Businesses do influencer Marketing with the sole aim of establishing trust with their audience. It involves companies collaborating with popular people with a social media following to promote their brand.
In essence, this is done to boost brand awareness and exposure.
For a short period, businesses borrow a particular influencer’s trust from their followers and use it to gain their trust to sell their products.
At the grassroots level, influencer marketing is based on the power of word of mouth.
For example, when young users hear from someone they can relate to that brand’s face cream that doesn’t have side effects, they feel assured and might consider buying it.
A survey by marketing agency Mediakix found that 89% of marketers interviewed felt that ROI from influencer marketing is better than other channels. The report also found influencer marketing delivers 11x higher than other digital marketing methods.
The trick is to filter through fake and ineffective influencer profiles. Also, today, as almost everyone has taken up the role of an influencer, it is important to pick the ones that produce quality content and those that don’t mislead the audience.
How Influencer Marketing Can Impact Your SEO/Rankings?
Social media has proven to have no direct effect on SEO or page rank. However, it is a uniquely useful tool for building trust and credibility with your target audience.
Studies also show such profiles directly influence a user’s choice and help them decide on a purchase. A report shows that 80% of 3,600 users surveyed bought something based on an influencer’s suggestion.
This shows that ROI, direct profit, and the online reputation of a business can be boosted to a large extent with the help of influencers. And this directly affects SEO and how Google views your business online.
Read on to find seven ways they affect your SEO and rankings.
1. More Visibility Leads to Increased Organic Traffic
Web traffic is one of the highest-ranking factors for page rank. Google has repeatedly emphasized this, according to Moz. And increasing the attention you get online will directly help boost this number.
This is where influencers come in handy. With influencers, visibility is one of the most significant advantages.
They draw the attention of their followers to your website. They let you borrow the trust they have formed with their audience.
This can be achieved by asking them to produce optimized, keyword-rich content with backlinks to your site on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
In these platforms, 62%-65% of all users access influencer-generated content.
2. Influencers Are Great Content Creators
The backbone of SEO is content. Google is very particular about websites having authentic, non-plagiarized, optimized content that is informational and knowledgeable to its users.
And businesses are now working with influencers to get this done. Instead of writing about trending topics, they make interactive videos, polls, Q&A sessions, infographics, and more.
An influencer in your niche will be an expert on topics that work with your target audience. Hence, they make great content creators that boost your authenticity and overall SEO.
Insist on brainstorming with them to develop ideas, content topics, campaigns, giveaway contests, and more. Make sure your brand ideology doesn’t get diluted.
3. Big Boost to Brand Awareness
Every brand needs brand awareness. Regardless of the size and market share, all companies must constantly promote their brand.
Everyone knows about Levis, but they haven’t stopped doing promotional campaigns, singing celebrity endorsements, etc.
This comes in handy, particularly during the launch of a new product, opening new branches, and widening the customer base. It helps you greatly to stay relevant.
And the main mantra of influencers is their relevance and creation of time-bound content. They come in handy to establish your brand’s dominance in your industry. This is a great way to stay on top of the competition.
4. Generate Backlinks from Influencer Content
Backlinks are one of the strongest factors that will boost your page rank. It establishes your domain authority. It mainly conveys to Google how valued and authoritative your website is.
One way to earn non-paid backlinks is to email your content to editors, experts, markets, and marketing agencies. Another way is through influencers.
Do not directly lead customers to your sales page or product.
Backlinks should provide users with valuable content. Instead, urge influencers to share links to articles, infographics, and surveys on your blog and website.
They can attach these links to their interactive video profile on Instagram.
“The same can be done on Twitter during live sessions and in the YouTube description section,” says Sayani from Ace Blogger Outreach.
5. Combine Keyword Research with Influencer Generated Content
Keyword-rich content is the second direct way to get a high SERP after backlinks.
After doing your due research, note down-trending keywords relevant to your niche. Collaborate with your influencers and incorporate these in their content.
Make sure they speak/write/discuss trending topics as per Google Trends information.
For an extra hit, ask them to include these keywords in the meta tag, header tags, and description while replying to followers in the comment section.
Hashtags are also an excellent way to increase your keyword count.
6. Become More Noticeable on Social Media
A survey by Rakuten Marketing said that 70% of all women users interviewed on Instagram, while 64% of men preferred Facebook to view content produced by influencers.
This data shows the benefits your social media handle can reap from influencer marketing. There will be renewed attention on your handles, which is great while rebranding, launching new products, and more.
In the same survey, 50% of users said they would follow an influencer for brand discovery. This enables brand exposure and the generation of followers for your brand. Social media-influencer marketing adds to your SEO profile, too.
7. Establish Brand Credibility and Trust
Word of mouth is a popular technique that users trust more than paid advertising. Recommendations by family and friends go a long way in increasing the credibility of your brand.
And influencers act as your brand’s friends and enable their followers to gain that trust factor.
A survey by Nielsen shows that 92% trust recommendations more than brand advertisements. Another separate study by Twitter shows that people trust influencers as much as friends and family.
Gaining trust leads to organic traffic, which in turn leads to higher click-through rates, and with the help of on-site SEO, you convert these into active sales. All these directly affect your SEO page rank.
7 Useful Influencer Marketing Tools To Increase Your SEO/Rankings
Like how Google Analytics measures SEO progress, similarly, there are a handful of reliable tools available to track the effectiveness of influencer marketing.
They measure performance reach and lead to customer conversion rate.
Some tools are designed to streamline your content strategy, while others help find the right influencer with a niche keyword search.
According to each company’s specific goal, one can get customized progress reports from these tools. They devise different plans for different social media platforms.
This way, you can direct resources and workforce at a particular snag. These apps will help you pinpoint glitches much faster.
Scroll to read more about seven influencer marketing apps that can increase your SERP rankings, organic traffic, social media presence, and overall online reputation.
1. BuzzStream
Buzzstream is a popular app among online marketers because it ranks influencers based on various factors.
This includes domain authority, Moz ranking, the strength of inbound links, and more. All these are crucial factors that build your SEO profile.
Also, it gives a complete analysis of their profile, the kind of content they produce, the keywords they use, etc. This information lets you decide if a particular influencer will align with your company’s goals and ideas.
The stand-out feature of this app is that it lets you create and send simple, clear-cut emails directly to your hand-picked list of influencers.
Its pricing is affordable and budget-friendly. Hence, it is a popular choice among startups and entrepreneurs.
2.
This is one of the largest platforms where companies can interact with 25 million bloggers and influencers.
If social media outreach is your primary goal, this is the platform for you. Ninja Outreach lets you explore influencers who are active on Instagram and Facebook.
It gives the user a free hand to choose between influencers based on essential metrics like keyword search, the number of followers, the extent of their reach, domain authority, and more.
This platform focuses on building strong professional rapport with influencers.
It lets you access individual articles, bloggers, and other companies based on your niche and keyword search.
3. Buzzsumo
This application works slightly differently from others. It focuses on competitor analysis and lets users devise a solid content strategy.
Its main goal is to provide users with trending content in their niche. Buzzsumo ranks influencer profiles and posts based on parameters like retweet ratio, average retweet, domain and Instagram authority, and more.
These will boost and complement your SEO metrics by increasing your website’s authority, a high-ranking factor.
Based on the content they create, you can directly add them to your list for future reference .
4. Followerwonk
This is a good campaign partner for brands wanting to expand their Twitter footing. Followerwonk’s strategy of analyzing influencers based on location and number of followers works very well on Twitter.
This is a great way to boost Local SEO because the application can find bloggers and content creators based on their location.
This method works well for regional brands with a local audience. Dentists, doctors, and lawyers with local practices can benefit the most from this.
With built-in Twitter analytics, one can monitor and track one’s Twitter profile.
5. Unbox Social
This upcoming platform for influencer marketing lets users understand and study their market with facts and figures.
It also allows you to spot nano and micro-influencers with a focused list of followers.
A person with only 10,000 followers can still benefit your cause if they produce content on specific content. Hence, the number of followers is not the only factor in picking a particular influencer.
With this platform, you can keep an eye on your competitors’ work and identify the areas in which you are lagging.
6. Pitchbox
Pitchbox is the best tool for those serious about boosting their SEO parameters. It focuses more on improving SEO than just one’s social media presence.
It incorporates SEO analytic tools like Majestic, SEMrush, and Moz. Its main goal is to provide users with influencer profiles that rank highest on domain authority and backlinking ability.
Due to its highly focused approach to SEO, Pitchbox is more expensive than other platforms. This is because it works to attain two goals- SEO and influencer marketing.
With their assertive email outreach, the platform says they have a response rate of 62% from influencers.
7. GroupHigh
Like Pitchbox, GroupHigh is one of the premium influencer marketing tools. This is because of its wide array of content, which includes 15 million posts from bloggers, journalists, content creators, and marketing companies.
One of its unique qualities is finding influencers based on their Ad Network. This is one feature that other platforms do not provide.
GroupHigh brings mainly Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube bloggers under one roof. Hence, it makes it a good choice for companies that wish to expand their SEO profile through content generation.
They also have an in-built CRM system to manage a company’s list of influencers.
Influencer Marketing and SEO FAQs
1. How To Find The Right Influencer For Collaboration?
First, identify your niche industry and do your keyword research. Next, jot down your campaign goals and what you want to achieve through influencers.
Then, pick the social media platform you want to run the campaign on. Finally, search for influencers who can work with the above findings using apps or otherwise.
Check their follower strength, interests, and communication skills before contacting them for a collaboration.
2. In What Ways Can Influencer Marketing Help My Brand?
Increased exposure and awareness of your brand is the biggest takeaway from influencer marketing.
Your products/services will be at the attention of your target audience. You can gain the trust of users and earn credibility for your brand.
Studies also show influencers help with getting a good ROI.
Most importantly, this significantly impacts SEO, and rankings will build your online reputation.
3. What Is The Best Social Media Platform To Carry Out Influencer Marketing?
Multiple reports have found Instagram to be an upcoming platform for influencer-generated content.
A study by Rakuten Marketing found that 70% of women and 64% of men prefer Instagram for this type of content. And 80% of users purchased it after viewing it.
For video marketing, YouTube would be the perfect place to start with.
Facebook and Twitter are two other platforms that are very popular for influencer marketing, and their reach is of mammoth proportions.
4. What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is the method of gaining brand exposure and awareness with the help of influencers.
They have a solid online presence and consumer following on popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Influencers let companies borrow the trust they have cultivated to sell their products over the years.
Marketing based on this concept has also resulted in SEO and SERP rankings. This is an excellent way to create backlinks and keyword-centric content as well. All these are considered high-ranking factors by Google.
SEO is a big deal in 2024. It’s how you get your website noticed in the vast ocean of the internet. Let’s dive into 10 strategies that’ll help you climb those search rankings and get more eyes on your site.
Conduct Comprehensive Keyword Research
Keyword research is like finding treasure for your website. It’s about figuring out what words people use when they’re looking for stuff related to your business. In 2024, it’s not just about short, simple keywords anymore. Long-tail keywords, which are longer and more specific phrases, are where it’s at. They make up about 70% of all searches!
Tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush can help you find these golden keywords. Look for ones that have a good mix of search volume and low competition. Remember, the goal is to find keywords that your potential customers are using.
Optimize On-Page Elements
On-page elements are like the signs on your website that tell search engines what your content is about. Your title tags should be catchy and include your main keyword. Keep them under 60 characters so they don’t get cut off in search results.
Meta descriptions are your chance to convince people to click on your link. Make them compelling and include your keyword naturally. Aim for about 155-160 characters.
Don’t forget about your headers (H1, H2, etc.) and URL structure. They should be clear, concise, and include relevant keywords where it makes sense.
Improve Site Speed and Mobile Responsiveness
In 2024, if your site is slow, you’re in trouble. 53% of mobile users will leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site’s speed and get tips on how to make it faster.
And let’s not forget about mobile. With over half of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, your site needs to look good and work well on smartphones and tablets. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help you check if your site is up to snuff.
Create High-Quality, Engaging Content
Content is king, and that’s not changing in 2024. But it’s not just about pumping out articles. Your content needs to be useful, and engaging, and answer the questions your audience is asking.
Mix it up with different types of content – blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts. And don’t forget to link to other relevant pages on your site. This helps search engines understand the structure of your website better.
Build a Strong Backlink Profile
Backlinks are like votes of confidence for your website. The more high-quality sites that link to you, the better search engines think you are. But quality beats quantity every time. One link from a respected site in your industry is worth way more than a hundred links from random, low-quality sites.
Try guest posting, creating shareable content, or reaching out to industry influencers to get more backlinks. Just steer clear of buying links or using link farms – that’s a big no-no in SEO.
Utilize Local SEO Strategies
If you’ve got a physical store or serve a specific area, local SEO is your best friend. Make sure your Google My Business listing is up to date and complete. Add photos, respond to reviews, and keep your hours accurate.
Local citations (mentions of your business name, address, and phone number on other sites) are super important too. The more consistent these are across the web, the better your local SEO will be.
Leverage Social Media for SEO
While social media doesn’t directly impact your search rankings, it can indirectly boost your SEO. When your content gets shared on social media, it can lead to more backlinks and traffic to your site.
Plus, social media profiles often show up in search results for brand names. Make sure your profiles are complete and link back to your website.
Monitor and Analyze SEO Performance
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to keep track of your SEO performance. Look at things like organic traffic, bounce rate, and which keywords are bringing people to your site.
Regular SEO audits can help you spot issues before they become big problems. Check for things like broken links, duplicate content, or pages that aren’t being indexed.
Stay Updated with SEO Trends and Algorithm Changes
SEO is always changing, and what worked last year might not work this year. Keep an eye on SEO news sites and follow industry experts on social media to stay in the loop.
When Google rolls out a big algorithm update, don’t panic. Take the time to understand what’s changed and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Implement Structured Data Markup
Structured data markup, also known as schema markup, is like giving search engines a cheat sheet about your content. It helps them understand what your pages are about, which can lead to rich snippets in search results.
These rich snippets can include things like star ratings, product prices, or event dates. They make your search results stand out and can improve your click-through rate.
Wrapping Up
SEO in 2024 is all about creating a great user experience, providing valuable content, and making sure search engines can easily understand and index your site. By following these strategies, you’ll be well on your way to boosting your website’s visibility.
Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time to see results but stick with it, and you’ll start climbing those search rankings. Keep testing, keep learning, and keep optimizing!
Extra Tips
PPC Reporting and SEO Reporting
When it comes to digital marketing, both PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) play big roles. But how do you know if your efforts are paying off? That’s where reporting comes in.
PPC reporting gives you the lowdown on your paid advertising campaigns. It shows you things like how many clicks your ads are getting, how much each click costs, and whether those clicks are turning into sales or leads. This info helps you figure out if you’re spending your ad budget wisely.
SEO reporting, on the other hand, is all about how well your website is doing in organic (non-paid) search results. It covers stuff like your rankings for important keywords, how much organic traffic you’re getting, and which pages on your site are performing best in search.
Both types of reporting are super important for understanding how well your digital marketing is working and where you can improve.
You might be surprised to see a drop in website visits and keyword rankings.
A decrease in lead production can do the same. These can be brought on by a variety of factors, but frequently a shift in your SEO visibility is to blame. Such a shift informs your company that it’s time to review and concentrate on enhancing your SEO strategy. It is needed to take good SEO Services.
You must concentrate on your online visibility if you run a company on the internet. Your products and information about your services will reach a larger audience if you constantly work to increase your online visibility.
No matter your business, your target market, or your objectives, a larger audience will result in higher profits. Search engine optimization is crucial in the digital world.
SEO Visibility
SEO Visibility is the overall percentage of all potential traffic to your website or clicks it might get from a particular keyword in an organic search. And a lot of that proportion depends on how you compare to your competitors in the SERPs.
It’s a crucial metric that shows how noticeable your website is in natural search results whenever a pertinent query is typed in. You won’t be found without it, your conversion rates will drop, and your income will suffer.
SEO Services Should Include
SEO Audit
An SEO audit should be a part of every SEO company’s services. With an SEO audit, your SEO service provider carefully examines your present approach. Your agency will assess your website from an SEO standpoint, looking at where it excels and where it could use improvements.
Although you can use free SEO audit tools, they won’t give your company the same level of information as a team of SEO experts. Because of this, an assessment should be part of SEO services.
If they don’t, it shows that your SEO business didn’t put enough effort and preparation into it. The absence of an SEO audit may also indicate that your firm will not develop a unique strategy for your company.
Competitor Research
You want a competitor analysis with your SEO services, regardless of how specialized your business is. Your SEO firm can find both online and offline competitors with the aid of competitor analysis tools.
This finding can help you refine your plan so you can capitalize on and gain from the weaknesses of your rivals. Although many SEO agencies offer an initial competitor analysis as part of their services. They continuously evaluate your rivals while searching for and identifying chances.
Off-page Optimization
Off-page optimization should be a part of your deal when you pay for SEO services. Off-page optimization in SEO refers to improving elements outside of your website that affect your position in search results. For instance, your position in search results may be influenced by your backlink profile.
For comparison, your backlink profile describes the quantity and caliber of websites linking to your site. When sharing the personalized cookies you created for their wedding, a food blogger, for instance, might connect to your website. For off-page SEO, an SEO firm frequently offers the following as part of its services:
Attracting bloggers and webmasters to your website’s material
Creating shareable material for the blog on your website
Tracking the mentions of your business on social media by consumers and influencers optimizing
On-page Optimization
The definition of SEO services also includes on-page optimization as a key element. Your SEO Company’s on-page optimization efforts are directed at making your website’s features more appealing to search engines like Google.
Several illustrations of on-page SEO service results are as follows:
Updating the search engine’s heading tags, Meta descriptions, and title tags
Examining the internal linking system, redirects, and information design of your website
blueprint creation
Optimizing the pictures on your site in accordance with best practices
Analyzing and selecting pertinent and valuable keywords for your website
examining your site’s usefulness, speed, and design
On-page optimization typically accounts for a sizable part of your SEO services. Because of this, an SEO company is not offering search engine optimization services if they don’t give on-page SEO, which
Monthly Reports
Having open communication is crucial when it comes to SEO services. Partnering with an SEO company that offers regular monthly reports is essential because you want a company that your team can depend on.
Your company can get a quick understanding of the outcomes of your SEO strategy with the help of an SEO report. Your summary might discuss, for instance, the organic traffic, the conversion rate, and the positions in search results.
Your SEO Company’s services ought to include time with your assigned account manager in addition to a monthly report. Your team can discuss your report one-on-one, pose questions, and more when you regularly meet with your account manager. Briefly put, regular talks keep you and your team on track.
E-commerce businesses are continuously evolving and competition is intensifying, making it necessary for businesses to find new ways to stay ahead of the competition.
In such a competitive environment, generating leads becomes a crucial aspect of any business. One of the most effective ways to generate leads for an e-commerce business is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The importance of leads in any business is paramount. Leads are potential customers who have shown interest in your products or services, which means they have a higher probability of converting into actual customers.
Generating leads helps businesses build a strong customer base, which, in turn, results in higher sales and revenue. In addition, leads are a vital metric for measuring the success of any marketing campaign.
There are various ways to generate leads, such as social media marketing, paid advertising, email marketing, and search engine optimization.
However, SEO is considered to be one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to generate quick e-commerce leads. The reason behind this is that SEO helps businesses attract potential customers through search engines, making it easier for them to find the products or services they need.
Why Leads are important in any Business?
Leads are important in any business because they are potential customers who have shown interest in the products or services offered by a business.
Leads are the first step in the customer acquisition process and play a critical role in the growth of a business.
Here are some reasons why leads are important in any business:
Increased Sales:
Leads are a key driver of sales in any business. Without leads, businesses would struggle to attract new customers and grow their revenue.
Leads help businesses identify potential customers who are interested in their products or services, allowing them to tailor their marketing efforts to convert those leads into paying customers.
Cost-Effective:
Generating leads is often more cost-effective than other forms of marketing. For example, lead generation through the best SEO services or social media is often less expensive than traditional advertising methods such as print or TV ads. This makes lead generation an attractive option for small businesses with limited budgets.
Better Targeting:
Leads allow businesses to better target their marketing efforts. By knowing more about potential customers, such as their demographics and interests, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns that are more likely to convert leads into customers.
Improved Customer Relationships:
Leads provide businesses with the opportunity to build relationships with potential customers. By engaging with leads and providing them with valuable information and resources, businesses can establish trust and credibility, making it more likely that those leads will become long-term customers.
Competitive Advantage:
Generating a steady stream of leads can provide businesses with a competitive advantage. By consistently attracting new customers, businesses can outpace their competitors and establish themselves as leaders in their industry.
How to generate quick Ecommerce leads through SEO.
Keyword Research:
Keyword research is the first and foremost step in any SEO strategy. The goal of keyword research is to identify the search terms and phrases that potential customers use to search for products and services in your industry.
Conducting thorough keyword research is essential for optimizing your website’s content and structure around the keywords that your potential customers are using.
Content can take several forms, such as product descriptions, blog posts, videos, infographics, and images. When creating content for your e-commerce website, make sure that it is optimized for search engines.
Use your target keywords in your content, but avoid over-optimization, which can lead to penalties from search engines.
On-Page Optimization:
On-page optimization involves optimizing individual pages on your e-commerce website. On-page optimization includes several elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and image alt tags. These elements provide valuable information to search engines about the content on your website.
To optimize your e-commerce website for search engines, ensure that your title tags and meta descriptions include your target keywords.
Use header tags to break up your content into sections and make it easier to read. And use image alt tags to describe your images and provide additional information to search engines.
Technical SEO:
Technical SEO involves optimizing your website’s structure and performance. Technical SEO includes several elements such as site speed, mobile optimization, SSL encryption, and structured data.
To optimize your e-commerce website for search engines, ensure that your website loads quickly and is mobile-friendly.
Use SSL encryption to secure your website and protect your customers’ information. And use structured data to provide additional information about your products to search engines.
Link Building:
Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to your e-commerce website. Links are important because they signal to search engines that other websites consider your content to be valuable and informative.
To acquire links for your e-commerce website, create high-quality content that other websites want to link to. Reach out to other websites in your industry and ask them to link to your website.
And participate in online communities and forums to build relationships with other website owners and acquire links.
FAQs about E-commerce SEO:
What is e-commerce SEO?
E-commerce SEO is the process of optimizing an online store to increase its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more traffic, leads, and sales.
E-commerce SEO includes several elements, such as keyword research, content creation, on-page optimization, technical SEO, and link building.
Why is E-commerce SEO important?
E-commerce SEO is important because it helps online stores attract potential customers and generate leads. By optimizing an online store for search engines, businesses can improve their visibility in SERPs and increase their chances of being found by potential customers. This can lead to more traffic, more leads, and more sales.
What is keyword research in E-commerce SEO?
Keyword research is the process of identifying the keywords and phrases that potential customers use to search for products and services in your industry.
Keyword research is a critical element of e-commerce SEO because it helps businesses optimize their online stores for the keywords that are most relevant to their target audience.
What is content creation in E-commerce SEO?
Content creation is the process of developing high-quality, informative, and engaging content that is optimized for search engines.
E-commerce websites need to have high-quality content, such as product descriptions, blog posts, videos, infographics, and images, to attract potential customers.
What is on-page optimization in E-commerce SEO?
On-page optimization is the process of optimizing individual pages on an online store to improve their visibility in search engine results.
On-page optimization includes several elements, such as title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and image alt tags. These elements provide valuable information to search engines about the content on an online store.
What is technical SEO in E-commerce SEO?
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing the structure and performance of an online store. Technical SEO includes several elements, such as site speed, mobile optimization, SSL encryption, and structured data.
These elements help search engines understand the structure of an online store and provide a better user experience for potential customers.
What is link building in E-commerce SEO?
Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to an online store. Links are important because they signal to search engines that other websites consider the content on an online store to be valuable and informative.
Link building is a critical element of e-commerce SEO because it helps businesses improve their visibility in search engine results and attract more traffic, leads, and sales.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, leads are a critical component of any business, as they play a key role in generating revenue and establishing a competitive advantage.
By understanding the importance of leads, businesses can develop effective marketing strategies that drive growth and success. Generating leads is crucial for the success of any e-commerce business.
By conducting thorough keyword research, creating high-quality content, optimizing on-page elements, performing technical SEO, and building quality backlinks, you can improve your leads.
It is virtually impossible today to build a business’s online presence without proper SEO. You need it to serve various imperative purposes, including driving traffic to your website and retaining the current crop of customers.
That said, you might have trouble reaching the top of search engine rankings even with a good strategy owing to certain common technical SEO issues.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO refers to ensuring that a particular website complies with the technical requirements dictated by modern search engines.
It pertains to website and server updates that can directly affect your webpage or site’s indexation, crawlability, and search engine rankings.
One should not conflate Technical SEO with components like keyword research, analytics, and backlink development. Integral elements of Technical SEO include sitemaps, metadata, title tags, 301 redirects, and HTTP header responses.
It is essential to nail the technical aspects of SEO if you want to create a better search experience. Unfortunately, most website owners remain clueless about their presence until the damage is irreversible.
Common Technical SEO Issues
1) Missing XML Sitemaps
Your site needs an XML sitemap to help search engines like Google crawl and learn more about the content of your web pages. If a site is missing its sitemap, Google will have a tough time understanding the hierarchy or content of your pages.
To know whether your site possesses a sitemap, you can start by typing your domain name into Google with the following – ‘sitemap.xml.’ If your sitemap doesn’t exist, we suggest using a developer or tools like the Yoast SEO plugin to generate it yourself.
You can use online tools to generate sitemaps.
2) Issues with Robot.TXT
If you find your site isn’t indexed by Google yet, this may indicate something is wrong with the robots.txt file. Spiders read such files to ascertain whether they have permission to index a site’s URL or not.
A missing or misconfigured robots.txt file can devastate your site’s organic traffic.
To detect this issue, type ‘yoursitename/robots.txt’ into the search bar and keep an eye out for ‘Disallow:/.’ A Disallow line means that Spiders aren’t allowed to index your webpage. We recommend seeking a developer’s assistance to fix this issue immediately.
3) Obscure URLs
Illegible URLs are a common technical SEO issue. Suppose you have a URL that ends with ‘..index.php?p=256789’; you should probably do something about it, as it isn’t user-friendly. You want your URL to convey your site or web page’s message to potential visitors.
We suggest creating more comprehensive URLs. You can start by adding keywords to them. Avoid using long URLs.
Ensure they are shorter than 70 characters instead. Implement a sub and single domain. Only use lowercase letters. Finally, use hyphens instead of spaces to separate words in them.
4) Absent Alt tags
Alt Tags are HTML attributes that describe an image’s content. They are important if an image fails to render properly on a webpage. They are also important in reinforcing a targeted keyword by assisting crawlers in deciphering information associated with a particular page.
This goes without saying, but a missing alt tag will result in crawlers failing to understand page information. Fortunately, adding Alt tags to images is simple. You must search the HTML code’s image component and insert the alt tag.
5) Improper Site Indexing
If a search input for your brand name does not return results for your website, this may indicate an issue with the site’s indexing. To Google, an unindexed site simply doesn’t exist. As a result, your site won’t pop up on search engines, let alone rank higher on them.
If you find out that your site is not indexed, immediately add your URL to Google. Also, make sure important pages of your site aren’t being blocked by the robots.txt file. Moreover, verify if you have accidentally implemented a NOINDEX meta tag.
6) Misconfigured NOINDEX
A misconfigured NOINDEX is a typical SEO issue with devastating results. It is quite common for developers to NOINDEX many files while the website is still in development. However, it is essential to remove all NOINDEX tags once the website is live. Failure to do so will severely impact the search visibility of your website’s pages.
Moreover, an inappropriate NOINDEX will wipe out all your pages from Google’s index. This is a serious problem. NOINDEX tags must be removed to facilitate your site’s visibility on search engines.
You can check for such tags by right-clicking on your site’s main page and selecting ‘View page Source.’ Later, use the ‘CTRL+F’ command to search for lines that read ‘NOINDEX’ OR ‘NOFOLLOW.’ You can use auditing tools to find such tags and take the help of a developer to remove them.
7) Missing HTTPS Security
With data breach incidents reaching new heights, site security has never been as important today.
A site with no HTTPS security will return a gray or worse–red background with a visible ‘Not Secure’ alert. You don’t want your visitors to find your site in such a state as it will immediately result in them bouncing.
To add HTTPS to your site, you must obtain an SSL certificate from a legitimate certificate authority.
SSL certificates can be bought from several prominent hosting providers. Once your site converts to HTTPS, your domain’s name will feature a ‘Secure’ prefix on your browser’s search bar.
8) Slow Loading Speed
Slow website Speeds have a direct correlation with poor SEO performance. It is also a primary culprit behind an increased bounce rate.
“No visitor has the patience to wait around while your webpage takes its sweet little time to render fully. Your site’s speed is integral to a better user experience,” says Cristian Ward of Sandiegoseo.company.
You can use tools like Pingdom or Google PageSpeed Insights to monitor and identify issues bringing your site’s speed down. This issue can be fixed by compressing images, utilizing browser caching, or reducing JavaScript.
See how we have optimized our website to load in just 2 seconds.
We recommend seeking expert advice from developers to adopt the best possible fix for your site’s loading problems.
9) Title Tag Issues
Issues with Title tags are the most prevalent technical SEO issues. Problems like needlessly long titles and duplicate and missing title tags can create problems for your site’s visibility in search engines.
Your Title tags exist to describe your page content to potential visitors in a bid to entice them into clicking on the link.
Hence, we suggest making the message of your webpage clear with a simple Title Tag. These tags should not exceed more than 70 characters. A title with 60 characters max should suffice. We recommend putting the targeted keyword at the beginning of your title tag.
10) Broken Links
Broken Links will prevent your website from being indexed or crawled by search engines. Broken links are extremely common in large sites that harbor several pages. So, you can expect a few broken links here and there.
However, a site with over a dozen broken links is a dire issue that needs attention immediately.
A broken link will not only affect your website’s page authority negatively but also result in your site losing its appeal in the eyes of users. You can ferret out broken links using Google Search Console and selecting the ‘Crawl Errors’ option.
You can also use online broken link checker tools to check for dead links.
Here you will know which pages are returning a 404 error. You should fix them as soon as possible to allow search engines to crawl and index pages again.
11) Not Optimized Mobile Website
A major chunk of traffic experienced by websites globally comes from mobile. As such, you want a website that is appropriately optimized for mobile devices.
This is all the more important today because of Google’s gradual implementation of its mobile-first index endeavor, wherein the search engine intends to rank websites based on their mobile versions.
See how we have optimized our website for all devices.
Therefore, ensure you have a website with well-optimized, readable pages on mobile devices. You can use several tools to verify your site’s appearance on different mobile devices. According to your findings, make design changes that make using the site convenient on smartphone screens.
12) Incomplete or Unclear Meta Descriptions
You need clear meta descriptions to help users ascertain the topic of your web pages. Meta descriptions that end with ellipses aren’t user-friendly and do not serve any purpose in improving your site’s rankings.
They should describe the content of your page in up to or under 160 characters while also featuring your targeted keyword.
Ensure your page has meta descriptions or at least complete descriptions. Make sure to update these descriptions with the changes and updates your page has undergone. Also, ensure your meta descriptions can uniquely be attributed to your page.
13) Redundant Content
As more people use content management systems and popular SEO practices worldwide, websites are bound to contain duplicate content. Such content can confuse search crawlers, resulting in your target audience being served with incorrect information for their search query.
Several reasons are attributed to the prevalence of duplicate content. It may be due to the same content appearing in different languages on international site versions, or it can be something as simple as content borrowed heavily from competitor pages.
It is imperative to keep your content as original as possible to avoid this issue. This problem can be solved by correctly utilizing hreflang tags, implementing correct rel=canonical, or just checking content for plagiarism.
14) Insufficient Content
The content on your site is integral to its SEO performance. While good content can greatly favor your site, poor content can kill it. It is well-established that lengthy pages with dense content rank higher than short content and barely cover any important information.
If you grace your webpage with content, ensure it is adequately detailed with relevant information about the targeted keyword.
Divide the content into several sections using sub-headings. Also, try using long-tailed keywords to characterize these sub-headings.
The Bottom Line
The problems mentioned above are some of the most prevalent technical SEO issues plaguing websites worldwide. These are problems that need to be addressed before they have the opportunity to affect your site’s visibility online negatively.
These issues are easy to fix with many intuitive solutions that will put your site back on track, thus helping you win new customers and build a strong online presence. We also suggest seeking expert advice when handling some issues to avoid further aggravating the situation.
Knowing is the first step in solving a problem. Now that you are aware of the common technical SEO issues that can derail a site’s rankings, you will be better prepared to tackle them if such problems arise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What Are the Different Types of SEO?
There are three major types of SEO. Firstly, On-Page SEO refers to components such as blogs, product descriptions, web content, etc.
Furthermore, we have Off-Page SEO that refers to elements that aren’t directly related to your website, like Backlinks. Finally, technical SEO refers to indexing, crawling, and search engine rankings.
Q2. How is Technical SEO different from On-Page SEO?
Technical SEO differs from On-Page SEO in one key aspect. While On-Page SEO refers to optimization done with the page’s content, technical SEO entails any optimization work done in areas other than the page’s core content.
Q3. What are the Most Commonly Used Modern SEO Techniques?
Some of the most commonly used modern SEO techniques include the following:
An optimizing page for the ‘People Also Asks’ section.
Monitoring a Competitor’s high-ranking pages
Leveraging competitor’s broken links
Optimizing a website for image search
Using PPC testing to boost organic CTR and much more.
Q4. What is the Job of a Technical SEO Expert?
A Technical SEO expert uses his SEO knowledge to evaluate, analyze and modify a website to improve its rankings. Their work is successful if the page they manage ranks high on search engines like Bing or Google.
Many SEO professionals have asked me – is outbound linking well for SEO? Well, there is an ongoing debate about how you should do external linking on your website. A lot of people wonder if external linking hurts the SEO of their website. This week, I am going to help you understand if external linking is good for SEO or not.
Before we go into detail, we will see if external linking has any effect on SEO.
Does Outbound linking affect SEO?
outbound linking is one of those SEO protocols that often raise objections from clients. We see a lot of people mentioning their brand in your article. Some people think it is legitimate while some people cast a little bit of doubt whether it is legitimate or not. There is a great correlation between external links and ranking. Based on SEOmoz’s SEO ranking factor 2011, there was a 0.04 correlation between the number of external links on the page and rankings.
If we take aggregate with all the ranking factors, we will find that more links on the page are not really going to help you with ranking. But, when we consider it along with other SEO factors such as – high-quality content, inbound links, natural link profiles, strong SEO based markup, etc – external links don’t affect search engine rankings negatively.
As an SEO expert, one of my tasks is to look at which sites rank well for both long tail and short keywords, attempting to find recurring elements on the site. Doing such tasks not only gives you a good idea of SEO techniques used by popular sites but helps you put together the most beneficial ranking elements.
You will get an idea of — what it takes to get your own sites rank strongly by looking at the external linking policies of some of the popular sites online. Most of the reputed sites that tend to link out in the body of articles and rank well show that external links don’t negatively affect the ranking of your website.
However, this is not the most compelling argument that external linking is good for SEO. Though your site ranks well and has external links, we cannot say that external links don’t hurt your ranking. It could be possible that external linking was indeed a negative factor, but the weight of other SEO factors are causing the site to rank.
How many outbound links can I use?
You are linking to relevant and quality content by using the external link on your website. If you are using do-follow links to low quality hosting sites that host malware or sell counterfeit products, you can assume that it will have a negative impact on your website ranking.
On the contrary, when you look at outbound links from authoritative websites —- you will find a common theme — where they are linking to informative and high-quality content. This is, in fact, helping the users by expanding the area of discussion. This means, the links that come from authoritative or reputed pages are useful — and are not meant just to push you to buy a product or bolster another pages’ ranking for a specific term.
Another important thing you should know about external links is the number of outbound links. They should never be overwhelming than any given piece of content on a high-quality site. The text should not be stuffed with plenty of outbound links. They should be placed in a limited number at relevant places, resulting in a successful outbound linking.
From the above points, what we can say that external links should be made an element of your on-site content production. However, your users are interested in checking the details if it is relevant and adds value to the user. External linking should not be adopted just because it will help with ranking, but it should be adopted in a fair way so that it doesn’t hurt your ranking. External linking adds a lot of value to your content and should not be overlooked.
Despite the potential benefits it can bring, it is ignored by many people in the community. External links can bring additional traffic to your website and increase brand awareness. If you have got a website with less traffic and you wish to drive huge traffic to your website — placing external links in the content will likely send extra traffic to additional sources. As a result of which, you will be shown up in their analytics as referring site — increasing your brand awareness.
There is another really potential benefit of external linking. External linking helps webmasters track and see who is linking to them and how much traffic they get. By linking to other people’s sites, you increase the chances of linking them back to yours. A lot of SEOs does it and found it to be a good strategy. Before you vomit a bunch of external links, you should pay attention to the linking opportunities. You cannot execute an external linking strategy effectively without having a smart content marketing strategy. So, have a well-planned SEO and content marketing strategy.
What about do-follow and no-follow external links?
Many people have come to me with the doubt – whether they should add a no-follow attribute to external links or not. Well, if you are placing an external link to additional content on your site, it should be a do-follow link. Nofollow links are meant for those sites that you don’t trust. Hence, it should not be applied to external links in your content. Else, search engines won’t trust your site.
Hopefully, I gave a clear answer to the question “Is outbound linking well for SEO?” whatever is the reason behind using external links; you should make sure that they add something valuable to your content. External links should be used in such a way that they leave a positive impact, especially when it comes to traffic.
My only suggestion is – the quality of external links is much important than quantity. If you think you would enjoy having a cup of coffee with a blog or site owner, then it is ‘OK’ to link to that site.
Feel free to leave your comments about this post!
About The Author:
Akash Srivastava is an SEO Consultant. He helps people create or revise their SEO plan, implement it and monitors results. He regularly writes about SEO. He has been in this since 2011. He reads books in his spare time. You can hire him for the consultation only or to do everything.
We love to create awesome websites for small businesses! It is our passion and goal to help as much as possible people with a beautiful online presentation that represents who they are and what they stand for.
We love to create awesome websites for small businesses! It is our passion and goal to help as much as possible people with a beautiful online presentation that represents who they are and what they stand for.