes to anything online, it’s essential to remain up to date. Never leave your Google Business account stagnant, or else you’ll be bound to get beaten by your competitors.

1. Review your listing

• Check your listing at least once a month, then review it.
• Add postings every month to let Google know more about your enterprise

Putting It All Together

White Label SEO vs. SEO Reseller

People often assume that SEO reselling is white-label SEO, which causes significant confusion. However, this is not always the case.

White label SEO is when an agency or creative services provider hires professional SEO providers to do SEO under their brand. SEO resellers, on the other hand, are the SEO companies that offer their services for white-labeling to other agencies. 

What Are The Benefits of White Label SEO?

So why white label SEO? What’s in it for you?

There are actually plenty of advantages to white labeling SEO. Here are the top benefits of white label SEO for both digital marketing agencies and SEO providers:

Better Sales

You can use white label SEO to sell more instead of losing out on customers that want an “all-in-one” solution. Nowadays, more and more clients are looking for all-in-one services.

They don’t want to keep track of multiple moving parts when they can hire someone who does all the work for them. That’s where white label SEO comes in to help create an opportunity.

Scaling Opportunity

White label SEO enables your agency to scale without having to do the work yourself. When you’re using white label SEO, you allow yourself to open up more opportunities to sell your services.

You also expand your service offerings without building the solutions from scratch. You have high-quality SEO services from a team of professionals that you can brand as your own. 

With white label SEO, you also allow your team to learn from professionals how to do SEO without hiring someone in-house. It saves time and effort and is considerably cost-effective.

Cost-Effective

Which is cheaper, white label SEO or hiring someone in-house? Well, it depends. But in general, white-labeling SEO services is a lot more cost-effective.

If you’re hiring an in-house SEO specialist, expect to pay around $4-$5k per month or about $55k per year. But if you outsource your SEO projects, the going rate starts at around $500 to $750 per month depending on how many clients you have. Though this still depends on your SEO knowledge and experience. If you’re a total newbie to SEO, expect the going rate to be about double or triple that amount.

What we’re sure of, however, is that white label SEO agencies already have defined and proven processes and deliverables. They already have what you need to make, and you can leverage it when you hire them.

White label SEO also grants you the ability to scale and accept new clients that want SEO without worrying about hiring new staff. Even more, you can create revenue from existing clients without additional overhead.

How do I improve my marketplace or listing SEO?

Marketplace website owners are in quite a unique position. On the one hand, they have to attract clients or vendors to register on their platform. But on the other, they should also attract customers to purchase their vendors’ products. 

SEO also works differently on marketplace sites, mainly due to the dynamic nature webpages are created. Because of that, marketplace sites require a multi-faceted approach to meet this unique need. This makes technical SEO all the more relevant. Technical SEO can make or break a marketplace, especially where navigation and internal linking are heavily involved. 

Quick SEO Solutions To Make Your Marketplace Rank Better

Perform a Site Audit

Performing an overall site audit gives you a picture of how your website is faring at the moment. Some of the key measurables in a site audit are the following:

• Loading speed
• Crawlability
• Content issues
• Meta tags
• HTTPS security protocols
• Internal linking
• JS and CSS errors
• AMP implementation

Using site audit tools from SEMRush and Ahrefs, you can determine your website’s health and which fields need the most improvement. Some free tools you can use are:

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Google PageSpeed Insights
• Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
• Copyscape
• SERP Simulator
• Web Page Word Counter

Improve website speed

Page speed refers to the time it takes for the content of a page to load completely. It’s often confused with “site speed,” which is actually the page speed of a sample of page views from that site. Page speed has become so important to Google that they included it as a factor in page ranking. They’ve since provided website owners with the necessary tools in improving this aspect too. 

To improve your page speed, here are the SEO best practices, according to Moz:

• Enable compression
• Minify CSS, Javascript, and HTML
• Reduce redirects
• Remove render-blocking Javascript
• Leverage browser caching
• Improve server response time
• Use a content distribution network
• Optimize images

Get Secure

Security seems to be one of the emerging trends on the internet. HTTPS is a well-known ranking signal that establishes trust in your users. While Google views security as a weaker ranking signal, establishing a good reputation and credibility with your clients and customers is key.

When you install an SSL on your server, your website can only be accessed through https and not http. This lets your users know that any data (personal information, usernames, passwords) exchanged between them and the website is strictly encrypted. 

Use schema markups for “rich snippets.”

Rich snippets are the search results that display additional information under the page title, description, and URL. Rich snippets have been shown to improve the click-through rate, a leading indicator of organic traffic. 

Rich snippets show up only for specific content and if you’ve provided useful information using schema markups. Schema markup is the additional code that helps search engines interpret and display your content better in search results. 

Make your website user-friendly.

Users expect websites to provide them with quality and a great overall experience. So, it’s not uncommon for users to bounce when they’re met with the smallest of inconveniences. 

This is especially the case when your websites are not optimized for mobile devices, where the majority of users access websites these days. Improving responsiveness across multiple devices will certainly favor your mobile conversion rates.

Improve navigation.

Have you ever traveled to a foreign place, not knowing where to go? Stressful is a nice way to put it, but website navigation feels exactly the same. 

If your users access your website, not knowing which links to click, this can lead to a high bounce rate. Good navigation means users can easily find what they’re looking for when they’re looking for them, and this can also contribute to user experience.

Content is king once again.

Bounce rate is one of the crucial factors that Google accounts for when ranking pages. If a customer happens to land on your website and doesn’t find it appealing, they’ll most likely bounce, which won’t bode well for your website.

Search engines have this notion that people won’t bounce if a website has relevant and high-quality content. So, on-site SEO, including content and aesthetics, can help your pages retain many of its visitors. 

Build backlinks.

Backlinks function as “votes” from other websites, essentially vouching for the credibility of yours. Quality backlinks establish authority and are an important ranking signal for search engines. 

Websites with little to no backlinks or poor ones very rarely rank on SERPs. Once you’ve settled most, if not all, of the technical and on-site SEO issues, off-site SEO is the logical next step.

Create Informative Posts

One of the most common reasons why people start their own blogs is to express themselves. But you need to remember that your audience is on the hunt for information. As such, they won’t be that willing to read you blab on and on about things that are not informative.

Don’t get me wrong. Long blog posts are good. In fact, data says blog posts of 3,000 words of above generate more traffic than shorter ones. But it must be something that your readers will be interested to know. This will help keep your readers longer on your site. This, in turn, will tell Google that the information on your post is what the users are looking for.

Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

Statistics show that mobile devices account for more than half of web traffic in the first quarter of 2020. With new phones having larger screens and powerful specs, we can expect this trend to continue in the future.

To keep up with the times, you need to make your site more mobile-friendly. This includes making sure it has a responsive design and a faster loading time. If you’re using WordPress, making your site mobile-friendly is pretty easy and straightforward. Free blogging platforms like Blogspot also has options to make your blog more mobile-responsive.

When in doubt, you can always use Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool.

Use Your Photos As Much As Possible

There are two reasons why you should use your own photos in your blog as often as possible. The first and most compelling of which is copyright laws.

In the US, you can get slapped with as much as $150,000 in penalties for every work infringed. If that’s not enough to make you think twice about using photos that aren’t your own, know that you can also go to jail for it.

Another reason for using your own photos is because your own photos make the blog much more personal. It gives your readers the impression that the information you’re sharing is based on first-hand experience and not just something you found on the web.

Don’t worry if you have no personal photos you can use. Sites like Pixabay and Unsplash offers copyright-free stock photos you can use anytime.

Constantly Update Your Archives

Search engine algorithms are always updating. You might have the top spot right now but there’s no guarantee you’ll still have it tomorrow. Especially when a new content comes up that offers more updated information than yours.

As such, it’s not a bad idea to revisit your archives once in a while. See if there is any information that needs updating or posts that have become more relevant and needs to be reposted. You can also improve the layout, add more photos and videos, or update links. It’s also a chance for you to remove posts that are no longer relevant.