Affordable Seo Houston - Archive - SEO Houston Experts & Search Engine Optimization Consultants

SEO Houston Pros: A Practical Methodology For Getting Google To Index Your Website Faster

April 25, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

Key Facts About Indexing & How To Get Your Houston Website Recognized By Google With The Right SEO Techniques

In essence, the process of Google Indexing involves getting your website listed in search engine results pages. Lots of folks in the online marketing world are under the impression that this is something that requires many weeks, or perhaps even months to accomplish, but this is not necessarily the case in all instances. The fact is that getting a site indexed is possible, and it can be done in the span of just a few hours. A number of techniques exist for making this indexing happen. Therefore, if you have a new website, the following information is sure to be helpful. Google indexing requires you to obtain links to your website from a number of highly-respected sites as well as sites that get crawled search engine spiders. While it is not necessary to pay for these sorts of links, work is still required. One way to begin is to go to a site such as Pingomatic.com and having your site pinged. Just put in your site’s name and its URL. The RSS feed link is left blank, and then you just need to hit submit.

How To Get Your Website Indexed By Google Faster

1. Social bookmarking

An additional fast method of Google indexing is to create social bookmarking websites. Such sites are wonderful due to the fact that they tend to be crawled multiple times daily, allowing your site to be picked up in rapid fashion.

2. Press Releases

It is also possible to produce press releases that can be issued on especially popular sites. Sites of this type are almost always crawled with great frequency, and it may be that your release will be picked up for posting on a host of other sites as well, making your reach even broader.

3. Article Marketing

While it represents an older technique for getting a site indexed, article marketing still tends to work quite well, provided it is not overdone. Lots of article directories maintain high rankings and offer great opportunities for exposure.

4. Comment On Relevant Blogs

Also useful for fast indexing is the tactic of commenting often on relevant blogs. It is important to never leave spam comments, but rather add valuable insight together with your site’s link. It should be noted, though, that blogs on which comments are posted should not have “nofollow” tags on them, otherwise search engines will be prevented from crawling links left by commenters.

5. Nofollow Tags

Nofollow tags are the subject of hearty debate in the SEO world at present. There are those who believe they offer a bit of an advantage, while others suggest that blogs bearing them will be of little use to those seeking rapid indexing.

6. Render Links So They Are Easily Found

While building your site, make certain to boost the likelihood that search engine spiders can actually crawl it. Render links in such a way so that they are easily found and followed. Make sure text links, not images are used, and Flash and image maps should also be avoided. Work to ensure that your pages are not too link-heavy, as this tends to flummox the spiders and thwart the indexing you seek.

7. Relevant Forum Comments

Comments are also useful when placed in relevant forums. These types of pages are crawled often, given that they contain continuously updated content. Lots of highly-trafficked forums have pages show up in Google searches mere minutes following their publication. Make sure comments you place in forums have a link within the signature.

8. Exchange Links With Fellow Webmasters

Finally, those who provide Houston SEO services remind us that it makes sense to consider exchanging links with fellow webmasters. This allows you to take advantage of other sites’ popularity and frequent attention from crawlers. Links of this nature do not result in Google penalties unless they are placed in large quantities in a brief period.

All of the above ideas can have a positive impact on your site’s ability to be indexed fast, and the list is by no means exhaustive. Call or contact SEO Houston Pros today for further information. Visit our blog for more tricks and tips for Houston SEO!

Houston SEO Expert: A Guide To Help Improve Your SEO Performance By Updating Old Content For The Google Freshness Algorithm

April 25, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

How To Boost Your Houston SEO Performance On Google By Updating Older Content

Google threw the SEO game for a major loop in 2011 when they announced the launch of their new freshness algorithm. The stated goal of this change was to deliver “fresher, more recent results” to the search engine’s users. What does that mean from an online marketing standpoint? Let a Houston SEO expert explain it to you: The practical upshot of Google’s freshness algorithm is that whether or not it seems sensible, all of your content now loses its SEO potency as it ages. The search engine is going to prioritize more recently-published content over older content, no matter how useful and evergreen that old content might be. So, how do you deal with this game-changer? Do you have to hire a full-time writer to churn out fresh articles in order to stay on top of the search results? Fortunately, no! You can turn the Google freshness algorithm into an asset instead of a challenge: It’s an excuse to rework older content and turn it into a more productive marketing tool.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to refreshing your content to improve SEO the same way the pros do:

1) Tweak The Words

How is the tone of your old content? Does it still match the new articles you’re posting? Are the facts still accurate? Is it up to the latest standards in your industry? Don’t be afraid to cut, modify, and expand your writing to make sure it’s as good as can be! This is also an excellent time to check your content’s keyword placement. Are you dumping too many keywords into your articles? Have you shifted targets and need to rephrase to target new keywords? Bear in mind that best SEO practices on this subject evolve over time; a keyword density that was considered “adequate” a few years ago might be “overstuffed” today. You want to do what you can to gain Google’s trust so you can rank higher.

2) Overhaul Your Visuals

This step is absolutely vital in making your old content look fresh again. Change out the existing graphics and consider adding new videos or infographics if you have them. Overhaul the layout to conform to the latest standards. Your goal here is to make your content look appealing even to a visitor who might have read it before.

3) Aim At New Social Networks

If your marketing techniques have evolved over time, the odds are good that you’re promoting yourself in new channels where you previously had no presence. Make sure that your overhauled content gets announced in all of your most effective social media channels. Reworked content is a great “icebreaker” to use to break into new platforms.

4) Expand Your Audience

The refreshed material may attract a dramatically different audience than your original content. You can even aim for this effect intentionally and conduct your entire overhaul with an eye toward capturing a new audience’s attention. Never overlook an opportunity to expand your business by expanding your market!

5) Automate As Much As Possible

Once you start to unlock the content renewal potential in all of your old material, every scrap of stuff you’ve published will likely start to look valuable. Don’t let the sheer volume of material overwhelm you! Establish a consistent process for content renewal and automate it as much as possible. You should use your time where it’s most effective: Making substantive decisions on how best to overhaul your material. The minutiae of picking it out and posting it should be handled by a rigidly-defined process.

To get started, call us or contact SEO Houston Pros. We invite you to visit our blog for more SEO tips and tricks!

Should I Fire My Houston SEO Firm Or Keep Them?

April 25, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

Reasons Why You Should Probably Fire Your SEO Agency In Houston

Advantages To Staying With Your SEO Digital Marketing Agency

True potential – Being with an SEO Houston agency for a couple of months isn’t really enough time to see everything that they can offer you. A flawed or bad initial strategic plan can potentially be grounds for having a new strategy session, instead of completely abandoning the agency.
Brand familiarity – The agency is familiar with your brand. Having to teach the standards of your brand to a new agency is going to require a large upfront investment of both money & time.
History and data – The new agency might be doomed to make the same mistakes if it is blind to your history and metric information.
If you are working with the top-rated Digital Marketing Agency in the nation ie SEO Houston Pros, that means you are getting amazing results already.

Problems With SEO Results

Timing – Keep in mind that search engine optimization is a long-term strategy. Therefore, during the first few months, you shouldn’t expect any meaningful results. However, if it has been six months or even longer and the campaign is still not providing you with anything valuable, that could be a sign that you have an ineffective strategy.
Type of results – You might be dissatisfied as well is you don’t see your campaign providing you with the kind of results that you wanted. For several queries, you may have number one rankings, but it isn’t giving you any organic traffic. That might mean that your priorities are misaligned between your agency and you.
Responsive Actions – Does your agency admit that your campaign should perform better, and have strategic change suggestions to get things to improve? Or are they using the same ineffective tactics over and over again?
If your agency or firm doesn’t do content marketing, definitely fire them. Don’t waste time thinking about it.

Communication Problems With Your Current SEO Company

Another thing that could be happening is you and your agency might be having communication problems:
Unresponsiveness. A big red flag is untimely responses or gaps in communication.
Lack of clarity. When you don’t understand something, then that problem must be addressed and solved.
Lack of transparency. If results are promised by your SEO agency without them telling you what is occurring behind the scenes, that can potentially be a red flag to watch out for.
Misleading conversations. If you are receiving many empty promises, or your account reps mislead you at all, then that can be signs of intentional lying, apathy, disorganization, or all three.
Reporting. It may be time to find a new agency if you don’t get suitable information in this area.

Competitive Threats Between Different SEO Service Providers In Houston

Even if you and your existing agency have a decent relationship, you might still think that it’s time for you to fire them if there are any discrepancies between them and other potential agency alternatives:

Service discrepancies – Another agency might offer more thorough or modern services. It doesn’t make any sense to stay with an agency that doesn’t meet your needs any longer.
Pricing discrepancies – Many digital marketing agencies offer different price packages with similar if not the same products. Make sure to pick one that is charging according to your budget. Keep in mind that the agency that is charging a little bit more may provide better results.
A better fit emerges – You could come in contact with an SEO agency that has everything you are looking for in an agency. If this happens you should definitely consider.

Sometimes, an agency will fit better with your brand than another. It could be a combination of personnel, industry focus, services, and price. Whatever it happens to be, it is always worth exploring upgrades. If you are experiencing any of the signs discussed in this article, then it may be time for you to consider firing your SEO agency. If that is the direction you are leaning in, then be sure to check out your contract. There might be language in it that requires you to provide advance notice to the agency or might preclude you from ending the partnership prematurely without incurring a financial penalty. If you decide it is time to find an agency that will provide you with better results and takes the time to pay attention to your specific company, look no further. SEO Houston Pros are a great team of experienced digital marketers that have been named the best SEO company in Houston, time and time again.

To get started, call us or contact SEO Houston Pros. We invite you to visit our blog for more SEO tips and tricks!

How To Gain Google’s Trust So Youre SEO Houston Company Can Rank Higher

April 6, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

How To Use SEO To Prove Your Websites Worth To Google

An Introduction To SEO

Search engine optimization isn’t anything mystical. You may have heard about SEO before and some discussion about the way it works within the Google Algorithm. Basically, it is a repeatable and measurable process that send the search engines signals to demonstrate that your pages are worthy of being displayed in Google’s index.

A complex mathematical formula is basically used by Google. It is referred to an algorithm, and it provides every website with a score and all searches that are done on Google by people in order to determine which website should rank on top for what individuals are searching for. The algorithm can be thought of as a set of empty buckets. When it comes to SEO, your task is filling up more algorithm buckets compared to all of the other websites that you are competing with. You can help to affect the search engine rankings of your website by achieving the highest scores for your website’s quality, authority and being the most trusted store when people are looking for what you have to offer. If you need help with this, you can search for an SEO company Houston to assist you.

Some buckets are given more weight compared to other ones. There are three major buckets you need to thoroughly understand when it comes to search rankings. Those buckets are an authority, trust, and quality. In terms of quality, the thing that Google is attempting to measure when it is trying to determine which websites should rank is those that offer something interesting, unique, or valuable to Google searchers. One example of this is good content. So if you sell t-shirts, and you use the same exact description that all of the other t-shirt sellers use on their sites, then you aren’t providing anything that is unique for the searchers on Google. Although your t-shirts may look cool, you have the same exact content that all of the other sites have. So what you need to offer instead is interesting content that people will enjoy. For example, you can make it possible for people to personalize their shirts. Provide people with valuable information. You can get even more creative than that. Having people take pictures of themselves wearing your t-shirt is one great idea. Get a community created by individuals who love your products. Have a celebrity wear one of your t-shirts and get them to share photos online. Try to do something that is unique or something that is different. If you are able to show Google that your company is unique and interesting then it will start to be reflected in your search engine rankings.

Does Google Trust your Site?

Another very important bucket is trust. You need to be sure that you thoroughly understand this when you are attempting to rank your site in Google’s search results. Google really doesn’t want to display just any old website to their searchers. Instead, they would like to show searchers the best website, and Google needs to know your site is trustworthy in order to show it. Google had indicated that one thing it does is penalize companies or stores or websites that get poor reviews on a consistent basis. So if you have lots of poor reviews, sooner or later Google will stop showing your website within their search results since it doesn’t like showing their searchers those kinds of sites. So prove to the Google algorithm that your website is trustworthy. Find some authoritative websites that will link back to your site. Get industry links, newspaper links, have trusted websites link to your site: happy customers, vendors, business partners – have them link back to your site so that you can demonstrate that you are highly trustworthy and credible.

The final important bucket that you need to be aware of is an authority. Google likes displaying popular websites. If the most popular of all t-shirt websites can be shown to individuals searching for t-shirts online to buy, then that is the website that Google wants to show to its searchers. You need to convince Google by sending them signals that your website is the most popular one die the type of t-shirts you are selling. Build a strong fan base. Get a social network built. Have people link to your site, have people share pages from your website on their social networks. Get as many people as you can to show photos of themselves using or wearing your products, get them to leave testimonials and make connections with them. Get a fan base created and ga e they rally behind you to talk about your company and link to your site. Prove to Google how authoritative and trustworthy you are.

If you really think about it, SEO is simply the process if providing the search engines with proof that your website is the best, the most interesting and unique site, the most trusted, the most authoritative, that their customer – the search – can be offered. Do everything that you can to get customers to talk about your products and your company, and produce lots of great content, get links. If you do all of that Google will have more confidence that your website provides the best result that can be offered to their searchers, and your website will start to rank on Google’s first page.

To get started, call us or contact SEO Houston Pros. We invite you to visit our blog for more SEO tips and tricks!

The Best SEO Company In Houston Lists The 5 KPI’S You Need To Track In 2018

March 23, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

Top Five SEO KPIs to Track in 2018

Over the last several years, search engine optimization has evolved. Additionally, search engine optimization metrics have changed. One of the most important components of an effective SEO campaign is keeping track of your results. Continue reading to learn the top five key SEO KPIs to track in 2018.

What are KPIs?

KPI is an abbreviation for Key Performance Indicators. These indicators measure several things and help you determine the effectiveness of your campaign and evaluate if you are achieving your objectives. Let’s take a look at the five most important metrics to track.

1. Page Speed –

As internet speeds increase, page speed becomes more important. Starting in 2017, page speed was one of the most critical KPIs. Google wants to provide its users with a first-rate experience, which includes giving internet users immediate access to each website. Because most visitors are directed to your site through Google or another search engine, it is essential that you rank high in search engine results. One way to improve your ranking is to have a fast page speed. Finally, fast loading websites provide a better experience for your visitors. Studies show that website navigation efficiency results in higher conversion rates.

2. Indexed Pages –

Many website owners think that when they submit a page to Google that Google automatically indexes it. This is untrue. When you submit a page to Google for indexing, Google considers it a suggestion. This does not mean your page will ever be indexed. Keeping track of your indexed pages on Google is critical. Your unindexed pages can be causing you to miss out on important opportunities, especially if those pages are critical to the success of your website. In order to ensure that your pages are indexed, submit your sitemap using the Google Search Console. Finally, make sure that the important pages on your website aren’t blocked by robots.txt. If you struggle to improve your website’s performance, make sure to contact the best Houston SEO company for help.

3. Bounce Rate –

Website owners often forget to look at bounce rates; however, this is an essential metric that should be tracked. A bounce rate is the number of website visitors that leave a website after viewing a single page. Bounce rate metrics show you how a visitor navigates your site once they click your link. If you notice visitors are leaving within seconds of visiting your landing page, it should be a red flag that there is something wrong with your website. One of the most common reasons for this is that your meta description or ad has unclear information. For example, if a visitor thinks your website is offering something and they visit and realize you are not offering what they want, they will leave immediately. Therefore, it is essential that your meta description and ads are easy to understand and accurate. Once you have verified this, you will need to evaluate your web design, layout and content to help you determine why your bounce rate is high.

4. Conversion Rate –

The point of getting visitors to your site is to convert them into customers. Even if your website has 50,000 visitors each day, it is not productive if these visitors are not converted into customers. Keeping track of your conversion rate can help you improve your website so you can turn casual visitors into paying customers.

Here are several things to look at when you are trying to improve your conversion rate:

Can visitors easily navigate your website?
Is your call to action statements simple and easy to understand?
Does your website have an easy to follow conversion process (newsletter sign-up, brochure download, purchase, etc)?
Is your website mobile friendly?
Does your webpage load quickly?
Does your website provide valuable content that meets the needs of your visitors?

If you answer no to any of these questions, it is time to identify changes that need to be made to your website to increase your conversion rate.

5. Web Ranking –

Where Google ranks your page when an internet search is performed is one of the most important things to track. Google has made changes to how they rank a website, so it is essential to stay up to date on the latest updates. When Google updated its SERPs to Rank Brain, the content on your website became even more important. Content that answers visitors’ queries can help improve your rank better than content developed based on keywords.

Final Thoughts

As you monitor and track your search engine optimization KPIs, you may find a number of issues arise. When this occurs, it is time to take a look at your website and make the necessary changes. When you do this, you will find that your conversion rate and web ranking will improve quickly. Take the information listed above to help your website succeed in 2018 and beyond.

To get started, call us or contact SEO Houston Pros. We invite you to visit our blog for more SEO tips and tricks!

A Quick Lesson On Building Stronger Backlinks With The Best SEO Company In Houston

March 21, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

What You Should Know About Backlinks

Backlinks refer to outside domains pointing links back to your website or pages on your website. In short, it’s when a website links back to your website. Your backlink profile is basically links pointing to your site from external sites, and in turn, this contributes to your backlink profile’s overall relevance, strength, and diversity.

The number of backlinks can include links from one domain or from multiple domains. It’s quite common for multiple domains to link back to content that is relevant, useful or authoritative. In a perfect world, this is how backlinks are gathered, from content that is unique and shared on other sites that want to be associated with the content.

In general, think of backlinks as being a vote of confidence. The votes are for content that is linked to your domain from sources other than your own domain. Generally speaking, backlinks are important and we’ll discuss why in the following section.

Why Are They Important

Backlinks are important to both search engines users and search engines. Backlinks let people find other sources of info on the same topic or related topic. For example, if a search engine user lands on a page about “the best smartphones,” then he might find backlinks to other carriers, reviews, and content such as that. Links give consumers a good experience because they can easily find other information about the topic, which is “the best smartphones.”

As for search engines, backlinks play a role in building value and importance of a page. Generally speaking, the number of backlinks used to be an indicator of how popular a page was, but things have changed and there are various ranking factors that come into play when evaluating backlinks. These days, quantity isn’t that important and if you have too many backlinks from questionable sources, then your domain’s authoritative signals may become hindered.

What Is A Good Backlink Profile

Variety is the key to obtaining a natural link profile. Links come from various domains and links have various strengths. If you want to get a better idea of what your backlink profile is like, then you can look at KPIs, such as what domains are referring links to your site and the countries where the links are coming from. Don’t forget to check the TLD, short for top-level-domain.

Some domains are better to get links from. These domains are considered to be sources that are trusted, and a few examples include links from government entities and educational institutions. Such domains are looked at as being trustworthy.

Don’t ever pay someone to link back to you. If you do decide to try to build links via sponsored content, then make sure you label it as “sponsored” or else you will be running afoul of FCC rules. Many publishers choose to use the “no-follow” tag for such links. So, you can consider doing this too.

In the past, it was a good idea to add listings to DMOZ and other directories like it. However, times have changed and such directories are not that relevant but do try to build a relationship with webmasters of directories that are focused on a niche. Getting a backlink from such a site may help you out.

Domains that end with .gov are good for backlinks too. They are valuable links. The reason why is because not just anyone can start a website with that extension.

Building Backlinks

You should make sure you personalize your messages to webmasters, such as mentioning why you like their sites and brands, and you can cite their articles. Doing such things will make webmasters more receptive. As for a point of contact, consider using sites such as LinkedIn because these are professional sites. The process of creating backlinks to your page can be time-consuming and stressful, make sure to hire a Houston SEO company to do the work for you.

Who Links To Your Site

Monitor links that point back to your site. Many domains from countries such as Brazil and Russia are sometimes often looked at as being spam, so disavow links from sites located in such countries. You can do this via Google Search Console.

Get in touch with us or call now for more information on getting your campaign started!

Comparing The Differences: H1 Headers & SEO Titles

February 16, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

What Is The Difference Between The SEO Title and H1 Heading? SEO in Houston Tips

Writers have a tendency to put a lot of thought into their titles. Titles are very important for online content for both the search engines and readers. So that is why they are doubly important! You can get assistance from Houston SEO services if you need more assistance with this topic. If you are using WordPress and certain plugins, the post titles can be inserted into the post title input field. Doing this will make your title displayed at the top of the post as an H1 heading. You can also potentially improve and edit your SEO title as separate processes. Why is this so? What is the difference between the two? And how should your SEO title be edited? In this article, I will be explaining these things. You can get help from Houston SEO services if you need more assistance with this topic.

Two Input Fields

This is very obvious for some people, however, let’s look at where the two input fields can be found to put the post title in – which is the same thing as the H1 heading – and also the SEO title. In WordPress, you can find the input field for the post title in the post editor or at the top of the page.

The SEO title input field can be found in the plugin meta box, and this is right below the post input field. If you want to edit your SEO title, click the edit snippet button. That will cause the snippet preview to open. There are three input fields offered by the snippet preview. The input field is the first one that allows you to edit the SEO title. Below the input field hopefully, there will be a green bar. If you have a well-optimized SEO title it will be green. If it is red or orange you should work to improve it. There are also lots of strange % signs in the SEO title. Don’t let that alarm you, I will be covering that later on in the article.

Purpose of the SEO title and the Post Title

It is very important for you to understand that the purpose of your SEO title doesn’t need to have the same purpose that the title of your page or post does. Your post title is intended for individuals who are on your site already. It lets them know what your page or post is all about. On the other hand, your SEO title is intended for individuals who haven’t made it to your website yet. It is displayed in the search engines for people. It is the title of the snippet that Google shows – and that is why it appears in the snippet preview. Your SEO title’s purpose is to get people to click on your snippet, visit your website and then purchase your product or read your post.

What is done automatically by these plugins? Without needing to do anything, the plugin will automatically generate an SEO title that is based on your post’s title, which is the H1 heading. Your website’s name will also be put into your SEO title. If you don’t add the name of your website into your SEO title, Google does it for you. The plugins will ensure your title is not too long – if the title is too long then you will be notified.

You are able to set how your SEO title is generated in the plugin’s meta and title sections. When you do that, it will result in all of your post titles being generated exactly the same way. However, as we discussed above, it is also possible to separately edit your SEO title for a post. We will now explain when you might want to do this.

Should your SEO title be edited?

I personally don’t ever edit a post’s SEO title. I write my post and then select a title that is suitable for individuals who are on our website already, in addition to individuals who will read in the snippet that is displayed in the search results. The settings for generating titles automatically in a majority of plugin installs are fine.

If I want to make changes to my title, because perhaps I forgot to use my main keyword in my post title, I can always change the post’s title. Then the SEO title also changes. For this type of post, it works fine. However, if you are selling a product, the page or post tile may not be the SEO title to use. Maybe you want to mention the product price in the SEO title, without having included in your page H1. You will need to edit your SEO title in those cases.

How is the SEO title edited? What are those strange %% signs that are in the input field? What do you use them for?

Houston SEO Title Template

As previously discussed, the plugin generates the SEO titles automatically for you. The title template can be adapted according to your preferences in the meta and titles section of the plugin. This is where the %% signs come in. They are %%title%% signs or magic variables. The magic variables certain pieces of information and then they are combined to form your SEO title. When you type %%title%% into the SEO template’s input field, then your page or post title appears. The %%sep%% takes the separator sign you selected and then it is placed in your SEO title.

Get in touch with us or call now for more information on getting your campaign started!

Measuring Your Houston SEO Content Marketing Strategies

February 16, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

How The Success Of Your Content SEO Houston Strategy Can Be Measured

If you would like to measure how successful your SEO strategy has been, the first thing that you need to do is determine what your goals are for your strategy. A Houston SEO consultant can help you determine these goals. You need to know what the purpose is of your content SEO strategy! Are you looking to get more traffic? Do you want to get higher rankings?

To evaluate your overall Content SEO strategy, first, you need to define what success means for your business. After your goals have been established, you will be able to measure how successful your content SEO strategy is. In this article, I will be helping you with defining your goals and providing you with some tips on how to measure your goals as well as how successful your content SEO strategy is.

What is your ultimate goal?

When it comes to your SEO strategy, what would you really like to achieve? Many people will say that they would like to have higher rankings on Google. However, is really what they would like to achieve ultimately? Or would they like to attract more search engine traffic to their website? Maybe what they really want is to sell more of their products? Or to increase the number of their return visitors. These are all different goals, and every goal has different metrics for evaluating it.

Achieving higher rankings on Google for specific search terms most likely will result in more traffic to your website. However, that isn’t necessarily always the case. We used to rank very high for the term “Google Analytics.” A majority of people were searching for Google Analytics when typing that into the search bar. That is what their search intent was. Sl even though we had a really high ranking for a very competitive search term such as “Google Analytics,” we didn’t get a lot of traffic from it.

In a majority of cases, most people will want to receive more organic traffic for their website instead of higher rankings. If you have an e-commerce store, most likely you want to earn more money: you want to attract consumers to your website who have an intent to buy. That means your content SEO strategy needs to focus on attracting those consumers to your website

Your Content SEO Strategy Needs To Be Set Up To Fit Your Goals

After your goals have been defined and you know what you would like to accomplish with your content SEO strategy, your next step is to develop a strategy that fits your SEO goals and helps you achieve them. If you would like to achieve higher rankings for your articles, then you need to improve and update your best articles. If your goal is to attract increased traffic to your site, then you should think about using a long tail keyword strategy. If your goal is selling more products, then think of ways to attract consumers to your site.

How To Measure Your Goals

After your ultimate goal has been established, and your content SEO strategy has been developed, you can measure it. To know whether or not your content SEO strategy has succeeded, you will need to measure it twice at least. You will need to know how you were doing prior to your content SEO strategy kicking in and then you will need to do know how it has performed after it has been implemented. Let’s take a closer look at different goals and how they can be measured.

Higher Rankings

Take a look at your articles and see what their positions are. Which articles need to have an SEO boost and which ones are ranking fairly well? Write new content and rewrite old content that needs to be improved. Add links and some content SEO magic. Once some time has passed, check the rankings again. If some of your articles have higher rankings than before you implemented your content SEO strategy, then that means there has been an increase in your rankings. Google Search Console can be used to track your rankings.

Increased Traffic

If attracting increased traffic to your website is your goal, you need to focus on how many unique visitors you receive on a monthly or weekly basis. If there is an increase in organic traffic – visitors coming to your website by using a search engine, then your content SEO is succeeding. It means that more people are clicking on your snippets that are displayed in the search engines. Google Analytics can be used to track how many visitors your website is receiving.

Increased Sales

Increasing the number of sales that you make on your website might be the ultimate goal that you want to achieve with your content SEO strategy. It can be difficult to measure what your content SEO strategy’s direct effect is on your sales. It takes some time for a good content SEO strategy to take effect. However, there are many options on Google Analytics on how to attribute value to certain pages for sales.

Other Goals

There could be other goals that your SEO strategy is trying to achieve. You may want to get visitors to stay longer on your site and read more article. How much time is spent on your website is a metric that you will need to measure this. Maybe you would like for people to return to your website. To do that the number of return visitors will need to be measured. Another goal might be ensuring that visitors are able to find the information they are looking for on your website. That will help to reduce the number of calls that your call center gets. In this case, you will need to track how many phone calls you receive – before and after you have implemented your content SEO strategy.

Call us now or contact SEO Houston Pros today for more information on starting your campaign. Visit our blog to learn more about SEO in Houston!

Outbound Linking & Houston SEO Marketing

February 16, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

Understanding How Outbound Links Affect SEO

If you have a website, do you include outbound links when you write a new post? If not, you should. There is a common misconception that the only types of links that are valuable from an SEO standpoint are incoming links. As it turns out, however, outbound links can also positively impact your website when they are used correctly.

Based on our experience, adding outbound links is an important part of optimizing a website. That is why we encourage all of our customers to add these types of links to their content.

Houston SEO for Everybody

At this point, you are probably curious why we are so adamant about asking you to link to other sites from your own. As it turns out, there are quite a few different reasons. Linking to other sites that are related to your own helps create connections that search engines can use to better understand your content. When sites that are similar to one another link to each other, it helps make it easier for visitors to find relevant content. It also helps the search engines grasp what your posts are about, giving them a better idea of how they relate to other content on the Internet.

We are strong believers in the concept of SEO for Everyone. When websites support one another, they all perform better in the search engines. This enables smaller websites that have excellent content to rank higher in the search engines. As a result, the Internet becomes more diverse and the information that is available tends to be more helpful. Instead of being dominated by a few large companies, the search results provide a mixture of different types of content from a variety of sources, creating a better user experience.

Understanding How Outbound Links Impact SEO in Houston

There is a definite link between outbound links and SEO. The way that these types of links benefit your site is quite subtle. In essence, they provide your users with a better overall experience. This can encourage them to stay longer on your site and to visit more of your pages. Search engines reward content that users find engaging, meaning that you can get a boost in your search ranking by keeping your visitors happy.

If you are interested in Houston Internet marketing services, contact us or call today. We will get back to you right away to talk about any questions or concerns that you may have. You can also ask us questions directly through the comment form below this post. If you want to learn more about how our services can benefit your business, be sure to visit our testimonials page. We are excited about working with you to expand your company’s online reach.

When It Comes To Houston SEO & Outbound Linking: Here’s How

February 16, 2018 By SEO Houston Pros Leave a Comment

Houston Content Marketing: Information On Linking Entities To Content

Entities have become a major positive for search engines. What are entities? These can vary and are often spotted in the “Knowledge Graph” as being concepts, things, places, ideas, or people. However, there is more to it with search engines because each search term can be a unique entity. A good example would be the word “Apple” because it can be the fruit or the largest tech company in Silicon Valley. Both are separate entities but share the same search term. Therefore, it is the context that plays an important role in what the search engine puts in front of its users once the search is made. This is where linking entities becomes vital.

Semantics

Defining or applying “context” to each word is what semantics involves. For example, one could write about Apple and never once bring up the word. Even if the word isn’t present, a reader can still understand what it is talking about and that’s where the context matters. It can often be seen with commonly used words. Continuing with the example of Apple as an entity, we can assess the semantics of a search.

Let’s assume you pop into Google and search “Apple,” what is the first thing you are going to see? You are going to see the tech company pop up. However, why is that happening? Why does the tech company show up and not the actual fruit? What about other things that are listed as “Apple” including candies? Why are they not at the top of the rankings? It has to do with Google using your search history to determine what is best suited for your search. If you are searching tech topics and companies all the time, it’s a good guess to assume you were searching the tech company named Apple. Google can even start to look at co-occurring synonyms/phrases/keywords as a means to filter out pages you aren’t looking for.

What are Co-occurring Phrases?

These are phrases that are often seen being used to describe a specific entity. For example, Apple (tech company) might have phrases involving keywords such as tech, macs, computers, hardware. While co-occurring terms or phrases for apple (the fruit) would include things such as pies, farms, farmers, supermarkets, and recipes. Of course, this can be expanded with more and more terms that Google can pick up on.

All of these words can pop up under the label of “co-occurring phrases.” The goal is to semantically link up these entities with the content that is showing up even if the main keyword isn’t present (i.e. Apple). It is more finding synonyms and linking them to the main keyword but about related terms that would be used in the same sentence based on the context you’re using it in. If done right, this will ensure the right page is being indexed every single time a search is made. Search engines will use spiders/bots to go through these related terms to figure out what you could be searching.

Optimization of Phrase-Based Indexing

Google has taken a liking to phrase-based indexing over time and continues to apply for new patents as a way to enhance its present systems. The goal is to look at the value of co-occurrence and make sure it is applied the right way. This makes it easier to manage the plethora of topics that use the same search terms or phrases. Phrase-based indexing is reliant on making sure the retrieval of information is spot on and can be organized rapidly. As the context is assessed, the phrases can be indexed along with the entity as they related to each other. This helps Google recognize what the content has to offer and which entity it is connecting back to. Yes, it is one of the more complicated systems Google has been working on but the goal is to optimize everything. Most websites will be optimizing their content along these lines anyway (i.e. researching keywords and building content around them).

For those who write their content, you will often take the keyword and build content around it.The goal should always be to write content with purpose and make sure it is as relevant as possible. This is how the search engine will know what is being written about as soon as possible. It ensures there is no doubt about the content and what it is saying.

For example, if you are still talking about Apple (tech company), you want to make sure you are assessing various sources such as the Knowledge Graph, Wikipedia, and other relevant sources. You want to start looking for those co-occurring phrases or keywords that are going to work well with your content and its main keyword. You want to make sure the context is apparent. The best way to do this is to run a search of the term you want to rank for and look at the words they have used in their content. This is how you can start to link to the entity.

No LSI Keywords

Don’t look for LSI keywords because they don’t work out well with Google’s algorithm. You are not going to b providing context by using them. This has never worked and never will be based on the direction Google is going in. It doesn’t play a role in SEO.

With the help of a good Internet marketing company Houston has to offer, it’s possible to rank well and link entities properly.

Call or contact SEO Houston Pros today for further information. Visit our blog for more tricks and tips for Houston SEO!