Writing for Search Engines vs. Writing for People
There are several different ways you can write content. One common distinction is the difference between writing for search engines and writing for human readers. Another common distinction is the difference between timely articles that will likely die out quickly and core forever-content that will apply years down the line.
Knowing who you’re writing for changes both your strategy and writing significantly.
Writing for Search Engines vs. Writing for People 
When you’re writing for search engines, there are a few things you tend to pay attention to. First of all, you want to make sure your exact keyword phrase is in your title tag. You want to make sure you mention the keyword a few times in the article, preferably near the beginning and end and at least once in a subhead.
You might also want to try and tie in a sub-keyword or a related keyword. You can get these related search terms by typing your main keyword into Google and scrolling down to the “related searches” area.
On the other hand, if you’re writing for human beings your goal is to create the absolute best content you possibly can. You won’t create a title with a keyword in it unless it sounded natural. Likewise, you wouldn’t insert keywords into the text unless it sounded natural.
The mentality behind creating a site with a search engine focus versus a content quality focus goes deeper than just keywords. It changes the way you manage your website and it changes how people perceive your site.
In reality, in order for a site to succeed, you need both search engine knowhow as well as a commitment to quality. A lack of either one can cause your site to fail. However, more of a focus on quality is often better in the long run for a website. Sites that try to game the search engines without high quality content will eventually get penalized.
Title Tag Optimization: 15 Super Tips to Optimize your Title Tags
Getting your title tag right is the most important factor of your on-page SEO. Having a great title tag helps search engines figure out what your website is about and rank you properly. It also helps users who are browsing search results figure out what your website is about and decide whether or not they want to click on your website.
Here are the most important Do’s and Don’ts when it comes to title tag optimization. Following these tips will help make your site both user friendly and more search engine friendly.
1. Use a Unique Title Tag for Each Page 
Many sites use the exact same page title for several pages in their website. This is a terrible idea. Having specific keywords you’re targeting with each and every page will help you maximize the exposure your site gets in general. Make sure you optimize your title tags to ensure that you have a unique title for every single page on your site.
2. Embed Keywords in a Phrase
Rather than using just your main keyword in your title tag, it’s much better to embed the keyword within a phrase.
For example, instead of “lose weight,” a much more effective keyword would be “How to Lose Weight for Women Under 35.”
This will help you get traffic from more specific search terms. Also, you reduce the likelihood that Google sees you as keyword spamming.
3. Use Power or Action Words
Use power words or action words. For example, instead of just “How to Lose Weight,” try “How to Lose Weight Quickly” or “How to Shed Pounds in Weeks.”
These words sound more active and capture more attention. This helps attract reader attention and helps with Google rankings as well. One thing Google tracks to determine where your site should rank is how often users click on your result versus all the other results – By using more active words, you’ll get more clicks and thus more rankings.
4. Place Your Main Keywords in the Beginning
Keywords that appear in the beginning of the title tag are weighed more heavily than keywords near the back. Place your main keywords in the beginning and everything else towards the end of the html title tag.
5. Use a Pipe or Hyphen to Separate Keywords
If you’re using multiple keywords when optimizing your title tag, use a pipe (|) or hyphen (-) to separate them. For example, “Lose Weight | Low calorie Foods.” Don’t let your keywords run into each other.
6. Specify the Acronym
If people are likely to search for your site by the acronym, make sure it’s included when you optimize your title tag. For example, instead of just making your title “Better Business Bureau,” make it “Better Business Bureau (BBB).”
7. Use Numbers to Get Clicks 
One proven method of getting more people to click on your content is to use a number, preferably a large one, in your title tag. For example, “101 Healthiest Foods to Eat” or “44 Little-Known Fatty Foods to Avoid.”
Ten Things Google Has Recently Changed in their Search Algorithm
Search engines are always changing their algorithms. As SEO professionals break down the algorithms, new algorithms are written. Search engines aim to change with the times and be able to use new media and new technology to their advantage.
Though the panda update was by far the most important update over the last two years, many smaller changes have been taking effect. Here are ten recent algorithm changes that you should be aware of.
1. Translated Content:- If you’re using a language that Google doesn’t have many results for, (i.e. Icelandic, Serbian, Swahili, etc,) Google will automatically translate the English results and display those alongside with native language results. In other words, if you type in “How to build a bed” in Swahili and there are no good Swahili results, a translated English website will be listed.
2. Better Date Range Results:- Google now pays a lot more attention to search queries that deal with specific date ranges. For example, if you wanted to find tornado news only between Jan and March in 2011, Google’s results will help you do that.
3. Official Page Ranking:- Google now uses special algorithms to determine what is truly an official page. Official pages will almost always outrank non-official pages now. In other words, Google can now tell that the official site of “Cousineart Blender 5500” is the Cousineart main site, not the affiliate review or the Amazon websites.
4. Better Snippet Crawling:- In the past, Google’s snippet crawling technology might have picked up irrelevant content or content that just wasn’t representative of the whole text. Today, Google’s snipping technology is improved so that snippets and descriptions would pick up the most ideal snippet to represent the website.
5. Better Instant Search for Hebrew, Arabic & Russian:- In these languages, multiple keystrokes are often necessary to create one character. The instant search / autocomplete featured used to try and autocomplete unfinished words, which resulted in results that made no sense. This has been fixed.
Link Baiting: An Update on Modern Tactics
Linkbaiting has changed a lot since it first came into the SEO space. In the past, you could come up with a decent graphic, a quiz or an infographic and have a very good shot at going viral. In fact, Mingle2 used just simple quizzes to rank in the top 5 for the keyword “Dating.”
Today however, these tactics have gotten much more competitive and much more complex. If you want your linkbait to take off, you’ll need to put in more time, effort and creativity.
Overview: What is Linkbaiting?
Before discussing actual tactics, let’s go over what exactly linkbaiting is.
Linkbaiting is creating content that’s designed to get linked to. The content needs to fit a particular mold.
Not only does the content need to be interesting, but it should work within a formula for content that gets passed along. Each of the following tactics has been proven to get people to link to them.
Quizzes
Quizzes like “How many 2 year olds could you take in a fight” have done very well. The basic premise is this: Come up with an interesting quiz, ask fun questions, give them the results, then give them the chance to share it with their friends.
Make sure you include the HTML code at the bottom of the results page so people can link to their results and the quiz. If you design a quiz that a lot of people want to share, you’ll get a lot of backlinks.
Free Software / Tools
Free software can be great linkbait. There are two main types of free software.
One is software aimed to web developers or website owners. These types of software work really well, because if you can embed a link in the software, you can easily get a lot of backlinks.
Examples include WordPress plugins, calculator apps, skins, themes, templates, etc. Just a small link at the bottom of the page can result in thousands of backlinks.
The other type is the typical for-consumer applications. The goal here is to create the best possible app for an audience and give it away. If people like it, they’ll link to your site where the software is being offered.
6 Best Practices for Modern SEO
It’s no secret that SEO is changing. Search engines like Google are always on the lookout for better ways to rank websites. Sometimes no major changes are made for years, while at other times change after change is pushed out in rapid succession.
Today we’re in a rapid change period of SEO. First came the Panda update, then Panda 2.0, then an increased emphasis on social media. Using old-fashioned SEO tactics just won’t cut it in today’s competitive and fast changing SEO environment.
Here are six best practices for ranking in the search engines in today’s quick paced SEO world.
Practice #1: Social Cues Matter
Google and especially Bing are paying close attention to social cues. How many people pass along your websites? How many people tweet about you on Twitter? How people have “liked” your page?
Social cues play a significant part in search engine rankings now and experts believe it’ll only get more powerful over time. If you don’t already have a solid social media campaign in place, now is the time to start.
Practice #2: Natural Content vs. Keyword Optimization
Gone are the days when you could easily select a specific keyword to rank for and target it specifically. 
Today, search engines will penalize you if you over-optimize for specific keywords. If you have too many links coming to your site with the same anchor text, if your one keyword is all over your title tags, meta tags and body content, you’re more likely to get penalized than ranked.
Instead of trying to create content around specific keywords, a much better strategy is to craft natural content that’s meant to be read by real human beings.
Practice #3: Unique, Quality Content is Still Key
As search engines get smarter, specific tactics that allow you to gain rankings artificially will fall to the wayside. Many such sites have already been pushed aside in the last few years, and more will soon follow suit.
The only real way to guarantee rankings in the long run is to give the search engines what they want: High quality, unique content that people will love. Read more
Top 10 Reasons Why Your Link Requests Are Failing
Link requests can be an incredibly powerful tool that can shoot your rankings from nothing to the top 5 in no time at all. Unfortunately, people often make mistakes throughout the process that keep their link requests from working. Your link request must avoid many pitfalls to have a chance of success, yet few of us fully understand or plan ahead to avoid them.
If your link requests aren’t working, here are ten potential reasons why.
1. Your Subject Line Doesn’t Catch Attention
If you want someone to read your email, you first need to get them to open it. That’s what the subject line is there for.
Your subject line should be gripping and powerful and it should immediately demonstrate what’s in it for them.
2. Contacting Non-Relevant Sites
Another common reason for failure is contacting sites that aren’t really relevant to your website.
Yes, getting backlinks is important. However, Google only really cares about relevant backlinks. Furthermore, if you’re contacting sites that aren’t relevant to your industry, they probably aren’t going to respond.
3. Not Being Link Worthy
A link to your website is essentially a vote for the quality of your website. If you want other 
people to link to you, you first need to have a website that deserves to be linked to.
Make sure you have a well designed website with tons of content before you start asking people to link to you. If you only have a five page website, it’s unlikely someone will want to send their visitors to your site.
4. Not Personalizing Your Requests
Sending link requests is a numbers game. Chances are you’re going to have to send several hundred requests in a successful campaign. However, in order for these requests to work, they need to be personalized.
Each person who gets a contact from you should feel as if you’re talking to them. You should address something unique about their site, product or customer base when you email them. It shouldn’t seem like you’re bulk mailing.
5. Not Following Up
Often time’s people will actually want to give you a link, decide to do so and then forget. 
Remember, it takes effort to give someone a link. They need to open up Dreamweaver, find where the link goes, put in the a href tag, upload the file and make sure it works. (Or the equivalent in WordPress or any other CMS.)
Since it takes effort, people often put it off. Sending just one or two reminder emails could be all it takes to convert these people into a link. Read more
Bounce Rate and Exit Rate – What is the Difference and Why They’re Important
Two of the most important metrics in internet marketing are bounce rate and exit rate. Many people find it a bit confusing to know the difference between the two. If you are one of them then this article is for you as it is intended to take the mystery out of your website’s bounce rate and exit rate.
Bounce rate refers to the percentage o
f visitors who view only one page of your website before leaving. In other words, the visitor ‘bounces’ on and off your particular page. Exit rate is defined as the percentage of visitors who leave your site from a given page based on how many visits that the particular page has received. This visitor who leaves or exits could have been on many pages of your website but simply exited on the specific page. An example would be a visitor who has found your site after conducting an organic search, clicks a page inside your site and then leaves from that page.
In contrast, if this visitor simply landed on your site from the organic search and did not visit any internal pages, it would be considered a bounce. Generally speaking, an ideal bounce rate to shoot for is between 20% and 25% provided you are targeting relevant, core keywords. If your bounce rate increases past 35%, you should look at the usability factors of your website. Of course, some search queries do generate high bounce rates such as in the cases of specific informational queries like ‘what flavors are available in Sam’s Coffee?’
A high bounce rate
on a home page is usually an indicator that something is wrong so if you find that most of your visits are only to your homepage and nothing more, you will need to optimize your site by improving its functionality, user-friendliness and/or by providing nicely written content visitors will find very helpful and very informative.
5 Must Do’s to create a “Sticky” Website
Having strong online presence is necessary for any business in the current global scenario. However, just having a website is not enough. In our last post, we discussed the importance of “sticky content” in reducing the bounce rate and thereby improving your search engine rankings.
So while it’s already been established that having a “sticky” website is necessary, the million dollar question pending an answer is, “how do we go about creating sticky content?” Well, we feel that there are 5 absolutely essential must do’s for your site, if it has to stand any chance of being “sticky” enough to engage your users.
1. The content should be authoritative and engaging
Usually people browse the Internet seeking information. They are under the impression that who ever has created the website is an authority on the subject. You need to make sure that your content is well researched. It should provide relevant and in-depth information to the visitor. For example, if you have a website on pet health, you need to ensure that you have all the relevant details about the subject. 
If you just publish a list of pet care products with pricing, the visitor is not likely to spend much time on that page unless you could also save them the trouble of providing enough information about each product. Before working on your content, list all possible questions people may have about the subject. Ensure that your content answers all these questions. It is also important to ensure that you engage your visitors. Most of the time visitors reach the landing page, read the content and move away. It is advisable to have something on the web page which would encourage them to take further action. For example you may help them with how to go about ordering a product. You may even have a poll or a small quiz. However you need to make sure that all these are relevant to the subject.
2. Provide links to reputed sources
It is advisable to pro
vide links to trusted and reputed sources. It adds to the credibility of the website. It alsoconveys to the search engines that you intend to provide the best information to your visitors. For example, if your website is about photos of nature or animals, you may have reference link to websites like the National Geography. To put it simply, your content should convey that you are the authority on the subject. Also allow users to share the information they find on your website. This can be achieved by integrating social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook into the web page.
Improve Search Engine Rankings with “Sticky” Content
As a website/blog owner, you know by now that you must make your site as search engine friendly as you can so that it gets indexed well. You also know that your website/blog must be as ‘people friendly’ as possible so that the visitors who land on your site stay there long enough to take a desired action which is most likely to buy a product or service from you. That’s what we’ve all read and know and it is indeed true and just as important today than it ever has been.
You should be striving to create a “sticky” website. The “stickiness” aspect of a site is its ability to keep users on the site for a sustained period of time. In addition to being able to retain visitors, a sticky site could rank better in the search engines if effective SEO techniques are used on the website. You can brag all you want about the high number of visitors who land on your site, but if they only stay there for two or three seconds, clearly they are not being fulfilled.
It is essential that your site is filled with the right amount of unique content that basically answers every question a visitor to your page may have about the topic they went searching for. Your content should be authoritative in nature and the type of content you would like to find if you conducted a search for the type of information you have on your site yourself.
SEO Basics Revisited: On-page Optimization
It takes more than just good content to get your website ranked well by search engines. Your site has probably not ranked well enough till now only because your site was not very “understandable” to the search engines. Let’s say there has been a communication gap in between the two. However, it is not an irreversible state… this is a very common problem and can easily be corrected with some ‘On-page Optimization’.
Let me start with the basics and tell you what on-page optimization is. On-page Optimization is the process of modifying content and certain html 
tags of your website to make it more search engine friendly. On-page factors are under your control and can be altered by tweaking the content of your website appropriately. The importance of on-page optimization cannot be stressed enough as it is the basis for search engines to understand the theme and relevance of your website.
Don’t worry, it is not as complicated as it may sound. Let me give you a few crucial points on how to do on-page optimization for your site and be super successful!
Let’s say you have a website that sells used cars, www.cars.com. How would you go about optimizing it?
1. Start with keyword research
What is keyword research? Keyword research is the practice of finding relevant search terms and phrases that people use in conducting searches online and determining the keywords most suited to your website.
So let’s start with your site, since your website targets used car buyers, what words would they type in the search engine? Note down your keywords. It probably includes ‘Buy used cars’, ‘Used cars on sale’, ‘Price of used cars’ etc.
After compiling a list of probable keywords/phrases that your target audience might use in the search engines, you can go one step further & use some great keyword research tools available online. You can try a keyword research tool available on SEO Intelligence which compiles keyword data from various sources online & shows you the kind of keywords & phrases people are searching with & their respective search volumes. A sample screenshot can be seen below:
Using the tool, you will hopefully be able to conclude on certain terms that are not too competitive to target & yet are relevant enough to connect you with your target audience. A more detailed explanation on keyword research will be given in another post shortly.
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