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What are Backlinks in SEO? & Why is it Important Backlinks are links on another website that point to your website, playing a crucial role in digital marketing strategies aimed at improving website visibility. In SEO (Search Engine Optimization), they act as a ‘vote of confidence’ from other websites. The higher the quality of backlinks you have, the higher the chances of your website ranking at the top position in the search results. Why you need Backlinks Backlinks are votes of credibility from other sites and lets search engines know that your website is credible, valuable, and useful. Therefore, the more backlinks you have, especially from high quality sites, the higher your site will rank in Google and other search engines. According to Google, backlinks are one of their top 3 most crucial search engine ranking factors. Additionally, backlinks play a role in directing organic traffic to your site. When users click these links, it takes them straight to the content on your page. This not only boosts traffic to your site, but also improves brand awareness. Benefits of Backlinks Backlinks are crucial for SEO as search engines use them to assess a page’s authority and relevance. Here are some more benefits of using backlinks: Search engines determine importance of page by use of backlinks Enhance rankings as they show value The higher quality backlinks you have, the higher you can rank Increases brand awareness Referral traffic leads to conversion How to Build Backlinks Now that you know what backlinks are and why they are crucial for a good search engine optimization strategy. Here are top ways you can get great quality backlinks: Guest Blogging: A well-known strategy to get high quality backlinks to your website. There are plenty of websites that give you an opportunity to write for them. In doing so, you can also link your website within the text or in the bio. Testimonials: If you are a user of a service of a certain company, you can write a testimonial for them, and in return link your site. Infographics: Infographics such as graphics, charts, and images, are an  Important part of content creation, as they offer a simplified review of the content. Using infographics within your articles and blog posts is a simple and effective way to get backlinks. Broken Link Building: These are links that no longer work. This can be due to various reasons such as, the website removing the link, or the website has an incorrect URL. Ensure to look for these links on your competitors site and suggest them to link your website. Get Backlinks from Top Referral Sources: First off, start by searching for top referral sources on your website. These sources provide backlinks to your website. Doing this can help you know what sort of content is performing well, so you can look for new opportunities to create similar content to get more backlinks. Additionally, if you provide good quality content, others will more likely want to link to your content. Forum Discussion: There are plenty of online discussion forums where you can get backlinks. One such example is Quora, where you can answer questions to a variety of questions and add a link to your website. Conclusion Backlinks are crucial to SEO, as it brings valuable traffic to your site, boost organic traffic, and enhance brand awareness. Additionally, they ensure your site is helpful, trustworthy, and credible. Moreover, You’ll find no lack of opportunities for backlinks. These include guest blogging, writing testimonials, forum discussions, and more. Some tactics may require more effort and time, but it surely pays off, as it can give you great results.

What is a 404 Error? And How to Fix It A 404 error is a HTML code that pops up on the screen when there is a problem on the webpage, either because the page no longer exists or it has moved to some other domain. 404 errors can cause problems in search engine optimization (SEO) and can make Google penalise your website, which can negatively impact digital marketing. What causes a 404 error? There are various reasons why a page may not load, or pages are inaccessible, so knowing the reasons can help you fix the problem. Here are some reasons why a 404 error may show: Using Redirects: If you must move a page to another location, use a 301 redirect, to prevent the page from showing a 404 error. A 301 redirect tells Google that your page has permanently been moved to another URL. This will help users who want to access your site. Adding a redirect to the new location can enhance UX and help search engines index your site and pages. Improve your SEO by fixing 404 errors 404s show when web pages cannot be found, and they can pose negative consequences for your website’s SEO and user experience. So, it’s crucial to tackle the errors to maintain your site’s visibility and ensure your content is accessible by users. A web page that no longer exists Broken links A web page that has moved to another location 404 error and SEO Apart from the other inconvenience that 404 error poses, it hugely impacts SEO and makes your site even harder to rank. A part of having a website is ensuring people find it. Therefore, you must avoid 404 errors.  The extent to which 404 errors affect your SEO, depends highly on what is causing it. User experience (UX) matters to both Google and users. For instance, if you shifted your webpage elsewhere or changed the URL, Google may take a while to stop showing your website’s old location in the search engine results page, leading to 404 errors. This will cause a negative impact on your website and SEO. You have to make sure you find and eliminate all issues and help the user, which has a positive impact on search engines.  How to fix a 404 error Here are a few ways you can fix a 404 error code on your page: Look for broken links: Sometimes a 404 error can be as simple as a broken or mistyped link. Looking for broken or mistyped links can prevent 404 errors, and ensure a seamless internal linking. Restoring deleted pages: Old and deleted content gets a lot of traffic that results in 404s. Using CMS or website analytics, you can see what pages are getting traffic, and reboot the URL to get traffic. and prevent 404. For example, you write a blog post on a trending topic, and you combine it with another page, so you delete the first page. You will still get traffic from the deleted page. So, keep the old pages and create a new one, which will boost SEO and enhance keyword targeting and UX. Moving a page or directory: When you add pages to your site, there’s a chance of it ending up in the wrong folder. A solution to this is to check the pathway to your page and compare it to what’s in the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or Content Management System. If it doesn’t match, move it and access the page again. Sometimes there is an error with a folder and not the page, so if you move a folder with a lot of pages, the individual pages URLs change. Error pages for low-performing content: Error pages can be helpful to SEO. If you have low-performing content, leaving an error page can indicate to Google that you removed it and are improving the site. These can keep people on your site longer, and a 404 page can contain links to other pages. Using Redirects: If you must move a page to another location, use a 301 redirect, to prevent the page from showing a 404 error. A 301 redirect tells Google that your page has permanently been moved to another URL. This will help users who want to access your site. Adding a redirect to the new location can enhance UX and help search engines index your site and pages. Improve your SEO by fixing 404 errors 404s show when web pages cannot be found, and they can pose negative consequences for your website’s SEO and user experience. So, it’s crucial to tackle the errors to maintain your site’s visibility and ensure your content is accessible by users.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)  Search Engine Optimisation, also referred to as SEO, helps search engines understand the content of your webpage and will display pages that are relevant based on users’ search queries. The purpose of SEO is to rank pages first on the search engine results page (SERPs), driving traffic to your site.   SEO is a component of digital marketing and can be used by any website. It helps to enhance a site’s visibility on search engines like Google or Bing. If your site sells products, services, or simply provides information on a specific topic, SEO can drive traffic and increase online visibility. The more online presence you have, the higher the chances of you being discovered.    Benefits and importance of SEO SEO is a crucial element when it comes to marketing. It helps sites appear in the search results page. Increase in customers: SEO involves the use of target keywords, i.e. words your potential customers are using, resulting in relevant traffic.  Website traffic: Optimised sites get more traffic which helps increase brand awareness. ROI: Putting money into marketing campaigns and websites, if your site performs well, you reap the benefits of your investment. Reputation: Ranking on top spot improves trustworthiness of your site, so people trust you.  How does SEO work? ​ How does google figure out what pages to place in the search engine results page (SERP) for any search query? How does this drive traffic? Search engines crawl the web for any relevant page to the query, and store it which is the index. When a search is made, Google pulls a page from the index. Google’s algorithm uses ranking factors like quality of the content, relevance, and website it belongs to, etc. When people interact with the pages, Google then identifies needs that are being met and not being met, and stores it in the algorithm.  You need to make sure your content is high-quality and satisfies Google’s experience, expertise, authority, and trust requirements (E-E-A-T). SEO Best Practices Good quality: Google search engines ensure they pick out the best content that is out there. So, you should always ensure to produce useful and credible content. Keyword: Make sure you keep keyword intent in mind, while trying to figure out what words users may use to search a query. Patience: SEO takes time. It may take a lot of time for you to see the results of your SEO efforts, so be patient and don’t give up. Measure: Track and measure your performance using various tools to see how your strategies are doing. Maintain content: Ensure to produce relevant and fresh content regularly, – which is crucial for Google’s ranking factor , as well as make sure to continually update your existing content to preserve SEO value and drive consistent traffic.

External Links External links, also called hyperlinks, are websites that link to yours. Similarly, if you link to another website, this is also external linking. This is an important factor in SEO and Digital Marketing. Include descriptive words in anchor text that is relevant to the keyword in the target page. Ensure to use various anchor texts in order to enhance context. Why should you use external links? According to top SEOs, external links are the most important ranking source. They provide users with extra information that users can use to access more in-depth content on relevant topics, which enhances their understanding. External links help search engines understand the content of the webpage and how relevant it is, which helps in indexing and ranking. By analysing websites that link your site, it helps search engines know how your site’s authority and trustworthiness.  When search engines see highly reputable sites linking to yours, they view this as a sign of quality and relevance. External links drive traffic to your site from users who are interested in the content you have to offer, which can result in an increase in conversions and engagement. Metrics search engines use to determine value of external links: Credibility of linking domain Popularity of linking page How relevant the content of target page and source page are Number of links going to the same page Number of root domains that link to target page How to enhance your external links? Study has shown external links are the single most crucial factor for attaining rankings. This is because external links are difficult to manipulate and is the best way to determine how popular the web page is. Google views these links as “vote of confidence” and the pages that are the most popular and relevant would appear first in Google’s results pages. Descriptive link text This lets users know where the link will take them and what they can find in the target page. For example instead of “click here” or “to know more”, opt for more description that reflects the target page. This makes content more valuable and improves user experience. Optimize anchor text  Anchor text is a clickable hyperlink. It should be relevant and descriptive to the target page. This helps users as well as search engines to understand the content and context of the link. You could also use the nofollow tag for external links that you do not want to link to.

Improve Search Engine Rankings A component of digital marketing; search engine optimization (SEO) is helping websites rank higher on the search engine results page (SERPs) by looking for relevant web content on your page and what users search for. Customer  A big part of SEO is understanding your customer. You need to know what and the reasons why users look for something on the web. Here are some reasons:  Awareness: Customers are aware there is a problem, so they start looking for solutions. E.g. “flat tire” Consideration: They are aware of their problem and now they look to find a solution that best fits their needs. They may search for solutions using keywords that match their needs. Purchase: The customer is ready to buy and is usually aware of who they will purchase from. Keyword Keywords are words and phrases customers use to perform a search. For example, ‘bicycles online’ and ‘where can i buy bicycles online’ are both keywords. Keep in mind to match your keywords with what users use to search for products and services. Ensure to place your keywords in the page title, page content, and metadata  Utilise relevant keywords to your location, businesses, and services. Make sure to not overuse keywords as it can negatively impact your SEO. Update content  Frequent modifications to your website can help search engines scan and index your site more often. Ensure to remove content you no longer require or any content that is irrelevant.  You can also use sitemaps to allow search engines to find new content as well as update existing content. Backlinks  Search engines look at other websites that have linked to yours, in order to rank your web pages. Search engines view these external links as a “vote of confidence” in the relevancy, accuracy, and usefulness of the content. Links from reputable sites are more helpful than less reputable sites. The more reputable websites link to you the higher it will rank. Use of meta tags Meta tags are website codes that do not show in the web page. This tag gives information to the search engine and browsers about your content. Common meta tags are: Meta description: what your page is about. It shows in the search results page. Meta title: heading of the page that shows in the browser Alternative text: text that describes images. This is crucial for people who are blind and cannot see the image. It’s important to regularly keep up to date with SEO techniques as it is ever changing and can hugely impact your web content.  

Types of SEO Introduction to SEO Do you own a website? But let me tell you, if you just own a website, it won’t get you traffic from anywhere on your website. And now to get traffic, you will definitely need SEO services for your website. But do you know where you can start? You can hire your in-house team, a digital marketing agency or a Freelance SEO.  In today’s digital age, a strong online presence is essential for businesses to thrive. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays an important role in improving your website’s visibility and attracting organic traffic. There are various types of SEO strategies that can help you achieve your goals. In this blog post, we will explore the different types of SEO and discuss how they can contribute to your website’s success.   What are the types of SEO? On-Page SEO: This refers to optimizing the elements directly within your website’s control. It involves optimizing your website’s content, structure, and technical aspects to improve its search engine ranking. Some key elements of on-page SEO include: Keyword Optimization: Using relevant keywords throughout your website’s content, including titles, headings, meta descriptions, and body text. Content Quality: Creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that provides value to your target audience. Meta Tags: Optimizing meta titles and descriptions to accurately represent your content and entice users to click through. URL Structure: Creating clean and descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords. Image Optimization: Using alt text and optimizing image file sizes to improve search engine visibility and load times. Mobile Optimization: Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly to cater to the growing number of mobile users. Off-Page SEO: This involves building external links to your website from other reputable websites. These links, known as backlinks, signal to search engines that your website is valuable and relevant. Off-page SEO strategies include: Link Building: Acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites in your industry. Social Media Marketing: Promoting your content on social media platforms to increase visibility and generate backlinks. Guest Posting: Writing guest posts on other blogs in your niche to build your brand and earn backlinks. Directory Submissions: Submitting your website to relevant online directories. Local SEO: Optimizing your website for local search results if you have a physical location. Technical SEO: Technical SEO focuses on optimizing the technical aspects of your website to improve its crawlability and indexability by search engines. This includes factors such as:   Website Speed: Ensuring your website loads quickly to provide a positive user experience and improve search engine rankings. Mobile-Friendliness: Making your website accessible and easy to use on mobile devices. XML Sitemaps: Creating an XML sitemap to help search engines understand the structure of your website. Robots.txt: Using a robots.txt file to instruct search engine crawlers which pages to index and which to avoid. HTTPS: Implementing HTTPS to secure your website and improve user trust. Schema Markup: Using schema markup to provide search engines with additional information about your content, such as product details or event dates.

What is Organic Search? Organic search, also referred to as natural search, are unpaid search results. The opposite to pay-per-click advertising (paid search results). Organic search results are based on the user’s search intent, links, authority, and other organic search rankings.  Organic vs. Paid Search Organic search involves: Requires a cost  Good for short term results  Ranks site at the top of the page quickly  Boosts paid rankings in search results Why is organic search important? Organic search strategies in digital marketing have been proven to be effective in the long-term, in contrast to paid search results, despite it providing immediate results. Organic sites are often more trusted, leading to higher conversion rates and greater return on investment (ROI). Cost-effective. Companies can leverage the cost-effectiveness of organic search. Paid search results can be costly to implement. Organic traffic costs nothing at all, especially if you use the right SEO techniques. It doesn’t have a budget and companies can continually expand without worrying about their expenses. 2. Competitive advantage. An organic search improves the visibility of the targeted keywords. When used effectively, there would be no need for paid strategies.3. Long-term results. Organic search can offer optimised websites for a longer time, as they don’t rely on cost-per-click expenses. Factors impacting organic search All businesses like to be in the top three ranking pages of Google. Various factors can get websites to the premium spot on the SERP. Backlink. A link from a website that links to the company’s website. Backlinks help search engines understand how relevant a website is. Backlinks ensure organic traffic and index websites. Internal and external link. Websites need to be ranked in order to be ranked. Internal links direct you to an internal page on a website, this helps search engines know about the structure of the website and increase its visibility. External links direct users to a page on a different website.  Media. Adding images and videos along with written text can provide SEO benefits and rank higher in search results. It also leads to conversions and revisits.  Technical. Page speed is an important factor, as the quicker the page loads, the higher it ranks. Apart from the page speed, length of URL is important. Shorter URLs rank better in search results, they are also easy to type and remember, improving user experience. Encryption. Most websites support HTTPS, which is a secure connection. Using HTTP displays a not secure sign next to the domain which can cause users to leave the website. Google values HTTPS a lot more and ranks it higher in SERPs Measure organic search If a company does not measure how its performing, it could lose out on opportunities to boost organic search traffic. By using different metrics, they can better understand the site’s performance and boost their ranking in google search. Page views. Offers page views per session with total pages visitor visits on a certain page.  Bounce rate. Percentage of visitors that leave a page without viewing other pages. This could be due to slow load time or a page doesn’t contain much information. The quicker a user leaves the page, the higher the bounce rate. Keywords. Businesses have to track their keywords to ensure their organic SEO strategy is effective. They need to identify which keywords are most important for their business and they can use google analytics to measure the performance. Visitors. This tracks the number of websites on a site and how interested they are in a site. Businesses should ensure to create engaging content that will rank higher and boost traffic. Free of cost More effective in the long run Boosts unpaid rankings in search results  Requires continuous efforts to display sites at the top of the page Maintenance of SEO strategies required Paid search involves: Requires a cost  Good for short term results  Ranks site at the top of the page quickly  Boosts paid rankings in search results Why is organic search important? Organic search strategies in digital marketing have been proven to be effective in the long-term, in contrast to paid search results, despite it providing immediate results. Organic sites are often more trusted, leading to higher conversion rates and greater return on investment (ROI). Cost-effective. Companies can leverage the cost-effectiveness of organic search. Paid search results can be costly to implement. Organic traffic costs nothing at all, especially if you use the right SEO techniques. It doesn’t have a budget and companies can continually expand without worrying about their expenses. 2. Competitive advantage. An organic search improves the visibility of the targeted keywords. When used effectively, there would be no need for paid strategies.3. Long-term results. Organic search can offer optimised websites for a longer time, as they don’t rely on cost-per-click expenses. Factors impacting organic search All businesses like to be in the top three ranking pages of Google. Various factors can get websites to the premium spot on the SERP. Backlink. A link from a website that links to the company’s website. Backlinks help search engines understand how relevant a website is. Backlinks ensure organic traffic and index websites. Internal and external link. Websites need to be ranked in order to be ranked. Internal links direct you to an internal page on a website, this helps search engines know about the structure of the website and increase its visibility. External links direct users to a page on a different website.  Media. Adding images and videos along with written text can provide SEO benefits and rank higher in search results. It also leads to conversions and revisits.  Technical. Page speed is an important factor, as the quicker the page loads, the higher it ranks. Apart from the page speed, length of URL is important. Shorter URLs rank better in search results, they are also easy to type and remember, improving user experience. Encryption. Most websites support HTTPS, which is a secure connection. Using HTTP displays a not secure sign next to the domain which can cause users to leave the website.