99 SEO Tips For The Modern Marketer

Every modern marketer knows that battles are won and lost in search engine results pages (SERPs). Being at the top of the first page of results will make a big difference to how many people click through to your site, also known as your click-through rate (CTR). A study, published in late 2014, showed that there’s a huge drop in clicks between the first and second result. The chance of getting a user to your site dwindles even more, with pages ranked sixth through tenth getting less than 5% of users to click. Page two and beyond are a marketing wasteland, with just under 4% of users choosing a link from page two, and fewer than 2% finding what they wanted on page 3.

The meaning of this is clear: if you aren’t at the top of page one, you need to boost your site’s search engine optimisation (SEO). While SEO is as old as search engines, it does change with every new search engine algorithm. For this guide, we’ll primarily focus on Google and its current search algorithm, although most of the tips can be applied to getting better rankings on other search engines too, such as Bing and Yahoo.

Repair past SEO mistakes

1. Clean up backlinks

Links are generally a good thing for SEO. However, your search engine ranking depends on these links to your site being relevant. Having a lot of links to your site from less than reputable sites can end up hurting your ranking. Ask site owners to remove the links or, if that isn’t working, use the Google Disavow Tool.

2. Fix broken links

A search engine can only index what its spiders can crawl. Broken links within your site will stop a search engine in its tracks and lower your ranking. Make sure every link on your page works and points to the right place.

3. Eliminate duplication

Duplicate content is a big problem for your SERP ranking. Search engines want to provide users with unique, relevant content; if your copy is repeated exactly on every page, you are going to have problems. Make sure each page is unique, and that you have content that is unique to your site.

4. Set canonical pages

If you have some unavoidable duplication within your site, such as old versions still lingering on your server or different sub-domains with similar landing pages, set the canonical page. This highlights one of the URLs as the ‘master’ version of that content for search engines.

5. Check for flimsy content

Simply having a page full of keywords is not enough to get a good search engine ranking. If your site has been over-optimised, stuffed with keywords, or filled with useless content, this will damage your ranking. Make sure your content is written for humans first and search engines a distant second.

Make your images worth a thousand words

6. Use alt tags to help

The alt tags are a part of your website’s code that can help users who aren’t able to view the images on your website, and they can also help a search engine gather details about the images you use. They should describe the images only, though.

7. Don’t use alt tags to stuff

The misuse of alt tags is something that search engines have cracked down on. Don’t be tempted to use the alt tags to stuff a text-free page with keywords and other content. If the content doesn’t describe the image, leave it out.

8. Bigger isn’t always better

Your camera might take images at a ridiculously high resolution, but when it comes to your website, downsize them. A resolution of 72 pixels per inch will give you an on-screen display that is almost identical to a much higher resolution, but with a much smaller file size. This means a faster loading time.

9. Keep images relevant and unique

Stock photos can be good in a pinch, but unique photos are always better. When a unique image loads quickly on a page, you’ll get a lower click back rate, helping your overall SERP ranking.

10. Give images accurate filenames

In the past, most website users wouldn’t ever see the image file name or know how to see it. Along with avoiding the embarrassment that might come from a badly named image file saved from your site by a savvy user, giving a relevant filename to your site’s images can help boost your SEO.

Choose the right keywords

11. Include long-tail keywords

If you are working on a site selling novelty character chocolate cupcakes in Cambridge, use keywords that focus on your niche. Simply targeting ‘cupcakes’ will leave you as a small fish in a very big pond.

12. Think about more than search volume

The number of people who search for a given keyword isn’t irrelevant, but you want to focus on which keywords will lead to conversions. That is, 100 people searching for a term isn’t as important as the 10 people who will search and become paying customers.

13. Use multiple keywords

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, and don’t put all your effort into a single keyword. Instead, focus on a few related keywords that are relevant and can be used together throughout your site.

14. Don’t include typos

Google will return inexact matches to its users, so there’s no need for your site to include any potential typo or misspelling of your keywords.

15. Fight a battle you can win

Along with single-word keywords, don’t set your small business up against a corporate giant and expect to take over their top ranking spot. Make your keywords match what you do and who you’re trying to attract to your site.

Use the keywords in the right way

16. Prepare for voice searching

The clunky string of words that used to work as a keyword is on its way out as more people ask questions of search engines. With voice command searching, through the Google app, Siri, and Cortana, it’s even more important to have natural keywords and phrases.

17. Don’t stuff awkward phrases

Your target keywords might be ‘auto repair Hull’ but you don’t need to have the phrase written like that throughout your page. Google will also pick up the keywords from similar, and more flowing, phrases such as ‘auto repair in Hull’ and ‘Hull auto repair’.

18. Use natural synonyms

Remember that your content is targeting real people, so mix in synonyms that people might use. A coffee shop might also be called a cafe, a coffee house, and a restaurant by somebody searching.

19. Place keywords throughout the page

Keywords should appear in your page’s title, URL, header text, and throughout the page content. Don’t drop the keyword in once and expect it to work magic.

20. Get the right density

However, you also don’t want to fill your page with your keyword. Having your keyword repeated naturally throughout your page content is enough, as it will appear with more frequency than the non-keyword phrases in your content.

Make your site go mobile

21. Responsive design helps SEO

Mobile searching is growing faster than desktop searching, with the expectation that it will overtake desktop searching in the next few years. Making your site fully responsive means that mobile search users can easily navigate your site, resulting in a lower bounce rate.

22. Alternate mobile sites can be helpful

If your site isn’t built with a responsive design, it can be helpful to offer a stripped down, smaller format version of your site for mobile users. To get the most out of this, though, ensure that it is properly coded. This can let search engines know to return that version of your site in the SERPs of mobile users.

23. Make sure you aren’t competing with yourself

Mobile versions on subdomains without the right tags can leave you competing against yourself. If you can, switch to a responsive design. If not, make sure your mobile-friendly version is properly linked back to the main site.

24. Think about local SEO for mobile users

With mobile users searching on the go, they are likely to be doing local searches. That is, they’re in a neighbourhood looking for a particular service in that area. With devices like the Apple Watch, local SEO is even more important for mobile versions of sites.

25. Optimise images for mobile

A responsive design will automatically resize images to fit the user’s device. However, huge image files are a nightmare for a mobile user. Keeping images small will help your load time, reduce the amount of their data allowance your site is using, and reduce the likelihood they’ll give up and click back to a different search engine result.

Get a boost from social sharing

26. Encourage sharing in the content

Among your pages’ calls to action, it can be good to overtly ask for your content to be shared on social media sites. Including links to your Facebook page, for instance, can give readers a forum for discussion that will help amplify the reach of your site.

27. Add sharing links

Whether you use text links, icons, or buttons, having sharing links on every page makes it easy for any visitor to share your link on their social media profiles. The less copying and pasting they have to do, the more likely a user is to share your content.

28. Use social media to share your own links

Don’t rely on outside users. Use your site’s Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest profiles to share relevant links. This can also encourage further sharing by the social media audience.

29. Don’t forget about Google+

While it might not have the regular usage of Facebook or Twitter, Google+ is an important tool for SEO purposes. Getting a lot of +1 clicks on your content will give you a boost on Google SERPs.

30. Use social sites to boost local SEO

With the launch of Open Graph search in 2010, Facebook made it clear that its users don’t just share content on the site. They also look for local businesses. Your site’s SEO can be helped by having an accurate, up to date Facebook page and other social media profiles with links back to your main URL.

Good URL’s matter

31. Set a standard for your site

The URL of a website is more than just a bit of technical data. By having a standard format across your website, you can make it easier for both search engines and users to navigate their way around.

32. Include keywords in URL’s

The URL is a great place to include keywords. This can be in the page URL, as well as in elements like categories and your domain name.

33. Limit subdomain use

Subdomains used to be a big part of the internet. However, they can cause problems for your SEO efforts, as they can sometimes be indexed as a separate site. Instead of blog.example.com, use example.com/blog to get the most for your SEO work.

34. Keep them short and sweet

If your website’s URLs include long strings of numbers and punctuation marks, you have a problem. Short, understandable URLs are a way to get keywords included and can serve as their own anchor text when used as a link. As an added bonus, they can be conveyed better in word of mouth marketing.

35. Use hyphens, but use them sparingly

Hyphens are the preferred choice for separating words in a URL, something that can be helpful with your on-page SEO. However, overusing them can give the look of spam. Use them only when needed, and when it will help with the clarity of the address.

Get your blog active

36. Post regularly

A regularly updated blog will give you fresh content for search engines. It also serves as a way for users to know that your site – and your business – is still active.

37. Use varied anchor text for links

Don’t fall into the ‘give us a call today!’ trap. Your SEO can be hurt if the anchor text of your links is always the same word or phrase. Instead, use a mix of phrases and keywords for your link anchor text.

38. Keep post topics varied, but on point

It should go without saying, but make sure your blog posts are related to what your site offers. Don’t blog about ice cream shops on a site that sells luxury wallets, and vice versa. At the same time, don’t make every post about vanilla ice cream or brown leather wallets. Stay within your field, but be creative. This will also give you the chance to use a wider variety of related keywords.

39. Use headings and subheadings

A blog post without subheadings can look daunting. The use of subheadings gives readers an easy way to skim, whilst headings mark certain parts of text as more important for search engine indexing.

40. Write compelling content

Write every blog post for humans, not for search engines. Make sure the content you’re adding is interesting and worth reading. If you are struggling with content creation, don’t be afraid to outsource.

Reduce click backs

41. Improve your load time

One of the big reasons for a search engine user clicking back to their search results is that a page is taking too long to load. Use a speed check tool to find out what is slowing your site’s load time and make moves to correct those problems.

42. Make pages relevant to their keywords

Using the right keywords will reduce the number of users who click through to your site and then hit the back button. Search engines want to provide users with relevant results, so using irrelevant keywords will quickly lower your ranking.

43. Encourage click-throughs within your site

Just as search engines need to be able to crawl from page to page on your site, users also need to be able to go from page to page. Make sure navigation is clear, and encourage further page browsing with concrete calls to action on every page.

44. Analyse your current bounce rate

Knowing you have a problem isn’t enough. You need to take a concrete look at which pages have high bounce rates and take steps to correct problems on those pages.

45. Ditch the pop ups

Pop ups, whether they’re helpful chat boxes or spam ads, can be a quick turn off for many users. This is especially true for mobile users, who might not be able to easily minimise a pop up. The best option is to get rid of them.

Earn quality links

46. Build relationships and not links

Establish your website’s authority by building relationships with bloggers, writers, journalists and editors who write about your industry each and every day. Start adding great compelling content to your website and the links will naturally start to flow.

47. Guest blog for exposure and the links will follow

Guest blogging is no longer the panacea for link building that it was just a year ago. The practice got overrun with spam, leaving search engines with no choice other than reducing the importance of guest blog links. This is not to say that you should stop guest blogging altogether. Establishing yourself as a regular contributor on one of your industries top websites or blogs will generate the kind of exposure you can only dream about.

48. Focus on relevant authority sites

Not all links are created equally. A link from a local tourism association will be more beneficial to your hotel’s website than a link from an industrial supply company located 300 miles away. When link building, think local and think about your industry.

49. Avoid spam links at all cost

Spamming links such as automated blog comments is never a good way to boost your long-term search engine rankings. Make sure you regularly check that your site isn’t being used as spam by somebody else, too. It’s not common, but it does happen and can be a big problem.

50. Use pre-digital techniques

Link building is often a matter of networking. Get out and meet other website owners, shake some hands, and make a personal request for a link.

Think local!

51. Target local keywords

The addition of a place name can have a big impact on your ranking. It also helps local customers find you.

52. Think about on-the-go searching

Mobile searching is important for local SEO. Target beyond the city name, including keywords that integrate your neighbourhood name or even your street name.

53. Get local links

Speak to other local businesses to create a base of links to your site. Having links from local organisations can also help establish you as an authority site in your area.

54. Include your place in prime locations

Adding your city within your body text might not be enough. Include it in important parts of your website, such as page titles and headers.

55. Tie in to social media

Social media is great for local searching, particularly since Facebook began offering it’s Open Graph searching. Having a Facebook page is essential for local businesses, giving users another way to visit your website.

Review SEO after redesigns

56. Make SEO part of the redesign

It’s always better to keep SEO in mind when a site is built than to try to optimise a site after it already exists.

57. Crawl the new site before launch

Before you make a new site live, look at it through the eyes of a search engine. Correct any errors before they are live and noticed by a search engine.

58. Check for missing links

The error you’re most likely to find is missing links, particularly if your site is using a new URL structure. Luckily, these are generally easy for you to fix.

59. Don’t leave the old site live

A search engine won’t see that you’ve revamped the look of your site. It will just see duplicate content.

60. Keep an eye on analytics

When your new site launches, keep a close eye on your site’s metrics using analytics tools. This can highlight any growing pains your site may have.

Make your content great

61. Flimsy content is not enough

Content is king for SEO. Having thin content that is unnaturally stuffed with keywords will damage your reputation, both for search engines and for human users. While any content is better than no content, flimsy content is no longer sufficient to get you the top ranking you need.

62. Focus on quality…

When it comes to your content, the quality matters. Search engines aim to return relevant results, and good quality content will fit that bill.

63.But don’t forget quantity

However, while quality is the most important factor, the quantity isn’t irrelevant. In general, search engines will give preference to text content that is 600 words or more, and studies have shown user engagement is best when content is 1,000 words or more.

64. Keep content relevant

The content on your site has to be related to what your site offers. If your business is in one industry, make sure the content matches. Save unrelated content for a different site.

65. Set the right tone

Appeal to the right audience by writing in the correct tone. Some sites call for very formal wording, whilst others are better with a more conversational tone. Knowing your audience will help you decide what tone is right for your site.

Go beyond text with multimedia

66. Videos draw user attention

Videos are a great way to draw users in to your site. They can be used for product demonstrations, explainer content, or just a welcome.

67. YouTube can boost Google ranking

Since Google purchased YouTube, having content on the video sharing site has become an influencing factor in Google SERP placement. Uploading your videos to YouTube can make an impact on your site’s ranking.

68. Don’t forget alt tags

Like images, multimedia files aren’t seen by search engine crawlers in the same way as they are seen by users. Make sure you use alt tags to correctly describe and identify any multimedia file.

69. Include a call to action

A video is most effective when it has a call to action, just like text content. This can be verbal, visual, and via links.

70. Create the right links

Make sure your YouTube video links to your page’s URL, and that your website has a link to your YouTube video or profile. This will give authority and ease navigation.

Analyse and improve

71. Use Webmaster Tools

Google offers a lot of information through its Webmaster Tools. This can help you keep on top of what your site is doing right and what it’s doing wrong.

72. Keep track of algorithm updates

If your website’s traffic has a sudden drop, it is always worth checking to see if there has been an update to the search engine’s algorithm. You might need to adjust your website to meet new guidelines.

73. Keep an eye on the competition

Part of any SEO project is knowing what the competition is doing. Check what keywords they’re using, how they rank, and what they’re doing right and wrong.

74. Regularly assess your target audience

Your ideal website visitor might change seasonally, or it might stay the same. Knowing who you want to reach will help you choose the right keywords, content, and more.

75. Run an A/B test for new content

Split testing can let you try out new content, new looks, and other changes before you fully launch them. You might be surprised how even a small change can impact the number of clicks you get.

Other website basics

76. Use 404, 301, 503 code pages and include an xml sitemap

Search engines hate broken links and dead ends. You can help the spiders and your site’s human users by including redirection pages, site maintenance notices, and sitemaps.

77. Know when (and how) to use robots.txt

The robots.txt file gives instructions to a search engine crawler about how to index your site. It can request that certain directories are not indexed. If you want your entire site indexed, you don’t need to include a robots.txt file.

78. Use the right top level domain

The correct top level domain will help reinforce that your site is relevant and trustworthy. While the number of top level domains is regularly increasing, it is often best to stick with a local country domain (such as .co.uk) or an established international domain (such as .com).

79. Existing clean domains have more power…

A site’s age can help boost its ranking, as long as it has a clean link history.

80. …But always use a new domain for a new project

At the same time though, you shouldn’t try to cram a new project into a domain you already own, just for the sake of that authority.

Don’t be afraid to get help

81. Help with content

Copywriting services can help you create compelling, dynamic, and relevant content for your website.

82. Help with coding

A web developer will be able to ensure that your website is properly coded, meaning no broken links or misused tags.

83. Help with images

Getting the right images might be a matter of turning to an image library, or hiring a photographer. In either case, relevant and unique images are easy to find.

84. Help with keywords

Keyword tools are readily available online, but you can also work with an SEO professional to come up with different ways of searching for the right terms.

85. Help with SEO planning

Having a strategy and goals in place is key to any SEO effort. An SEO expert can help you determine what you should be working towards in your work.

Get the most from your content

86. Set authorship

Google Authorship came to a close last year, but setting authorship is not a dead concept for SEO. While it might not offer you the byline and image within SERPs, Author Rank can help you establish authority and might influence your site’s ranking.

87. Don’t hide behind logins…

A search engine can’t index that which it cannot access. Logins can limit what a search engine is able to index, so don’t add them unless they are necessary.

88. …Unless there’s a reason to hide

One reason for keeping something hidden behind a login is if you are redeveloping your site. Keeping the new version hidden behind a password is an easy way to keep it out of search engine results.

89. Make sure citations are correct

Regularly check your citations on sites such as directories, Google Maps, and online phone books. An error in these can damage your SERP ranking and misdirect potential customers.

90. Use the meta description to attract clicks

The meta description tag gives you the opportunity to write a concise summary of your page content. This will often be shown below the link in SERPs and can be more compelling than the first few sentences of your page’s content.

Ten quick SEO tips every marketer should follow today

91. Remember that SEO always changes

Search engines update their algorithms, and competitors are always trying to boost their own ranking.

92. Great content for one site is not great content for another

Quality is a fluid concept, and one that is closely tied to relevance.

93. A site needs to be trusted to stay on top

Secure sites (using HTTPS) might have slower load times, but can be more trusted, resulting in a higher rank overall.

94. View like a search engine, but think like a user

Never allow your site to be developed just for search engines, but don’t forget their particular needs.

95. Search engine optimisation is not something that happens overnight

Good SEO takes time, and bad SEO (such as spam links) can cause lasting damage.

96. Mobile searching is a lifestyle change

Users want immediate answers to real questions. Make sure your site is able to answer those questions.

97. Duplicate content can cause damage to your site’s ranking

Running a programme such as Copyscape or even searching for an exact phrase can help you ensure your content is unique.

98. If a site has been blocked from SERPs, you can’t demand that it be reindexed

It’s much easier to avoid a search engine penalty in the first place.

99. SEO is an essential part of any marketing plan

Much of everyday life is conducted online, so getting a top ranking is crucial to any business’s success.

100. A site’s authority comes from authority

The better the pages that link to your site, the higher you will rank. Having ten excellent links is always better than having 10,000 links that aren’t relevant or from authority sites.

SEO is always evolving

While not every marketer will take on every tip here, it’s worth keeping in mind that SEO is an always evolving task. A great marketer should never walk away from a website and assume that what worked when the site was set up will always work. Keeping on top of the biggest ranking factors – quality content, relevance, and authority – is a long-term process, but one that can help you ensure the SERP rankings you want and need.

We welcome any questions

Do you have any questions related to our 100 SEO tips for the modern marketer? Do you have an opinion on any of our tips listed? Do you have any SEO related questions not covered above? Please use the comments section below to submit your views and we will reply to each, even if you do not agree with us.

101 SEO Tips For Small Businesses

1. No SEO means no visitors from search engines. If you don’t do it then search engines can’t categorise and rank your site for keywords relevant to your business.
2. Both on-site SEO and off-site SEO are required. You can’t achieve good results doing one without the other.
3. Start doing SEO now. The longer you leave it to start, the further ahead your competitors will be, and the harder it becomes to rank higher than them.
4. Know your competition. Find out what the sites ranking on the 1st page for the keywords that you want to rank for have done, on-site and off-site, to get there.
5. No two websites are the same. An SEO strategy that worked for someone else’s site isn’t guaranteed to work for yours because there are so many variables.
6. SEO doesn’t have to be expensive. You can get big results on a small budget if you invest time in creating good content and building online relationships.
7. SEO results aren’t instant. The results of SEO work done today might not become apparent, and might not be credited by search engines, for weeks, or even months.
8. The newer your website is, the more patient you will need to be. It takes time to build authority and trust, and until you’ve developed both, you shouldn’t expect to outrank older, more established sites.
9. Never consider your website to be finished. If you want your site to continue to rank higher, attract more visitors and make more sales, then you should always be adding to and improving it.
10. Adapt to algorithm updates. To attain and retain good rankings you need to adapt your SEO strategy as search engines evolve over time.
11. You don’t need to submit your website to search engines. They have evolved beyond the point of needing to be directly notified when a new website, or page on a website, is created.
12. Get advice directly from Google. Via their Webmaster Guidelines and Webmaster Help Videos.
13. Don’t risk Google penalties. As they have a significant share of the search market, a penalty from them results in a significant, and often long-term, loss of visitors to your site.
14. You’re ultimately responsible for all of SEO work done on your website. Search engines won’t remove a penalty on the basis that you didn’t do, and didn’t know the specifics of, the SEO work on your site.
15. Set-up and use Google Search Console. To find out, among other things, what keywords your site is ranking for and which other sites are linking to yours.
16. Set-up and use Google Analytics. To find out, among other things, how many visitors your site gets, the keywords they use to find it, and what pages they visit.
17. Set-up a Google+ page for your business. Doing so builds trust with Google and improves rankings for localised keywords.
18. Diversify your traffic sources. Google is a great source of traffic but being 100% reliant on them for visitors puts you in a vulnerable position.
19. Use Pay Per Click in addition to SEO. If you can afford to do both, then do both, as although PPC can be costly, you can get visitors to your site straight away for any keywords that you want.
20. Low quality equals high risk. Low quality backlinks and/or low quality on-site content can easily result in your site being penalised by search engines.
21. Create content primarily for people, not search engines. There’s no point creating content that ranks well if it doesn’t help people, interest them, or persuade them to buy from you.
22. Remove duplicate content. You can be penalised for having the same, or very similar, content on multiple pages of your site.
23. Remove, merge or add to pages with little content on them. Having lots of content-light pages, with short page view times, can result in search engines downgrading all of your site’s keyword rankings.
24. Don’t copy content from other websites. If search engines find that content on your site has been taken from elsewhere they may downgrade rankings for some, or even all, of your webpages.
25. Claim authorship of your content. Linking your Google+ account to your content improves both rankings and click-through-rate.
26. Ensure your content is good enough to be on the 1st page. If your content isn’t better than the content already on the 1st page for a keyword then your site doesn’t deserve to rank there.
27. Make your content engaging for visitors. The more engaging it is, the longer people will stay on your site, and high viewing times signal to search engines that your site deserves good rankings.
28. Create videos. They increase the amount of time that people spend on your site and also allow you to get links from video sharing sites.
29. Create stats/charts/graphs/infographics. People are more likely to share and link to these types of content than plain written content.
30. More content equals more rankings, more visitors and more sales. Search engines reward, and visitors trust more, sites that are filled with lots of pages of good quality content.
31. Add a blog to your website. Doing so makes it quick and simple to add new pages of content to your site.
32. Create content to post on other websites and blogs. People are much more likely to link to you if you provide them with content to use on their site.
33. Balance creating content with marketing content. If you create content without marketing it then people will struggle to find it, and if they can’t find it they can’t link to it or share it.
34. Write a unique, descriptive title for every page. Within 55 characters you need to make the topic of a page clear to both humans and search engines.
35. Write a unique, descriptive meta description for every page. Within 160 characters you need to describe the topic of a page in a way that persuades people to click on your site instead of the other sites listed in the search results.
36. Research keywords before optimising for them. If you choose the wrong keywords, regardless of what you do for on-site and off-site SEO, you’ll get very few visitors and/or visitors who don’t convert into sales.
37. Use Google’s Keyword Tool. It provides a good list of words and phrases related to the keyword ideas that you enter into it.
38. Get keyword ideas from other people. They (customers, suppliers, partners, friends, etc.) see your business differently to you and may associate different words and phrases with it.
39. Target relevant keywords. The more relevant your keywords are, the easier and quicker it is to rank for them, and the higher the percentage of visitors who will become buyers.
40. Target keywords with commercial intent. You want visitors who are ready to spend money rather than those who are just looking for information.
41. Long-tail keywords are a great source of traffic. It’s quicker and cheaper to rank for longer, specific keyword phrases, and more than 40% of searches are comprised of four or more words.
42. Dedicate 1 page of your website to each keyword that you’re targeting. Doing so makes it simpler for search engines to categorise and rank your pages.
43. Add keywords in the right places. They’re less important than they used to be, but you should still include them in urls, page titles, meta descriptions, header tags and image alt tags.
44. Avoid keyword stuffing. You’re much more likely to be penalised than credited if you use a keyword phrase repeatedly on a page.
45. Backlinks affect rankings more than anything else. The number and quality of links pointing to your site will largely determine in what position your site ranks.
46. Don’t set backlink targets. Link building should be a steady, consistent, on-going process, that doesn’t stop when you reach a certain number.
47. Get backlinks from relevant sources. Search engines want to display relevant results for each keyword, and links from relevant pages/sites are a strong signal to them that your site is relevant.
48. Get backlinks from trusted sources. Links from trustworthy sites signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy too.
49. Be prepared to work for high quality backlinks. Generally, the more easily you can acquire a link, the less value it will likely have.
50. Be wary of paying people to link to your website. Buying backlinks can, and does work, however, there’s a definite risk involved if you buy cheap ones and/or from people who openly sell them.
51. Don’t get involved in link networks. The benefit of getting links from networks is low, whereas the risk of being penalised and losing rankings is high.
52. Diversify your backlink profile. Get different types of links from a wide range of IP addresses.
53. Build backlinks to every page of your website that you want to rank. Get people to link to the inner-pages of your site – the ones you want to rank for specific keywords – as well as to the homepage.
54. Existing relationships are an instant source of backlinks. Some of your suppliers, partners and customers will link to your site if you ask them to do so.
55. Get the good backlinks that your competition already has. If someone has already linked to one of your competitors then there’s a reasonable chance that they’ll link to you also if you give them a good reason to.
56. Get some backlinks with your target keywords as the link text. This type of link is important, but should make up less than 25% of your backlink profile.
57. The majority of your backlinks should be branded. A backlink profile without lots of branded links (like ‘Company Name’ and ‘www.companyname.co.uk’) signals to search engines that you’ve been using manipulative link building tactics.
58. Know who’s linking to you. Within Google Search Console, go to ‘Traffic’ and then ‘Links’ to check how many sites are linking to yours and which sites they are.
59. Sign up for Ahrefs or Open Site Explorer. Doing so gives you access to extensive backlink data for your site and also your competitors’ sites.
60. Every page of your website should be linked to from at least one other page. Search engines don’t include pages in their results that aren’t linked to either internally (from another page of the same site) or externally (from another site).
61. Have direct links from your homepage to your most important pages. Doing so passes authority from the homepage to your important pages and improves the rankings of those pages.
62. Add in-content links to other relevant pages on your website. Whilst not as valuable as external links, internal links do still pass authority and signal to search engines what pages to rank for which keywords.
63. Remove unnecessary outbound links. Only link to pages on other sites that you think visitors to your site would find helpful and/or interesting.
64. Link out to relevant websites and blogs. People generally notice if you link to them, and if you link to them, there’s a reasonable chance that they’ll link back to you if you have good site.
65. Leave comments on relevant websites and blogs. Doing so builds trust and relationships with people – both the site owners and visitors to those sites.
66. Interact with bloggers in your industry. The better people with relevant blogs know you (through social sites, forums, email, etc.) the more likely they’ll be to link to your site and to share your content.
67. Contact small businesses with relevant websites. A good relationship, in which you help promote each others’ sites, makes SEO simpler and cheaper for you and for them.
68. Write press releases to share news and opinions. This is a good way to get content on, and links from, sites outside of your industry and circle of connections.
69. Phone people to develop online relationships. Emails can easily be ignored or forgotten, but phone calls not so much.
70. Use your website to build trust and relationships. The more relationships you have, and the more people trust you, the more people will talk about you, link to you, and, ultimately, buy from you.
71. Add your address and phone number to every page of your website. This builds trust and improves rankings if you’re targeting keyword phrases that contain your town/city name.
72. Get listed in industry and local directories. Most directories are worthless, however, there should be at least 10 that are relevant to your area or industry.
73. Ask customers to leave reviews on Google+ and local directories. Positive reviews improve your rankings in Google’s local listings and can be accessed directly from the search results.
74. Be personal in a way that big businesses can’t be. Putting your individuality and  personality across throughout the off-site SEO process (outreach emails, guest posts, Tweets, etc.) makes others more likely to engage with you.
75. Use social websites to promote other people’s content as well as your own. People generally know if you’ve taken action on social sites to help them, and if they see that you’ve helped them, the chances of them helping you out in return are much higher.
76. Add social sharing buttons to your website. The easier you make it for people to share your content, the more likely they will be to do so.
77. Social media isn’t a replacement for SEO. Your social strategy should be part of, or should run alongside, your SEO strategy.
78. Search engines ranks webpages, not websites. Whether or not a page ranks for a particular keyword depends largely on the quality of that individual page, and not the quality of your site as a whole.
79. Small businesses can rank higher than big businesses. It’s not uncommon for a page on a small business’s site to rank higher than a page on the site of a big, national company.
80. Know where you’re ranking. Within Google Search Console, go to ‘Traffic’ and then ‘Search Queries’ to check where your site is ranking for keywords.
81. Aim to be in the top 3, not just the top 10. If your site isn’t ranked in the top 3 positions for a keyword then you’ll only get a small percentage (less than 10%) of the traffic from searches for that keyword.
82. Rankings can be misleading. The number of 1st page rankings you have is irrelevant if those rankings don’t convert to visitor numbers and, ultimately, sales.
83. Don’t worry about PageRank. Sites with a low PR can, and often do, outrank sites with a high PR.
84. Choose between using www or not using www. Ensure that your site is set to load at either www.domainname.co.uk or domainname.co.uk – not both.
85. Adopt a flat website architecture. Any page of your site should be accessible within 3 clicks from your homepage.
86. Use a simple, clear URL structure. People should be able to guess the topic of a page by looking only at its URL.
87. Use header tags. Include variations of your target keyword phrases in a page’s H1 and H2 tags.
88. Use rich snippets. They provide additional data about your site to search engines and can improve the appearance of your site’s listing in search results.
89. Use 301 redirects. If you change the url of a page on your site, but don’t redirect the old url to the new one, any links pointing to the old one will be wasted.
90. Set-up a useful 404 error page. Linking to your best content from your 404 page means that visitors who see it are less likely to leave your site.
91. Optimise your images. Include a page’s target keyword phrase, or variations of it, in the file names and img alt tags of the images on that page.
92. Optimise your website for mobile users. Your site needs to be clear and simple to use for people accessing it using smartphones and tablets.
93. Check browser and screen resolution compatibility. Your site needs to render correctly in every web browser (Chrome, IE, Safari, etc.) and screen resolution (1366×768, 1024×768, 800×600, etc.).
94. Maximise your website’s loading speed. Use Google’s site speed tool and implement the recommendations that they give you.
95. Use a reliable web hosting company. Your site’s keyword rankings will be downgraded if your site is regularly inaccessible.
96. Regularly backup your website. If you lose your site data then you lose your rankings too, as search engines quickly remove sites that won’t load from their results.
97. Keep up-to-date with SEO news and trends. Read sites such as Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land and SEOmoz.
98. If you don’t know, ask someone. If you have a question, ask it in an online SEO forum or contact an SEO consultant.
99. Ask SEO consultants lots of questions. If you’re going to hire someone, you’ll be taking less of a risk if you know a lot about them and their strategies.
100. Engage with your SEO consultant. The more you know about SEO, and the more a consultant knows about your business, the better the results will be.

How to increase your blog traffic / seo tips 100% working Latest Post

Seo stands for search engine optimization. It means to increase your blogs traffic manually bysearch engines. Seo is the main problem for every blogger. There are many ways to drive fake traffic to your blog or site such as traffic exchange sites for example linkcollider, traffup, like-ex.com, ptc sites, traffic swarm, hitleap and many others but its not valid for Google AdSense. Because Google hates fake or paid traffic. You would have read many posts about seo and driving traffic to your blog in many websites or blogs and most of them wouldn't be helpful. Don't worry you are at right place. After reading this post your blog will be 100% seo friendly without any doubt. If you will follow the below written steps, I guarantee that you will see your blog much better than before. In this post I am going to tell you how to generate valid traffic from search engines. To make your blog or site 100% seo optimised you need to do following things:

(1). Keywords in title of blog:

Describe your blog's content in your blog's title for example if you have a blog about blogger tips then give it a title "blogger tips, tricks, gadgets, widgets and tutorials" it will help searchengines to show your blog in results if someone search for any of keyword which you use in title.

(2). Tags in posts:

When you write a post take care of having tags in that post. Because search engine will target your tags to show result. Write tags is (h2) font-size. For example you are writing a post about a publishing network or what else now you have to write keywords about that publishing network in tags. So that the search engine find your post and show in results.

(3). Keywords in post title:

Try to describe your posts summery in your post title. Its helpful for seo as someone search onsearch engine for your written keywords in post title the search engine will show your blog in results. It is a good way to increase your blog views.

(4). Lengthy posts:

Your post must be of at least 250-300 words. Above 300 words will be more good.

(5). Unique posts:

To gain unique visitors you have to write unique posts. Your post should contain more text than images. And it must be helpful and meaningful. Your blog should have a category that is your blog should focus only at one thing for example, if you created a software blog than it should contain only software etc. 

(6). User friendly:

As a wise man said," Simpler is better". Your blog should have a friendly user interface It means no pop-ups, no-on click ads, pop-up like boxes because these things frustrates most of the users.

(7). Meta tags and description:

Write a meta description of your blog. Write about your blog in below code between comas. And paste it below <head> in template. Also write the keywords of your blog's content in the second code and past it below <head> in your blog template. 

<meta content='write description here' name='description'/>
<meta content='write keywords here' name='keywords'/> (8). Submit your blogs URL to search engines:

Increase you blog traffic by submitting link to search engines. Three big search engines "Google,Bing,Yahoo" will accept your link for free. Submit your blog link to other searchengines, you can find more search engines on google.

(9). Submit URL to directories:

You can find a huge list of directories on Google. Submit your link to directories for free, it is also helpful to gain unique traffic.

(10). Social sharing:

Create fan pages of your blog on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, linkedin, tumblr, stumbleupon etc. Share your posts on fan pages to grow more audience.

(11). Description of each post:

While writing a post you must have a brief description of the post, you can find it on right side of blog post which will help to increase your seo as this description show up when someone share your post.




(12). RSS Feed:

Create an rss feed for your blog at http://www.feedburner.com add Email subscribtion widget to your blog so if people subscribe to your feed they will have updates about your new post in their inbox. It is also a good way for traffic.

(13). Join the blogging communities:

Joining the blogging communities also helps you to increase your blog traffic. The main source of problem is traffic. It becomes a headache to drive more traffic to blog. Joining blog communities helps you to increase traffic in this way that when you join a blog community and make or add your blog with a brief description and tags other bloggers visit your blog as it appears in recent news or latest article, if they like your blog they will visit again which increase your traffic. Some of the top blog communities are Getblogtraffic, blogengage,bizsugar, blokube etc you can find many other blog communities on Google. But I am using Getblogtraffic as it is easy to use and I prefer to use Getblogtraffic for beginners. 

(14). Make searches:

Ask your friends on social networks to search the keywords for your blog in Google, Yahoo, Bing or any other search engine. More searches will make Google or any other search engine to index you blog in search results and also in auto-complete. Because your blog's keywords will be trending.

(15). Adding separator between blog title and post:

Adding a separator between blog title and post title helps search engines to search your blog or website for the searched keyword. That's the reason to define your post summery in post title so the search engine may find your blog. It is also a good thing for seo. A separator may be plus sign, minus sign, slash, brackets or |, now a days most of the bloggers and webmasters are using this(|) sign. Facebook uses |,/,-. You can use any of them to separate your blog title from your blog posts. It is not important that you must use this sign(|). Use any of them which you like. For adding the separator to your blogger click here.



(16). Optimize links for seo:

While adding an external link in your post you must check the Add 'rel=nofollow' attribute.And open in new tab option. Its not important to check the open in new tab option but checking Add 'rel=nofollow' is very important. It tells robots and crawlers not to follow any external link. If you are still confused then the below image will guide you:

(17). Making permalinks of posts:

Don't forget to make permalink of every post you write before publishing it. Making permalinks also help search engines to find the keywords in links. You can create a permalink easily. There is an option on right side of the post click it and click done, your blog will automatically generate permalink related to your post title. You can create a custom permalink also. If you have any confusion related to permalink below image will explain it more briefly:




(18). Tags in images:

Google images is a platform or site where people search millions of images every minute. Tags in images help Google to show images to users. When someone finds your image he clicks to open it he will be redirected to your blog so its also a good way to get more traffic. How to add tag in images?: when you upload an image click it you will see many options such as small,large,medium,x-large,add caption and properties. Click properties now write the tags in both tabs and click save.

(19). Fast loading:

Make your blog load fast because slow loading blogs and websites frustrates users and they close your blog which results in decreasing your blog traffic. Get some tips to increase your blog loading speed here.

(20). Create relation between posts:

While writing a post relate it to other posts similar to it. For example if you have written a post about seo tips and you have given some tips in it such as adding a related post widget will help you to increase you traffic then past the link of the related post widget or anything else which you want to relate. This will increase your page views how? the answer is a reader must read a related post to solve his problem. If you are still having problem in how to relate posts then simply add a related posts widget to your blog.

(21). Join blogger forums:

Join blogger forums and create posts there also highlight your blog name and link so the search engine show the joined blogger forums in results, it will increase your seo. Other feature of joining the blogger forums is that other bloggers who are on the same blog will visit your blog. You can find popular blogger forums on Google easily.

(22). Rename images:

Rename all images with the name of your blog before uploading them. Use keywords of your content while renaming images.

(23). Google trends

Use Google trends to get keywords(which are mostly searched) for your blog. It will show your blog in search results when these words will be searched again. For example in the below image I've searched for "earn money" and it has shown results, regions from where it is most searched, related keywords and a graph which shows in which years these keywords are trending.




Copy the word which you searched as well as related searches and add them to your blog as shown in step 6 for better seo.

(24). Backlinks:

Most of the blogs suggest to create quality backlinks to your blog for seo. Because they help your blog to spread throughout the Internet. Backlinks are the links which are created on other sites, so when your blog is searched they will also appear in search results. You can create quality backlinks by using Link collider.

(25). Recommendation on Google:

Ask your visitors and subscribers to recommend your posts on Google(g+1). Google recommendation makes your blog posts popular on Google and lets visitors to find your posts easily. For example if your post has more than 100 recommendations then it is guaranteed that your post would appear in search results if related keywords were used. It is very hard to get g+1 on post but you can exchange g+1 at Link collider. Link Collider is also known as seo booster, you can find many seo tools here such as link submitter, link bookmarking, copy material checker etc, now g+1 exchanging is also available, you can use it to get your post recommended and make your seo better. But if you have more subscribers then you don't need it.

(26). Post titles:


This is one of the most important thing for seo, because it helps search engines to search and index your post title. To make your post title optimized for seo you need a little customization in template of your blog. When you customize your blog post titles they become bigger as compared to before customization.

(27). Update your blog daily:

Updating blog daily doesn't mean to add or remove any widget or updating the same post again and again or customizing your blog template or updating look of your blog, it means to create new post in blog. As a beginner you must create at least one post daily, more than one will be more good because search engines specially Google love those blogs who are updated daily and index post of these blogs frequently, so if you want to make your blog popular you have to create 1-2 posts daily.


(28). Use Google webmaster tools:


You must have heard about Google webmaster tools, these are the tools which help you to improve your blog for seo. These tools show you errors in your blog, ways to improve these errors and also help you to index your posts in Google search results. It also provides you an advanced search box which works much better than the ordinary search box provided in blogger. These tools provide you detailed reports of your blog pages also. You can find more features of Google webmaster tools here.


(29). Bing webmaster tools:


Similar to Google webmaster tools, Bing has also provided tools for webmaster which are similar to Google webmaster tools. This tools are easy to use and helps you to index you posts in bing search results. You can find these tools here. You need to setup a Microsoft account first to use these tools. These tools will show errors in your blog, help you to make your blog seo friendly and so on. You can also submit your blog's sitemap to bing so that Bing can index your posts links easily.


(30). Underscores in pages urls:


Now a adays bloggers are creating many pages in their blog such as advertise with us, contact us, about page etc but they don't know one thing that in most of cases when you create a page in blog its url contains underscore(_) which is not good for seo. Search engines like Google doesn't like it. If underscores lies in posts links then its not bad for seo but in case of pages links underscores causes problem so avoid having underscores in page urls. Mostly underscores are found in contact page's url such as http://blablabla.blogspot.com/contact_64.html. How to get an underscore free url? well, to get a url having no underscores isn't that easy in blogger as it generates pages urls by itself and you can't change it but I have found a solution for that. The solution is very simple to get an underscore free url while creating a page first give it a title than click on publish open it and see there will be no underscores and after that edit it again and make your page. Sometimes this trick don't work in that case delete and re-create pages with different names several times, may be it work.


(31). Italic tags:


Tags are very important for seo so every post must have tags in bold style and in large size so that search engines could use them to show results. One more thing which must be focused while writing tags posts in is tags must be in italic form. You can see a demo below. You can write text in italic style by using tools above each post on right side of bold text button as shown in below image:




Thanks for visiting 101Helper. I hope this post is helping you to make your blog seo friendly. If this post is helpful to you do me a favor, recommend this post on Google or share on Facebook and twitter. Follow and subscribe for latest updates.

(32). Meta code optimization:

Meta code optimization is also important for seo, meta codes are of different types and helps robots and crawlers to crawl your blog posts. It is helpful to get more traffic in many ways such as meta code for description helps in adding description of a blog or site and helps search engines to encounter your content''s keywords in your meta description and show your blog in search results. Read a brief post about meta code optimization here.


(33). Dofollow links:

Above in this post I have told to add rel="nofollow" to every external link so that robots and crawlers don't follow that link but what about internal links? I have also told to relate old posts with new posts by internal linking which is very important for seo but some bloggers make a mistake while doing this, they add rel="nofollow to internal links also which tells robots and crawlers not to follow these links which results in a low seo. So it is very important to take care while adding rel="nofollow" to links, make sure to add rel="nofollow" to external links only. For a better seo you have to tell robots to follow your internal links and for that you have to use rel="dofollow" instead of rel="nofollow" as rel="dofollow" tells robots to follow the links and ultimately it increases chances of appearance of more links in search results.

(34). Blog title optimization:

Blog title plays a vital role in seo as it appears with with every post title in search results. Therefore it should be optimized to have a seo friendly blog title. Above in this post I have discussed about adding a separator between blog and post title as it help in seo but it is good for those blogs who have a short title. You might have noticed in search results that full titles aren't shown because every search engine has a limit, so if you have a long blog title and you are adding a separator between post title and blog title, it won't work because in search results only post titles are displayed while blog title is kept hidden in dots(...). So You have to make some changes in your blog title to make it shorter for better results. If you have a long blog title like me then don't add separator leave it to post titles only or make some changes like me, what's the change which I have made in my blog title? hover your browser tab to know or see below image. You can see in below image that there is only blog title before post title, where is the rest of title? well it is the change which I have made, so now my blog title is is fully optimized. You can also do it by reading my recent post about Blog title optimization for seo in blogger.