SEO Tips

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Distinguishing Between the H1 and the Heading of a Page

H1 is a specific piece of HTML code that is wrapped around text. It was originally meant to display that text as the largest text on the page.

When Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were developed, one of the things CSS allowed web developers to do was to take the standard H1 format and adjust it (color, typeface, font size) to match the rest of the page design. This meant that sometimes the H1 was no longer the largest text on the page.

When Google initially wrote their algorithm, CSS hadn’t even been mainstreamed yet. In fact, it was only registered with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in March of 1998, shortly before Google was founded (September 1998), so it certainly was not in widespread use yet.

The bottom line is that H1s were (and still are, mostly) a good indicator of what the most important text on a page was.

The heading of a page is the same thing, just without the official H1 code wrapped around it.

Aboutness & Relevance

What’s ultimately the most important are the many signals (of which H1 is one) that make up a page and indicate what the topic of the page is (a.k.a., “aboutness”).

How relevant the page is to the searcher’s query ultimately determines whether it is listed in the results set, or search engine results page (SERP).

What’s key here is not if the page has an H1 tag, but the text that’s actually in that H1 tag.

Gaming the System

This is why the H1 takes secondary importance to the heading itself. While it’s great if the heading is wrapped in H1 code, it isn’t entirely necessary.

This is also why “gamed” headings – like small text at the top or bottom of a page wrapped in H1 and CSS to make it small – don’t work.

It’s why Google ignores the H1 entirely when it’s wrapped around an image (which is a non-standard use; an H1 is a text modifier).

And finally, it’s why Google can tell that if your heading is prominent on the page but not wrapped in the H1 tag, it’s still for all intents and purposes an H1.

Other Uses of the H1 tag

Another important element the H1 serves is usability. It’s specifically usable for persons with visual impairments and people who use screen readers.

Almost every major screen reader has the capability to skip to the H1 tag on the page to tell that visitor what the page is about. If it’s missing, your site is definitely not as usable and accessible as it could be.

As Google places a higher importance than ever on usability, particularly mobile usability, this becomes more important.

H1 Tags & SEO

As you can see, the H1 tag is pretty important for SEO, usability, and accessibility.

Ideally, you should have one clearly marked on each page of your site.

Also be careful to ensure that the H1 reinforces the point of the page, and that there is only one H1.

If your site already has clear headings that are not coded as H1s? It’s unlikely that adding the H1 tag will make a significant difference to your overall SEO strategy.

But good SEO is all about checking boxes, so why not check this one now that you know it goes beyond just SEO?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Journal by Jenny Halasz on July 17, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]An everyday testimonial or review has to fulfill a solid of demands to keep me happy. It has to:

• Be loose with its keywords in all the right places (I’m looking at you first 150 characters), and tight in the rest (now you, 200 words).
• Be high-quality, without sacrificing some level personalization.
• Offer enough trust and authority to survive in the search engines (this one is most important).

This is already a big ask in a testimonial, let alone a product review.

There is an endless array of testimonial links out there for sites, but choosing them gets a little tricker when you go beyond the one-liners.

Luckily, the bandwagon effect is real and a universal favorite for link builders.

The Value of Testimonials & Reviews

It may not be the glamorous infographic you put on display in your blog content, but the trusty stagehand that gets the link building job done.

Reviews and testimonials provide fresh (and frequent) content.

They can signal to the search engines that a page has been updated giving you another opportunity for that page to get crawled and potentially rank higher depending on the quality of that review.

These reviews and testimonials also give you a chance to rank for long-tail keyword terms.

Beyond that, testimonials or review pages add credibility to a brand. You can influence potential customers, users, or clients still in the decision-making phase.

People who testify about your brand’s offerings will also get exposure for their company via linked or unlinked mention of their websites.

Win, win.

How to Gain More Testimonials & Reviews

To get started with this type of link building, find authoritative brands that feature reviews and testimonials on their website.

Also, you can reverse engineer any customers, users, or clients who are featured by your competitor. Put their websites into your favorite SEO tool to find out where they got links from. You now have a solid list of websites to consider pursuing.

Here are a few more ideas you can try out to get more testimonials and reviews:

• Implement a referral plan. For example, you could say we pay 10 percent for referrals.
• Create a release form for customers to digitally sign every time you receive a compliment.
• Send a discount code to your email subscribers and share it on social for every customer review.
• Automate a post-purchasing plan to consumers who have had a positive experience.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Journal by Anna Crowe on July 15, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What’s the difference between image alt text and title? Do you keep them the same?

This post will examine the differences between the image alt attribute, image title text, and image file name, and provide some basic recommendations on how to optimize them.

Alt Text vs. Alt Tag: Which Is Correct?

When you think of image alt text, the term that may immediately come to mind is “alt tag”.

Well, alt tag is really a misnomer and doesn’t exist at all. Because alt text, or alternative text, is the alternate text attribute of the image tag.

This is where communication in the SEO world can get dicey, because it may be known as one thing that just about everyone knows what an alt tag is, but in reality, it is entirely different.

Alternative text is used by screen readers for the blind to decipher what an image is about. It lets you specify an image description that is fed through an audio-based prompter that tells blind people what is currently on the page as they are scrolling through the page.

According to W3C Accessibility Guidelines, for code to be considered W3C-valid, it is important to include both image alt text and image title text in the image for important images on the page.

For design-based images that are unimportant, blank alt text attributes may be used. In this situation, screen readers will just skip over the image.

What Is Image Alt Text?

Alt text, or alternative text, is used to display text that describes an image to “alternative” sources.

Primarily, its goal is to make images more accessible to the blind who use screen readers, to make the web much more accessible per W3C accessibility guidelines.

Its secondary goal, as previously mentioned by Ann Smarty on SEJ, it is for people who have decided, for whatever reason, to turn off images in their web browser application. In addition, it satisfies those user agents who are also unable to “see” the images.

As a rule, alternative text should include targeted keyword optimization in a context that describes what the image is about. If no alternative text exists for the image, it will be displayed as an empty image.

Image alternative text is that text that pops up when you hover your cursor over an image. Because Google cannot exactly crawl images in-depth, and mostly text, Google uses alternative text as a focus when they are trying to understand what the image is about.

It is important to note the W3C’s Accessibility Guidelines for Alternative Text:

When using the img element, specify a short text alternative with the alt attribute. Note. The value of this attribute is referred to as “alt text”.

When an image contains words that are important to understanding the content, the alt text should include those words. This will allow the alt text to play the same function on the page as the image. Note that it does not necessarily describe the visual characteristics of the image itself but must convey the same meaning as the image.

What Is Image Title Text?

The image title text attribute is an attribute that is used to provide additional information about the image. That being said, the image title is not used for search ranking, so it is not quite as important to optimize for.

But, if you’re an obsessive SEO completionist and want to optimize everything for the best in W3C optimization, by all means, do include both the alt text and title text for your image.

You don’t have to do anything super insane for title text optimization, however. Just use a quick, short, catchy title that complements what you optimized for the alt text, and you will be good to go.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Journal by Brian Harnish on July 11, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When we think about SEO, we think about keywords.

After all, keywords help guide everything from on-page strategy to blog creation and can even play a role in link building.

Keywords really are the foundation of a sound SEO program.

However, keywords can be deceptive.

Keyword research seems like it should be an easy task but taking the time to understand each word or phrase actually requires quite a bit of work and sound knowledge of both search results and audiences.

On top of that, keywords don’t always mean what you think they should mean.

The problem is, we don’t always know this right away.

In fact, for the clients I work with, we are continuously reevaluating and refining our keyword targets. The reason being?

At the onset of a program you don’t know as much about the landscape, so you are choosing your targets based on research, client feedback, competitors, and keyword data.

After you’ve been in a program for a while, however, you get a much better understanding of the space, the search results, the audience, and keywords themselves.

Enter content.

The same thing applies to how we write content and how we ensure we are using the right terms, for the right content and the right audience.

We don’t always get it correct on the first try and to be honest, one of the most frustrating things as a content marketer is creating a well-thought out piece that doesn’t perform nearly as well as it should.

What did I do wrong?

Well, it turns out, the answer may lie in your keywords. Your content may simply be using the wrong keywords.

The good news is there are warning signs to help you determine if this is the case. Let’s take a look.

1. High Bounce Rate / Low Time on Page

I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of bounce rate. Primarily because when looked at in aggregate and/or without context, it can be misleading.

After all, there are many facets to a website and while a page may have a high bounce rate, that doesn’t make it a bad page (i.e., Contact Us).

However, if you are creating a piece of content that is intended to inform and drive an action, you don’t want them landing on a page and leaving.

Let’s take for example Client A:

Client A offers shipping and logistics solutions to businesses, specifically those shipping large quantities of goods. Many of Client A’s existing customers ship auto parts so to capture this audience, Client A created a page targeting keywords like ‘auto part shipping’ and ‘ship auto parts’.

Makes sense, right?

Unfortunately, no.

With a high bounce rate and low time on site, users weren’t staying on the page.

As we dug in more, we realized that while yes, people were, in fact, looking for those terms but they weren’t the right people.

The people looking to ship auto parts were people like you and I, individual consumers with one-off shipments and questions on how to do it.

What we needed to do to capture the business audience was to focus on the quantity element. The people we want are shipping in bulk and filling entire pallets.

By adjusting our content, specifically headlines and CTAs, to reflect our updated keywords, we were able to shift who we were reaching and in turn, lower our bounce rate, up the time on site, and more importantly, increase shipments.

While neither bounce rate nor time on site are perfect metrics, when analyzed in combination with overall performance, they can help you determine problem areas.

2. Little to No Organic Visibility

It’s no secret that I am somewhat obsessed with content. I talk about it, write about it, tweet about it, and have it tattooed on my arm (OK, that last part isn’t true).

Content marketing is one of my favorite things in the marketing world. Why? Because, when done properly, it can drive phenomenal results, particularly from an SEO perspective.

Note that last part – from an SEO perspective.

Your content must have a goal and if your goal is to be found in search results, then how you write that content and choose keywords must be in line with what the search results are showing.

For example, if I am looking for visibility on the term [marketing automation] I will need to have content that details what marketing automation is.

Why?

Because the search results are filled with “what is” content, an answer box, and a people also ask box.

If your plan is to try and show up in these types of results with a product page, you probably won’t have much success

On top of that, if you really think about someone searching [marketing automation], it makes sense they’d be looking for information.

Someone searching [marketing automation software], however, is further along in their journey and in that case, a product page could work.

Your content must match the intent of the search results. If it doesn’t, re-evaluate the keywords you are targeting and perhaps the content itself.

The caveat to all this is you may write the perfect piece of content and not see results right away. Keep your eye on the prize.

Google Search Console can show you improvements in longer tail queries and adding cross-links from other locations can help provide additional visibility.

Still not seeing any movement? Maybe you need to enhance the content a bit more. Remember, there are always ways to make your content better.

3. High Impressions / Low Click-Through Rate

You did it!

You created a piece of content that is ranking for your target keyword, Search Console shows it’s getting impressions, and traffic to the page has stayed…the same.

What?

Unfortunately, this may be a sign you are optimizing for the wrong keywords.

In the world of PPC, half the battle is writing ad copy that gets the right people to click on your ad. Luckily for those running paid ads, they can see that data right away and make adjustments.

Those in the SEO/content space aren’t quite so lucky. By the time your content has enough data to help you make a decision, months may have gone by.

Always. Be. Evaluating.

We are consistently looking through Search Console to find keywords with high positions, high impressions, and low click-through rates. Here’s an example:

Once we have those keywords, we can take a look at the pages ranking and the search results themselves.

• Is our content in line with the search results?
• Does it match the intent of the other results?

In some cases, perhaps you simply need to update your HTML title to better encourage clicks but in others, you may find that even though your content is performing well in results, it’s not doing anything to help your business. You may need to shift the focus.

Aligning Your Keywords & Content

The key to a successful SEO strategy is ensuring your keywords and content are aligned properly. There is no point spending time creating content or optimizing your site if you aren’t going to reach the right people.

Remember, much of this comes down to understanding keyword intent. If you’ve been working on a site for a while, go back and re-evaluate keywords, check your landing pages, and update your pages as needed.

There’s no better feeling than creating something that drives real business results. While it may take time, aligning your keywords and content is the first step.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Journal by Casie Gillette on April 30, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Instagram has rolled out an update that will allow users to upload multiple photos and videos to their stories at the same time.

Once uploaded, viewers will still have to tap through to see each photo and video. The real benefit of this update is that it will save time when it comes to adding multiple pieces of media to a story.

”Whether you want to preview your entire story to make sure it’s just right or you’re waiting for a strong connection to upload all of your photos and videos from the day, it’s now faster and easier than ever to share to your story after the moment has passed.”

When uploading media to a story there will now be a new icon at the top right corner of the screen. Tap the icon to begin selecting multiple photos or videos. Users can select up to 10 pieces of media to upload in one session.

Users can preview each piece of media before uploading, and apply edits to individual pieces as desired. Media will be uploaded in the order it was selected.

This update is currently available on Instagram for Android, and will be available on iOS within the coming weeks.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”orange” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-external-link”]This article was originally posted at Search Engine Journal by Matt Southern on April 30, 2018.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][/vc_section]