WordPress – SwaCash | Internet Marketing

Yoast SEO – advantages and disadvantages for your optimization

Do you want to learn more about the WordPress SEO plugin from Yoast? Then just read this post by giving you the most important one.

What is Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin, and what does it offer?

As the operator of a website, you want your page to be found by search engines. Rank in Google and Bing search results is one of the purest forms of internet marketing. The so-called search engine optimization mainly consists of two large fields: on-page and off-page. Off-page are, for example, other websites that link to your page and thus “recommend” you. On page is all you can do on your page to appear for a keyword in the index. An SEO plugin helps with these SEO measures.

You have to consider a few things when writing your posts, and every article has the chance to rank well with search engines for the right focus keyword. It also gets more clicks. More clicks on your entry on Google means more readers on the website. This, in turn, brings you more conversion. Depending on the intent, more transformation can mean higher advertising revenue through more reach or more sales. What exactly do you have to consider when optimizing your website for a search engine? The Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress will help you with this.

The plugin shows you additional fields such as meta description, meta title, page title and focuses keyword under each article. These are necessary so that Google and other search engines can understand what your page is about. This information is also used for your entry in the index. You can also get more conversion if you are already ranked, but your meta description or the page title in the search results is not appealing enough.

Installation

In the WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins and enter Yoast SEO in the search bar. With one click, you download the plugin and install it on your WordPress. After installation, the configuration wizard will guide you through the necessary settings and functions in ten simple steps, if you want. If you have previously installed other SEO tools such as wp SEO or All-in-One SEO, you can import the settings into the installation of Yoast SEO and do not have to create everything again. To do this, go to Import and Export and “Import from other SEO plugins” in the Tools tab. Put a tick, click import, and the settings will be transferred.

As the operator of a website, you should be registered in the Google Search Console, formerly Webmaster Tools. If Google detects problems with your page, you will be informed. You can connect the Search Console to your WordPress. Statistics, i.e. essential data for your SEO measures and tips for better conversion, are displayed directly on the dashboard. The SEO plugin can also help you with the traffic light.

If you already have a relatively large page and are installing the plugin for the first time, you can see in a clear dashboard which posts need optimization. With a simple traffic light system, each of your pages is marked in green, yellow or red. With each field that you have optimized, more traffic lights jump to green. Of course, no one wants to edit over 100 pages individually and optimize them for a focus keyword. Therefore, the Yoast SEO plugin offers so-called templates. Just create a rule like A field “title” should always be composed of “Category: Page title” or the meta description should always be the first 120 characters of the post. And you’ve already optimized hundreds of pages in five minutes. But that is only the beginning.

All functions of Yoast SEO at a glance

Both versions of the Yoast SEO Plugin (Premium and Free) have the following functions in addition to the necessary additional fields required for SEO in WordPress:

Keyword check

The SEO plugin automatically calculates how often your focus keyword appears in the text and uses the traffic light to show you whether it is too little or too often. It also checks whether the keyword is in the right places. This is possible, for example, in the page title and the first paragraph of the text. Of course, your keyword should also be found in the “Meta description” field and the URL to achieve a good entry in the index. This is a good start for your SEO measures.

Legibility

The Flesh Reading Ease Score is determined automatically. This tells you how simple or complicated your text is written. The calculation is based on a simple formula. A score of 60-70 is easy to read for an eighth-grader; a score between 0 and 30 is only understandable for university graduates. An important factor here is short sentences and the use of binders such as before, after, nonetheless. The Flesch Index is probably the best-known indicator of excellent legibility of texts. However, there are other indices for readability, such as the Viennese exact formula and the Gunning Fox Index.

Breadcrumbs

Something that you write either fits into different categories or you change the article types when writing and the breadcrumbs get mixed up. With the plugin you can easily define the first category and determine the subsequent taxonomy without having to work long in the backend. If you have not yet created breadcrumbs on your page, you should consider such measures in SEO think. They are accommodating for good online marketing of your website. Google partially takes over the breadcrumbs in the entry. So instead of the URL http://www.meinehomepage.com/neuerartikel under the blue heading in the snippet in small letters is http://www.meinehomepage.com> Category> Subcategory> Third level. This way, the search engine knows better whether your page matches a keyword. The searcher also knows quickly and clearly that he wants to read your page.

Duplicate content

Avoid duplicate content! The Yoast SEO plugin helps you via canonical to mark the original content. For example, if your page can be reached at the URL www.deinehomepage.com and yourhompage.com, these are two different URLs with the same material. To avoid that a search engine classifies this as duplicate content, you simply set a so-called canonical link. There are also so-called scraper websites on the web. These search the internet for exciting content and automatically copy it to a collection page that should rank for a specific keyword. If you have an RSS feed, this SEO plugin adds it to the link building feed with a canonical link each time. So everyone who takes your content automatically links back to your page and is not classified as a duplicate content.

Technical SEO

You have no idea what robots.txt, .htaccess files, clean permalink URL and sitemaps are or how you access the backend of your site? You don’t have to know that either. The Yoast SEO Plugin is easy to install and automatically configures a few essential technical SEO aids in the backend. This will make your page more visible. The clear dashboard is helpful to make things in the backend easy to understand. If you are already familiar with .htaccess, Permalink and robots.txt, you can easily optimize them using the SEO plugin. Also, you do not need an additional plugin to create an XML sitemap.

Noindex and Nofollow

Most of the time, you want your posts to have a Google entry, but not the many archive pages on the keyword. Then you should set the Permalink to noindex here. Or you have an article that is only available for advertising purposes, and you want the Permalink in the text to be set to nofollow in order not to spread the link juice unnecessarily. This is also easier to change with Yoast SEO than in the standard WordPress dashboard or backend.

Images SEO

An often neglected field of search engine optimization is SEO. First of all, of course, you have to consider whether you want your images to appear in Google Images Search. If this is the case, then Google must know what can be seen in the pictures. You can tell the search engine this with an image title on the one hand and with the alt attribute on the other. The alt attribute is the meta description for images. If you prefer to write “What a beautiful forest” as a caption for a picture of a squirrel that eats a nut, then you should write in the alt attribute what can be seen: “Squirrel eats nut”. If someone searches for squirrels in the image search, they will find your image as an entry for this keyword.

Linking

The Google algorithm was initially based on not merely listing all the search results that match a keyword. Above all, it was essential to enter the pages particularly high in the index, which have many links from other pages. This type of recommendation mechanism made Google better than other search engines. Therefore, it is part of proper search engine optimization. It is a kind of code of honour for online marketing. So if you find something useful on the net, don’t just write about it, but link it. Make sure to link a page with Permalink. This is a page where the link does not change. If you search for a product in the search engine, the link to the search will no longer be active approx. 20 minutes later.

Timeliness

Have you ever heard of a panda or penguin? In the online marketing world, these are not just animals, but above all significant changes in the Google algorithm, which often lead to a sudden sharp drop in visibility in the index. This can also affect pages that are well optimized. Google even makes small changes, about 500 to 600 times a year. The Yoast SEO plugin is updated every two weeks. So if Google spontaneously changes something in the algorithm, your page is quickly up to date.

Preview

What does your entry look like in the search results? And what if a potential customer or reader is looking for you from a cell phone? Sometimes this is good to know before the text goes online. Therefore, the Yoast SEO Plugin shows your Google Snippet directly under each article. You can see a section of the search results or what they will look like. Google also uses so-called “rich snippets”. This means that your Google “snippet” is enriched with other functions, depending on the article type and keyword. Rich snippets are, for example, the sightseeing carousel, if you are looking for a place, or the box on the right, adding pictures, names, excerpts from Wikipedia,

Even if the standard Google entry begins with breadcrumbs or with stars because it is marked as a rating, this is already considered a “Rich Snippet”.

The advantages of Yoast Premium compared to the free version.

One of the main arguments for the premium version is, of course, support. If you like to leaf through FAQs and Yoast’s knowledge base, you will have no problems finding help. However, the premium version offers round-the-clock support by email for one year.

Also, the premium version not only has a preview of what the snippet shown in the index will look like later. It also shows a preview for Facebook and Twitter. This is how you will find out what your page looks like when someone shares it on Facebook or Twitter. The plugin shows you which text and which thumbnails are used for posts so that you can make changes before you press the “Publish” button. If you don’t want to think about it for every article, you can simply set a template for the social media metadata in this SEO plugin so that it is always the right title and the right picture in the correct format.

When it comes to internal linking, the premium variant automatically makes suggestions as to which of your pages you can link to in the new article. And while you are writing. No (internal or external) linking would be a waste of a good text or a well-running material. You cannot always keep all the pages and article types of your homepage in mind. However, the plugin can check all of your pages and make suggestions that would be suitable for internal linking. The internal link is an integral part of on-page optimization.

Content Insight

Automatic content insight is particularly useful. The five keywords that appear most frequently in the post are displayed. So you can quickly compare whether they correspond to the desired keyword for which the article should rank or whether another focus keyword has crept in. This is particularly helpful if you like to deviate from the topic in the page title when writing. BTW: If you want to optimize a text for more than one focus keyword, you can create several keywords with Premium, on which your text should be optimized.

A redirect manager is also included as a feature in Yoast SEO Premium. Redirect plugins are available in the plugin store for free and like sand at sea. However, sometimes it is better if everything comes from a single source, and you have no additional installation. The more plugins installed in WordPress, the higher the chance of performance or compatibility problems, especially with updates. The practical thing about the Redirect Manager in the Yoast SEO Plugin is that it asks you every time you delete a page, and the Permalink threatens to go nowhere to redirect the URL in the backend. So no user ends up in 404 nirvana, and the dashboard is clear.

Internet marketing digression

A little internet marketing digression on redirects: For example, if you want to switch from the URL with http://www.meinehomepage.com/456132 to a speaking URL like http://www.meinehomepage.com/here standing essential things, you should redirect the old page to the new URL. If you wrote an article about new buildings ten years ago under the URL http://www.meinehompage.com/neubauten2008 and you want to write an updated version under the permalink http://www.meinehomepage.com/neubauten2018 and delete the old material, you should, of course, remove it Link new ones, and no user will land on a 404 error page. Also, all the old links then link to your pages and they have a good start in the search results. Make sure the title and URL are similar on both.

The SEO plugin also offers a CSV export in the premium version. Of course, you can manually create an online marketing table in which all pages are listed with their focus keyword or simply use the WordPress dashboard so that you do not appear in the search results with multiple pages on the same keyword. But that’s Sisyphean work. With the installation of the premium version, you can easily export and download this table, including SEO scores into a CSV file. This feature saves time.

Finally, unlike the free version, this premium version is, of course, ad-free for all types of items. For this, you pay 79 euros net for one year, including support and updates.

Disadvantages of the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin

In contrast to the free version, the premium version naturally costs money. But you get an excellent package of features. But whoever searches, finds. So you can also name a few disadvantages with this SEO plugin, but they tend to border on “complaining at a high level”.

Some functions of the premium variant should be used with caution. If you are not familiar with SEO measures and simply accept all suggestions for internal linking, readers will quickly end up in a click circle. Also, it is not pleasant, and the readability on page disturbs if five words are underlined in each sentence.

Optimizing a text for several keywords is feasible without prior knowledge, but not always useful. For example, to optimize it, you need to know that the keywords are very similar and should cover the same search intent.

Google can now see very well that online marketing, online marketing and online marketing are the same keywords. The Yoast SEO plugin cannot. It only finds exact matches in the traffic light rating with meta description and title in the snippet.

In particular, the semantic feature with Flesh Reading Ease Score for readability does not always work correctly in languages other than English. The feature content analysis in the premium version is also not available in all words. Previous languages for which it is optimized are: English, German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

Snippet

Sometimes Google automatically picked parts of the page for the title or description in the snippet because no metadata was stored. For example, if you change the “Meta description” field, the piece in the index is still the old one and different from the preview. It happens that the snippet displayed under your article does not match Google. That may be surprising, but it doesn’t matter. Your SEO measures will still appear in the search results over time. The social snippets sometimes look a little different than in the preview. For example, less text is used for the title or Facebook / Twitter posts show more of the URL.

The Yoast plugin itself is not actively looking for duplicate content. For example, the SEO tools sideliner or FeedWordPress SEO Fix are much more suitable.

The underlying parameters of the plugin are, of course, standardized and therefore do not cover all article types. This means that if you write a glossary with many short texts, the tool will recognize it as not optimized and make suggestions for improvement. Among other things, that it should be more than 300 words. You want to keep this page as short as possible.

We, therefore, recommend the Yoast SEO plugin

Even the free version offers extensive functions to optimize your page fundamentally. The Yoast SEO Plugin is simple to use and easy to understand. It covers the essential SEO requirement that your website needs to be found by a search engine. You suddenly know what a page title is and what your preview looks like. The plugin is easy to install, and on-page optimization is covered with a solution. It also prevents one of the most significant risks of good content: duplicate content.

It is also the best known among SEO tools. It has over 40 million downloads, is stable, and helpful. The installation is also not only available for WordPress but also Magento 2, TYPO3 and Drupal. However, WordPress remains the market leader among the CMS, with a 60 per cent market share.

A unique gimmick of the Yoast SEO plugin is the traffic light. The evaluation for good, medium or bad for the individual SEO parameters is carried out using a small circle that lights up green, yellow or red – similar to a traffic light. This is not only pretty and easy to understand but can be a real motivating factor. If you edit the metadata for the preview of a snippet and slowly see how the traffic light changes from red to yellow to green, this immediately stimulates the internal reward system.

Conclusion

All in all, Yoast SEO is an excellent tool for starting online marketing and very helpful for on-page optimization. The premium version is especially recommended if you rely heavily on social media marketing in your internet marketing mix. Or if you just want personal support. If you have fundamentally exhausted all SEO measures with the tool, optimized every field and your page still does not rank as you wish, then you should consider the human factor. Let an SEO expert look over your site. Because a page with infographic often lists better or has a better conversion because you use more than one content type on one page. The Yoast SEO Plugin does not tell you that yet.

Content marketing for “boring” industries: 10 tips to make content more interesting

Does the thought gnaw at you from time to time that your texts may not be read at all? We don’t want to scare you, but you might not be so wrong.

In 2013 Chartbeat published a study that shows that readers generally only read around 60% of a text. And the remaining 40% of your carefully written stories? Well, let’s say you could have done it earlier.

A website should provide content that attracts the right visitors, who are then converted to leads and, ultimately, customers – read our introduction to the topic now.

Of course, many authors are now asking themselves: Why do my readers only read just over half of an article that they clicked on themselves? Could it be because of a shorter attention span? Well, the guilt is probably not to be found among the readers alone. As authors, we have to bear some or all of the blame ourselves if our texts are uninteresting or merely dull.

Content marketing tips for “boring” industries

For some of us, the interesting topics are simply not put in the cradle of authors. Those who write for the “attractive” industries (tourism, culture, etc.) have it a lot easier – something exciting is always at hand. But what about the rest of us that we write for… um… boring industries?

1) What is useful is not dull (even though it may seem so objectively)

Help your readers with a problem. Although this advice is now more like a hackneyed phrase than well-meaning advice, indeed, “boring” content is not dull if someone recognizes it as the solution to their problem. Anyone who writes informative texts thus addresses readers whose questions they answer – regardless of the choice of words.

Just think of some of the common questions that readers are looking for online: What should I do if my toilet is clogged? How do I find a better electricity tariff? How can I take out a mortgage on my house? How do you change a tire? For the right reader, these topics are exciting – or at least not boring. If you are unsure whether you can write a readable text, focus instead on making it as informative as possible.

2) Avoid jargon and use spoken language as a guide

You prove your expertise by giving sensible advice – not by using an expression as if you had swallowed a technical dictionary. Write the way you speak. Eliminate unnecessary industry jargon. Let’s take a look at how not to do it:

Look for a provider that offers scalable marketing software solutions that adapt to the diverse, ever-evolving needs of companies – from SMB to enterprise – across industries.

And the whole thing in an understandable way:

Find a marketing software provider that offers solutions for businesses of all sizes and industries of all types.

Both sentences say more or less the same thing, but in different ways. The second example is much easier to read, right? Why should we put stones in the way of the readers?

3) Approach your audience

On the one hand, as an author you want to give your reader helpful tips, but on the other hand you don’t want to overload him with industry jargon. Somewhere in between is the transmission of specific information. Before you start writing, think about scenarios, viewpoints, and experiences your readers can use. This works best if you have created buyer personas beforehand – as this way you have already identified the needs of your readership.

What is the difference between a generic and a specific post? Everything starts with the headline. Let’s take this post as an example. We could have called it “Best Practices for Blog Posts” or “How to Write First-Class Blog Posts”. But that would have been so general and unspecific that everyone would have felt addressed – and ultimately nobody.

Instead, we opted for a headline that was inspired by leads and customers, who repeatedly emphasize how boring their industry is. Instead of giving a general explanation of what constitutes a good blog post, we wanted to address a recurring problem that causes stomach pain to our readers.

Yes, part of our readership may not feel addressed by this post – all those who sell puppies or promote top models – as they have no problem writing interesting posts. However, by addressing such a common problem that is very relevant to many readers, it is highly likely that this post will be read as well.

4) Show humor

A pinch of humor and cheekiness gives your text – and your boring subject – a certain lightness. Bonus: This makes writing a lot more fun. You shouldn’t be afraid to make a joke, use colloquial expressions, or make silly pop culture references. If the whole thing looks natural and does not distract from the content, a carefree tone can captivate the reader’s attention longer. However, be careful not to overdo it here.

5) Use analogies to clearly explain complex concepts

If you work in an industry that many would describe as “boring,” this adjective may represent “confusing.” The best example of this comes from physics: there are probably a lot of people who look at space mysteries to admire Morgan Freeman while he is discussing the dark matter. But would you read an article on the same topic? Maybe not … unless the author has a knack for explaining complex concepts in simple language.

If you work with a similarly complex subject and mainly address a lay audience, try explaining new concepts using analogies.

An example: Many companies are still not quite sure how inbound marketing works. So we came up with some analogies that put the whole thing in an understandable context. One of my favorites is: “Blogging is like jogging: You have to stay on the ball regularly and in the long term to see results.”

6) The wort is in a nutshell

If your text is not interesting, few readers will take the time to read it. It is, therefore, worth investing in an editor who can make 20 words out of 100 without your text losing its meaning. The less time it takes your readers to work through a paragraph, the more likely you will finish reading your text.

This applies all the more to the readership on mobile devices. Consumers use mobile devices, 60% of the time to go online. Texts that are difficult to read are, of course, read even less frequently in this medium. The optimization of the mobile reading experience is not only about responsive design, but also about a faster reading experience and minimal scrolling.

7) Give your readers a break

Often readers are not bored, but simply overwhelmed by an abundance of information. That is why your text must look as if it is easy to read, even if it contains a carefully written and fascinating content.

Break your text into smaller paragraphs so your readers can be sure they can handle it. You should remember this point particularly well if your contribution is unnecessarily protracted even after extensive cuts.

For example, in this post, we used bold headings. These enable the reader to recognize the paragraphs relevant to them as they skim over the text. Alternatively, you can also use bullets, numbered lists, images, and other formatting tools. This is how you make content clearer and less overwhelming for readers.

Ideally, you wouldn’t need any of these formats, because you would write a fascinating, perfectly coordinated text that is easy for the reader to understand. However, we know that the world outside is not always going smoothly. So you can confidently fall back on formatting.

8) Tell your stories using visual or other media

Many authors do not rely solely on words but use visual aids to tell their stories. For example, we have already put together a complete library of blog posts and e-books on closed-loop marketing.

Sounds incredibly exciting, doesn’t it?

But sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words. That is why we created this visual aid.

9) Interview interesting people

Speaking of the podcast …

Who voluntarily listens to an endless stream of dry facts? Not many. That is why news channels have been using interviews for a long time to keep their audience under their spell. With an authority figure in a field or a celebrity who speaks on a particular topic, you secure attention that you would not otherwise get.

Every now and then we turn to industry experts in our blog posts and weekly podcasts. Not only because our audience likes to hear from others, but also because these experts have knowledge that we don’t have.

Is there a star in your industry that your audience should definitely hear about? Bring him or her on board to give your content that specific something.

Bonus tip: It is quite possible that some of your readers are industry experts who would like to help you with quotes or interviews. They enrich your content with their opinion. In return, you can express your thanks to them in the community. (A little praise is good for the soul.) This is best done on social networks, where you can ask users for answers to questions that you would like to mention in your content. After that, all you have to do is publish your content and let everyone know when their posts will appear.

10) Shock your audience

There is one topic that is only moderately interesting (unless you are a marketing geek, then it is probably more of a pleasure): Lead generation via social media. But do you know what’s much, much more interesting? The fact that LinkedIn is 277% more effective in generating leads than any other social network .

When you discover an exciting aspect of a moderately interesting topic that you can build your content on, you can be almost sure of your audience’s attention.

However, you don’t have to rely on data alone to surprise your audience. If you have the courage to do so, you can even become a bit controversial. We do this ourselves every now and then. For example, in the form of a contribution in which we encourage the US postal service to stop sending direct mail. We got all kinds of reader reactions on the subject. Not everyone agreed with the author’s opinion, but that’s okay. At least these readers showed interest in industry news. That’s what our content is about.

SEO for bloggers – so your blog gets more traffic and better rankings

Most (hobby) bloggers have one thing in common: high traffic via advertisements does not match the small blogger budget. Therefore, cheaper or better free traffic and visitors must be brought to the blog via other channels. In this article, I want to show you how bloggers can get more free traffic and better rankings on Google & Co.

What is a blogger? – Definition, facts & figures

Before we start, we first have to define what a blogger is to set out a framework in which our optimization measures will take effect in the best possible way. The following tips can also work for online shops, local businesses, and more, but below are all tips for successful blog optimization:

What is a blogger anyway?

By definition, a blogger is a publisher or author of articles that appear on the web, whether on one website or platforms like Tumblr or Youtube. Bloggers can also be referred to as web authors. Here are a few examples of “thematic bloggers”:

Fashion blogger
DYI blogger
Beauty blogger
Food blogger
Job blogger
Travel blogger
Outdoor blogger
Book blogger
Garden blogger
Family blogger
Video blogger (e.g. on YT)

There are countless blogs

There could be as many as 30,000, 200,000 or 1,000,000 blogs. Why do these numbers fluctuate so much? There are many inactive blogs, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish them from magazines and other web platforms, as the blogging scene is becoming more and more professional. The optimization tips also refer to websites or self-hosted domains, since blogger platforms such as Tumblr and Co. only offer minimal options for optimization!

Contrary to popular belief: blogs are suitable for search engine optimization

Various SEO magazines and blogs announce it again and again: Blogs are not ideal for search engine optimization – an example: https://www.sistrix.de/news/blogs-fuer-seo-ungApplicable/. Such messages should not get you, dear blogger, down. Many blogs are simply not maintained, and the operators neglect their blogs, which is why many blogs simply cannot achieve good rankings. With the following tips, you can get good rankings and thus attract more visitors to your blog.

Blogs need special care

This is why many blogs have such poor rankings on Google & Co. because many operators do not master the OnPage basics or simply neglect them:

Title and Meta Description
These two points are easy to optimize and also particularly useful. There are a few points to consider to create the perfect title and meta description per URL on your blog:
The main keyword should be at the beginning as far as possible (beware of keyword cannibalization if you optimize different URLs for the same keyword, more on that in a moment)
No keyword spam – a maximum of two keywords per title, better just one
Awaken curiosity and encourage clicks
Promise something that the user can also find on the page
Show a unique selling proposition (USP)
Make sure that the title should not be longer than 70 characters. Otherwise Google will only display it in abbreviated form.
The number of pixels limits the actual length. To be on the safe side, always stay under 68 characters for the title.

Of course, not every title must have implemented these points. But for as many pages as possible, an attempt should be made to include as many of these points as possible in the title. Remember that Google reserves the right not to play every title you enter. Therefore, test a lot and check the display of your claims in the SERPs regularly.

The description offers more space than the title, and therefore you can insert more information here that will also make the user curious. The maximum length should not exceed 160 characters (better to stay below 155 characters). You can also include small special characters that can generate additional attention. It is also possible to incorporate so-called emojis, which stand out due to their colourful display but are not always recommended since the colourful little pictures are quickly labelled as dubious. Here it is a matter of testing whether your target group likes it or not.

Avoid keyword cannibalization and create topic clusters

Keyword cannibalization means so much that different URLs on a website compete internally for the same keyword.

Example: If you now optimize several articles on your blog about the keyword “dog education”, it can happen that Google does not know which article should rank with the corresponding keyword. This is how your blog makes life difficult for itself 😉. Particularly popular with many bloggers: Splitting topics into several parts, such as B. Dog Training Part 1 to Part 15. How should Google know which part of it should appear in the search results? It is better to answer essential keywords in a detailed article. With so-called topic clusters, you can additionally optimize: Keywords that are similar to dog training and dog training can be dealt with in a single piece, and there is no need to deal with individual articles umpteen.

Search intention !?

Yes, that’s right, there was something else: The search intention means what information the searcher expects when entering a search query. Google can assess its users’ expectations of search queries better and better and reward sites that answer them best with good rankings. How to find the search intent? Take a look at the top ten in the SERPs – here you can see what information and content the user wants and what not. Ask yourself what a beginner/novice has for the search term for questions. In the example with dog training: What issues and problems do the dog owners have here, which you should answer in your article …

Texts must not disappear too deep in the page structure

This is the main problem with many blogs: Many articles in the page architecture go into the infinite depths of the blog. If you regularly publish new articles, useful items with rankings move ever more in-depth in the page hierarchy. If new articles can still be found on the blog overview page on the first or second page, these will move back and forth through the publication of new materials. Google and your users will then no longer be able to access these articles as quickly, which means that these articles will be considered less relevant and will, therefore, lose rankings. So what to do about it? Valuable items should always be accessible from the home page with just a few clicks. So you can find things that are supposed to hold useful rankings Corner stone pages ) that link to all critical articles. When publishing new items, you can set internal links to the most important pages in the continuous texts, so that they continuously receive new internal links and the relevance is kept. As a result, relevant articles will always be accessible with just a few clicks and therefore not lose connection.

With the plugin “Simple Yearly Archive” you can create an overview page with all articles that have been published on your website so far. This way, every item can be reached with just a few clicks.

Don’t just rely on texts: multimedia is becoming increasingly important

Blogging is so much more than just writing texts. A video or podcast can set you apart from the competition, and your readers will thank you if there is more content to be consumed besides texts. The combination of written text and a podcast is often referred to as a blogcast.

So the user can decide whether he would prefer to read texts, listen to a podcast or watch a video. What does this do for your SEO? As already written, Google is getting better at determining search intent. For you, this means: You have to try to make as many visitors as possible happy and give them what they are looking for. If you offer other consumable content in addition to texts, you can satisfy the satisfaction of many users.

Attention WordPress users

Since bloggers in particular like to use the popular CMS system WordPress, here is another tip: WordPress can be additionally optimized with “SEO” plugins such as Rank Math or Yoast SEO. This way, mostly unnecessary archives such as the annual archive or the author archive can be deactivated, and sub-pages can be set to “no index, follow” as desired.

EAT especially crucial for bloggers

You have to prove to Google that you are trustworthy and an expert in your subject area or your niche. After all, Google always wants to present the best search results to its users. If your blog is unknown and has no trustworthy signals, it will be difficult to get good rankings. The new-fashioned term “EAT” is also often used here. This abbreviation stands for ” Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness “.

Expertise stands for “expert knowledge”: Do you have and disseminate knowledge that identifies you as an expert?
Authoritativeness stands for authority: are you considered authority in your niche and do people follow your opinion?
Trustworthiness means trustworthiness: can other people trust your content? Trustworthiness can also be translated as “credibility”.

Based on these three factors, Google tries to determine, simply put, whether you deserve to be in front or not. But how can EAT be influenced?

EAT “earn.”

In addition to the regular publication of articles on your blog, the signals from outside are what increase your expert status and thus confidence. Especially when other bloggers and experts link to you in your niche, this leads to very positive signals.

In this article, I don’t want to go into greasy grey or even black hat tactics and therefore imagine a completely white hat strategy for how you can build up such positive signals – using content distribution:

You can publish good content; if nobody sees it, you will remain undetected and will not achieve good rankings.

Content distribution means something like the distribution and publication of content (your blog articles in this case) to your target group. The content distribution uses one or more online marketing tools. It uses their distribution channels to distribute content within the defined target group on the web as far as possible and to achieve the marketing goals.

Only when people see your content do you get positive signals from mentions, backlinks, branding and much more.

PESO model

Since the content distribution is not an independent online marketing channel but takes on numerous disciplines, the PESO model from Spinsucks can be chosen here for illustration.

The PESO model of content distribution

P – Paid Media: Your content is distributed via paid channels such as Facebook or Pinterest ads.
E – Earned Media: Other bloggers, newspapers etc. will mention your content. Without your intervention or linked to your content without your intervention.
S – Shared Media: Users on social media mention and link your content.
O – Owned Media: Your content is distributed via your channels such as newsletters, your own Facebook fan page or your website etc.

Since paid advertising for many bloggers ceases to exist quickly due to high costs, it has to be cheaper or even free. And here I would like to show you two possible ways in the area of earned media, how you can get more coverage:

1. Promotion in Facebook groups

There are numerous groups on Facebook, with a large number of active members. If you can post an interesting article about yourself here, you can quickly gain some reach. STOOOOOOPPPP !!!!!!! Before you start now and seamlessly spam group, I would like to show you a practical example from us:

In 2017, we launched a survey on our blog on the subject of “Do you buy backlinks?” – a hot topic, since this approach is not permitted by Google and can be punished, but is nevertheless carried out intensively by many.

For our survey to get attention, we posted this survey in various Facebook groups. BEFORE we always asked the admins for permission. Please do not make a mistake and publish your content in groups without being asked. Always ask the admins for permission beforehand. For you to get approval, your content should be unique. Anyone can gather any information – individual information such as this survey will be out of order, and you have chances that the admins will release the study for posting.

2. Networking and entering into cooperations

Classic networking at trade fairs or events (at 11 p.m. at the Captains Bar on SEO Campixx 😉) is the fastest way to contact other decision-makers and thus enter into cooperations.

Be creative and actively approach other decision-makers. Always think about how you can support each other and don’t just think about yourself. Why should an expert from the scene encourage you when he has none of it?

Conclusion

SEO for bloggers is not art. You can optimize some of your blog yourself and thereby gain rankings without having the large media budget. Follow the OnPage basics – your site must be clean and indexable. If you are inexperienced here, you should use SEO tools such as Seobility or Ryte. These help you to have error-free websites. Never forget that you have to advertise your blog – you have to market your content. Otherwise, your content will remain invisible.

On-page SEO: How to write optimally for Google

Website operators, web designers and sometimes even SEO professionals waste a lot of money with expensive link building and search engine advertising. You invest a lot in the freestyle, but forget about duty.

Good positions in search results can already be achieved with proper on-site work – especially in niches. And if it is not enough, you have to spend at least less money for appropriate link building thanks to careful on-page preparation.

This is on-page SEO

This article covers all optimizations that an item should have prepared for a good ranking. Such content tells Google what the text is about and for which keywords it should appear in the search results. I’ll show you the things you can do on an excellent ranking before you hit the “publish” button.

A good text will:

rank better
reduce your bounce rate
ensure that you read other posts as it contains some suitable links to other posts by you.

The preparation for good ranking

Before you can start tweaking your articles, there are a few prerequisites so you can keep track of how your posts are developing. Therefore, make sure that you have already addressed the following requirements.

Install Google Analytics

A Google Analytics account is an essential prerequisite for proper optimization. Because you can quickly determine how your posts are developing. You can get a lot of useful information through the analysis software. For example, which articles could still have potential, but should be revised. How to set up Google Analytics correctly and in compliance with data protection.

So that you can check all essential data in your WordPress, we recommend installing a corresponding plugin. I have had good experiences with the Google Analytics WD plugin.

Use the Google Search Console

The former Google Webmaster Tools tell you a lot about the quality of your website in the search results. You also get tips and clues on how to optimize your texts and the average position in the search results. A lot of other useful information is just waiting to be used by you.

Install a useful SEO plugin

Here the plugin Yoast SEO is recommended if you use WordPress. You can set many essential things and also a sitemap.XML create one that you link in the Google Search Console. In my experience, this then makes indexing your posts faster.

The great on-page SEO checklist

Now that you have created the necessary prerequisites to be able to control your results, we go into the real business and optimize your texts as much as possible for a perfect ranking.

Use the Google Keyword Planner

The Google Keyword Planner is an excellent tool for optimizing your posts because it helps you find the keywords your potential readers are looking for.

You can see how many searches a month are doing for a keyword and how competitive that particular keyword is. This will help you choose the keywords for which there is less competition, but which still promise a lot of effects. Sometimes it makes more sense to use less popular keywords or phrases and thereby rank more »rather than just in general.

Example: Instead of trying to get up on hell for T-shirts, it makes more sense to be at the top for “T-shirts in pink” if you sell shirts in chic pink.

Use short URLs

Google now loves short URLs, whether they are speaking or not. Some time ago, the keywords should still be in the URL. However, in the course of converting the URLs to short IDs, the search engine no longer weights the speaking variants of the permalinks as highly.

Google is going to want concise URLs. Therefore, make sure that the permalinks are very short, no matter which scheme you use.

Paste the keyword into your blog post title (H1)

Keywords should always be in the name of your article. Also, it should be ensured that the title of your contribution is integrated into an H1 tag <h1>Dein Titel</h1>. This signals the top priority to the search engine and also which topic your contribution deals with. If the title of your text is only in one <h2> day, change this or have it replaced.

Use the keyword in the first paragraph

Your keyword should also be in the first paragraph because it is of great importance for the search engine and thus for your ranking. Insert your keyword as close as possible to the beginning of the first paragraph.

Put the keyword in subheadings

Subheadings are equally crucial for people and machines. Again, your ranking word must be in at least one <h2> or <h3> subheading if you are looking for suitable positions in the search results. By the way, you can convert scanners to readers with proper subtitles.

Use your keyword in the body text

Use the keyword a few times in the standard body text. Don’t overdo it; you shouldn’t do it more than four to five times. Otherwise, Google could consider your posts as keyword stuffing. This would have considerable disadvantages for the ranking of your articles.

Also, do not always use the correct keyword, but try to vary. Rewrite your keyword and use apparent combinations.

Include internal links in your posts

Internal links ensure a better click-through rate of your articles. They also help the search engine to better index your website. Both are very beneficial. Because on the one hand, the average bounce rate of your blog will decrease, on the other hand, Google will get to know your blog better and weight it higher with a low bounce rate.

By the way, the bounce rate is defined as follows:

The bounce rate is the percentage of visits to a single page (that is, sessions in which the user left your website on the entry page without interacting with the page).

The internal links should be split in two. The most important are integrated into the text as early as possible. At the end of your contribution, you can then set two or three thematically appropriate links. Do not exaggerate and only set links that give the reader added value, i.e. a benefit.

Link relevant external resources

This is also about the benefit of your reader. Don’t be afraid to give him useful information that can complement your articles. This provides your texts more credibility.

Relevant content from websites with high authority should be given preference.

Pay attention to spelling mistakes and grammar

Spelling mistakes and poor grammar are the enemies of a good ranking. Both make your posts difficult to read. Not only will your readers notice this, but above all, the search engine.

Rumour has it that Google is already devaluing posts with many errors and poor grammar, which would be logical. Because Google attaches great importance to useful content that offers added value for visitors, you will not be able to eradicate every mistake. Still, with good will and a little effort, your texts can become almost error-free.

Produce long content

In general, great content ranks much better than short content. The deeper you go into your topics, the longer your articles become, the better they will rank. Because then they offer your visitors a comprehensive insight into the subject areas that interest them.

Comprehensive, high content is, therefore considered more valuable by Google than short articles that only touch on the topic. Long posts also increase the time spent on your website. How long visitors stay on your blog on average is another sign of quality for the search engine. This means that Google will rate sites higher if they can have an extended dwell time.

Only produce high-quality content

Under no circumstances make the mistake of just writing your articles down because you may not feel like it at the moment. You won’t do yourself a favour with it. Instead, publish fewer posts and write long, high-quality articles. Quality is an essential ranking factor in addition to the level of detail.

It also has a significant side effect that you will be perceived as an expert over time. This is good for your ego and your website.

Use multimedia elements

Another factor that search engines use to determine the ranking position of your articles is how many visitors interact with your content. Therefore, it is a good idea to use multimedia elements in the posts.

There are many options here; it does not always have to be a video from YouTube. For example, you could also create and embed a Slideshare presentation. Moreover, surveys or quizzes could be considered because both stimulate your visitors to interact.

Always respond to comments

The comment section of a blog is the most neglected tool for visitor retention. Respond to the feedback you get on your content. In this way, you can trigger a valuable discussion, because Google does not miss the fact that an article with many comments must be more expensive than one without any feedback.

Critical comments should also be posted as long as they are not offensive. Swallow the criticism and try to learn from it and improve your articles.

Optimize your pictures for the web

On many websites, you can find image material that has been uploaded in unnecessarily high resolution. This slows down the page structure of a website immensely. Visitors and search engines do not like slow websites at the same time. Always cut your images to the most significant variant of your contribution images and optimize the file size.

You can use Photoshop to do this by selecting “Save for devices and web” there. It is also an excellent idea to use useful WordPress plugins for optimization.

Optimize your images for Google image search

There is also a lot of potential in this area that you shouldn’t neglect. Here you have two options.

Name the image files with your keywords. Your keywords belong in the names of the pictures. If you write about on-page SEO, then name your movie that way. It should then be on-page-seo.jpg called. Google Image Search then knows how to assign your images based on the keywords.

Another good idea is to always use the alt tag of the picture (absolutely!) And then fill it with relevant keywords.

It’s so easy to add a title and the alt text to your pictures.

Write appropriate meta descriptions

The title variations

WordPress gives you two ways to find a name for your articles. One variant is only displayed on your website, the other only in the search results if you set it up this way. You are entirely free to name your contributions to the website view; it can also be a long title.

However, you only have around 65 characters available for the optimal display of your titles in the search results. Longer titles are cut off. Both variants have in common that your keywords should ideally always be at the beginning of a claim.

The meta description

The meta description appears below your title in the search results and briefly informs the potential visitors whether it is worth visiting your website. Write as quickly and concisely as possible what your article is about.

In both areas, the bars below the input field show you how much space is still available. At the same time, a preview of the search result results from your entries.

Write perfect headlines

Headings are the be-all and end-all of every article. The better your titles are, the more people will read your posts. The lines of your posts must make you curious about what you wrote. You have to be tempted to click on your search result.

Headings alone do not generate a top-ranking but are an essential part of evaluating a page. Using lines correctly is a crucial permanent task. So today I’m going to show you how to use headings on pages in a targeted manner and to display them optimally.

The heading tag is used to define headings. The various headings of a content page are determined in order using HTML. To determine the order and in certain cases the formatting, these are determined with <hn>. The “n” is exchanged for a number. For example:

<H1> Main Heading </ h1>
<h2> Second-order heading </h2>
<h3> Third-order heading </h3>
<h4> Fourth-order heading </h4>
etc

The longer the text gets, the more headings and subheadings can and should be used. Of course, this not only helps the search engine itself – even the inclined reader can read a well-structured text more easily and find the information he is looking for more quickly on the page. This gives the reader the desired added value from your page.

The use of headings

The main heading <h1> should only be used once per page. The subheadings can be used several times but should be in a healthy relationship to the text. There is no fixed number of how often these should be applied. Above all, it is essential that the reader should not feel disturbed by this. It is necessary to show tact here.

This information can, of course, be found in many places on the Internet and of course, most webmasters are familiar with it. It wouldn’t be a problem to apply them. Unfortunately, this often sounds easier than it is.

Headings in website themes and shop systems

Since very few people still program old fashioned websites in HTML, CMS systems with finished website themes are often used. These building block systems are practical and useful, but they are quite rigid in some respects. The devil is in the details.

Headings are not always apparent at first glance. In themes, lines in the form of <hn> tags are often used to emphasize a section of the text, to make it bold or to display it more significant. This is easier for programming but is a problem for the search engines because it unnecessarily highlights unimportant sections of text on the page.

In the above example of the well-known Avada theme, headers are often used in the footer. You should pay attention to this when setting up the new page with this theme.

Headlines for tax rates or shipping options are also sometimes selected in shop systems. In such cases, it is difficult to change them. Often, as a regular user of such CMS and shop systems, you reach your limits there and in the end have to employ a programmer again, which is often expensive. Therefore, it is essential to make sure from the start that the theme or the shop system deals with these points correctly.

In the above case, the product name is correct, but the price is not so relevant and should not be a headline. “Related Products” is also not necessarily an essential piece of information. If the number of other products that are under an existing article, for example, is within the range, it is no problem to present them as headings.

Further, meaningful optimizations

Your posts should now be optimally optimized and have the potential for a good ranking within the search results. But there are a few more things you can do to increase your on-page SEO. Here are some ideas for you:

1 – Use visible share buttons

Google takes the social aspect of the written content very seriously. If a post is shared frequently, it is a signal to the search engine that this content must be valuable. Therefore, shared contributions are often ranked higher than variants, with only a few shares.

So make sure that you use the right social sharing buttons and place them prominently. There are many useful plugins for this job, for example, the privacy-compliant Shariff of the magazine cut.

Shariff sharing buttons. Privacy is compliant and pretty.

2 – Make your website fast

Google and your visitors will love a speedy site. Google will rank your blog better if it is fast. Your visitors will also prefer your site if they don’t have to wait so long for the page to load. Use the Pingdom Tools with the setting »Stockholm, Sweden« to measure the speed.

This gives you a good idea of what needs to be optimized to make your website fast.

Half a second of the loading time is also possible on an average website.

3 – Is your theme optimized for mobile devices?

Check what your theme looks like on your smartphone or tablet. Google is increasingly weighting responsive websites, as more and more people are no longer conventionally surfing the web, but are using their smartphone or tablet to do so.

The Google tool “Test for optimization for mobile devices “gives you a first impression.

Case Study: 11 Typical of On-Site SEO Problems

SEMrush undertook a study in which real data was to be collected. For this purpose, anonymous data from around 100,000 websites were collected and evaluated. This resulted in the eleven most common SEO problems on the technical side, which can have a direct impact on the ranking.

Problem 1: Duplicate content

Google defines duplicate content as follows:

“Duplicate content” is generally a large block of material that corresponds to or strikingly similar to other content on the same or a different domain. In general, there is no intention to deceive.

Duplicate content is said to have been found on at least 50 per cent of the websites examined. Google itself mostly assumes that duplicate content is not produced deliberately. Accordingly, there will be no official penalties for duplicate content. But that doesn’t mean that one eye is turned, because in general websites with double content still rank worse than without.

This results from the fact that the search engine usually cannot recognize which version of the content should preferably be included in the index. Also, the search engines were developed to make the web a better place for users to find information. Valuable content is, therefore, only one that is unique.

Additional information:

Test your website for duplicate content with the Duplicate Content Checker Tool.
So you deal with duplicate content to
Duplicate Content: Definition and solutions for duplicate content

Problem 2: Missing alt tags and broken image links

Images and graphics are an essential part of content marketing these days. But they can also cause a lot of SEO problems. Too few webmasters still use the critical alt tags for the images and also do not pay attention that the images used can always be displayed. However, both are important for search engine optimization.

For example, the alt tags have two functions. On the one hand, they appear when an image cannot be displayed; on the other hand, they are essential for Google’s image search. Search engines are still not smart enough to interpret an image without using an alt tag. Therefore, these tags are blatantly relevant because they help Google to correctly sort the image into specific categories based on the description within the alt tag.

Also, the day offers the opportunity to write your SEO keywords in, because this will make it even easier for Google to sort the graphics. By the way, visually impaired people can also benefit from an optimal old day, because a good description gives them an idea of what can be seen in the picture.

Images that are no longer displayed for any reason cause the same problems like broken links. They lead to a dead end. Both goals can cause the search engine to downgrade your website because it offers a poor user experience.

Problem 3: Title tag problems

Search engines use the title tags to determine what the text of the page is about. The titles appear in the search results along with a brief description. But based on the title, a user will decide whether to visit your website or another. Therefore, the correct title tag is one of the essential elements of your website. An aspect that can have a positive impact on ranking.

The apparent mistakes in using these tags are the following:

Duplicate title tags – prevalent
Title tags too long – Relatively often present
Missing title tags are problematic, but not very common
Title tags too short – hardly available

The length of the title tag is significant because it depends on how much of your title will be shown in the search results. A rule of thumb is that Google can display about 70 characters. So the title shouldn’t be any longer.

Some SEO tools – like Yoast SEO for WordPress – help you optimize title tags.

Problem 4: the meta description

The meta description is displayed in the search results just below the title and is intended to give users a good impression of what the article is about. The meta description should not have a direct influence on the ranking, but personally, I have found that a good story can influence the ranking – even if only slightly.

However, a good meta description also ensures better page CTR, which is especially essential for webmasters who integrate Google Adsense.

Many websites have duplicate meta descriptions, while others have no explicit stories in use. An SEO tool or a plugin for WordPress can also help here.

Problem 5: Broken internal and external links

Broken links can be a considerable SEO problem. One or two broken links will not be a problem. But if your website grows, it can lead to big problems. Of course, the 404 error page can be set up accordingly, but then the visitor sees this error page instead of the useful information that he hoped for.

If this happens more often, a user will also perceive your website to be of poor quality. There is also a real problem. Because if there are a lot of broken links on your website, you will have problems with the search engine bots. These always crawl some of your pages and with a buildup of broken links it could well be that these pages are no longer included in the index. This damages the authority of your website enormously.

SEMrush found that 25 per cent of the examined websites had broken external links.

So use an SEO tool or plugin for WordPress to find these broken links and fix the problem.

Problem 6: Bad text to HTML ratio

A well-known SEO problem. Some websites have a poor text-to-HTML ratio. This means that the website in question outputs proportionally more HTML than human-readable text. There can be many reasons for this, for example, books that are too short, which usually do not exceed the 300 words required by Google.

However, a poorly coded or well-maintained website can also be to blame. It could have a lot of invalid code or overuse of JavaScript, inline styles, or Flash.

Of course, a technique that spammers like to use can also be to blame by working with a lot of hidden text.

The problem can be solved quite easily:

Remove the unnecessary code. This reduces the page size and serves speed.
Check your plugins if you use WordPress. You don’t have to offer every gimmick.
Let JavaScript load only where it is needed.
Complete your texts to a usable average length (at least 500 words, better more).

Problem 7: Problems with the <h1> tag

I encountered this problem very often in my practice. Header tags – or headings – are essential for search engine optimization. For example, there should only be one <h1> heading on each page of a website. Even though this dogma no longer seems to be so crucial due to the use of HTML5, the individual tags of the headings nevertheless offer a useful hierarchy for search engines and users.

Many developers still create websites or offer themes for WordPress that incorrectly use the header tags and thus the specified headings.

It also seems essential to know the difference between the title tags and the header tags. The title tag is what the search engine sees; the header tags are the ones that your visitors see. There is only one title tag per page; the header tags can appear multiple times – as heading 1, heading two and so on.

If the correct HTML5 markup is used, the <h1> can be used several times on a page if sections of the same importance have to be marked.

Problem 8: Word count too low

SEMrush found that the number of words in the articles was too low on eighteen per cent of the websites tested. Google does not issue an official minimum number of words, but it is known that Google would like to have at least 300 words used for each article.

But let’s not kid ourselves, even 300 words are far too little for an average article. Google is known for giving content with a lot more depth an absolute priority in the search results. Also, an item that delves very deeply into a subject gets more backlinks. And thus even a better position in the ranking.

Contributions can easily be written more comprehensively if you try hard. An article with a linked infographic (like this one) can also be described in words. Your readers will appreciate it.

Problem 9: Too many internal links set

This problem is a tough nut to crack. On the one hand, it is essential for search engine optimization to linking his articles to one another. On the other hand, too many page links were quickly integrated. Google used to provide a guideline for the maximum number of internal links that should be set. But this requirement has since been dropped.

Good SEO today means creating a natural internal link that is of high quality. The links must be relevant and useful; then Google will appreciate the value and rank the page accordingly. Therefore, make sure that all internal links on your website have added value for users. Always keep in mind that what is suitable for the user is also optimal for the search engine.

Problem 10: The wrong or missing language declaration

Our web audience is global. However, since many other peoples can do relatively little with German content, it is essential to declare the standard language. The language declaration is necessary for many things, for example:

It informs the browser about the language of the content – necessary for translations and the correct display of the pages
It ensures that the contents of screen readers and text-to-speech converters are displayed in the right language
It helps with GEO localization and international SEO
It helps to improve the critical relevance score.

Use this list of language codes to get the correct language declaration.

Problem 11: Temporary redirects

Redirects are an excellent way to let search engines know that a page has “moved” and is no longer available at the old URL. These redirects can either be permanent, then you output the status code 301, or only for a limited time when you use the system 302. A permanent redirection with status code 301 will not result in a loss of authority.

With a temporary redirect, it looks different; among other things, it can lead to an outdated page being included in the index. Google could ignore the new page. It can be a real problem. Therefore, if the change is permanent, a 301 redirect should always be output. According to Moz, this is the best approach.

Otherwise, Google could assume that a 302 redirect should actually be a permanent redirect and then interpret it as 301. This could cause a loss of traffic, so you should always take control of which redirect is output where.

The full infographic

The low hanging fruits of onsite optimization

Admittedly, how onsite optimization works is no longer a well-kept secret. On the contrary: The search engine giant Google itself explains it in detail in the webmaster tools.

Onsite optimization can be hugely successful, especially in niches and for local search queries. The competition for local search queries according to the “service/product location” scheme is usually thin. If you rely on the right content (it depends on the correct wording) with the right meta information and technical data, the first SERP page is often not a problem under such niche requirements. External links are then only necessary a few.

An overview of the onsite basics

As already mentioned, the measures of onsite optimization are no longer a secret. Google itself tries to bring them closer to the website operators. At this point, I will summarize them and add a few tips:

1. The most important parameters: Title, Description and Url

The title of the page, the meta description and the URL should contain the keywords under which you want to be found. Of course, these should also appear again in the text. After all, it is about topic relevance between keywords in the content and the highlighting through title, description and URL.

Also, the higher the keywords appear in the title and description, the more important they are viewed. For example, the page title should not be “Company XY – Product” if you want to rank below the product. Instead, it should read “Product – Company XY”.

2. Clean structure and code

The source code of the website should be checked (validator.w3.org). If it is error-free and complies with the W3C standards, this does not have a direct impact on the ranking, but it ensures that the pages can be indexed correctly.

3. Code to content ratio

Since Google crawlers cannot measure the quality of the content, but quantity, the ratio of code to content is used as a criterion. The reasoning behind this is simple: the more content is made available, the more information should be contained in it. Of course, this does not say how high the information density is. (For this it needs the recommendation system of the links).

4. Highlight the relevant search terms with headlines, underline, bold

The search engine crawlers search the code for highlighted formatting. These are headings (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, …), underlined or bold passages. Since these elements are also used in the design to mark the important parts of a text for people, the search engine also assumes that these parts are important. The targeted search terms should, therefore, also appear here.

5. Important and unimportant meta information

As already mentioned in point 1, page title, URL and meta description are the most important meta information for Google. According to Matt Cutts, the former head of Google’s webspam team, the meta keywords are not taken into account in Google search results. However, this does not mean that it is not worthwhile to maintain them carefully. Other search engines still use them.

On the other hand, important for the Google placements are metadata for images (meaningful file names, image titles and alt attributes), as well as for videos (video sitemap as an extension of the sitemap, markups).

6. XML sitemap

An XML sitemap should not be missing on websites. It helps crawlers to understand the structure of the page more easily.

Content is king – but only in the balance between man and machine

Step by step, Google manages to assess the quality of the content better and better from update to update. This inevitably makes the search engine giant less susceptible to black hat methods. This is the real opportunity for all severe website operators: They can shine with their knowledge and attract visitors with good content. According to Google webmaster support, the material on websites should be trustworthy, helpful, informative and competent. Also, they should be as free from spelling mistakes as possible, not from mass production and not be peppered with a disproportionate number of advertisements.

When it comes to content creation, however, there is another art to master: you have to find the balance between a search engine and human being as a reader. What does that mean? A human reader could get bored quickly if you go into too much detail. For a search engine, on the other hand, this is essential, since more information is a guarantee for an exhaustive treatment of a topic.

An example: You are an entrepreneur and have problems with an employee. Because he is always late and does not do his job, you want to fire him. You now need a lawyer to do this and are looking for a “Labor Law Expert Location”.

The labour law expert who now wants to be found by you has to integrate not only the keyword labour law expert on his side but also the location. If a law firm does not look at its website against the background of a search engine, it may be tempted to add a phrase like “Our team consists of top lawyers in all legal areas” to the page and leave it at that. Ultimately, visitors will also find the location in the imprint.

The firm was operating as it had been used for decades from newspaper advertisements, telephone book advertisements, etc. However, the search engine, in turn, has no chance to derive the employment law expert from this sentence and to locate him at the location he is looking for. As a result, this law firm will never appear under the search phrase mentioned.

However, a paragraph in which all legal areas covered by a large law firm are simply listed will also not be desirable. In this case, the law firm’s website may be ejected in the SERPs, but the user may not recognize that he has landed at the right law firm. After all, the word “labour law” is hidden somewhere in the long paragraph. In contrast, the sentence with the top lawyers in all areas of law might have convinced the entrepreneur quickly and easily.

An SEO text is, therefore, not coughed up quickly, and it is not at all disreputable. On the one hand, the book must provide all the necessary information for the search engine; on the other hand, it must be clear and easy to read.

Conclusion

OnsiteOnsite optimization is and remains a “low hanging fruit” because you, as the website operator, have sole design power over it. In niches or local searches, onsite optimization can achieve notable success as the only measure.

However, it requires a lot of work – especially if you have to rework an existing, more extensive page retroactively. However, this is a time investment that can be the cornerstone of a successful web campaign. It can be worthwhile by 1. leading directly to better rankings or 2. keeping link building expenses down.

With all the optimization for the search engine, don’t forget that your readers count first. Therefore, always do reader SEO instead of pure content SEO.

Optimize your articles for people first, then for search engines. Google itself also wants the content to be optimized in this way. Always keep in mind that Google doesn’t share your articles, doesn’t write comments, and doesn’t follow you on social networks. Only your readers do that.

Web writing: Fundamentals and upcoming changes

Web writing is critical, especially for the natural referencing of a website. It is also essential to provide a good user experience. What will change in 2020?

The importance of web writing to gain visibility. Raise important points to diversify its content: free paper with snacking content. The optimization of content by semantics and the lexical field, essential to a better position on Google. The inverted pyramid and voice SEO will also be featured.

Good reading!

Web writing

It’s always good to remember what web writing is about. It is about writing content for the Internet to gain visibility. Your content will be hosted on your website/blog and will be optimized from an SEO point of view to ensure proper positioning on the search engines.

We are in an editorial style quite far from journalism, but if you are a journalist, it is already a significant advantage from writing. It is then to adapt its content and web and follow the rules.

The rules are in this case enacted by Google and its significant algorithms.

There are do’s and don’ts of writing for the web. If you respect these rules and you master the writing by working on the lexical and semantic field of your keywords, you will have a few steps ahead.

The purpose is to bring users to your site, so they know your content and your product/service offer. To achieve this, you must have content on the first page of Google and if possible, in the top 3 results related to a specific query. The query volume on a question or keyword will be studied upstream.

In the end, integrate SEO as an inexact science … no one can promise you the first position or the first page. Just do the right thing and learn how to optimize your content, update it, densify it if necessary, etc. Finally, know the basics of SEO to work on content writing effectively.

The major challenge on the web: Make yourself visible

We do not produce content to produce content. Otherwise, we actively participate in the form of digital pollution. All content production has a purpose, and the most recurrent is, of course, the visibility that one seeks to gain.

Making yourself visible on the Internet means producing content that responds appropriately to users’ requests.

It will, therefore, be necessary to know the volumes of search by keyword and work around your primary keys by using different variants and angles.

Visibility is acquired over time and requires patience. We must obtain substantial capital content to hope to glean some right places. These places are those that will bring you organic traffic. Think about working on different sources of web traffic and more specifically on social traffic to obtain faster visibility and thus begin the development of your audience.

Visibility is a significant issue when you want to develop your business online. Creating a website is not enough because it must be fed regularly to have a chance to be found.

Changes for web writing in 2020

It must be taken into account that some things are likely to change the year ahead, concerning web writing and SEO. We can say that freewriting will take a much more prominent place. About 50% of readers read directly on mobile now.

Mobile writing is not the only point that will evolve. Let’s see in this article, the changes to come in 2020 for web writing and SEO.

Natural referencing is aside as studies! If years ago it was easy to find a job with the baccalaureate in your pocket, today it’s no less than a bac + 5 that you need to “hope” to get a job. In SEO is the same thing, the competition is becoming more, and the basics of SEO are not enough!

The criteria evolve, and you have to write more, be more relevant and more specific about your subject. The basics are re-evaluated continuously year after year.

Sometimes the answer to a request must be surgical to hope for a positioning!

It is with the time and the regularity that the efforts pay in natural referencing. Still, it is necessary to maintain a degree of relevance and always respect the rules in SEO.

Mobile writing more present

First of all, the year 2018 saw mobile traffic surpass desktop traffic globally. If writing for the web tends to long articles, mobile script asks for the ability to write short essays.

Desktop traffic is still ahead of mobile traffic, but it still accounted for 34% of total traffic, an increase of 49% compared to 2017. In 2019, no doubt, these figures will be even higher. It must also be understood that the use of mobiles includes dedicated applications and not necessarily websites or blogs.

If a blog offers a mobile app, see the download number to set a viability level or not. So is it necessary to have a mobile app for his blog? Internet access can be sufficient.

However, we can say that mobile use is a real trend for this new year 2019 and those to come, on which it will be necessary to work in terms of web writing.

How to write for a free reading?

The writing to a mobile change the desktop version. The contents will have to be shorter and aerated according to the size of the screens. If you consider the latest smartphones with very high resolutions, you should know that it is the definition on the screen that will prevail. In this case, do not expect a text about your decision, otherwise, you will have illegible content! A smartphone is tiny in front of a computer screen.

You will have an average of 8/10 words per line. Avoid long paragraphs that will give you the sensation of endless reading. It must be short, concise! And on this subject, an article of 300/400 words will be the maximum size to aim.

To avoid a loss of positioning on short articles, it will be necessary to alternate between the two: short and long. This will mean for many “write 2x more”. At the same time, you will develop a new audience; a mobile readership that will be active during rush hour and lunchtime.

Content runs to a name; happy snacking where to consume content quickly.

What are the topics to tackle in media snacking?

The topics to be written tend mainly to specific points that do not require a long development. A new feature that appears on a social network would be a sufficient point to process to write 200/300 words.

Also, remember that nothing prevents you from writing longer content in parallel, from offering your audience an alternative.

Some topics to be treated concisely:

Updates of tools, solutions, social networks etc
Highlighting a brand campaign
Definitions if you have an online lexicon
The figures of a study, around a social network etc
Infographic with a brief introduction
The answer to a specific question
The advice in social media or other

And many more things. Consider that short post sharing is done at peak hours, to allow transport users to scan your content. Lunchtime is also a favourite niche.

Inverted Pyramid: Put a headline summary of your articles

We talk a lot about the inverted pyramid in SEO and web writing. Which would be like starting with the end. In reality, it is customary to put a summary of your article in the header. More than an introduction that ensures entry into the material, it is here to summarize in 3/4 lines maximum your article. It represents a reading of 10 seconds.

An exercise not so simple, but that allows the user to get to know your content quickly. If the reader wants to go further, he can continue reading.

Semantics and the lexical field to optimize your articles

It is imperative in web writing, to master the principles of the lexical field and the semantic field of your keywords. The repetition of an excessive keyword is irrelevant and will have an undesirable effect on reading and referencing. No need to over-optimize your content.

Work on the universe linked to your keyword and when possible, define your keyword (if necessary) from the beginning of your article (after the summary). Bring a context to the reader so that he can better understand your point of view.

To work on semantics and the lexical field, make a list of secondary keywords related to your main keyword (about 25/30 words) Learn to introduce them into your writing without distorting the text and its essence.

The ideal is to drag a definition of your keyword in post header, to brew a first part of the lexical field of your keyword. The explanation or the meaning of a word use in principle the lexical field, the universe to which it belongs.

Example: If you want to define web writing in a few sentences, you could quickly introduce words such as editor, editor, SEO, Google, optimization, content, positioning, SEO, writing, article, search engine, visibility, traffic, web, organic, semantic, lexical etc …

Voice requests say a lot!

The consumption of the content will pass more and more by the voice request. Saving time and especially the possibility of freeing your hands to do something else, voice search is today more and more present on our smartphones as through voice assistants; Alexa, Cortana, Siri or the Google assistant are undoubtedly familiar to you.

It is this artificial intelligence that answers you when you ask them about a query. Able to crawl the web like to fill you an appointment form, these assistants will be more and more present in our daily life. This whole dimension brings us to vocal SEO and how queries will be handled. When we perform a search, we are usually more specific in our need

The search aspect on the web is interesting on many plans, one of which is easy to understand: “We do not write as we speak” especially when it comes to entering a query on the search engine Google. In writing, we go to the most concise, avoiding linking words and even forgetting the degree of relevance of the request.

Curiously speaking, we ask instead of a direct and precise question which brings us to a clear and accurate answer.

Queries on specific keyword phrases may become more impressive over the coming months and years.

If a query entered on, Google lacks a majority of accuracy, orally it is more relevant to the search results.

The editorial line

It is essential to follow an editorial path in web writing, especially if you want to come out as an expert in your field. Avoid catch-all subjects like the lifestyle that brings together several topics in one. You would be forced to write several times a day to compete with your competitors.

Take a topic and set the tone and style by focusing on a problematic or direction of your content. Ultimately the editorial line will become your editorial identity.

Workflow and roles in web writing

The writing of articles in quantity within the companies, in particular, requires the setting up of processes. To help you in your book or if you depend on service, do not hesitate to set up this process. On your site, you can name editors, contributors and define rights by using a plugin that allows you to manage different roles.

A contributor will write its content without the possibility of publishing. Once the article is written, it will go into the draft mode, and a proofreader can come in to correct the text. The contributor will validate the corrections, and an editor will publish the content. The web editor will be able to edit but will be able to send his post to be corrected beforehand.

Beyond that, we can also have a community manager who will share the content on social networks.

How many words in an article?

We have previously seen the concept of snacking media or short content; let’s now see the content background or great content.

According to a recent study, more than 50% of the articles positioned on the first page and first position on a Google query, contain more than 2000 words.

This data raises the bar when it comes to web writing. The editors will have to rely on contents of 2000 words minimum if they want changes to position themselves on Google better. Paradoxically it is challenging to be read when it is long, but many Internet users are still looking for quality content and productive. So do not neglect them.

SEO optimization of long articles is usually more natural if you stay focused on the subject. The number of words has a definite impact on the positioning.

Learn how to write for the web

To be quickly effective in web writing, it is necessary to focus on the lexical field and the semantic field mentioned above. In my opinion, this is one of the essential points when you know how to write naturally.

The rest represents a set of rules to respect, from a technical point of view those directly related to the content. The use of tags, the segmentation of content into sub-chapters and the aeration of material contribute to good readability online. We must achieve writing naturally by integrating these points.

With practice and therefore time, it will become second nature.

The structure of articles

The structure of an item, especially in WordPress, must meet some rules in terms of markup and readability. The text should be as airy as possible for easy reading. Do not hesitate to make line breaks and separate your paragraphs by titling them with an H2 tag (see sketch below for access to the tags)

Within the sections use H3 / H4 tags … if necessary and especially if the chapter may belong. An article of 1500 to 2000 words should logically be segmented into 5/6 chapters titled with H2 tags. It will facilitate reading, and it will insert your keywords to optimize SEO.

Composition of an excellent article:

Title article (default H1 tag).
Chapô (1 to 2 lines) or article summary in the principle of the inverted pyramid (see the heading of this article).
Body of the article where to insert H2 tags into paragraph titles and H3 tags into subtitles or subtitles.
Insert photos in your article to illustrate your comments or topics. And tag them. Edit the photo by clicking on it and then click on the pencil icon. Insert in the field ” alternative text ” a title containing your keyword.
Fill in the category (only one category) of your article and add some tags
If Yoast SEO is correctly installed on your site, fill in the SEO title (slightly different from the title of your article by incorporating your main keyword) and add the meta description.
Once the article is finalized, change the URL by removing the linking words and superfluous words. You can install the “Permalink Manager” plugin

Do not forget to tag the image at the front when inserting it (alternative title field)

The zone of articles under WordPress

Preview of the drafting area under WordPress. Be careful for those who write under the text editor Gutenberg, the presentation is different, and the content is managed by block.

In conclusion

Web writing evolves and fast! It is a question of websites and content that continues to grow over the years. However, people are still far from knowing how to optimize content for the web, which is to say that there are always places to take on Google.

The Google search engine itself evolves in parallel with the mass of content that invades the web. We must continuously redefine the canons of relevance, the entire post and optimize it as it should. This is not an easy task, and for some time now, we have seen tremendous fluctuations in positions.

More structured, more productive, and better-optimized articles are emerging where some of the old items have been elevated. As a result, you need to be able to copy your content and update it with fresh content and more recent data.

Impossible to rest on its laurels in web writing.

Each position of the top 3 is coveted and must be done sometimes long, very long and relevant to hope to caress the top of the first page. Solicit the help of a reference to put all the chances on your side.

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In 2020, roll up your sleeves and go the extra mile to build your expertise and keep your positions.