5 Common Misconceptions About SEO

In today’s world of digital marketing, SEO plays a vital role in helping you reach your target audiences and build a strong online presence.

Keeping up to date with the latest SEO practices and information is vital to the success of your online campaigns, but with so much material available it’s easy for misconceptions to be passed off as “expert advice.” But finding the right information is easier than you think and it starts by breaking down some common misconceptions about SEO.

1. You Don’t Have to Worry About Keyword Research

Keyword research is still a vital part of digital marketing, and ignoring the importance of keywords can be dangerous. So can keyword stuffing. What drives the most results are carefully researched keywords that are organically placed in content so they flow naturally. Programs like Google Keyword Planner can help you research the right language to connect with your target audience.

2. Set It Once and You’re Done

SEO requires continuous monitoring, it’s not something where you can “set it and forget it.” Why? SEO analytics provide valuable information on the success of your digital campaigns as well as how they’re reaching your target audiences. These provide insights that can be used to adjust your approach for the best results.

3. It’s All About the Links

Links still play an important role in SEO, but they’re not the only factor that determines your online ranking. While nobody knows for sure how Google’s algorithm determines a site’s SERP, quality links along with other factors like content, keywords, and meta tags are important to focus on as well for achieving a strong SEO ranking.

4. The Importance of Being #1

Having a high SEO ranking is important, but you don’t necessarily have to be number one. Because rankings fluctuate you’re more likely to see an increase in organic search traffic to your site if you’re on the first page of search results regardless of whether or not you’re ranked first. Focusing on reaching the right audiences with targeted content can do more for your site traffic in the long run than ranking number one.

5. SEO is Just Too Difficult

While it may seem like you need a degree in digital marketing in order to understand SEO and how to use it, it’s never too late to learn how to make it work for you. There’s plenty of beginner’s guide’s available online that will help you understand the fundamentals and start developing your own SEO strategy. Don’t feel like you have the time to spare to learn SEO? Try working with a digital marketing agency. With the help of SEO experts, you can get the personalized attention that will help you create a successful marketing plan.

Main source of article: https://www.webstrategyplus.com/5-common-misconceptions-seo/

The CEO Danger Zone: Too Tired to Think

As CEO of a growing company, you may be doing so much that you can’t even take the time to think. You’re in the growth stage and are between doing everything yourself, and having a staff t...

As CEO of a growing company, you may be doing so much that you can’t even take the time to think. You’re in the growth stage and are between doing everything yourself, and having a staff trained and coached sufficiently to take care of the day-to-day activities.

It’s easy to get overworked, with so much demanding your time and attention. It’s not only the ever-lengthening to-do list. It’s also the ongoing requests from clients that draws your attention.

There’s also that entrepreneurial enthusiasm that you and I share. We get excited about a new project, diving in, not realizing how much time it will involve. Once you’re knee-deep in it, it’s hard to extricate yourself and you just keep going.

When you’re so tired that you can’t think, just putting one foot in front of the other, you’re in the danger zone. You’re exhausted and rapidly approaching burnout.

It’s hard to make progress when you’re exhausted. Your personal life is also probably suffering too.

Don’t despair! You can still pull out of the danger dive, and you can certainly do things to prevent you from getting to this point again. Let’s look at 5 ways to avoid the danger zone of exhaustion and burnout:

1.  Identify your sources of exhaustion.

Chronic overwork leads to emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion. Wanting to work around-the-clock is just not sustainable. Find ways to delegate or drop some of your tasks.

Ironically, a couple of ways we use to keep working can themselves be sources of exhaustion. For example, too much caffeine or sugar can overstimulate the mind and fry the nerves. Sugar’s temporary high is followed by a crash, and long-term, it can lead to chronic conditions such as diabetes. Keep coffee consumption to a maximum of 4 cups a day, the Mayo Clinic advises, and sugar to no more than 10% of your daily caloric consumption.

Not getting enough sleep has major repercussions. Some people do fine with less than 8 hours, but that’s a small percentage of the population. If you’re sleep-deprived, you can’t think clearly and it can even change your ability to cope if that sleep deprivation is profound. Good sleep habits like going to bed at the same time each night in a quiet room with no electronic devices are helpful.

A chaotic environment can significantly hinder you. Not knowing where things are, having bits and pieces of information scattered around can unnecessarily add to your feelings of exhaustion, as you have to hunt for everything. Spend some time bringing order to the chaos by organizing your space and documenting processes will be a tremendous benefit. It also allows you to delegate more easily, once you train and coach an employee in the process.

2.  Take a break. As counter-intuitive as it may seem when you feel so busy, take time off. Even a day off can reset your perspective when you are most overwhelmed. It’s also a good thing to do on an ongoing basis. We all need rest. We all need time to rejuvenate. Being away from work is a necessary part of high performance.

3.  Bring on the healthy habits! Practices such as a morning routine of movement and self-reflection in some form or meditation set the stage for a more productive and less tiring day. Studies have shown that movement helps with your physical health, and with your emotional health too. Having a morning practice can help you manage your emotions throughout the day, and avoid that emotional roller coaster that happens more often when you’re tired. Eating whole foods, instead of processed foods eaten in a rush, help you maintain your physical and energetic equilibrium.

4.  Reduce stress in relationships. When your important relationships are in turmoil, it’s distracting and draining. The increased stress of those situations will tire you. It can feel easier to push facing those issues to the side, especially when you have tasks that, frankly, are easier to deal with. That often makes things worse in the long run. Whether they’re happening at home or at work, make tackling those relationship issues a priority.

5.  Manage your mind. As you become more tired, your normal controls on your emotions and feelings of balance start to erode. It’s important to keep on top of what you’re thinking. What you focus on grows. Focus on what’s working. Put the brakes on self-judgement and comparison. As self-made billionaire and Spanx founder Sarah Blakely has said: “negative self-talk is the #1 barrier to success.” To counter the negative self-talk, acknowledge your own accomplishments. Lift others up. Praise your staff when they’ve done well. Be excited for people who are succeeding. As you maintain a more balanced and positive perspective, your problem-solving ability will increase. You’ll see more possibilities that will allow you to reduce your stress more quickly. As you develop these mind muscles, you’ll stay more focused on your business and your impact.

As CEO of a growing company, you’re going through a lot of change. If you want to make strides in your business, be aware of your energy level and symptoms of tiredness and exhaustion. Taking steps to avoid exhaustion and burnout is an absolute must.

The Art of Blog Commenting: Why and How to Perform It?

By Mark S Cooper

With the dawn of the digital age, online blogging has evolved to a greater extent. There is a constant demand for digital content as many brands are changing their marketing strategies based on current trends in the online world. A lot of techniques goes in writing a blog so that it gets the required visibility by attracting web traffic. One innovative technique which is currently being used by PR teams is blog commenting. By posting comments on multiple other blogs, you get traffic and backlinks to your website, as the comment writer's name is clearly visible.

Around 2 million blog posts are published on the internet in a span of 24 hours. Hence, to grab the attention of the online audience is not a simple task. Many times content promotion and guest blogging aren't able to help the marketing strategy in achieving the set target. In such cases, you should consider blog commenting as an alternative marketing strategy to generate more traffic and backlinks. But blog commenting shouldn't be a random process, let us understand this strategy in detail.

Blog Commenting

Blog commenting is a process of writing comments on other webpages with a backlink to your website. It has become an important part of the SEO world. even though it is not a required strategy, it helps a lot in generating website traffic.

Benefits of Blog Commenting

If executed properly, blog commenting can be very beneficial for your brand and business. The value that blog commenting brings in a marketing campaign are:

1. Referral traffic:

Blog commenting is an effective SEO strategy that works to create a positive vibe about a brand. After the change of the Google search algorithm, the SEO benefits were minimal, but blog commenting enables you to capitalize on a broader audience as with one click they can reach your blog and read it.

2. Build Relationships:

The more you comment on other blogs, the more connections you make with bloggers. This helps in building long term networks and relationships that can work to your benefit on multiple social media platforms. Mutual relations prosper and you get to create your own community of bloggers.

3. Increased engagement:

Once you comment and engage in conversation with a fellow blogger, you too get similar interactions on your blog posts which increases the readership and the traffic to your website or blog.

4. Fresh Ideas:

Discussions with bloggers acts as a brainstorming activity and if the conversations are genuine and interesting, then you can get some more ideas about the blog posts that you would like to write on your website in the future. Many bloggers have admitted to having got an idea for a blog from the comment section.

5. Learning:

Generally, the size of blogs has limits due to readability issues and hence the blogger isn't able to express his or her complete thought process behind the idea. Blog commenting can educate you more about a certain topic that you have engaged with blog commenting.

Blind commenting on every webpage can be dangerous and not recommended. Moreover, the content that you write as comments should attract a reader. A good structured comment should have the below features:

The comment should always start with a formal greeting. You can use formal ways of greeting to start the conversation.

Make sure that you compliment the blogger on the article he or she has written. A little praise goes a long way in making relations.

Add thoughtful ideas to the blog with the help of comments to start a healthy discussion. Adding snippets from personal experience always helps.

Once you have completed your comment, share the blog post and tag the author so that the audience notices.

Create a thoughtful comment based on the above pointers so that there is a value addition to the blog post, else no one will notice your opinion.

Some more tips and tricks that enhance the quality of your content and attract the attention of a wider range of audience are below:

1. Short comment:

Don't use complex sentences and vocabulary to showcase your command on the English language. The comment section is not the right place to do it as it doesn't serve any purpose. Write short, simple, and crisp comments that add valuable information to the blog post. Look for value, not for the length of a comment.

2. Relevant comment:

Don't write junk information in the comment section just because you feel like showing off your writing skills. A blog is written to share some insightful information with an audience and your comment should also add on to the blog post's essence. If you wish to disagree, then be polite and post a well-phrased disagreement.

3. Engage in a communication:

Be a pro-active communicator while strategizing blog comments. You can also post your replies to comments of other fellow bloggers that you find worth engaging with. Lead this communication into a healthy discussion so that the audience will start engaging with your content and notice your blog post as well.

4. Use your profile with real image and name:

To establish your credibility you should use your real identity while posting comments on other blogs. Posting anonymously can cause your comment to go unnoticed and land in junk by the moderators. All the High PR blogs run based on their credibility and digital identity, else tall their work will go in spam folders.

5. Do basic checks before commenting:

Clear communication is a key to improve readability. Therefore, before posting any comment on a blog post, make sure that you do a spell and grammar check of the content. A well-written comment increases your chances of engaging with a high PR blog. This would, in turn, get you more hits on your profile and website.

6. Don't spam:

While engaging with other blog writers try to be humble, respectful, and polite. Spamming the audience with unwanted comments and blogs will disengage them from trusting your brand and hence the traffic on your blog will eventually decrease. Spamming is not a good practice in the online digital world. Hence, make sure that you don't spam a thread with your blog commenting.

If you are creating a market campaign that aims at building an audience, then you should consider blog commenting as a strategy to make the campaign effective. By engaging in a conversation online you will get instant feedback and enjoy healthy discussions that will attract more readers to your website. So, follow the pointers that we have shared in the above section of the article and start blog commenting to improve online traffic. Do share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Business Online :The Best SEO Software I Have Used So Far

By Rahaventhan Kaliappan

I have more than 10 years of experience in digital marketing and used all kinds of SEO software. SEO is a process of researching, decision-making and implementing. The SEO processes are keyword research, site audit, backlink audit, backlink research and you need to check how keywords are performing in the search engine. There is no end for SEO process, above-mentioned are the basic process. This article is about the best SEO software I have used so far to perform all SEO tasks.

Google Keyword Planner is the only tool I use for keyword researching. I believe that AdWords application can only collect the accurate data from the same company search engine. I am not blaming other keyword research tools, but the data that how many people searching on Google search engine can be accurately given only by Google. I know that nowadays keyword planner only showing accurate search volume to the accounts with running paid campaign. My suggestion is to run some paid campaign and get accurate data as this will help in both ways. There are no free keyword research tools only paid tools you have in the market. Rather than paying only for the keyword research run some AdWords and get the accurate data.

Semrush is my favorite SEO software when working with any task of SEO as it's capable of doing all tasks that required for SEO. Even though it can perform all tasks, I mostly suggest it for SEO audit. Basically, I do the audit on three levels. The first level is site audit to find the overall site technical errors. The second level is an individual page and its content audit to optimize for a keyword. The third level is accessibility audit is to check page loading speed and user experience. I always use the Semrush for site audit as it covers my first and second level of the audits perfectly. On overall site audit, it checks more than 200 checklists and it categorized into error, warning, and notes. This gives an idea which makes most effects on SEO. Individual page audit is the most powerful tool to use as it collects our competitor data and suggest us to optimize a page to target a keyword.

Lighthouse is a Chrome developer tool for    [https://webdaa.com]SEO audit. You can get it when you click inspect by right-clicking on your page. My third level of SEO audit can be done with this free tool. It checks more than 200 checklists under categories like Performance, Progressive web app, Best practices, Accessibility, and SEO. You will be surprised at the results it gives you even it is free. The page speed check is included under Performance and it checks how you have used colors in your website. Additionally, it gives a checklist to check manually. This will help people who are new to SEO as they can learn from it.

Backlink research and backlink audit are the very important task of SEO. Even though it can be done using Semrush itself easily Ahref has more fresh data. I have heard that most SEO people recommend Ahref as it's a dedicated software for backlink research with fresh and accurate data.

Rank tracking is a very important task to know how our targeting keywords ranked in search engines. Google Webmaster Central and Analytics give search analytic data, but it's not live data and accurate. Using paid software to track keyword ranking is the best idea. Paid software like Ahref and Semrush give you accurate keyword position report with historical data. Semrush and Ahref will cost you minimum 100 USD per month on average if you are capable of buying only one software for all tasks I suggest Semrush as it has all the tools for the complete SEO for a site.

There may be more advanced SEO software like Majestic for backlink research, but I decided to write which I mostly like and used, finally there is another software I have used for keyword position tracking is Rank Tank. These are the best SEO software I have used so far. I Hope this article will be helpful to SEO beginners.

I am Rahaventhan Kaliappan. I am an online blogger and article writer mostly about Sri Lanka and digital marketing.    https://seosrilanka.pro is the only company to provide digital marketing services to the marketing agencies. B2B Service.

SEO Tools Everyone Should Be Using

By Donald Smithon

In the game of search engine optimization, there are winners and losers. The difference between them is their rankings. Planning your strategy is one factor; monitoring your success on search engines is another. In 2018, the game has changed yet again.

Some entrepreneurs choose to consult a digital marketing firm for their SEO strategies. However if you're prepping yourself to see how well your site is doing on search engines, you can familiarize yourself with the best tools for SEO.

Mind you, some tools are paid and some are free. Nonetheless, these tools are the best of the best and up-to-date, so it's most likely worth investing in.

Searchmetrics

Searchmetrics provides analytics for SEO, backlinks, and social media. They have a set of collected data per website, giving you insights and trends in backlinks, SEO visibility, and the like.

They also provide a weekly ranking for keywords, which is good for measuring which keywords your website should rank for. Searchmetrics gives insights on overall search trends.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a free toolset that helps you understand what's happening on your website. It also explains the essentials of Google search, and helps you comprehend the way Google sees your site.

One of its features allows you to browse an article the way Google perceives it. This allows you to step up your SEO game especially if your campaign is doing poorly. The data you collect from this feature can help you adjust the webpage for better results.

SEMrush

SEMrush is a free tool for keyword research. The website offers many toolkits including an SEO toolkit. One of its top features allows you to plug in different web pages to see how they're ranking for which keywords, how that page ranks for a certain keyword, particular keywords' monthly search volume, and the like.

Additionally, SEMrush also lets you research appropriate keywords, compare your page's performance to your competitors', analyze backlinks from other websites to yours, and play on similar on-page SEO opportunities.

UpCity SEO Report Card

This tool allows you to analyze how your website ranks against your opponents. Like an actual report card, SEO Report Card gives you an assessment of your rank, link building, on-site analysis (how well you fused your keywords throughout your site), website accessibility (your site's load time and ease of accessibility for crawlers), trust metrics, and current indexing (the number of your site pages that have been indexed).

This tool is free, and all you have to provide is some contact information like your name, email address, phone number, and website.

Seobility

Seobility shows you how well or badly your website's SEO optimization is performing. They have various features like SEO check (checking your website and giving you tips for better SEO), keyword check (showing you how your page is optimized for your keywords), SEO compare (comparing your page and another for the same keyword), and ranking check (checking your page's rank for any keyword).

Seobility has automated website crawling that checks your website while following all backlinks, monitors your emails, and detects errors in content and the structure of your website.

Managing your SEO campaign is a lot easier with the help of some of the best SEO tools on the internet. Paying for some tools is better than blindly diving into optimization practices that don't work and not understanding how your business can profit. You can always consult a    digital marketing firm to assist you with these, along with your campaign.

Facebook SEO Tips

By Peg Murrah

When I first think about Facebook, I don't think about SEO. Since I spend a lot of time on my personal profile page, updating friends and family, I don't always think about the power behind the platform.

Facebook is undeniably a SEO powerhouse. Digital marketing influencers have long been talking about the marketing capability of Facebook, but this goes beyond just Facebook Ads (which are powerful enough in their own right).

Here are some quick tips to help you get started:

Claim your personal/vanity URL - These URL's are heavily weighted on search engines, so take your time and really think about what you want it to be. Be careful though... it's tough to change once you set it.
Keep your Facebook page name simple, specific enough but not too specific that its limiting (i.e. if you are a marriage counselor, focus your name around love or relationships, so if you go into other kinds of relationship/personal coaching later, your page name is still relevant.
Use keywords strategically, in your about, mission, and company description sections (keep in mind that these sections can be re-ordered, so play around with this while you're there!).
Link everything together. Link your Facebook page to other existing channels (Twitter/ Instagram/ your website and blog).
Optimize your Facebook business page status updates (your first 18 characters serve as your meta description, choose carefully because they will serve as the SEO title for that update).

But how do I know what keywords to use?

Research is paramount to help you determine the keywords you want to use. Keywords are used in your social media bios, post titles and content, URL's - to use in your description, don't just load your available text space with keywords, create a description that makes sense, while also incorporating keywords. You have more than one opportunity to use keywords, you also use them in blog posts and page updates.

How do I research keywords?

You know your business best. To start brainstorming keywords:

What do you sell? Do a search, what other keywords do you see?
Review industry publications, Amazon/eBay, other niche sites, online ads, niche forums - what words do you see consistently coming up?
And here's an amazing tip - look at what comes up in autocomplete when searching in Google- you can see what's being searched post often by looking at what is suggested, Amazon has a similar functionality, so look there too!

Stay tuned - we're spending the whole month on Facebook! What are your top Facebook questions or digital marketing challenges? We want to hear from you!

We help business owners find more time.

Discover how entrepreneurs just like you have freed themselves from the overwhelm of tech. Download our FREE report at   https://pmawebservices.com/

The Do Not's When Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines

By Piotr Dariusz Makowski

If you decide to incorporate the use of unusual or fake words in your content, such use can also support your brand efforts, and even help define an internet advertising campaign. Consider all the businesses you can think of off the top of your head that use non-words in their marketing.

Determine to choose fake words that have a clear meaning that will likely not be misunderstood to avoid accidentally insulting an individual or group. Try getting opinions about the word before incorporating it into your internet sites to avoid any difficulties or misunderstanding that might arise.

Before you incorporate a fake word into your SEO efforts, use tools such as Google translate to make sure the word does not mean something in another language that will take away from your business reputation or imply a meaning you didn't intend. Although it's likely your fake word will come up in another language, it won't necessarily mean you shouldn't use the word if its meaning is neutral or unrelated to your business or service.

Don't be afraid of developing a new phrase or expression. Consider that Google itself is a neologism, a new expression that didn't exist in terms of its meaning today. Similarly, the word blog has come into general use.

Never forfeit clarity for novelty if you're considering using unusual phrasing in your business internet sites. Most of all you are trying to communicate with customers and potential customers, and every choice of language should reflect that goal. Today's SEO is more geared than ever at supporting language that provides clarity by reflecting natural language rather than language generated specifically for SEO improvement.

Using fad language may require frequent updating and modification of your content and ultimately be of limited or of not benefit to your SEO efforts. Slang can be popular for a month, a year, or make it into dictionaries, and it's frequently difficult to tell without waiting and seeing what happens.

If you're using popular non-words that are currently used as slang in any of your internet content, choose wisely with consideration towards whether someone has intellectual property rights on the phrase you're using, and whether the association of the unusual wording is either more casual or in some other way contradictory to your business.

Using unusual words or made up words can sometimes help your SEO efforts. Use the tips above before you incorporate made-up language into your internet content.

Choose your subject matter for your website. If you want to do a homepage that focuses on a variety of things, that is all well and good. But forget about optimizing it for search engines. You need to have no more than five primary keywords that your content revolves around, and these keywords need to be pretty similar to one another.

5 Tips To Select The Best Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business

5 Tips To Select The Best Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business

By Chris Walker

The world, today, is becoming progressively digitalised with millions of folks going online. Companies are realizing the encompassing reach their brands can enjoy by being proactive in the digital arena. No matter a brand is small or a giant unit, they certainly do not hesitate to invest in the top digital marketing agencies that have the power to make their business outshine in the busy gala.

Digital marketing has the potential to reach out to a much wider audience in comparison to the traditional advertising mediums. Not only because it can target a larger group of the audience but also because it can do the same at a minimum cost. The powerful digital marketing tools like emails, social media posts and other online campaign and promotional strategies offer a cost-friendly yet extremely effective to stand out in the competitive marketplace.

Digital marketing trends are, however, in an ever-evolving stage with new strategies getting introduced every season. In this respect, selecting a marketing agency will help a business to keep itself updated with the changing trends and achieve the business goal. Investing in a good digital marketing agency is very important for the success of your business lie on their hands to a great extent. The following checklist will help all the affiliated marketers to choose the best digital marketing agency for their business -

Make Yourself Clear about What You Want:

Long before you start your search of finding a digital marketing company for your business, you must be clear about your own needs. Digital marketing is a broad area and involves various approaches like- SEO marketing, social media management, website development, Blogging, content management, inbound marketing and more such things. Discuss with your team and sketch out a list of all the services you need from a digital expert.

Know Their Digital expertise:

Not all firms have a perky office set up and have an office in an extremely corporate address. Remember that just because they are not a big name, doesn't have any connection with their expertise. For example, if your company specializes in sportswear, you would definitely want to work with a high profile marketing firms that cater to brands outside your niche. You want your work done at its best and it has nothing to do with the outer image of the agency. It may be that the agency is not much aware of your product. Are they exceptionally creative? Have they worked with products outside their comfort zone? A "yes" to these questions means you can proceed with a positive note.

Research on The past and ongoing projects:

Of course, you have learnt that the agency you are going to hire is creative and has worked in diverse fields, but having a look from a closer view will make your decision stronger. Don't hesitate to have a look at the sample of their works. You can always have a look at their clients' website, the content written for other companies and then decide whether you are moving on or not. Don't hesitate to find out whether they are aware of the trending digital marketing techniques and also the metrics they use to define success.

Learn About their Employees and Experts:

A good digital marketing agency is formed only when it is surrounded by passionate, creative, intelligent and enthusiastic people. It is only through their skills that your brand is going to shine. You can always have a chat with the marketing experts and learn about them.

Consider the Budget:

Budget is one of the most significant parts in the process of choosing a digital marketing agency. Asking about the estimate or quotation is very important. Negotiation may be uncomfortable for all who are not attuned to it. Make yourself clear before finalizing the deal. Finally, don't be ready to compromise for few bucks because you need the best.

Nhance Digital is one of the top digital marketing agencies in the United Kingdom known for its expert services in the digital marketing arena. Their expert team of professionals is well versed with the trending skills and strategies that help a business to attain maximum profit in the competitive web marketplace.

Article Source:  5 Tips To Select The Best Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business