You need to assemble backlinks to quality locales to build your space authority and area appraisals with the goal that you can rank No.1 on Google. You are here in light of the fact that you have understood the significance of backlinks.
Backlinks are the most essential internet searcher positioning variables. You might be envisioning right now how backlinks work on your positioning component. As a matter of fact, when a site alludes to your webpage then it gives a sign to the crawlers that this site is important and has quality substance.
This way you can rank on the primary page of the web crawler result page and can without much of a stretch create traffic to your website. Quality backlinks help to further develop the hunt perceivability of your site.
Backlinks are a significant piece of the accomplishment of SEO. There are additionally external link establishment administrations accessible that you can pick to assemble quality backlinks. It is on the grounds that building backlinks don’t imply that you will work from any destinations. You need to pick just high DA locales that mean quality destinations.
Step by step instructions to Build Quality Backlinks in 2021
We have effectively examined the significance of building quality backlinks in 2021. It will assist you with working on your SEO and will consequently further develop leads and deals.
Thusly, here are the most ideal approaches to construct quality backlinks in 2021 that will take your business to a higher degree of accomplishment.
1. Compose Competitive Content:
Your first occupation is to compose cutthroat and quality substance so that on the off chance that anybody peruses it they think that it’s valuable and they will effectively share your article.
In the event that your substance is acceptable, different sites will right away allude your locales (construct backlinks) to their site. To compose a quality article, allude to different destinations, and figure out how they are composing articles to draw in with the crowd.
Be that as it may, don’t duplicate their content all things being equal, compose better compared to them. This will help your site generally to assemble great backlinks. You can likewise take the assistance of computerized promoting offices to fabricate quality connections.
2. Effort:
The effort is another incredible method to fabricate backlinks. In any case, it doesn’t imply that you will connect your site to any locales. You need to interface just with those destinations that have high DA (Domain Authority) and DR (Domain Rating).
You can do exceed once you have great quality articles on your site. Except if and until you don’t have extraordinary substance on your site then, at that point doing effort is futile. You can not produce traffic.
The effort will assist your site with positioning on the internet searcher result pages. You can likewise focus on your rivals and their watchwords in case they are positioning better compared to you. This way you can fabricate quality backlinks to your site.
3. Person to Person Communication Site Profile:
Numerous person-to-person communication and social bookmarking destinations have a high page rank. In this way, these positions will assist your site with positioning on Google.
You ought not to disregard the significance of backlinks however should utilize them. These systems administration destinations can truly assist you with building quality backlinks.
4. Make an Infographic:
Infographics are extremely valuable and individuals love them. It is on the grounds that it assists them with understanding things all the more plainly.
There are many destinations, for example, Canva and Venngage that will assist you with making your own infographics. In any case, you need to remember that your infographics ought to be identified with your substance.
Try not to make futile or complex infographics that individuals can’t comprehend. Make it as basic as could be expected and make it instructive. Do the examination appropriately from your side. Utilize your abilities and information to give significant data to the crowd.
You can utilize the numbers or charts to command the notice of the crowd so that assuming they think that it’s fascinating, they can impart it to their loved ones.
5. Remark on Other Relevant Blogs:
You can likewise remark on other significant blog entries with the goal that you can construct backlinks to your webpage. In the event that the crowd discovers your remark valuable, they will clearly tap on it, and this way you can create traffic as well.
This way you can likewise construct a shared relationship with the creator. However, you need to remember that your remark ought to be pertinent to the post. In the event that the blog is on design and you are remarking on the business techniques then it is all pointless. You are burning through your time and difficult work.
Wrapping it Up
Here you go! I have made an honest effort to keep every one of the dishes on a solitary plate. Thusly, the previously mentioned systems to assemble quality backlinks on your site are extremely valuable and powerful.
Ensure you adhere to the guidelines appropriately with the goal that your webpage can acquire space authority which will assist your site with positioning better on the web index result page.
Top 4 Tips To Leverage Advertising Relationships For SEO
Whether you believe it or not, creating advertising relationships has become quite important in the era of online marketing. As the name implies, it helps you create a special bond with your consumers and increases their trust in you.
But how will it be beneficial for your business?
Well, by following relationship marketing strategies, you can build a vast client base without worrying about any relapses. Additionally, having a long-term relationship with a consumer will also be profitable for your business. It is the most sustainable form of marketing if you can cope with the early challenges.
However, building advertising relationships and incorporating the same in SEO practices can be different. With it, you have to take the help of social media platforms to some extent. But how?
Let’s find out!
How Do Advertising Relationships Work For SEO Through Social Media?
Content marketing plays a significant role in improving the SEO ranking of a website. It usually does so by keeping a reader engaged with a topic for some time. And, the longer the person stays on your website, the more web traffic it generates. So, your SEO ranking will improve remarkably. Due to this reason, most people tend to hire the best guest posting services to assist them in this aspect.
But how is the concept of advertising relationships going to be useful for you?
With relationship marketing strategies, you can increase your social media following to some extent. Hence, if you share anything on your profile, people will read it. Now, you can provide a link to your website and ask your readers to visit there if they want to go through more exciting topics like this.
If they click the link and enter your site, it will start generating organic web traffic automatically.
However, unlike how it sounds, growing your web traffic through relationship marketing can be pretty tricky and confusing. So, make sure to check out the following section to learn some tips that will help you out in this regard.
Need help implementing the tips in this article? Get in touch with us to set up a discovery session following the link below.
Advertising Relationships For SEO – Strategies To Keep An Eye On
Most people think that creating a bond or relationship with your consumers is about talking or conversing with them daily. However, there are several other nuances incorporated in this subject. So, let’s check out our tips for leveraging advertising relationships in your SEO business to learn a little more about it.
Strategy – 1: Keep Posting Relevant and Helpful Content Regularly
Whether you are writing on a social media platform or your website, always remember to share relevant content. It will not only improve your blog promotion techniques but also increase your readers’ trust in you. And, as you already know, content relevancy matters significantly in SEO.
So, writing on relevant topics will also help you rank higher on Google than usual.
If you have a decent social media following, then you will receive several comments on your posts. So, we would suggest you reply to those as soon as possible. You can use either a professional or friendly tone while talking to them. But, be sure to maintain the same for everyone.
Talking to your consumers can help you build trust and improve your advertising relationships strategies even more.
Strategy – 2: Create Customized Advertising
Talking with your consumers or social media followers will let you know the people who want to support your business. In addition, you can also learn about their individual needs and work on those aspects to offer them a more convenient user experience.
So, where does all this knowledge leave you?
Well, by learning more about your audience, you can create customized advertising for them. This way, you will only attract those consumers that you need to uplift your business’ potential.
You can also boost the overall effect of advertising relationships by asking for feedback from your consumers. Make sure to take notes from these problems and assure your clients that you will take care of them as soon as possible. This strategy can increase consumer trust and address your organizational issues before everything goes out of your hands.
At Green Thoughts Consulting we provide advertising consultations and 1 on 1 planning for your pay-per-click campaigns. Further, we will completely manage the PPC campaigns on your behalf. Get a quote to learn more.
Strategy – 3: Design Your Website Properly
Maintaining a good user experience is probably the most significant thing to consider in SEO. If your website’s design is not user-friendly, your readers will leave it within three to five seconds of entering. So, make sure to curate your website in such a way so that a user finds everything instantly.
While you are at it, we would also suggest you keep the “customer service” tab within your consumer’s line of sight. This way, if they need anything, they will click on it and talk directly to your customer service team.
Also, when talking about advertising relationships, be sure to create a customer care team that can deal with both negative and positive situations. This way, it will be easier for you to keep everyone content with your services.
Strategy 4: Follow Your Customer Reviews Closely
People, especially on social media platforms, love to share their thoughts on everything. So, if someone has used your product, they will try to let you and everyone know if they liked it or not.
We would suggest you follow your buyers closely and ask them for their feedback on your services. You can also encourage them to post their thoughts on your Facebook profile’s review section to increase your brand awareness.
Even when you are getting negative reviews, try not to be too discouraged about it. Instead, talk with the reviewer, ask them about their issues, and correct them quickly.
Also, if you want to show off your consumer-friendly behavior a little, be sure to comment down on their posts. Let them know that you are here for them and will do everything to help everyone out. This type of behavior can be highly beneficial in the route of building advertising relationships.
Although technology has changed the way of handling customers, it’s still our responsibility to learn about the issues they are encountering. This is where building advertising relationships can be beneficial for you.
Hopefully, with our relationship marketing tips, you will be able to appeal to your consumers’ emotions and nurture relationships over time. However, if you want us to add something or have any general queries, do not forget to let us know in the comments. Have a great day!
About Author
Lucia Patterson was born and raised in New York. She is a passionate blogger and also a contributor writer at TopPreference & BigJarNews. As an admirer of history and art, she keeps traveling around to places that have a story to tell.
5 Signs It’s Time to Hire an SEO Marketing Manager
SEO specialists are marketers that undertake research and analysis to increase a website’s ranking on search engines such as Google. They locate the most popular and relevant keywords from search engine searches and incorporate them into websites. Doing so allows search engines to find and show such sites to online visitors.
SEO professionals might work for digital marketing firms or in-house marketing departments. There are a number of well-regarded online courses available to help you enhance your search engine optimization abilities. Certificates are not necessary to work as an SEO consultant.
There are no requirements for the bulk of SEO online training. Successful SEO professionals have strong analytical, communication, and research abilities. This allows them to better understand clients and give the best possible optimization.
What is the significance of SEO?
For a variety of reasons, SEO and other Internet marketing-related professions are critical. To begin with, an increasing number of companies are performed through the Internet. Businesses are increasingly working online to capture a piece of the ever-growing Internet market in order to maximize profit possibilities.
Hire an SEO Manager
Second, it’s critical to have focused traffic. Businesses don’t simply want any traffic to come to their website; they want targeted visitors who will buy their products or services or click on advertising and affiliate links.
Third, because there are billions of web pages on the Internet, providing high-quality focused content is critical for attracting your ideal client.
A website will not create traffic on its own. It will need work to attract the proper sort of visitors. This is when the assistance of an SEO manager is useful.
SEO management integrates two distinct skill sets: Internet marketing expertise and search engine optimization knowledge. Training in marketing, business, computer science, or similar disciplines of study is necessary for SEO management and other marketing-related professions. Check out this site about hiring experienced SEO experts.
There are few, if any, programs of study that specialize in SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a subset of the marketing profession that requires a specific understanding of search engine methods, consumer marketing, keyword research, and other aspects of web marketing.
A college or university job posting board, which may be available in the business, finance, computer science, or marketing departments, is a fantastic area to seek for SEO campaign management and other sorts of marketing job openings. You don’t have to be a student at the institution to use these resources in most situations.
There are a plethora of internet sites for locating marketing job vacancies – a quick Google search may provide a lot of information.
Online job boards may also give you useful information by compiling the greatest accessible list of marketing job vacancies in one place.
Get an SEO Quote
What Qualifies an SEO Campaign Manager in the Eyes of Employers?
Employers need a campaign manager who can plan clever content development and use the correct analytical tools to propel customers’ search engine rankings to the top of the main search engines.
Companies search for project management expertise and skills. You’ll need to be able to maintain a lot of spheres in the air while working through the logistical phases of a good SEO campaign.
A bachelor’s degree in computer science, marketing, business, or finance is preferred by many companies, but if you have excellent SEO expertise, you may be able to get around this need.
Computer coding languages such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are frequently required. You must be a multi-tasker who can communicate effectively both vocally and in writing.
Components of SEO
What does an SEO Manager do?
Before we examine when is the best time to hire an SEO Manager, let’s have a look at what an SEO Manager does.
Keyword Research:
Whether executing SEO for a client or for their own company, an SEO manager does keyword research to determine which keywords the company should target with SEO content.
On-Page & Technical SEO:
SEO managers are in charge of both on-page and technical SEO to increase website traffic. On-page SEO is boosting individual web pages for a specific keyword in order to increase search traffic from searches containing that keyword.
Technical SEO is the process of reviewing and refining a website’s technical implementation to make it more accessible to both humans and machines, particularly search engine crawlers.
The development and implementation of a content strategy is the responsibility of SEO managers. Material marketing is a sort of digital marketing that aims to create and share helpful, instructive, and ultimately valuable information to potential customers. When done well, content marketing establishes a company as a renowned authority in a certain sector or subject.
SEO managers are involved in content strategy development and may spend time drafting content briefs for a staff writer or authoring material themselves.
Conferences with Clients:
SEO managers meet with their client accounts on a regular basis to review strategy, define goals, and verify that their marketing activities are aligned with the customer’s business objectives.
Analyze data:
To identify which web pages or search queries are producing the most traffic, leads, and sales for their clients, SEO managers analyze online traffic data from sources like Google Analytics.
Unindexed Website
Unindexed Websites
The website is never found in search results.
It’s not uncommon for a business owner to conduct many searches each day related to their company. As a consequence, you may come across some keyword overlap when looking for material that is directly related to your business.
As a result, your site should occasionally appear on the first page. You won’t be able to nail it for every potential keyword, but if you’re doing some extremely particular long-tail searches and coming up empty, that’s a problem.
It indicates that you are not visible. This signifies that no one can locate your website and that your traffic is minimal.
Are you concerned about how to Assess Performance?
When you can’t find your website, it’s a sign that your SEO isn’t up to grade. It can provide a good indication of which keywords are effective and which are not.
However, it’s anecdotal in the sense that your view is based only on your own observations. Using analytical tools, such as Google Analytics, to see what’s working and what isn’t is a more scientific way of judging the site’s performance.
An SEO expert will begin by doing a thorough examination of your present approach. They’ll keep the things that are working and enhance the sections that aren’t.
When you’re on a shoestring budget
Marketers understand the value of SEO, and it’s steadily becoming a priority in a variety of businesses.
According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, 75% of marketers believe SEO is “very successful” or “very effective” in assisting them in achieving their objectives, although executives are frequently hesitant to spend extensively in an area that takes a long time to provide returns.
Budget constraints are a common stumbling block for SEO operations.
The Client Funnel is a Dustbowl
Are consumers coming to your site and then leaving without stopping? Is anyone making it all the way through your abandoned user funnel?
Once they’ve gotten visitors onto your site, SEO experts don’t have to quit. They can assist you in refining landing pages to encourage people to stay on your site longer.
It makes sense to take a comprehensive approach like this. The user’s flow might be disrupted by an abrupt shift in style and content between the meta description displayed on Google and the landing page.
You must double-check that everything is in order to meet the expectations put out on the search results page. And, of course, to improve the likelihood that they will do the action you desire.
Hire Us
Hire a Freelancer?
Some business owners engage freelancers to help them with their digital marketing plan right away. Other businesses understand the value of effective SEO when they grow and discover their current infrastructure can’t deliver the results they want.
In both cases, businesses turn to SEO professionals for assistance. Outside agencies, on the other hand, require advice that your in-house team may not be able to supply.
Furthermore, you require someone to advocate for the interests of your organization. This is when an SEO marketing manager comes in handy.
Agencies are wonderful, but if you don’t have someone on staff to advocate for, follow up on, and push things through, things might get lost or never get done.
With your business goals in mind, an in-house or freelance SEO specialist may oversee agency efforts and make the ultimate call on SEO campaigns, content marketing initiatives, and web page optimization.
A freelance SEO manager may run an SEO audit to uncover flaws and provide potential remedies if the SEO business you’re dealing with isn’t generating high-quality results. In situations like these a third party could be a great help.
Search Engines Have Charged You with A Penalty
Actions that Google and other search engines perceive to be unethical may result in a penalty. It makes no difference whether things were done on purpose or not.
The crawlers of Google don’t have emotional intelligence. They don’t always know the difference between an honest blunder and black hat methods. You’ll receive a penalty if you’re on the wrong side of the algorithm.
You may also be caught off guard if you aren’t up to date when the algorithm changes. Major Google upgrades are usually announced in advance, but there’s always the potential that a minor change can result in red flags appearing on your site.
Presumably, you’ll be ready before they go into effect. You must be proactive in your approach to change. This allows you to profit from any new elements that the system is now rewarding, rather than being caught off guard by those that it is suddenly punishing.
Since the launch of the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) initiative, mobile search, for example, has played a significant role. Firms that established a responsive or adaptable design for mobile prior to the release of this update reaped the benefits right away.
An SEO expert like David Carralon can assist your company in staying on top of all forthcoming developments. You must be flexible and stay up with changes in SEO since it is not a set landscape.
Author Bio:
Sunny Chawla is a Managing Director at Alliance Recruitment Agency. He specializes in helping clients with international recruiting, staffing, HR services, and Careers advice service for overseas and international businesses.
6 SEO White Hat Techniques That Can Rank Your Website In 2022
Introduction to White Hat Techniques for SEO
Are you thinking about the ranking of the contents in SERP? Then you have to learn in the initial stage about the white hat techniques to rank the contents on the search engine. We are telling you; it is very easy to handle. Just get the tactics and then put forward the methods upwards. In this way, you will get your demand fulfilled.
Google always works according to its algorithm, and that is why many of the users found this process difficult. But when you follow the white hat techniques, you will get in touch with new things. You follow the SEO Facts that will optimize your website.
Sometimes, white hat techniques manage to cover the traffic as well. There are common things like meta description, introduction, keyword functioning, etc. You have to cover all things carefully to get your website boost. For the time being, you proceed to the white hat techniques and their works.
What Is White Hat SEO?
White hat is a SEO strategy that focuses on the Google guidelines. However, you have to put them on content as your first priority. You can consider the whole process as White Hat SEO.
Most of the content marketing industries love to follow these strategies as it is safe to put forward and also have fewer backlogs. However, for the betterment of the content and also the content marketing business, you have to take a look at the white hat techniques.
You can follow the Best Free Small SEO Tools for learning in more detail. Let’s look at the white hat techniques.
Best SEO White Hat Techniques To Rank on Website
Here are the best white hat techniques for you. You have to use them all to get a good rank on SERP. Before that, you have to know that Google’s algorithm changes in the span of time. However, whatever you will do to your website, make sure that you are also putting your own thought into it.
You always have to keep in mind that you are following the mobile-friendly texture. You will have approximately 52% of viewers that use mobile phones to take a look at the tactics. However, the website design and the writing need to be like that.
If the reader found the paragraphs lengthy, it will get away from the website, so fix this problem as well. You have to make the website user-friendly then it will come on a rank.
Quality Keyword Research
White hat techniques are also for the keywords. If you overlook the keyword used in the articles, it will never come in the rank. Google has its own guidelines, and when you publish content on the website, it will track whether you have followed the guidelines or not.
If you don’t go through the keyword research, you can’t put the exact keyword in the content. This is why many times, the contents never come open the rank.
Use schema On The Website
Schema provides a competitive edge to the websites. You can use the HTML schema on your website. You can consider a schema as the collection of tags. When you use those tags, the readers will come to the main page from them as well.
Use it and drive your site into more traffic.
Need help with link building and outreach? We specialize in this area. Give me a call today or get a quote.
Link Building
Website ranking and the white hat techniques are both sometimes emerges. If you can get massive traffic on your site, then automatically, the content will come on the rank. However, you also have to focus on the link buildings.
You build several links on the website and then you get your demand fulfilled. Create the links and then see many people will directly switch on to the main page from many sites.
Reader Friendly Writing
Make your writing ss readers friendly. You have to focus that whatever you are writing is easy to read. You don’t know the age of the readers. This is why you have to make the language smooth and also conversational.
The white hat techniques give stress to the language. You tend to write in simple sentences. It will be easier for the readers. On the other hand, it will fetch the rank of the website on google.
Content Framing
According to the white hat techniques, when you are writing an article, this has to be prominent and also attractive. This will be done when you will place the H2, H2, title, and other things in a serial. There is a proper rule for writing articles. So, follow to get a rank on google.
Have you got the point cleared? If you get the exact point of SEO white hat techniques, then reflect them in your articles.
The Bottom Line for SEO that is White Hat Technique
Here are the necessary things about the white hat techniques. While you will write an article, keep in mind the SEO Strategies and write accordingly. Writing is the main part of a website. Don’t miss them.
Your article will come up in the rank only when you will put all things well in the content. However, start following the white hat techniques from today. And then see for the best results to come forward in the next few days.
5 Ways Local SEO Can Help Grow Your Local Business
Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO) enhances your online search engine outcomes or (SERP) positions on internet search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, helping you to grow your local business.
Seems basic, appropriate?
Not always. If you’re still a bit clouded on how exactly Search Engine Optimization can assist you to broaden your business, you’re not alone.
It is just one of the most regularly asked questions we get at Green Thoughts Consulting SEO services business. While many believe SEO is too expensive local SEO packages can be an affordable option for businesses that target a specific area.
To help clear the connection between Search Engine Optimization as well as local business development we have outlined the top 5 ways in which Search Engine Optimization can boost your bottom line:
1) Local SEO Rises Your Inbound Traffic
As a small company owner, you recognize just how much energy and time it requires to create leads via paid advertisements and also cold-calling, and also the relatively low return-on-investment of those marketing initiatives.
Search Engine Optimization targets leads that are actively looking for the services and products you give, conserving your money on outbound advertising while raising the number of qualified leads that connect with your organization.
With an increase in traffic sometimes you can get traffico anomalo google error that means your traffic is from unknown sources. You can resolve it just by using a VPN or also removing your browser caches.
2) It Gives Your Organization with A Reputation
Customers are conditioned to associate the integrity of a business with their search engine ranking. The usual idea is that the ‘best’ services can be found on the initial web page or 2 of the SERPs, while low-ranking sites have a tendency to generate less-than-positive assumptions from potential and current customers. SEO helps raise your SERP ranking, which in turn plays a huge duty in conversions, sales, as well as brand acknowledgment. Learn more about the customer journey here.
3) Local Search Engine Optimization Provides Long Lasting Results
Unlike a 30-second advertisement placed on the local radio terminal, a time-limited billboard project, or a print ad in the weekend paper.
SEO supplies long-lasting, ongoing advertising and marketing benefits for your local business.
Getting an SEO package will raise your online exposure over time, which helps you maintain a high ranking in the online search engine results.
In the end, it provides you with an excellent ROI on your advertising and marketing budget plan.
When you work with an SEO specialist to improve your online search engine rankings, you’ll know exactly what the services cost upfront, giving you full control over your digital marketing spend.
You can select which Search Engine Optimization solutions make good sense for your local business. Additionally, you can add on other features as your digital advertising and marketing grows and develops over time.
Plans like Backlink Building, Social Media platform publishing (e.g. Pikdo, Facebook, and others) as well as content marketing can all help your small business stick out from your competitors.
5) On Page Local SEO Makes Your Website More User-Friendly
Online search engine formulas, which are known as algorithms determine which websites are presented in what area of the rankings. What place will Google or Bing put your site in? 1st or the dreaded no man land of the 2nd page.
When a user keys in a search term the specific search engine will offer up websites that are user-friendly giving them preferential treatment. In this way, SEO involves improving the overall ‘user experience’ on your small business website.
Elements like how rapidly your site loads (site speed), how very easy it is to browse, and also whether or not your site is ‘mobile friendly’ all effect both your standing in the SERPs as well as the amount of time visitors spend on your website.
In fact, a simple “1-second delay in web page response can result in a 7% decrease in conversions,” per one study cited on Trinity.one
By boosting the customer experience on your small business website, you’ll enjoy greater search engine rankings, attract more visitors, as well as boost your conversion prices.
It’s a win-win for the visitors to your site and your bottom line!
In what follows we will first discuss Local SEO proper and it’s importance for your business.
From this point I’ll discuss how citations fit into that strategy and finally I’ll give you a quick solution for the citation problem. You can jump to the end here.
Let’s talk SEO, search engine optimization, and how to build your local presence on Google and the SERPS. A big part of off page SEO is still backlinks and it’s important to get some naturally. Don’t pay for your links this can give you a penalty from Google and cause you to lose rank. It’s tempting but don’t do it.
New to link building? Moz has a great beginners guide I don’ t have the time or resources to emulate so here’s the link.
In that article link building is defined as “the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own.” That same article goes on to suggest that links are one important way that Google and other Search Engines decide how to rank a site. Generally, the thought is that more links and better quality links are important for ranking.
If you stumble upon this article looking for info on technical SEO Ignite Visibility has a great post on just that. You can read the entire article at your leisure on Technical SEO here.
Local SEO and the
Importance of Citations
I agree that link building and link acquisition is important for business and thus I encourage you as a website owner to work hard to produce content that will be linked. However, today I want to focus on link building for local SEO and namely local citations.
This is a Real non-Rhetorical Question:
Do you ever find yourself wondering about your competitors and why they are ranking for local key words and on Google Maps higher than you?
If so the quick answer lies in something called a local citation aka a business citation or sometimes called a business directory listing.
Essentially a local
citation is made up of one of the following:
While we started this local SEO discussion talking about links it’s important to note that a local citation doesn’t need a link to your site to help with your local SEO. A citation validates and confirms your business is real and valid with or without a link. Citations help build the following a case for verification, trust and prominence.
Why your Business
should Care about Local Citations
Google and other Search Engines like Bing “read” these third party business directories and listing sites (the one’s that hold local citations) and take the data into account when determining which business/website to show for Geo-targeted searches.
Simply put Local Citations will help you to gain ground on your competitors in the Local Rankings.
Local SEO Action Items
The list of local citation and business directories is huge with literally 1000’s of niche directories. How should you attack the list?
You have two general options: do it yourself or hire someone to do it.
DIY Local SEO Citation Option:
This option is definitely cost effective. However, it’s like all things that are repetitive and boring—time consuming. You must ask yourself if your time is worth more to you than the amount of hours it will take to submit individually to each list.
Sure you can hire a virtual assistant or someone online, a college student, etc however, the quality of work is important here too. Google and the Search Engines do not like it when your NAP doesn’t match. So make sure that you check the work of VA’s and other low-cost “helpers” before going all-in with them.
Do it Yourself Game Plan?
If you decide to go this Do it Yourself Option I would simply set up a plan to hit 4 to 5 a day for 30 days or 60 or whatever. Create a scheduled time each day to do the work. Sit back and do it.
In my experience expect each 4 to 5 listings to take around 1 to 2 hours at first.
Hire or Outsource the Local Citations
Here at Green Thoughts Consulting building local citations is part of the Search Engine Optimization we do daily for clients.
If you are interested discussing that get in touch with us today.
Finally, we have put together a list of 150 of the best and highest quality business directory listings for your convenience. Enjoy.
How to Avoid Plagiarism in your content that boost your SEO ranking
Plagiarism is amongst the top concern about the ranking and most of the websites are not ranking because of this issue.
Plagiarism means copying the content of another website or publisher and use it for your purpose without giving a proper citation.
Everybody wishes for boosting the site but this is only possible through better optimization as well as with a better content strategy.
Google’s crawlers are enough intelligent to detect duplicate content on your website and if they find so, it would affect your ranking.
In this article, we will discuss more the detection of plagiarism as well as the ways to avoid this issue on your site.
Introduction to Google’s Panda update
The Google Algorithm, named as Google Panda Algorithm, scans your content and website to get the ranking for it.
This algorithm gets an update after a period and you need to optimize your site according to it. One of the biggest updates for this algorithm was that you should have plagiarism-free content on your website for ranking higher.
Besides, the algorithms also check for the quality of the content. In the qualitative measures, the uniqueness of the content is very important.
If you are copying the content from the other websites or you are stealing the idea of the content from other published content then you would be concerned with plagiarism.
The plagiarism would create a lot of problems for your site. Firstly, you would get the notice from the original author of the content while if the original author wouldn’t detect the content that you copied then the search engine will.
The search engine crawlers are enough intelligent to detects the originality of the content and penalize the website that copies.
To avoid it, below are some of the ways you can be away from plagiarism to maintain as well as boost your website’s ranking.
Ways of avoiding plagiarism in your content to boost the ranking
Come with your idea
When you are writing the content on a specific topic then instead of writing the content through copying the idea of the website, try to write in your ideas.
This doesn’t mean that you should go away from the original concept instead you should write the content with the same concept but a different structure.
Now, the best way to deal with this task is to research more and more to get more ideas about the topic and concepts.
This might take a lot of time but this is necessary for better and unique content. This would increase productivity in your writing while it would also help you to get high-quality content for your readers.
The readers are coming to your website to find informative content as well as unique content that is never uploaded on the internet before.
Get research material from multiple sources
When you are reading an article for writing a similar one then there are chances of plagiarism because the content you are reading is limited.
Not only this, your written content from a single source wouldn’t be creating informative content instead it would be less in quantity as well as less in quality.
Through reading multiple sources, your content will be better including the concept, quantity, as well as it will be plagiarism-free.
Go searching for more websites and read the content on it. Through reading maximum data, you can easily gather general ideas and this would have very little chance of plagiarism.
Paraphrase the original content
Paraphrasing is another option for avoiding plagiarism in your content. Paraphrasing means changing the words or reword a sentencewhich helps to remove the plagiarism.
The paraphrasing can be done through the online tools that are available online for free while these tools are instant and quick to convert the content.
Paraphrasing is the best way to remove plagiarism because plagiarism not only changes the words but it also increases the quality of the content because of the unique selection of the words.
Paraphrasing happens with the help of advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence. This way, the paraphrasing is done in a way that the actual meaning of the content remains the same.
Cite the source
The most appropriate way to use someone else’s content in your content is to cite the source. When you are taking another content, you should ask the permission and cite the source.
The citation means giving the credit by mentioning the original author name, source name, as well as the topic of the content.
Citing the source also has a good impact on the search engines for your site because the algorithms would consider your content to be plagiarism-free.
It is also recommended that you should give the link to the source for referring the traffic to the original post.
Different citation styles can be used for citing the source. Some of the citation methods are written below:
MLA
APA
Chicago
Different online tools can be used for making a citation to the source you used for your copied content.
Quoting the source
In blog posts or web content, you might need to write the sentence in the original form to make your content authentic.
However, this is possible through quoting the sentence that you are copying from the other website and using it in your source.
For example, you are writing about social media and you need to add some researched material in your content. Now, to write the original research, you can quote it along with the citation to avoid the plagiarism issue.
Conclusion
There was a time when using plagiarized content was not a big problem but now, because of the intelligent tools and bots, this can create serious offense for your site.
You should always consider checking the plagiarism online before publishing the content while the above ways will let you avoid plagiarism in your content.
Although the best way involves the original writing still, the mentioned ways will be helpful for you.
Is Your DIY Website Design Causing You Problems with SEO?
The most commonly discussed element in SEO is backlinks. For a long time, backlinks were the central feature of SEO, determining whether your website design would achieve top rankings. Backlinks are still a crucial factor in the process, but there are other parts that play a key role. How does a DYI Website Design stand up against a Custom Web Design?
On-page optimization has grown in importance in recent years, with a negative user experience damaging any chances of long-term success. If your website has not been optimized properly, Google can detect this both through their crawling and the response of searchers who visit your pages. So, what are the website factors you need to consider for effective SEO? Want more info on On-Page Optimization?
Speed
Website loading speed is not as commonly discussed as it should be. The time it takes for a page to load has a huge impact on reported user experience, with a matter of seconds between a positive and negative impression. Google have a page speed tool for testing loading times, while there are additional alternatives helping to get a broad picture. In the result of a problem, look at image optimization, quality of hosting, and using a CDN like Cloudflare.
The content on a page is of great importance, but it doesn’t need to be the same style in every instance. The best type of content for SEO will provide the bulk of searchers with exactly what they are looking for. This concept is called search intent. For example, some keywords will require a detailed article that goes into a lot of depth or niches only require a step by step guide that can be short and to the point. At the end of the day what is the traffic to your website looking for in return? Do they want quick answers? Or do they want to gain a deeper and thorough understanding of a specific subject. Get to know your traffic and your target.
Other queries, though, might only require a short answer to satisfy the search query. It is helpful to use your target keyword within the title and copy, while also including related terms. Dwell time is another SEO factor, so elements like video content can help increase the time spent on site.
Mobile First vs Responsive
Google has switched to mobile-first indexing, reacting to the increasing popularity in mobile usage. If your site does not offer an optimal experience for mobile users, you will struggle to maintain a great ranking. Most modern sites will offer responsive design, so they work across all types of devices. It is important to test your site using different devices, though, and run pages through the Google Mobile-Friendly tool. A great mobile experience won’t just replicate the desktop, but will instead be catered to the mobile browsing experience.
Here at Green Thoughts Consulting we find many clients have out dated and non-mobile friendly websites. Having a website in this state is hurting you more than you know. It’s simple really. How much do you make on your average sale? If a client ready to buy comes to your site and can’t see it due to issues with mobile etc they bounce or leave and then find a competitor. If we can redesign your site and get you just 2-5 new customers due to the design changes and optimization what is the worth to you based on your average sale?
Test your websites mobile friendliness with Google’s very own test here.
Social
Social media is a useful tool for promoting your website and blog content. Users might like and share your posts, leading to others seeing your content. This process can lead to greater visibility and engagement, creating backlinks for your site. The importance of social media for SEO is still debated.
However, the level of importance Google places on social links is not worth worrying about as there are plenty of indirect benefits to social promotion. The targeted backlinks you can gain on other platforms like industry blogs, often resulting from social media marketing, will play a huge role in ranking a page.
The URL structure might seem minor, but it can have a high impact on SEO and click-through rate. Some content management systems use an awkward URL structure that isn’t optimal. These URLs might be long and feature dates or random digits to make them unique. This type of URL can negatively impact click-through rate, with the search engines lowering your ranking as a result. Various tests have shown shorter URLs are most effective, so try to use a keyword phrase that sums up the article content.
Bruce Clay has a classic post on SEO Siloing. It’s a must read really.
Linking
Internal linking helps to pass authority around your site, increasing the rankings of certain pages. Wikipedia is the best known example of effective internal linking, with related pages helping users navigate around the site. This process also helps lower the bounce rate, avoiding a common SEO issue. Outbound links can be used to show the topical relevance of your content, with links typically going to authority sites within your industry. If you are looking for a great primer on internal linking vs external linking look here.
Conclusion
On-page optimization can play a key role in an SEO campaign. Many site owners focus exclusively on the off-page factors, attempting to gain increased numbers of backlinks. Some quick changes to the way a site is set up, along with adaptations on individual pages, can often be enough to satisfy the search engines and individual visitors. When you can offer an exceptional user experience that satisfies the point of the original search query, you stand a great chance of maintaining top rankings into the future.
Quotes from experts tell a story. Most of us out there like stories so why not use expert SEO quotes to tell that story? What story do you ask? The story of Search Engine Optimization.
You probably know the importance of content. If not head over to this post on the importance of having a content marketing strategy and why you should ignore it at your own peril.
You should also know that it is the key to attracting, building, and engaging with a loyal audience. But where do you start? Start here.
Building an engaging audience starts with On-Page SEO. However, it also involves the Off-Page link building. Rand Fishkin originally from Moz.com made the following observation.
If you provide true, honest, value-added messages, customers will be more likely to trust your business and feel more connected to you as its owner. In fact, there is more: the more often you provide real, messages that are value-added and honest, the more likely costumers will show loyalty to your products, or services.
Building links is a key and still one of the largest correlations to rank. In other words, you should be actively building links. As Rand noted above in his quote to do so you need to build relationships. Reaching out cold to companies for links is a losing strategy although one an SEO company will and should employ. Rather, get to know and “hang out” with those in your niche to build these relationships.
Your message must be targeted rather than just anything, right? To define it, and make it resonate with your customers, you must optimize it.
“The success of a page should be measured by one criterion. Does the visitor do what you want them to do?”
Here is where content optimization comes in handy. So on-page SEO is more than just writing for keywords. Rather, it’s about relationships and moving a visitor through a journey. You can read more about this process here.
This requires taking into account both the science and art of attraction and content production. First, you must write for humans. Humans are your customers. However, you also need to meet all of the on page SEO factors for the technical side of optimizing your content.
“SEO is only not seen as rocket science by those who already know it.”
While I understand what Mr. Sullivan is saying I’m not sure many of my clients, past or present, would agree with Danny’s sentiment.
So we are clear SEO is a digital marketing strategy that aims to make your content, or site more friendly to users, and search engines and thereby increase the traffic to your site.
If done correctly it will increase the presence of your content in search results on search engines like Google, Bing, etc.
There is a ton of research that has both been done and is being done in the area of SEO. At a meta-level, the “what to do” and “what not to do” are known.
The steps go like this. Do some keyword research. Optimize your on-page SEO. Earn some links to your page. Get more traffic.
However, many neglect to remember that all of the above steps should point toward answering the questions your customers need to hire you.
Do this consistently over time and you will win.
Duane Forrester, formerly the senior product manager of a search engine Bing, has defined the SEO strategy as a marketing tactic, precisely:
“On a broad scale, I see SEO becoming a normalized marketing tactic, the same way TV, radio, and print are traditionally taught as marketing tactics.”
The idea here is that search engine optimization is a fundamental and necessary part of core marketing just as TV, radio, and print have been throughout modern times. You can’t neglect SEO within your business if you want to grow.
For Wendy Piersall, the founder of Woo! Jr. kid’s activities, a website for kids stats it well with this SEO quote.
“Google only loves you, when everyone else loves you first.”
Wendy’s point in the above quote, I believe, is to say that you receive love from Google or any search engine, when and if you have created a user experience that really excites the user.
Technically this is measured by the amount of time your users stay on your page, bounce rates, pages/session, etc. In addition to on-page technicals and backlinks you need to create an over the top user experience.
Doing so will increase your rankings.
Adam Reimer from Search Engine Journal, added more to the argument commenting as to what makes great content.
“Focusing on quality over quantity is what can help to protect your site as Google updates.”
So, avoid putting your effort, time, and money into one of the biggest misconceptions about search engines- it’s not all about quantity. The quality of your products is the key, not the quantity. My own personal SEO quote follows:
SEO Quote article and the benefits for you and your business?
SEO when executed properly with the guidance of an expert will help you to create user-friendly content, which, consequently, helps bring more qualified potential customers for your products or services. It also helps build your brand’s awareness, and trust for your business.
The following SEO quote comes from Senior Vice President, Media Services, SEO Lead, Adam Audette commented:
“Today it’s not about just getting the traffic. It is about getting the targeted, and relevant traffic. For a small business owner, there is a bonus. SEO helps you to bypass your competitors, and to gain new customers.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. At the end of the day all that matters when it comes to the spend of your marketing dollars is do you get leads and customers. If you are failing here it’s time to examine the entire process. I feel obligated to say I can help you.
Don’t just believe me about your marketing dollars. NY Times best-selling author and digital marketing coach Gary Vaynerchuk provided the following SEO Quote:
“Content is King, but marketing is Queen, and it runs the household.”
To sum up, SEO is a crucial digital marketing strategy for your small business owners and entrepreneurs to implement. It helps you attract loyal costumers and feed your marketing funnel.
Now more than ever, in this new COVID time you must be online and firing on all cylinders. Digital marketing strategies are built just for this purpose and must be part of marketing tactics in your tool belt.
SEO for artists is for the most part very similar to Search Engine Optimization in general. However, it’s been my personal experience having worked with artists on web design and SEO projects that there are a few particulars to keep in mind.
On Page SEO Definition
On page SEO is simply put the process of optimizing your website and individual website pages for search engine optimization. First, this involves site speed which is made up of image compression or serving the correct size for speed and quality, SSL validation or the presences of https, and running the right type of website and using a decent host.
Further, it involves using the right keywords and doing keyword research to understand and maximize value and traffic. You will use these all-important keywords to maximize the SEO title, SEO meta-descriptions, URL, and SEO header tags (h1-h6).
Setting up your artwork and site for success means following the process mentioned below so you “score” well with on page SEO.
Off Page SEO Definition
Off Page SEO is the set of factors that help your site rank that is not on your actual website. These include link related issues and non-link related issues.
The link related issues involve the number of domains that link to your site. The quality of these domains in terms of links that site has, the relevancy of that site to yours (niche). It also matters how those links are technically linked, are they dofollow or “nofollow” links? Further, on page SEO involves something called anchor text, which is the text you see when you click on a link.
The non-linking related issues involve your brand mentions, NAP (Name Address Phone) mentions, social signals (people sharing your content), and finally Google My Business existence for your business.
Both on page and off page search engine optimization are important for artist websites just like any other site. Let’s dive into the specific factors in more detail. But first, it’s important to start with an audit.
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SEO Audit for Artists
As with any project that includes SEO you should start with a website audit.
A technical website audit will provide you with the details and underlying information to make decisions that will actually move the needle for your site in a quantitative manner.
An SEO audit should include on page SEO factors such as site speed measurement, SSL validation, on page factors such as title, meta descriptions, and header tags (H1-H6).
Let’s work through a few of these and make comments both generally and specifically as it applies to SEO for artists.
On Page SEO for Artists
Site Speed for Artist Websites
This is becoming a larger force in the search engine ranking world. Google announced in May 2020 that it would begin including several site speed factors in it’s ranking algorithm for sites.
Namely, it refers to these as Core Web Vitals. These include how fast your website “paints” for the users and measures perceived load time or speed. There are some other technical factors that I could mention here but won’t as it’s essentially about the speed of the site.
The best place to check your site speed is Pingdom and GTMetrix.
As for metrics, Google is looking to have your site load in under 2.5 seconds and I would shoot for under 2 if it were me. This can be a real issue for artists as their specific sites tend to be loaded with high-resolution images.
No doubt this is an issue. It simply means you need to build your site and specifically the images in a way that allows them to load as quickly as possible. Don’t sacrifice quality for speed.
As an artist one should not gut the quality of images in order to significantly increase page speed. Rather, you should optimize these images so they are sized correctly. Perhaps no bigger than the resolution of an average desktop.
If you are using WordPress there are several plugins available for this purpose.
Image Compression Plugins for WordPress
ShortPixel is the go-to WordPress image compression plugin for those looking to speed up a site. It is free to use, but only allows 100 image compressions per month. I advise you to spend the extra cash the first month or so and get your images compressed.
If you just aren’t feeling ShortPixel here’s a great blog post that will give you other options. For an artist, image compression is a must.
Use it regularly and run it after each post or update. As an artist, the speed of your site will depend to an extent on your image compression. Just keep balancing this with quality. Quality first when it comes to images and SEO for artists.
Alt-Text for Images
Aside from the issue of image size all images have something called an Alt-text. I find like header tags the average bear that builds its own website is missing lots of alt-text.
For an artist that is showing their product,this is a no-no. You MUST include your Alt Text for each and every image.
If you think about it a robot, even a smart ai robot, can’t read an image. So what is it to do with all those images on artist websites?
Enter Alt-text or Alt Descriptions. Alt-text is associated with one per image. In WordPress, there is a box when you upload the picture that says “alt text (alternative text)”. Inside this box, you describe for the bots what the picture is of or representing.
As you may have guessed it’s a good idea to get your keyword, words, or lexically similar keywords into the alt text. However, don’t overdo it. If you over-optimize every area for your keyword in every image, every header tag it will look like it was written for a bot first and foremost.
Don’t do that. Do however put an alt text on every image. Do let most images on a post or page have the exact or a similar description to that of the main keyword.
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SSL Validation
SSL validation relates to whether or not a website has secure socket layers. This merely means is your site secured or not. For the most part, this is free on the better website hosting companies. My favorite hosting providers are SiteGround or Bluehost. It is non-negotiable for artist sites and non-artist sites. Get the SSL certificate.
This is a binary question. You either have it or you don’t. If you don’t have it you need it.
You will know you have it if your website starts with https:// at the beginning of your website address, rather than just http://.
Keywords & SEO for Artists
Writing for the benefit of both readers and SEO is important. When you sit down to write a post or blog about a finished piece of art do some keyword research first. It will help a ton.
When it comes to SEO keyword research is where it’s at. Learn to do it.
Keyword research means understanding what real people are actually searching for in the area of your art. You may think to yourself it’s obvious my piece is a 24×24 Stripes and Butterflies Acrylic Gesso. But is that what people are searching for?
Many of us in a particular field or niche use technical language within our area of expertise. However, people don’t search for “stuff” that way.
Often a keyword you as an expert feels is the right one to use in a technical sense will only yield 10 to 50 searches per month, which is low volume. This is a fail.
On the other hand, a formal SEO keyword search will yield the actual volume or number of searches per month on given words and phrases.
At the end of the day to achieve good SEO on an artist’s website it is a good idea to provide category headings that hit large volume keywords such as “Nature Paintings” or “Lifescape Photography” and then on individual piece pages use longer tail keywords like “dark purple nature paintings during dawn” or “lifescape photography in the western USA of cacti ”.
What’s a good keyword volume? It depends.
Generally, you need some keywords with 500 plus visits a month and then many with 10 to 100 visits per month. Remember you won’t get all of these searches because others will be ranking for each keyword too.
If you need help with Keyword research just let me know.
SEO Titles
Title tags or SEO Titles are important to your SEO efforts. Missing, duplicate, or poorly constructed title tags for SEO are damaging to your SEO efforts.
Instead, focus first on actually having an SEO title tag that contains the primary keyword for that article or page. For example, utilize a category page that contains a keyword that has search intent and volume that is around 250 to 500+ for a small site. Look for keywords with lower keyword difficulty.
Keyword difficulty is simply put how difficult it is to rank for that keyword. It is a subjective measure to an extent as different SEO Keyword sites provide differing Keyword Difficulty metrics. I prefer the KD of Ahrefs.com or KeywordFinder.com. Keyword Difficulty under 20 is a safe starting point for new sites.
At the end of the day write an SEO title for humans that has the keyword you are optimizing that page for.
Meta Descriptions for Artists
Meta descriptions are important for SEO as well. They achieve several purposes.
First, meta descriptions provide an overview or blurb about what your post or page is about to a searcher. When you search you see the Title of the Page and a short paragraph about the page.
Secondly, the meta description can help increase click-through rate and make your page get clicked on more than another search result that may be boring or just wrong for the search intent.
If you don’t create meta descriptions for your site the individual search engine will choose one for you. This is to be avoided. Do you want a robot describing your art to a searcher?
Rather, you should craft the meta description to be informational, contain the actual keyword you are ranking for on that post/page.
Like most on page SEO items, none in and of itself will change your traffic dramatically. However, each item ads a synergy to the total rank algorithm.
SEO Header Tags (H1-H6)
It amazes me how many websites I run across that don’t have proper header tags setup. I’ve found many people that build their own website believe header tags are just differing sizes for fonts within a text. No.
While the aforementioned is true the point of a header tag is entirely different that font size. Header tags allow search engine robots, or “bots”, to understand the structure of your post or article. They create structure.
Every page must have an H1, every single one. Every page must have only one H1, every single one. Not two, only one.
An H1 header tag is the main or overarching idea of the article. For example, this post has an H1 of SEO for Artists because that’s what the article is all about.
Digging a little deeper after the one and only H1 on a page you should try to break down your text into a few H2 or subheadings and if it’s a particularly long and wordy post it will help to use H3 tags as well. These tags are crouched within each other as below:
Notice in this example that one of the h2 tags “Best Season to Grow tomatoes” has not subheadings. This is ok. What isn’t ok is to have two H1. Don’t stress about this structure there is no true right or wrong it’s about providing clear headings so the robots can understand what you are saying and “follow” the conversation.
What should you worry about then?
It’s becoming a refrain. Get your page or post Keyword in *some* of these headers. Do it naturally. Don’t force a keyword where it doesn’t belong. Use semantically similar keywords, which means words with similar meanings.
Search engines have a robust artificial intelligence. So, use the words you would when you are talking to someone. Always remember you are writing for the people and search engines.
Practically speaking, artists should use keywords in there header tags that describe what one might search for when looking for that item. Don’t forget your specific name for an item may have very low search and therefore require you to utilize a term that is broader which does receive search volume.
Use categories and locations to start with. So try things like “Chattanooga TN flower paintings” or “paintings of flowers” instead of more detailed descriptions.
The aforementioned will work better and get seen more searchers eyeballs than Polka-dot with Blue and Yellow Spill Spot Dress made with re-engineered rawhide (or some super-specific name.
URLs for SEO
When you create a new page or post on your website it’s important to build a URL that includes the keyword you are targeting.
But it’s far better for SEO to use a something like https://yourdomain.com/seo-for-artists/. This latter allows you to have your keyword in your URL, which studies have shown to help your SEO.
Off Page SEO for Artists
Link-related off-page factors
Number of referring domains
This indicator is rather simple to explain. It is merely a count of the number of domains (other websites) that link to your domain. To be clear a domain is the main root path of your website.
For example, https://mydomain.com/some-blog-post/ in this domain the root domain is “mydomain.com”. So you are counting how many different root domains link to you.
There is no good number here. It is all relative. However, as you will see below under relevancy it’s important to have domains that are related to your area of interst.
Link authority
Dofollow vs. “Nofollow” Links
In the technical SEO space, there is an HTML coding mechanism that essentially states how someone is linking to another site. This has been complicated in recent years by a few other technical SEO linking tags, but I’m going to make this simple for my artist friends.
In the HTML world, it looks like a snippet of code or tag like rel=”nofollow”. There is also code nomenclature like UGC and Sponsored links too. I wouldn’t worry much about these. You want Dofollow links on your site. Why?
Google doesn’t transfer PageRank across nofollow links (i.e., links with a rel=“nofollow” tag), so it pays to prioritize the building of followed (dofollow) links. Simply put you want to gain or get dofollow links because this will pass more authority to your site.
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I should note there is still value in nofollow links. It can help with referral traffic. Some large website providers and forums will “nofollow” all links, but the value of having a link on these sites overshadows this fact as far as the volume of traffic you get from that referral.
If you are getting links naturally or building natural looking links you will not have any control over the type of relationship your link has so it’s better to relax and not stress over this point.
Anchor text
The anchor text is the clickable visible part of a link. So if there’s a link that says Green Thoughts Consulting then “Green Thoughts Consulting” is the anchor text. If the link reads SEO for Artists then “SEO for Artists” is the anchor text. Note that the link is the same in both cases.
Anchor text is all about the text people see when they click the link.
One very important note. You need natural anchor text throughout all your links.
Why because an “abnormal” anchor text profile is consistent with poor SEO practices that are called “Black Hat SEO” and can lead to a Google penalty on your site or de-indexation. De-indexation means Google no longer shows your site at all. It’s a death knell for SEO.
It’s really all about the percentage at which types of anchor text occur. So what percentages do you want as artists?
Generally speaking, the anchor text should be your Brand or website address.
At the end of the day, you don’t have a lot of control over this. Others are linking to you as they wish and you don’t control those links.
Paying for links or having agencies build links for your site that are highly phrase, partial or exact is a dangerous business practice that will result in a Google Penalty. Let it happen naturally.
Here’s the break down recommended by myself and Gotch SEO.
Here’s a great blog post on Anchor Text from Gotch SEO if this is a subject you enjoy check it out.
Relevance
I mentioned relevancy above and it’s really important to any site. When people link to you they are effectively voting that your site is the best ideal of what they are looking to link to because if it wasn’t they would link elsewhere.
However, getting votes that are more relevant to your niche or subject is huge. Relevant links will move the SEO needle more for your site.
Here’s an example: if you have a site that focuses on sculptures and you live in Dallas Texas. Your relevancy would boost the most by getting links from sites that are art-related, sculpture related, fine art related, gallery related, art collector related etcetera.
However, if that same site had links from restaurants, engineering websites, business websites or sports websites the relevancy would be much lower. You want links from relevant niches.
Non-link-related off-page factors
NAP citations
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. These are usually directories on the internet or forums that have lists of people in the industry.
Citations of this sort are one of the top local SEO ranking factors and are very important if your business is trying to get clients in a specific area or region.
It’s also important that your NAP information is as consistent as possible between citations, as this allows Google to effectively tie those citations together as part of your online profile. Local and area service businesses underestimate this issue with divergent NAP information. It’s very important.
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Brand mentions
There is little mystery here it simply means you get bonus points in the rankings when your art or name (read “brand”) is mentioned. This mentioning can be an actual link (hyperlink) to your website or an unlinked mention.
Unlinked: John Doe Art is having a sale this week.
So, you want to be on social media and forums so you can get mentioned by other brands. Being mentioned by others is looked at as a vote by Google.
Some examples of ways to get mentions include: get on podcasts, other video creators YouTube channel, guest post on other blogs, social media likes, shares, created posts from others about you. The list can go on and on but the idea is to get your brand and name out there.
Google My Business
If you are in business you MUST have a Google My Business page. You can build one easily. The optimization of a GMB page is a subject in and of itself that you can read about here, however, it will benefit small local businesses the most. But just because it benefits local doesn’t mean you should ignore it.
It allows you to have a “service area” this area can effectively be the USA or a State you sell in primarily. You should go set one up today if you don’t have one but remember the NAP (name, address, phone) needs to match your website and be consistent across all platforms.
Another off page ranking factor that will apply to SEO for artists is that of Reviews. Specifically, we are talking about positive reviews. There are many types of review software helpers out there but I’m not going to dive into that. If your interested check out this review of your options.
The best practice is to get a link to Google My Business Reviews and/or Links to another site that holds reviews and add this to your new customer process.
For example, let say Suzie Q purchases a custom tapestry from you. When she clicks complete purchase she gets a tracking email and a receipt for her purchase. A few days after your average delivery time and no more than approximately 14 days after purchase give or take Suzie Q needs to receive an automated request to review the artwork.
This could be a direct link to the review page with an email request. It could also be an online survey that first asks if she is happy with the product on a scale of 1 to 5. If Suzie Q rates you a 4 or 5 she is sent to the review link if not she is given the opportunity to email you about it. This way you minimize the impact of negative reviews while automating the process of getting reviews.
In my opinion, businesses should ask for reviews from customers in an automated fashion with logical forwarding based on their response as noted above. Most if not all of your business online tasks as far as emails or interaction after purchase should be automated so you can focus on what you love creating great art.
Wrapping Up SEO for Artists
There are a few particulars that artists doing SEO need to keep in mind however, for the most part, SEO is SEO. It can be a dry technical subject for some but it has a huge impact on your business.
Download our checklist for free which will guide you step by step with a practical video walkthrough for that list. Tackle one or two items a week and ask for help when you need it. The most important thing is that you are making progress and creating every day.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post so please post below.
By submitting your blog to free blog submission sites you can increase your exposure to visitors that frequent those sites. This is a “no brainier” way to get more traffic to your site by taking advantage of these blog submission sites.
I recommend that bloggers and business owners with a blog submit regularly to these blogs until the entire list of blog submission sites has been worked through.
You can also check out our list of the top 150 citations for SEO, which is another great way to increase your visibility.
One can tackle this list in chunks by simply scheduling an hour or 30 minutes per day to make submissions to blogs.
The easiest way to chunk this list is to create a template for submissions that will be used to readily grab information from by users.
You can take the time to create a blog submission template checklist or simply download ours for ease of.
Creating your own Submission Checklist
Start by identifying an email address to use for submission.
It’s a best practice, in my opinion, to create one just for this purpose. Keep in mind some sites will not allow a simple Gmail or yahoo email address.
I usually just create an email address at my domain like blog-submission-list@example.com
Another best practice is to keep a copy and paste information log for the submission so you don’t have to create it each time.
I find following and tracking my submissions to be helpful.
It’s encouraging and motivating as you can see you are knocking out the list over time.
I find it best to put this in excel and save it for reference when I’m ready to work on the blog submission sites list every few days.
I’m always for saving money during particular phases of growth, therefore, I blog regularly about affordability in web design.
I encourage you to work on submitting your blog to these in order to build your community and list. If you would like help with the submission process simply reach out to us.
We’ve put together a ready to use list of 150 local citations for SEO complete with sources and directories that we use for our clients. Work your way through the list, using the same information about your business at each listing location.
Allow 1-2 hours per 5 listing at the beginning and then things will pickup. If this time commitment is unreasonable or not cost effective for you we can do this work for you
In addition to this list, it is also a great idea to get your name and information listed in local directories, industry specific directories, with local newspapers, with local chambers, and with local or regional blogs and websites.
Local Citation Pro Tips:
Some of these listing sites will give you ton of “almost spam” in your inbox after you get the listing confirmed. My professional suggestion is to create another email address for these listings. Something like listings@yourdomain.com a simple yahoo or gmail address will not work.
Also you don’t have to and shouldn’t post in every one of these. If you are not a hotel business then don’t post on hotels.com.
150 local SEO citation sites can be overwhelming at first, however we’ve made it easy for you by sorting the list based on Authority
If you would like help with creating a checklist to get all of these submitted you can signup below.
If you’re interested in professional help with your search results for Local Listings and personalized search engine optimization check out our Local SEO Service or Talk to Us about your challenges and business goals.
