Link Building : Consider User Experience

Though the framework of search engine optimization (SEO) retains the same skeleton as it did before, the search engines are looking deep into things. Everything connected with the website will come under the scrutiny. Although not a ranking factor the destination that a link leads will be under consideration sooner or later.

Hence honesty towards anchor text usage and the authority of the destination becomes important. Visitors do not wish to be led to dud pages or pages having weak content, are not mobile friendly and web core vitals are disappointing. But in all seriousness if  you lead the user using content and the anchor text to a page with in totality belies the truth and their expectation than that is spam of worst order. User should know if the target page is meant for advertisement of sorts, or an affiliate site or anything that does not hold promise. This can be worse than  bad results on the SERP. 

The seo or webmaster building links using their skills either for higher ranking or for referral marketing should be dead honest. If not it could lead to loss of online reputation on production site as well on the social media networking site where the contents are being pushed.     

Expectation is human nature, and web visitors are sensitive about time they spend to unearth information for facts and figures. They wish that their intent should be fulfilled in a short time without getting trapped in unrelated advertisements or  spam pages.  

Webmaster with ill intent promoting site of client with equal ill intent will resort to these things for making a quick buck. But what they do not realize is the loss or reputation that takes place online. If you are promoting content wrapped links with ill intent you will lose repeat visitors and lose online reputation in time to come as well.   

Good Webmasters

But the buck does not stop here, webmasters with good intent may get trapped in this racket. Honest clients with weak pages and no ill intent may not deliver the experience that the users wish for. Weak or irrelevant content, bad design which lacks aesthetics, irrelevant attributes and shaky web vitals are surely going to disappoint the visitors. 

This is a futile exercise even though the intent is not dishonest. Since the search engines do not reward weak pages. It might be good idea to improve the pages first and then go in for a link building campaign. I know some clients are hesitant in making changes to their websites due to investment concerns or design changes or whatever. Reasoning and logic will play an important role in convincing for a complete change of content, attributes on page and aesthetic. 

Reward: A well built web page will definitely be a successful one post the optimization campaign.

With day to day evolution webmaster should stick to SE guidelines and need/desire of their audience. Simple understanding of human behaviour and logical approach will lead to better results. This is where one's time should be spent rather than spending hours in trying to unravel the algorithms.   

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Uday provides search engine optimization service for digital marketing. He provides website contents and content for authoritative links. 

He also teachesdigital marketing in his home town Jabalpur. He can be contacted at: 

pateluday90@hotmail.com

09755089323          

           

Search Intent A Point to Ponder

Keyword Research & Analysis : Understanding Intent 

When you  are optimizing a page or a piece of content for a keyword you should definitely know what intent is that phrase going to fulfill. Whenever we are in the process of optimizing a website we make a keyword analysis and make a list after extensive research that we would use throughout the campaign. But just having a robust list is not enough...we have to know what intent does each fulfill. 

What is intent?

Well it is a common word that signifies a purpose behind an action. Similarly people use search terms on the SERPs with an intent. The search is mostly for finding information, seeking a specific website dealing with the topic the user is searching for, seeking news or intent to purchase online. 

So you may ask what is your site or rather that specific webpage you are promoting about? Does it fulfill and intent? Is it an eCommerce site or is it an information website? Hence once you are aware of this aspect you will narrow down the list of terms you   have assiduously created. In short the terms you have used to optimize the web page should be justifying what your page offering. People searching for knowledge or information should not be landing on your eCommerce page.

But it is not so simple for sometime related ages can lead to business conversion but than do you have the bandwidth to be that extensive. For example: 

You have a site on wildlife resort with a page on accommodation and one on the resort itself. Than for additional information you will also have a page on destination which is an information page and not meant for conversion. But if your destination page ranks well without putting too much time and effort all the better because user seeking information will land on the page and may move on to other important pages of the website. Well still you may not get a conversion but surely advertisement has taken place. It could create an awareness about  the property or in future.....   

But certainly you should understand the intent behind each term in your list and then give shape to your campaign. Hence optimize a page using a term that solves its purpose. Just do not go for high volume terms since they may not be fulfilling the purpose of the page. 

Also the contents should be aiming at the purpose as well. For a product page the contents should be persuasive speak about the attributes of the product or products and convert the visit into a purchase. In case if informational pages the research should be intense and the information contained should be unique and solve the visitors queries. Although the visitors understands the page offering better whence they go through the site comprehensively nevertheless on page focus should never be compromised.      

Paying attention to the intent behind each term will enable you to understand the campaign that your SEO consultant is shaping. Even when you content writer is creating pages you can instruct him the purpose of your website. Most of the clients who go for  cheap website design and development do not pay attention to this aspect and the final result is totally unproductive. 

The crux of this content is that it should be shaped accordingly to the purpose of the visitors and not search engines. Sometimes targeting prime phrases could be a futile exercise usually long term phrases act as best conversion piece or deliver on niche information about a topic. 

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Uday provides Internet Marketing Services (SEO)
Write Contents for Websites in English
Runs Digital Marketing Classes in Jabalpur

Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com

Mobile: 9755089323

Author 

Search Engine Optimisation A Common Sense Approach

It is a never ending ball play search engine optimisation is an exercise to rank websites on SERPs on first page. Day by day as search engines and their algorithms evolve the going goes harder or often obfuscated.    

Webmaster seek quickfire solution to rank their client website and get impressive traffic. The going is not easy anymore since the algorithms have become more cryptic so to say. In order to decipher them and be in tandem with guidelines set by the search engines is becoming a riddle and a task difficult. 

In earlier times spamming was easy and one could get away with easily. Not all webmasters where spammers but activities were more effective especially with link building in mass. With the induction of Panda and Penguin a paradigm shift has taken place. It is no longer easy to spam the search engines with content farms and ineffective link building. 

Though link building is still effective a word has been added to the whole process and that is authoritative. Making large scale authoritative links those with strict editorial scrutiny is good but it is no more the panacea for viral results. Nowadays even brand mentions, online reputation and community participation can make the site popular hence one should utilise social media effectively.    

In recent times plethora of metrics have been put into calculation for indexing and ranking. On page factors, technical seo inputs and sound link architecture along with unique contents and snippets have come into prominence. Page speed is slowly gaining importance as mobile search volume increases along with voice search. 

User Query & Intent 

Most of the principle of search engine optimisation remain in place albeit diluted to a varying degree. It is now a sum total of all. But the buck does not stop here as websites are ranked primarily on basis of user query relevancy. Until unless there are gross anomalies or spamming websites with answer to user query will always surface on top. The rest of the metrics will come into picture to decide between competitors answering the query as desired.    

The evolution of algorithms has been carried out keeping user satisfaction in mind. A product with high demand is placed in a prominent eye catching position in a department store. So is the website that seems most suitable to provide an answer to the query is placed high on the SERPs. 

Determination of user intent has come out by implementing methods to measure click through and bounce rate. This is the way to analyse user preference time and over a clear picture is emerging as to what online visitors seek. User intent is now gauged effectively hence if you type "Amazon" out pops links to the eCommerce company and not to the river in South America. Visitors overwhelmingly are seeking this company all over the Globe.         

Hence all factors being equal it is important to understand user intent before optimising a website. For example say you are optimising a website on a hotel. Whence a visitor types "hotels in Jabalpur" he will find well known portals offering details of various hotels in the town. The websites of individual hotels will be ranked well below. This is often misconstrued as brand preference favoured by the search engines. Well it is the user intent and search volume measured over the years that is in play. 

Search engines will always match  sites that seem to answer the user query effectively. Those which do not receive impressive click through and maintain a high bounce rate will be pushed back in spite of various metrics that are efficiently entrenched.        

Hence while creating a website write contents that satisfy queries within the topic that are most often typed on the SERPs.  Try to figure out how you will beat the contenders on page one. Make the site mobile friendly and offer good user experience and yes quality hosting with minimum outages will also help. Add preferred elements like videos, optimised graphics, photos and internal/outgoing links that could further the information. Add a company blog which is essential to keep the contents pouring in. 

Add effective titles, meta and snippets to help search engines come to a correct conclusion what your site is all about. Keep building links as well but maintain quality else your site could be penalised.