How to Protect Your Website Against Bad Bots

Nov 20, 2017 | SEO

Bots are programs that have been coded to imitate a person’s behavior on the computer or to automate a task. While there are plenty of bots that are “good” and can be helpful for websites to use, there are “bad” bots that can be used by hackers or other less-than-ethical internet users. Bots like Click Bots (can fraudulently click on ads, which reports skewed data to advertisers), Download Bots (which skews engagement data for download numbers), or Imposter Bots (which attempt to bypass the security measures online) are all “bad” bots that you should protect your website against. So, how do you go about it?

How Can Htaccess Help?

CMS users use plugins to protect their sites against bad bots, but a much more effective and efficient way to protect your website is with a .htaccess file. By using a .htaccess file, you can control the traffic to your site at the server level. This takes away the need to load a site asset like JavaScript or CSS, and you don’t have to load PHP or the database. Basically, the entire process is simplified and streamlined.

First, copy the below code and past it into your .htaccess file. What this does is acts as a control panel for your website to block any bad bots that might try and come your way.

# BLOCK BAD BOTS

<IfModule mod_setenvif.c>

                SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent (archive.org|binlar|casper|checkpriv|choppy|clshttp|cmsworld|diavol|dotbot|extract|feedfinder|flicky|g00g1e|harvest|heritrix|httrack|kmccrew|loader|miner|nikto|nutch|planetwork|postrank|purebot|pycurl|python|seekerspider|siclab|skygrid|sqlmap|sucker|turnit|vikspider|winhttp|xxxyy|youda|zmeu|zune) badbot

                SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent (BadBotUserAgentString) badbot

          # Apache < 2.3

                <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>

                                Order Allow,Deny

                                Allow from all

                                Deny from env=badbot

                </IfModule>

         # Apache >= 2.3

                <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>

                                <RequireAll>

                                                Require all Granted

                                                Require not env badbot

                                </RequireAll>

                </IfModule>

</IfModule>

This first highlighted section blocks some of the more infamous bad boots by using their user-agents.

However, the next section is what actually does the heavy-lifting of the blocking.

For this code to work you don’t need to do any editing; all you have to do is save and upload the file and you’re all set to go!

The Technique in Action

First, let’s trying accessing your website through a legitimate source, like Googlebot.

Go to this request maker tool, in the Base URL section type your website address, set the “Request Type” to GET, then click on Add Extra Headers button. The Header Field Name option with two boxes will appear, for the first box type Content-Type and for the second box type the Googlebot user-agent, which is Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)

Then, click on the Output Result Headers? Box, verify that you are not a Robot then click submit.

You will get a 200 Ok response from the headers, which the website is open to good bots, such as the GoogleBot that we tested it with.

Now let’s do the same process with one of the bad bots that we blocked using the htaccess code to ensure that it works.

Step 1: Go back to your FTP client and copy a bad bot (we will use Python for this example).

Step 2: Following the same process as before but now replace the user-agent for Googlebot with Python. As you can see by the code “403 Forbidden,” the request for the bad bot has been blocked.

The Bottom Line

 By using this technique, you can add as many “bad bots” with user-agent strings into the code in order to effectively block them all. At the end of the day, while plugins may seem more convenient, using the htaccess file is the most effective way to protect your website.

Have any questions or comments? Have you used htaccess before or do you prefer using plugins to block bad bots? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

About The Author:

Emin is a website designer at Amberd Web Design, based in Los Angeles, CA. On his free time, he enjoys writing tutorials and how-to guides to help others.

A Beginners’ Guide To On-Page SEO: 11 Simple Hacks To Boost Your Content Now

Nov 17, 2017 | SEO

Is your website’s traffic at a standstill? Kinda like a traffic jam, only without the traffic? You could be in trouble with the “SEO police”.

Welcome To The Club

We’ve all been there. The excitement of publishing a new post that you “know” will go viral. You can actually see the share counter skyrocketing (and hear the cash register ringing).

The disappointing silence is such an extremely low one can sink into a depression. Even great bloggers like Seth Godin and Danny Iny have been through it.

If you are like many of us when we started out you’re probably the only visitor to your website. Ouch! I know it hurts…it was painful for me too. I actually thought:

#1. “I’m not good enough at this blogging stuff.”

#2. “Maybe I have offended the Google gods.”

#3. “Something is terribly wrong with all the people in the internet world.”

#4. “Someone broke the internet”.

As a newbie, you probably plunged into cyberspace believing you would wake up with a tribe of followers and an overflowing bank account. I know I did.

But traffic in cyberspace is becoming hard to come by despite the number of users increases. So how do you increase your chances of visibility as a tadpole amongst sharks? Three words:

Search Engine Optimisation.

My Quest To Vanquish The Monster Called SEO

Source

I used to tremble with fear and trepidation whenever I heard that term “Search Engine Optimisation” or SEO as this mysterious monster is popularly known. I know I am not alone, we all fear what we don’t understand.

Whenever I asked people about SEO I simply got vague answers in hushed tones. And so one day I set off on a quest. A quest to find and vanquish this monster that was keeping traffic from my website. Slaying it became an obsession.

I found the monster. But boy was I surprised! SEO wasn’t the dragon everyone made it be. In fact, it was just a friendly cyber being that was more than willing to drive traffic to my website. The only catch was and is: get to know it well and put it to good use. Actually, when I got to know it well, I discovered there was not one but two SEOs!

This is my mission today. I have returned from my quest and I feel it is my duty to introduce SEO to you. Ready?

The SEO Twins

Yes. You got me right. There are two sides to SEO.

#1. On Page SEO. This is optimizing your webpage and content. You can manipulate it in your favor with ease if you know what to do.

#2. Off Page SEO. This is a bit more advanced but so was blogging a couple of years back. In other words, you can learn it if you are willing to invest in the education.

Basically, Off Page SEO deals with factors like social networks, your competitor’s online authority and a few other secrets in Google’s secure vaults.

In this article, I will try to simplify On Page SEO so that you can be able to write and produce optimised content. Content that will be discovered, devoured and distributed. Brace yourself for a traffic jam.

On Page SEO Fundamentals

This part of SEO is under your control. Never mind what the “gurus” may say, you can influence the search engines to visit your site and increase its ranking.

According to Hubspot, On Page SEO accounts for 25% of all SEO. But that 25% if done right goes a long way.

11 Simple Ways To Optimise Your Page

1. Write Sizzling Hot Content

Source

I know you have heard this countless times but at the risk of being redundant, I will emphasize it too. The mistake many makes, when they delve into the mysterious world of SEO, is that they write for search engines. Once you fall into this trap, your website and content are doomed.

“Quality has become the #1 ranking factor in Google, especially since the Google Panda and Penguin updates.” Neil Patel

SEO is not just about ranking. It’s about ranking high with content that is valuable to people. Valuable content is shareable content and Google loves content that gets shared. This is why social media is getting so much attention in content marketing circles.

Join the bandwagon. Create content that people will have no choice but share.

If your post or website ranks high and is useless it will get few clicks and shares. That will bring its ranking crashing down. Not that dramatically but it will quickly lose its ranking.

It has been said from ages past by great men and I will say it again: content is king, after all, that’s what the internet is all about; content.

2. Research And Use Keywords Properly

 When you come up with an idea or concept for your post, don’t jump into using the words you thought of. Research the keywords, or anchor terms, that define and explain your concept. For an in-depth read on keyword research, check out this article on the Kissmetrics blog.

I need to make something clear before I progress. In the “dark ages” of cyberspace (when the web became open to individuals), a single keyword went a long way in influencing SEO. Today, however, things have changed a great deal. In employing the keyword factor, you need to focus on, not only the keyword but long tail keywords, synonyms and topically related words and phrases.

The “Google Bots” are constantly evolving into more intelligent beings. For that reason, we need to employ more sophisticated tactics to court their favor.

Research which keywords will work for you and research their variants as well.

Once you have the required keyword, place it and its variants properly and naturally in your content. The major placement areas are:

*Headline

*Subheads

*First 100 words in your content (If naturally possible)

*Last 100 words of your content (if naturally possible)

* Sprinkle within the post (don’t overdo it. If you overdo it your content will be considered as spam)

*In the image tags

*In your URL

*In the meta description

As you write your content, don’t rigidly stick to your keyword. Instead, use its variants and synonyms. This is important because it signifies to the search spiders that your content is relevant in that area or field.

Pro Tip:

Keywords that work best are those your target audience uses when searching the net.

3. Structure Your Content Well

 Search engines are not human, they depend on the structure to determine whether the content is relevant. This is where heading tags come in. Heading tags help search engines read the structure of your text. And, like any good essay, the structure is key.

Your content should have a clear headline, introduction, subhead, body, and conclusion. All these properly tagged.

Structuring content is not only good for the search bots but it also gives your readers a pleasurable reading experience.

Pro Tip:

Don’t just use default bold settings in your content. Employ proper H1, H2, H3 and whatever relevant tags.

4. Sculpt Captivating Headlines

 
Source

“On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.” Copyblogger.com

The power of a headline can’t be overemphasized.

I want to let you in on a pro tip. When it comes to captivating headlines, your headline should target people and search engines.

A headline that is captivating to the reader encourages readers to read your content. The longer readers stay on your page, the more SEO points you will score.

A headline that captivates search engines increases your ranking. If your headline solves a problem, Google will love it.

How To Craft Captivating Headlines

In my green behind the ear days, I used to naively think a headline that was clever was a good headline. I used to write a headline, gloat about it to myself and then hit the publish button. No one could resist my headlines, or so I thought. I’m sure we all know about the deafening silence after publishing my posts. You are probably experiencing the same frustrations now.

Captivating headlines take time to write.

According to Jon Morrow of smartblogger.com, you should spend more time crafting your headline than you do the content itself. That’s how important a headline is.

Again, my point is not to teach you how to craft headlines. Many authority figures have written superbly on that. But just to make sure, here are a few elements that need to be in your headline according to CoSchedule.com,

• Use words that tug at the heart.
• Include words that inspire.
• Make sure your headline is the right length.
• Right mix. Your headline should have the right mix of common and uncommon words.

Try out CoSchedules headline analyzer here. This is an awesome tool to help you in your headline sculpting endeavors.

The last element in your headline is the most critical when it comes to seducing the search engines: keyword.

Your headline should include the keyword you want to rank for.

This is the mistake I used to make in my newbie days. I never cared if a headline contained a keyword or not. As long as the headline sounded poetic I believed I had done a good job. An optimised headline must contain your keyword.

Pro Tip:

Don’t forget to make use of H1 tags on your headline. Search engines are known to have an affinity for them.

5. Use Images And Optimise Them

 Images are important when you are crafting content of any kind. Not only are they friendly to the eyes, but, if used properly, can also befriend search engines.

To maximise images for SEO, be sure to tag them. There are two tags that should be added to your image:

• Alternative Text, a.k.a ALT
• Image Title Attribute

These 2 tags must also include your keyword. But make sure it’s reader-friendly too.

“I’m not a techie, how do I do that?” I am not a techie too. But that shouldn’t stop you. There are a number of SEO plugins that make this very easy. Two of the current best is All In One SEO and Yoast SEO.  These are essential WordPress plugins that make it easy to edit image attributes and much more to optimise your content for SEO.

Pro Tip:

Crop images to the required size before uploading them. Use your keyword as the “save as” title.

6. Don’t Neglect Meta Descriptions

 Source

Meta descriptions don’t necessarily influence SEO but they do influence the CTR (click through rate). The CTR though does influence SEO in that the higher the CTR, the more relevant your content will appear to be in the eyes of the search bots.

Again, even if you are not a techie, this is easy to do using the All In One SEO or Yoast SEO plugins for WordPress.

For an in-depth study on meta tags and their effect (or lack of it in other cases) read this article by Moz.

7. Links. Links

Links validate your website. And this is what search engines want; trustworthy websites and content. There are three basic types of links that help with SEO.

1. Internal Links

These are links to your website or blog. They are useful in keeping people longer on your site. This contributes in a small way in adding relevance to your site. I know I have used the word relevance a lot. This is because that is what search engines primarily search for; information that is relevant for users.

2. Outbound Links

These are links to other sites. When you link to another site to give readers more resources you give that site “SEO juice” but it also reflects back on your site as being a helpful site.

Pro Tip:

Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you. If you link to other sites, others will also link back to you.

• Inbound Links

These are links from other websites to your own. These have a huge impact on SEO.

When other websites validate your own by linking back to yours, search engines rank you higher. Why? Inbound links show that you have something to offer and that is what Google, Bing and other search engines want; websites that offer valuable content. Relevant sites.

Get inbound links at any ethical cost possible. How?

• Write great content people will want to link to
• Make it easy to share your content (Easy to find and use share buttons are very handy)
• Ask for links. Do this strategically and only for websites that you can add value to. Don’t be a parasite.

Warning:

Spammy websites may link back to you for their own devious reasons. De-Link them yesterday! These, when caught by the “Google police” can have effects as drastic as blacklisting your site.

8. Reduce Your Website’s Load Time

Source

 Pages that load slowly get heavily penalized by search engines. This can be fixed though.

• Get an efficient web host. Don’t go for cheap, go for competent.
• Use themes that load quickly. When choosing a theme make sure it is not “heavy”. Read the theme description and ensure it’s a fast loader.
• Reduce the number of plugins you use. Some plugins do the same job, others multiple jobs. Know what each plugin you install does and make sure it is not duplicating what another plugin is already doing.
• Resize images. Most CMS systems, like WordPress, allow you to upload images and easily adjust them within the website itself. This is an awesome feature that comes at a price, it reduces your website’s speed. Instead, use an image editor to resize your image before uploading it.

Take advantage of tools like Pingdom’s website speed tester. This is a great tool that audit’s site’s speed and gives recommendations for improvement.

9. Embrace Google’s “Mobile First”

“The combined traffic from mobile and tablet devices tipped the balance at 51.2 percent, vs. 48.7 percent for desktop access, marking the first time this has happened since StatCounter began tracking stats for internet usage.” Tech Crunch.

This is a significant milestone in the history of the internet.

What this basically means is that as from October 2016, more people are browsing the internet on their smartphones and tablets than desktops and laptops. This statistic has two ramifications:

• If your website is not mobile responsive, you will lose traffic.
• The big one is that you lose SEO value.

Google’s updates have included mobile responsiveness to the criteria with which they rank websites. Responsive websites rank higher in Google’s SEO algorithms. Those that don’t embrace the mobile revolution get penalized.

3 Factors to consider as you embrace mobile.

1. Performance: Make sure your website is efficient. Slow and inefficient websites are penalized by the Google bots.
2. Content: not only should your content be sizzling hot and SEO optimised, but it should be easy to read on a small screen.
3. User experience: Navigation should be easy and fluid.

Cyberspace is evolving at a fast rate and you have to do all you can do to be on top of the game.

10. Optimise For Voice Search

Source

 According to GeoMarketing, “Roughly 65 percent of people who own an Amazon Echo or Google Home can’t imagine going back to the days before they had a smart speaker, and 42 percent of that group say the voice-activated devices have quickly become “essential” to their lives.”

Due to ease of use and multitasking, voice search is increasingly becoming popular.

What should you do to optimise for voice search?

• Adapt Your Keyword Strategy For Voice

“Your keyword strategy must now be more conversational in nature and mimic how real people talk and ask questions verbally.” Search Engine Land

• Integrate questions into your keyword strategy.

Most searches by voice are question-based. People search for the “what”, “where”, “why”, “when” and “how” of life.

Your content strategy should answer these questions based on what your business does.

• Maximise on local SEO.

Most voice searches are location specific. The searcher may be looking for directions to a place or business. To be found easily, include snippets that contain your business name, address, and keywords on your website.

In short:

“Voice search is characterized by its prevalence on mobile devices and its focus on local searches.” Search Engine Watch

The future of search lies in voice. Take advantage of this technological advancement and smooth talk your way to Google’s top listings.

11. Maximize On Social Media

“In fact, social media profiles are often amongst the top results in search listings for brand names.” Kissmetrics.com

The impact of social signals on search engine rankings has become controversial since Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google algorithms don’t include social media signals in their ranking factor.

Even though this may be true, social media profiles rank high on Google pages and this enhances online authority, awareness, and engagement. And this is basically what SEO is about.

Another thing is that people trust websites that have an active social presence. In fact, more and more searches are being made through social media platforms.

The power of social media is in driving traffic to your website.

“It’s certain that if you want to be a key player in the SEO game, you need a social media presence. This means, setting up full pages for your business on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram and posting regularly.” Rank Sharks

Final Word

SEO algorithms are a secret that is as closely guarded as the secrets in the Vatican. Maybe even more. But as you apply the simple tips outlined here, you improve your chances of being discovered by a significant factor.

The world is waiting for you, my friend. Create sizzling hot content, optimise it and watch it go viral. That’s every content creator’s dream, isn’t it? And in this world of cyberspace, dreams become reality every day.

What are you waiting for? Revisit your old posts and get “SEOing”!

About The Author:

Kato is the Chief Content Strategist at bizcontenthub.com. A strong aversion to bland web copy has set him on a crusade to help you increase reader engagement by crafting hypnotic copy that will turn browsers into subscribers. Let’s get people talking about you.

5 Ways to Decrease Bounce Rates in the Next Week

Sep 28, 2017 | SEO

Your website is the hub of your business, one that should be optimized in such a way that it drives both traffic and conversions. After all, your website is your virtual storefront.

But conversions aren’t possible with a high bounce rate.

To catch those unfamiliar with bounce rate up to speed, bounce rate refers to the percentage of people who landed on any page of your website and then left without visiting any other pages.

If potential customers kept walking up to your storefront and then leaving immediately, you’d likely be pretty concerned.

It’s true – a high bounce rate signals that there’s a problem with your website. As a general rule, the most important pages of your website should not have a bounce rate above 50% (you can find out what your bounce rate on Google Analytics, which is a free tool).

Hubspot breaks this further in the image below.

Reasons For a High Bounce Rate

So, what’s causing your website’s high bounce rate?

That’s part of the problem. There’s not an easy way to tell. It could be a number of different things, such as:

• People are not finding the information that they want (poor content – especially on your landing pages)
• Poorly targeted keywords
• The page is too slow to load

(Keep in mind that there are exceptions when some pages would naturally have a higher bounce rate, like a contact page).

Now, on to what you can do about the problem.

1. The Basics Part I: Make Your Content Better

Improving your content is always at the top of the list when it comes to decreasing bounce rates.

Now, this may seem like a tall order to accomplish in a week, but if you approach it strategically, as we will outline below, you could potentially see improvements in the next week.

It starts with Google Analytics. Looking at all of your published posts, start by searching from high to low bounce rate. Take notice of the pages that have a high bounce rate in combination with a low average time on site. If you notice this, it’s a clear indication that your content is the problem.

Next, target the pages with a lot of page views (and that also have a high bounce rate) first since these pages are driving a lot of traffic to your website.

To encourage people to stay longer on the page, here are some tips:

• Ensure the content is recent and fresh (this will establish trust over time)
• Aim for high-quality content (i.e. the basics are well-written, tailored copy – more on this to come – images like screenshots and infographics, actionable tips, a clear call-to-action, and usability – more on this in part two)
• Consider adding a video to encourage users to stay on the page longer

2. The Basics Part II: Improve Usability

Improving the usability of your content is part of improving your content, but it is such an important part that it warrants its own discussion. When it comes to web content, there is nothing that will make a person click away faster than seeing a long block of text.

Visitors ultimately won’t be able to find what they’re looking for easily, so usability is key. Here are some tips:

• Clear subheadings (i.e. make your content easy to skim)
• Lots of whitespaces (Hubspot’s blogs are a great example of this)
• Bullet points to highlight key points or benefits
• Bolded keywords where necessary (but in moderation)
• End your content with a subheading for your conclusion

3. Draw In the Right Visitors

This is all about attracting people who are going to be most interested in your content. Your content might be considered high-quality (i.e. it’s written well, you’ve included images, etc.), but if you’re not targeted the right people, the content is not going to all that valuable.

There are many aspects of drawing in the right visitors, but here are some key takeaways:

• Target high-value keywords (in essence, the key is to target the keywords that would cause people to stay and read that content.) High-value keywords are not only important for low bounce rates but also engagement and conversions.
• Write useful meta descriptions for every page (ensure that they are roughly 155 characters long, include the target keyword and include a call-to-action).
• Create several landing pages (these improve click-through-rate) and include the same types of high-value keywords on your landing pages as mentioned above).

4. Increase Your Page Load Time

 This one is a relatively simple fix. Again, when it comes to the Internet, people do not have the patience to wait for a page to load. In fact, a general rule is that you’ve got about two seconds.

Begin by testing your website speed with the Pingdom Website Speed Test.

There are a lot of things you can do to increase your page load time, but the some of the easier fixes are to remove any non-essential plugins, avoid pop-ups and change any external links so that they open in a new tab).

5. Little Known Ways to Decrease Bounce Rates: Credibility

The last and final tip we have won’t decrease a high bounce rate in a week, but over time it can have a positive effect. That tip is to put some thought into creating credibility. Credibility creates trust in your content.

When readers trust your content, they are more likely to spend more time reading it.

Having a beautifully designed website, having your address and phone number visible on your website, including testimonials as well as links to websites that have linked to you (or even links to previous guest posts) are all ways to establish credibility and trust with your reader.

Remember, if all of these things have come together well – the right visitor, a high-quality article, and trust – all it takes is one great article to work its magic.

The Bottom Line

A high bounce rate may signal that there is a problem with your website, but at the same time, it’s a problem that can be fixed by applying the above foundational principles – good content, usability, drawing in the right visitors and increasing your page speed.

If you’ve had problems with a high bounce rate in the past, what did you do to fix the problem?

Here are a few other metrics that you should keep tabs on if you want to improve your website.

About The Author:

Arash Asli is at the forefront of business growth helping SMBs grow their businesses, as CEO of Yocale.com, an online scheduling, and marketing platform. His thought leadership has been featured in major publications including Forbes, Huffington Post, and Inc. He is honored to have been named the Business in Vancouver’s Top Forty under 40 business executive. https://business.yocale.com/.

How to Do SEO in 2017 On Page and Off Page

Aug 29, 2017 | SEO

Much has changed in search engine optimization over the years. As search engines tweak and update their algorithms and the technologies they use, changes in SEO strategies are only to be expected. In 2017, what techniques and methods are deemed effective? How different is on the page and off page SEO in 2017 from how it was done before?

This post aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the most important and arguably most effective strategies in search engine optimization. The points presented here take into account the changes search engines have implemented, Google in particular.

On Page SEO

These are the techniques that need to be implemented on the actual site or blog. These are aimed at optimizing the structure, content, and other elements of a site to make it search engine friendly.

1. Ensure good content

The cliché “content is king” still holds in will likely remain the case in the years to come. Good content is the most important component of on page search engine optimization. This means that your content should be original, readable (for humans), and valuable. Always avoid filling your content with fluff. Make sure that it offers real value to readers. Don’t just copy and paraphrase or spin content from another site. Also, take note of your content’s word count. Having it too short or too long is a no-no. Generally, it is advisable to have at least 700 words on a page.

If you are targeting visitors from a specific region with a different language, it would help localizing your content or having a section of your site with texts in the local language. Good content means relevant content the intended audience can easily connect with. What better way to do this than by using the local language, local idioms, and cultural references that are more relatable to local audiences. You may need the help of a website localization service provider for this. Don’t take localization lightly. It’s not something you can accomplish using automatic online language translators. Remember that you also need to translate the keywords and use them properly and naturally in the content, so you need to be sure what are the best-translated keywords to use.

2. Create a pleasant user experience

This is about the layout, structure, and navigability of your site. It’s important to create a site or blog that create a good impression. It should be easy for readers to find their way around the site, to go the important pages. The site’s design should be able to hold a visitor’s attention and guide them to the sections or content that matter. Consult site navigation best practices. If you publish long articles or gallery-like content (images with captions/descriptions), avoid making it obvious that you want your readers to create several page impressions. Don’t divide a long blog post, for example, into separate pages with only less than 200 words on each page. If you publish gallery content (or a presentation with multiple slides), as much as possible, provide the option to let readers view everything on one page.

On the other hand, page loading time should be low, less than two seconds as much as possible. Speed affects user experience as well as the consequent search engine ranking performance of a site’s pages. Moreover, don’t forget to optimize for mobile internet users. The number of mobile internet users has already exceeded the number of those who access the internet through desktops. It only makes sense optimizing a site for the sake of mobile internet users. To avoid having to create and maintain two versions of a site (desktop and mobile versions), it’s advisable to just use a responsive web design.

3. Diversify keywords and mind your keyword density – aim for natural keyword insertion

Use diverse keywords but make sure you are not over stuffing your content with them, and that everything looks natural. Keywords are important but their use shouldn’t appear like they’re being forced into the content. Aim for a keyword density of only 1% to 3%. Don’t use several keywords close to each other. Don’t insert all or most of your keywords in just one paragraph. Also, don’t make a sentence suit a keyword. It should be the keyword that needs to be modified to make it suit the sentence or the thought that needs to be conveyed.

To diversify your keywords, try to change the order of the words in them. For example, instead of using “smartphone cases” through and through, you can use “cases for smartphones”. Additionally, try to use synonyms and LSI keywords. Explore the many different possible other keywords your target readers would use to find your site or pages on your site. Use modifiers or adjectives in your keywords.

LSI, by the way, is an acronym for Latent Semantic Indexing, and basically, LSI keywords are keywords that are semantically related to a primary keyword.  You don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what LSI keywords are and how to generate them. You can just use online tools for generating LSI keywords for a primary keyword.

4. Don’t forget the right URL/permalink structure, meta tags, meta description, and other standard SEO elements

In 2017, the basics still matter. Don’t forget to have your keywords in your URL and to have a URL structure that makes sense (usually something that reflects a page’s or blog post’s title). Avoid having random numbers and letters in your URL and make sure you don’t use special symbols for the URL or blog Permalink. Be sure to add appropriate page titles or meta titles for all of your pages. The trio of the meta title (or page title), meta description, and meta tags can still be useful for SEO in 2017. If you are optimizing a business website, it also helps to add your NAT address or contact to boost your local search ranking.

5. Optimize your images

Images don’t only attract and keep the attention of readers on your site’s pages. They can also be optimized and be useful in improving your site’s ranking. Basically, for images, you need to add descriptions and alt texts. These are details search engines can see images. These help search engines in evaluating the usefulness and relevance of content or a page. Mind the sizes of your images, though. Avoid using too large images as they can slow down page loading time and negatively affect a page’s ranking.

6. Do proper internal and External Linking

Linking is not yet passé. It may not be that hyped up as before but links, still, do matter. For good internal linking, be sure to use natural anchor links that can invite readers to click on them. The anchor text does not have to be similar to the post or page title it is being linked with. Don’t overthink it. Just make sure it makes sense and that the links are not “nofollow” links. Additionally, try to link deep. Find posts or pages in your site that could use some visitors. Internal linking should help expose many pages of your site to readers. Don’t overdo your internal linking, though. A couple or so internal links should suffice.

On the other hand, for external linking, you need to make sure that you are only linking to relevant authority links. Limit your links to established resource sites or blogs. Ascertain that you are not linking to your competitors lest you help them rank better in search engine results. You may also try linking to sites that might link back to you. You can contact a blog, for example, and ask if it would be possible to do a link exchange.

Off Page SEO

Off page, SEO is usually the more tedious aspect of doing search engine optimization. This is because the techniques involved require more effort. Nevertheless, it’s off page SEO that has a bigger role to play in boosting a site’s search engine results page (SERP) ranking. On page, SEO is mostly about making sites or pages visible to search engines. It’s the off page part that significantly influences performance in SERPs.

The following strategies are still effective in doing SEO in 2017.

1. Social Media Promotion

Promoting sites on social media or enhancing social media engagement is a very important part of doing off page search engine optimization. It’s important to maintain a presence in the top social media networks at present, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. Just make sure that you follow the terms of these different social media networks to avoid getting suspended or blocked. On Facebook, for example, you need to create a Facebook page instead of a typical Facebook account (for people) otherwise your account may be suspended since standard Facebook accounts are supposedly only for real people.

2. Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, Slashdot, and Diigo may no longer be that popular but they can still be useful in spreading the word about sites or pages and in lifting your SEO efforts. Use them especially every time you post new content.

3. Forum and Q&A Engagement

Forums may be old but they’re not passé. There are still many who use forums. In fact, many use forums to share information and discuss Bitcoin (and Bitcoin certainly isn’t old stuff). Your site can benefit from the mentions and links it can get in forums and question and answer sites. Promote your site in forums and Q&A sites such as BBPress.org/forums, addthis.com/forum, answers.yahoo.com, askville.amazon.com, quora.com, and blurtit.com.

4. Directory Submission

Another old SEO strategy for getting authority links is directory submission. This strategy, though, is still useful in 2017. Submit your site to as many directories as possible, especially in established ones such as Dmoz.org, Technorati.com, Alwebdirectory.org, Boingboing.net, and networkedblogs.com.

5. Presence on Video Sharing Sites

Notice how many sites maintain a presence on YouTube? It’s because there are many potential visitors that can be directed to a site after they see a video clip. That’s why posting videos on sites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Ustream, Hulu, Metacafe.com, and Break.com are also considered a good way for doing off page SEO. Search engines frequently present video search results especially for keywords involving recent events or news and for keywords on tutorials. It would be a big lost opportunity to be found by search engines and to attract visitors if you don’t maintain a presence in video sharing sites.

6. Article, Infographic, Image, and Document Submission

Lastly, it helps to attract visitors to a site when you submit your articles, infographics, images, or documents to directories or sharing sites that specialize in each of them. For your articles, you can submit them to sites such as thefreelibrary.com, magportal.com, ezinearticles.com, hubpages.com, and brighthub.com. For images, the following popular image hosting and sharing sites should be considered: Flickr, Picasa (Google), Deviant Art, Imgur.com, Mediafire, Shutterfly, and Fotolog. If you have infographics, be sure to share them on sites such as visual.ly, reddit.com/r/infographics, submitinfographics.com, infographiclove.com, and infographicsarchive.com.

There is no science in doing off page SEO. It’s rather difficult to precisely measure how the strategies listed here impact SERP ranking but these are important SEO techniques that need to be done. There is a universally accepted consensus in the SEO community that the kind of interactions or engagements achieved with these off page SEO strategies matters – significantly matter.

Conclusion

Ultimately, SEO in 2017 is about making sites more appealing to humans. It’s about making sure that content reads naturally and that a site leaves a good impression with its appealing design, good navigability, and better interactivity or responsiveness. As search engines, especially Google, strive to make their algorithms smarter and less likely to fall for the manipulative schemes of unscrupulous SEO companies, the trend is on making sites more attractive to humans and not to search crawlers or bots.

About The Author:

Bernadine Racoma is a senior content writer at Day Translations, a human translation services company. She has a notable fondness for things related to technology, social media, travel, health, lifestyle, and current affairs. She is also an advocate and mother to 7 successful children.