5 NEGATIVE GOOGLE RANKING FACTORS & WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT THEM
You can spend hours upon hours implementing SEO tactics, have amazing Google rankings but the second you disobey Google’s ranking factors, all your countless hours of hard work can be reversed. As we all know, Google’s algorithm is constantly changing which makes our job as SEO specialists slightly more tedious. Changes to algorithms can greatly impact businesses and their revenue which is why it’s so crucial to always keep updated. Change is inevitable and something you must be accustomed to especially within the online world. The best thing you can do is stay in the loop and learn how to best prepare for the changes which do occur. We have identified five common negative Google ranking factors and how you can manage them. DUPLICATE CONTENT There are various definitions of what duplicate content can be perceived as by Google. The first form of duplicate content is essentially reproducing content which is already visible on other websites. The second form of duplicate content relates to your own website and having the same content shared across your own domains and URLs. To resolve this issue, ensure you have only one domain name and set up 301 redirects to combat this in the event you do have duplicated content within your own website. Also remember to always keep your content original and relevant to your audience. DUPLICATE META INFORMATION Similarly, duplicated meta information can also be detrimental for your SEO. You should always ensure each of your web pages its own individual meta descriptions. Having duplicate meta descriptions may not directly impact your SEO rankings however they do impact your CTRs (click through rates) in search results. Google prioritises content which has high CTRs which leads to higher rankings so ultimately meta descriptions really do matter. To avoid any issues with duplicate meta description, always keep your meta descriptions as unique and original as possible. TOO MANY OUTBOUND LINKS Having outbound links on your website can be beneficial for your SEO, however having too many can decrease your website’s credibility. By having too many outbound links, this can potentially be viewed by Google as ‘black-hat SEO’ tactics which are unethical and can damage your reputation. The best way to avoid being penalised for having too many outbound links is to always use outbound links in moderation. PAGE LOADING SPEED Page loading time is so important because it directly corresponds to the user’s experience. Google rewards those who make extra effort to ensure their websites are functioning efficiently and have good page loading speed. A website which takes too long to load, is at risk of enduring high bounce rates. You can test your website’s speed by using Google’s Page Speed insights. This will reveal which speed your website is currently tracking at on both desktop and mobile. If your website is falling within the red zone, you will need to make changes to increase your page loading speed. Simple changes such as optimising large images can significantly improve your loading time. LOW DWELL TIME When SEO specialists refer to your website’s dwell time what they are referring to is a metric created by Google which measures user engagement. It includes the time each user spends viewing your website, bounce rates and CTRs. Having a low dwell time reflects poorly on your website and it can impact its ‘user friendly’ element. Ideally you want users to be engaged the second the click on your website and find value from the content you provide, being able to easily click through each page. The best way to avoid any discrepancies from Google for having a low dwell time is to ensure your website is easy to navigate, it is optimised for an enhanced user experience and provides valuable content. Google has an endless number of ranking factors, each aimed at providing searchers with the best websites possible to answer their queries. If you don’t adhere to these ranking factors, you can lose all the hard work you have invested into your SEO almost instantly if you do not resolve the issues which have been brought to light. By addressing the five ranking factors stated above, you maintain your SEO and avoid being penalised by Google.
As Search Engines Continue To Evolve. SEO In Adelaide
As search engines continue to evolve, marketers must improve their skills in order to keep up. According to reports, 70 percent of the users clicks are from SEO. Also, inbound leads (i.e. SEO) cost 61 percent less than outbound leads (i.e. cold calling). SEO services have a better return on investment (ROI) as well. “SEO leads have a 14.6 percent close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7 percent close rate,” according to the same report. Now that you know SEO is the way to go, here are 11 SEO tactics that you need to know in 2015. SEO in Adelaide Creating Incredible Content That Earns Links. Even after all of the changes with the search engine algorithms, inbound SEO links are still the biggest influencer for search engines. This is unlikely to change. On the other hand, other methods of link acquisition have changed. Earning a link from a high-quality, relevant website will not only help with your SEO but also with referral traffic, which can lead to more sales and brand exposure. Creating incredible content that people will want to share is still the best way to earn links. Co-Citation Links Every time a search engine finds your website next to your competitors, it tells them that your company is in a related niche. To get co-citation links, do a search for “best” or “top 10” items in your niche. Example: Top 10 blue widgets. If you do this search and don’t find your business in the results, get in touch with the publisher and ask for your company to be added to the list. Be prepared to justify why your company should be included and, where appropriate, give them a summary to go along with a link. Editorial Links Editorial links can be some of the most powerful for SEO because they come from other publications in your niche mentioning your company. They can also come from thought leadership guest posts that you write and get published on third-party sites. The easiest way to get editorial links is to create outstanding content that people will want to share with their readers. Another way is to write guest posts on a high-quality sites that is in your niche. Be prepared to create incredible content that may be heavily scrutinised before publishing. Interviews are another way to get editorial links. As a part of the interview, you should be allowed to cite your work in your responses. This can lead to even more backlinks and traffic. The Broken Link-Building Method Here’s another white-hat link-building strategy that can be quite effective. In this case, you’re actually helping publishers fix broken links, which can be helpful to their readers. However, this only works if your content is good enough to replace the lost content. To do the broken link-building method, you must find broken links on a site that is relevant to your niche. You then contact the webmaster with the broken link and recommend your site as an alternative to the broken link. To find out more, you can read the broken link-building Bible at the Moz blog. Link Reclamation Link reclamation can help you to get fresh links by finding broken links to your site and having the publisher to fix them. Examples: Find brand mentioning about your site and ask the publisher to add a link. Find places where your content has been used without attribution (places where people have used your post or infographics without giving you credit) and request a link from the person. According to Kristi Hines from kristihines.com, “A lot of people think of link reclamation as just 301’ing pages they have moved that still have a lot of great backlinks. But I like to think of reclamation as more than that. I like to think of it as not just reclaiming, but claiming links you deserve”. In order to make this automated, you can set up a Google Alert to email you whenever your company’s brand is mentioned. You can then check that page to find out if they link to your site. Link Outreach Link outreach is a bit “old school” but can still be quite powerful. To do this, find a website that is relevant to yours and get their contact information from the site. Send them an email or call and politely ask them for link. This works better if the site has a slightly different business than yours but may share a common audience. Competitor Analysis Competitor analysis is nothing new and companies have been researching their competitor’s links for years. However, by looking at the competitor’s backlinks and manually reviewing which links are worth having, you can then perform a link outreach and try to get a link from the same referring site. Focus on ROI Instead of Keyword Rankings While we all enjoy seeing the keywords rank well in the search engines, this doesn’t necessarily mean that your SEO campaign is successful. It’s possible to rank number one for many keywords that have no real ROI. Instead, you should focus on metrics that bring conversions. Create an SEO Strategy That Maps to an Audience Over the past few years, we’ve lost most of the keyword data in Google Analytics and other tools. This has required marketers to change from traditional methods of SEO to create new ways of segmenting their audiences. In order to do this, we must find new keywords to focus on, new ways to approach neighboring markets and determine where our competition is succeeding with SEO and how you can do it better. The days of stuffing keywords into bad content and having it rank are long gone. Now your content needs to focus on your target persona and your keywords need to flow within the content. This is why it’s so important that content and SEO be tied closely together. Optimise for Yahoo, Bing and Others. Search engines like Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo may slowly take a bigger piece of Google’s pie in 2015. Yahoo is now the
